Father Abraham Rap Rap Electro Rap Rap

from http://imgur.com/a/QVYag#0

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:02:16 -0500

An awesome band that I know is playing this show on Saturday...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:21:38 -0500

An awesome band that I know is playing this show on Saturday night. w00t.

Links in Sidebar Down

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:54:32 -0400

Tumblr interface changes killed all of my sidebar links. Will fix soon. Until then, you’re on your own, surfing-wise. Enjoy!

Perfect.

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:49:52 -0400

Perfect.

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:44:34 -0400

“Baby, you’re showing your ass to everyone in the coffee shop.” [wheezing laugh]

Out of Bounds

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:01:00 -0400

Examples of things you should say during a cell phone conversation at a semi-crowded coffee house:

- “I’m at a semi-crowded coffee house. Let me step outside and call you back.”

Examples of things you should not say during a cell phone conversation at a semi-crowded coffee house*:

* All real

- “I won at poker last night, baby. Baby. I won at poker last night… at poker… last night… at the casino. Poker. Poker. I was playing poker at the casino and I won.”

- “What we need is one of those portable iPods.”

- “Maybe we should keep the garlic in a different place. Because it’s messy. It’s messy. Maybe by the refrigerator. Because it’s so messy.”

- “Everyone here is riding scooters”*

*Total lie

- “How much did the chopsticks cost? How much? I’m not going to let you spend money anymore.”

Excited About Rap Vocals: A Text Message Essay

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:33:10 -0400

Was working out some vocals for an EP that The Zen Lunatic and I are handing in to mastering on September 21. The band’s name will be Sex Party. “db plus bounce” is a working name for a song I was working on last night:

Blake’s only response:

Let's Make This Official

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:42:39 -0400

So let’s call an end to Abraham Trying to Engage in Social Media 9.0.

It has been a long year here in New Orleans. For those of you back home, the news of professional opportunity, creative space, abundant social life, impending studio builds, sex parties, baby dances, and the like has been absolutely true. However, the assertion, real or implied, that I am doing fine and adjusting well or am otherwise oriented positively has been sort of a huge lie.

I am finally starting to take stock of my life - something I don’t think I have done since I left college - and I have come upon more than a few pretty insane contradictions that I think have contributed to my sorry state. Chief among them was my intense desire to be recognized for music that was (a) often intentionally off-putting and (b) more often very poorly marketed and promoted by me. It is (b) that finally tipped me off. To put it simply, I just don’t want to put that work in. So I need to stop waiting for the big payoff. If I want to do half the work it takes to get to Point A, I had better starting thinking about how I’m going to be happy at Point A/2.*

*or on the journey to Point A/2. See? Getting somewhere.

I have taken some valiant stabs (by my stab-barometer) at engaging in social media, getting my name out there, and the like, but I can’t really get over the fact that the Internet is not real. It’s not. It’s a medium, and it controls how we think and act and how we execute our relationships with other people. It’s not people. It is what people choose to reveal about themselves, mediated by different versions of people-revealing software and hardware.

Let’s take an extreme example of a deliberate shot to the groin, recorded for YouTube. Let’s say there are three people who participate in the recorded action - a cameraperson, an assailant, and a victim. It’s not important how or whether the event was staged. What is important is that someone is getting hit in the groin, on spec, so a bunch of people that none of the three actors know or care about can see. Making music and putting it on the internet isn’t so different from this. It’s my thoughts, my pain, and my loneliness, offered to everyone for free, with an absurd endgame of broad acceptance floating out there, somewhere.

I have been doing it blindly for years now, essentially working two jobs at the expense of my social and personal life. I have been taking my ideas, converting them into a string of 1’s and 0’s, broadcasting them to the world and hoping that someone out there will connect with me. Put that way, that’s not all bad. It’s kind of romantic. But consider that I haven’t traveled. I haven’t read enough books. My back is a mess from so much sitting and staring at a computer screen. Consider that I have done it at the expense of the people who have been standing right next to me, or in the room listening to my music with me, or waiting for me to come to bed - the people* who responded to my music exactly how I wanted someone to respond to my music and could look me in the eye and tell me so. And all I wanted to know was what other people would think.

*Person. Let’s me be honest, here.

Someone with a daring amount of smarm, some angel capital, and a new app to sell might argue that “humans are social animals,” or “we’re all part of the same big play,” or “this is how culture connects now.” Meh. I’m over that. I need actual people. People to talk to and to touch and to buy rounds of drinks and trip and fall and get up and keep going. I don’t need their avatars, interesting and diversionary as they may be.

I kind of lost my train of thought here. I should start making outlines.

