Deathrow Tull

yet another band that wins me over nearly on the name alone — Deathrow Tull makes me crack up every damn time I see it, honest. The band’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink takes it nearly the rest of the way, too, with the way they merge funky pop rhythms, too-pretty keys, soulful backing vocals, and smart-dude boy/girl rapping. This is like the band you and your 10 best friends back in college talked about forming when you got really, really wasted one night, but then you forgot about it by the next morning and just felt bummed out. - Space City Rock

Friday night, the moon was out, and frost bitten air ran amuck through the desolate streets of Chinatown while organized chaos took place in the basement of Santos Party House. Deathrow Tull was at it again. The band was able to fill the basement to capacity on the first ‘winter’ night of the 2011 season. The bodily warmth of the packed audience was a delightful contrast from the horrific street cold. It was apparent that everyone was ready to absorb and engage in an energetic live show. The lights turned red as the band and crowd unanimously chanted “Deathrow Tull Will Kick Your Ass!” The chant bled into the first song of the set, and the eve kicked off with a bang.
Deathrow Tull is truly a Brooklyn gem. We are currently living in an age where new music constantly bombards and overwhelms us with options galore. More often than not, the easiest decision is to abandon the new and stick to what is familiar. However, after months of persuasion to give Deathrow Tull a chance by various adored music palates, I caved and immediately cursed my own self-deprivation. This group is unlike anything I listened to in a long while. The instrumentation consists of two white-male rappers, a stunning singer who face resembles Brandy but voice is a mix of an urban princess and angelic God, a guitarist, keyboardist, bassist, and drummer. Together, they create unique funk/ska/punk/hip-hop tone that somewhat mirrors Sublime.
My mouth was on the floor as the set progressed. Soulful tunes like “You ain’t got the fire like I do” were balanced with the playful yet harmonious “We are your energy, we are your Friday night”. A bit of Bob Marley crept out of the group as they soulfully danced through “When the Revolution come” and the crowd be nuts as Deathrow closed with the White Stripes, “Seven Nations Army”.
Mid-set the band started to chant, “Deathrow Tull Ain’t Nuthin’ To Fuck With!” From that statement alone, you might gather that Deathrow is some hardcore gangster group who likes to spit flow while pointing a middle finger towards the sky. And honestly, they can be that. But what is special about Deathrow is that they are more than that. This is a collective group of immensely talented musicians who melted the cold out of my Friday night. HiFi will keep you posted about their upcoming shows, and we highly suggest you go. Raw talent is not to be taken for granted, and it felt refreshing to get a healthy Friday night dose of it. - HiFi Cartel, written by Madison Greico

The CMJ Music Marathon — a festival dedicated to discovering new talent — kicked off in New York this week, and the schedule is jam-packed with all-too-earnestly or ironically-named indie rock bands.

Do not name your band after this. (ALAMY) It’s more fodder for Post music critic Chris Richards’ theory that we’re living in the worst era for band names: “Maybe all the great band names have been taken. There’s a certain “it’s-all-been-done-before” ennui that permeates this crazy information age. And it’s spawned a generation of musicians that sound like they’ve given up and resorted to naming themselves after whatever they see in their living rooms — the Couch, the Endtables, Wallpaper, Ham Sandwich.”

Ham Sandwich isn’t playing CMJ this year, but these amusingly-named bands are:

• Peanut Butter Lovesicle

• You Say France & I Whistle

• Wheelchair Sports Camp

• French Horn Rebellion

• Deathrow Tull

• Dinowalrus and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (tie)

• Moonmen on the Moon, Man

• Radical Dads and Dad Rocks! (tie)

• The Library is On Fire

• Experimental Dental School and Baybee Teeth and Last Good Tooth (tie) - Washington Post, written by Maura Judkis

NEW YORK // 23 AUGUST, 2011
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"Fusing genres in a monstrous blend of what they eloquently call "HipHop/Electro/Dance/Punk-Funk," its hard to classify Deathrow Tull. Maybe that's why they ascribe to the philosophy: "F*ck your genre?" Maybe not. Whatever you want to call them, they aren't liars: Deathrow Tull will kick your ass.

