interview with Raymond Strife as seen in TheThrowAwayDays issue #2

TheThrowAwayDays: Have you ever bought groceries? I feel like I've never seen you eat food at your house before.
Raymond Strife: (Laughs) I don't think I ever really have gone grocery shopping unless it was with somebody. That's the funniest way to start this. Yeah, the only time I ever did was when I lived with one of my ex-girlfriends. We would go to Wal-Mart, and I would definitely eat her cooking, but I still would be like I'm not buying anything from Wal-Mart, fuck them. So I think that's the closest I've ever come to grocery shopping.

TTAD: A lot of dudes want you to bang their girlfriends with them or for them. Why do you think that is? Do you think it's all the gay jokes in your songs?
Ray: Maybe.

TTAD: This has happened more than once, yanno?
Ray: I don't know, I think maybe it's because I'm really not judgmental. Or maybe I just seem gayer than I am. I dunno maybe I just seem like I'm a weirdo. (Laughs)

TTAD: What's the difference between a bio and a description?
Ray: I have no idea.

TTAD: Oh yeah, Ben (Luckman) was telling me to ask that. I thought you were gonna get all bent outta shape.
Ray: Yeah, I was all bent outta shape in the car, cause I put down my description then what the fuck do you want from me? Why would you wanna know where I was born and shit? Do you care when you go download music? It's like, "well he lived here for 10 years, then he lost his job," like no one gives a fuck about that shit man. I mean maybe if it's interesting, but I'd rather just hear the music and then find out. I don't think anyone goes to a website and goes, "oh that sounds interesting, I think I'll listen now." I dunno, wouldn't you just listen first? Read the little snippet about what it's about.
I dunno, I just hate all the fucking music websites, I hate it. I don't think it's that cool. I hate doing it. I feel lame but you like have to do it to let people know about your shit.

TTAD: What's your best Roebus One and Dinz tour story?
Ray: I don' know, man. I don't know if I can tell any of the Dinz ones because they all involve real fucked up shit with him.
But maybe, Roebus probably the time I met him. It's not the craziest story but like the first time I ever did a show with him outside of New Jersey, was here. It was in Pittsburgh, and we stayed with John and them. It was like me, and Roebus, and GDP, and Shape, and Frank(TMFSE), and them and we were in the kitchen talking and making jokes about some bullshit. And all of a sudden Roebus makes this face like someone walked on his grave, and we're all laughing so we're like what the fuck, what's wrong? And he's like, "I just swallowed me tooth!" I thought that was like the funniest thing.
Almost as funny as when he was always tell Farricker and Dinz on tour he could end their career with one phone call.
And then when we were in Florida we did some like college video interview. I have no idea what they used it for, because none of the people who shot it stuck around for our show. But like the whole time we were trying to talk about our music, and Roebus was piss drunk for like three days and like he just kept yelling shit that didn't make any sense and his pants kept falling down. And he kept pointing at me and going, "This guy's the realest dude cause all he does is drink Pabst Blue Ribbon everywhere he goes no matter how much money he has. It doesn't matter." And his pants are just like around his ankles while Dinz and Farricker are trying to answer questions and he's just yelling. And they put a garbage can in the middle of the apartment for him to like throw up in because he just passed out on the floor. And I put a bagel on his chest to try and get him to eat some bread. And in the middle of the show he just woke up and peed in the garbage can in the middle of the living room.
That was pretty good, man. I miss that kid.

TTAD: When's the last time you didn't drink a beer in a day?
Ray: I dunno, maybe like, ugh, I think like two months ago I took two or three days off and I had nightmares every night. I don't really sleep very well even when I do drink so it's hard to sleep at all when I'm not drunk. Like even last night when we went to bed I was pretty sober and I had nightmares all night.

TTAD: What's your favorite comic book?
Ray: The Amazing Spider Man. Superior Spider Man is what it is now but it's still a great book. It's written by Dan Slott, it's just like really solid. It's all about Peter Parker, yanno, barely scraping by but doing the right thing and I like that kinda character.

