Staxx Brothers– superstars of hard-ass soul, “the closest thing to vintage Funkadelic ever witnessed,”* and longtime friends of East Portland Blog are offering you a party that starts now and ends (if ever) in 2012. Anyone who purchases an advanced copy of Jungle Cat, the band’s next album, before the official release party, Saturday May 14th at The Tractor, will receive another album worth of previously unreleased material before the general public ever gets to hear it. It’s a mix of new, fresh versions of material from the Jungle Cat LP, previous gems, B sides, demos, and all sorts of musical treasures. The bonus material will keep coming, to advance purchasers who act soon, all through 2011 and into 2012. (The party doesn’t even have to end in 2012. Stick with Staxx Brothers and the party will always be just beginning.)
As a free gift, so you can hear how much you’re gonna love this breakout album and dig the bonus materials to come, Staxx Brothers are offering you, right here, right now, a free download of Diamonds For Fiona, a song which many great people consider to be the best song Staxx Brothers has ever done.
For your free download of Diamonds For Fiona, by Staxx Brothers, click here.
To buy advance copies of the Staxx Brothers Album, Jungle Cat, and receive loads of bonus music from Staxx Brothers throughout 2011 and into 2012, visit the band’s website at: http://staxxbrothers.com/junglecat/index.html.
*According to Dennis Cook of Jambase.com
Here’s a message from Davin Stedman of Staxx Brothers:
This Diamonds song is one of just two songs we’ve ever created that use any sort of outside sampling. We’re not looking to build songs around the art of sampling. But at a certain point on the cusp of 2005-06 I was going stir crazy. Because of a comical number of delays outside of my control related to completing our debut album, The 12th Street Blues, I was dying to record and release something. Anything. I had something to prove to all my friends and supporters that had been waiting since 2003 for us to follow up on our now out of print, Almost Live at Common Fire: BLACK MARKET EP. The jury was out whether The Staxx Brothers as an act that could survive life after college and fulfill the raw potential we exhibited on that wild recording —- and at all illegal dance parties our sound was born of. Man it took a long time (the beginning of 2004 till Bumbershoot weekend 2007).
The Making Of
Along with Dan Schmidt– one of the producers that worked closely on The 12th Street Blues and also performed on bass for key tracks– we crafted this song into the beast that it is by the stroke of mad luck and discovery that Fiona’s leaked version of Incredible Machine and the official release were basically the same album with a different sort of skin. A lot of credit goes to Dan Schmidt for his engineering efforts, that are pretty clear when you compare this to the pair of originals versions of Red, Red, Red he melded together and rearranged. I tried my best to do it justice and it was the first song that ever took me 14 drafts. Bob Ross makes a nice little cameo at the end.
There are some great stories behind the rerecording and the release of Fiona’s Extraordinary Machine, and this song is a special example of the strength of that album, the original producer Jon Brion produced — as well as Mike Elizondo. And the idea that Questlove played on these tracks is exciting as well.
I love this little creation, along with its sister song, I’ve Been Workin’ — because I got to show people how good The 12th Street Blues could have been if I just had the chance to finish what I started in early 2004. These were the songs that inspired people to invest in helping me finish the album, so it’s like the ultimate demo.
The Time and the Place
I recorded Diamonds during a certain moment in the Northwest scene when acts like Blue Scholars were really emerging. The whole back pack rap scene was cool, but it seemed a bit naive / preachy and erudite to me. As a lover of the blues and African trickster spirits I was trying to take Hip Hop, on my lonesome, in a different direction. I was an old soul, not a college sophomore. So that song is my one and only Back Pack Rap song, albeit crafted in my own stubborn way —- from the hard won perspective of seeing both sides of the track —- up close and from the outside.
Lyrically I’m so proud of this thing. It takes place simultaneously in the Jewelry stores of Fred Meyer (yards from where I worked) and the killing fields of Sierra Leone; at an upper class wedding in Martha’s Vineyard (I saw college girls I left behind aspiring to) and an illegal diamond mine in west Africa. Ayo, our MC from Nigeria, who has been with the band for over a year now, likes it because he’s never heard me write or rap like that before.
You also note that it’s one of the few ‘Hip Hop’ songs recorded in a 6/8 type time signature. My exposure to Jazz under the guidance of Professor Horace Alexander Young at WSU definitely paid off as I relied and defied that time signature. At times I’m rapping in 4s and then I’m back in 6s; always riding or minding those triplets. That’s part of the reason it took me so many drafts. I was doing something I’d never done before. Something I felt had never been done before.
People still swear this is our best song, and someday in the future when we have fans that wish we would do it, and least expect it – we’ll perform Diamonds For Fiona LIVE in concert. Heck maybe ten years from now we’ll do it with Fiona Apple in some theater or along with The Roots on Jimmy Fallon. I’ve performed this song live a dozen times in a DJ type situation. I even debuted it live in concert opening for Swollen Members. But I’m all about the band and The Staxx Brothers have never performed to backing tracks. Much respect to MCs that strictly perform with DJs, but after working with and developing several bands I’ve called The Staxx Brothers, I could never really go back to performing over prerecorded tracks.
The advance copy deal
This is one of the songs I want our fans to hear before we start giving away bonus tracks from We Are The Blaxstonz and our first single from Jungle Cat, Warpath (aka The Zombie video). This is the first song I want people to hear as they begin their adventure, listening to an alternative history of the band that they wouldn’t get just by listening to our LPs. And know that this is the type of unique music we are sharing with our friends that buy advance copies of the album at: http://staxxbrothers.com/junglecat/index.html.
The heart of the deal that we are offering is a year of bonus tracks to anyone who buys an advanced copy of our forthcoming album Jungle Cat before the official release Saturday May 14th at The Tractor. Purchasers will receive another album worth of previously unreleased material – before the general public ever gets to hear it. It’s a mix of new, fresh versions of material from the Jungle Cat LP, previous gems we were unable to release, B sides, demos, and all sorts of buried treasure.
I’m elated by the response as orders come in each day. And it’s more than a cool marketing strategy. It’s essential. Every dollar from these advanced album sales are going towards mixing our album just right. People that pre order copies are lifting us up and actually sponsoring the mixing of a quantifiable portion of our album.
– Davin Stedman
For your free download of Diamonds For Fiona, by Staxx Brothers, click here.
To purchase advance copies of the Staxx Brothers Album, Jungle Cat, and receive loads of bonus music from Staxx Brothers throughout 2011 and into 2012, visit the band’s website at: http://staxxbrothers.com/junglecat/index.html.
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Previously on East Portland Blog:
