People are going to compare this to Fantastic Planet, but I’m going to offer Frank Zappa’s Baby Snakes as a possible inspiration. (Look it up!)

Directed by Yu Sato of SSSR. Taken from CrownsDown, in stores now.

Themselves, the latest spectacle from Dose One and Jel, travels on in support of their latest album, CrownsDown. Rhymesayers duo Eyedea & Abilities lend support.

• 11/19: Highball, Austin, TX (1)
• 11/20: Hailey’s, Denton, TX (1)
• 11/21: Spanish Moon, Baton Rouge, LA (1)
• 11/22: House Of Blues, New Orleans, LA (1)
• 11/23: 529, Atlanta, GA (1)
• 11/24: Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC (1)
• 11/25: Rock and Roll Hotel, Washington, DC (1)
• 11/27: Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY (1)
• 11/28: Middle East, Cambridge, MA (1)
• 11/29: Jerky’s Live Music Hall, Providence, RI (1)
• 12/01: El Mocambo, Toronto, ON (1)
• 12/02: Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI (1)
• 12/03: Reggie’s, Chicago, IL (1)
• 12/04: Varsity, Minneapolis, MN (1)
• 12/05: Cactus Club, Milwaukee, WI (1)
• 12/11: Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, UT
• 12/12: Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City, UT

(1) w/Eyedea & Abilities

Themselves’ third album, CrownsDown, drops on October 20 via Anticon. While their theFREEhoudini mixtape featured a plethora of guests, the album itself is just Dose One and Jel.

Here’s a bio snippet:

Seven months after the release of theFREEhoudini – the celebrated mixtape that announced Themselves’ return – Doseone and Jel will drop CrownsDown, a careful and vicious exhibition of mastered rap tactics and sampling ethics. Themselves’ third album proper has been gestating in the gut of this seminal group for some time. It’s both a return to form and a honing of what’s come before (Subtle, cLOUDDEAD, Deep Puddle) – both the opus that these lionhearted two were always meant to make, and the album that their hip-hop-obsessed teenaged selves always hoped to hear.

On CrownsDown, Themselves hold back nothing, welding brute skill to a concrete set of tracks that represents an essential ten commandments of rap. In preparation, Doseone and Jel revisited their beloved hip-hop collections (e.g. Gang Starr, Ultramagnetic MCs, Public Enemy, Saafir) and whittled down the recurring themes that made their favorite records so sturdy. Each song on CrownsDown represents one of these archetypes – you’ll find the “don’t bite” song, the diss track, the story rap, the “bootleggers beware” song, and the “don’t fuck with my DJ” jam, among others. In this way, Themselves revisit something classic in order to invent their own future-school entry to the annals.

Here’s the track listing:

• 1. “Back II Burn”
• 2. “Oversleeping”
• 3. “The Mark”
• 4. “Gangster Of Disbelief”
• 5. “Daxstrong”
• 6. “You Ain’t It”
• 7. “Roman Is As Roman Does”
• 8. “Skinning The Drum”
• 9. “Deadcatclear II”
• 10. “Gold Teeth Will Roll”

Themselves, better known as Dose One and Jel, are a core part of the Anticon mythology. First hatched while the two were living in Cincinnati, their self-titled debut (as Them) captures Dose One just as he was transforming from the eccentric battle MC who fought Eminem to a standstill at Scribble Jam to the speed-rapping poet behind the masterwork cLOUDDEAD. Their second album, 2002′s The No Music, found the duo in near-meltdown — dealing with beef between Definitive Jux and intranecine squabbles amidst Anticon crew — and exploring a promising outlet in Subtle, which eventually became a full-time distraction.

Six years later, Subtle is going on an extended hiatus, and Themselves is returning to the fore. The duo announced its comeback in January via a string of funny YouTube videos  (one of them is posted below). They’ll perform a few tastemaker shows, and, more importantly, plan a beef-squashing mixtape next month featuring onetime collaborators (and onetime rivals) Slug and Aesop Rock, as well as Busdriver, Buck 65 and others. Their third album, CrownsDown, is set for an August release.