Led by emcees Stephen Rawking (BrokeMC), W.M.D. DuBois (Dyalekt) and Temple Grinding (Ihsan Muhammed), this Brooklyn, NY seven-piece have no problem creating a danceable atmosphere, anywhere. Formed in early 2010, they rose from the underbellies of Brooklyn's world famous "underground;" graciously deciding to poke their heads above the surface and quickly making an imprint on stages and subwoofers. Hot off the buzz from their first release, Little Taste, they're already back into the studio and if their past is any indication of their future, we have absolutely no idea what to expect."

www.deathrowtull.com/

Tune in again!! - BalconyTV

Lately we’ve been seeing the word “death” crop up among band names. It’s starting to look like the obituaries section out there. Ten bands among our huge selection of CMJ Marathon 2011 artists are just dying to be heard. It’s October, Halloween is upon us, the dead walk the earth, and spirits are in the air, so we thought we’d take the time to introduce you to a few “death” bands.

Finally we have Deathrow Tull, which gives us not only the death theme but also a bonus pun on the Brit prog-rockers Jethro Tull. The ensemble blends electronica, rap and rock into a kind of urban sound stew. Heads up: This vid is NSFW for language. - CMJ

The CMJ Music Marathon kicks off today in New York, as throngs of badge-carrying, beer-soaked concertgoers descend upon hundreds of venues across the city in a collective quest to discover the next Vampire Weekend. More than 1,300 mostly unknown, unsigned bands are slated to perform at the five-day festival.

Below, some of the best, worst and weirdest band names on the schedule.

Nature Bands:

Scattered Trees
Secret Mountains
Our Mountain
Forest Fire
Islands
Golden Bloom
Tiger Flowers
Big Tree
Great Lakes
Cold Fronts
Slow Mountain
Madison Square Gardeners
The Lonely Forest
Cloud Nothings
Yellow Red Sky
Deep River
Bird Call
Strand of Oaks
Settings
Setting Sun
The Sanctuaries
Waters
We Are the Woods

Blood Bands:

Arteries
Bleeding Knees Club
Close the Wounds
Cold Blood Club
Not Blood Paint
Wise Blood
Conner Youngblood

Taxidermy Bands:

Hunters
Ski Lodge
Shonen Knife
A House for Lions
Young Buffalo
Elks
Japanther
Sky White Tiger
Handsome Furs
Phantom Tails
Great Elk
Minus The Bear
Rifle Recoil
Freshkills
Endangered Species
Skull

Young Bands:

The Young Things
Young Magic
Band of Young Saints
Young Evils
Young Live
MillionYoung
Young Prisms

Black Bands:

Black Cards
Black Taxi
Black Box Revelation
Blackbells
Small Black
Black Vampires
The Black Shades
Red Wire Black Wire

Wild Bands:

The Wildbirds
Wild Flag
Wild Palms
Wild Moccasins
Wild International

White Bands:

White Fence
White Birds
The White House Band
Sky White Tiger

Vampire Weekend Bands:

Black Vampires
Tan Vampires
Weekend

Copyeditor-Torturing Bands:

What Cheer? Brigade
Shark?
Dad Rocks!
Hurrah! A Bolt of Light
Pow Wow!
Moonmen on the Moon, Man
1,2,3
Goodbyemotel
Smif-N-Wessun
J.R. Junior
The ReMINDers
Oh-OK
Portugal. The Man

Occupy Wall Street Sympathizer Bands:

Monster Rally
Free Energy
Givers
French Horn Rebellion
Shout Out Out Out Out
Hollerado
Street Chant
DWNTWN
Tiny Victories
Touchy Mob
Riot in Paris
Cairo Knife Fight
Game Rebellion
Communist Daughter
Cuckoo Chaos
Ex Cops
The Milkman's Union
Mexicans With Guns

Wall Street Sympathizer Bands:

U.S. Royalty
States
Guards
The Dirty Grand
Fresh Millions
The Downtown Fiction
McDonalds
Mace (DJ Set)
Cuffs
Washington
The Upperclass Men
Villains

Best Name Bands:

Bikini
Bleached
Class Actress
Coasting
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
Deathrow Tull
The Golden Awesome
Neon Indian
Netherfriends
Wim

Worst Name Bands:

Beat Connection
Damndogs
Gangstagrass
Funk Face
Hoop Dreams
Gross Magic
Xray Eyeballs
Cerebral Ballzy - Yahoo/Amplifier

Deathrow Tull rocked the Brooklyn Bridge on 8/13, and it was out of this world.

