Moodie Black's Surprise EP

It seems like 100 years ago that Arizona "noise rap" outfit Moodie Black first dropped Nausea on Fake Four, Inc. It's felt like that to them to. And we're the ones lucky that it did. Because, like Drake if Drake was possessed by the devil in Ms. Jones, Moodie Black have surprise premiered a brand new batch of boombasticness with their new EP, MBII.

With the noise level turnt way up, the bounce at an all time high, distortion pushed to full bit crusher, and the raps blistering, MBII made me go catatonic. I sat and listened and the world pushed away farther. Or maybe my secret insides grew out to envelope me until I was in a cocoon with only K Death firmly suggesting we run for the hills together.

I had a chance to rap it up with K Death about the new record, Moodie Black's move to LA, secretly loving bad trap music, cancelled Cartoon Network shows, and power tools.

OUR INTERVIEW WITH MOODIE BLACK STARTS NOW!!!

Syffal: Tell our readers who you are, what you do, and what Cartoon Network cartoon most represents you. And you can't choose Adventure Time because DIBS, bitches.

K DEATH: My name is Chris aka K DEATH of the band Moodie Black. I am the creator, producer, rapper, writer, engineer of the project. I'm going with the Misadventures of Flap Jack before it was cancelled. That was my shit!

Syffal: I'm picturing The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill with Pancakes, Uncle Grandpa.

Dude, what's your ear's favorite power tool?

K DEATH: J A C K H A M M E R.

Syffal: Color me surprised and yet titillated. Why not Angry Red, or Navy Blue, or Titty Pink, or Sea Foam Green?

K DEATH: Navy Blue is boring as fuck and reminds me of patriotism, which reminds me of our culture in the United States, which reminds me that we kill people.

Syffal: Do you get sick of people calling your music noise? Or is it like a matter of pride? A badge of honor?

K DEATH: Nah, because it was kind of our fault. I KIND of regret labeling us like that awhile back but its was also a business decision. We bought noiserap.com forever ago and then it became a thing, I guess. If people call our stuff NOISE and mean it in the actual vein it's supposed to be in (i.e. Jesus and the Mary Chain, MBV, Slow Dive, Spiritualized, Pan American, on and on), then that's fucking cool. This NOISERAP shit, is NOT in my opinion noise rap. If you listen to Moodie Black and other noiserap groups you will hear those distinctions between where we come from and where the other guys come from. I'm not sure how much listening people are doing when grouping all these loud rap groups together but it's not conscious enough if you ask me. As for pride. Yeah, lots of that, not in noise but in Moodie Black. I’ve been all about Rap-Gaze lately. Is that a thing yet?

Syffal: Rap-Gaze is when Open Mike Eagle stares into the abyss staring coldly back at my scuffed-up skater shoes?

Man, I missed you with Dark Time Sunshine and Void Pedal at Low End Theory last year for some reason I can't recall at the moment. Beside being an insufferable hermit, and broke most of the time, say I randomly wanted to show up and find you guys on your home turf. Where are you and what are you doing? And why are you naked?

K DEATH: You missed us at Low End because they didn’t let us play. We were on tour with Dark Time and we were told Low End has some sort of rule about so many bands with rappers playing on one night, not so sure about that one. We also weren’t allowed to play when we went with Sole and all inquiries or emails to them go unanswered.

At our current home, MSP, if we aren’t touring or working on content you’ll find ME in the kitchen making salsa, Sean at Wendy's, Dave at a Taco Shop, and James in a country bar somewhere. You’ll find 2 dogs peeing and pooping in the house because it's too cold outside for a Chihuahua and Sean would be the only one naked, possibly because he fell asleep in the shower. BUT… we will be moving to LA soon to bother you, so no worries.

Syffal: SHUT THE FUZZ UP! MOTHER FUCKER WE FINNA DRANK! AND EAT TACOS AND GET YOUR CHIHUAHUA A SANDLE TAN!

What do you think it says about you that you like pissing off MY neighbors?

K DEATH: Ha! That I truly do not give a fuck.

Syffal: If it's too loud, you're too ________. Fill in the blank. If you reply "loud" I buy you a 450 gift card to the Hard Rock Cafe and never speak to you again.

K DEATH: C L E A N.

Syffal: OK. A lot of interviewers ask about artists' influences. I think my whole aesthetic was more informed by music I couldn't stand. A lot of driving around with my step-dad and his Hall and Oates (I know it's all hipster to like them now, but fuck that shit!) or REO Speedwagon (Made me want to climb outside of my own skin because skeletons can't fucking hear.). What artist made Moodie Black better by being so bad?

K DEATH: I love really shitty rap. It's hilarious. Like bad trap, or bad dirty south shit. Other than that I CAN'T STAND Dream Theatre. Sean loves them. I hate that shit.

Syffal: What about being from Arizona has made you guys better? Made things worse?

K DEATH: AZ is where it all started. It was where we cut our teeth and built our work ethic. Nothing about AZ made anything worse, just like nothing in Minneapolis has made anything worse. Things just are, it's up you to decide how you feel about them. In fact, everything awesome that has happened to MB is because of those places, but on any given day I'll still say I hate them. I'm not right.

Syffal: I'd say join the club but I have a feeling you are a certified card carrying member of the I'm Not Right Squad.

What do you think makes your newer stuff (i.e. Nausea) better than the older stuff?

K DEATH: Nausea? I created that back in AZ and I made it purposefully minimal and repetitive. I also reigned back a lot of the aggression. In hindsight we were continuing to separate ourselves from the “noise rap” pack. While everyone last year was busy saying LOOK AT OUR DICKS WE ARE LOUD AWGWHGH! We gave an honest, understated, raw album that I don’t think has seen its day yet. I also made a conscious effort to sort of ANTI-RAP on it, meaning not giving a fuck about being a cool rapper and just being an honest dude. It is just a more mature album that has a good hold on restraint which is really powerful in music. It was also a super brutal process that lasted a year and the last 2 months of mixing and mastering in Minneapolis were hell. I have no idea how the album came out half as good as I think it did.

Syffal: Please bore us all, I mean inform us all with your show/tour/SXSW plans and shit. I wanna come out and PINCH SOME NIPPLES when y'all get to the ciudad!

K DEATH: MAAAAN!!! We got this 2 week run in the States. It kicks off March 14th with SXSW, March 20th at the MOHAWK for the Fake Four/VANS showcase and a few other showcases. Then we are heading overseas for almost 2 months starting Apr 7th with NOISERAP fathers DALEK. All of our tour dates can be found at Moodieblack.com

Syffal: So this new EP, what do you want our 3 chubbed up and hairless readers to know?

K DEATH: It's our "Don't give a fuck/fun" EP haha…

Syffal: Thanks for letting us premiere the new jammies and for real holler when you get to the neighborhood.