HIP-HOP | Quanstar
w/ Sympl, DLabrie, Casual of Hieroglyphics, C. Shreve Professor, Evaready RAW, Mellow Dramatic, Coach K, DJ Jet
Fri. June 20
8 p.m.
$10
Tin Roof
Atlanta emcee Quanstar grew up in Compton, Calif. immersed in hip-hop’s elements, from breaking to tagging and rapping. He credits Krush Groove with inspiring him early. He switched coasts to attend Clark Atlanta University, and while there, hooked up with fellow emcee Evaready RAW to start their own label, First Team Music. In the decade or more since, Quanstar has released 10 albums. Despite his West Coast pedigree, he sounds most indebted to East Coast golden age groups like Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, as well as Atlanta icons, Outkast. A lot of his material is very conscious, like the jazzy-soul “On My Brain,” with its complaints about the Tea Party and cronyism, or last year’s obligatory carpe diem anthem, “Get It Get It.” Quanstar has a pleasant baritone and effortless flow that recalls Talib Kweli a bit. At his best, he taps a lively funk-soul vibe (see “Kna Knows,” which evokes the heady party-starting sizzle of Digable Planets). His tracks are rich and full — there’s nothing cut-rate about the production. Quanstar also seems up to indie hip-hop’s endless hustle. Aside from the albums, he’s also filmed a documentary/bio-flick, written a book, and posted cooking videos. —Chris Parker FRIDAY
METAL | Tripping the Mechanism
w/ Parasitik Twiins and Helgamite
Sat. June 21
8 p.m.
Free
The Sparrow
North Charleston-based metal threesome Tripping the Mechanism are busying themselves preparing new material for a couple of recording sessions coming up this fall. The plan? The band will release one studio EP for vinyl and a split live LP recording with North Carolina psych doom-metal outfit Mountain of Judgement. At the moment, they’re working on two particular songs, according to bassist/vocalist Paisley Addams. “It’s an organic process that we all approach collectively,” she says. “The songs are their own entity; we’re just the vehicle of travel … For us, they have a cathartic role whether they know it or not.” This weekend, Tripping the Mechanism takes time out for a Charleston gig with bands that Paisley says all complement each other. “We’ve got Parasitik Twiins playing with us, an industrial band out of Hickory, N.C., and they really are twins,” she says. “We’ve also got Helgamite, bringing their dark psychedelic Appalachian doom all the way from Rileyville, Va., courtesy of Lost Apparitions Records.” The show doubles as a food drive benefitting the Lowcountry Food Bank. “Everyone remembers big holidays, and charity is often focused around those times, but hunger is year-round,” Paisley says. “The Food Bank reaches so many people in the community in so many ways.” —Kelly Rae Smith SATURDAY
INDIE ROCK | Magic Camp
Tues. June 24
10 p.m.
Free
Recovery Room
Do you believe in magic? Magic Camp ran into Greg Elias of Charleston’s Acadamia Tapes at a Guided By Voices tribute show in April, and they formed an immediate connection. Their collaboration is at last coming to fruition with the release of a 16-track cassette project produced by Harper Marchman-Jones. Magic Camp has truly traversed the genre spectrum from a high-school band that sang about Italian cuisine to a metal band to what lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Andrei Mihailovic describes now as an indie-rock party sound. “When I was first starting off writing music, we could come up with concept albums and write three songs really fast, and then the momentum would die down,” says Mihailovic. This time around, however, he wrote close to half the tracks. “The material is stuff we’ve written in the last few years and some other stuff Nick [bassist, vocalist, songwriter] had from a decade ago, so it’s a big variety of material and an album where each song sounds different,” says Mihailovic. Magic Camp’s physical cassette will be available at the Rec Room show along with a digital download code. —Kalyn Oyer TUESDAY
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