“When are you and Aesop gonna do more music together?!?!”
“Do you and Aesop Still talk?”
“What can’t you make “Float” Again?”
These are three questions I get all the time. Online. Offline. In line for a bathroom. Well, today is a great day for all those inquiring minds. I recently did a song with Aesop that accompanied the release of a special edition toy he was involved in, made by Kid Robot. A two song 7″ came with the toy and that was the only way you could hear the song…UNTIL NOW!
The good people at Rhymesayers have made the songs available both digitally and as a stand alone 7″. Two songs!
1. Cat food (Produced by me)
2. Bug Zapper (Produced by Aesop)
You can get the vinyl or mp3 here:
http://fifthelementonline.com/collections/aesop-rock/products/aesop-rock-cat-food-ep
You can also get the mp3 in these two well known digital music outlets:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R57GKAU/ref=sr_1_3_rd?ie=UTF8&child=B00R57HLMQ&qid=1420435172&sr=1-3
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/cat-food-ep/id952773750
Also,
Aesop is on tour right now with Rob sonic and Homeboy Sandman. Peep the dates HERE
I have just been added on to his NYC show and the Gramercy Theater (2/14/15) So, if you’re in the city that night, come nice and early to see me play a little set. It will be valentines day , so, you know. Mad romance. Also, Aesop & rob sonic with Homeboy sandman is seriously one of the best bills you’ll see this year. Don’t miss it where ever they go.
So, to summarize:
1)Aesop and I did a new song together
2)We are still good friends
3)We will never remake “Float”
Before I ever made a beat, I rapped. Around 7th/8th grade (I was 12 at the time), I started writing little raps. Obviously, they were atrocious but it was something I eventually fell deeply into. As my obsession with rap grew, so did my books of rhymes. In my early teens, I would write page long verses (that’s how I knew the verse was done) on random looseleaf sheets of paper. I had a drawer by my bed filled with these rhymes. None of them meant more to me than the others. They were simply a collection. Around 14, I started hanging out with an older dude (pause) who was an aspiring rapper. He worked at this nearby toy store and he and I would exchange tapes. I’d record Stretch and Bobbito’s radio show and make him dubs while he’d put me on to whatever new albums were hot in the streets. Like I said, he was an aspiring rapper. While I was never particularly good at any facet of rapping, the one thing I could do was write a punchline. That was my style. I was like an overly complicated Lord finesse (in my mind). So, every now and then, I’d write some lines for my older rapping friend. I’d also occasionally give him samples to make beats from before I knew how to make a beat. This thin version of “Ghost Writing” was my introduction into rapping.
For all the rhymes I had written, I hadn’t recorded anything. I had barely practiced the rhymes. It was more of a situation where I’d write the verse and forget about it. When I was 16, that changed as I met a group of dudes who’d I eventually form a “group” with. These were three guys from downtown Manhattan like myself who were also obsessed with hip hop on an embarrassing level. Once I chilled with them and our similar obsessions were established, they told me that they rent studios out and freestyle over live instruments. They all played instruments so they would basically just bring a bass, a guitar and some drums to a studio space and fuck around. The invited me to come rhyme with them and ,from there, we eventually formed a group we called “The Overground”. It was me, Dub-L (he produced the majority of Aesop’s “Music for earthworms”) , Jer (the other half of Party Fun action Committee with me as well as currently “Sir Jarlsberg”) and Niles AKA Mr. Roper (who made the wise choice of quitting this music shit a long time ago). We were four white dorks from downtown manhattan who kinda saw ourselves as a white, east coast Souls of Mischief which, in hindsight, is fucking hilariously bold on our parts. Here’s some caricatures of us from that time drawn by Niles AKA Mr. Roper AKA “And Friend”-
We made our 5 song first demo in my moms basement on a shitty 4 track over terrible homemade beats using the cheapest of synth sounds we could find and Dr. Sample drum machine. It was one of those things that, when we finished it, we were super proud of it. So proud, that upon seeing Bobitto at a bar one night, Dub-L handed out first demo to him with no fear. Here’s the thing though…it was literally some of the worst rap music ever made. Aside from the sloppy tracks, it was a chorus of four horrible voiced white dudes rapping off beat about their dicks. It’s one of those things I can’t even bring myself to listen to this very day. I don’t even have a digital copy of it and I’m glad cause I’d feel like I’d have to post a song up just to give you an idea of how bad it really was. I’ve often just imagined what Bobitto must have thought on the off chance he actually listened to that cassette. Did he share with his friends and laugh endlessly or did he simply just roll his eyes and toss it int he garbage. I hope it was the latter.
