we were twisted like the clouds
just fools up on our backs
the music in the sky
make me feel a little bit...
black ink is moving past
this god damned sun at last
and i can't pass on this, just a pacifist
wishing war upon us all
and then i fall...
dance.
blue and red and freedom...
stand.
with me in the pouring rain...
in tennessee,
the world was free, and it hit me like this
(doing that)
yellow bandana twist.
emotion love and now
pulling strings that i can't see
inspired coming down
the music loud...
---------------------------
in the headphones:
j. cole - the warm up
download this mixtape immediately. j. cole is one of the most respectful and talented writers/producers/mcs around. when he's not doing his kanye impression, he's killing it with heavy flows about very poignant topics. clever wordplay and fresh cadence, too.
"is the lord up top with a stop watch for me hope not."
fireflies.
i grew wings.
my baby taught me to sing. listen to that young people music. spinning fast. never lasts. until the moment i figured out, what the moment was all about. wrote it down. light a match. get attached. until your artistry is snatched by greedy mouths. and the night sky. song. cry. women wine. and the sun. fly. so high. too much pride. paper burn and fireflies. and then your brothers will shoot you down. just shouldn't carry around what makes you smile. call it truth. more like youth. masquerading as an old man in denial. and the night sky. song. cry. women wine. and the sun. fly. so high. too much pride. paper burn and fireflies. crush.
young people music to get stoned and discover love to. sex and happiness - drugs and invincibility. innocence. growth.
and you move past it. into a world of plastic flowers, adult conversation, and proper etiquitte. words are minced, emotion faked, truth only as often as talk is straight. and it moves past you. as the weight of the 9-5 leaves its footprints all over your ambition. as your inhibitions overtake any sort of dream-filled vision of what you can offer tomorrow. except for the lucky few. we put them up on pedestals and record stores and bookshelves. revealing themselves at the perfect time. a long lost friend. a window to the discovery of someone else’s immortality. power. authenticity. a rose. your first time. all that’s pure and real and makes you feel so much. a crush. die tomorrow, live today. say it your own way, with action and expression - not conflict and oppression. lest you be crushed. trip-el-et.
it seems good things come in threes.
the three legs of the iconic peace image that drove revolution and change. the three leaves on a the clover that never seems to age. the three beats in a waltz... the last one on fillmore's stage. yet if i write with a rhythm that can be arranged into threes, it seems that i start to lose peoples' attention. they mention they only want things in fours. four over four. eight over eight. it seems like society wants it straight... they want it in a predictable, digestible, vaccinated production that lacks soul. without this soul it is empty... a person who seems to have lost the will to live. music and art and revolution full of such empty promises and misguided desires can culminate in progress or regression. obviously, regression is fucking weak. so we've identified the problem with thinking in fours - its regressive. many revolutionaries, from the beatles to those fools in the management dptmt. have utilized four/four. doesn't it get old? maybe. this leads me (in a roundabout-never-thought-i-would-get-there-way) to my point. four-on-the-floor funk just seems to hit your deepest parts better than almost any other kind of beat. it's the 1, 2, 3, 4 that makes the world go round and keeps my heart beating. feel no pain. that's the only thing about music that matters. luckily, it's just three words. -------------------- #intheheadphones :: bob marley - rastaman vibration roots. rock. reggae. yup, of course it's a three. trip-el-et. drive. wind. dead.
tin can, suntan; pen running circles round the words between the lines.
you'd better head back to tennessee, jed. you'd better not remember me dead. fade back to where you came from black jack smack in the middle of the war between the times. sometimes streams run through my thoughts and make their way onto a page. sometimes bob speaks to you and sometimes the sun is pouring tears of rage. it feels ambitious and futile, but i want to keep trying. to change it all. lucky.
3:49pm. tuesday. july 21. 200therestofmylife...
and i've had a minute to think about where i sit. i've caved to the corporate structure of a major national blah blah entity. i have given up on my dreams of changing the world through music in exchange for stability in life, predictability, and some sweet business cards. i was lucky that i had options... and i feel even more fortunate that i might even be able to keep playing and writing music going forward. shane (the co-songwriter & lead guitarist in the project) and i put some of our deepest creative impulses down on tape over the last three years. but there's a catch: i feel like we weren't able to achieve the reach and impact that we could have. i would have loved to be able to influence more kids... to develop a community of artistry and creation centered in our revolutionary idea. on the flip side, i think we did alright for a few kids who liked to get faded and play some tunes. i had so much fun making music, that it spoiled me... but, again, i'm lucky. in the advertising world, i've found the resources and platform to be able to share this point of view. i work in a creative environment with access to some of the most influential broadcast resources and some of the most recognizable brands on the planet. i have embraced popular culture and commercialism for the greater good of revolutionizing an industry. lofty goals. people often dismiss them, but it's what turned a stupid college band into a form of art that i was proud to have been a part of... a collective of talented musicians (myself EXcluded)... who could bump a party or lay down timeless tracks in a studio. i hope i can bring this passion and enthusiasm to my job. i feel like i'm in the right position to do it. i also feel like the current social atmosphere is rife with opportunities to really connect with people... be it through advertising or music. hopefully this movement can salvage good old-fashioned original thought and creativity. maybe i should say, "fuck the revolution." if i acknowledge that talk of a movement is nothing without supporters, maybe people will realize its up to them to get involved. probably not. either way, i appreciate everyone's ear. i am thankful for the position i am in. though i've worked hard to get here, i'd be an idiot not to realize... how lucky i really am. :: in the headphones phish - 6.20.09 (alpine valley, wi) these guys absolutely kill it on this bootleg. sure, they're getting a little old and losing a step. but name 4 musicians on the radio today that can play tracks with this much enthousiasm and musicality. it's a shame that people write them off as "hippie jam freaks..." because there have been very few groups EVER that synthesize modern rock, party funk, and free-form jazz improvisation as well as phish. "can this wait 'till i'm old? can i live while i'm young?" man can't fly.
