It's A Riot! Dark Matter Coffee 2023 RIOT Fest Collaborations

. . . . 
Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton: Funk Uncut and Doobie in Your Funk

ALL THAT IS GOOD IS NASTY!

Your interplanetary dealers of funky coffee are here to announce the mothership of all collaborations has landed! In honor of THEE Star Child, George Clinton, we dropped TWO collaborative Coffee Cold Cans: Funk Uncut: a loud, jucy, all frills AND funk, straight coffee! And Doobie in Your Funk: a strawberry-cough terpene-bombed-out version of Funk Uncut with notes of berry, and grape.

As a celebration of both their performance at RIOT Fest and to commemmorate their farewell tour, we're also hosting an exclusive Parliament Funkadelic ft. George Clinton merch popup here at the Mothership--while supplies last! 

Big shoutout to Oscar Joyo for creating the beautiful artwork on these cans!

Merch only at The Mothership and Coffee Cold cans available at all of our stores!

COFFEE NOTES: 

For this blend, we definitely needed to bring the funk so for the base of this blend we used a juicy, funky natural processed Pacamara from El Rosario in El Salvador. Pacamaras are known for having some herbaceous, tea-like notes that work well with the natural processing method for this coffee to create a complex, unique cup profile. 

Country: El Salvador
Farm: El Rosario
Cultivar: Pacamara
Process: Natural
Country: El Salvador
Farm: Las Marias
Cultivar: Pacas
Process: Natural
  • Funk Uncut  Notes: Papaya, Oolong Tea, Demerara Sugar
  • Doobie in Your Funk Notes: berry, and grape, a noticeably different flavor profile!
*Terpenes are organic compounds produced in plants, flowers, and botanicals that are extremely aromatic. There are several companies that work to create terpene blends that mimic the flavors found in specific strains of cannabis such as the Grape Ape used in our coffee cold version of Chronikkah. This coffee cold does not contain alcohol, CBD or THC.*, with terpenes. Don't worry, it's just coffee...we don't want our funk stepped on! 

. . . . 
The Black Angels: Limited Coffee Cold

HEAD FOR THE HILLS, PICK UP CANS ON THE WAY

To celebrate their Chicago performances at Chop Shop, RIOT Fest, AND special solo acoustic performances at Star Lounge, we teamed up once again with the modern psychedelic masters, The Black Angels, from Austin, Texas for a new Coffee Cold can! We used double-honey processed coffees from the Pacas Family for our fuzz-toned darlings. 

Artwork: in-house designer, Jourdon Gullett

COFFEE NOTES: 

The base of this blend is a honey-processed Pacas from Vista Hermosa, producing an elegant, bright cup. We layered the blend like a good reverb, with a honey-processed Bourbon and Pacas blend of beans that comes from the Santa Ana region. This bean has loads of body, with a sweet, caramel-like profile. Together these beans make an approachable iced coffee that is delicious on its own and also pairs well with cream and sugar.

Country: El Salvador
Farm: Vista Hermosa
Cultivar: Pacas
Process: Honey
Country: El Salvador
Mill: Cafe Tuxpal
Cultivar: Bourbon & Pacas
Process: Honey
Notes: Toffee, Earl Grey, Cocoa

Black Angels at Star Lounge
Jake GarciaChristian BlandAlex Maas, and Ramiro Verdooren
*Photos by Andrew Bridgewater and Sundown Hodges

Museum of Post Punk and Industrial Music

 

The outer bag of the collector's edition of this acid-free Museum coffee is screen printed onto sandpaper. What an amazing – abrasive idea! Except it has already been done: The Durutti Column's 1980 release on Factory Records – had sandpaper glued onto the outer cover (it is said by members of Joy Division while Ian Curtis watched porn) The idea was that it would slowly destroy the release to the left and the release to the right. An AMAZING unbelievably original idea! Except that it was itself  "inspired" by Situationist: Guy Debord whose book ‘Mémoires’ was released in 1959 – in a sandpaper cover. 

And there you are, we've stumbled into the most important weapon of all: education, and that's what the museum is all about. Well, that and inspiring people to do stuff and fucking up the basic idea of a museum. 
Ironic, then that, in the act of questioning everything (punk and post-punk) and finding new ways to do things (industrial) from making noise to instruments and communities and tribes and slightly destroying the idea of a museum – I think we have created the beginnings of a very useful one. Perhaps in the same way that Dark Matter Coffee has questioned the machinery of a coffee company, built a new one across continents, and inspired us, giving us a reason to be better to all involved in the process as we drink more coffee and build the next glorious thing together. 


