I made Bed Bugs when I first visited Vicken in Brooklyn in August 2010 as V and his girlfriend Megan successfully avoided the bed bug scare that had become a problem in the borough that fall. Sometime during my stay at their apartment I had V say some things about bed bugs into my laptop’s microphone. Then I made a beat around that sample.
Bed Bugs
V’s Sample
Reflection and Response.
-P
First of all, thanks for the ongoing discussion drawn from Spark This Shit Flaming (see below). It’s really dope that the collective part of the LIFESTYLE is starting to come together and that folks are feeling the idea that this is a place where we can all discuss what art and music and reflection and response means to us.
Stab comes from 2010. I’ve always thought Duke Ellington and John Coltrane’s’ In A Sentimental Mood would be a fun sample. So I tried it out. I chopped the sample and added drums and some live bass I played on my homie David’s fender he rescued from a basement some of us remember at 4508 19th Ave in Seattle. I added some acoustic guitar soloing at the beginning. I haven’t posted too much solo guitar stuff, but I will soon.
Full Track
A capella
Some of you listen to rap music/ I use it for therapy/ Psychologists say we’re crazy beats endanger their job security/ Go therapeutic stupid lose sight of what’s near to me/ But I find truth in the groove scoot near to what’s dear to me/ Get lost throw up spaghetti like Em did/ Put this shit on table take your social capital and spend it/ Sick of giving a fuck/ My sinuses have had enough/ Watch my friends make more green then I sneeze and cough up/ I can tell your mind is wyling/ You’ve got your issues friend/ Recently I made my mind up I’ma stab these issues dead/ I can tell your mind is wyling/ You’ve got your issues friend/ Recently I made my mind up I’ma stab these issues dead/Make records fuck that I want to break records/ Usain’s crazy cousin insane bolt jolts the stretcher/ Oceans of letters me greenlake’s alphabet soup/ Werewolf status my souls a savage as I howl at moons/ growl at crews used to think so cool to be you/ 200 dollar jeans make the gleam of her stylish shoes/ So many piles of poo/ Cover the ground defile the truth/ It took a while for me to see the meek inside your cool.
Reflection and Response.
-P
Spark this Shit Flaming is a song that is over 5 years in the works. When I was in high school in Berkeley I used to practice with my band in my parents’ basement. One day I recorded myself playing a simple drum line thinking I might use the recording sometime in the future. Over 4 years later in 2010 in Seattle I cut up the drum line and had the homie Clarke play an organ part. I also added wah-wah guitar and a bassline. I wrote the verses in Spring 2011. I finished and recorded the chorus on the day of posting on September 19th, 2011 in Madrid, Spain.
Here’s the finished track. You can find the instrumental and a capella version below.
Instrumental
A capella
Search for the spark to start this shit flaming/ Burn the house of cards down all in and sick of playing/ Then flip the table over all the chips fall down/return to the night before the dawn clouds
I was sure she was like the nicest one around/ Both in a new place but from the same town/ So we stood that night spoke on the steps/ But she wavered sometimes just hope for the Best
And it’s like that/ and repeats the same way/ Fight back with verses I gain strength/ High above the surface shed its dang weight/ free of the smog of this bog we call days/ unlearning how to feel down forget she’s not calling/ Replace the brain better thoughts like fresh poppies/Turned into narcotics/ File failure away/ Collects dust like prophets who silently strayed/ Levitate with predicates hooked on phonics/ The subject takes a hit/ Adjective’s awesome/ rather be that then vapid/ Or hide my love away like cup cakes and fat kids/ but I’m breaking down the door to fatness/ Thinking these 20-minute runs put muscle where flab is/ Feel pain right where the calf is attached to the feet that beats down this path in
Search for the spark to start this shit flaming/ Burn the house of cards down all in and sick of playing/ Then flip the table over all the chips fall down/return to the night before the dawn clouds
I was sure she was like the nicest one around/Both in a new place but from the same town/ So we stood that night and spoke on the steps/ But she wavered and sometimes just hope for the best
Something I used to believe/ Everyone else is doing great/ Sandra comes up and into her arms she shakes/ She found love and so did Sandra/ They’re happy with their plugs and poka-dot bandanas/ And thank god they are/ They prefer the charm of happiness for those drama and scars/ Pharmaceutics preferred by college students/ Campus is a water bed designed by dr. Seuss’s/ Green eggs and ham themed fraternity party/Roman attire twisted to turn naughty/ sophomores perform Pilates on dance floors that tomorrow be more sticky than potties/Half the house wakes up with no belongings/ Cell phone been in that bowl since he texted that hottie/ Passed out before he send it now she’s off to Johnny’s/ She’s lost forever and his hangover’s throbbing
Search for the spark to start this shit flaming/ Burn the house of cards down all in and sick of playing/ Then flip the table over all the chips fall down/return to the night before the dawn clouds
I was sure she was like the nicest one around/ Both in a new place but from the same town/ So we stood that night spoke on the steps/ But she wavered sometimes just hope for the Best (x2)
Reflection and Response
-P
I wrote Shake This Maze in spring 2011 after getting a job at Duke’s Chowder House in Seattle. I wrote the chorus some 6 months earlier and never found a home for it until Maze.
