CAPE & CHALICE RECORDS
We are so very excited to announce that the Wizzerds of Rhyme & The Club split 7" is being released May 10th! The release show will be Saturday, May 7th at Bowbarr in Carrboro, NC. This will be up for sale in the C&C webstore very soon.
The Wizzerds of Rhyme & The Club split 7" will be happening early 2011. The covers are being screen printed by hand at the Cape & Chalice Palace. Four colors takes some time, but your patience will be rewarded!
Hello. We have a new release! This time it is a DVD by the North Carolina electric-blues-rock-organic-prog-loud-as-fock band, Caltrop.
Originally intended as an experiment, the footage and particularly good performance were deemed worthy enough to sell on tour. The 45 minute set contains unreleased songs from their upcoming full length.
Tracklisting:
- Dr. Motherfucker
- Slice-o-lator
- Perihelion
- Blessed
- Bloodroot
Remember, this is available at Caltrop shows only. Very limited quantities. Those unfortunate enough not to live in proximity can feel free to contact us if you would like to purchase a copy.
Upcoming Caltrop shows:
6-23 // Fredrick, MD // Krug's Place // *
6-24 // Milford, CT // Daniel Street // *
6-25 // Philadelphia, PA // Millcreek Tavern // *
6-26 // West Chester, PA // The Note // *
6-27 // Chapel Hill, NC // Local 506 // *
7-01 // Raleigh, NC // Slim's // with Inter Arma & Hog
7-28 // Chapel Hill, NC // Local 506 // with Tweakbird and Death Came Down the Mountain
* with Backwoods Payback
Ghost to Falco is returning to Italy for another summer solo tour. More info to come.
Recent press for "Exotic Believers"
from Foxy Digitalis:
Ghost To Falco is the brainchild of Eric Crespo, with the goal of combining his love for avant garde music and a more traditional songwriting form. It's a common path people try to make, with varying degrees of success, but admittedly, this album is a treat.
The best comparison I can think of is a more concise Silver Mt Zion. There is enough space for dramatic swells, experimental noodling and stark songwriting. Which makes this all the more impressive is that 30 musicians were recruited to record this album. It's an impressive cohesiveness from such a variety of people that don't normally play together that proves Crespo's pretty damn impressive vision for this band & album.
7/10 -- Andrew Murdock Livingston
from Yes! Weekly:
There’s only one way to classify the sophomore effort of Chapel Hill refugee Eric Crespo’s project Ghost to Falco and that would be as “indescribable,” though maybe “breathtaking” would suffice as well. As the follow-up to 2007’s Like This Forever, Exotic Believers furthers Crespo’s exploration into the impossible and makes countless side trips along the way. Even with a cast of more than 30 Portland musicians in the fold, Exotic Believers sounds surprisingly cohesive in an unpredictable sort of way. The only constant is the slightly cold and dirty feeling with which the listener is left after each of the album’s nine tracks. From the noise-laden opener “Black Holes” and it’s mournful successor “Risen” to the subterranean low-end growl of the epic “Comfort Series #2,” there’s an unsettling feeling to be gathered from both the wild artistic ambitions and the abstruse anti-war message hidden within Crespo’s unconventional meter. Of course, there’s a it of context missing on the album, as Ghost to Falco is a multimedia project as well. Live shows complete the picture with disquieting imagery to perfectly parallel the incongruence of the record. It’s always a risky proposition to conjoin the words “art” and “rock,” but Exotic Believers does so to stirring effect.
from Komakino zine:
The first track of this record is explosive. No swell, just a bomb exploding. Rancid cello notes, angry satured male vocals. Then it abruptly stops, - and on the following Risen You'll hear church bells tolling, - mournful violin and cello will walk you to the Sunday requiem mass, - a disarming promenade into pain finally ruined by distortion. Then this guy grabs back his folk guitar, and starts a trembling sad song, suddenly turning into a big wave of slow-hard rock, - heavy bass lines, - a short term storm in his bedroom, soon getting calmer. Homebased in Portland, Oregon, USA, started in late 2001 - Ghost to Falco is mainly a one-man project, Eric Crespo's one, who co-founded Infinitefront rec: emotive vocals, a sort of juxtaposition of rage and powerless inner riot, - droning sounds and psychic songwriting, - where Into the missions/quiet at home looks like a song from a cotton field, Greater good is a free-indie / post-rock tsunami, Everything alive is a meditative and confessional, Lords of the high country is a final dreamy song inside another song, left-right panning in your ears. Exotic Believers is a different record, as coordinate, i can just cite Gowns for the neighbourghood.
Wizzerds of Rhyme are playing Nightlight's 7th Anniversary Party!
