Kill the Vultures
KILL THE VULTURES vocalist Crescent Moon and producer Anatomy moved from Minneapolis, MN to NYC in Sept., 2001 at the age of 19 with the now disbanded hip-hop group, Oddjobs. They spent the next few years learning the ropes by touring with groups like De La Soul, DJ Shadow, Talib Kweli, Atmosphere, Lyrics Born, Buck 65, Brother Ali, and Zion I, as well as headlining several tours. They also released records and toured as part of the Third Earth hip-hop crew, whose other members were Jean Grae, Mr. Len of Company Flow, Masterminds, Jugganknots, and Sub-Conscious. Other than touring with the aforementioned groups, they performed spot dates around the country with Snoop Dogg, Hieroglyphics, members of Digital Underground, and others.
Between Oddjobs tours, Crescent Moon served as the hype man for the Rhymesayers hip-hop group Atmosphere from 2001-2005.
Following the breakup of Oddjobs In 2005, Crescent Moon and Anatomy moved back to Minneapolis to form Kill the Vultures along with their former Oddjobs cohorts Nomi and Advizer. Their eponymous debut album blended gritty, jazz, industrial and tribal beats with beat poet/rap vocals to create an overall urban-noir sensibility. The album garnered praise from critics (including a Salon.com reviewer who wrote, "the best hip-hop album I've heard this year") and helped them earn a large following in Europe where they have subsequently headlined four successful tours and played shows with Wu Tang Clan, Queens of the Stone age, The Roots, Frank Black and others. One of the songs from the album is also featured in the upcoming Sony Pictures film entitled Red Sands. Their second album continued where the first left off, but with the pared down line-up of Crescent Moon and Anatomy (Advizer and Nomi are still part of the KTV family, although they currently live out of state).
Crescent Moon and Anatomy continue their work with the album Ecce Beast (Ecce is the Latin word for behold, and refers to the biblical phrase “Ecce homo,” meaning behold man). The songs are nocturnal, urban soundscapes with an eye towards the industrial rust-belt cities of the upper mid-west. Crescent Moon’s vocals are predominantly crime narratives, spliced with social commentary. He drops surreal imagery and gritty truths in the same breath. Anatomy’s beats utilize a hard-boiled sample pallet, consisting of drums, upright bass, strings, and horns, filled out with live instrumentation.