TTAD: Last questions, wanna say something about your music?
Ray: Is that the question? I been thinking a lot on this tour about why I still do this, and is it even worth it.  I'm trying not to concern myself so much of where I wish I was and try to enjoy where I am even though I'm just getting older, and poorer, and shit.
But I don't know. I think my live set is the only reason I do music. I think my recordings come out ok, but like people seeing me live is the real reason I do it. And I think like there's a lot more substance in my performance than in what I write to be honest. I dunno what people are gonna take away from that, they should still check out my music. But yeah, I dunno.
Oh yeah, maybe one more thing is I think punks piss me off just as much as rappers now. Everyone's just a fucking asshole all the time. Like every time I go play a cool house show somewhere I haven't played before now, even if most the people are cool there's always a couple dick heads who are just like trendy beard, borderline metal douche bags who just like hate on the hip hop factor at a punk show. And it's like who the fuck are you man, I been here. Whatever, so I dunno. I was trying to do more hip hop shows and less punk shows because I thought it would help me get more in that crowd cause it's so hit or miss with punk shit. But I'm just getting back to being like, "ohhh this sucks, no ones gonna pay me, and I came the farthest, and I have to open." And it was just like exactly how all the hip hop shows are, and I started doing punk shows again and they're just like that now. I dunno if that's like a different era that's coming up, or just because I'm doing hip hop I should have to open or whatever. I dunno, half the time I wonder why people even book me.
There ya go. End it on a positive fucking note.

Raymond Strife
http://raymondstrife.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/RaymondStrifeWhoRaps
https://soundcloud.com/raymond-strife
@raymondstrife



interview by Cody Jones/Stillborn Identity

https://www.facebook.com/stillcody
stillbornidentity.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/stillborn-identity
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stillborn-Identity/154438521280723
https://www.youtube.com/user/stillcodentity
@CodyJonesSTLBRN

Mega-Busk tour story as seen in TheThrowAwayDays issue #1

     It's hard to leave for tour at 5:30 in the morning, but flopped shows need to be rocked, personal hygiene needs to be ignored, bar tabs need to be bailed on, hardwood floors need drunk guests to sleep on them face first, mega-buses need to disappoint punctual patrons with their overly relaxed time schedule, and so on. So needless to say I was on my way for my 'Mega-Busk tour' at 5:30 am. This is my story from a short run of out of state shows all done by bus, train, lengthy walks, and bumming rides.

     In my experience saying you're playing NYC has always been cooler than actually playing NYC. When you tell someone you're going to The Big Apple for a show they imagine you playing to a packed crowd filled with up and coming actors, record label scouts, and attractive models hurling themselves at you after the show, however that's not the case. The fact is NYC might be the most over saturated place to play. The chance of my show being anything more than dime a dozen to any NYC native is slim to none. Either way I was pumped to play a show with my friends Jack Wilson, Mike G from People with Teeth, Cornelius the Third, and Done 4.
     Considering I caught a bus to Manhattan super early in the morning I knew I was going to have time to get lost on some public transit and lurk around the surrounding area of the venue with Cornelius and Done4 once they got in from New Jersey. From where the mega-bus dropped me off, I took the train to where I thought the venue was in a pretty nice part of Brooklyn, only I accidentally took it a bunch of stops to far. I first started to notice I might be headed in the wrong direction when the amount of super hip people you hear about in Brooklyn/Bushwick started to dwindle down to fewer and fewer until there was none. Another indication of I might be going into the ghetto was from the sleeping homeless man who spends his days passed out riding the rail with a baby sized bottle of Vladmir tucked safely away in his lap. Just seeing this man in his natural habitat was only one way I was able to assume that the ground above me was becoming more and more dilapidated, but another way I was able to tell was by how close other commuters got to him. At first this guy had an entire bench to himself, no Brooklyn "hipster" would go on either side of him! As time went on and we neared the end of the route people became less and less "hobophobic" if you will, he slept shoulder to shoulder with riders, squished between them like a homeless man sandwich sprinkled with the best filth the city had to offer in the last two or so months.
     A few stops from the end two police entered the other end of the train car I was on. I debated asking them for directions. As I was about to approach them with all my gear in my back pack they got a report on their dispatch,"…suspect last seen on 52nd street, white male, blue pants, black backpack, and red hair," I stopped dead in my tracks as they turned towards me, the only red head on the train. I was afraid being the only red head on that side of town might automatically make me guilty so I got off the train at the next stop before the long arm of the law accused this model citizen of committing whatever crime.
     After I backtracked two miles on foot to the venue I met up with Cornelius and Done4. We decided to go check out the area. Instead of going up and down the main strip Done4 wanted to go behind the venue. A few paces behind the saloon and he was deucing his blunt and Cornelius handed me a beer with a brown paper bag while we scouted for a good stoop to pose as our own for a while. "Doing the good ol' New York city trash thing," I thought to myself, "I'm in!" And so we went to stoop after stoop, front steps after front steps, leaning on trash cans like we owned them while practicing comedy bits and drunkenly kick flipping in front of old women, until a resident of each building asked us to move on.
     Before long we returned to the venue with a healthy buzz and tried to fight the urge of buying over priced PBR, but eventually caved in. Jack Wilson and Mike G from People with Teeth (better known as 'Person with Tooth' that night since he rocked a solo set) came and we played the show for a small/fun crowd. I crashed with Jack that night and he gave me a small tutorial of how the public transit works to try and prevent me from getting lost again.

