This is an acoustic hip hop collaboration between me and singer/songwriter Claire Taubenhaus. It's political, it's folky and it's very pretty. Listen and/or buy at this link.
At its core, this is a mixtape about the importance of organizing. It's funny, serious, angry and hopeful. It's also FREE. Download it here.
Guante & Big Cats!: Don't Be Nice mixtape (2010)
This is our follow-up to "An Unwelcome Guest," and is a FREE DOWNLOAD. A few older tracks, a few brand new songs, a few live tracks-- all in all, it's a great introduction to what we do. Less serious than the full-length, but I think it's some of our best work. Big Cats! did all the beats.
Guante & Big Cats!: An Unwelcome Guest (2010)This is the big one, a fifteen-track concept album dealing with radical politics, zombies, a love story, superhero mythology and much more. Highlights include "The National Anthem" w/ Haley Bonar, "Welcome to the Border" w/ Chastity Brown, "Dragons" and "No Capes." You can get the album at Strange Famous Records, on ITunes, or through the Guante & Big Cats Bandcamp page. It's also at Fifth Element, Electric Fetus and Cheapo in Minneapolis, and various stores throughout the country.
Guante & Big Cats: Start a Fire (2009)This is an EP we released as a prelude to An Unwelcome Guest; we gave out a BUNCH of these for free after performing at Soundset 2009. It includes most of the songs we played live before the new album was done, including the tattoo-lovers' anthem "Old English Letters," token hip hoppy song "1 10 20 200" and an early version of "Dragons." My favorite track is definitely "The Hero," though, which might be one of the best songs I've written. You can get this at the Guante & Big Cats! Bandcamp page or on ITunes.
Guante & See More Perspective: Return to El Guante's Haunted Studio Apartment (2009)This is a cool little side-project; my labelmate See More Perspective produced the entire thing, remixing and re-imagining tracks off my last album, plus adding a few new ones. It's got a Halloween vibe, and I think it's some of our best work as a duo. "Ectoplasm" turned out great, as did remixes to "Spirit Bomb," "Bring Out Your Dead," and "The Fourth Wall." See More's solo tracks, like "Land Lord" and "Dia de Los Muertos" are all great too. You can get it at the Wake the City Bandcamp page. There's also a link there for the instrumentals.
Guante: El Guante's Haunted Studio Apartment (2008)This was my debut record on Tru Ruts. It took a very long time to get it done, so I packed the whole CD full of songs. In retrospect, it's definitely my earlier work and there's definitely some stuff I could have cut (especially in the spoken-word section), but there are also a few gems. People really liked "One of These Mornings" and it got a lot of play on the Current here in the TC, and other tracks like "Orwell Oh Well," "The Illusion of Movement," "The Fourth Wall" and "Flicker" are pretty solid. Most of the album was produced by DJ Pain 1 and G-Force, though Tracksmith from the Figureheads did a few songs and See More Perspective did the interludes. The album is kind of a mess, but it got overwhelmingly positive reviews and people seem to like it. You can buy it at the Guante Bandcamp page, on ITunes, or through CDBaby. It should also be in TC record stores.
