1999 really wasn’t all that bad of a time in music. Sure, now we lampoon Fred Durst and his backwards flipped Yankee cap, Kid Rock and his hip hop adoration with a redneck sneer, and the likes of P.O.D., Linkin Park and millions of other now nameless and faceless concept bands get lumped together in the vast trash receptacle in our brains called “the errors of youth.” But in 1999, when these bands were selling MILLIONS of albums, you probably knew the words to “Bawitdaba,” and definitely wanted tickets to Warped Tour, Up in Smoke and Ozzfest. Well, we here at TGRIOnline would like to exhume that era from the garbage and take you back to what made it great. Crunching metal riffs, fun party rhymes, an in your face attitude that in no way involved gats or carjackings. The feel of watching a jam band without the feel of being at a Grateful Dead or Phish concert. If you can get behind a remembrance of things past, and you need a brand new band to get behind that brings all of that (and a few more other amazing elements) to the table, take a listen to Brooklyn’s Shinobi Ninja.
DA, Baby Girl, Maniac Mike, Terminator Dave, Adriano Morez and DJ Axis came together in a maelstrom of artistic fury. All connected by Hell’s Kitchen’s Progressive Studios, Rapper DA and bassist Adriano were producers and engineers. Shredder and skin pounder Mike and Dave and DJ Axis were recording as a hard edge rap/rock group. And Baby Girl, well, she was taking vocal lessons from a member of the Sugar Hill Gang and backing up none other than Santigold on tour as one of her Public Enemy S1W styled backup singers and dancers. With such a disparate group of unique influences at play, the results, as expected are both awesome and combustible. Watching Shinobi Ninja perform is a party in the truest sense of the word. DA moshing and spitting rhymes. Baby Girl spontaneously breaking into a cover of Faith No More’s “Epic,” then pulling out a brilliant freestyle dance routine. Maniac Mike and Terminator Dave’s long blond locks flying around as they wail away at their instruments, Adriano dropping some serious funk, and DJ Axis recalling “Intergalactic” era Beastie Boys and Mix Master Mike. It’s inherently volatile and nothing but a good time.
I had the pleasure of interviewing the band after a DC tour stop at Asylum where they rocked a throng that started off tepid, then became lukewarm, then, by the end of the set were a jumping, moshing, screaming and yelling, teeming pool of mayhem. That’s how a band gains buzz on the underground and makes the organic move up the rungs of the ladder of success. One day, one person becomes millions of days and millions of people. The exuberance and belief in self of the band is contagious. THey’re armed and gifted with talent and not afraid to use it to become the superstars they feel they will become and deserve to be. Visit them at their website, and if you haven’t been friended by them already, check them out on Twitter. Kings at marketing themselves and their sound, the future certainly looks bright for Shinobi Ninja.
elivindotorg 