Shake this maze to the core with chords and verses
Mix genres like cops johns whores and virgins
Turn the source of hurting into a sense of pride
Find the gold on the shipwrecks of life
Maybe she works Sunday we’ll play afterwards/ I need to stop writing this play and this wack verse/ Can’t stand when she’s there can’t stand when she’s away/ Go home like I don’t care?/That lie’s pathetically fake/So please break break break the spell she’s got me under/ Under the weather as I am under the covers/ Already tried to wake up/ But I pressed snooze/ prefer this pillow/ This wait sucks I’ll sleep through/
Two weeks ago everything normal/ soon to graduate sky high orbital/ now crash landed/ Everybody see it/ Ramble meaningless nothings/ without reason/ Who knew such blues/ Would creep in this season/ The sun’s out/ Sweat crowds the breathing/ She walks chest out/ I think or am I dreaming/ Naps for twenty minutes every other evening
Shake this maze to the core with chords and verses
Mix genres like cops johns whores and virgins
Turn the source of hurting into a sense of pride
Find the gold on the shipwrecks of life
We make our way through twisting journeys
Roadmap gets written as life’s occurring
We fight for courage she’s a test of the burden
Success the only option no way this back’s turning
So now three weeks later we each have a break/ And it’s nice outside so we walk beside the lake/ For forty five minutes we conversate/ Suddenly all the angst evaporates/I guess I agree with her better off friends/ Besides Spain seems to boast decent women/ So finally I can act normal again/ only awkward if we make it so, I horribly did
But now we grab lunch /Jokes “such a lovely date”/ Behind glasses eyes fluctuates/ Talk of family for seems great lengths/ About drugs and pain and fortune and thanks/And we return to the work/ From whence we came/ She tends bar as I clear plates/ Great feeling having a clean slate/ Now we start again but in a different place
Shake this maze to the core with chords and verses
Mix genres like cops johns whores and virgins
Turn the source of hurting into a sense of pride
Find the gold on the shipwrecks of life
Make our way through twisting journeys
Roadmap gets written as life’s occurring
We fight for courage she’s a test of the burden
Success the only option/ no way this back’s turning
(x2)
Shake This Maze Remix
I did the Shake This Maze Remix the same day as posting, on September 15th, 2011. I liked the sound of the vocals on the chorus on the acapella version, so I cut some stuff from that for the first part of the remix. For the second part, I felt inspired by Dj Premier’s ability to craft whole choruses from samples of other tracks. So I took some lines from the track itself and came up with the following line.
Who knew such blues/ Drugs and pain
In a different place/ find that/ fortune and thanks.
How do people feel about sampling? Does anyone have a favorite track that samples something yet makes it completely new?
Add your thoughts to the reactions box.
Reflection and Response
-P
This track is a collaboration. While in Argentina for study abroad I befriended a man whose 15 year old son plays the quena. One day both came to a mutual friend’s house in Buenos Aires and I recorded some short samples of him playing a tune that is popular in the father’s home region of Jujuy Northern Argentina.
After returning to the U.S. I worked with the homie Clarke Reid. We played around with the sample and Clarke added some nasty keyboard and bass to the track.
It was truly a pleasure to be able to collaborate on a global level with such cool musicians.
Reflection and Response
-P
Jade Eyes
I wrote Jade Eyes after attending a Pretty Lights concert at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle on November 19th, 2010. I wrote most of the lyrics that same night after getting home around 3 A.M.
Acapella Version
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us/ One mind we design our own island/ Or so I thought as I thrust my paw on her/ Didn’t think that I could do her such dishonor/ Back away and I nod my head/ These pretty lights can really play and they’re rocking it/ And these kids eat it up like Lox and spread/ As the clock is lost and we forget our beds/ The jade eyes stay with me and I see her/ Kissing on the dude who arrived in the beamer/ Guess I had weak pop tonight Elisa Steamer/ The jade just caught the light and all disappears/ But she stays florescent cold as December in this northern state that’s the greyest in the hemisphere/ Just like lemmings I follow the trap/ Wonder if she gets off on withholding that vag because
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
Contradiction many been up her blouse/ But my fingers are some splinters she can do without/ This week’s been weak grime and grout/ Games every day every way tagged out/ But I’m glad for the no’s the strep and the colds/ The effect of the soul/ Is it’s left invincible/ Try me all you want these jade eyes still haunt me/ Thought if I got her I’d find some sense of belonging/ After the show all filed out to rides home/ Chose to feign fatigue said peace to the folks/ Got home restless with the image in my mind/ Of her curves her shirt and her perfect jade eyes/ And I dealt with it the only way I know how/ With the guitar and drums turned up way too loud/And as all else slept and tired of the bass/ In it’s beautiful hum I found a place
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes
These jade eyes are straight lies that bind us
These jade eyes (x2)
Reflection and Response
-P
P.S. Whoever can tell me who Elissa Steamer is without going on wikipedia gets a new song sent to their email! Send answers to the.lifetsyle.rr@gmail.com.
