The Flatbush Effect

I live in between two extremes that usually never meet. Growing up in The Bronx meant that my childhood was spent waiting for a new DJ Clue tape to drop. I’d be bopping my head and singing along to DMX in my car seat as my dad drove me home from school. As I grew, my music taste did too. I experimented with weird things like Marilyn Manson and System Of A Down at a very young age. I loved the guitars and chaos and ran with that. So when an artist came along who merged those two VERY different worlds for me, I automatically worshipped them. Someone who was innovative enough to marry two cultures that live on the broadest ends of the music spectrum. That title belongs to rap group Flatbush Zombies.

They manage to break the mold of a genre. The group consists of Juice, Meech, and Eric Arc Elliot. Their sounds come out of Brooklyn, reppin' their hood hard by putting it right in their name. And if you’re born and raised in the rotten apple, your hood is your name. They have that 90’s feel that takes me back to that car seat thanks to their smooth beats and raw lyrics. Eric is responsible for a majority of their production. They don’t care about making club music or radio songs. Their art is focused on letting you know the struggle of growing up in the hood, being different, and not giving a fuck about it. And of course, drugs.

I truly give them credit for this new wave of psychedelic and horror trends flowing through hip hop lately. They’ve been having spooking beats and acid raps since the beginning of this decade. It’s now starting to catch on and drip into mainstream radio music, an example being Rihanna’s BBHMM beat. The real tipping point for me was when they sampled SOAD on their joint mixtape with The Underachievers.  It was like someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, “You’re not the only metal head in the hood kid, we got you covered”. Lines like “my radiator hiss like my Amy Whine vinyl” shake the soul. If you know the reference all too well, that hiss means another winter in your NYC apartment has begun. Intertwining the sleeping princess Amy is just the cherry on top. Their alliteration and ability to ride one beat all together is timeless. To be three kids who self produced all their own music to a power group touring Europe and shooting in Japan is amazing. To further prove their work ethic, they don’t belong to a major label. They are self-propelled and have a cult following. If you bump the Zombies it’s because you heavily bang with their movement.

The most beautiful thing is whom they bring together with their music. No fan looks alike. Some are hood, some are suburban. Some are goth, some are skaters, while all just love hip hop. All different shades of hands are in the air at their shows. And every single mouth is singing along from front to back. The chaos on stage and off is comparable to the madness at Oz fest. Crowd surfing, mosh pits, and stage diving galore. The beauty of it all is just what anyone who relates to these words needs. From wrestling to serial killer references, its like the weird kids finally have their three wise men that came bearing more than myrrh. 

Thile Blend

Think back to when you were five years old. Each new discovery you made became new mythology to build your universe around. Pulling all your influences together you blended each ingredient into a recipe totally your own. For those of us ‘creative types’, this is a typical, if not necessary practice. Synthesizing vast and various inputs into something we can focus through a single lens. But early on, it starts with a search for something to point at and say “That! That’s the thing! I can do THAT!” Each mystery revealed itself in unlikely places.  Such as plays performed in a town hall, a dance recital at a museum, and Bluegrass music in a pizza parlor. This is how Chris Thile discovered bluegrass music.

How likely is it for a five year old in California to pick up a mandolin and have ‘mastered’ it while still a tween?  How likely is it for him to have won two Grammy awards by his 21st birthday, or even have four to date?  Thile has recorded over twenty albums, many with his first band Nickel Creek. He has collaborated with Steve Martin, T Bone Burnett, and been featured on film soundtracks for ‘The Hunger Games’, and ‘This is 40’. In 2012 he was the recipient of the MacArthur Genius grant worth $500,000.

Thile’s most focused sound has been developed with his Brooklyn based band Punch Brothers.  This sound has spawned a new genre of music that some have dubbed ‘chamber bluegrass’ and whose creation is documented in the film “How to Grow a Band”. Thile could surely rest on his laurels for the rest of his career, but he knows there is more at stake and has been quoted as saying he’d die trying to make something new. For him and the Punch Brothers, evolution is the name of the game.

  “I do think its important for people who profess to really be interested in music to expose themselves to the width and breadth of the great music available to them- in this day an age that’s everything.”)   

The bands latest album ‘Phosphorescent Blues’, released in January of this year, goes even further in its focus on genre blending and themes of technology seeping into our day to day.

“…even with that thing [your phone] in your pocket you got one foot out of the circle at all times-we’re not coming from a position of righteousness- mine’s right there, even as I’m trying to describe this record I’m wondering if my wife texted. It’s a new melody that’s running through the song of life right now. It’s always there it’s always providing this weird often discordant counterpoint to everything. We have to figure out how to make it work for us and not to be content with working for it”.  

They are as influenced by Bach and Debussy as they are The Beatles and Thom Yorke.

“The banner that I march behind is that I really don’t feel that adhering to the aesthetic convention of various genres is creatively meaningful at all. The world being diffuse as it is right now-our art needs to reflect that.”

Thile is hip to the fact that it’s not his job to lecture, rather to help add to the conversation of exploration.  

 “The solution is not to unplug…every generation has experienced some sort of life changing gadget...the lightbulb on back to the wheel. …We have to figure out how to plop ourselves square back in the moment so we can live vibrant meaningful lives.” 

In addition to the music itself, there is a current flowing through Thile’s musicality that suggests a raised eyebrow and a glint in the eye. Each new song is either a call to adventure or a reflection of the journey just past. Thile’s vocals serve to enhance the storytelling in an almost tribal ‘gather around this fire here and I’ll tell you a story’. The passion and shear energy of the band is infectious and the use of rhythmic structure keeps you on the edge of your seat – if you’re still seated that is. You can tell that they have labored over each gift they present to you and they delight in the giving. Looking forward, Thile’s next major project will be taking over as the host of  ‘Prairie Home Companion’, the forty-one year tenured live radio variety show that is both a prime example of storytelling and hub for Americana and Folk Music. Thile is sure to bring all his vivacity to the role. On getting the job he said it was like “getting to be Luke Skywalker!” One thing is for certain- he certainly has the force.