tobacco, washed out, small black + more collide at holocene

Tobacco warned Portland, “I wouldn’t recommend being on any psychedelic drugs for some of the visuals” before he brought his grit-hop to Holocene on Monday night. Immediately logging onto Chatroulette and pointing the camera into the crowd, Tobacco (the mastermind behind Black Moth Super Rainbow) and friends kicked into a wildly crunchy, chunky, electro-hip-hop set. But most eyes were transfixed on the projections abrasively staining the wall behind the three-piece. Some internet fans rocked out, others queried “WFT?!” and spun again while the loudest cheers of the night were for Chatroulette masturbator #1… there were at least two more.

Chatroulette was an added bonus, the real optic stimulation came from Tobacco’s prepared footage. Easing Portland into his twisted, sensory set, 8-bit visual psychedelia floated alongside 8-bit analog synths and samples as sailing Magic Eye sailboats coasted through willows and neon geometric patterns. A cult film aficionado, Tobacco took his name from Redneck Zombies and has a soft spot for ’80s awkwardness. His rhinestone encrusted beats chomped along with clips of early ’80s Fat Boys music videos, but entertaining hilarity quickly turned downright disturbing as head after head after head crashed through glass table tops.

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Read the rest on OMN plus hear a track from Tobacco's new album Maniac Meat.

q/a : the end of black moth super rainbow? tobacco relishes the idea of making ‘party’ music with beck

The creative force behind Black Moth Super Rainbow may be moving on. After churning out a BMSR album according to a “formula” in 2009, Tobacco was not satisfied with the product simply declaring, “Eating Us is probably not my best work.”

Everything that didn’t fit that formula, “and there was a lot that didn’t fit into that formula,” Tobacco put aside but let it live its own life, just for fun. Not intending to make a record, songs developed organically in the dark, grinding grit that is Tobacco’s signature fuzzed out, mucky crunch.

BIG hip-hop beats, sinisterly microwaved to meticulous perfection, this collection of BMSR rejects accidentally became Maniac Meat, the second “solo” album, well, his second under the name Tobacco–the antithesis to Eating Us. In the recesses of Tobacco’s core, his essence for pop remains–a sensibility that is damnably tantalizing to all ears it pricks. “Party music” is a deceiving term, but Tobacco’s new cuts are decidedly bright and walk with a swagger.

And who else to strut around the indie kingdom with but Beck? By fate or circumstance, he is the only guest on Maniac Meat...

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Read the rest of the inteview on OMN.