That first demo was a learning experience. After the glow of simply recording something wore off, it became clear to us that we needed to improve. We tinkered a bit and stated working on an official album. The title of that album ,”Downtown Bound”, was as corny as it sounds. However, by the time we had done it, we had tightened things up a little. Let’s not front…we still sucked but at least we had improved marginally. Dub-L had taken to making beats on fruity loops and it definitely helped out sonic direction greatly. It also didn’t hurt that we had our Boy Chase Phoenix join us on some tracks. He was a far more polished mc than any of us so I’d like to think he saved a few joints from being completely unlistenable.
In fact, here are some of his demo’s from the mid 90’s…definitely a slept on talent:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jokhgmmhotn
We finished the album and sold it online before the internet (with the help of longtime friend Stinke yameen) really was the internet. At this point it was 96. I forget where we promoted it but i do recall most of our orders coming from the Philippines. No clue about that. Overall, we sold maybe 100 of them. This prospect scares the shit out of me cause that means there are like 100 people out there who could upload this album online. In fact, on the off chance, I googled it and came across this…
It’s actually a fitting example of what we were doing. Rapping for the sake of rapping. Judge it with a grain of salt…after all, this is some mid 90’s shit.
Keep in mind, we did shows regularly. We’d have shows at this spot called “The Spiral” on East Houston Street that, at best, would be attended by like 30 people. Over the years of doing shows, somehow real rappers would often show up and rock with us. Dudes like Percee P and Tess One were fairly regular. Hell, one time, the Souls Of Mischief own Opio was at a show. David Blaine too. All that said, the shows were typically 3 or 4 of us on stage, standing in one spot, simply struggling to remember our verses in front of about 11 people who could care less. Ahh…those were the days.
After that, the group continued making songs but kinda went in different directions. I started making beats and Dub-l got signed to Sm(le records with his group “The controls”. But more than anything, we met Aesop. He might not even realize it but he was really the game changer in why I don’t rap anymore (which is a good thing). He was the first dude I had met who could REALLY rap. He could freestyle, he could write and his flow and voice were on some seriously next level shit. I think his emergence humbled all of us in a way but it was also just exciting to be around a talent like that. Between 97-99, I still rapped but much less than I did before. I started focusing on beats. Jer and I would occasionally make silly songs for fun that would eventually become the foundation for our “Party fun action Committee” album. In fact, as the recording of songs slowed down, we more focused on just freestyling. We’d record those too but through a boombox mic. To this day, those tapes are easily the peak of anything rap related I’ve ever done. They were silly, offensive and we were high as fuck all the time while doing them. I’d never subject a stranger to any of them but they’re the basis of endless inside jokes that still live to this day amongst the people involved.
So, I say all of this as a means to post these songs. There are all old demos featuring yours truly on the mic. Am I proud of them ? God no. But, in a way, this a nice way to silence anyone asking me “Why don’t you rap anymore?”.
Here’s a handfull of songs with some descriptions. All the beats are by me as well so this might give you a funny insight of what some of my earliest beats sounded like.
http://www.mediafire.com/?i9e2tpjl3yneap0 1)Soapbox
This is me at my rappiest. Normally, my songs were all just stupid punchlines and me attempting to flow in ways I was incapable. This was me just “going in” as much as i could. Keep in mind, this was made during the heyday or the shiny suit era. To underground purist assholes like myself, that was a huge issue. I’d imagine this song is a reaction to that whole thing.
