Our pals at Honestly Clothing based out of LA just sent us a box of some of the their new shirts for us to wear while on our Expansion Plan Tour and they look pretty sick! Good news for everyone else is we’ll actually be given away a few of them while on the road. Show Honestly some love and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

 
Oh and yes, that’s a limited edition physical copy of our album Foundation: Expansion Plan that you see there!
 
We also just got the new Anti-Crew t-shirts, make sure to cop one! Along with our buttons, stickers, and of course everyone’s favorite, the shot glasses. Don’t forget the competition we’ve got going with the buttons to see which band member sells the most, meaning depending on whose button you buy between FlareThaRebel, Cambo, Pat Attack, and Archangel, you’re actually letting us know who you love more…choose wisely.
 

 

In preparation for our first show in South Bend, IN during our tour the good people of the South Bend Tribune took some time to interview Anti-Crew, which was published Sunday, April 22nd. However, please disregard their name misspelling of lead MC, FlareThaRebel. We understand, it’s a very unorthodox stage name. We’re still excited to see our smiling faces in the paper! A big THANK YOU goes out to the South Bend Tribune and we’re excited to perform at Golden Gnome in South Bend on Thursday, April 26th.
 
Click here to read the full interview at their website or just check it out below!
 
Anti-Crew crosses hip-hop, indie genres

 

 
HOWARD DUKES
South Bend Tribune
April 22, 2012
 
The band Anti-Crew describes its sound as hip-hop/alternative.
 
What exactly does that mean? Well, if you guessed that Anti-Crew has a stage show that features rapping, singing and musicians playing instruments kind of like The Roots, you’d almost be there.
 
“Essentially, Anti-Crew is a cross-genre band with a live instrument band (and) hip-hop at its core,” Jeff “FlareDaRebel” Shafer says. “I tell people that if The Roots and Rage Against the Machine had a love child, that would be Anti-Crew.”
 
Fans in South Bend will get their chance to hear Anti-Crew’s genre-bending sound when the band performs at the Golden Gnome on Thursday.
 
Anti-Crew’s sound came together when the band’s members met at Columbia College in Chicago.
 
“Originally, me and (the group’s) DJ (who is no longer with Anti-Crew) moved to Chicago for college,” Shafer says. “They had these battles of the bands and we entered, but we kept on losing because we didn’t have a band.”
 
What the two music students did have was residence in a college dormitory filled with talented musicians looking to play in a band.
 
“My roommate played bass and the DJ’s roommate played guitar,” Shafer says.
 
Those two musicians, bassist Cambridge Darnley and guitarist Patrick Davies, were in-house additions. The band had to go outside to find a drummer.
 
The band’s drummer, Patrick “Arch” McFowler, came to an audition and blew everybody away, Shafer says.
 
The band was ready to compete in the battle of the bands. The audience responded positively, and soon the members began thinking about expanding their sound.
 
“The thing about it was that all of us had really eclectic tastes in music,” Shafer says. “That is why we all love Chicago.”
 
Shafer, for example, was into hip-hop and indie rock music, while the bass player Darnley gravitated to hip-hop and funk.
 
“It’s really a sound that moves across genres and styles in a way that is really appealing to our fans and besides that is really fun to play,” Shafer says.
 
Anti-Crew’s latest project is the album “Foundation: Expansion Plan.” Shafer says that the album started out as a seven-track EP called “Foundation.”
 
The group wrote more songs and changed the name to “Foundation: Expansion Plan.”
 
Shafer can’t give a direct answer if somebody asks how much the record costs.
 
“We decided to make the album ‘name-your-price,’ and you can download it for free if you want to,” he says.
 
Doing that, Shafer says, is a statement of the band’s appreciation for the fans who have supported the group over the years.
 
Anti-Crew is not the first group to set up a payment honor system by allowing fans to download songs for free. Of course, plenty of groups still rail against piracy.
 
Shafer says that Anti-Crew’s decision to allow fans to set their own price for “Foundation: Expansion Plan” is a realization of the changes taking place in the music industry.
 
“People are going to get access to the music, and I am not going to fight them,” he says. “If you want to get to the bottom line, if more people hear our music, then more of them will want to buy Anti-Crew merchandise. And if more people buy our merchandise, then maybe more people will come to see an Anti-Crew show.”
 
Getting fans to see Anti-Crew perform live remains the ultimate goal, Shafer says.
 
Bands that can put on a good live show will develop a following and will make money, he says.
 