While this isn’t a goodbye to the internet, it’s a statement that I’ll be scaling my devotion to the thing back in the next few months and devoting myself to the people in my life. The same probably goes for my ambitious release schedule. No point in killing myself to make self-imposed dates. The songs are good, and they’re not going away, and maybe I’ll share them sometime soon.

Okay, that’s it for a while.

Photo

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:31:24 -0400

This is very funny. New Orleans!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:30:12 -0400

This is very funny. New Orleans!

For Hal and The Zen Lunatic

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:43:00 -0400

For Hal and The Zen Lunatic

thewood: #clevelandsongs

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:27:59 -0400

thewood:

#clevelandsongs

Explained Absence

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:26:31 -0400

Apologies for the lack of posts. Life has been particularly difficult to navigate as of late. Heading away on a meditation retreat in Alabama for the weekend. Should be interesting. I think I’m going to have to wear a white robe. I will post pictures if this happens.

Check out this Moombah Mix by The Zen Lunatic, and be on the...

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:35:23 -0400

Check out this Moombah Mix by The Zen Lunatic, and be on the lookout for a version of this same mix with me rapping over it.

w000000t

Turntables, Serato… No edits.

Set List:
Zeb - Toe to Toe
House of Gypsies - Sum Sigh Say (Sabo vs. Heartbreak Edit)
Munchi - Sandungueo
Nadastrom - Gal Where Yuh Come From (feat. Natalie Storm)
Benga - Night (Sabo Moombahton Edit)
Joyce Muniz & Shanti Roots - Cumbia Nightlife (Dave Nada Moombahton Edit)
Sazon Booya - La Bomba
The Zen Lunatic & Father Abraham - Sax on the Beach (Instrumental)
Cam Jus - The Stabs
Blaqstarr - Rider Girl (Nadastrom Moombahton Edit)

www.facebook.com/zenlunaticmusic

One Year in New Orleans - Music

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:22:10 -0400

I arrived in New Orleans one year ago yesterday, with a girlfriend, a van full of stuff, and dreams of conquest and carpetbaggery. A year later, I still have the van, and if I choose to do so, I could fill it back up with the stuff. But all else is long since gone. A progress report, in multiple parts:

Part 1: Music. Since this is what most of us are here for.

I spent a fair amount of time in the fall looking for a studio, finally landing at What Noise? studio in Mid-City. It has been a good room for me to get going in - good sound, strong A/C, lots of locking doors - but it’s not my final landing place. I’m still there for the time being.

In March I released a mixtape entitled Trust Me, which if you don’t have, I don’t think we’re friends. It is really good. The music flows well, the lyrics are smart, and the instrumentals are stellar, as always. Share it with your friends.

In April of this year I played studio-host to Boston rapper Slaine while he was in town shooting a movie.* We collaborated on four fantastically weird tracks - Murdoc and Era Zona contribtued, as well. These are somewhere in the “coming soon” pipeline. I’m not the point person for this release, so I have no specific dates. All I know is that it sounds really cool.

* The highlight of these sessions, incidentally, had nothing to do with music. Instead, it was me reading movie lines opposite Slaine at 4:30 in the morning, 8 hours into a marathon recording session, and 6 hours before Slaine needed to be on set to do his scene with Brad Pitt. Naturally, I read Brad Pitt’s lines, and Slaine went on to nail his scene, no doubt thanks to the ease with which I channeled Brad’s masculinity.

Shortly after the Slaine sessions, I terminated my producer-relationship with Era Zona, whose releases I had been working hard to prep for the fall. This was bitterly disappointing for me, emotionally as well as lawyer-fee-ly (we were in the process of drawing up a 2 year agreement/action plan when the whole thing cratered). I thought we had something really great going.

I moved quickly* from my focus on Era to prepping for an exploratory sessions for singer-songwriter Maci Wainwright. Maci bailed at the last minute, and I was left with a few folders worth of synthpop sketches that I turned into songs such as Icicles and Surprises, which have helped to shape my new/evolving sound.

* Like, literally, three days. Sometimes I bounce back quickly. I must have been eating a lot of vegetables during that stretch.

After Maci I got sick for a little while. Too hot.

Then I got better.

When I recovered I found a stockpile of indie-pop and southern rap instrumentals and sketches that I’m currently trying to turn into any number of releases. True to form, I believe that I have already announced my intentions to release several shorter EPs, and I believe that I will prove that statement to be a lie. As of late I have been watching another full-length* release develop. I’m tentatively titling it Under Water, and I hope that it will illustrate my first year in New Orleans far more effectively than this dry and semi-factual blog post.

* Full-length for me, which means ~25-30 minutes.