Side note, I’ll never understand why I choose this beat as my solo song track. It sucks but, more so than that, it’s not like anything else i used to make back then. I’d just guess that I was listening to a lot of Company Flow and this ws my awful attempt at that. 2)Dutch (With Chase Phoenix)
This is a fun song. We did it in my basement on a whim. It was also the first time I used the “Kartlingdedor” kool keith sample I would eventually use on “Carnivores Unite”. This verse of mine was way more indicative of what I did as a rapper. Sloppily delivered punchlines served in a not-so-serious manner. 3)Chin Music
This one has a story to it. In 1999, I had planned to make a compilation album with various rappers rocking over my beats. I had an aesop song, an illogic song and a slug song. Sadly that’s all I could muster. So, as a last ditch effort to be a rapper, I made a song under a pseudonym “Beetlejuice”. The idea was that I’d throw this on the album and people would be like “who the fuck is that?”. I purposely used a different voice that ended up sounding like a wacker white Rock from Heltah Skeltah. Since the album never happened, I was left with this little mess of a song. One looooooong verse. I still contend this has a few awesome lines in it but the voice change is one of the more embarrassing things I’ve ever recorded. 4)Subtle Touches (Feat. Mr Roper)
This is one of the earliest songs where I rapped over my own beats. This must have been around 95/96. This one is pretty bad on all fronts. Still, that piano loop though… 5)Really Real- Da Dunz (Party fun action Committee Feat. Aesop)
This was made one night at my crib when Jer , aesop and I got inspired to make fun of thug rappers. I forget what spawned it but i do recall us leaving where ever we were to come home a make this song. This was in an era where everyone called each other “Dun” and Queensbridge thuggery was at an all time high. I’d guess it was 97 when we did this one. So, yeah, it’s kind alike a weird mixture of MOP, other screaming thugs and Aesop sounding almost identically to John Forte. This one was 100% a joke that, due to the changing times, may not have held up too well. Oh well. We had fun.
So, yeah, that’s me rapping. Now, please never ask me about it ever again.
Aesop and I figured it would be cool to start the new year out with a gift for all you fine people who like our music. Here’s a song we made around 2000 that didn’t make the cut on Labor Days. Until right now, you’ve never heard this song. So, in a way, it’s brand new even though it’s actually nearing the age that we might consider throwing it a Bar mitzvah.
It’s aes on the raps and me on the beat. Enjoy and don’t ever ay we never gave you anything.
http://900bats.com/2013/free-mp3-from-aesop-rock-and-blockhead/
If you like in depth interviews, you are in luck. Here’s a professional level discussion between aesop and I about all things ranging from politics to our creative process.
Just kidding. Here’s Aesop and I having a talk about sports (which he hates) and video games while I was hanging with him the past weekend.
Enjoy.
A while back, I had mentioned in this post that the original version of the song “Bent life” was actually something completely different. It was a song that featured Slug and Eyedea that got scrapped due to lack of focus. Until now, this song had never been heard outside of a small handful of people but Aesop just threw it up for download on his website 900 Bats. Go get “Thorns” here
http://900bats.com/2011/remembering-mikey-eyedea-larsen/
RIP Michael “Eyedea” Larsen. He was a cool dude and making this song (and others) with slug and Aes was a lot of fun. This was before any of us had really realized what we were a part of. Before making music had any pressure involved, back when it was just us having fun doing something that we loved.
Happy Labor day , yall! Take off those white jeans and tie up your sailboats!
I figure on a day like this ,that means absolutely nothing to a guy like me (IE: one who doesn’t have a normal job), it would be cool to reminisce about “Labor days”, the album. For those who don’t know, this was the first Aesop rock release on Definitive Jux records that I produced a large chunk of. Because it was so long ago, I honestly don’t have that many concise memories of that time but I figured it would interest some of you if I rattled off as many as I possibly could about that album/era. I’m totally winging this right now so let’s see what comes up…
1) Why there are not instrumentals for this album floating around
All the beats on “Labor days” were two tracked. Meaning, I sequenced/mixed them on my sampler and then we recorded the entire beat , as is , onto Aesop’s digital 8-track. If you ever wondered why that album (and “Float” before it) didn’t have the bangingest drums, that is why. All things considered , I think it came out pretty well , though I can’t sit through “Daylight” without wishing I had put better drums on it. Fuckin’ rimshot? Ughh…
Anyway, after it was on the 8-track, we got it all mixed down at Cryptic One’s house in long island. He pretty much mixed the prerecorded beats and vocals (that Aesop had already laid down). Basically, he polished what could have been a turd , into something that sounded legit.
Anyway, because no one realized this album was going to be the success it was, we only made instrumental versions for the songs that were going on the singles. This was: Daylight, Coma, Boom Box, Labor, and the B-sides Maintenance and Kill’em all (RJD2 remix).
Basically, any song on “Labor days” that wasn’t those songs does not have an existing instrumental. That is why you will never hear Aes perform certain songs from that album live. Cause the beats simply do not exist.
2)How “Daylight” happened
When I first made the beat for “Daylight” , I liked it but didn’t love it. Honestly, I thought it was kinda soft. I certainly didn’t think Aesop would like it.
