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cover art for the DRUMBS single by Jesse Dangerously and Danny Miles, the drummer for July Talk

July Talk drummer loves birds and Jesse D

Who is Danny Boy?

I’ve known July Talk drummer Danny Miles for almost twenty years. Nowadays he plays with one of the most popular bands in Canada, and he takes a lot of very nice photographs of birds. But I used to sleep on his dirty floor in London, Ontario, before all of that.

He was something of a mythical figure when Backburner first started touring as far as southern Ontario. A powerful drummer who loved golden era hip-hop, he lived in the basement of the Toolshed. Danny could become dangerously boisterous once the party started. There’s not a lot of people who would line up for a second round after they’ve tasted Danny’s Mystery Shot.

They called him Danny Boy. He always looked like a rock star – lanky, limber, quick with a goofy grin or a furrowed brow. Like if you needed to add a drummer to an Archie comic, and you didn’t spend much time avoiding cliches. Timbuktu dandled and manhandled Danny’s drums into some of the great Canadian hip-hop beats, extensively and expansively. He was the living ultimate breaks & beats for a budding producer.

Despite the massive fortune to be made playing drums into CoolEdit Pro sessions for a completely secret rap crew, Danny stuck to his principles and sought a different career path. Let history be his judge.

And he makes beats?

You can’t take the rap out of the boy! In 2018, he reunited with Timbuktu, along with Peter Project and DJ iRate, to form Tongue Helmet – a psychedelic, soul assassinating quartet straight out of the mid-90s college charts. He co-produced the beats with Peter and Tim, as well as playing the drums, and now he’s got a hunger for it.

I think I’m the first person to release a song produced by Danny. Fittingly, given our shared passion for percussion, I have sharply focused my lyrics on praising the drums. Danny played the kit live, jammed on other percussion instruments with Adam Hindle, and solicited some saxophone chops from Gordon Hyland.

The single is called “DRUMBS,” and it’s the twenty-sixth installment of my Rap Hundreds series, collected as part of season 3.

Game the System

I have 1700 followers on the live show tracking website bandsintown. It’s kind of surprising! And it’s really close to how many I need to take advantage of their shortcut to becoming a Twitch affiliate, which I think I would like to be.

I don’t expect to play a live show any time soon. I mean, if I don’t have to cancel my May 16th gig in Toronto, that’d be a miracle, but let’s be real… it’s probably not going to happen.

I do have the gear to make a pretty sweet, if somewhat ramshackle, livestream performance happen from the basement. And it feels like Twitch might be one of the most convenient places to share that?

So I would be very grateful if you would click the “Track to get concert and tour updates” link in the widget below. And probably also follow me on Twitch. But the main thing right now is that if I can get just 300 more people tracking me on bandsintown, get to go straight to affiliate. And that is apparently good.

Seems like I’m always very grateful these days. I’m downright weary of it. OK love you.

A Picture Gets 1000 Words In, Edgewise

Jacob posted a picture of me from ten years ago, and I dove deep into my responses to each little detail. Continue reading “A Picture Gets 1000 Words In, Edgewise”

New album announcement!

Danger Grove is Jesse Dangerously and Lizard Grove.

teaser3

We did some remixes, we won a competition, we made a record, and COAX Records will be releasing it in body and soul on Jesse’s 39th birthday, October 19th of this year.

We’ll let you know as soon as there’s a pre-order!  This is going to be a big one.  CD, vinyl, cassette, the works.  You’ll see it in stores, you’ll see it on tours.

Continue reading “New album announcement!”

Rap Hundred and Two

I’m releasing a song for free every month, and you can help me continue to do that if you visit http://patreon.com/rljd – pledge as little as $1 a month to keep these songs coming, and help me make my other albums, and also maybe get some nice stuff for yourself? Check it out!

 

I wrote this song in probably 2007, trying to get inside the head of the person a friend of mine was trying to divorce. I was trying to imagine his logic, how he thought forbidding someone to leave him and trapping them with guilt and threats could lead to reconciliation.

Continue reading “Rap Hundred and Two”

My Personal Mentaur

Today is Rich Terfry‘s birthday. Buck 65 .
The Has, the Slam; the Boss, the Man.

I posted a quick note about it on Twitter, and a long distance rap friend replied a bit scornfully with “why do you still idolize this guy?”

And it was a nice opportunity to reflect – why do I?

Here’s what i told him:

Continue reading “My Personal Mentaur”

Playlist 3 – underrated Wu-Tang LP cuts

There’s a canon of great and classic Wu-Tang Clan songs, but when they were first coming out, a lot of us voluntarily overwhelmed our whole lives with the worlds they created, down to the smallest details. These songs weren’t singles & don’t get played out, but formed part of it all.

Continue reading “Playlist 3 – underrated Wu-Tang LP cuts”