Pitchfork

Rob Mackey reports: Gearheads and DJ-lovin' electronic enthusiasts laud Josh Davis' early work as musical foreshadowing-- his 1996 debut Endtroducing, in particular, is regularly cited as the catalyst for all the instro-hop experimentalism of the past decade. But, I'm no gearhead; nor am I one to hurl around bulky hindsight appraisals of near-decade old albums. However, I do hurl some news stories like a mofo, and my man Josh is 'bout to drop some serious shit on ya head, so here goes:

DJ Shadow has begun hocking live recordings of his short-lived collaboration with Cut Chemist, bits of which were cobbled together for the now out-of-print 2001 release Product Placement. Titled Product Placement on Tour, the disc features material recorded in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, England and Japan. Interestingly enough, an identical version of the disc is being packaged with a DVD version of the set, which includes live footage of the collaboration, as well as director's cut commentary, replete with witty repartee between Shadow and Chemist. (Of course, the DVD costs $10 more.) Both the CD and DVD are available for purchase at Shadow's official website.

Additionally, Shadow will be releasing a different CD/DVD combo via Geffen Records on June 15th, titled In Tune and On Time. The disc is a visual and audio tale of this one night back in 2002, when Davis took to the stage at London's Brixton Academy. 20 tracks found their way onto the CD portion, while four managed to find a home on the DVD, which also includes live footage, interviews with Davis, and a knock-down, drag-out gadget battle between Shadow, his Product Placement ally Chemist, and DJ Nu-Mark of Jurrasic 5. Fight, fight, fight.