Us and Us Only, The Gathering of the Juggalos, Bon Iver on Conan

1)  Us and Us Only

Maybe it’s because Fall is near and Winter seems right around the corner to me but I’ve been getting really into singer songwriter stuff as of late.  It’s weird how a style of music seems to fit with certain seasons.

I recently discovered the music of Kinsey Matthews, a song writer that plays under the name of Us and Us Only.  I’m pretty positive he used to play guitar for Another Reason to Hate Machines, a hardcore band from MD.  He writes very honest and simple acoustic songs that seem to center around a bad breakup.  Aside from being really catchy, I think the simple production on the songs makes me really enjoy them.  It sounds like he set up a single microphone in his bedroom, played each song a few times, and kept the best performances.  More artists should follow this approach.  I want to hear stools squeaking and fingers dragging across the strings.

All of his albums are up for download on his myspace.

Check it HERE.

2)  The Gathering of the Juggalos – Vice article

My friend Big Chris went to Illinois this year for the annual Gathering of the Juggalos.  He said dealers would wear cardboard signs signifying what type of drugs they were selling and all you had to do was call out a drug and they would come rushing to you.  Apparently 3 people died this year.  A girl was trampled to death and 2 dudes overdosed.  Andrew W.K. played and had so much trash thrown at him that security had to remove him from the stage.  He continued to ask the crowd to throw stuff at him while he stood still and headbanged.  Excellent.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Insane Clown Posse, their fans are known as Juggalos.  A Juggalo is a male or female (known as Juggalettes) who are involved with the ICP rap subculture.  That wasn’t a very good explanation so to get a better grasp on these fans I suggest you watch this video:

“What is a juggalo?

Let me think for a second
Oh, he gets butt-naked
And then he walks through the streets
Winking at the freaks
With a two-liter stuck in his butt-cheeks

What is a juggalo?
He just don’t care
He might try to put a weave
In his nut hair
Cuz he could give a fuck less
What a bitch thinks
He tell her that her butt stinks
And all that ”

Now that you know what a Juggalo is, go read this excellent Vice article.  HERE.

3)  Bon Iver on Conan

Just in case you missed it.