I have not played live as much as I planned to, but that is because it is really hard to get excited to play live on one’s own, with no instruments. Now that The Zen Lunatic and I are working together, I should benefit greatly from his services.

Speaking of which*,

* Speaking of whom?

Speaking of The Zen Lunatic, now here is a musical relationship I can hang my hat on.

* Upon which I can hang my hat?**

** So we’re finally getting funny.***

*** Sigh

Watch for new co-branded material between me and The Zen Lunatic. This mix is the shit, and I’m going to rap over it soon. One of the beats that we prepped for our band is in there, and it fits perfectly. The band will be called Sex Party. Members of Sex Party will own white turtlenecks.

I feel that this post has illuminated nothing.

Backwards rappers. This is pretty ingenious.

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:57:15 -0400

Backwards rappers. This is pretty ingenious.

"When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty and..."

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:51:59 -0400

“When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty and shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up and express their anger and frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard.”

- Martin Luther King Jr. (via carlykitty)

Thank you. I was thinking about this pretty much all morning. And I was going to post about it too, but I think this pretty much sums it up.

(via unconnectedincidents)

Things are getting weird over at the Fountainbleau Storage...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:10:18 -0400

Things are getting weird over at the Fountainbleau Storage Facility and Music Recording Studio.

For one, of the last five times that I have attempted to purchase water from the vending machine on the first floor, I have received Coca-Cola twice, despite hitting the water button all five times. In Boston this is a dick move. In the dead heat of the New Orleans summer, it’s downright sociopathic. As a patriotic American, I am well aware that Coca-Cola is only a viable replacement for water in indigenous Central and South American communities, so I am wondering what the deal is here.

Musically: If I knew how to make a poll about this song, the question I would ask you is: Am I turning into Passion Pit?

It would be a serious question, because I have heard all of one half of a Passion Pit song in my entire life, and it utilized chipmunk sampling tactics. So perhaps I have reason to be scared, apprehensive, or well-compensated.

Lord knows what I’ll end up using this for. Well-suited for a light-hearted pop song, but I don’t think I’m the man for it.

Thoughts? Want the track?

Listen to this man. “Stop accusing me of participating in...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:02:36 -0400

Listen to this man.

“Stop accusing me of participating in riots. Have some respect. I have grandchildren. You sound like an idiot.”

Collar-time USA

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:58:15 -0400

Petco Employee: Welcome to Petco! How may I help you today!

Me: This is unrealistic already. Since when has anyone ever been welcomed to Petco?

Petco Employee:

Me: Well, help me out here.

Petco Employee: I am wearing a blue polo shirt with “Petco” written on it!

Me: Getting there.

Petco Employee: You might have noticed that we have reconfigured out store in order to better suit your needs.

Me: I don’t know where anything is anymore.

Petco Employee: Exactly. We have eliminated all hanging signage. We are concerned that humanity’s increasing reliance on artificial memory will cause atrophy in the parts of the brain dedicated to memory. Stop and think for a second: when was the last time you committed a phone number to memory? We are very concerned about this.

Me: You are concerned?

Petco Employee: We are.

Me: Okay. Where is the refillable kitty litter?

Petco Employee: We feel that if you find the kitty litter yourself that you will be more likely to commit its location to memory.

Me:

Petco Employee: So how may I help you today?

Me: You could help me locate the kitty litter.

Petco Employee: As I explained earlier, sir, I’m not so sure that I would be “helping” you if I did that.

Me: Very well. I am looking to purchase an item that represents the oppression to which Pets are subjected by their Owner-Lords.

Petco Employee: A collar!

Me: Right. And perhaps some sort of pendant to go with the collar?

Petco Employee: A locket!

Me: Not exactly. I was thinking more of something that might identify the Pet should it try to seek out its freedom.

Petco: We have those too.

Me: Where?

Everyone: [laughs]

Everyone: [cries]

Father Abraham Rap Rap Electro Rap Rap

from http://imgur.com/a/QVYag#0

An awesome band that I know is playing this show on Saturday...

Links in Sidebar Down

Perfect.

More

Out of Bounds

Excited About Rap Vocals: A Text Message Essay

Let's Make This Official

Photo

This is very funny. New Orleans!

For Hal and The Zen Lunatic

thewood: #clevelandsongs

Explained Absence

Check out this Moombah Mix by The Zen Lunatic, and be on the...

One Year in New Orleans - Music

Backwards rappers. This is pretty ingenious.

"When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty and..."

Things are getting weird over at the Fountainbleau Storage...

Listen to this man. “Stop accusing me of participating in...

Collar-time USA