     The next day I took a bus to Hartford, CT where my aunt picked me up at the convention center to take me to my show in New London later that night with Skobie Won, NME the Illest, Chum, Dreadpool Parker, Erik Lamb, and The Lopez. After I got off the bus and walked around aimlessly for a while I decided to ask where the convention center was instead of assuming my intuition 'man compass' would get me there. The first person I saw was some business looking male, I asked for directions but he didn't respond. I asked again and he acknowledge me in the form of speeding up his walk and refusing the look back. It seemed he must have heard about my shenanigans the day before, and now that I had been christened in the way of big city trash hip hoppers, square business looking people like himself no longer felt safe talking to me.
     At my aunts house I stored as much food in my belly and cheeks as I could like the little chipmunk I am. When my aunt asked me what time I had to be at the venue I reluctantly told her they wanted me their an hour early to get set up. Before I could tell her that being an hour early for load in at a hip hop show was completely unnecessary she was already getting her coat so we could be on our way.
     When we arrived at El'N'Gee Club at 6:45 (we were definitely on Aunt Leslie time and not rapper time)  no lights were even on. I had a brown storm brewing in my belly from all the food I tried to inhale at my aunts house and remembered the bathrooms being pretty rough and not somewhere you would want to poop in while other people were there. So I rolled the dice and tried to door to the venue anyway. Luckily it was open, and I saw the silhouette of the bartender standing behind the counter looking like he was in some noir film listening to Trap Them.
     As I'm in the bathroom I hear my aunt walk in the bar looking for me. She asks the bartender if he knows "Cody Jones" because she, like most adults I'm related to, is embarrassed to say Stillborn Identity out loud. I come out of the bathroom and find her inspecting overly graphic metal flyers on the poster board and tags on the wall. As we walk outside she asks me if I would be offended if she didn't stay for my set. Somewhat relieved (rapping about being a drunk fuck up in front of your relatives can be weird) I say that I wouldn't be. She goes on the say that maybe it wasn't so "divey" she would stay and that if I'm playing somewhere a bit nicer and cleaner in her area to let her know. Fat chance, I think to myself.

     Princeton, NJ, along with having the best record store I've ever been to, also is home of the fanciest restaurant I've ever played in. I've never been under dressed for a show before, but at The Pind with Raymond Strife, Wade Wilson, Cornelius the Third, Urban Shocker, and Stephen Brown we all looked like such scrubs to the staff that getting served at the bar was going to be near impossible. If only my aunt was with us she could have ordered the drinks then passed them off.
     I didn't want to be the guy who goes to the bartender and asks what the cheapest beer is right off the bat, typically doing that sort of thing doesn't bother me, but I feel like this place was just looking for a reason to cut me off before I even started. I started asking local patrons what their draft was to avoid this problem. After asking five or so people who all answered Bud Light, my chances of getting a buzz were gonna be gone, but at least I could look cool holding a beer for a reasonable price.
     As it turns out, Bud Light was the only beer on tap at this bar. If that isn't weird enough, the tap wasn't even in the room with the bar. The bartender had to keep getting the busboys to run to the other room and get it for her. The busboys then would pass the beer to the bartender, the bartender to me, then I would go to pay, but by the time I got money out of me pocket she was gone.
     I decided the reason I was getting hooked up on drinks was because the bartender either wanted to help bury my bone, or she was the worst bar maid on earth, either way I was going to take total advantage of the situation. I found out it was the latter when word started to circulate in the show room that she was looking for me to pay my tab. By that point I was already 6 or so beers in with no buzz to show for it, only feeling bloated. "Forget that," I thought to myself, "those beers aren't worth paying for nor was the service," plus I had tried to pay directly after the first few rounds and she wasn't having it. So when I left the venue at the end of the night I waited till a herd of my friends left and ducked behind them.

