Bleubird interview from 4-26-2012

     When I first did this interview with Bleubird four and a half months ago, I had the high hopes of publishing it in the first issue where I would turn this stupid, unread, online blog, into a stupid, unread, waste of paper, fanzine. Since then my zine dreams haven't manifested any, and I've realized I have more important things to waste my money on than a poorly distributed underground hip hop zine. I've recently had a streak of bad luck that drained my will to live and keep this blog updated. This streak of self induced misfortune left me, in jail, in court, unemployed, heart broken, at funerals, loosing friends, loosing cars, in a perpetual state of drunken haze, all the way back to swearing myself to staying sober and turning my life around.
     So here's to a pending new hobby of mine that will hopefully keep me motivated, sober, and out of trouble. Here I'll be interviewing indie rap artists and posting them on this blog. And to Bleubird, I'm sorry for hassling you so much to do an interview for a blog with such low traffic, maybe that will change once I start posting more of the interviews I've been sitting on...



TheThrowAwayDays: For those who don't know, let 'em know!
Bleubird: Bleubird; Sloppy Doctor, Les Swashbuckling Napoleons, Grimm Image, Fake Four, Endemik Music, Freebird(laughs). I'm a rapper.

T-Tad:You just released Cannonball, but it seemed like you had a bit of a hiatus before that, what was the deal?
BB: Yeah that was my bad, I actually did have a lot of music. I released a record called Primsin Allaey with this produced named Jay Rope from Berlin. That was my bad not calling it Bleubird and Jay Rope because technically it was a solo record just all produced by one producer. But it was a side project I did that was more noise rock influenced. I also did Les Swashbuckling Napoleons which was produced by Edison out of San Francisco and it was with this rapper named Thesis Siheid out of Canada. And I also did a project called Triune Gods produced by Scott Daross of Endemik Music and with a Japanese rapper named Shabit from this group called Oragomy. So I was super involved with making a lot of music I just hadn't put the effort into a "Bleubird" record per-say.
   But yeah, I just released Cannonball a couple months ago and have not stopped touring, at the end of this run, on Saturday, I'll have played 69 shows already this year.

T-TAD: Cannonball is sort of a new direction for you, between your process of making your beats on this one, and even your flow seems paced a bit more compared to your standard "rapid fire" delivery. How come, and are you going to keep going on that direction?
BB: umm, I mean there is still some rapid fire to it. But I've been recording for about 10 years, even more. I just wanted to try something different. I was taken out of my comfort zone on purpose on Cannonball. I wanted to see if I could do that, and I'm just getting more into song writing; melodies, harmonies, and tension. You know like I just use to like my writing song was like "badadada" and the whole thing was just tense. But like I love the idea of like kind of getting you excited, and then calming you down, and then chilling you out, and then making you be like "oh", and then dropping it on you again. You know like the whole roller coaster ride aspect of song writing, and pitch, and mood. But I'm probably about to record some trap shit, you know I'm always gonna be doing different shit. And that's what I love, I don't know what the next Bleubird record is going to sound like, but it probably won't sound anything like Cannonball.

T-TAD: How is the first US tour to promote Cannonball going thus far, and how was the reaction for it during your European tour with Astronautalis?
BB: Europe was fucking awesome. I've always been more successful touring in Europe, I don't know why it just always worked for me better out there. But I know that it's also important to grind it out in the US. I had been touring the Freebird project during the last year and a half of during the process of making Cannonball, so I was trying out those songs. As far as the record being out and me playing shows, it hasn't been an overwhelming response, but the people that have been responding to it are awesome. I'm really excited about gaining new fans, people that have never heard of me and are just getting turned onto me on through Cannonball, because it's my first US release. Then I'm like, "look man there's ten record behind it." Yanno like all these different project and it's cool you know cause it blows peoples mind and shows them all these different sides of me. But you know it's been great, just seeing people that know some of the new songs, it's cool, because in Europe the record hadn't really hit, I was touring already while the record hit. So I'm actually going back in June to Eastern Europe and playing a few festivals in Hungary and German with Astronautalis again and I'm excited to see how it's gonna take over there. because I did 34 shows in 36 days in January and February, just hit it real hard, so now I'm psyched to go back and see how it's going to affect it. I don't have any plans to stop touring this year. I don't think just putting out my record was gonna make this huge response, i have to tour on it I have to play the shows. Directly after this tour, I have 8 days off, then going back to Europe for a month, then get back and I have 3 days off, then I'm jumping on the Warp Tour for another month. Then I'm trying to go to Japan and Australia after that.