Anyway, one day i had a bunch of people over. It was Aesop and a bunch of Atom’s family guys (I know Cryptic was there, maybe Vast, Maybe Hangar 18). I was just playing them all beats. The beat for “Daylight” came on and I distinctly remember Cryptic being the first to react. He loved it. This shocked me cause he typically was more of a dark and ominous type (music-wise). The more it went on , it seemed like everyone was into it. That must have lit the spark for Aes cause the next day he told me he had an idea for a song over that beat.
I’m not gonna lie, I was shocked he wanted it even then. Not cause it was wack but more cause it just didn’t seem like a beat he’d like. I think I learned then that Aesop’s taste in my beats was never obvious. With the exception of a few, he always surprised me…and that’s a good thing.
So, He wrote the song, told me the sequencing parameters and I sequenced it. I still hadn’t heard the verses until after he recorded it.
He laid them down and I remember listening to it for the first time like “Oh shit..this is something”. Once I heard the hook, I knew this was something that neither of us had really done before. It wasn’t a “pop” song, but it was the first song we’d done that I thought had legs beyond just underground rap heads. It seemed bigger.
After the vocals were done we needed to add something to take it over the top. That’s where the “yes yes yall! you don’t stop!Keep on, til the break of dawn!” came in. To be perfectly honest, we both were laughing at it at first. It was too much. Like hip hop overkill. Straight up, it was corny. We both thought so. But, i think we were in the mind set of “Fuck it. If there is ever a song to let the corny flag fly, it’s this one”. So we kept it in and the rest is history.
3)Bent Life was originally with SLug and Eyedea
There was a time between “Float” and “labor days” where Slug and Eyedea were visiting NYC. While they were there, we recorded a bunch of shit. Most of which, never came out. One of the songs we had done was a different version of “Bent Life” featuring Aes, Slug and Eyedea. I think what happened to it was it sat on the shelf so long that none of the artists were really happy with their verses after the lay off. Basically, it was too dated. So, it was scrapped in favor for the version with C-Rayz Walz. I’m fairly certain I’m the only person with the original version in my grasp but I also am pretty sure I lost it like 5 years ago. Sucks cause it would be crazy to hear that again. The only thing I remember about it is that eyedea’s verse was nuts and he basically kicked the whole thing in one long breath.
UPDATE: The Original song has since been recovered and leaked to the world. It’s called Thorns
4)I had a rough time with the recording of “Bent Life”
Cause we scrapped the older version, we had to rerecord the new one with C-rayz. If I recall, this was the last song made for this album and we were under a pretty tight deadline. All I had to do was bring the floppy disks over to Aesop’s house. That’s all. Here’s the thing, we were recording it on new years day. I don’t remember why it had to be that day but it was crucial and a big deal at the time. This wouldn’t be a big deal to most professional people. But, like the asshole I was, I had gotten next level obliterated the night before. In fact, I can easily say it’s the drunkest and sickest I’ve ever been. I drank a bottle of Captain morgan’s and then smoked two blunts with hash at a party and I spent 4 hours of that night barfing in the kitchen sink of the apartment I was at. I was wrecked. I don’t even know how I got home. The next day I woke up feeling like warmed over AIDS and then I remembered I had to walk cross town to drop these disks off at Aes’s. The initial plan was for me to stick around for the recording and everything but after Aes heard what kinda shape I was in, I think he knew it would be better for me to not even be there. So, I trudged across town (Aes lived on 11th street and avenue A at the time and I was in the west village) and gave him the disks. I hope I apologized but, honestly, I don’t remember even being inside my body that day. I do remember going home and barfing more though.
Strangely enough, when I listen to “Labor Days” now, “Bent life” is one of my favorite songs. go figure.
5)The songs that didn’t make it.
There was a long break time between recording of “Float” and “Labor days”. Being the prolific guy he is, Aesop had recorded stuff the whole time in between. “Float” was a long album. I think we both agree it was made before either of us understood the concept of not putting every song you record on the album. Sometimes, you gotta trim the fat. So, when labor days came around, we were more conscious about it. This led to some tough choices though cause some of the songs that had been made were really good. Songs like “Water” got cut cause it just didn’t fit with the rest of the album and , personally, it was too similar to “Battery” (which I felt was one of he most powerful songs on the album). So it got shelved.
As did “Jinx planet” and a few others that no one has ever heard of. Looking back , we did the right thing. “Labor days” was much more concise at the length it was. 14 songs is enough. Ask LL. 14 shots the dome, bro.
