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Monday, November 30, 2009

Dope Smash Smash Bang Review at Potholes in My Blog.

http://potholesinmyblog.com/album-review-metermaids-smash-smash-bang-2009/#more-7081

Album Review: Metermaid – Smash Smash Bang (2009)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Potholes

Download: Metermaids – Smash Smash Bang

The Metermaids hate the members of Simple Plan. Often scrutinized as being categorized as emo-rap, the untrained ear will make an ill-advised judgment to state such comments. The more endearing listener for good music will take a closer look at the Metermaids. Their latest offering, Smash Smash Bang delivers emotional lyrics and melodic tunes to keep you interested in learning more about the two boys from New York City. I am guilty as charged.

Metermaids is comprised of empire state emcees Sentence and Swell. Their sound? Eclectic. Little bit of everything. Beatles here, Linkin Park there, with an Atmosphere tone. Former Denver indie-rapper, Sentence claims Metermaids is a collaboration project and an “artistic experiment.” After several listens of Smash Smash Bang, characterizing it as an experiment is not fair. It is more like taking a whimsical journey while flipping through the diary pages of the underground rap duo sensation. They are just two white boys who don’t know how to write ‘gangsta’ lyrics, never experienced a violent reality, and have an ear for with melodic harmonies.

The Strange Famous labeled-EP contains heartfelt lyrics and contemplation as the carefully-crafted melodies that is far from emo that obscurity is an afterthought. The cohesiveness on the short play is flawless. Sonically, it feels as though I am in an intimate setting with the two and I can synchronize their sounds with their illusory bars like a mirage. The opening couplets of the record had me from the start, “There’s no picture going to do it any justice/No Polaroid, 35 millimeter, or a digital snap/Kodachrome won’t capture the moment/You can’t own it/There’s no bringing it back.” The revolutionary “Planes Down” makes me want to join the “Metermaids posse” with anti-rich kid and rebellious lyrics in the fold. The glorious “Shades Off” featuring Jared Paul is a chin-check to artificial realists and their musical artifice. The introspective “Matchbooks” pretty much explains every Friday night of my life. Sentence and Swell paints at city landscape picture so well, it’s luminous.

The closing track “Ghosts In The Radio” provides a subtle ending to what is a complete EP. All the songs entangle well as Sentence and Swell deliver yet another resilient release in Smash Smash Bang.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

So, Yeah.

I promised I would do a better job of updating this, and then promptly didn't update it for two weeks, the longest gap I've left since we started the blog.

Awesome.

I wish I could claim it's because I have been super busy. But that is not true. I think we have been kind of recuperating after a difficult, but wonderful, stretch. We got back from North Carolina on the 12th, having finished up the tracking for our upcoming five song EP produced by 9th Wonder. The experience was truly a dream come true -- 9th, beyond being one of the nicest cats we have met in the game, is so fucking good at what he does that it's outrageous. I told him when we were down there that if producers were able to see his process and how quickly he can make the illest beat you've ever heard there would be a lot of producers hanging up their MPC's. For reals.

So we ended up taking a crack at around eight songs, and whittled those down to the five that we are keeping. Now 9th is putting the finishing touches on the tracks, and once he's done with that we will be ready to mix. The EP is a perfect meeting point between our two styles -- it's got the same sort of aggressive, rock-y feel we have been cultivating, but 9th brings that soul to it. We couldn't be happier with it. I don't want to reveal too many details about it, because we be trying to build some excitement ova heeeeya. Nahmean?

Big big sheeeeiot coming down the pike. We'll be in Providence with Prayers for Atheists Dec. 9th, and will be bringing them back to NYC on Dec. 12th.

Holler.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Turn the Lights Out Included with Every New Droid Phone.

That's right y'all.

The new Droid Phone from Verizon, the one that they are bringing out to fight the iPhone, comes with both "Turn the Lights Out" song AND the video. Pretty exciting for us.

Check out this link HERE!

If you skip to 8:55 of the video you can see the Turn the Lights Out video.

Holler at your tech boys.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

What We've Been Up To.

So, I haven't updated the blog in a while. But for good reason, yo.

We left on Sunday morning to head down to North Carolina for the first of what will be two three-day trips to start recording with 9th Wonder. Now, if you don't know who 9th Wonder is, you really should. To us, he is probably the best hip-hop producer going right now. Some of his work:

Jay-Z Threat



Destiny's Child Girl



Mary J. Blige Good Woman Down (9th won a Grammy with this jammy)



Needless to say, we were crazy intimidated to work with him. I won't speak for Sentence, but I maybe got two hours of sleep the night before we headed to the studio because my mind would not stop racing.

Here's what heads need to know about 9th: dude is a stone cold genius. Like, straight-up-lights-out musical genius steelo. He will sit down with a stack of records, a turntable, and an MPC, and make the illest beat you've ever heard in under ten minutes. Literally. We would be feverishly trying to write to a beat and he would already be done with the next one. And every single thing he came up with was insane. He is also one of the nicest people we have met in this hip hop world. And he works as a real producer -- he hears what flows will work, different ways to deliver lines, the whole nine. It's crazy.

His style is different from what we are used to, for sure. 9th's beats have that classic, laid-back style to them, and Metermaids has always been about that raw energy -- not so much MC'ing as just yelling and getting wild. But we (because 9th is a damn genius) found where our styles can meet and sound dope.

We got mad videos and pictures of the experience, which hopefully we can put together and throw up soon. We left North Carolina on Wednesday night having recorded five songs in three days. Three of the songs we did are definite keepers, and definitely some of the best music we have ever been a part of. We got back into Brooklyn at 4:30 Thursday morning and were both at work that day. This indie-rap life is nothing if it ain't glamorous.

So, yeah. The plan is to head back to NC next Monday through Wednesday again to finish up everything. Lots of exciting stuff going on right now. And I will stay updating the blog more regularly.

Holler.