Kill The Vultures

Dark, quality production, good rhyme flows. If you get high or are the serious mad-at-the-world type, you'll love this.
- Prince Paul

BEST OF THE TWIN CITIES 2005: BEST HIP-HOP ARTIST

Minnesota vocalists ranging from Bob Dylan to Craig Finn have moved to New York City to freshen the imagination, get noticed, and come out writing better than ever--about Minnesota. But Kill the Vultures are probably the first transplants to improve their creative fortunes by moving back: The former Oddjobs (without DJ-producer Deetalx, but with DJ-producer Anatomy still in tow) recently unveiled a radical new sound on local stages and on their self-titled Locust Records/Jibdoor debut. Over a pounding clatter that's part Age of Chance, part Public Enemy, three commanding voices swing like mad over the racket, like Last Poets on a bed of bongos. "Kill the vultures/before they dine on all of us," shout rappers Crescent Moon, Advizer, and Nomi in urgent unison (and that motto is as close as they get to life affirmation). For love ballads, the boys come out screaming: "Dip my dick into the ocean/drown in the wind," howls Nomi before destroying a brick building with "lovemaking vibration." If this is Dead Poets Society rap, don't be surprised if some large portion of the nation stands on its desk. - Peter Scholtes

Coming outta the twin cities of Minnesota, Kill the Vultures is a reborn version of hip-hop quartet Oddjobs and they have tethered together what is a truly unique sounding hip-hop album. Immediately obvious are the striking production values. The whole thing sounds like broken screen doors, jalopy motorcycles, abandoned horns and some sleazy, one-eyed bass. On top of that comes the upfront MC styles of Nomi, Crescent Moon and Advizer who are laughing half the time (on the inside) and growling at the masses the other half. I love the way this album sounds. Tracks such as “Lovin’ You Dangerous” and “Beasts of Burden” brim with a ragged, cum-stained bravura that is a righteous kick in the ass to all of that whack Neptunes candy-sounding shit. This isn’t a Gap commercial this is some raw news. This is some Last Poets, Magic Band, gang-funk, dirty-ass, hip-hop, beatnik, smacked-out-jazz business. Take a listen. - Adam Richards

The first time I saw Purple Rain I was 9 years old. But I don’t really count that since my older sister covered my eyes during all of the dirty parts. So the first time I really saw it, I think I was in college. Neither time while I watched it did I think that I would eventually have so many friends in Minneapolis. 5 of the first guys I met from out there were the Oddjobs. Now almost 5 years later, those guys sans Dj Deetalx have embarked on a completely new venture called Kill The Vultures.

Sometimes change is good. In a time of oversaturated record store racks, home recording, peer to peer downloading, and northern state, lots of artists seem afraid to escape the tried and true formula of recreating 1988-1994 over and over again. And of the few who do try most of them end up in some weird gray area where different doesn’t often equal good. Obviously fed up with the status quo aside from changing there name Kill The Vultures change there sound.

DJ Anatomy has crafted the perfect soundtrack for the next Tarrantino movie. A blend of cool bop 50’s jazz, distorted rock drums, and subtlety it’s one of those rare records where you feel suddenly cooler just listening too it. Where there earlier work had that same throwback feel that many of us are guilty of, the lyrics on Kill The Vultures are refreshingly rap free. Finally somebody realized you don’t have to rap about rap. More personal narrative and less braggadocio the album is short and provides for positive repeat listens.

I only hope that the Williamsburg kids pick up on this record. I can see Josh Cool drinking a Stella and cutting an off beat rug to the Ramones inspired “7,8,9”. It might take a while for the backpacker kids to get into this record. But as an alumni of the north face pack, and 5 AM WKCR tapings, take it from me… it’s worth the effort.
- Gunnar Kaufman

While the album's three-part rap attack recalls Oddjobs, the production is darker, wilder and more experimental. - Chris Riemenschneider

With its push-and-pull percussion, gleeful scratching and homebrewed boom-bap, the most slept-on hip-hop
record of 2004 was Tom Waits’s Real Gone. Rain dogg Buck 65 stole his gravel-throated anti-sheen, but
Minnesota hip-hop crew Kill The Vultures
handily gaffled what could only be described
as his “Clang Boom Steam.” Four out of the
five guys who used to be in moody NYC-via-
Twin Cities prozackers Oddjobs moved back
to Minnesota, pawned their drum machines
and made this dark, brooding mess that clatters
with the clanking toys stolen from the
Bone Machine. The wood-on-wood banging
of sort-of title track “The Vultures” hints at
Waits playpals Claypool and Ribot; as does
the Germs-sampling “7-8-9,” which adds the
insistent jangle of rusty bells. Their smoky
bummer poetry is even a great chaser for the
nighthawks (“The neon L burns out to spell
MOTE/And loose ain’t the term for how the
hell broke”), but their shouted delivery would
certainly get these brats kicked out of the
diner. - Christopher Weingarten

