Fat Lady Sings

Techneat

Maybe it’s like Kalis implied in this EXPN interview – he saw it coming, Alien saw it coming, nobody was too broken up over the whole thing. There is a vague end-of-an-era feeling, but AWS has moved a space pun-worthy light year or two from where they were back in 1995 (throwback graphics notwithstanding), whereas Kalis, bless his heart, hasn’t changed his approach too much (brown cords and Rolling Stones notwithstanding).

There’s been talk of unused Spanish footage collecting dust on Greg Hunt’s cutting room floor, the stunted career ambitions of one Marquise Henry, and the increasingly divergent path of Alien Workshop from its hallowed backpack rap era, which was one of the things that perhaps made Kalis stand out in “Mind Field” versus “Time Code.” It is a bit sad though, since one of AWS’s great strengths was to fuse the weird, cerebral weirdness the Ohio brain-trust had going on, and the dudes cracking tricks and in the piss and dirt at the Brooklyn Banks. I thought Josh Kalis’s section in “Mind Field” was one of the proverbial fresh-air breaths with its abrasive rap music and baggy jeans, but as long as they hold onto Jake Johnson and Grant Taylor, Alien should be good riding the Dyrdek/Berra reality TV revenue into Jake Burton’s good graces.

As far as DGK goes, Kalis has never really stopped producing, and you know Stevie Williams in particular is psyched to have him on as they gear up for a new video. Various reports have the DGK chieftan forgoing his next multi-zero shoe deal in favor of filming the best section of his career, a tall order on or off Philadelphia public space. And possibly more interesting than any of this is that Jackson Curtain is rumored to be sitting on an alleged 30+ minutes of video footage for the DGK project, raising the possibility of a Marc Johnson-esque reign of terror set to a suite of Just Blaze instrumentals… or maybe a Daniel Dumile approach that would see him parcel out multiple parts over the course of a year in a bid for SOTY status or Nike pro shoedom.

Tags: Alien Workshop, alternative rock, Canal Street, career opportunities, Cuban Linx, DGK, EXPN, Jack Curtain, Josh Kalis, Mind Field, RIP Roc Raida, rumors, Seek, Stevie Williams, surgical gloves, the 1990s