BrotherSpanky.

Here is some short documentary footage explaining the process...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:11:46 -0500

Here is some short documentary footage explaining the process and motivation behind my last project, a tribute to Dilla, The James Yancey Sessions, edited by the homie Wildersee. Getting the opportunity to be so candid about my recording process was an experience I’m grateful to have had. Feel free to download the whole album, for as little (or as much) as you’d like over at my music section, too.

Thanks for listening/watching!

-BrotherSpanky

At long last, I’ve released my most recent project: a live...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:06:48 -0500

At long last, I’ve released my most recent project: a live mixtape paying tribute to the late great producer, James Yancey, AKA J Dilla. I played all the instruments as entire live takes without punch-ins, and I had a blast tackling the challenge of recreating some of my favorite Dilla compositions without using any samples. Listen, enjoy, download, and pass it along!

RIP DILLA

-BrotherSpanky

“ayo this rap is like ziti” - Ghostface (Taken with...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:12:24 -0500

“ayo this rap is like ziti” - Ghostface (Taken with instagram)

Here is a sneak peek at my upcoming project, The James Yancey...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:28:51 -0500

Here is a sneak peek at my upcoming project, The James Yancey Sessions, to be released on 2.7.12. Video shot and edited by Wildersee.

Had to pick this one up on vinyl at Melody before they close for...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:22:27 -0500

Had to pick this one up on vinyl at Melody before they close for good… (Taken with instagram)

From 1964. An amazing album. Kirk was truly ahead of his time. ...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:03:51 -0500

From 1964. An amazing album. Kirk was truly ahead of his time. (Taken with instagram)

My bedroom door from high school. Yes those are student fare...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:56:06 -0500

My bedroom door from high school. Yes those are student fare cards. (Taken with instagram)

More liner notes from the album… This is one of the...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:30:06 -0500

More liner notes from the album…

This is one of the earliest songs I wrote for the album, written around the same time as “Destiny.” Although the lyrics had been written and unchanged for months and years, it had gone through several different iterations in time signature, instrumentation and arrangement. I finally settled on this version, although there are plenty other ones on my hard drive still. Since there are so many lullabies for babies and children, my initial intention was to write a lullaby for a completely different demographic purpose. That idea led to the concept of a lullaby for lovers (feel free to create your own portmanteau for a genre name). To this day, I think it has to be to one of my favorite compositions, and might perhaps be my most personally authentic song.

I hope the lyrics still carry weight. Bonus points for anyone who recognizes the album artwork (this one took the longest to create by far).

-BrotherSpanky

The liner notes continue… So I wrote this song back...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:40:05 -0500

The liner notes continue…

So I wrote this song back during the throes of the ‘retro soul’ movement that was at times authentically capturing, and at times middling, twee, and cringeworthy. I hoped this piece would be more of the former and less of the latter. I had been listening to a lot of projects (Raphael Saadiq, Alicia Keys, even PlantLife) with retro-esque production (although I couldn’t record anything on tape, like I really wanted to), and looked to see how to recreate the feel musically and lyrically of a song like the Isley’s “Don’t Say Goodnight,” one of my all-time favorites. While I can’t sing like that, by any means, I figured a torch song about lost love belonged on the album, too.

Give it a spin.

-BrotherSpanky

trillflyers: we’re back. quinn, marcel, and me decided it was...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:38:51 -0500

trillflyers:

we’re back. quinn, marcel, and me decided it was time to drop another show. it was near impossible to figure out who we should collaborate with for another experience, but we figured it out: the fat fool. trel is arguably the best rap talent out of the city, and we’re about to showcase that. not only will he be performing at full tilt, but we’ve recruited a top-notch band to back his vocals. all of this will take place at the music hall that U street built. s/o to tittsworth and his team, by the way.

please be there for fat trel’s nightmare before christmas. and yeah, this is by far the coolest flyer you’ve ever seen in your life. had to flip some tim burton shit real quick and create a masterpiece in trill flyer form.

tickets on sale tomorrow on UHALL’s website. we’ll make sure you get the link. i’d get those tickets quick though, because there’s a pretty big chance the show will sell out.

oh, and we got some more goodies in store for this show.

The Table. (Or, "Where My Ladies At?")

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:57:06 -0500

This is a picture of my dinner table. When I first moved into my apartment, I felt like I needed to give myself an official housewarming gift, so I spent my first week there creating a decoupage (don’t hate on the craftiness) of album artwork and photos of some of my favorite musicians. My brother and his wife had done a similar project in their apartment, so I decided to borrow their idea and give it a try. Turned out to be a fun way to enjoy a move-in, and I even ended up featuring the table in my first music video.

Usually, when anyone visits my place, the table is often the first thing they notice (it’s a pretty small apartment). Most of my male friends are also interested in music, so they get a kick out of seeing the table, and can name most all the people included. The subsequent conversation is largely about who didn’t “make the cut,” and which albums from each artist we enjoy. Granted, I hang out with a lot of musicians and music lovers, so that’s to be expected.

But I’ve realized that the same is not necessarily true for most ladies who notice the table. I now, half-jokingly, refer to the table as the “cool test,” to see how many of the people they can name. The higher the percentage of people she identifies, the cooler she inherently becomes. While there’s only been one woman who’s been able to correctly identify 90% of the artists, the women’s average is probably under 50%.