Saturday, March 6th 2010
With Future Islands (Thrill Jockey), DJ Family Vacation, and DJ Mothers Brothers. Be a UNC fan, but don't get too involved this year. Get involved with the Wizzerds and the debut of yet another set of badass outfits.
The split 7" with The Club is still happening. C&C is not concerned with punctuality.
| Ghost to Falco |
| "Exotic Believers" |
Ghost to Falco's long awaited, highly anticipated follow-up to 2007's Like This Forever. Exotic Believers is an achievement in forward-thinking/ancestor-respecting experimental music. It was recorded over a year between tours onto an analog 1/2" 8 track machine in a giant warehouse. In addition to songwriter Eric Crespo and GtF mainstays Ryne Warner and Bud Wilson, Exotic Believers features performances from musical acts such as Dragging an Ox through Water, Evolutionary Jass Band, Horse Feathers, Shaky Hands, Argumentix, Parenthetical Girls, Reporter, Au, and many more. This is a split release with Portland's Infinite Front collective.
The LP includes a code to download high quality mp3s of the album for free.
The Cape & Chalice Palace has moved locations. In the process, we located a stash of Like This Forever LPs! We're offering the remaining copies in the store, as well as a special combo deal with Exotic Believers. You can get both LPs for $21, postage paid. Ooh la la!
Order now!
The album will be released January 23rd, 2010 at the Artistery in Portland, Oregon. This will be in conjunction with other Infinite Front releases: Ohioan's High Country full length CD, The 4-way split 7" between Castanets, Ohioan, Ghost to Falco, and Dragging an Ox Through Water.
The Wizzerds of Rhyme Split Cassingle Series is now available for purchase or discovery if you live in a town that has a record store, bar, or restroom John has recently visited. The tapes contain demo versions of "Rhoidzoids" or "Thumb 3", or one of the two paired with the 2009 remix of "In Which We Sample Africa (by Toto)". As usual, all three songs and some bonus material are available for download from the Cape & Chalice website with a code inside of each tape. Also, the stupid jerks in the Willardz of Rap shanghai'd some of the tapes and included some of their music.
In addition to the cassingles, Wizzerds of Rhyme and The Club are teaming up to produce an as-yet untitled split 7". The Wizzerds went into Studio Sussudio and came out with the official recording of "Science". The Club tracked the first song of a future concept album entitled "Country Club Restaurant." Brainman Andrew Wasson describes it thusly:
"Basically Club buys a golf course. Then some giant entity (Burlington Coat Factory) wants to buy the land for the golf course to convert it into either a factory or a giant outlet mall. Club obviously won't sell. So BCF channels this legend of a giant skunk called Skunkfoot to scare golfers away. They make this three story tall skunk and spread rumors about it. Somehow it's resolved -- Club finds out that Skunkfoot is really fake, or rather that there is a real Skunkfoot but its not the BCF skunkfoot and Skunkfoot and club team up and defeat BCF."
We are also finalizing Hazerai's conclusive release, The Palace EP. Back in the spring of 2008, the band recorded their final three songs with Dave Laney (Milemarker, Auxes) at the Cape & Chalice Palace. These songs will be available for download free of charge, or for purchase as an extremely limited CD release, very special, for real O.G. fans only.
And now for the biggest news yet. Ghost to Falco's long awaited, highly anticipated follow-up to 2007's Like This Forever is finally being released on vinyl. Exotic Believers is an achievement in forward-thinking/ancestor-respecting experimental music. It was recorded over a year between tours onto an analog 1/2" 8 track machine in a giant warehouse. In addition to songwriter Eric Crespo and GtF mainstays Ryne Warner and Bud Wilson, Exotic Beleivers features performances from musical acts such as Dragging an Ox through Water, Evolutionary Jass Band, Horse Feathers, Shaky Hands, Argumentix, Parenthetical Girls, Reporter, Au, and many more. This is a split release with Portland's Infinite Front collective.
Will there be more? Yes. Just wait. This stuff is hard.
Some exciting new releases are in the works. A cassingle split-release series with C&C legends and various major label legends. And a seven inch. You better hope neither happens. For your own safety.
John Crouch has some art on display at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill, NC. If you are in the area stop by at 405 1/2 W Rosemary St.
There are new shirts available! The newest batch are a fan art-style Billy Joel portrait done by local artist and Hulk aficionado, Desmond. Order now!
On a related note, we would like to remind you that, despite infrequent news updates Cape and Chalice still exists and continues to be a real thing. You can go to it and make it your homepage if you like.
We have some new releases planned for this year, so get ready. Real special like. Hold on, more updates to come soon.
To celebrate this new release we are offering mega hot package deals on Hazerai releases. We will most likely be celebrating this until they're all gone. The first pressing of The Castle EP is nearly gone! I mean it! We're down to less than 10 copies.
