On the Eve of Destruction
R.I.A. hopes its new disc gets some hometown respect

It's a late afternoon in early October and the four white rappers in R.I.A. (Real Industry Assassins), a Cleveland-based hip-hop ensemble, have gathered at Ante Up Studios on Cleveland's East Side to put the finishing touches on their forthcoming album, Destruction. It's an anticipated release for several reasons. The guys sold some 3,000 copies of their last disc, The Battleground, and hit the road hard in its wake, touring with rap-rock sensation Tech N9ne and opening for acts such as Paul Wall, Mike Jones and Kottonmouth Kings. "Rise Up Cleveland," their tune about the Cavaliers' playoff run, got some local commercial airplay last year, too, and it placed high in the Famecast Competition that found it battling other unsigned acts in Austin, Texas.

The group had a bigger budget for Destruction, and you can hear the difference as Ante Up engineer Matt Curry adjusts the volume levels on a fantastic tune that features a guest spot by Tech N9ne. The tune has the potential to cross over to rock and urban radio. The guys are particularly excited that Destruction marks the debut of the band's own Detrimental Records that it hopes will be home to other local acts.

"We want this album to spread through all 50 states," Shawn "Lunice" Walker says. "I'm talkin' overseas in Europe and Asia, too. I always say that we just need to be on the right tour."

"If we could do a show in Boise, Idaho, we'd be there," adds Nyland "O.D.S." Coughlin.

The tunes the band plays on the studio sound system include "Why," a metal-meets-rap number with Mushroomhead cameo, the Korn-like "Envy," and "Destiny," a song with distinctive sing-song rapping and a symphonic intro. The lacerating guitars in each tune were played by and then sampled by the band's DJ, Johnny Evil.

"He can play any instrument you put in front of him," Walker says. "Those guitar tracks are laid down on a bad-ass seven-string."

Now rivaling Mushroomhead for hometown popularity, R.I.A., which calls its music "war-core" because "it's all up in your face," as Victor "Skitzo" Ross says, has come a long way in a short time. Ross and Dave "Frantik" Tatarowicz started the group on a whim just under three years ago.

"We used to write songs together and mess around randomly, playing with the karaoke machine for fuckin' fun," says Tatarowicz. "We came up with the name R.I.A. that kinda derived from Elyria."

The duo added Coughlin and Walker and had a trial-by-fire first show playing a pre-event concert at Peabody's in 2005 in advance of Insane Clown Posse's annual Gathering of the Juggalos.

"We packed the place and after we performed, there were like 20 people left to watch the next act," Walker recalls. The group left such an impression that this past summer, Insane Clown Posse's label Psychopathic Records invited it to the Gathering in southern Illinois.

For its CD release, the band plans to wear latex zombie outfits and decorate the stage as a cemetery. That's just the beginning of the theatrical stage show they hope to develop.

"We haven't even gotten to the door handle to open the door to the things we have yet to experience," Walker says. "When we put this album together, a lot of musicians on the scene who were starting to talk bad about us behind our backs started to see what we were building and all of a sudden they want to be all friendly and happy. No, you can't do that. Sorry. We're an independent group that's barely known and we have an underground icon [Tech N9ne] on our album. And we have Mushroomhead who to my knowledge have never done anything with anybody. It's all about showing that hometown love."

R.I.A.
7 p.m. Friday, October 26
Peabody's
2083 E. 21st St.
216.776.9999
Tickets: $6

Drumplay
Who's Listening(self-released)
drumplay.com

Fronted and focused for most of the band's recording history by the late poet Daniel Thompson, Drumplay is reborn here as a jazz band. The disc opens with Thompson's "Hail to the Chief," recorded during the group's performance at the Spirit of 66 club in Belgium in 2003. But that two-minute track feels like a ceremonial kiss, working over George Bush and the wars on terror, Afghanistan and Iraq before the rest of the disc punches, percolates and flows with melody over the rhythm instead of words. Percussion dominates as always, with James Onysko on djembe and other instruments, Warren Levert on congas and ganza, and Phil Kester on the kit. But it's a big step forward for Drumplay to have added J. Scott Franklin on trumpet, Rick Kodramaz on bass, and Al Moses on guitar and guitar synth. Kodramaz uses a bow on the bass, which introduces the newly configured group with a great sliding sound. Franklin can sing on the trumpet, but he has a great skill for blending with the drummers, in that he can play his horn like another piece of percussion. Al Moses adds a bit of frenzy with the guitar. It's no slight to Daniel Thompson to say this is Drumplay's best recording yet. It's no longer a group of percussionists supporting a beloved poet. Thompson's powerful voice returns in the final track, lest we ever forget, but with this disc Drumplay has evolved into a full-fledged jazz band with grooves a-plenty.

- Michael Gill