Get on the Guest List

From the opening track of the brilliantly titled I'll Sleep When You're Dead, it's clear that El-P hasn't lost his feel for hip hop's cutting edge. The tune is an atmospheric audio collage paired with an urgent chorus of "This is the sound of what you don't know killing you." Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (the Mars Volta) back the rapper here, with additional guitar by Matt Sweeney of Chavez — and the guests just keep arriving. More than 13 tracks, El-P is joined by everyone from Aesop Rock to Alternative Nation poster boy Trent Reznor, who handles the chorus of "Flyentology," and Chan Marshall, whose eerie vocal style feels right at home on album-closing epic "Poisonville Kids No Wins."

Timothy Saccenti

El-P shines.

Details

El-P performs with Aesop Rock and Lateef the Truth Speaker on Sunday, March 25 at 9 p.m. Admission is $20; call 625-8880 or visit www.mezzaninesf.com for more info.

Mezzanine

Related Content

• 5 Reasons We're Thrilled About At The Drive-In's Reunion
  January 13, 2012
• Top Five Hip-Hop Songs That Shout Out and Give Thanks
  November 23, 2011
• "The Ides of March": George Clooney for President!
  October 5, 2011
• Free Concert Alert: Phono del Sol Festival This Saturday
  July 12, 2011
• Vagina Stereologues: Rachel Fannan on Her New Band, Only You, and Playing with "Three Vixen Warlords"
  January 25, 2012

More About

• Brooklyn
• Trent Reznor
• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
• Underground Hip-Hop
• Hip-Hop and Rap

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

But this is clearly El-P's show — a show that proudly holds its own against the Brooklyn boy's earlier high watermark Fantastic Damage. The production is brilliant — a claustrophobic clusterfuck that's damn near psychedelic on occasion (while allowing time to rock some bells on "EMG"). And lyrically, the album never falters, whether El-P's talking serious trash on every rapper's favorite president or dropping lines as righteous as "I might have been born yesterday, sir, but I stayed up all night."

So what's the deal with all those guest spots? El-P admits he tends to hate that type of name-dropping, but notes it's all about the unexpected. "It's the South Park theory: When George Clooney appeared on South Park, it was as a gay dog," he says. "That's the type of shit that makes my day."