UPDATE: Times Neue Roman

I met Times Neue Roman while working on a piece for R3 on the meaning of “place” Canadian hip hop. You can check that out here.  In the piece, Arowbe, TMR’s lead, was against overtly representing “place” in his music.

Here is the result of a recent TNR jam session with indie TO band Tonka Puma. (Shhhhh! A leaked demo for the interview show and winniecooper.net fans only!)

Times Neue Roman “Toronto”. Hmmm. Irony, anyone?

Promotion is hard for any upstarts. And these guys have created an interesting keepsake to promote the band.

The walkman includes a Times Neue Roman cassette, headphones and batteries. A cassette tape?! Wow. (BTW: The tape has the whole TMR record on it and some bonus tracks, I understand.)

An extinct device from the golden era of hip hop that plays a cassette by a bunch of guys who do video game bleep-bloop hip hop beats.

Awesome.

I think these are sold out but if you are interested, check out the deets here.

the interview show: TNR update!

Local boy makes good! Everyone loves a success story–and here’s another one! Vancouver-to-TO-transplant Arowbe and his crew Times Neue Roman were on your favorite show back in June.

Since then, one of their tracks has been video gamed! So, being the cruel bastard I am,  I thought I would email them some questions for all the guys to answer while they are stuck in the tour van–on their first tour.

the interview show: You guys are on a tour right now. What’s the best and worst thing so far?

Arowbe: The great baggage explosion of the 401 Highway. The straps on the roof racks just ripped and our tent, sleeping bags and yoga mats flew off onto the highway. This was very disagreeable for me. The tentpoles got crushed by the two 18-wheelers behind us. So we stopped and quarreled for a bit and took turns trying to be heroes like we were going to jump in front of the speeding cars to get our stuff back. The best thing about the tour has been the sympathetic and bounteous people who put us up in their homes.

Alexander The:  This devil tour put us in a haze from the start.  We packed everything, I mean from boiled eggs, oranges, guitars, bass amps, undies, a couple of 40s, drums & synths.  Our purple jelly bean we were riding in was fully packed. It seemed like our van took the roof rack off like a jansport back pack with all our sleeping necessities and said “fuck it, u ain’t sleepin’ on this tour”.  The best was definitely getting hooked up with places to crash at each spot.

Arowbe: Another objectionable thing for me was this picnic basket that Alexander purchased at Value Village in Ottawa. He was really pumped about it on some, “Yeah! Babymoms is gonna love this! I’m going to take her for a picnic when I get home.” But Josh’s minivan was harsh chockablock already and the picnic basket was really family-sized. It kept getting in my way all the time.

Alexander The:  I needed to buy the picnic basket so I have a place to put my new A-Life Pony shoes in it.  No one understands. No one.

Arowbe: It’s Beelzebub’s picnic basket.

the interview show: Who has brought the most interesting new find to the tour van playlist?

Arowbe: Always Josh from Styrofoam Ones. His name is J Catalog.   My favourite was this cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’ by Ellen Mcilwane. Another was Bob Dylan and the Band’s ‘Basement Tapes.’ I had never heard these recordings.

Alexander The:  Os Mutantes. Definitely amazing band from Brazil.  It was again another J Catalog selection.  He’s definitely the Most Valuable Sound Selecta off our tour.  He even kept sneakin’ in David Lynch’s Audiobook “Catching the Big Fish”.  Who does that?

the interview show: I’ve heard you called a “post-rap duo”… what does this mean to you?

Arowbe: It means we are gorgeous, haphazard, kinky and jejune. It’s okay for us to leave the house with scuffs on our shoes. We are free.

the interview show: Your brand new 8-bit inspired single, “Roq Roq” was featured on the soon-to-be released EA Sports game “Fight Night: Round 4″ (Xbox 360 and Playstation 3)… Getting placements like this can be a way of legitimizing acts that don’t get a lot of radio or club play, agree or disagree?

Arowbe: In our case, I suppose it kind of legitimizes the song. The production reconstructs the classic videogames, and then it ends up getting featured on a new game. I like the cyclical aspect of that. The hook is a bit of a nod to Afrika Bambaataa of course, who also happened to be featured on the soundtrack to Fight Night.

Alexander The:  Agreed.  It totally brings our childhood days full circle.

the interview show: How did you get in the game?

Arowbe: I have no idea. We are the one unknown band on it. A friend of ours passed it to someone who passed it to someone who picked it for the game. I didn’t even know it was gonna be in the game until I ran into this guy I went to high school with in a steam room. He was working for EA and he confirmed to me that our song made it into Fight Night before it was announced to us or to the public yet.

Alexander The:  It was pretty much a friend of a friend dated a friend now living on the West Coast who knew a friend in EA.  Now we’re friends.

the interview show: What’s it like to play a game and hear your song?

Arowbe: It’s funny. They censored some words like ‘oral’, and even some made-up words like ‘murderate.’

Alexander The:  Who cares about getting it played for clubs when u can get Tyson, Ali and Pacquiao to enter the ring playin’ ur track!

the interview show: What will you guys do with all that video game moolah?

Arowbe: It wasn’t that much. If you found out how much, you would probably kiss your teeth. The money just goes back into the band. We camp on tour.

Alexander The:  Without camping gear.

the interview show: When can we expect new music from Times Neue Roman?

Arowbe: We just released a dub-step remix of “To Die” on 12 inch vinyl.  Our full-length album is coming out as a hand-painted  cassette Walkmans. The walkman comes with our tape inside, batteries and headphones. So you can just listen. That has all of our songs, unreleased ones. It will be available at our shows or maybe if you just email us nicely we could send you one.

Alexander The: Twennyfivebucks.

Arowbe: We have an EP of remixes on the way too.

Times Neue Roman “Roq Roq” Shhhh! Here is the song… take a listen and get their record at their myspace!

the interview show may be on holidays, but the interviews just keep coming! Check back in mid-September for our season premier… METRIC…!

the interview show: times neue roman

It’s official. This interview made history on the interview show.

My chat with Times Neue Roman is my first 3way interview! I was in the studio. Arowbe, the lyrics guy from the group, was at his place in Toronto, while the rest of his crew were waiting to get out of a crowded parking lot after a Raptors game in Chicago.  Pretty effin’ cool.