6) No regrets
I don’t have much to say about this song except that when I initially heard what Aesop had done on it, I was floored. Not only cause he killed it, but cause it was the first time I had ever heard him rap in a simple manner. I was really excited about this song. not only cause it was just a dope song in general but cause it would be a great silencer of his critics who felt he didn’t flow right. That shit always infuriated me cause , as someone who had freestyled with him and just been around him, I knew he could rap any number of ways. This song was the proof. Not surprisingly, it was also most girls favorite song on the album not named “Daylight”.
7)Aesop played the bass on “Flashflood”
I had made this beat and knew it was a weird one. It really didn’t have a catchy riff to it. It just kinda changed a lot and had a super dark vibe to it. For some reason, I wanted Aes to rhyme on it though so I pushed for him to try it. The idea was to just rock one long verse over this constantly transforming beat. Problem was, He had done a similar song over a somewhat similar beat by Omega one. Once both songs were done, it was really a toss up as to which was better. My song was definitely missing something while Omega’s was perhaps too dark. That’s when Aes called me and asked me if it would be cool to add a bass line to “Flashflood”. I was like “Of course” and the next time I heard it that simple bass line had pretty much transformed that entire song into something else. The day was saved.
Well, shit…that’s all I remember for now. If you got more questions I could certainly try and answer them in the comments section. Sometimes memories have to be jostled loose.
So, I dunno what got in the water but LOTS of Aesop related questions this week. Nothing wrong with that but let’s keep this fresh. Send me more (weirder) questions to Phatfriendblog@gmail.com or leave them in the comment section below. I answer them on a first come first served basis. Feel free to ask bunches of questions. Oh, and if you have any “love advice” questions for an “Ask Dr. Tony” blog, send those as well. I’m collecting them for my next entry and need a few more.
Anyway, on with the show.
So I know this is a question you probably get all the time, and I know the answer is a single sentence usually. I would just like to hear the story of how you and Aesop met, not the we just met at college shmeal. How did music even come up? Were you making beats then? How did you connect after you left school? What in gods name was your first reaction to his style of rap? You had to kinda do a second look like, “wtf”?. I knw it’s whatever to you, but unfortuantely I find it interesting and I always wanted to know.
This might be a long ass answer.
I met Aesop at college (Boston U.). I met him towards the end of my first (and last) year there. I forget exactly how we came in contact with each other but I knew a few of his friends from classes. He lived on the other side of the campus and I wasn’t over there much. If I can recall, I went to some off campus party and he was there. At the time, both of us were huge rap nerds. Back then, in a college situation, you would immediately bond with whoever shared similar interests. In our case, we were both into underground shit. I think we discussed sharing some tapes (That’s what people did before the internet) and it went from there. At the time, I was also rapping. I had heard he rapped too. We built on that and similar music tastes and it went from there. One of my first memories with him was going to his dorm room and him playing me some demo he made on his brothers 4-track. It was an all acapella song where he did all these crazy layers of vocals. It was super bugged out and I was really impressed. Like I said, I rapped at the time too but this was waaaaaaay better than any of the bullshit I was doing (I was on some punchline shit pretty hard and my flow was as suspect as it got).
Anyway, as the school year was winding down we kept in touch. He lived in Long Island but was gonna be in the city for the summer. Once he was there we started hanging out and freestyling. basically becoming good friends during that time. Then he went back to school and I stayed in NY. That fall, I bought my sampler.
The school year passed and he was coming back to Ny to work/live again. Now, I had been making beats for months on the sampler. Admittedly, I was fucking terrible. But it was something. He and our boy Omega one ended up getting ASR-10’s later that year. Now we all had them and were making beats. We recorded a bunch of songs and it pretty much just grew from there. I think it was the next summer, he lived with me in my moms crib for a month or two and we started working on more “Music For earthworms”. Most of which with this dude Dub-L, who had access to a free studio. That album got made and I started selling online. I would literally take orders and send the cd’s out personally. We did the same thing for “Appleseed” and then Aes got signed to Mush and the rest is history.
As for the “my reaction to his rap” portion, I’ll say this. I pretty much stopped rapping once I heard aesop. He made me realize that some people are born to do this and others are just filling time. Granted, I didn’t just up and quit after hearing him kick a verse but his talent put mine in perspective enough that I started focusing more on beats. I clearly remember chilling in my crib with him and bunch of other friends. We used to freestyle and record it. We’d sit around this janky boombox and use it as a mike and record onto cassette tapes. This was the first time Aes had rapped in front of this crew of friends. They had all met him but had no idea what was about to happen. We all do our stupid little off the dome verses and he comes out with something so good it sounded like a written. But it wasn’t. He was simply that good. His voice was ill, his flow was crazy and he was actually saying dope shit. We were floored. I remember , discussing that with those friends who were there and all of us being like “Dude…that guy is incredible.”
