Backburner, as a teeming mass of individuals, has been poking Bandcamp.com with a stick lately, to see how it may suit our various needs. After maybe slurping down some free music from the likes of Del the Funky Homosapien, D-Sisive and that new group Blueprint & Illogic started, a few of us put have some jams up on there, experimentally. Perhaps you’d like to check them out!

For one thing, the new single “Lost Souls” by The Extremities has been premiered on that site… stream it below or download it for free thanks to our good friends at 5 1/4 Records.

Then also? You know that Jesse Dangerously song from 2006, “Heart Of A Girl?” It never came out on an album, except for being featured as part of a downloadable compilation called Rhyme Torrents V, but it’s great and it’s produced by Toronto’s Savilion and maybe you would like to always have it to listen to? Well, here it is, to stream or download (or both!):

Oh yeah, also – the title has been altered to a backronym, in the manner of Common’s “I Used To Love H.E.R.” Can you guess what a “G.I.R.L.” is? Hint: maybe Jesse D is a Gangster In Real Life?

The other thing we’ve put up on Bandcamp so far is both sides from The Imaginary Friends 2004 7″ single, “The ImF Ride” b/w “Even Exist (As In, ‘We Don’t…’)” As a bonus, the download includes the instrumental for each song! This one’s set up a little differently – you can, of course, stream it for free to your heart’s content, but if you wish to download the tracks individually or as a package, you have the opportunity to set your own price and purchase them through PayPal!

It just seemed like kind of a shame that so many heads without turntables weren’t able to experience these classic avant garde raps by Jesse Dangerously, Thesis Sahib and MC Frank Deluxe, so now let’s toast the sorry demise of the Technics SL-1200 (can it really be true?) by making these exclusive, vinyl only tracks just a little bit less special.

So, dear Backburner.ca regulars, how do you like these apples? Is there anything else you’d like to see or hear from us? What do you think of the Backburner Bandcamp experience?

Hit us up in the comments!

The Verbals came to Backburner from St. John’s, Newfoundland, one by one. First, MC Frank Deluxe crossed the water to study, then Johnny Hardcore followed to make his fortune as a rap star, then Man Alive descended to pillage the mainland, and Lo-Fi… well, he moved out west and married his yoga instructor, so perhaps he had the last laugh on us all.

The Verbals were a force to be reckoned with in Halifax hip-hop. Johnny Hardcore was performing frequently on bills with Backburner posse-mates Jesse Dangerously, Jay Bizzy and occasionally fellow Verbal MC Frank Deluxe in support of his lifetime-in-the-making, self-titled debut album. John used to blow the speakers out at the Khyber Club using only his gravelly voice (you could watch them glow inside when he cupped the mic). He also is the only one in the crew who ever put out an album at all.
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