Formed by four former members of the Twin Cities group Oddjobs, Kill the Vultures sounds like an attack on the slickness of mainstream hip-hop: the brutally lean production style is almost lo-fi, and the rhymes echo the hectoring of Def Jux acts like Cannibal Ox and El-P. Anatomy's tracks are the most arresting thing about the group's eponymous debut, recorded for the Chicago-based Jib Door label--clattering, dissonant tumbles of pounding beats and truncated rhythmic samples pushed deep into the red. Some songs, like "The Vultures," built on a looped upright bass lick and martial rim shots, amplify that minimalism. Others morph unusual sources into hip-hop form to dazzling effect: the primal, stuttering beats and descending guitar patterns on "7-8-9" sound like they were swiped from an early Black Flag record. Whereas meticulous tinkering defined Oddjobs, a real sense of urgency comes through on Kill the Vultures. - Peter Margasak

Oddjobs (minus one member) is now Kill The Vultures. KTV is a band hell bent on using beats and rhymes to sound like bent hell, flipping abrasive and dissonant punk and bop samples instead of the typical boom bap. It's difficult listening, but which would you rather have: an avant adventure or more of the same? - Dave Hlurbeck

Intense red lights glowed on the stage July 9 at First Avenue's 7th Street Entry as members of Kill the Vultures, formerly members of Oddjobs, delivered burning, experimental, intelligent rhymes.

They opened their set with “Lovin' You Dangerous,” a biting, high-energy cut off their new album, “Kill the Vultures,” to get the crowd dancing. Crescent Moon's (Alexei Casselle) piercing eyes searched the rows of nodding heads and locked onto the eyes of unsuspecting audience members. Some squirmed under his fiery stare, while others fed off it, dancing and pumping their arms to the beats.

Kill the Vultures' raps, by Crescent Moon, Nomi (Mario DeMira) and Advizer (Adam Waytz), are poetic, honest and smart, resembling the style of many artists in Minneapolis' indie hip-hop scene, like Atmosphere, Heiruspecs and Doomtree. The three attacked the pieces and tag-teamed over Anatomy's (Stephen Lewis) pulsing, interesting beats.

Throughout the nine-song set, their stage presence didn't falter and their presentation was seamless. Their aggressive, explosive dancing eventually got the crowd of not-necessarily-hip-hop fans sweating right along with them. Advizer broke in and out of a hunched-over dance, vaguely reminiscent of an ambling vulture. He said, “I just got new pants, and the only way to break them in is to dance.” The three provided a stark contrast to Anatomy's aloof demeanor perched atop a table with his beat machine.

On “Good Intentions,” which can also be heard on “Kill the Vultures,”Anatomy mixed a lonely trumpet with slow, jazzy beats while Advizer comically delivered the lines, “I speak to children we share a bond/ I try not to kill them and there upon/ There upon lies the difference between icon and iconoclast.” The combination of Anatomy's beats and Advizer's syncopated, halting phrasing on the track resulted in a spoken-wordlike feel.

If you want to dance and see a group with passion for their music, Kill the Vultures should be the next show you see. - Jessica Snively

"Percussioni secche ed essenziali come spari nel buio, basso e pianoforte jazzy, due voci che si scambiano il microfono e recitano scandendo parole di fuoco. Mazzate di batteria, fiati come grnacassa sullo sfondo, noise diffuse, voci che marciano all Guerra. Ammenicoli percussivi, un basso che incide un temp jazz al lumicino, voci e cori che minacciano. Un riff di chtarra punk, un ritmo tribale che ne asseconda l’urgenza, una disapparenza di fiati che ne regge la melodia. Sparsi colpi di percussioni, una tromba solitaria, un basso che svisa, due covi che recitano lente. Adamento funk punteggiato da colpi di fiati errebi, noise diffuse, ritornello kiler. Un sample di piano distante, un chitarra che emerge, un ritmo piano e dance, I Public Enemy in testa. Swing, piano e chitarra liquidi, breaks e rombi di sfondo. Un tromba evocative, una melma di ritmo lentissimo, sputi nella bocca. Un fulmine a ciel sereno. Inatteso ? non c’e ancora una distribuzione italiana-, quasi casualae, stordente. Last Poets e Beatnings in uno e molto altro sullo sfondo a garantire originalita assoluta. I Quattro Kill the Vultures di Minneapolis (Stephen ‘Anatomy’ Lewis, Alexie ‘Crescent Moon’ Casselle, Mario ‘Nomi’ De Mira e Adam ‘Advizer’ Waytz possono essere ? saranno ? la band ‘out’ hip hop dell’anno come I cLOUDDEAD furono nel 2001. (8)" ~ - Stefano Bianchi