So, yeah, that’s about that. Cool story, bro (me).
If your mom had a disease that was going to kill her without a doubt and the only way you could do to save her life was slap a retarded person as hard as you fucking could in the middle of a shopping mall and you weren’t allowed to explain yourself to ANYONE and the retarded person did know you. and they were 6. would you do it?
Slap a retarded person to save my moms life? Of course. I’d slap the shit out of that kid. He’ll get over it.
So I re-watched the good old “No Jumper Cables” video today, and I noticed that you seem to be goin’ pretty hard there beside Aes. I was wondering what the video filming process was like, how it felt to pantomime irregular actions to the song, and how you feel about the whole music video situation.
Oh man…that shit was awkward. We were up in the Bronx filming in the same place that Wild Style had filmed some scenes. Under some elevated train tracks. The whole concept of that video was they took unused footage from Wild Style and wanted to blend it in with footage of Aesop all over the city. So, we went all over the place to film. As for my part, shit’s pretty embarrassing. I’m a smiley bouncing around, douche bag in it.I had no clue what to do with myself. It was extra awkward cause we were just chilling on a street by the train the Bronx. A white dude rapping, and me hopping around. Thank god Vast was there cause we would have made easy targets that day otherwise. Filming videos in public is brutally embarrassing. You can’t not look like an idiot.
What’s your opinion of the two NYC cops who were acquitted of rape? Do you think they did it?
I actually am not familiar with this story. My news consumption is pretty low so I tend to miss anything like this that happens. I will say though that 9/10 times , when shit like this happens, you know those motherfuckers did it. Many NYC cops have serious power trip issues. Obviously, I’d have to know more (IE:anything) about this story to consider it either way but gut feeling tells me, they did it. They ALWAYS do it.
What is your take on the diddy video about him changing his twitter account name. I forget where I even saw this at, it might have been on your twitter but im not sure. I know odd future seems to have coined swag, is diddy doing this to dis odd future or does he even know who the hell they are. And does anyone even give a shit that he changed is name. I sure as hell dont
Ha! I actually tweeted about this when I initially saw it.
This is classic Diddy. There is no more shameless dick rider than Diddy. Lil B and OF come out with this whole swag movement and , of course, Diddy hops on board. I fucking guarantee that dude has never heard a OF song not called “Yonkers”. He’s an opportunist. Always has been , always will be. He’s a smart business man as well. He knows that , in order for him to stay relevant, he’s gotta follow the trends. Diddy has never been a trailblazer. He’s been a guy that leeches of trends at exactly the right moment. He’s never too late to the party but he’s certainly not the first one there. And trust, his arrival at the party usually means it’s gonna be over pretty soon. Once Jermaine Dupri get there, it’s a wrap.
So, in conclusion, yes, Diddy knows exactly who Odd Future are. It’s certainly not a diss to them. It’s just him frantically grasping at whatever he can to somehow stay cool.
if a commercial or tv show wanted to use an Aesop rock track that you produced like lets say Daylight, would you and aes both get a cut of the royalties? Who decides how much to charge the tv show, the lable that released it?
Yeah. That’s how publishing works. We’d both get a % cut of those royalties. I’m not exactly sure how much gets charged is decided. I think the people making the commercial make an offer and the two parties go back and forth until it’s agreed upon….or it totally falls apart and they end up using some other shit (which is , more often than not, the case).
Aesop and I thought , as a cool new years gift, we’d dig up an old song from the vaults and let you all have it. we’ve been digging through the crates (IE: old cassettes with a bunch of old lost songs we never used) and figured now is a better time than ever to do leak one. partially cause this song is officially ten years old now and , until this very moment has maybe been heard by about two people (i’m one of them). This song is called “jinx planet” and it was made in between “float” and “labor days”. i don’t exactly recall why it didn’t make the album but , upon re-listening, it kinda makes sense. not that’s it’s bad but i can see how it it may not have fit into what would eventually become “labor days”. you’ll notice the quality isn’t exactly sparkling but that’s cause this was taken off an old ass cassette. the song itself was recorded on a digital 8-track and never properly mixed so keep that in mind.
so, here it is:
http://www.divshare.com/download/10033109-ca7
in case you’re curious, there are more songs that we’ve recently rediscovered and perhaps they will see the light of day. who knows?
also, aes and I are working on new music together. it will be awesome.