Check out the photos HERE: http://on.fb.me/uhWXDm - No Pulp Music, written by Lindsay Gilbert

If you’re longtime readers of this site you already know who brokeMC and Dyalekt are (picture L to R w/ singer Ihsan in-between). They’ve been featured here individually, and as members of the MINDSpray crew. Recently, they decided to team up for a project they’re calling Deathrow Tull. A funky hip-hop ride that manages to be both fun and timely, Deathrow Tull is already becoming well known throughout Brooklyn for their live performances, one of which even included an MTA piñata to help them express how they felt about the potential fare hikes. This week I took a swing at finding out more about Deathrow Tull, including how it will affect brokeMC and Dyalekt’s solo careers, the intricacies of working with a live band, and what they can’t stand about each other. - RapReviews.com, written by Adam Bernard

And so it begins… the first lap of the CMJ marathon landed me in the East Village last night until 3ish, starting with Long Island band Wild International at Webster Hall. Wild is a group best described as what Panda bear might sound like were he in a punk band. This three piece moved from jangle to thrash in equal measure and even premiered a brand new song, ‘Creeks’, complete with water sound effects and campfire croons. But by far the best thing Wild International might have been guitarist Ryan Camenzuli’s mom, who was really cool and could have been an Animal Collective fan herself - we all need cool and supportive mothers at shows!

Next up was Mainland. Singer Jordan Topf wins the award for wearing the tightest pair of jeans of the night, and his band's sound was an equal match. Absolutely one of the most enthusiastic of the night’s groups, their dexterous bassist reacted so joyously to each song’s change you’d think he was more their fan than bandmate. Despite their numerous soundchecks, including a couple broken strings, they powered through in no small part to the young lead singers’ boundless energy.

And then came something entirely different… Click Clack Boom are from rural Pennsylvania but I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more from this group in NYC. The four piece were high energy and ready at a moments notice to nail a solid riff to their material. I could see them grabbing a drink with the Arctic Monkeys sometime and trading stories of filthy lucre and other such debaucheries. One part storyteller/one part auctioneer, lead singer Nathaniel Hoho gave us such endearing lyrics as “I love this woman, she loved cocaine, but she was fucking all my friends.”

And that was it for Webster Hall. After grabbing a quick slice at South Brooklyn Pizza shared with CMJ artist/East Village insider Emily Greene (playing tonight at Spike Hill!), I hurried over to the No Pulp CMJ show at Arlenes grocery to catch (pictureless) glo-fi torchbearer Adrienne Drake bring the romance. This shoe-gazey songwriter swings a big wall of circuitry at melodrama and makes quirky throwback synths dance-ready. Think Ariel Pink covering The Cure.

Next up was a band competing with Click Clack Boom for the comic book-ready band name of the night: Blip Blip Bleep. This Brooklyn-based power pop trio opened with a song to make me wish to god it was Friday already (though not in a Rebecca Black kinda way). Giving The Pains of Being Pure at Heart a run for their money, this three piece put more sounds into their keyboard-backed anthems than most bands twice their size. This included generous doses of Ableton Live, and I should also mention that their very attractive keyboardist Kayce McGehee had two very well endowed mini-korgs of her own to frame her figure. Their cover of ‘Beat It’ was made all the sexier when she turned it around into a feminist disco anthem.