He’s Your Guy
This was an early song made after returning from Argentina in July 2010. Whitney Killian is featured on the studio version that was recorded in my bedroom in Seattle. Whitney recorded the vocals on a newly purchased microphone on her first try. I knew it was going to be the one so I celebrated, and the sound of my scream can be heard in the background right after the first chorus.
The acoustic version was done in Vicken and Megan’s apartment in Brooklyn almost exactly a year later. Megan rocks the chorus. It’s always cool to hear how different vocalists make the same song seem so different.
He’s Your Guy
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ Let me tell you why
Fuck the secretary I Don Drape that shit/ Savory grilled Argentine flank steak rich/ Senior citizen back pain playing bridge/ Disgusting I make your face straight cringe/ Your fate is on the table as it’s paint faintly chips/ Run or die son and you better decide quick/ We’re crazy over here so wild our side is/ Kick it with immigrant labor who came here to support 9 kids/
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ Let me tell you why
That’s the power that’s behind lines I spit/ Hard to catch like a line drive hard hit/ Or a serve from Federer better words you should write/ Beginning of the end Pac met Suge Knight/ If I could fight I’d send a molly of wallops to all you molly coddling shit talkers cause all of us problems/ Do a favor get your ass sent to the gulag for being an alcoholic/ and enemy of mine is an enemy of Stalins/
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ He could be your guy
He’s so fly/ Let me tell you why
P.
The Villa comes from my study abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina during 2010. In Argentina “villa,” or “villa miseria,” describes temporary housing areas found throughout urban areas. One day someone who worked in the apartment building I lived in invited me to dinner at his house in the outskirts of the city. He lives in Villa Caraza, south of the center and he plays in a band. During my visit I recorded an instrumental performed by a young keyboard player.
As a friend gave me a ride home back to the city we discussed life in Villa Caraza during and after the military dictatorship that ruled over Argentina from 1976-1983. I wrote the lyrics for The Villa the night after and chopped the piano player’s sample into the song. The sample in the middle is from Manu Chau. Whoever can guess what song it is on a comment gets a shout out on Twitter plus a bonus mini ep from me!
The Villa
The following is an acoustic version.
The Villa
I’ve never been to a place like this where the house is nice if it’s made of bricks
I’ve never talked to people like this who fondly remember that dictatorship
I’ve never been to a place like this where the house is nice if it’s made of bricks
I’ve never talked to people like this who fondly remember that dictatorship
Fondly remember years when/ People were behind bars that now offer drugs to their children/Psychos and they’re all on the loose/ There’s vice in the street when it used to be taboo/ Used to leave their cars unlocked/ Now there isn’t a single car left anywhere on the block/ Sure they tell me there were thousands tortured/ Now everybody is tormented by disorder/ Something we can’t understand where I’m from/ Dictatorship’s the antithesis to America/ But this isn’t quite Myrtle Beach/ I mean these places been told what do since they were colonies/ now it dawns on me/ The futility/ Of passing judgment on other societies/ Cuz life in the villa just keeps worse/ It’s hot out here these people hunger and thirst/They rumble and burst/ Quick to rob and usurp/ While we blog and research/ These places rot in the dirt/ And some of these people seem happy as hell gave me pollo a la parrilla and cared for me well.
I’ve never been to a place like this where the house is nice if it’s made of bricks
I’ve never talked to people like this who fondly remember that dictatorship
I’ve never been to a place like this where the house is nice if it’s made of bricks
I’ve never talked to people like this who fondly remember that dictatorship
The following is a short video of some of the musicians involved in the making of the Villa. The younger person is the one who plays the piano in the clip. They’re playing Chamamé, music that comes from Northeastern Argentina.
Reflection and Response.
P
Whatup! Welcome to the LIFESTYLE.
Growing up together, our friendship always involved collaboration, creativity, and consciousness.
This relationship continues to inspire us to reflect on and respond to our realities.
We believe that communication and connection drive active engagement with one’s environment. We’re looking for the LIFESTYLE to become a venue for dialogue and artistic exchange, with the idea that such activity promotes personal and social activism.
the LIFESTYLE has 5 main elements:
Although music and visual art are our primary forms of expression, the LIFESTYLE’s value of collaboration involves including your thoughts and contributions as part of the Collective. Hit us with your comments, insight, and creative expressions; we look forward to speaking with you.
Keep in touch with us as we expand the LIFESTYLE.
Peace!
Peter and Vicken
Reflection and Response.
the LIFESTYLE 