"The Spike Jonze EP"
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11. Sureshot
12. What's Up, proGram? (feat. Jay + AC)
13. Drop
More About This Album:
I had this show set up at The Crocodile Cafe in Seattle, WA (a famous Seattle institution, now defunct and no more) where I debuted "My God!" and the dude who booked there (named Frank) asked me if I would perhaps care to do some work on commission. The deal was, the Crocodile was hosting a party for the film director Spike Jonze in conjunction with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF; this would've been 2002.) They decided to get a bunch of local bands to cover songs that Spike Jonze had directed the videos for. They gave me these three songs. I was psyched. I heart the Beastie Boys and Pharcyde and Fatlip very much.
Spike Jonze did not show :( but I remember the crowd being pretty psyched about my work, and Frank was definitely pleased (maybe I have it backwards... maybe Frank gave me the ability to debut "My God!" on the strength of how I did for this thing. Can't remember.)
Anyway... This was the first commissioned work I ever did. I'm pretty damn happy with the results. Especially the beat for "Drop" I think is one of the doper things I've ever made. Don't like the effects I put on my vocals in these songs; kept the effects profile the same across all three songs...
This is straight-up, classic boom bap type shit. Samples on my E-Mu ESI-32 triggered by the sequencer in my Korg X3 (as usual.) Actually, to call the genre "sampled beats" is not really accurate. When I think "sampled beats," I think beats made of samples that I took. The sounds being triggered here are technically samples -- they are sampled instruments that came with the ESI-32 -- but they are not samples that I made.
Anyhoo... Vox recorded at Aitlincay Osenray's (she doesn't want to be Google-able) apt in Brooklyn (I'm pretty sure... I tried recording them in my place but was too self conscious to get as funky as I wanted to.) Mixed by me. Mastered by Paul Gold at his Brooklynphono studio... I did the wack ass cover art.
Just a little side story. Fatlip's rap starts out:
Feeling downtrodden...
Fresh kid turned rotten.
I can't believe (unintelligible) that I've gotten.
So, before recording my vox for this project, I tried finding out what he was saying there. I got in touch with his manager, but the dude didn't contact Fatlip for me, he just told me what he thought the lyrics were (can't remember what his guess was, but I do remember concluding that it was unlikely to be the real thing.) Oh well...