It was all good just a week ago...

It was all very, very good. May fifth held a little something for everyone. These were my tope five.

My countdown to 5/5/09 started early last winter when word trickled down that this would be the day we'd finally be getting our ears on a new Big Quarters album. Thankfully I had my Big Quarters Direct subscription to hold me down until then. Five dollars for five new songs every month. In addition to that directors received the pre-order package (plus Mankwe's cd which I mentioned last week) for free. I'm pretty sure that anyone who's been to a show or visited the myspace or blog will attest Brandon Allday and Medium Zach are always looking out for their fans. The feeling is of course mutual. I'm really delighted by this newest effort and excited to see it bringing new fans around to share the journey with. Old favorites M.anifest, Crescent Moon and P.O.S. all appear on tracks as well as Mankwe Ndosi. (Are you getting the feeling you've only begun to start hearing this name yet?) I always have a hard time picking favorites but at the moment I'm going with Blessed, Wipe the Dust, One on the Lip and Barter System. As if the album itself weren't enough when you order a physical copy you'll also get a free month of BQ Direct. The official release party will be held at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis on the 23rd, hope to see some of you there.

Okay so a lot of us had our hands on this at least a good week early, Black Clover are definitely those dudes. In addition to finally releasing the 5th installment of the Love Potion Collection series and Special Reserve 5 Black Clover Records have also introduced a series of limited edition shirts. Series 1 & 2 are pictured above. A new spin on the classic logo t. Series 1 (the blue and white) was available as a pre-order bundle with LPC5 and sold out in less than 24 hours leaving several Lethalvillians without. Series 2, my favorite so far, is going fast and a few sizes are almost sold out. These are very limited runs and a new colorway will be introduced as each one sells out so check lethalville.net often or you may miss out.

But we're not here to talk about t-shirts (this time) this is about a love of mine called Love Potion #5. Favorites on this one include but are not limited to So Fly, Cherry Soda Pop Demo, Unfinished Love Song Thing and Heart Uvva Pig. Of course when you order this from Lethalville.net you also get Special Reserve 5 Town. Its eerie and pretty much amazing. There's no tracklisting on this one and when I inquired I was told "its kind of mysterious enough to not have a tracklisting." But for those who need to label it Town pt1, Town pt2 and the rest is just Town Noise. Thanks Willis!

The artwork alone is worth the $8 the extremely limited (only 50 copies made) for K.'s Responsive Chord cost me. All hand done by our very own Miss Jamee and all shipped out with an accompanying original coffee drip piece also by Jamee. This is definitely my favorite release by K. to date. Its still loud and chaotic but there's more of a balance between the "noise" and the vocals this time around. You can stream and/or download the whole thing and view the artwork for each individual track over at The Responsive Chord, those Gahed kids don't mess around. Its hard to pick favorites especially as short as this offering is but I'd have to say Band.Aid, Teething and Riderback.

Title changes, cover art switch ups, pushbacks, pushbacks, pushbacks but its finally here, new Abrude. This album makes me long for summer and wish I owned a hammock so I could laze around all day sipping lemonade and drifting away to it. The Haiku D'Etat track is by far my favorite and I cannot wait to see those dudes up in front of a festival sized crowd at SoundSet. As much as I enjoy their solo efforts I'll always love them more together.

Not pictured: Funcrusher Plus re-release. Get it. Its possible these guys influenced 80% of what's dope about your hip hop collection.

This April it POURED

I am a creature of habit. Every December approximately a week after the Blowout I burrow myself a nest under my comforter and piles of half packed/unpacked clothes scattered across my bed and bunker down for the winter. I begrudgingly leave my hibernation headquarters only to go to work or retrieve supplies (food.) I resent anyone who attempts to drag, trick or force me into social interaction. The few times I am dragged kicking and screaming into the daylight only have me clinging harder to my hermit den in the coming weeks. This lasts until March. I peel myself out of my pajamas, wash and tease my hair, scrub my face and go blinking wide eyed into the sunshine of Paid Dues. The world is shiny and new, the raindrops smell fresh and sweet, spring has sprung and I anticipate Summer in a whirlwind of excitement. Not this year. This year the world unceremoniously booted my ass out into the shivering wonderland of February for the Never Better tour. (Minneapolis in February, really? What was I thinking?) And then a slew of releases, shows and lovely company followed one on top of the other and before I knew it Paid Dues had come and gone and here I was staring April in the face. And April stared back. Hard.

I have been waiting, and waiting... And WAITING to hear more from F. Stokes since I first caught him opening for Hand Over Fist last summer at the Entry. I watched the other faces in the front row and witnessed that exact moment some of them fell in love. Beautiful. And what better way to chase away those April showers than with certified Lazerbeak lava bangers? If "Tickle Me Mars" doesn't get you moving you are dead inside. Still no sign of this on iTunes but readily available from our friends over at doomtree.net. Stokes is on the come up people.

Speaking of releases that I've been waiting on, I was practically camped out at my mailbox waiting for my Black Blondie cd to make its way to me. Being hard working ladies I've managed to catch them a handful of times during my visits to Minneapolis and it was a total case at love at first sight/sound. To be completely honest I gave up on stalking my mailbox about an hour after I placed my order and then downloaded the album from Amazon. Shortly after I frantically texted the first person I could think of that would enjoy it half as much as I was and badgered him into check them out so I'd have someone to share my excitement. Being friends with me is an exercise in patience. You can still check out their track Candy Cigarettes over at City Pages but I really urge you just to pick up a copy of your very own. The wait paid off this disc is solid from start to finish.

April also brought Mr. Lif back to Seattle. This made me very happy for several reasons. One, its has been at least two years since I've caught Lif live. Two, he brought a new cd with him. Now its not on a Mo Mega level but I enjoyed it. Three, Monday night rap shows are my favorite way to start the week. Monday nights weed out the kids just looking for something to do while getting sloppy drunk and you find yourself in a room full of people really digging the music and having a good time. That said by the time I laid my little head on my pillow that night I was indeed sloppy drunk. Fail.

Later that week, on Friday in fact, I spent the evening not getting sloppy drunk at the Sodo for the When God Gives You Ugly tour. Last summer I narrowly missed seeing Attracted to Gods (at I want to say the Hexagon?) so I was very glad to get my second chance. So all you kids running on rap time and showing up late to the Atmosphere show, don't. Be on time, catch the openers its completely worth your while. I really probably don't have to say anything about P.O.S. but I really do love me some Never Better. The chemistry he and Bill have just makes for a fun time. I wore peep toed flats in the center of the mob. Bye bye pedicure, I may still have bruises. Picked up a copy of Mankwe Ndosi's ep and ATG's new cd before retreating to a safe spot in the bar for Atmosphere's set. Those kids play rough man. In the bar solo, (my fella's do not have the same fear of teenage girls that I do) head nodding I noticed a familiar t-shirt make its way towards me. Money, Paper, Loot, Scrilla. I of course had to stop the young man because I couldn't believe my eyes. Was that really a Muja Messiah shirt here in Seattle? He named dropped the Nomad and I felt heartsick. Seattle and Minneapolis really should be neighbors.

Honorable mentions for things I threw cash at that stuck this April include the new Kill The Vultures, Rick Ross, The FREE Houdini Mixtape and Dyme Def's new ep. April came hard but May isn't messing around either people you know you have a big sloppy red heart drawn around May 5th. Fess up.