 

Our collaboration with our pal Martin Atkins and the Museum of Post Punk & Industrial Music is a testament to the legacy, tenacity, and sheer fucking audacity of innovators and contrarians everywhere - and especially at the points where their paths inevitably cross. Propped up near 35th and Halsted in Bridgeport, the PPIM chronicles the legacy of industrial music and Martin's time on the road with bands like Public Image Ltd, Pigface, and Nine Inch Nails. Read more about the museum and our friend Martin here, via NPR
January 27, 2023 — Jake Kryshak
It's A Riot! Dark Matter Coffee 2022 Riot Fest Collaborations

It's A Riot! Dark Matter Coffee 2022 Riot Fest Collaborations

TAKING BACK SUNDAY X DARK MATTER COFFEE

 

COFFEE WITHOUT THE 'E'

Our first collaboration can for Riot Fest is with Long Island's own Taking Back Sunday. Most famous for their incredible run of records Tell All Your Friends (which is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year), Where You Want To Be, and Louder Now, these guys helped to forge and define the 2000's rock scene. With a number of hits under their belt and 20+ years as a band, you'd think any band would be satisfied with resting on their laurels, but Taking Back Sunday continues to crank out high-quality rock as recently as 2016's Tidal Wave.

The Blend

The blend contains two different Guatemalan beans from our friends at Finca San Jeronimo. A washed Sarchimor makes up the base of this blend with a honey processed Catuai being a bright accent coffee. Together they create a nutty, sweet coffee cold with notes of baking spice. 

 

 

THE WONDER YEARS X DARK MATTER COFFEE

THE BUZZ GOES ON FOREVER

Our collaboration with The Wonder Years shares artwork with their September 2022 album, The Hum Goes On Forever on Hopeless Records. The Hum Goes on Forever is filled with emotional punk fused with pop sensibility, with the a more mature sad-yet-hopeful lyricism than their previous work.

The Coffee

The artwork reminds us of the beautiful beaches and sunsets of El Salvador, inspiring the coffee used for this collaboration. For this coffee cold, there is just one coffee inside, a honey processed Bourbon from Santa Petrona in El Salvador. Federico's attention to detail with processing is showcased in this juicy, complex Bourbon that is shade dried on raised beds to maximize the fermentation of all the sticky, sweet mucilage on the pulped coffee.
September 23, 2022 — Jake Kryshak
The Black Angels x Dark Matter Coffee - A Wilderness of Mirrors

The Black Angels x Dark Matter Coffee - A Wilderness of Mirrors

BLACK ANGELS X DARK MATTER COFFEE

Dark Matter Coffee is proud to announce our collaboration with The Black Angels, and our own limited vinyl variant of their new album, Wilderness of Mirrors

THEIR SIXTH ALBUM AND FIRST IN FIVE YEARS, 

Wilderness of Mirrors is The Black Angel's most adventurous and impressive album yet. While their signature fuzzed-out and delirium-inducing brand of psychedelic rock remains intact, Wilderness of Mirrors also sees the band expanding their sonic vision beyond the furthest horizons with the addition of acoustic guitar-driven dirges, string arrangements, keyboards, and PLENTY of Mellotron.  Stuffed to the gills with rich texture and defiant, heavy riffs, Wilderness of Mirrors reflects the tumult, struggle, and chaos of the last five years and weaves them into 15 tracks that force the listener to recognize their place in the new age of wilderness, gnawing at the edges of society and begging a return to primordial instinct. This is a record you can't afford to miss.

FOR THE COFFEE, 

We combined washed Bourbon and Pacas from El Salvador to lay down a sweet-chocolate and nutty foundation, with Yellow Icatu rounding out the mix and adding a playful, mysterious earthy quality reminiscent of freshly-steeped black tea. Much like the record it's paired with, this blend is built on elements familiar to the DMC oeuvre, but with plenty of depth to find delights not experienced before. 

 

 

September 23, 2022 — Jake Kryshak

Dark Matter Coffee Collaborates with Ty Segall

The Collaboration

Ty Segall

Out in Topanga, way down in the canyon,
They've got their own way of getting high. It's called music,
And at Ty Segall's Harmonizer Studios, it's happening day-in and day-out.

 

It's been a year and a half since the doors blew open, and all sorts of records have been cut and some released since then - but now, with the studio's tender maiden recordings, a sun-baked collection of acoustically-rooted gems called "Hello, Hi" seeing the first light of day, it's a special, celebratory moment - resetting the reset, adjusting the lens of the present with some catalytic materials of recent vintage. In other words, it's time to cop a blend! Because, as Ty himself told Uncut about making the record, "It just felt right to pick up the acoustic again, drink some coffee, and just get there." And therein lies the other half of the high - music plus coffee, playing in your mind. Nothing unnatural there, right?

