Right Handed Straw pt. 1
please excuse the extended absence. I’m still here.
My original intention for this newsletter was to cover all of my releases in chronological order. I was ready to move on to Couch, which would mean I forgot Right Handed Straw, Not sure how I forgot, because without RHS, there’s likely nothing else after.
In the Mashed potatoes post, I covered the 2004-2008 run, which left me a little less enthused and engaged. My life changed a lot and most things were put on hold. In 2009, I was a new dad and I was working full-time while going back to school to get a masters degree. I was tired. All the time. Possibly asleep for about 5 years. I’m still tired, but I was tapped in those days and my creative moments were few and far between.
By 2008, about 60% of Right Handed Straw was done. It took another 8 years of sporadic tinkering to finish it. By 2015 or so, I must have been a little more rested and inspired to finish this record. Somewhere in the mid 2000s, I did an interview and I was asked about what I was working on. I said something about not wanting to make a Left Handed Straw part 2, which is hilarious because…
That’s exactly what I eventually did.
Enough time past that it eventually seemed like the right thing to do (oohhhh, the pun). In my mind, it was the complimentary bookend. LHS was the beginning and RHS was the end. It was essentially me clearing the hard drive as a farewell. I didn’t know if there was an audience for it, but I didn’t want to just leave it all unheard and lost forever. I really didn't think there’d be anything after it.
INTRO
I have more than one song named “Intro.” This is particularly hilarious when you register things on ASCAP. LHS starts with “Intro” and so does RHS. There are a lot of intentional nods on here.
Without revealing the sources, the intro is essentially a collage of movie clips. I thought it was pretty funny to come back 17 years after LHS and reveal that…
“I’m not left handed.”
THE MARCH
This beat is pretty old. I originally had it available as a free download on my original website, maybe in 2003 or so. Sole later used it on the Live From Rome album, but it lives in my head more as this instrumental.
Scott Matelic came to California in 1999 (Maybe early 2000). He brought some records to trade and I got the drums from him. I’m pretty sure I found the main sample at Grooves in SF, which is where I found most things. Very bassline heavy track, which was not super common for me in those early days.
I like the energy in this one and felt like it was a good way to kick things off. The “Intro” track came much later, probably in 2016, so The March was the very first thing on the original versions of RHS. Back then I just called it “White Label” because my intention was to put out a small run white label of random stuff.
REVELATION
This was originally meant to be for a particular person, but I don’t think I ever sent it. In those days, I don’t think I had a very good grasp on song structure for rap songs and I really only operated in instrumental mode. Lots of these songs are short and what you hear is all you need to hear (in my opinion).
The main sample comes from a record with a crazy cover and my copy is oddly shredded on the side, like a dog gnawed on it or something. (This is riveting content)
In the end, LHS and RHS are essentially long suites of short little pieces. This is one of them. I like how it changes the pace from The March.
PIGGY
If you though the last one was short, wait til you hear this one. 43 seconds and only 21 seconds of it is the beat. Despite my sarcastic recounting of things, the whole intention behind these records is for them to be listened to as one long piece. All of the little moments play their part and help carry you to the next one. While this one is relatively simple…I like it.
The name Piggy is a nod to one of the musical elements.
CAUTION
You may recognize this as the music for the Sage Francis song “Agony In Her Body.” If you compare my version to the Sage version, you may hear some additional elements in “Caution.” This isn’t because they weren’t there. It’s because of the way it was mixed. That was over 20 years ago, so who cares, but I wasn’t really happy about it back then. Mixing can be complicated and sometimes you have to lose some things in order to preserve others and if it’s a rap record, the vocals are going to dominate.
There are a lot of different things chopped up in this. There are a few different drum breaks layered together. Back in those days, I most certainly did not know anything about things being in key, so it’s fun to listen back to stuff and not be completely horrified.
This was done completely inside an MPC2000, but I did track it out to Pro Tools to mix and edit.
DEATH HAS TWO FACES (Re-EDIT)
This is another old one that was available as a free download on my website. It was probably up there around 2002. It used to have different drums and was sequenced a little different, which is why there’s the (re-edit) in the title.
I hadn’t really thought about it until listening now, but you can hear similar ideas on the ShrapKnel album I produced (Nobody Planning To Leave). I’m referring to the A section followed by the B section with a different mood style of beat.
In general, if I sample a record I always keep it. If I am remembering correctly, I do not have that bassline record anymore and I may possibly never remember what it was unless I saw the cover. That’s really uncommon for me.
The drums in the second section come from a religious record and they are really slowed down, which is what makes them sound so ominous. I got those drums from Moodswing 9. He got really heavy into records, but he never had a huge collection. He would acquire things and then sell or trade them. Sometimes he’d do these little sales with a few of us in our friend group. He’d play the break and you’d have to yell out if you wanted to claim it and you’d have to do it fast or someone else would snatch them up. Sometimes you’d yell out and then end up with some you really didn’t want. I had a few that I later grew to hate. 20 year old me says “that fucking Shango-Trampin break!”
SF RELAXATION
This is a somewhat odd one. A relatively simple combo of elements - a jazz record and an exercise record.
WARNING
Another short one. Sometimes you find some drums that you like a lot and you also don’t want to bury under other things. This is a little interlude meant to highlight those drums. A little assistance from the Surgeon General of Chilltown, NY.
This one probably came along a little later, like maybe 2006 or 2007. In those days, I may add 30 seconds to the project every few months or so. It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to add, it was always about finding the right thing to go next. I never wanted to move big sections around, so it was always built out from the beginning and worked it’s way to the end. Sometimes I’d have something in place and listen for a long time and then decide it just wasn’t the right piece and I’d take it off and replace it. It was always done in a succession of layers, never anything where I took chunk A and moved it after C and then brought chunk D over here. The order you hear it in is the order it was assembled in.
DAVID
Another quick one, which from a streaming perspective is a bad idea. Tracks under 30 seconds basically don’t accumulate streams and therefore don’t really generate any revenue (not that they really pay anyways).
A diss song and, guess what, it really is a diss to a specific person.
In some ways, it was possibly silly and petty, but it was tongue in cheek and all just to make me laugh. It’s about a complicated person. Someone who was nice to me at times and a total snake other times. No need to explain it anymore. Regardless of who it’s about, it’s a fun little cut up of phrases.
I was on a fairly early episode of the Dad Bod Rap Pod and they asked me about it. I didn’t reveal much, but I did mention that at one point, the name David was a diss. On the Blud N Gutz tape, why? says “David-ass bitch” as a diss. So, it is about someone, but it’s also playing off the name David being used as a diss.
9 songs down and 24 to go. Haha. 33 songs on this thing.
To be continued in the next post.