T-TAD:Got any good stories from the road?
BB: (laughs) One of my favorite stories is a couple years ago I got invited to the middle east, to play in Amman Jordan. I was the first American rapper to play in Amman. I played with a Palestine rap group called Ramallah underground, on July 4th which was fucking hilarious. I was totally frightened, I had never been to the middle East. My mother is Jewish, but I wasn't raised religious, but i didn't know how much that affected peoples opinions, and the dudes I was playing with were pretty radical Palestinians. I didn't know if they would get my sense of humor, I showed up by myself, stayed in this Best Western next to the fucking Egyptian Embassy, there was just troops all over the place. I just Wandered all over the city for days, went to the Dead Sea, the show ended up being amazing, there was 300 kids there. I got along so awesome with Ramallah underground kids.

   But the best part is I was through the airport, back into america. but leaving jordan, and I was leaving with one of the Palestine kids who was flying to Dubai. he was trying to help me through customs and shit because I didn't speak and Arab and they didn't speak much english, the custom dudes. and I ran into a snag with some of my gear, because i had a lot noisier of a setup then. and I had theses pedals that were homemade, with just boxes with knobs, with batteries taped to them and shit. and they were just like, "whoa, what the fuck is this?" and I like turned it on and it started being "beepbeepbeep" and they were just like "nonono!" and I got separated from my buddy, and next thing I know I'm surrounded by military in the airport in jordan, asking me all these questions but like it's just not working so they start calling over higher ranks. So finally they call the like general comes over and the dude is so stone faced and hates me as he walking up. And he opens my bag and all these stickers fall out it's this picture a French artists did of me with this ghetto blaster, it's a drawing. and i'm like great, now these mother fuckers are gonna hit me with this graffiti rule, like vandalizing their city. and he picks it up and he's like is this you? I'm like yeah, and my heart stops, and he's just like, "it's beautiful!" And I'm was like "YEAH!" and he was like, "you make rock or rap?" and I'm like, "rap!" And he's like, "I like rap!" and I'm like, "y-y-you want one??" He's like "YEAH!" So i'm handing out stickers to all these military dudes and they don't even look at one more thing on my bag. They shove everything back one, they're like, "thank you, please come back again."

T-TAD: What else do you plan on doing to promote cannonball?
BB: I been doing another serious of videos, like I worked really hard on that kickstarter campaign to shoot the super 8 video for pimp hand. but that didn't really have the affect I hoped cause we worked so fucking hard on doing that. but i just shot another video with Ceschi for time for real, with this crazy directory in San Francisco named Allen Price, he's done some videos for sub pop. I'm really excited, he's like building sets, it's puppets, and stop motion. me and Ceschi are gonna be floating over this digital ocean. We had a lot of fun making that, and I got some plans for some other videos. And I'm putting out 150 vinyl on my own, with a Lazer Beak remix on it, which is being worked on right now. I'm gonna get them pressed and I'm gonna screen print them myself. So throughout this year, I'm gonna keep on touring and try to release the remix, and vinyl, and a couple more videos. Just trying to get it out. I'm really proud of the album, and I love it. We had no budget for publicity. So the best publicity I have to do is just going out and playing it everywhere I fucking can.

Bleubird
Bleubird on facebook
Bleubird on twitter

Steddy P @ Shadow Lounge 7-2-2012

     Live hip hop shows have always been, in my opinion, for getting boozed up. It's pretty rare that I can go to a live, hear someone for the first time, and be into anything more than their presence and beats. Leaving out the element most important to me, the lyrical content. However last night that outlook of going to shows just to get faded changed considering the fact that I'm broke and virtually unemployed.

      So when I heard about Proseed and Fortified PhonetX throwing a show at Shadow Lounge I could think of every excuse not to go so I could stay home and save money. But when my brothers in arms were frantically sending out texts last minute to avoid a flopped show I couldn't help but go out and support them when I'd rather be sitting in my lonely apartment listening to rats shit in my silverware drawer. Not to mention one of the texts I got said the $5 cover was reduced to $3 for fellow artists, and I assumed I'd be able to get a little buzz up by stealing drinks off of rich girls while they weren't looking.
     I arrived to the show two and a half sets in(missing Frigid Giant, Dos Noun, and part of Proseed), and to my dismay wasn't able to get in at the rumored reduced rate. No worries though, because I went out to try and salvage my friends potentially small show, one $5 cover charge at a time. Also to my dismay half the girls there were in some way related to Moemaw Naedon, making it a little uncomfortable to steal drinks from them in case I got caught.
     Either way, I showed up just in time to catch my first show experience with Steddy P. And although I was crabby and sober, the dude from Kansas City killed it. Steddy P's set was super enthusiastic and you could tell he was more than happy to be in Pittsburgh for the first time. One of my favorite lines of his that really stuck with me was,"work hard, play hard, party hard, fuck hard... until we reach the graveyard." He ended his set by inviting everyone in the audience to go do shots with him. If only I could have...
     He's got free shit online, and seems to be the touring type, check it out, then don't be a scrub like me and buy his shit when he rolls through your town and do some shots with him.


