03-12-07: On the road with Busdriver again. We're touring the States in support of RJD2, in "the Rock spot," as a good friend called it, second of three, between opener Happy Chichester and headliner RJD2. I'm Antimc. I play electronics on stage while Busdriver does his rappin' thing. I just put out an album, It's Free, But It's Not Cheap, and instead of doing the legwork to support it, here I am on the road with a friend again. It could be worse. Bus always pays well, and the converstaion is golden. I'm trying to wrangle some audio of our in-car banter, but that may kill some of the spontaneity of it. I suppose any good diary starts from the beginning, so let me do that. Here's how this tour has been... from the inception.
This is the Antimc band. Jason, who is better known to Los Angeles socialites as Them Jeans, the tall dude in the top photo, plays turntables and synth. Devin, also known as Desert Eagles, the dude on the bottom, plays bass and synths. We've been rehearsing a realy great live show, if I may say so, when I got a call from Busdriver that he had been asked to support RJD2. I casually slipped in that I wasn't sure it would be in my best interest to play accompanist since I had just put a record out, and I'd need a slot. Long story short, I ended up backing him on the tour, and Jason, Devin, and I just geared up for what we hope will be a gnarly SXSW.
Everytime I have a show with Bus, I get a call that he "has something" for me, which inevitably involves him burning a CD of "work" for me. It's always the same thing, a disc of odds-and-ends, pieces of songs or whole instrumentals that I take home and cobble together some sort of live version of his songs out of. Usually I just put it off to the last second...
Which brings me to the night before the tour kicked off... I had been flown in to Columbus, Ohio, the first stop, where I still had a bit of work to do to put the show together. I set all of my stuff up on the huuuuge bed in my room (see random photos below), and banged out the last bit of instrumental madness that had to be sorted out before we could take the stage in a few hours.
The next morning, Bus showed up at the 'telly with our transport for the first leg of the tour. The Dodge Avenger is appointed with everything you'd need to make the tour amazing, unfortunately, I'm not allowed to drive it for some reason and haven't been able to really experience the full majesty of the car. So... the tour may begin in the next Chapter of our tale, but for now, here's some more random photos.
Other Installments
Part One: Road Warriors