Last month, Dose One posted this message on Themselves’ MySpace page:

it’s them…it’s them again indeed…

jel and I are back, in the saddle of the music that found us…
putting the teeth back in rap…
we are hard at work finishing whole harddrives full of new music….

let’s just say,
our new works are deadicated two fold…
once to the music we listened to in highschool…
and once to the goodpeople who listened to us in highschool…
putting the hunger back in the hound…

so it’s back….
to the drum and the word….
and the carnal number of rap….
the2

so stay tuned….
keep your ears lit and your heart’s peeled,
cause this here, is the year of theANT…

and we are back to burn….

(March 2 update: Themselves has just extended its itinerary to a full-fledged tour schedule. The new dates are listed below.)

• 2/28: Apple Store, San Francisco, CA (in-store)
• 3/08: Hunter Paid Gallery, Arcata, CA
• 3/14: The Point After, Palm Springs, CA
• 3/15: Beauty Bar, Las Vegas, NV
• 3/18: Red 7, Austin, TX
• 3/18: Mohawk, Austin, TX
• 3/19: Beauty Bar, Austin, TX
• 3/19: Smokin Music, Austin, TX
• 3/20: Side Bar, Austin, TX
• 3/25: Firebird, St. Louis, MO
• 3/26: Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
• 3/27: Pike Room, Pontiac, MI
• 3/28: Sneaky Dee’s, Toronto, ON
• 3/29: Club Lambi, Montreal, QC
• 4/01: Great Scott, Boston, MA
• 4/02: Terrace F Club, Princeton, NJ
• 4/03: Union Pool, Brooklyn, NY
• 4/04: Webster Hall, New York, NY
• 4/06: The Barbary, Philadelphia, PA
• 4/07: DC9, Washington, DC
• 4/08: The Lantern, Blacksburg, VA
• 4/09: 529, Atlanta, GA
• 4/10: Bottletree Cafe, Birmingham, AL
• 4/11: Spanish Moon, Baton Rouge, LA
• 4/14: Mohawk, Austin, TX
• 4/16: Rhythm Room, Phoenix, AZ
• 4/19: Coachella, Indio, CA

2/28: Noise Pop Festival
3/18-3/20: SXSW

Conan & Friends Part II from anticon. on Vimeo.

A recent Pitchforkmedia.com story revealed lots of fun activities surrounding Subtle’s forthcoming album, ExitingArm. Among them include a comic book called The OughtAlmanac of AmassedFact Vol. I (which will soon be posted at ExitingArm.com); a proposed animated series co-created by Dose One for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim; and ongoing YouTube hilarity authored by that same madcap poet.

Obviously, Dose One’s a uniquely creative guy. And he — as well as his band — are awesome in concert. Subtle puts on one of the best shows around, and usually carry a merch table full of limited edition goodies for its fans. So pick up ExitingArm on May 13, and then skedaddle over to the club if the group comes to your town. The tour dates are below.

• 5/07: Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
• 5/09: Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
• 5/10: Nectar Lounge, Seattle, WA
• 5/12: Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City, UT
• 5/13: Bluebird Theatre, Denver, CO
• 5/15: 7th St. Entry, Minneapolis, MN
• 5/16: Annex, Madison, WI
• 5/17: Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
• 5/19: Sneaky Dee’s, Toronto, ON
• 5/20: La Sala Rosa, Montreal, QC
• 5/21: Middle East, Cambridge, MA
• 5/22: Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA
• 5/23: Knitting Factory, New York, NY
• 5/24: Rock and Roll Hotel, Washington, DC
• 5/26: Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta, GA
• 5/27: Spanish Moon, Baton Rouge, LA
• 5/28: Mohawk, Austin, TX
• 5/30: Knitting Factory, Los Angeles, CA

www.subtle6.com
www.myspace.com/subtlesix
www.exitingarm.com