Language Arts Crew have been busy these days. Then again they are almost always busy, whether it’s live gigs, recording sessions or playing in one of their many other bands: Whiskey Avengers, Trashkannon and Insolence. To start off the new year, LAC are releasing Brand New Old Sh*t, Volume 1, a collection of songs they’ve recorded over the past four years but haven’t been able to release. And as the title suggests, there is a second volume of these unreleased songs coming, ’cause, well, they have a lot of songs.
Their “new” album will be available online for free beginning Saturday to coincide with their concert at the Blank Club on Saturday nigh, and those who go will receive a limited-edition physical copy of the album.
Volume 1 is full of a lot of lost Language Arts Crew gems. Like most of their work, they’re a mixture of laid-back stoner-party rap and crazy cerebral rhythmatic flows. The music is smooth, bouncy and heavily funky, with a slight jazz feel.
One of the reasons that Language Arts Crew have remained one of San Jose’s best-drawing rap groups through the years has been because they play so many other styles of music that they mix live instruments, hip-hop beats and DJ samples with such a fine balance that audiences get the rock and hip-hop experience in equal parts. The Language Arts Crew guys will occasionally hop on the instruments and play their own music, and they even sing their own hooks, a feat few rappers seem to be able to do.
Blank Club
Sat, Jan. 7
9pm; $8
