The Premiere

Phoenix has a hot hip-hop scene, so to say that The Premiere's debut album is the best new local CD to hit P-city streets this year is really saying something. And we are saying just that. Three years in the making, London Paris New Yorkis a monster mash-up of rap, rock, and New Wave, with enough tracks (19) for a double album. Musically, everything's laid over a popping backbeat, but lyrical flows alternate with soulful vocal harmonies, electric guitars, synthesizers, and jazzy samples. Tracks like "Across the Sea," "Disease," and "Line Out" have a distinct New Wave flavor, as pulsing synthesizers wind around electro beats and Cure-like choruses. Other songs draw from so many different styles that they can't be described without oxymorons. Case in point: "Shot 'Em Done," which sounds like a troubador/flamenco-folk/rockabilly-reggae number, as it might be performed by Tenacious D. Despite the schizophrenic feel of the album (or maybe because of it), the CD's full of standout tracks like "Psychadelphia," which is driven by some swaggering blues saxophone samples, and "Patrick Swayze," a fierce jam that opens with the declaration "Don't call me Jay-Z, 'cause I'm Suh-waaay-zeee!" and closes with the lines, "I'm fucking crazy/Smoke crack cocaine-zee/just blunt me up and blaze me." The members of The Premiere, David Jackman and Adam Wilkey, really know how to spit wit. Check out these lines from "Golden Gate Bridge": "I'm a desperado/sippin' on a bottle/I'm in Arizona/reminiscent of Ohio . . . writin' with the Sharpie/Think I'm finished? Hardly/'Cause I'm afraid I'm crazier than Gnarls Barkley." Local station KWSS-FM 106.7 has put The Premiere in regular rotation, and we wouldn't be surprised if some national stations follow suit once they get a whiff of this.

link: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-09-27/music/the-premiere - By Niki D'Andrea (Phoenix New Times)

Last year, local hip-hop duo The Premiere self-released a phenomenal album, London Paris New York — an audio opus packed with instrumentation from garage-rock guitar solos to New Wave synths, all layered over beds of bouncing beats and clever raps ("Patrick Swayze" still gets our vote for catchiest local song of the past two years). Phoenix radio station KWSS 106.7 put songs from the album into regular rotation, but the record's still criminally underheard, probably because The Premiere rarely plays locally. Before the CD's release, The Premiere's David Wilkey had this to say in the band's MySpace blog: "Adam [Jackman] and I are sick to death of constantly jacking ourselves off to the hotness of this record for three years now, and it is about time that you all should be so honored to actually witness it." Wilkey also promises "an incredible, guerrilla-style multimedia stage show." The music's enough, but a spectacle sounds good to us, too.

Link:http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-02-07/music/the-premiere
- Phoenix New Times

By Niki D'Andrea in Up On Sun
Thursday, Nov. 15 2007 @ 12:55PM

By Niki D'Andrea

Lists are fun to make, and even more fun to dispute. There’s always some glaring injustice to kvetch, some oversight that demands a reaming. For example, Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums Ever Made” put four Beatles albums in the top 10, which makes sense, but I personally think ranking Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band number one of all-time (ahead of The Beatles’ “White” and Rubber Soul albums) is inaccurate, unless we’re talking about the album covers and not the actual album content. Putting the Patti Smith Group’s Horses all the way down at #44 was another point of contention for me, as was ranking Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions at #23, while knocking his incomparable Songs in the Key of Life down to #56.

Music is, of course, a subjective thing, and everyone has his or her own opinions about what is “good.” But when the perceived goal of a list is to tell people what’s new and good, taste makers can miss the mark by miles.

On that tip, Vibe magazine recently named the “51 Best MySpace Rappers,” by state. I’m not sure how Vibe determined who made the list, but I beg to differ with their Arizona pick. The only artist from ‘Zona that passed muster with Vibe was a Phoenix rapper who goes by the handle MC Magic. Now, I’ll admit, I’d never heard of MC Magic until I saw this list. So I checked out the songs on his MySpace page, and they’re pretty solid -- mostly a mix of reggaeton and other Latin flavors, R&B, and low-key, seduce-you type rhymes (think Pitbull-meets-D’Angelo). But while MC Magic’s tracks are slick, I feel that Vibe totally overlooked at least a dozen of our best local hip-hop acts. Believe it or not, P-city is a hip-hop haven, and we’ve got an amazingly diverse array of artists here, any one of which could (and should) have made the Vibe list.

So…here is my list of the “Top 12 Arizona Hip-Hop Acts.” They are not listed in any sort of order, as I believe they are all equally worth your ear. Of course, even this list is going to omit some of our city’s most solid MCs -- feel free to give ‘em a shout-out in the comments, if you feel I’ve forgotten someone.

...

The Premiere:
www.myspace.com/thepremieremusic
...This duo’s debut album, London Paris New York, is an absolutely brilliant mashup of hip-hop, rock, and electro. Admitted perfectionists, The Premiere spent seven years putting this gem together, and it paid off in the form of ridiculously hot hooks and catchy potential singles. Take one listen to “Patrick Swayze,” and it’ll be stuck in your head all day.

link:

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2007/11/vibe_magazine_doesnt_know_crap.php - Up On Sun Blog (Phoenix New Times)

Link:

http://www.javamagaz.com/June2008/Page34and35.html - By William Reed (Java Magazine)

by Dj Nico, at 7:59 pm
Uncategorized | permalink | rss

Before we begin with this weeks band of the week, please go here and listen to “Across The Sea”
Ok so in this post super musician super star-era, the duo known as The Premiere aims for something in the middle of dance pop, rock & hip-hop, gambling that maybe there’s a little bit of taste left in the world of popular music. These guys make it clear they aren’t super stars, but also make it clear that they want to be. And I think they definitely would be if the right person heard them.
It may at first listen sound like they are going green with music… pieces from 80’s pop, 90’s grunge, industrial, 90’s hip-hop meters & vocal harmonies, and late 90’s techno with a definite indie spin and surreal twist. Its the sonic equivalent of a pent-house decorated with those styrofoam containers McDononald’s used to use, broken cassette tapes, slightly stiff slap bracelets, flannel shirts, black light posters, Oakland Raiders baseball caps, disco balls, original Gameboy handhelds and Sega Genesis Cartridges and then splattered with the glow stick goo. No one in town is doing hip-hop, pop, or indie-electro dance music like this and so I guess these guys figured they could fill 3 holes with one stroke. A little like Cut Copy with a little bit of Depeche Mode, a little bit of Muse with a sprinkle of NIN. Almost conventional, almost deep, definitely cool. These guys have proven that cool can be recycled. HAHA
The Premiere in a sentence: If bling could buy and wore bling, this is what it would dance to when it got some new bling: feeling a bit of guilt of cannibalism, but relieved to be on this side of it.

Link:

http://anjalirecords.com/WordPress/?p=64
- Anjalirecords.com Blog (by DJ Nico)