     Trenton, NJ might be the funnest place on earth for all the wrong reasons. Raymond Strife put me up, and luckily he had the day off. After lounging in his living room for far to long watching soap operas, we decided to take the day in and actually got outside before 4pm and see what was happening at Championship bar.
     After a few rounds on the bar, Ray and I made tracks to his girlfriends dads birthday party. I was pretty weirded out by the situation, but before I even made it beyond the living room at the house I already had a fistful of pretzels and a Black and Tan Yuengling to wash them down with. After an hour or so of eating every type of finger food the party had to offer; pretzels, chips, hummus, shrimp, cookies, brownies and drinking every beer I could never afford on my own while mingling with all of Ray's girlfriends distant relatives we decided we had to go to the show where another mountain of beer was waiting for me and the other bands/rappers.
     The show was great thanks to Greg Klein, but the night really started to become more memorable as Ray and I got closer to being black out drunk. After the show we decided to go back to Championship bar for last call with our friends Griffen and Rusmir. Ray walked in a few minutes before us, and when we finally made our entrance, I saw Ray standing at the bar counter with two pleasantly plump women while his pants were at his ankles, boxers and all, flopping his dick around like a fish out of water.
     Worried that he might get in trouble from the bar for indecent exposure, or from the women for sexual harassment, I rushed over to help him pull up his pants like he was some sort of paraplegic that fell over mid-crap in a bathroom stall. Until I realized that the bartender was purposely looking in the opposite direction, and the women were giggling and standing up for him saying that his pants were only off because they asked to see his flaccid cock as I was about to scold him. For a second in my drunken stupor I started to believe them, then I had a moment of clarity and realized no girls are going to bars just to try and see some random dudes limp dick.
     The bartender broke us off with a six pack against his better judgment as we started to walk back to Rays and crash for the night. Griffen, Rusmir, and I were all downstairs finishing our last beers of the night, trying to figure out how Rusmir and I were going to catch the train out of Trenton in the morning, as Ray walks past the balcony on the top of the steps just barely in our peripheral vision. Griffen takes notice of him and looks up the steps as he passes by and whips his dick out one last time for the night. Griffen, nearly blinded by seeing Rays wang again decides to head out then and leave Rusmir and I to fend for ourself trying to get a ride off the sleeping/streaking giant to the train station in the morning.

Written by Cody Jones/Stillborn Identity

stillbornidentity.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/stillborn-identity
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stillborn-Identity/154438521280723
@CodyJonesSTLBRN

Raymond Strife, Stillborn Identity, and Cornelius III April 2012 tour recap.

Raymond Strife, Stillborn Identity, and Cornelius III April 2012 tour recap.

April of 2012 I was fortunate enough to go on tour with one of my best dude I’ve met through rap, Raymond Strife. Ray suggested bringing his friend Cornelius the Third (then known as DMk). At first I was pretty hesitant because over the last few months I had been working pretty hard on getting these dates booked, and then all of a sudden this random dude wants to show up and wants to milk me dry. Eventually I agreed to let him come along, and luckily I did because he’s pretty rad too. This sounds like it’s about to be some boring sentimental crap, but I’ll try my best to not let it end up like that.

The first night we played in Pittsburgh at Inn Termission Lounge with Amuck, Fortified PhonetX, GINO, and Jack Wilson who showed up out of nowhere and rocked a quick set. Nothing to eventful happened this night but it was still a rad show, the venue made us meatballs and beans which sounds disgusting but it was delicious and those leftovers kept us nourished the entire tour. Ray and Cornelius stayed with Ray’s friend in Coraopolis, and I went with like five of my dude friends all chasing one girl to Oakland where I passed out on my friend’s floor.

