This Little Underground

LOCAL RELEASES

It’s been a very productive year for bilingual Orlando rapper-producer Elsha. Across a handful of releases, he’s already dropped about 20 songs so far this year. The latest batch of five constitutes the recently released Hope 4 EP, and they’re some of his heaviest tracks yet.

Thematically, Hope 4 is rap from an expressly indigenous perspective. Elsha is multiracial, with roots in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, two places emblematic of the Caribbean’s cultural complexity. Hope 4 is a social and personal examination into the struggle of sorting through one’s history. Considering the Atlantic slave trade highway that ran through the Caribbean, there’s a lot to unpack.

The music, like the subject, is appropriately somber. The lyrics are first-person excavations of history, delivered in rhymes that trudge with the weight of the world. The moody production swirls with brooding drama on lonely hooks of piano, strings and flute.

Hope 4 may not bang, but it’s a well-done and welcome expansion of the hip-hop voice. It’s now streaming everywhere.

Oh, what a time to be an American, amirite? Well, at least Orlando band Milk Carton Superstars put these vexed feelings to some hot guitar licks on their new single “An Abundance of Rubes.” Lyrically, it’s a timely and needed address to much of American society right now. Oh, but if they’d only listen.

Anyway, this garage-rock burner is one of the Superstars’ best looks yet. “An Abundance of Rubes” is the first glimpse of a new MCS album due out in December. Besides the music video on YouTube, the song’s only available on their Bandcamp until the full album is released.

Orlando rapper Elsha’s album Hope 4 is hiphop from an expressly indigenous perspective, a social and personal examination into the native struggle of sorting through one’s history. There’s a lot to unpack

CONCERT PICKS THIS WEEK

If you go out, be safe, be cool.

Sasquatch, Hippie Death Cult, Hollow

Leg, Howling Midnight: There will not be a thicker spread of rock all week than at this show. Between the titanic stoner riffs of L.A.’s Sasquatch and the classic doom metal of Portland’s Hippie Death Cult, the two touring acts are a one-two punch of heavy retro power.

Add in the excellent native tonnage of sludge lords Hollow Leg and blues-rock crushers Howling Midnight and you’ve got one mammoth night. (8 p.m. Friday, July 29, Will’s Pub, $12)

Los Jarritos, Bloody Fucking Slugs,

Baby Adam: After forming last autumn and releasing some raw garage nuggets, Orlando’s Los Jarritos are finally making their live debut. Fronted by the inimitable Ray Brazen, this new duo is the fresh guise of the surviving members of Bobby Clock and the Soda Pops. The bill also features noteworthy new local punk group Baby Adam, which was originally the high-school band featuring current members of TTN that recently reformed 10 years after their breakup and just released an eponymous album on Xylene Records. Rounding out the bill will be Cape Canaveral punks the Bloody Fucking Slugs. (7 p.m. Saturday, July 30, Uncle Lou’s, donations encouraged)

Cave In, Author & Punisher, Royal

Graves: This loaded heavy-music showcase will probably be the week’s most stunning and dynamic live experience. For one, groundbreaking prog-metal legends Cave In are pushing their first studio album in more than a decade (Heavy Pendulum on Relapse Records) and it’s a mighty return. But industrial drone innovator Author & Punisher, himself touring behind his first album in four years, is always a magnificent live spectacle with a one-of-a-kind rig of self-engineered, self-fabricated sound devices that impressively blur the line between man and machine. And Orlando post-metal leviathans Royal Graves always drop massive atmosphere. (6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2, The Abbey, $20)

Brother Dege, Adam Faucett, C.B.

Carlyle & the Desert Angels: This one’s for those who like their roots music deep with intrigue. Alternative Louisiana artist Brother Dege does a hypnotically dark and psychedelic take on blues and folk. Arkansas’ Adam Faucett proudly occupies the left lane of folk rock. And with an amazingly studious sense of patina and cinema, C.B. Carlyle & the Desert Angels are the most evocative young Americana band to emerge from here in a very long time. (8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2, Will’s Pub, $15)

BY BAO LE-HUU

ELSHA | COURTESY PHOTO

baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com