Chuck D
November 21, 2006
at Berklee Performance Center

Chuck D – legendary MC, Public Enemy founder, hip-hop philospher, activist, rap spokesmodel, all-round genius – was at Berklee last week to speak to a packed auditorium of high school and college students. Since it wasn’t open to the public, and since almost everything that comes out of his mouth is interesting, I hoofed it down on a press pass.

DOWNLOAD: Roh Delikat, "10 Brand" (mp3)

Having dropped the stylishly percolating ProTools pop of their debut like a cheating boyfriend, ROH DELIKAT ditch the sequencer and fall in love with the sound of guitars on their new disc Sunny. Their matching of a pretty voice with dark, askew melodies winks back at the old-school 4AD roster, the sound of pale girls junked on goth and dub.

1. Tell all your friends: it's time to change the default "one Boston rapper I know the name of" config file in their brains from "Mr. Lif" to Termanology. One of our pet peeves around here is people don't seem to realize what's happening in their own backyards. You got kids getting excited-excited when white backpack punks on dope come to town and do the rappity-rap early-'90s jig at the Middle East, but a Puerto Rican dude from Lawrence (who already done rocked mics with Christina) hops on a commercial track with the biggest producer/rapper in the world and all we hear from Boston is sleeping in stereo.

1. Killswitch Engage's new As Daylight Dies full-album stream at MySpace. They got their vans on but they look like autographed guitars.

2. Gwen and Pharrell: the sequel. "Yummy" = instant banger.

3. Care Bears on Fire: the sequel. Buscemi-connected tween band with ex-punkrock parents get more exposure than Paris Hilton's vagina.

The Mission of Burma documentary Not a Photograph is coming out this week. We've got your hookup for the DVD-release party at the Coolidge on Tuesday night -- we're giving away 10 pairs of tickets to the Coolidge screening, where the band will be hanging out and signing stuff beforehand (unfortunately, they're not DJing this time), plus 10 copies of the DVD.

Spent all morning watching YouTube footage of PS3 mayhem, but we don't think that can compare to what these people have planned for tonight. It's all push push hush-hush for now, but we'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Today's shows:

• Aberdeen City at Great Scott. [mp3]
• Detroit Cobras at TTs

IF YOU GO:

• "Fenway Sessions 29" with Aberdeen City, Army of Me, Faces on Film, DJ Carbo, DJs Carl & Bethany
  Saturday, November 18
  at Great Scott, Allston
  21+, 9 pm, $10

A lot's happened since we introduced you to AbCity's "God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me" back in July of 2005. Back then we predicted they'd end up opening for U2