The second night we were supposed to play in Cleveland, OH at Bela Dubby, but it ‘temporarily had to close for repairs’ aka it went out of business. So we got a last minute show in East Lansing, MI at The GTG House with some of Ray’s friends.  We went there pretty early to hang out and the entire time Ray talked about how these were the coolest people ever, after the first or second hour I just tuned him out and read books in the back not believing anyone could be that cool.

When we showed up at the house venue the beers were already flowing, it was like they’d been preparing for ‘Raymond Strife’ for days. Cats were wearing his old shirt, someone brought their leather jacket and wanted his new stencil on it. I broke my rule of not drinking until I at least know what time I’m supposed to play and started cheersing beers with everyone.

The Guest Stars opened, Cornelius III went second, I was third, and as far as I know everything after that is just hear say. Ray dropped my computer when he was using it during his set and I didn’t seem to care at all because I was drunk. I only remember this because there was a huge dent in it the next day. They had real strong IPA’s at the show for anyone who donated money to the touring acts. So in some way in my drunken stupor this made me feel entitled to all the beer I could stomach… and more.

After drinking a river dry during every acts set, some girl asked me if I wanted to smoke some chebba. Typically I’d say no, but they were cute and I was drunk, and I thought being drunk was the same thing as being charming so I accepted thinking they wouldn’t be able to resist me. We went to a “bedroom” behind the “stage” in the basement and smoked.

 

What felt like was hours later, but was probably only 2 minutes later I emerged from the room back to the show space where the party where was still bumping. Apparently there was a DJ who was spinning dance music. I see Ray in the middle of the dance floor killing it. I try to join but I’m walking all bowlegged looking like a drunken cowboy that has just been on a horse for days falling slightly forward with every step. I inform Ray of my problem and he tells me just to go with it. “Genius!” I think to myself, and partner up with the wall for stability in the dance room and start pointing my index fingers to the sky as I bob my head back and forth like a baby without any neck muscles. Before long I realize I’m not the world’s best dancer and somehow make my way upstairs to pass out on the couch.

Here is where the story literally becomes hear say, but I believe every word of it. At some point in the night I get up from the couch I’m sleeping on to look for a bathroom (so I can barf). There is a glass table next to the couch that I knock everything off of and then step on as the person sleeping on the bean bag next to the couch tells me to not step on the glass coffee table, somehow it doesn’t break.

Luckily the first room I go into is the bathroom. Except after a quick assessment I come to realize it’s not the bathroom, but I’m already committed so I’ll be damned if I don’t throw up somewhere in this room. I spot a window and start trying to open it so I can throw up out of it (not being able to open windows when I’m blackout drunk is a reoccurring trend, luckily for me or else I probably would have fallen to my death 10 times by now). The kid whose room I’m in is outside with Ray, they spot me upstairs stumbling around pretending to be the world’s best mime, except there is actually a window in front of me.

He comes up (I can’t remember his name, big surprise, I can’t remember anything from that night) and asks me if I need to throw up. I nod and he takes me to the bathroom, where I pass out on the cold floor. A while later he comes back and tells me he’s got a bed set up for me. I follow him to the dining room where he laid a blanket sheet under the table for me to pass out. To me this looks perfect; I thank him and lie down, only to wake up a few minutes later, rush to the bathroom and puke my brains out.

As we’re getting ready to make our way out of town, I get informed that our show in Kalamazoo is cancelled. I break the news to the group expecting them to be bummed, but they’re pumped to get to hang out in East Lansing for another day while I’m worried I may have worn out my welcome. The locals assure me that I haven’t and after a few phone calls they get us on a show at Macs Bar for a roller derby benefit then offer to show us around town. I guess Ray was right that these were like the nicest/raddest people ever.

