STORM DAVIS: Love & Liquid Swords.

A huge thanks to everyone who came out to the sold-out GZA show at Firehouse 13 in Providence last Friday. Save for a few guest shots here and there, it was my first full live performance since September 2010, and despite the rust that I shook off onto the first few rows, you gave me more love than I could have expected or anticipated. Love right back atcha.

If you missed out on the free CDs at the merch table but would like me to sing you to sleep this evening, you can get your free Storm Davis downloads here.

I couldn't have done it without supadeejay Dox Ellis, of course. Or the assists from my mens and them Cas Uno and Romen Rok (who came up to rock "Electric Ukulele" off of Cas' album Sticks Out Like A Sore Thumb). Props to Juan Deuce, Falside, DJ Emoh, Al Bums, DJ Sterbyrock, and anyone else who stepped on stage, and to Ryan Gomersall, for making it happen.

Good looks to the GZA for bringing Masta Killa to the party. It's good for him to get out of the house now and then.

REASON & DIRTY HANK - Providence Phoenix.

Dirty Hank and Reason tap the bottle and hit the mic

Blooze brothers

By CHRIS CONTI | February 21, 2012

STEPPING IT UP Hank and Reason take a breather between rounds.

Local lyricists Dirty Hank and Reason revel in drunken debauchery all over The Monty Brogan EP (Poorly Drawn Recordings), released just last week and currently up for grabs as a free download through multiple sites (check the end of these words for links). Cop it immediately. Tapping bottles (and eventually your girlfriend) remains the topic du jour with Dirty Hank Chinaski (straight outta Glocester, RI!), as previously heard on a handful of acclaimed mixtapes (streaming at dirtyhank.com), and the partnership with longtime PDP affiliate Reason sounds like a natural fit on the EP.

Members of the extended Poorly Drawn People family have been steadily releasing quality gems over the past few years. Producer Dox recently teamed with Labeless Illtelligence wordsmith ESH the Monolith on The Invisible EP (Labeless co-founder CasUno just dropped a new single as well), and multi-talented rhymer and visual artist Reason (check out his canvas works at artbyreason.com) kicked out two noteworthy full-length albums, Landlords & Lullabies and Gemini Slang.

Reason and Hank teamed up on a song titled "Monty Brogan" (named for Ed Norton's character in the film 25th Hour) on Hank's 2009 mixtape The Class Act and on a few tracks on Dirty Hank's 2010 EP, The Guide to Giving Up, which featured production from Mad Plaid and acclaimed beat conductor Falside. Hot off his heaven-sent collaboration with Juan Deuce on The Mechanics EP (hand-picked by Sage Francis for distribution via Strange Famous Records; check out the piece we ran the first week of February), Falside returns for production duties on six of the Monty Brogan tracks.

Falside's brand of 22nd-century street-corner G-Funk provides the perfect backdrop for Reason and Dirty Hank to rip bars about booze, promiscuous chicks, and head-bobbing braggadocio on the leadoff single "Say Disease." "Size Zero" and "Perfect Way to Die" are standouts, and the remix of "Overslept" (originally from Giving Up) is a personal favorite. The opening cringe-worthy sample on "Funeral Fame" fits the billing, and that riff on "Size Zero" coasts seamlessly with Reason's delivery, as does the woofer-shredding closing cut "Local Press." Producer Mad Plaid also comes through again on "Not That Hip" and "To the Moon." Dirty Hank's half-cocked flow embodies Redman, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and the Alkaholiks. On an interesting, related side note, back around 2006 Dirty Hank was the man behind Riot magazine, which focused on local graffiti and interviews with area emcees — and aspiring porn stars. His keen eye for X-rated talent landed a pretty great (yet unpublished) interview with young starlet Sasha Grey, which finally saw the light of day a few months back on theechochamberblog.com.

Rhode Island native Andrew Martin is a lead scribe for go- to indie authority potholesinmyblog.com and keeps Lil Rhody emcees on his radar, saluting Monty Brogan's "nine tracks of boom-bap madness" with this recommendation: "If you like your hip-hop grimy, a lil' strange, and full of booze-fueled wordplay, you're going to love this."

I followed up with Martin, who offered further praise.

"Reason and Dirty Hank really pushed each other to step it up lyrically and conceptually on their new EP. Plus, they're a great balance to what Falside is doing with Juan Deuce right now."

Dirty Hank is midway through completing his next project — tenta-tively titled Anything Helps — with rhyming over strictly '90s-era instrumentals.

"I'm having fun making this project because I get to go nuts over beats that I loved when I was younger," he said.

In the meantime, download a free copy of The Monty Brogan EP right now at all of these sites: dirtyhank.com, montybrogan.bandcamp.com, and poorlydrawnpeople.com.

Read more: http://providence.thephoenix.com/music/134302-dirty-hank-and-reason-tap-the-bottle-and-hit-the-m/#ixzz1nG7bM7gB

REASON & DIRTY HANK - The Monty Brogan EP.

After many, many months of teaser videos and years of drunken recording sessions, Reason and Dirty Hank have unleashed The Monty Brogan EP for FREE. PDP's Falside & Rhode Island homie Mad Plaid do the beatings.

Share it with your friends. And your enemies.

Click here to download the EP for FREE.

Call it anti-recession rap: a couple of artists content with their discontent exploring the depths of their Johnny Walker Red-scented underemployment. It's The Monty Brogan EP, and it's the latest project from Providence-based indie rap stalwarts Reason and Dirty Hank. It also marks the first official collaboration between Reason (best known for his work with Poorly Drawn People and his solo albums, Landlords & Lullabies and Gemini Slang) and Dirty Hank (the man responsible for a run of stellar releases, including The Class Act Mixtape and The Guide To Giving Up EP).

The 9-track release, a free download available through Poorly Drawn Recordings, finds the dubious duo at their raunchiest, musing about breakups, alcohol dependency, and squatters' rights. Production duties are handled by Falside (fresh off his collaboration with Juan Deuce, The Mechanics EP) and Mad Plaid, one of Rhode Island's premier, up-and-coming beatmakers. Songs include lead single "Say Disease," as well as "Not That Hip" and "Perfect Day To Die."

The Monty Brogan EP is available through Bandcamp at the link above . For now, it's a free download. But the safe bet is to grab it quickly, because Congress can only pass so many unemployment-benefit extensions and Brooklyn Lager isn't getting any cheaper.