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Busdriver "Sun Shower"

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Perhaps the next popular phase in rap/rock collaborations, following the (dubious) legacy of Run DMC/Aerosmith, R.E.M/KRS-One, Public Enemy/Anthrax, the Judgment Night soundtrack, Chuck D/Sonic Youth, Jay-Z/Linkin Park (or just Linkin Park by themselves), will be loquacious, bookish rappers duetting with British dance-punk bands. At least it might if Busdriver’s “Sun Shower” (mp3) has any say in the matter (I’m not sure if it does–ed.). The rapper whose mother calls him Regan Farquhar has established himself in the same way as fellow Californian Gift of Gab; by privileging speed, verbal dexterity, and encyclopedic lyrical references above typical rap signifiers, and largely doing it well. But on “Sun Shower,” he stretches his one-of-a-kind timbre (described elsewhere as David Allan Grier, but closer to Tracy Morgan delivering lines written by Tina Fey on 30 Rock) to one logical extreme—sounding here like Mike Patton guesting on a Bloc Party song. It’s not nearly the generic trainwreck it should be: Farquhar’s voice is elastic and sinister enough to meet the dramatic tension of the music below it, and the two elements work together in service of a solid and appealing melody, ratcheting up to the climactic chorus. It’s the granola-rap/dancepunk version of Cuaron’s Children of Men (that you’ve all no doubt been waiting for): the hero saves the emperiled woman from the crumbling hipster dystopia surrounding them. Sample monologue: “You feel/The poverty line/Has a threshhold/For truth in/Pricey slums/It’s an art school/It’s a shark pool/Of well-groomed/Yuppie scum.”

Epitaph will release RoadKillOvercoat on January 30th. Preorder. Busdriver’s site.

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