I try to stay pretty mellow this night, but it’s damn near impossible. When we walk into the venue and the DJ from the night before is bartending, without saying much he pours us three draft beers, gives a convincing wink, and walks away. He must have admired my dance moves. Plus some of the East Lansing homies held us down pretty hard at the beer store and gave us a killer deal on a case so when we didn’t have a free draft at the bar, we had plenty of car beers to go around

                While watching the merch table with Cornelius towards the end of the night some maniac that’s a self-proclaimed ex-WWF bouncer for Hulk Hogan or Andre the Giant or something like that comes over and starts chatting us up, but not in a friendly manner at all. I ignore him, while the drunken DMk’ becomes buddies with this roid-raging asshole. After a few minutes he asks Cornelius if he wants to smoke some weed in his van, although he doesn’t usually smoke he accepts the offer because he’s drunk and that’s what beer does.

                                    this is the show we jumped on >

       

        “He’s dead,” I think to myself. I’m never going to see Cornelius the again. There is no way that guy smokes reefer, he’s way to high strung. It’s a trick, he’s going to take him in his van and strangle him with his wiener and strangle him with his hands. All I can do at this point is hope that he kills him before he rapes him.

To my surprise Cornelius comes back in a few minutes seemingly unscathed. Except whatever he smoked wasn’t pot at all, I have no idea what he was, but he started turning into a total weirdo. I started to notice traits in him that I saw in that guy, super high strung, abrasive , eyes totally glassed out, and just plain uncomfortable to be around. He’s was like this for the rest of the night and part of the drive out of town the next day.

(Appleton flyer?)

LO Double T hooked us up with a show in Appleton, WI. We stopped by his place before the show and checked out some of his tracks off his upcoming release. One of the tracks Ray was on and Ray absolutely despised his verse but LO Double T said he liked it so wouldn’t let him redo it, which I thought was kind of funny. Mac Lethal was also featured on the release.

LO Double T requested this song from Raymond Strife(no homo)

Streams of Consciousness came to the show and put us up for the night. Which ended up being a huge relief he was able to put us up because LO couldn’t and it was way too cold to sleep in the car. Ray and Cornelius didn’t even bring blankets and Streams only had one for us to use in his living room. Cornelius got the blanket, and Ray got the abnormally tall girl at the show to keep him warm. Ray has fans in every city, for better or for worse. At the end of the night when we were getting ready to leave the venue and Ray was trying to duck out before this girl tracked him down I thought it would be funny to invite her (I was drunk, sorry Ray). But luckily I did or else he probably would have frozen to death without her, or worse yet had to cuddle with Cornelius or me to stay warm!

                Bloomington, IN was the next show. As far as I know no one we’re real tight with has played Indiana (especially not Bloomington), so it was kind of a “milestone” even to get a small show there. We played with some groups that were heavily influenced by Oddfuture, and they killed it. It was one of those shows that you thought was going to be horrible but ended up being pretty rad.

                Athens, OH got cancelled so we decided to drive through the night back to Pittsburgh. I picked up the last shift of driving that ended when the sun was coming up. Ray is super anal about letting people drive his car so he pretended not to sleep the entire time and would just sleep talk to himself thinking that I was responding. A few times when he finally did fall asleep he’d wake up for 30 seconds and rap along to the Wu-tang cd we were listening to then pass back out.

Raymond Strife

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-bandcamp

-twitter

-IG @RaymondStrife

Stillborn Identity

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-IG @CodyCodyJones

Cornelius III

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Raymond Strife - Self-Loathing Egomaniac

Raymond Strife is awesome. If you didn't already know, you're blowing it. He's got a new album coming out called I'm Sorry, but until it does get use to him stuff by checking out his 2010 release Self-Loathing Egomaniac. I'm gonna try and get an interview with him when his new album drops. He also has a demo between Self-Loathing Egomaniac and his upcoming release I'm Sorry, called Autumn Down Drunk Demo 2012, depending what tracks don't make the final cut I might put that on here too.

free download
bandcamp
soundcloud
facebook
He's on instagram too, but I dunno how to link that.

ESH the Monolith interview and free download.

     ESH the Monolith is an awesome rapper, and a cool dude I met a while ago when he toured through Pittsburgh. I decided to give his 10 inch, Invisible he did with DOX some shine for the millions upon millions of people that follow this blog, and to try and make the post slightly more interesting than a boring JPEG image I decided to email him a few questions that have little to do with his music, and nothing to do with this vinyl. Proofreading your blog is for total nerds, I'm just kind of a nerd, so here there interview complete with every grammar mistake, punctuation error, and type-o he or I have have mad.e

TheThrowAwayDays: I see you petting the cat pretty hard here, did you land this kick flip? (looks like it's gonna be a kick flip)
ESH the Monolith: This was an attempted kick flip and no I didn’t land it. I didn’t land a single trick that night on account of I suck at skateboarding and I am old. This was just me getting my Little Wayne on and trying to appeal to the kiddos. Drink Mountain Dew, kiddos.

