Insufficient Funds: Agents of Change - The Buzzkill Mixtape

Insufficient Funds is a recurring post in which we feature a free, or very close to it, piece of media that you can enjoy without over drafting your bank account. So if you're low on funds, stay tuned to Cerebral Pop.
Chicago-based hip hop band Agents of Change are out to destroy everything for you by being the biggest buzzkills possible. Alright, really they just want to educate people and talk about awful things happening every day in our society in order to get others talking and thinking and put it into the collective conscious a little bit more.

I'm gonna show my lack of knowledge with this Insufficient Funds because I don't listen to very much rap or hip hop. What does the term 'mixtape' mean in hip hop culture? Is it always the artist rapping over other artist's beats? Does it always consist of not only studio-recorded songs, but live recordings, and plenty of collaborations? Are mixtapes always free?

Well, no matter what the "norm" is, The Buzzkill Mixtape from Agents of Change has/is all of these things. It's also pretty damn good.

Shuffled Podcast #8: That Crack Rock Steady Beat

Every other Wednesday I share my love of music in an assortment of ways. Shuffled is a podcast whose format is as varied as my tastes in music, so hopefully you won't ever be bored and everyone can find something to enjoy.
On this episode of Shuffled Luis Alvarez once again joins me. This time we discuss a group of bands...or, a genre, or as Luis puts it, an idea; Crack Rock Steady. Starting with Choking Victim, this unique brand of punk as created countless spin-off acts and inspired plenty of copycats. If you're a fan of the genre maybe you'll learn something new, but if you have no idea it existed, well, strap yourself in. We talk about nearly everything tangentially related to these bands, and you'll hear music samples following along behind it all. Hopefully by the end you'll be just as big a fan as Luis and I are.

Insufficient Funds: Evil Empire Sucks

Insufficient Funds is a weekly post in which we feature a free, or very close to it, piece of media that you can enjoy without overdrafting your bank account. So if you're low on funds, stay tuned to Cerebral Pop every Friday morning.
A thousand punk bands are recording themselves in a thousand different basements right now and you will likely never hear the results. Some of them might have a lot of promise, but they'll break up before they ever get the chance to see that potential realized in a real studio with a producer to help them sound their best. Thankfully, the Internet allows us special access to this formerly lost world of music.

Evil Empire fits nicely into this category. I actually discovered them from their next release, Does This Genocide Make Me Sexy?, which is a significant step up in recording quality. I fell in love with their volatile sound and immense potential. So, I dug up their first recording to see how it compared.