Patrick Montes / OC Weekly

There appears to have been a plethora of older hip-hop acts rushing to play the Observatory in recent months. It has been as if a faucet directly connected to hip-hop's Golden Era has been jammed to flow at its fullest and Santa Ana is its intended place to dispense. Some of these returning artists have been, mediocre, some have surpassed expectations and others have made us think that our heroes might have been better off staying home. For our latest edition, we had Texas hip-hop legends of legends, the Geto Boys.

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John Gilhooley

Snoop Dogg
Heat Ultra Lounge
5/29/13 
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Mary Bell / OC Weekly

Les Claypool of Primus

Primus
Fox Theater Pomona
May 19, 2013
Primus 3-D is an experience most people's senses aren't ready to handle. Mine definitely weren't. I don't necessarily blame it on the band, who opened their crazy new live show to a packed house at the Fox Theater Pomona. Every time I try to partake in a visually intense production like that, I always get a nasty migraine. But it was worth it for the amount of weird, dynamic visuals happening behind Les Claypool, Jay Lane and Larry "Ler" LaLonde. During the opening licks of "Those Damned Blue Collar Tweakers," the crowd got a visit from Salad Fingers, the famous, creepy-looking, post-apocalyptic Internet cartoon.

It was cool to see a character that is very large in the underground alternative world be used in a video for the opening song. The images chosen for the show coincided with every note of their performance. For instance, during some of the instrumental parts of the opening track, Salad Fingers looked as though he were bobbing his head along to the music.

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Patrick Montes / OC Weekly

Lil B

Lil B
The Observatory
May 10,/2013
"Are you ready?!"
Those were the first words to blast out of the Observatory's system this past Friday night at the very beginning of Bay Area rapper Lil B's performance. Normally, that soundbite reserved for the incoming onslaught of bravado, attitude, and tight-fitting clothing from the pro-wrestling collective D-Generation X. But on this occasion it felt like that phrase was tailor-made to welcome the Based God to his first OC performance.

Since his arrival onto the hip-hop scene, Lil B has attracted the most spiteful detractors and the most boisterous hyperbole this side of an Illmatic review. To this day, there are still some willing to create academic journal-worthy tracts on Lil B and the ideas and concepts his whole "Based" movement. He's been one of hip-hops greatest dividers, as well as one of its strongest unifying forces. And, after years of anticipation, Orange County finally received its chance to witness Lil B in the flesh.

See Also:
Producer Clams Casino and His "Weird" Relationship With Lil B

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Patrick Montes

Schoolboy Q

By Patrick Montes
Since the release of Kendrick Lamar's universally acclaimed album, good kid, m.A.A.d city, the Top Dawg Entertainment/Black Hippy crew has been dominating every wave of communication revolving around hip-hop. Whether it's a Kendrick Lamar single being played on Power 106 or an Ab-Soul feature on a buzzing up-and-comer's new mixtape, they seem to have every sphere of outreach and impact covered. As far as the primary share of the spotlight goes, Kendrick Lamar currently has the focus on him, but as of this year it's looking like TDE is hoping to change the scope of attention to the crew member next in line, Black Hippy's resident gangsta rapper Schoolboy Q.

In the past couple years, Schoolboy Q has had two moderate successes with the releases of Setbacks and Habits & Contradiction, two albums that have succeeded in garnering him the audience and pundit praise necessary to carve out one's spot in today's hip-hop. Q's biggest effort to date and the album that seeks to solidify his position, Oxymoron, is set to come out in the coming months, and in the midst of the promotional blitzkrieg surrounding that album Q swung by the Observatory Friday night to perform and continue building anticipation.

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Patrick Montes

A packed Constellation Room anxiously waiting for Raekwon for hours

Like we've said before, Orange County loves their Wu. Then again, when ODB notoriously declared that "Wu-Tang is for the children" he might as well have said "Wu-Tang is for everyone" considering the massive global impact the Shaolin spitters have had. Wu-Tang has a universal appeal that most more gritty, lyrically-oriented acts don't, and that stands as one of the reasons why Raekwon (a.k.a. the Chef) packed the Constellation Room Friday night, without an album to sell.

Prior to Raekwon's performance, we had to stand through a few hours-worth of local, all-too-similar acts trying to gather steam and break through. In the past, there have been similar bookings by show promoters Out Da House, but last night in particular dragged on a bit more excruciating than normal. Standing for hours on end in a cramped room is worth it for an artist like Raekwon, but a show that's booked around one act shouldn't feel like you're witnessing a collective effort or attending a sub-par Paid Dues.

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Mary Bell

Japandroids

The fact that Vancouver rock duo Japandroids have been on a relentless tour schedule since early January and still fought like hell to conjure high energy last night at the Glass House speaks volumes about the kind of band they are. The fact that they're merely a duo, and still flooded the room with anthemic rock passion, speaks more of the same. And their unbridled enthusiasm, performed in the absence of hipster pretension, makes them a modern rock band (awash in a sea of pomade-lipped posers) not to be missed.

Sadly, despite giving it their all last night, these two kanucks just couldn't transcend the high mark set by their excellent LPs, 2009's Post-Nothing and 2012's Celebration Rock.

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Sugarwolf

By: Heidi Darby
Rihanna
Honda Center
April 9, 2013
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Keith Ian Polakoff

Long Beach Opera
'Camelia la Tejana'
Terrace Theater

By: Greggory Moore
Los Tigres del Norte's "Contrabando y Tración," the song that sparked the narco-corrido boom, has captured imaginations on both sides of the border with its story of "Camelia the Texan," a female dope-smuggler with the cajones to kill her partner when he attempts to betray her. "Of Camelia and the money, nothing more was ever known," the song concludes. But composer Gabriela Ortiz uses this enigmatic ending as a launchpad for her opera Camelia la Tejana: Only the Truth!, which places us on the border of fact and myth and has us look in both directions for the real Camelia, if she exists. Through the eyes of a historian and a blogger, a reputable journalist and a tabloid TV show, and both the composer and singer of the song that made Camelia famous, we find images of la Tejana, though ultimately we cannot know whether we've seen her at all.
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Timothy Norris

By: Rishabh Bhavnani

Emancipator

El Rey Theatre

March 16, 2013

It's not often that an attempt to combine an avant garde club night line up with glossy club vibes manages to leave us fully satisfied. Saturday night on the peripheral edge of West Hollywood, the El Rey Theatre played host to one of The Do-Lab's most anticipated acts, Emancipator.

The Portland-based producer, born Doug Appling, first gained recognition in 2006 for his
album Soon It Will Be Cold Enough To Build Fires. It caught the attention of Japanese producer Nujabes, who strongly supported Appling's work. In late January of this year, Doug released his third studio album Dusk To Dawn (the lead single "Minor Cause" was released as a free download on Bandcamp). The album is an intricate blend of a various instruments; raw electronic samples infused with smooth jazzy melodies and viral drums, perfectly synchronized in glitchy, down-tempo rhythm.

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