Weak Stomach EP is a collection of shabby pulp scribbles from Zilla Rocca and his taillight chasers The Shadowboxers. For this assignment, his Wrecking Crew gin buddy Curly Castro (Man Bites Dog Records) and Chi-Town drum roller Alex Ludovico joined in-house card shark Blurry Drones for the knockout drops. Small Professor (Coalmine Records) and Has-Lo (Mello Music Group) took time away from fitting cement shoes to lend beats that hit your head like cheap wine.

Compiling legitimate liquor from previous Shadowboxers juke joints and Alex Ludovico's Winning/Losing plus new cuts like a Beatles cover ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer"), a posse cut in honor of Walter White ("We Got Fangs This Year"), an ode to NYC blade runners ("Blood on Blood Converse"), and crippled romance molded around a stark Elliot Smith lineage ("Stay Clean (Has-Lo Remix)"), Weak Stomach EP is a real sharp shooter, a precursor for the forthcoming LP No Vacation For Murder (which features Roc Marciano, The Kid Daytona, Geechi Suede, Open Mike Eagle, and more).

The sonic identity stitching together Zilla Rocca's grizzled imagery is as important a character to the album's story as the revolving collective of misfits that populate the world of No Vacation For Murder. To achieve that identity, Zilla handpicked a revolving cast dubbed The Shadowboxers who flesh out a detailed landscape; because it's a stylized collective, the cohesion is never sacrificed.

The most pervasive plot line throughout the LP is revenge. Being consumed with designs on reprisal, Zilla outlines a slow and costly descent into destructive cycles, fruitless violence, unintended loss, obsession and bleak murder fantasies. Even though the air is thick with tension, the ethos is fiercely rooted at the center. A Hollywood ending is not in the cards. What is in the cards is rum-like clarity at the end of a razor blade highway: personal revelations mean nothing within a city that never ceases to snatch bodies.



The soundtrack to this hardboiled “Noir-Hop” universe is largely handled by Blurry Drones. Responsible for producing the first Shadowboxers album in its entirety, his musical choices are decidedly more sinister, lo-fi, and rock-oriented this go-round. Producer Floodwatch hops into the fray with the impulsive "Hot Head Freddy", and the airy internalized "Stainless Wisdom". ST/MiC tackles the vulnerable long goodbye of "Wishing You Asleep". Fellow Wrecking Crew member and frequent collaborator Has-Lo builds a pipe bomb on "Young Blood". relentless drums, shrieking guitars, and a steely-eyed guest shot from Roc Marciano. Has-Lo pulls double duty rapping on both "Shoot The Piano Player" and "47 Ronin" alongside Curly Castro of Wrecking Crew/Man Bites Dog Records. Other notable guest shots include Open Mike Eagle crooning on "Human Dominos" and Camp Lo's Geechi Suede on the barrel blasting anthem "Chi-Town Drumroll". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.