Finally the evening came to a close with Brooklyn’s Deathrow Tull. Here’s a band that has their thing down, with every moment carefully choreographed to the smallest detail. An incredible exercise in jazz/ hip-hop style democracy you don’t usually find in covers of ‘Let's Get It On,’ There was an excellent juxtaposition here between the smooth soul of Temple Grindin’s soprano, and Broke and Dyalekt’s hard-edged rhymes. It was a sweaty end to my first lap of CMJ, and I can’t wait to get back out there tonight. - The Deli Magazine (National), written by Mike Levine

Deathrow Tull play Sullivan Hall on Friday, October 21



Deathrow Tull was supposed to take the stage by midnight. Obviously they were on MCT (that's emcee time). At about half past 12, the three rappers of Deathrow joined their band onstage and the party began in earnest. Names may have changed, as brokeMC is now Stephen Rawking and Dyalekt is going by W.M.D. DuBois, but the atmosphere remains the same. Wordplay flies over your head like projectiles, songs you know are mashed into hooks you couldn't imagine, and the live instrumentation keeps everything fresh and undeniably real. (Roll call: Endo Kalrissian on guitar, Every Part of the Buffalo on drums, The Keymaster on, you guess it, keyboards, and Mr. Dough providing the funky bass.) Temple Grindin, if I may say so, busts apart the boys' club that is the rest of her band. Like Ginger Rogers, she does everything Stephen and W.M.D. do, but backward (like singing hooks) and in heels (she was actually in heels). Towering above her accomplices, Grindin switches from a sweet mo-town croon to spitting harsh rhymes. The floor was shaking with bouncing bodies, and though it was technically Wednesday morning, it felt, like their song, like a "Friday Night." Speaking of Friday nights, catch Deathrow Tull at Sullivan Hall on Friday, October 21, 2011. They go on at midnight. Or sometime around there. -allison levin - The Deli Magazine, written by allison levin

Deathrow Tull play Sullivan Hall on Friday, October 21



Deathrow Tull was supposed to take the stage by midnight. Obviously they were on MCT (that's emcee time). At about half past 12, the three rappers of Deathrow joined their band onstage and the party began in earnest. Names may have changed, as brokeMC is now Stephen Rawking and Dyalekt is going by W.M.D. DuBois, but the atmosphere remains the same. Wordplay flies over your head like projectiles, songs you know are mashed into hooks you couldn't imagine, and the live instrumentation keeps everything fresh and undeniably real. (Roll call: Endo Kalrissian on guitar, Every Part of the Buffalo on drums, The Keymaster on, you guess it, keyboards, and Mr. Dough providing the funky bass.) Temple Grindin, if I may say so, busts apart the boys' club that is the rest of her band. Like Ginger Rogers, she does everything Stephen and W.M.D. do, but backward (like singing hooks) and in heels (she was actually in heels). Towering above her accomplices, Grindin switches from a sweet mo-town croon to spitting harsh rhymes. The floor was shaking with bouncing bodies, and though it was technically Wednesday morning, it felt, like their song, like a "Friday Night." Speaking of Friday nights, catch Deathrow Tull at Sullivan Hall on Friday, October 21, 2011. They go on at midnight. Or sometime around there. -allison levin - The Deli Magazine, written by allison levin

How many times have you been to CMJ Music Marathon?
Stephen Rawking: Like 5 times (2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010). I saw Sage Francis perform solo my first year in a tiny basement which is ridiculous considering how huge he is now, and La Strada at a tiny joint last year and I’m still tingling.

How far will you travel to get here?
Endo Kalrissian: Not too far, I came via the F train. Most of us live off the JMZ, which we like to kick out from time to time. Temple Grinding and the Keymaster come via New Jersey, so they have to travel much further than us.
Stephen: …and The Buffalo (our drummer) doesn’t travel. Good things come to him. Always.

What’s your favorite NYC venue/snack joint/bar?
Stephen: Decibel Sake Bar.
Endo: Duff’s and The Lovin Cup (both in Williamsburg, Brooklyn).

Which other artists are you looking forward to seeing?
Stephen: I am always pleasantly surprised by the artists I haven’t heard of who outperform the big names.

If you could be any type of sandwich what would you be and why?
Stephen: Choco-Taco for obvious reasons.
Endo: That’s not a sandwich.
Stephen: That depends on how sophisticated you are.

Deathrow Tull will perform at CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival on Tuesday, October 18 at Arlene’s Grocery. - CMJ.com