T-TAD: When is the last time you really "skated" and why did you get out of it?
ESH: I think I quit skating when I was in high school. Around 1943 I believe. I wasn’t immediately good at it so I quit because I am lazy and I quit things that I am not immediately good at. I stick with the bike nowadays.

T-TAD: What kind of eccentric super hero sprains his ankle jumping off a car? You can't save anyone like that.
ESH: The worst super hero out, that’s who. I was so fucking drunk that night. I was drinking vodka out of pint glasses all night in Trenton, NJ. HW is a son of a bitch for posting such an un-superhero like video of the god.



T-TAD: How, when, and why did the super hero thing become a staple to go along side ESH?
ESH: It was around 1943 I think. I’ve always been into the idea of superheros who are really just fuck ups. Like, “Yeah I can fly and I’m really strong, but this blow habit is draining my pockets and my girlfriend is a bitch.”

Also, rappers have the tendency to elevate themselves to these untouchable super man like characters, so I decided to make myself the worst superhero out because that’s more accurate.

T-TAD: You got any good dirt on HW or Halo after touring with them? Or any rad stories from the road in general?
ESH: First of all, those dudes are great to tour with. I would tour with them again in a heartbeat.
That being said, here is some dirt on HW:
1. He has a Juggalo hatchet man tattoo on his shoulder.
2. That night I busted my shit jumping off Halo’s jeep, HW got beat up by Raymond Strife’s lady friend and cried and peed his pants and said he wanted to cancel tour and go home because of the bruises.

As for Halo, this isn’t really dirt, but dude was legally dead at one point and got brought back to life. He also has the uncanny ability to play a Gangstar song followed by a Misfits song followed by the I’m Barbie Girl in a Barbie World song and make it work. And has a stylish fur coat.


T-TAD: Why does it take you so long to put out music? According to your bandcamp you have a release in 2008 and 2011 and that's it, or do you have stuff out that's not on there?
ESH: In between those two projects I did a bunch of collaborations and produced joints for a bunch of people. I did a lot of work on my homie Romen Rok’s album “Absolutely” which came out in 2010.

I’m not making excuses. Most of it was due to being fucked up all the time and unfocused and messing with trashy birds. That isn’t the case any more. I’m much more motivated now. I have another project that’s coming out next month and a full length production album that’s almost done. I’ve mended my slacker ways.


T-TAD: What are your future rap plans?(tours, releases, publicity scandals, etc)
ESH: In December I’m releasing a new half an album over with my dude The Arcitype’s beats. It’s called Nightworks. Topics include: alcoholism in the werewolf community, LARPing, cubicles, being a small person, falling out of love with bridges, the episode of Punky Brewster where Cherry got locked in that refrigerator, and giving people dead arms. It’s a bunch of raps, mostly. It features Romen Rok, Fran-P, and Ceschi. My brother also plays guitar on it which I’m pretty hyped about. We are putting out a new video when it drops too.

Then sometime next year I’m releasing a project called Loop Minded Individuals, which is a compilation that is co-produced by me and Intrikit. We rap on it too, but not much. It features verses from too many people to mention (plus I’m still waiting on some people).

Hopefully I’ll be touring again in March, but I’m not sure yet. I’d like to get back out to Pittsburg soon and chill with your dog, who seems like a pretty chill dog.

After that I’m going to drive my car into the Grand Canyon.


If you give a fuck, we can be computer buddies here:

www.EcenticSuperHero.com
Twitter: @ESHtheMonolith
Facebook.com/ESHtheMonolith
Instagram: EshTakesPictures

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Hand Written Fliers Always Seem To Say It Best

Dope fliers are always promising leads to good shows, and in the 21st century hand drawn ones are even more few and far between.
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Skate ditch, eat food, rap show, get drunk, drive somewhere, sleep maybe, repeat.

 

 

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