Friday, Sep. 11, 2009

Music Crawl has a hip-hop beat

The Free Times Music Crawl lineup has a welcome — and much-needed — musical wild card this year: hip-hop.

Of the 32 performers on the crawl’s schedule, five will be hip-hop in nature. The performances will be at Rust, 918 Gervais St.

There will also be stages at Art Bar, 1211 Park St.; Flying Saucer, 931 Senate St.; Mellow Mushroom, 1009 Gervais St.; and Wet Willie’s, 800 Gervais St.

Hip-hop is often overlooked in this town, especially at local festivals, so it’s refreshing that the Free Times is presenting high-caliber, lyrical-minded hip-hop.

• Dan Johns is a prolific and thought-provoking lyricist.

nPreach, a diligent worker, uses his vocals as part of the rhythm.

nFatRat represents the genesis of the genre.

nSheem One is an energized newcomer.

nSweet Vans uses satire to gets its point across.

Preach also has a show at The Whig tonight to celebrate his signing to R2 Records, an English label, for the release of “Maple St. Sessions,” his collaboration with UK producer Denz.

Preach, a frequent Free Times contributor, said hip-hop has gotten more coverage this year in the publication. But he isn’t the reason hip-hop has its own crawl stage.

“I wish I had that much power to have that much influence,” he said. “People were noticing there was a void in the crawl.

“Maybe more people submitted this year.”

Patrick Wall, Free Times music editor, said the crawl has hosted hip-hop acts.

“But we've never had a full stage dedicated to it before,” Wall said via e-mail. “With the caliber of emcees in the Capital City, as well as an appropriate and interested venue, it only made sense.”

Besides the Rust stage, here’s five crawl bands you might want to check out:

The Unawares, 10:30 p.m. Art Bar, 1211 Park St.: Unrelenting yet specific, this rock band is simple energy.

Hello Tomorrow, 7 p.m. Art Bar: The indie-pop band tinkers with formula to frequent surprise.

The Restoration, 8:40 p.m. Flying Saucer, 931 Senate St.: As far as storytelling narratives, Daniel Machado, who fronts this folksy band, is doing it as well as anyone locally.

Hannah Miller, 11:50 p.m. Mellow Mushroom, 1009 Gervais St.: I hope she plays “Home,” a graceful sonnet about longing, love and loneliness.

Haley Dreis, 9:50 p.m. Mellow Mushroom: Dreis is someone singer/songwriter fans should get to know.

Reach Taylor at (803) 771-8362.

IF YOU GO

Free Times Music Crawl

WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: The Vista

TICKETS: $5

INFORMATION:www.free-times.com

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