All the remaining songs from the Wizzerds of Rhyme's lost album have been posted in their section under Artists. Download them, put them on your mp3 player, host a party, and impress your friends for the first time in your life.
Romagical is not sleeping. It will happen. Kenny G will be the new Pat Boone.
Ghost to Falco is still in Italy, but not for much longer. Check the dates and say hello in person.
Are the Wizzerds of Rhyme getting back together? Your wallet better hope not.
Hazerai's The Radio EP is also done.
Pictures of both releases are up here
Hazerai's The Castle EP has been out for a while now. Buy thems. They recently performed live on UNC's WXYC. A ghetto style recording was made and John fancied it up. Fortunately the interview was not recorded. We'll be putting together a 3" CDR of it very soon. It contains three songs, plus an introduction/outroduction by some guy. All this packaged in a pertri dish you can wear! Instructions will also be provided.
The Ghost to Falco Like This Forever LP should be ready by May. Vinyl nerds take note: this is a limited pressing of 200 records with hand screened covers. Look out for a solo US/Euro tour early this summer.
The Club's retrospective collector's edition is still in the works. The Club demands satisfaction. These will be (possibly) packaged in a duct tape wallet complete with ID and liner notes by Dairy River's famous man-rabbit, Takery.
In 2007, after returning from a month and a half of solid touring in Italy and Germany, Crespo came back to his adopted home of Portland, OR and got to work on the recordings that would become the third Ghost to Falco album, Exotic Believers. Recording took place in a makeshift studio housed in a former Oriental rug warehouse downtown, two blocks from Powell's Book Store — all of it recorded on a ½ inch analog 8 track machine — an old fashioned recording device made for amateur hobbyists, being used here to its full capacity by an obsessive auteur to create a magnum opus that he couldn't be sure would ever see the light of day. No labels hassling about the release date. It simply had to get made for the sake of getting this stuff out of a brain and into the world. There was no choice and he worked with what he had. Between continuing to tour, the schedules of the 30 collaborators, and the perfectionism of the mastermind, the project was two years in the making. But good god it was worth it.
Wizzerds of Rhyme is a band that will do anything for art, within reason. Formed in 2004 or 2005 by four guys, the Wizzerds were immediately welcomed into the World of Hip-Hop with open arms. They played many shows during this early period, in both their hometown of Chapel Hill and abroad, even going as far as South Carolina. It was during this time that the then tiny record label Cape & Chalice was formed, an empire in its infancy… It seemed as if the good times were pretty much going to last forever.
But then out of nowhere tragedy struck suddenly. Green Tea, a founding member of the Wizzerds, was diagnosed with rapinchiliosis of the spine (from too much rapping) and was forced to leave the group on indefinite hiatus. This caused the rest of the band to get jobs or move to Japan, and many in the community feared that this would be the end of another legendary act, cut down in its prime.
Just when all seems lost, hope springs eternal. In 2009, like a ray of sunlight piercing through the grey clouds in a divine spotlight and illuminating a single falcon on a mountaintop, the Wizzerds of Rhyme decided the hiatus was over. Quickly, they burst back onto the scene with new songs loaded with engaging hooks and danceable beats. Performing in front of a near capacity crowd, the triumphant return show allowed the fans all around the world to release the breath they didn’t know they had been holding.
Currently, Wizzerds of Rhyme are hard at work in the recording studio working on an as yet unnamed album, as well as thrilling crowds with their trademark theatrical performances. As one noted critic points out: “I like seeing the Wizzerds of Rhyme live. They have colorful costumes and danceable beats, and its usually over pretty quickly.”
Wizzerds of Rhyme are:
Space*Man
Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Willie Oceans
For appetizers, Hazerai is a rock band of three persons from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Punkish not punk with perplexing noise, elbow grease, Cher, grappling hooks, little pastas and undercover excitement, Hazerai very nearly were a Polvo tribute band! Hazerai owns every slot machine in the area, operate 1/2 on instinct and are awesome. Adam = Bass Waves (and guitar), John plays the drums and the cymbals as well, Steve yells shit up with guitar and bass. Maybe you should turn necklaces into table cloths.
In 2004, the Dekalb catalog was bought by a major label, and many executives, discovering The Club for the first time, were excited by The Club's still-relevant sound. They tracked the Club down to his dental practice outside of Philadelphia, and gave him a generous advance to create a new record. The caveat was that he had to utilize the major label's state-of-the-art studio replete with full array of electronica flourishes. By combining the old-world charm of the club with the latest electro-techno craze, they hoped to have a full-fledged hit. The Club, starting to yearn for his earlier life of glitz and glamour, jumped at the offer. The label gave him 6 months to come up with a record. The Club began writing songs. Unfortunately, just around this time, The Club met one (or two) extraordinary women, in Poopoo and Peepee. The Club fell hard, and the pair (group) spent the Club's advance lavishly in all of the Main Line's most fashionable discotecques.