“You have to be able to back up your project with the kind of live performance that will blow people away.”

Anti-Crew hits the road again! Our tours are always when we have the most fun and it’s good to kick things off once more with our Expansion Plan Tour. This tour will be divided into two mini-tours, one this Spring and another this Fall. We’ll keep you posted as more dates confirm. Shout out to everyone whose ever let us crash on their bed, couch, floor, or bathtub for the night! We probably wouldn’t be able to afford to tour without occasions like this!
 
3/29 – Normal, IL @ ISU
4/20 – Chicago, IL @ Cubby Bear
4/26 – South Bend, IN @ Golden Gnome
4/27 – Kansas City, MO @ The Beaumont Club
4/28 – Columbia, MO @ Mojo’s
 
Much love to everyone at Illinois State University and the student organization A Trend to Follow! Our tour started early at a quick run down to Normal, IL on March 31st to perform at ISU for a fashion show. Tons of beautiful ladies indeed, thumbs up to fashion show gigs!
 
Check out this video we put together to launch our Expansion Plan Tour!
 

 
MEMORIES FROM THE ROAD
Stalled Van, Creepy Alley, and a Gun?
-Van breaking down in route to Flint, MI to perform at The Loft. The stage is smaller than a twin sized bed and only risen about an inch and a half off the ground, but this place is incredible and it was packed! Flare’s stage dive wasn’t much of a dive, as much as it was people grabbing him off the stage and picking him up in the air. Afterwards, we opted not to crash in a motel or someone’s place because we had to protect all our equipment in the van that was stalled in the alley behind the venue. Flint is a rough city! The owner offered to give us his gun for the night, but we decline and still survived. Flint, MI is one of our favorite spots to play.
 
2012 Comes Early

-Hitting the worst ice storm since the ice age in route to West Lafayette, IN. The road was like a frozen slip in slide and visibility was near to nothing. Unfortunately had to cancel the show and pull over on the road for about an hour until we could actually see something in front of us.
 
Flare VS Bum…for America!

-Flare almost getting into a fight with a bum outside of Mojo’s at Columbia, MO. This guy called Flare a terrorist and got in his face countless amounts of times and shit almost got real. Oh and the bum was offended that a “terrorist” would be wearing an Obama 08 t-shirt. Ethnic ambiguity, both a blessing and a curse!
 
Comfy Bathtub

-After party at a best friend’s house around Mizzou and finding Pat Attack the next morning asleep in the bathtub. He somehow managed to still look incredibly comfortable.
 
Rocking w/ Heiruspecs!

-Performing with Heiruspecs on the road in Rock Island, IL at RIBCO when they released their latest self-titled album.

We’re not going to front, this is one of those dream come true occasions. Anti-Crew has been on three tours, performed at tons of venues (crappy and cool), and opened up for a lot of incredible artists (J. Cole, Chiddy Bang, Nappy Roots etc.) and it’s good to see it lead to this moment. Anti-Crew at House of Blues in Chicago, Thursday Feb. 16th! Doors open at 7:30pm and we go on around 9pm. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported us over the years. Your appearance at this show will mean A LOT to us.
 
Be sure to click here to get your tickets in advance!
 
The last time Flare of Anti-Crew was on stage at House of Blues, it was because he jumped on stage to wil’ out with N.E.R.D. Not the same…
 

 
This show is going to be epic! If you haven’t seen us live in awhile, this is the time to come through. If you’ve been to almost all of our shows, this is not the one to miss. If you’ve never caught an Anti-Crew show, we’ll there’s no time like the present! Our live show is something we put a lot of work into crafting. From crowd interaction, to band chemistry, to all around showmanship, we’ve always understood the energy of the audience always starts with the energy we have on stage.
 
As a little appreciation for everyone who has held us down at our shows over the years to get us to this point, we put together a blast from the past slideshow. Check out these pictures from Anti-Crew’s very first show as a duo back in high school in Kansas City, MO all the way up to our current moments as a full band in Chicago. You may want to listen to “Memory Lane” by Nas while viewing the slideshow – it’s that ill. Get it? Nas? Ill? Illmatic? Did we just ruin that joke by explaining it?
 

 
Thanks again for the love! We’ll see you at House of Blues!

Leading up to our show with Chiddy Bang we made an appearance on DePaul Radio where we received an on-air phone call inquiring about possible beef between Anti-Crew and Chiddy Bang over disagreements on who should have been the headliner for the concert. As tasty as well-seasoned beef is, that couldn’t be further from the truth, but keep the entertaining questions coming!
 
