The Orange Spotlight

Heiruspecs - Heiruspecs (Self-Released, Dec. 2008)

Every so often a CD lands on my desk at just the right moment. It's strange this week that CD was actually released two months ago. The latest album for St. Paul's live hip hop collective Heiruspecs is self-titled and self-released, and filled with some of the most biting and realistic commentary on life as it is today. At it's core, this album is a call for action, a call for change, and not matter where you are at it will force you to move. "Get Up" alone has caused me to change my focus and way thinking about my future, and it is a much needed anthem for the times we find ourselves enduring.

Musically Heiruspecs is unique in the rap game as they are a full functioning band and as such can shifting fluidly from jazz grooves to aggressive metal tinged bangers. They run the sonic gambit, and in turn make the tales that they tell all that more interesting. Form in 1997 at St. Paul Central High School, the band has played with some of the biggest names in independent hip hop. Through a series of releases and line-up changes Heiruspecs has released one of the most substantial and frankly the best album of their career.

This month, Heiruspecs will be launching a Midwest Tour which will include a stop at The Abbey Pub here in Chicago on April 3rd. For all of the tour dates check their Myspace page.

Get Up (mp3)

Bill Shute - Marking Time(Kendra Steiner Editions #125, January 2009)

"Waiting for time to start or to stop"

For the four months time has been moving untraced, unmarked, rapidly shifting all around this idol body. The activities that once occupied my day, in turn marked the hours and minutes were suddenly gone. At first, it appeared to be freedom, but as the days quickly faded into months it was clear I was trapped in this "freedom" and had no idea how to escape. There was an overwhelming sense of loneliness, fear, depression and pure and honest helplessness that quickly enveloped me. As much as people may fear routing and mundane, these were the elements I lost.

Marking Time is about the lost and the mundane, about the unforgiving walls and our inability to move beyond. It is about the shut-in, the drone, the grunt, and the forgotten souls circling our lives. Now more than ever people are feeling forgotten. They wander the sidewalks and stare in the window, unable to buy but still manage to dream. They are unable to plan, but the demands and responsibilities haven't changed. Marking Time describes a world without time, but with so many pressures to get back on the clock.