This surprised me. I’m not sure if it’s a factor of age or just general interest, but a good female friend of mine (who is a songwriter herself) told me recently: “Girls are allowed to be lazy when it comes to music. They don’t usually take much interest in it on their own.” She admitted that even she was not immune to this admission of ignorance, and I started to wonder about the truth in her statement. While I was initially pretty appalled and skeptical, the table-test statistics so far haven’t disproven her point at all.

So, good people (especially ladies), any thoughts on this ‘musical laziness?’ Is it merely a coincidence? Can you name more than 60% of the table yourself? Is that a fair expectation?

Enlighten me.

-BrotherSpanky

Shouts to my boy Wildersee AKA Willie Beemen. Check out his dope...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:10:05 -0500

Shouts to my boy Wildersee AKA Willie Beemen. Check out his dope beat tape at williebeemen.bandcamp.com.

-BrotherSpanky

Here it is…the first video from electro-funk-soul trio...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:43:24 -0500

Here it is…the first video from electro-funk-soul trio Ramzy and the Brothers Handsome. Thanks to EVERYONE involved in the shooting/editing/participation of this endeavor. We love you.

-BrotherSpanky

Around this time of year, I have heard many unfortunately...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:38:00 -0400

Around this time of year, I have heard many unfortunately uninformed people ask, “What, pray tell, is Cuffing Season?”

All that I can tell you is that it is upon us.

Cuffers, go out and cuff. Cuffees, go get yo’self cuffed.

By the way, if you’ve never heard this song before, this one will make a lot less sense to you.

-BrotherSpanky

While I’m not the biggest Kanye fan, I’m not really...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:55:05 -0400

While I’m not the biggest Kanye fan, I’m not really into Big Sean, and I definitely don’t listen to Roscoe Dash, this song has kind of grown on me from a musical standpoint. So I decided to record my own interpretation.

Enjoy.

-BrotherSpanky

So I have the pleasure of having been invited to play in a group...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:50:05 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

So I have the pleasure of having been invited to play in a group with some good friends of mine, Columbia Nights. Here’s a snippet of a recent rehearsal.

If you don’t know them, get familiar!

-BrotherSpanky

A while back, I posted a piece I had written in memory of the...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:51:00 -0400

A while back, I posted a piece I had written in memory of the life and inspired by the unjust execution of Troy Davis. Here is a live —albeit rough— version of the song, recorded by Wildersee.

The full song will be available for download for $1, and all proceeds will go towards causes that work towards the abolition of capital punishment.

The full video is in its editing stages, and I am requesting anyone who is opposed to the death penalty to send a photo of themselves to spankymusic@gmail.com to appear in the video, and to be counted amongst the voices who are dissatisfied with a retributive penal system that harms instead of heals. Please spread the word.

Thank you.

-BrotherSpanky

Promotion Perils.

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:42:05 -0400

This is how I feel sometimes about promoting my own music.

Intentionally, I rarely use the venue of this blog as a soapbox or bully pulpit about my own pet peeves or opinions. I’d like it to remain a place primarily reserved for all things music-related. But I feel like this fits into the category of both.

A little while ago, I had a conversation with a friend about the way that many operas were commissioned: a duke, earl, monarch, or some member of the oligarchy would contact a composer/librettist, and would subsidize them to create a work of art — in short, there were patrons. We no longer have that system, and while art via the patronage of the ruling class is in some ways working for the establishment, as an artist I also wonder what it would be like to experience that kind of freedom. Essentially, someone with plentiful means telling you: ‘just write, don’t worry about publicizing, paying your bills, or (the dreaded issue) promoting.’ I could fantasize about that for quite a while.

I know that there are people out there who are good at promoting. They exist. I am impressed by them. But I am not one of them. Self-promotion is a huge difficulty of mine, which is precisely why you are probably one of seven people reading this blog post. I just can’t seem to do it. It takes me away from the eternally rewarding challenge of honing my artistic craft to a different challenge; one simultaneously foreign and mundane.

So promoters, patrons, and publicists: This is an open plea. Get at me! There’s so much for you to do, that I simply can’t.

-BrotherSpanky

Further liner notes from the Soul Beauty, Vol. 2 album: I...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:52:06 -0400

Further liner notes from the Soul Beauty, Vol. 2 album:

I wrote “Believe Me” while I was working on trying to get a song placed on a John Legend album. The initial goal was to put together a piece not unlike a “Heaven,” and my vocals were only intended to serve as a placeholder. Although it was originally intended to be pitched to him, the song was definitely borne out of my own personal experience at the time, and after a while I realized that I’d much rather use the song myself in some other permutation, perhaps. This was a piece that went through a few stylistic changes during its composition: the lyrics were written first, with a loose melody and a chorus that largely resembled the final version; the ascending and descending motif before the verses came later; and tempo and instrumental arrangements varied throughout the life of the song until I finally recorded it. The outro synth solo was a lot of fun to record; instead of using my wah pedal, I decided to use a talkbox to articulate the tonal shifts more precisely.

Go ahead and take another listen!

-BrotherSpanky

I’m getting pretty amped about one of my next upcoming...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:48:06 -0400

I’m getting pretty amped about one of my next upcoming projects: a re-release of a one-beat-per-day mixtape I worked on last year. This time, the project will feature some of my favorite artists to work with; gifted singers and rappers who have lent their voices and words to these instrumentals I produced. Stay tuned…

…and if you haven’t heard last year’s project, give it a listen.

-BrotherSpanky