http://www.facebook.com/steddyp
http://steddyp.bandcamp.com/

Ceschi - Fake Flowers R.I.P. #2

Look at this, a free, legal download from Ceschi similar to the one I stumbled on that I thought was some rare gem in the last post, turns out I was wrong. When I saw Ceschi at Youngstown a few weeks ago I'm pretty certain he had none of these available. I don't know why, I get super pumped when I see an artists discography sprawled across a makeshift merch table.

Digital downloads only are so lame, keep print alive... but if it's free digital download only I'll take it.

Ceschi - Fake Flowers R.I.P. #2

Ceschi and Bleubird in Youngstown, OH 4-24-2012

I filmed some stuff at this show. But I didn't drink because I had to drive home so nothing exciting happened. Greenlander also played but I didn't film his set because I was feeling lazy.

     Here is a clip of Ceschi ripping it at the show.
     I had an old cd of Ceschi's I found on SoulSeek ages ago called, Fake Flowers RIP 3 CDR. I was going to share it, but with everything being taken off mediafire lately, and me not knowing any other way to share music, I think I'm going to pass. It's a shame because it's something that isn't in circulation anymore(if it ever was, I can't find much info about this release) but is still worth hearing. Given by the name I think it's some sort of prequel/sequel to Fake Flowers filled with rough recordings or songs that didn't make the cut, but are still good. Maybe I'll eventually find a way to share this legally, but until then I'm just going taunt the nonexistant readers of this blog with the fact that I had an obscure Ceschi Ramos release and YOU DON'T!

     Here is a clip of Bleubird ripping it at the show. I was especially excited to see/get to play with Bleubird at this show. This was my first time getting to play with Blebird, and only second time getting to see him live. I saw him a few years ago with Astronautalis in Pittsburgh, and that's what sparked my interest in him, so it was cool seeing him and finally knowing some of the songs.
     Bleubird killed it at the show. It was awesome to see how he stepped up after Greenlander and Stillborn Identity had to face a pretty stagnant crowd and then 'bird turned them inside out. His on stage banter made it hard for anyone in the crowd not to participate in his set. The video above was his first song of the night, and he immediatly grabs the crowds attention(even the crowd outside chain smoking) with a freestyle that involves everyone. Shit was rad. Go see Bleubird.
     I also did an interview with Bleubird after the show for the upcoming first issue of my zine ironically enough titled, TheThrowAwayDays.
Free legal shit; Street Talk 5, Street Talk III, Street Talk 2

Baker was pretty nervous at this show. He booked two of his favorite rappers and was pretty nervous about how the turn out was going to be. Luckily it pulled through and people showed up, and Greenlander ran the sound for him to help him mellow out. Baker had to play last, and Ceschi and Bleubird are no easy act to follow, but luckily for him he was pretty buzzed up and didn't seem to mind.
Free legal shit from Baker; From California
Free legal shit from Greenlander; Split, Self Titled
Free legal shit from Stillborn Identity; Half Nothing, Life vs. Art, Less is More, Nude Pictures

F. Stokes @ Shadow Lounge and OneUp 'Spring Training' @ Mckinley 4-22

   F dot Stokes, I've been calling this dude F. Strokes by accident for like 6 months now. Maybe it's because my true yinzer accent is coming out and I'm starting to mispronounce everyone's name claiming ignorance, and disregard the fact I might be offending them. Or maybe it's because I was hoping F. Strokes was short for Fuck The Strokes. Either way, I know I'm wrong and I don't plan on changing.

   People in the Red Balloon are playing this. I played with them once before but I don't really remember them. It's alright though because I'm positive they don't remember me, and if they do it's for all the wrong reasons. They're a full band I think.