And so Ty, in partnership with the highly-aligned palates in the Dark Matter Coffee Laboratory, is proud to put his brand on this blend of Central American coffees, each one roasted and or toasted to provide an essential coffee drinking experience - balancing chocolate and citrus with sunlight, glinting off the sand and the saltwater pools. 

 

About Ty Segall

Where do we even start with this guy? Ty has been releasing music since 2008 both as a solo musician and in a plethora of bands and has firmly cemented himself at the forefront of the current garage music boom. With over a dozen albums under his own name, 3 more as a part of Fuzz, a couple of Levitation live sessions as the Ty Segall Band, and a couple of collaboration records with White Denim, the sheer body of work he's managed to release is impressively staggering. And if you think that's intimidating, know it's only a fraction of what he's put out. Do yourself a favor and check out a few tracks from across his career below, just prepare to have your face melted beyond repair.

About the Blend

Ty Segall Bag
We wanted to create an easy-drinking coffee, to reflect on the take-it-easy approach Ty applies to his music. So, we got to work, blending together two Guatemalan coffee beans with sweet, fudgy profiles. First to hit the blend was a washed Catuai (a cross between highly productive Mundo Novo and compact Caturra), making up the base. Next up is a washed processed Sarchimor (otherwise known as T5296), bringing in brighter, citrusy notes, perfect for that front-porch jam session. Both coffees from this blend (Sarchimor variety and Catuai variety) have gone through washed processing, a wet process where outer skin and mucilage are removed from the coffee seed, and then patio dried.

Coffee 1
Country: Guatemala
Farm: San Jeronimo Miramar
Cultivar: Catuai
Process: Washed
Coffee 2
Country: Guatemala
Farm: San Jeronimo Miramar
Cultivar: Sarchimor
Process: Washed
Notes: Tangerine, Milk Chocolate, Pecan Pie
Net Weight: 12oz
August 11, 2022 — Jake Kryshak

Electrified Brain with Municipal Waste!!!


You've never smelled nothing like this
Forever it will eat you alive
You've never seen nothing like this
Forever from graves you will dive...
"Taste The Waste"


Lighting arcs from an Electrified Brain. Screaming, bloody, reanimated anger incarnate reaches for caffeination to fuel a quest for Vengeance. Armed with thrashing guitar and coffee black as night, render flesh from bone and slay the slayer. Toasted Nuts, Black Tea, and Caramel a backdrop of aroma for the ripper's doom. Drink Deep, Taste the Waste, Go for the Throat. GO FOR THE THROAT!!!


Municipal Waste has been inciting riots since 2000 with its signature brand of hardcorepunkmetal. Listening to Municipal Waste will result in bloody ears, blown speakers, pissed-off parents, black eyes, and a healthy distrust of authority.

Similarly, Dark Matter Coffee has been agitating the coffee industry at large since 2007 with its signature brand of contrarianaudaciousabsurdity. Drinking Dark Matter Coffee will result in steamed faces, skinned knees, quantum disentanglement, confrontational attitude towards the mainstream, and further infatuation with Municipal Waste. Enjoy both with unreserved joy and fury.
 
July 14, 2022 — Jake Kryshak

Queen! Coffee Cold!

Sunday night: The fit. The make-up. You're looking fierce and those chicken cutlets in your dress are serving eye-popping décolletage. But girl you're all dressed up with nowhere to go! Where can someone see and be seen by the upper echelons of fabulosity like yourself? Baby, you need to sashay that ass to Smart Bar's weekly Sunday service drag party, Queen! Tonight DMC and the Queen! resident party people will save your life.

Smart Bar, for the uninitiated, is the nightclub located under Metro and one of the United States' most important nightclubs featuring cutting-edge DJs from around the world. For the last 10 years, Queen! has been hosted by legendary drag queens Lucy Stoole, Jojo Baby, and Nico serving the looks with music selections by resident DJs Derrick Carter, Michael Serafini, and Garrett David. Consider it your weekly gospel to underground House and Disco.

For the coffee, we wanted to create a juicy, rich coffee cold, strong enough to keep you moving through the 4am crowd. Using a natural processed Pacas from Las Marias as the base with its red fruit notes, we paired this with a honey processed Sarchimor from Finca San Jeronimo Miramar to bring in the sweetness of brown sugar.

Together these create a balanced, smooth coffee cold and phantom disco balls clouding your vision.

Coffee 1
Country: El Salvador
Farm: Las Marias
Cultivar: Pacas
Process: Natural
Coffee 2
Country: Guatemala
Farm: San Jeronimo Miramar
Cultivar: Sarchimor
Process: Honey
Notes: Pomegranate, Milk Duds, Tangerine

Another Side with Leo Nocentelli

'At just fourteen, LEO NOCENTELLI was backing up Otis Redding. Soon after, he was playing on hits for Lee Dorsey, The Supremes, and The Temptations...

As a young man and original member of legendary funk group The Meters, Leo wrote the Grammy inducted classic "CISSY STRUT” and the Mardi Gras anthem "FIRE ON THE BAYOU,” but his greatest moment on record has gone totally unheard -- shelved and believed to be lost to the ages by all involved, including the artist himself. Until now.


Another Side, the album that inspired this collaboration, is a previously unreleased studio album recorded in New Orleans from 1970-72 and features Allen Toussaint, James Black and both George Porter Jr. & Zigaboo Modeliste of The Meters. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the archive where the album was stored and all seemed lost forever.
Over a decade later, collector Mike Nishita stumbles across the master tapes from the session at a Southern California swap meet, unearthing a hidden gem waiting to be discovered, and the rest is history...

 

 

For the blend, we've decided to pair two sides of a washed Guatemalan coffee (get it?), roasting one side to our typical light roast parameters and for the other side a bit heavier, caramelizing more of the sugars present in the bean. This darker component also matches the roastiness of the chicory, to further enhance that profile when brewing the two together. 

 

 

As an homage to his hometown of New Orleans and their coffee traditions, we have built this blend to pair well with roasted chicory root, a first for us. During times of economic crisis and coffee shortages, chicory root was roasted and blended with coffee to stretch the supply and has since become a staple in the coffee culture in Nola. 

This blend is a combination of two roast profiles on the following coffee:

Country: Guatemala
Farm: San Jeronimo Miramar
Cultivar: Sarchimor
Process: Washed
Notes: Cocoa, Toasted Almonds, Dried Fig

Situation Chicago Volume II

Initially put together to support venues during the height of the pandemic, the first Situation Chicago LP successfully raised 35k for more than 25 stages. We're back for round two, and this time around, proceeds from the follow-up record go to the CIVL SAVE Emergency Relief Fund, powered by The Giving Back Fund, giving need-based grants to furloughed staff, local artists, and venues via need-based grants in the Chicagoland area. Volume 2 features tracks from Jeff Parker, Umphrey's McGee, and Fess Grandiose.

For this coffee cold can, we chose to highlight a fun, fruity coffee from El Salvador that went through a unique fermentation process. The Pacamara cultivar is a cross between Pacas and Maragogype, a spontaneous mutation of Typica with especially large cherries. Immediately after the cherries were picked, they were collected in an enclosed vessel using carbon dioxide to purge out any oxygen remaining. The intact cherries were left to ferment in this closed system, allowing the natural microbes and yeasts present to ferment the mucilage on the bean without introducing any outside factors. After a few days, the cherries were removed and dried in their skins on raised beds, further developing the acidity and complexity of the coffee.


Country: El Salvador
Farm: Santa Petrona
Cultivar: Pacamara
Process: Carbonic Maceration
Notes: Mulled Wine, Tangerine, Dried Cranberries
Wanna cop the record? You can either grab it from Quiet Pterodactyl's Bandcamp or swing through our Bodega record shop to snatch it up alongside a copy of the first compilation too!
March 16, 2022 — Jake Kryshak

Soul Summit (Limited Blend)

Soul Summit 

 

Chicago has a long and storied history with Soul music - it's part of what makes this city's heart beat. Soulis also the communicational connection that helps everyday people with whatever ails them.  

With the reemergence of Soul music increasingly gaining more awareness within popular music, there are those individuals who dedicate their music journey to dusting off old records, highlighting current bands and blending them all together to create something exciting and fresh. Soul Summit are one such group that host a monthly Soul dance party at the acclaimed Double Door in Chicago. Each month Dave Mata, Duke Grip & Sloppy White bring in a who's who of DJs, bands and music producers to their party, making it one helluva night to get all hot & sweaty on the dance floor. 
 


Being big fans of both the music and the event, DMC & Soul Summit teamed up to bring the Soul Summit blend and mixtape CDs. This blend is no jive friends, just straight to the point with it's black gold brew - using two of our washed coffees from El Salvador, El Condor and San Eduardo. El Condor is a tasty, straight-forward coffee, while the Eduardo washed has classic Salvadoran flavors. Notes of melon, cocoa and lemon make this a dance floor filler that will put the soul back in your day with every sip. 

There are 3 mix cds, one from each Soul Summit resident: Dave Mata, Duke Grip & Sloppy White, that will be given out for FREE, while supplies last, with each bag purchased. We will also be giving out a batch of these heaters at Soul Summit on Saturday, June 21st at the Double Door. Along with the three resident DJs, Soul Suffers, from Russia, will be the featured band  and admission is also FREE !! What could be better than sweatin' to some classic Soul music on a Saturday night? 

To grab a bag of this classic brew just click here. To hear a mini mix of all three mixtapes combined, hop on over to our mixcloud