California is the destination of two of the four stops on the current extremely limited North American tour - tagged as Built By Meanred - by The Bug (aka prolific Dubstep and other electronic genres producer Kevin Martin) alongside Daddy Freddy and Miss Red who were up in Montreal performing last night and are playing San Francisco tonight (Thursday March 21st) and Los Angeles tomorrow (Friday March 22nd) before flying cross country to play NYC on Saturday night (March 23rd). The venues are Public Works, San Francisco, Club Los Globos in Los Angeles where Ras-G will join the lineup, and Le Poisson Rouge in New York where Jubilee and Fantasy Thrilla will also perform.

The last minute announced select US dates by the extremely prolific artist, whose discography spans such labels as  Ninja Tune, Virgin, Rephlex, Position Chrome/Mille Plateaux, Word Sound, Hyperdub, City Slang, Tigerbeat 6, and Grand Royal, will likely sell out so don't wait to buy tickets at the door. Buy them in advance for SF here, LA here, and NYC here.  The short tour is a kind of teaser for the forthcoming new EP and new full length from The Bug. The EP, which will be a double 10" release entitled Filthy, will drop on Ninja Tune on May 28 ("Kill Them / Louder" is from that release) while the follow up album - also on Ninja Tune, to be titled  Angels and Devils, will drop later in the year and feature an impressive and diverse guest list including Death Grips, Daddy Freddy, Grouper, Ganja Sufi, Burro Banton, Inga Copeland, and Danny Brown.

1)  RZA Afro Samurai Resurrection:The Soundtrack
     (TVT) 

2)  Madlib Beat Konducta 5 - 6: (Stones Throw)

3)  Kayne West 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-A-Fella
    Records)

4)  Foreign Exchange Leave It All Behind (Hard Boiled)

5)  Q-Tip The Renaissance (Motown/Universal)

Thanks to Inti at the Telegraph Avenue Amoeba Music store in Berkeley for the latest Hip-Hop Top Five, a weekly chart of best selling hip-hop full-length CDs. RZA, who recently rocked it in San Francisco at Mezzanine, where he headlined last Sunday night, scores the number one chart position with his wonderful Afro-Samurai Resurrection: The Soundtrack on TVT for the ultra-violent Spike TV animated show. This latest release from the prolific WU warrior, who nowadays lives in LA, is also selling well at the other two Amoeba stores. Meanwhile, another SoCal resident, the even more prolific, endlessly talented and highly influential producer Madlib, who considers himself a "DJ first, producer second, and MC last," continues to dominate the Amoeba top 5 (and near every other hip-hop chart) -- this time with his latest installment in the Beat Konducta series on Stones Throw Records.

                                        Ameoba Music Berkeley  Hip-Hop Top Five  09:19:08

1)  Michael Franti & Spearhead All Rebel Rockers   
     (Amer-I Can/Unity One/Anti)

2)  Diplo Top Ranking Santogold (Mad Decent)

3)  The Game LAX (Geffen/Interscope)

4) Young Jeezy The Recession (Def Jam)

5)  eLZhi The Preface (Fat Beats)

The number one selling album at the Berkeley store this week is from the Bay Area's very own veteran political musician Michael Franti and his group Spearhead. Recorded in Kingston, Jamaica and produced by Sly and Robbie, this brand new full length titled All Rebel Rockers is the anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed Yell Fire!, released two years ago on Anti. This new album may not possess that same sense of urgency as its predecessor and hence, takes a little longer to get into, but All Rebel Rockers is still a very good album. (Yell Fire! is a hard one to top because it was so powerful a release.) Naturally, with Sly & Robbie at the controls, it has more of a reggae feel than the other genres it incorporates (mainly hip-hop and soul).