     Fortified PhonetX. Them is my dogs. Pumped to see their on this, they booked Fuck The Strokes last time he came through at Z Lounge. Glad to see F. Stokes brought them on the bill at a bigger venue when he came through again.
     I have no clue who Folkland is. I kind of doubt I'm going to find out at this show either. One Up is holding a game of skate the the McKinley skate park and I'm going to that for sure. Probably going to have some beers and be irresponsible to the point where I should ride my bike to the show so I don't get a DUI. Although you can get a BUI for riding drunk, but it's still called a DUI. So not only do you still get busted, you don't even get the novelty of framing a citation that says BUI. Bummer

     Maybe I'll "cover" the game of skate and make an edit, and maybe I'll do a show review at Shadow Lounge, but I'll probably just stand around awkwardly with my camera in one hand, and lukewarm Pabst Blue Ribbon in the other at the skate park, then after that I'll probably smuggle some beers inside Shadow Lounge because I can't afford a $4 beer, stay there until I run out of beer and loose interest before the final act, and then the next day I'll just copy the F. Stokes "review" out of the new Ghetto Blaster and pass it off as my own. Man run on sentences are cool.

Dezmatic and Mr. Dibbs - Bigfoots Dick

In 2009 Dezmatic released this an album with Mr. Dibbs. At the time I had no idea who Dez was, I however was pretty into Mr. Dibbs(mostly because his brother was in the band Suffocate Faster). But Dez was about to go on tour with Seez Mics of the Educated Consumers, so I took it upon myself to get familiar with him and downloaded this for free off his myspace.

The show was poorly attended so I decided to pick up a hard copy of this cd to support touring artists. Ironically enough the cd didn't play. Whatever though, Dez gave me a skate video(Hood Rules Apply)from Albany featuring Curtis Rap, so I took it with a grain of salt that the cd didn't play. Dibbs had some rad samples from The Black Keys, and Sleep and there were killer sound bites from some awesome movies so I was immediately hyped on that.  And I quickly found out that Dez is a pretty rad rapper too. Although I think he has some better work both before and after this, but either way this release is good and it's the only one I've bought.

 More interesting than my boring opinion on Bigfoots Dick is the credits song in the video he gave me. Apparently in Albany there is a house called B-Block, where all the local skaters live on one floor, and on the other floor is where all the rappers live. Sounds like a dream come true to me. Dezmatic and Rick Whispers made the song for the end credits in Hood Rules Apply. I'm into it.

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Sula - Blinding Embarrassment with Justification

I listen to this way more than I should. I'll admit I'm a bit of a lo-fi snob, but still that's no excuse for listening to this cd as much as I do.

Sula, is Justin Huock's brain child of a band. He is the founding, and only original member. I'm pretty certain Sula has had more band members than it has had shows, and there is no chance of that statistic changing around now that Justin is a 20 year old dad and productive working member of society. As a full time adult I hope Justin can still free space in his schedule to keep creating and sharing music after having such promising start and unique style. Especially considering that he was just some young buck that should have been worried about getting boozed up instead of orchestrating every instrument of a full band when this cd came out in 2010.

I was introduced to this band when I use to work with Justin at a shitty dead end restaurant. I honestly gave his first demo next no listen. It wasn't until he moved in with me and started working on this release that I started to take his band seriously. I did my best to corrupt Justin during the short year we lived together. I would sneak him into bars and tell him to hide in the bathroom while I order him a beer, and then vouch for him when the bartender came over demanding i.d. from the wide eyed, speechless barely legal teen. We talked about planning tours, and collaborating on songs that would never happen. On more than one occasion I would try and trick Justin into staying up all night listening to shitty East coast rap on my iPod, telling him to let "future Justin" worry about getting up early for work. All my efforts hardly worked though, considering Justin moved out and got a job as a welding apprentice while I was stuck at the shitty dead end restaurant we met at several years after, and hundreds of dissatisfied customers later.

I know this cd has it's flaws, but I think that's what adds authenticity to it. From the conviction in Justin's thick Pittsburgh accent voice piercing through the shitty computer monitors they recorded on by themselves, to being heavily influenced by Modest Mouse, to the overly busy bass lines(especially in Greg the Drunk), to winy teeny backing vocals, and more. Yet I still can't stop listening to one of the most honest attempts of making original music by a couple of bored teenagers I've ever heard.

Justin's unique vocals patterns are what reel me in, and on top of that his topic ranges beyond the standard realm of sad emo songs that most kids his age would be writing.

Sula - Blinding Embarrassment with Justification