Five months and three weeks passed. The label tried to contact the club for a status check, but to no avail. Finally, the label's lawyer's tracked the Club down to a prefab teepee in Conshohocken. He told them that the record was almost done. As soon as they left, he drove to the studio to start work on the record in earnest. Drinking pot after pot of coffee, obsessed with the love(s) of his life, he worked all night every night that last week to finish his record, created a modern record with a modern sound. "An Evening With...[The Club]" was the result. Soon after touring on that record, The Club found himself prisoner of Stevie Nicks in a cave on an island in a winery. He finally stole away on Art Garfinkel's motorboat and made his way back to Ithaca, NY, where he was expected to take a professorship at Cornell. In the meantime, Poopoo and Peepee had become the stars of a reality television dating show, where a number of bachelors competed for their(her) hand(s). Tommy Marcos, a robot convinced that he was the Club's son eagerly awaited the Club's return. The Club returned, and vanquished the show from his new home, by a still unknown Method. The Club planned to chronical his adventure in a record, but completed only one song "I Left By Motorboat" and a long-winded Introduction.
Most recently, The Club has been retained to write a biography of Man-Rabbit Takery. He will do so in song. Planned tracks include, "Raised by Wolves" and "Millionaire." Look for them.
CC001
Hazerai
The Castle EP
The Independent said this:
They will possibly be blown off the stage by Chapel Hill's Hazerai, whose Castle EP, recorded by new Monsonia member Nick Petersen last year, is brutally heavy and perfectly tight, a miscreant vocal snarl smeared down the sides of harsh guitar angles and a taut, thudding rhythm section that sounds like Weston/Trainer beating small children with low-end.
- The Ribbon
- Maestros
- Rell Ghosts Break In
- Black Eyed Susan
CC002LP
Ghost to Falco
Like This Forever
This music must be heard. Highly recommended.
CC003
The Club
TBA
CC004
Hazerai
Live on WXYC
- Introduction
- Rell Ghosts Break In
- Black Eyed Susan
- The Ribbon
- Outroduction
CC005
Hazerai
The 911852618 EP
Hazerai recorded The 911852618 EP at Carrboro's Track & Field Studios on Mother's Day 2007. Two old songs, two new songs. Performed in the reverso lineup:
Steve => bass waves
Adam => guitar waves
John => drums, hair combed to the left
Thanks to Nick Petersen and KidPix, we consider it a success.
- Replay, Relay
- Here Comes the Good Boy
- Racing Berbers
- This Night
CC006
Wizzerds of Rhyme
Split Cassingle Series
Demos from the upcoming full length and one bonus remix of a classic. Each tape customized by one of the members of the band. Additional Willardz of Rap hijack?
Contains "Rhoidzoids" or "Thumb 3", or one of the two paired with the 2009 remix of "In Which We Sample Africa (by Toto)"
- Rhoidzoids (demo)
- Thumb 3 (demo)
- In Which We Sample Africa (By Toto) (remix)
CC007
Ghost to Falco
Exotic Believers
Ghost to Falco's long awaited, highly anticipated follow-up to 2007's Like This Forever. Exotic Believers is an achievement in forward-thinking/ancestor-respecting experimental music. It was recorded over a year between tours onto an analog 1/2" 8 track machine in a giant warehouse. In addition to songwriter Eric Crespo and GtF mainstays Ryne Warner and Bud Wilson, Exotic Believers features performances from musical acts such as Dragging an Ox through Water, Evolutionary Jass Band, Horse Feathers, Shaky Hands, Argumentix, Parenthetical Girls, Reporter, Au, and many more. This is a split release with Portland's Infinite Front collective.
- Black Holes
- Rising
- Comfort Series #2
- Secrets of the Free
- Into the Missions/Quiet at Home
- Greater Good
- Everything Alive
- Comfort Series #1
- Lords of the High Country
CC008
Hazerai
The Palace EP
The final Hazerai EP. Recorded by Dave Laney in the Spring of 2008 at the Cape & Chalice Palace. Art by JD Hastings
- Hot House City
- I Spy
- An Heiress
CC009
Wizzerds of Rhyme & The Club
Split 7inch
This release was funded by fans via kickstarter.com. Incentives for contributing included visual art created by the Wizzerds, and personal jingles written and recorded for large donors. Chapel Hill artist, Steve Wright designed the artwork and I screen printed the four-color covers. Each record comes with a download card which includes the tracks on the vinyl and two additional songs from each artist. Vinyl dorks may like to know the record is available on three different colors.
- "Science" by Wizzerds of Rhyme
- "Do The Club!" by The Club
-or-
MySpace
Hazerai || MySpace
Ghost to Falco || MySpace
The Club
Wizzerds of Rhyme