man can’t fly
awake in the city | a black cloud above me | perfection of progress | a woman who loved me. i filled up my lungs with | the air of tomorrow. | and coughing and choking | and swimming in sorrow… and baby it’s alright | man ain’t never gonna fly away. i kick start my conscience | with rumors of lightning | it comes in the nighttime | the visions are frightening and i in this twilight | like daddy before me | see death on the corner | but they still ignore me… and baby it’s alright | man ain’t never gonna… feel the air | heavy wings gonna drag and you fall back down | and in the moment you feel good its understood you wish you could… writing. (listening).
so the lost art of the written word is a good place to start when thinking about what needs to be done with this revolution of mine.
why is it that our attention spans have shrunk so much? i'll try to keep this short, but it's the rushing, speeding, blinding way our minds have been trained to work for the last fifty years. everything is done at light speed, with no regard for enjoyment or a deliberate hand. it is with this in mind that i have decided to do a little bit more writing. i'm manipulating perceptions: people cannot continue to think that living their lives at a million miles an hour will lead to more accomplishment. in reality it will lead to less creativity, more complacency, less personality, and more performance-enhancers and quick-fixes. more than likely, i am shouting out into an empty abyss... my words echoing off other sound waves and becoming more and more easy to ignore. i'm used to that. i spent three years writing emotional, important, and insightful lyrics... only to have my musical career reduced to performing in front of hundreds of blacked-out college students more interested in where their beer was than what the revolution was about. that's ok. none of us like where authority, liability, and litigation has taken us. the generations before us have laid the framework of a society where a job poorly (but quickly) done, is more desirable than art or creativity. forty years ago, this wasn't the case. at least people knew how to listen. i hope our generation remembers how important that is. twitter_ (@projectboston) so we've been up on this for about a month... it's kind of cool. if you miss the show, you can still walk with us through the set! check this: first "tweet": i'm gonna post our setlist from last night... one song at a time :). more tweets:
and all for $free.99! ----------------- in the headphones: erykah badu - bag lady "momma's gun," the sister record to d'angelo's "voodoo" and common's "like water for chocolate," is neo-soul deliciousness. her trill vocals carry weight and tha support musicians lay down such fat grooves. this is a "sun-out-smoke-rings-flyin-drinking-a-beer" record. yup, about that kind of day out here at revolution headquarters... running out of time (#_20)
so it's almost all over.
the revolution will keep on rolling, but it'll lose its junky voice out in chestnut hill. i've been thinking a lot lately about what this band means to me... but more importantly what it means to everyone else around me. we've had an awesome run... we've played with some amazing musicians and rocked some awesome rooms. but i feel like our message hasn't quite gotten the traction that we'd hoped. the community in 'tha hill has been a bit less than supportive, but it's because they have the wrong outlook. you aren't coming to the show to support your friends, you're coming because you want to party... because you want to be part of something bigger than yourself... because you want to think for yourself and decide if you smell what we're steppin' in. because you want to be taken to a different, better place where there's good music, good people, good times, and the beer flows all night long. we talk about revolution... about change. we wax nostalgic, but we look towards the future. we've written songs about love, songs about hate, songs about the struggle. but most of all, we have tried to connect with people and bring them along our musical ride. sure, maybe we don't repeat the same phrase 50 times in our tracks to DRILL. IT. INTO. YOUR. HEAD... but maybe that's because we WANT you to have to listen, absorb, and feel. but don't get us wrong... we haven't forgotten that the main reason we love playing music is making people dance, sing, and party. so that's why we've been working on some dope covers and some funky, upbeat grooves that even ya motha would want to grind to. we're playing a few house parties between now and the end of may. then the project is going to hang up the nike boots... at least for a pretty solid chunk of time. thanks for all the support, go get the new album, look back on some pictures you have from past shows and parties, and remember that we love you and we loved that you wanted to be a part of what we were doing. the revolution's still on it's way... you guys are just going to have to make you don't forget what it was all about. peace, love, & rock, the project ---------------------------------------- in the headphones: d'angelo - send it on if you like music with substance... music with soul... sexual music... music with heart and groove... then d'angelo's voodoo album should be your bible. everyone should listen to this album at least once through. it was the heart of the late 90's soul revolution. they smelled what we were steppin in. 
|
