Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Buck 65: Centaur?

Richard Terfry is a Canadian hip-hop artist who has performed under half a dozen names over the past 20 years, but he’s best known as Buck 65. His earlier work was the kind of thing the term “alternative hip-hop” was invented to describe: bare-bones rhythms embellished with Terfry’s turntable scratching, samples of TV dialogue, and other, less identifiable sounds, all topped with his gruff voice rapping about nonstandard hip-hop subjects such as Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In recent years, Buck 65 has been exploring a new, underexplored area: the intersection between hip-hop and country.

It’s a richer vein of inspiration than you might think. Sometimes Terfry sounds as if he’s just putting a drum loop on a ’70s-style trucking song (think C.W. McCall’s “Convoy”). But he takes the idea wherever it leads him. In “Paper Airplane,” he alternates between his pissed-off vocals and the gorgeous voice of guest Jenn Grant singing a country-folk melody, resulting in what sounds like a clumsy mash-up. But when this stuff really works, it sounds like nothing else.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Take “Centaur,” in which Terfry speaks from the point of view of a guy who walks around without a shirt on and is “built like a horse from the waist down” but gets offended when people are only interested in him as a sex object. It may seem at first that Terfry is just engaging in some braggadocio and metaphor, but keep listening. No, he’s really talking about a centaur. The music itself is a mix of country guitar, hip-hop beats, and a harmonium-like drone. It’s probably just the kind of music a centaur would like.

Kristoff Krane and the Illuminauts also perform.

BUCK 65: The Casbah, Tuesday, February 21, 8:30 p.m. 619-232-4355. $15 advance; $17 day of show.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Houston ex-mayor donates to Toni Atkins governor fund

LGBT fights in common

Richard Terfry is a Canadian hip-hop artist who has performed under half a dozen names over the past 20 years, but he’s best known as Buck 65. His earlier work was the kind of thing the term “alternative hip-hop” was invented to describe: bare-bones rhythms embellished with Terfry’s turntable scratching, samples of TV dialogue, and other, less identifiable sounds, all topped with his gruff voice rapping about nonstandard hip-hop subjects such as Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In recent years, Buck 65 has been exploring a new, underexplored area: the intersection between hip-hop and country.

It’s a richer vein of inspiration than you might think. Sometimes Terfry sounds as if he’s just putting a drum loop on a ’70s-style trucking song (think C.W. McCall’s “Convoy”). But he takes the idea wherever it leads him. In “Paper Airplane,” he alternates between his pissed-off vocals and the gorgeous voice of guest Jenn Grant singing a country-folk melody, resulting in what sounds like a clumsy mash-up. But when this stuff really works, it sounds like nothing else.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Take “Centaur,” in which Terfry speaks from the point of view of a guy who walks around without a shirt on and is “built like a horse from the waist down” but gets offended when people are only interested in him as a sex object. It may seem at first that Terfry is just engaging in some braggadocio and metaphor, but keep listening. No, he’s really talking about a centaur. The music itself is a mix of country guitar, hip-hop beats, and a harmonium-like drone. It’s probably just the kind of music a centaur would like.

Kristoff Krane and the Illuminauts also perform.

BUCK 65: The Casbah, Tuesday, February 21, 8:30 p.m. 619-232-4355. $15 advance; $17 day of show.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Hockey Dad brings UCSD vets and Australians to the Quartyard

Bending the stage barriers in East Village
Next Article

Houston ex-mayor donates to Toni Atkins governor fund

LGBT fights in common
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader