Saturday, October 15, 2016

It Ain't Art - No Peace

It was while Isaac and Horace were busy mixing one of the tracks - not their favorite audio chore - that Isaac - in an act of passive-aggressive rebellion - took up the producer's laptop and began pilfering his Facebook page.  

He laughed at the Republicans, then the Democrats.  Cooed over a video of a cat lazing in a bucket of water.  Then stopped.  Clicked through on a story.  Then another, and another, and... Horace made sighing noises, meant to draw Isaac back to the task at hand.  It didn't work.  

He had found the story about Keith Lamont Scott, and the resulting furor in Charlotte, North Carolina (among other parts of the US).



The "home" frowns upon social media - and news coverage in general - citing legendary incidents of cafeteria violence that no-one can recall, so the brothers were unfamiliar with the previous police shootings.  The producer, ripping the laptop from Isaac's hands, summarized current public perceptions about police misconduct and "profiling".  

There was a moment of stillness in the room.  Then Horace asked "And people are OK with this?"  

To which the producer, trying to quell the entire topic and get them back to work, replied "I'm a people, and as long as I've got peace, I don't give a s-.  Stay off my bloody laptop.  And get back to work.  Please."

The stillness took another moment.  And then they went back to work.  

The next day - to the producer's fury - a new track was in the session list.  He bellowed at no one in particular, banging his laptop on the desk.  But he eventually indulged his curosity - it was an unheard track, after all.

And when the last waves ended - abruptly, as intended - his anger had vanished.  

Later, when Isaac and Horace came in the studio, the track wasn't mentioned.  Not then, and not ever - To this day, it has yet to be discussed.

Samples are in the public domain.  The primary vocals are extracts from this speech.  




Thursday, October 13, 2016

What It Ain't

We hear there's an election coming up.  And that there was a hurricane.  

For the producer, there are no events.  Unless it is audio, and steadily improving from sucky to acceptable.  

After the burst of energy bringing The Milkshake Boom-inspired "Encouragement Clown Outtakes" to the world, Isaac and Horace simply kept on working.  Noodling, mostly.  When they were around.  

But the producer, liking the business of producing stuff, dug through old audio sessions, looking for "likely candidates".  Sessions from 2014, 2015, and the spring of this year.  Lots of them, hundreds.  Out of that pile, he found 20.  

And when the brothers were next in the studio, he loaded some of the files for their opinion.  Some were scorned.  But some were taken, munged, and mangled beyond recognizition.  And with this approach, the producer ended up with the tracks of a new LP.  

The title is a basterdization (or is it bastardization?) of the Ella Wheeler Wilcox poem "Art and Heart", insisted upon by the producer, who felt it was time to "take off the kid gloves" and "lead more actively" - which means he is now a domineering jerk.  The reference will be explained in a later post - once the producer is in an emotional state that is conducive to anything other than bellowing and scowling.

On a more positive note, we're ecstatic to report that the producer managed to convince the AWESOME Panic Surfer to contribute to one of the tracks ("Don't Hold Back").  We'll have more details on that collaboration later.

Release date is tentatively scheduled for 10/26/16, just in time for Halloween. 

Candy?  We'll see.