T.Q.D.

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Not even four months into the year, and we've already got two solid-to-great CDs from introspective local underground MCs whose aliases look like arcade game high-score entries. Not that P.O.S. and T.Q.D. are jostling for supremacy on some King of Kong business; they're similar enough to invite fan-base crossover yet different enough to stake out their own corners of the scene. T.Q.D. stands for "The Quiet Dude," but his new CD, Clench, Grit, Breathe, reveals his as an increasingly misleading name: The record is filled with the kind of suppressed frustration and anxiety that its title hints at, bristling with a snarling tension and lyrical insight that falls halfway between long-simmering, detailed ruminations and stream-of-consciousness abstraction. With its backdrop of brooding, soul-jazz-inflected, golden-age sounds, it's an ideal late-night soundtrack for driving with nowhere to go—though its meditative atmosphere might sound a bit more intense with a room full of other listeners to take it all in. With Trama, Mally, and Halfway. 18+.
Sat., April 4, 9 p.m., 2009