Right before Chiddy Bang hit the stage, we rocked in front of a sold out crowd at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago. The energy was incredible! Right as Flare decided to take a shot on stage with the new Anti-Crew shot glass, we were joined on stage by Rizzo of Fly Phoenix as the guest singer to help us perform “Blur” and “One Time” from our new EXPLN album. As the lyrics in One Time go “…been a minute since we got down”, it had been awhile since we performed that song and it felt good to get it back into our live rotation. Also, big ups to the stage diving Dave Coresh who went on before us. Be sure to check him out, he killed it and we’re hoping to have more shows together in the future.
 
We should have some video footage of this show in the future, but in the meantime click the photos to check out another Live Show Slideshow, this one shot by Joshua M. Smith. Unfortunately, no pics of Cambo and Flare wilin’ out in the crowd and taking photos with Anti fans during Chiddy Bang’s performance, but these stage shots will suffice for now.
 

 

 

 

Our first show of 2012 so let’s make it a big one! Presented by Radio DePaul, Anti-Crew is set to be the main opener for Chiddy Bang on Wednesday, Feb. 1st at Reggie’s Rock Club on 2109 S. State St. in Chicago.
 
Chiddy Bang’s new album, Breakfast, is about to drop with the new single “Ray Charles”, which is pretty fresh. We’re still big fans of the of his track “Opposite of Adults”, where his producer flipped a sample from MGMT’s song “Kids” – and now the name of Chiddy Bang’s song makes a lot more sense.
 
This show is going to be dope! Click HERE to grab your tix in advance.
 
RSVP on Facebook if you haven’t already - Facebook Event Page.
 

J. Cole is to Nas as Drake is to Jay-Z? Someone once said that, not sure if it’s true or not, but Anti-Crew’s got a lot of love for J. Cole’s music and especially his grind. We just hope he continues to put talent before gimmicks.
 
This Sunday, Oct. 9th Anti-Crew will be the featured band for a J. Cole Afterparty in The Foundation Room (329 N. Dearborn), which is the lounge upstairs in the House of Blues in Chicago. Anti-Crew is set to perform immediately following J. Cole’s concert on the main stage. Oh, and possibly the best part, the afterparty is FREE!!
 

Want to know how to tell that Anti-Crew loves you? It’s because we’re putting out free MP3′s of our music for you weekly via Twitter and Facebook!
 
Wayword Blog, the music blog of The Pitch newspaper from Kansas City, MO, takes notice of this and recognizes that Anti-Crew knows that “sharing is caring”. Check out the blog mention and if you haven’t followed us on Twitter or liked us on Facebook already, get on that son!
 

 
Anti-Crew Dishes Up Wayback Wednesdays
By Nick Spacek
 
If you follow local hip-hop act Anti-Crew on either Facebook or Twitter, you’ve hooked yourself up with a local act that knows sharing means caring. They hook you up with what they’re digging on Music Mondays, and they feature a tune from their latest effort, Foundation: Expansion Plan on Thirsty Thursdays. Where it’s really at, however, is Wayback Wednesdays. The Wayback tracks go deep into the Anti-Crew catalog — all the way back to FlareThaRebel and DJ Eternal’s high school days. Hop on over to either of their social media feeds to see what’s popping this week.

Wisconsin based show “Up All Night” features Anti-Crew’s music video “Blur” as Mike Thiel’s song of the week. Be sure to check out the show’s website Fox Cities Hub.
 
Shout out to our Wisconsin people! Hopefully we’ll be able to make it back out there for our next tour.
 

Anti-Crew co-headlined with Mac Lethal this past Saturday (June 25th) in Chicago at Reggie’s Rock Club. Great night filled with an amazing crowd bouncing off the wall with PBR cans and all that goodness! Love you all! It’s been dope intergrating some of our new tracks from our new album EXPLN, such as Back Down and Kurt Cobain, into our live set as well. We’ll see if in the future Mac Lethal will perform “Keep Talkin” with us. Big ups to Robust, Second City Citizens, Moodswangz, and WermOne for also holding it down on stage.
 
Below are a few of photos, but give them a click to view the full slideshow. All pics done by our girl Nicki Butkus. Hope to catch you all at the next show!
 

 

 

 

 

 
“Keep Talkin” Feat. Mac Lethal