I can’t say enough about this album and how great it is musically. The fact that it’s coming from a group that plays locally about five nights each week is just lucky for all of us. It’s great but in the context of any albums released today, not just locally. It’s sound is totally current - but full of familiar references that will keep it up to date and make The Stick Martin Show popular with so many different types of listeners.
Recorded by the band over the past two years in their home studio, Monkey House Studios, this album is full of songs you’ll be hearing in your head for days after just one listen. If the hooks on Stick Martin songs like ‘Beautiful To Me,” and “Point Of View” are powerfully catchy, “Aging Hipster” is ten times more. And I mean, this album is full of songs. Stick Martin Show Bass player, Eric Harlow told me that this is the most possible music you can fit on one CD. It’s a slew of tunes blending skillful, credible rap over lush, flowing grooves andhonest folk relatability tied together with jazzy, jamming funk to create unbelievably fresh hip hop that is far beyond the cliché.
Whatever the subject, Stick Martin’s lyrics are natural, honest and uplifing. His fast flowing style makes it easy to see why The Stick Martin Show was voted “Best Hip Hop Group” in Creative Loafing’s 2007 Reader’s Choice Awards.
This album features 25 guest artists collaborating with The Stick Martin Show on some fresh, new songs and some of the first fully produced recordings of the band’s live favorites that previously only available on demos, bringing together all the band’s hip hop to date.
Thrilla is the hip hop edition and the first in a trilogy of albums, each focused on a different genre, all to have spoofed titles. Next will be an indie rock album, Houses of The Harlow (after the band’s bass player) then a folk album, Folk The Police.
“We’ve had some demo versions of some tunes around for a while, but this is full on, full tilt production. I feel I’m about 99% happy with the way everything turned out, as opposed to maybe 60-70% on our first two records. Also, we tried to have each song lead directly into the next, so there are no silences between any of the tunes.”
“I’ve been writing hip hop my entire life. So there are songs with bits of rap that I wrote ten years ago that resurfaced on this record,” Stick Martin said in a recent interview. “ There are probably seven or eight tunes we’ve been playing live for the last few years. A lot of stuff is just brand spanking new. Much of the collaboration stuff we did with other artists was written and recorded over the course of a few days.”
Or hours, as in the case of Drugs, Money and B_ _ _ _, a song written in only four hours to indulge all the rap clichés The Stick Martin Show typically avoids. “’Drugs, Money and B----’ is about jamming all the rap clichés we could think of in a three-minute song,” Stick Martin said. “I wrote it with this dude, D-Murder. My ex- was totally weirded out that I was chilling with a kid named
D-Murder.
He is a really talented guy and came up with some really funny lines. There’s even a line where he talks about lip-synching like he’s bragging. We tried to come up with all the B---- you hear in commercial rap. I think it’s all in there – drugs, money, b----, guns, hip hop, bravado, some sex. Totally awesome.
I kind of had this idea to make it sound a little like an old Cypress Hill track – with a big bass line and a weird high-pitched flute. House of Pain used to do that style of production too. I think both groups used the same deejays or something. Most of it is a joke, really. Much of the album is straight up Grade A b---.”
The Cypress Hill reference is also infused into the genius “White Trash Honolulu.” Challenged only by the album’s opener, “…Aging Hipster” as its most memorable song, "White Trash Honolulu" is a perfect description of a certain side of Florida “culture” with lines like “I got the science. Like an appliance, I’m buzzin’, I’m chillin’ at my family reunion, hittin on my high half cousin. In the circle, wonderin did you skip me...”
“Oh To Be An Aging Hipster,” stands out among the entire Stick Martin Show catalogue as a really beautiful blend of a hook-laden, highly emotive, almost folky chorus with a high-quality, fast-tempo flow and totally natural, slice-of-life, point-in-time lyrics like “two weeks ago, I got a speeding ticket which was weird ‘cause I was feeling so slow.”
Stick Martin says the song is about “a long-term girlfriend and I breaking up. It was a really stressed time for me. I started dating this other really sweet girl, a little young for me, maybe, but I really liked her a lot. I couldn’t get enough of her. Well, my ex- wanted to get back together, so I broke it off with the new girl. Of course, my ex- and I only managed to stay together for like, another week. I tried to get the new girl back, but she rightfully told me to f--- off. That song’s pretty much about that situation. I’ve done some stupid things, but that was one of the worst. If you see Maegen, tell her I’m sorry.”
“Aging Hipster” and “Fat Back” stand out among the new songs on this album as clear examples of the two diverse styles that come together to make this band great.
“’Fat Back’ is a song Harlow wrote.” Stick Martin said. “All I did was mix it, but that might be why I like it so much. It totally has its own sound apart from anything else. I didn’t even hear it 'till it was almost done. I probably listen to this one more than any other song, at least for now.”
Both songs written by Harlow, “Fat Back,” his collaboration with Dylan Cowles of Kosmik Egg and Bleu Gravy, and “Green Elephants” a long-time on-stage favorite, give a full dose of his laid back, funky style and the groovy, varied framework he adds to all the band’s songs.
“This Goes Out” features a special guest artist who Stick Martin has always wanted to work with. “This Goes Out” is a song I did with my older brother, Danny Greene,” he said. ‘We wrote the chorus together like 10 years ago and half of my lyrics are from back then, but I think his are all new. My brother was in a halfway house and was allowed out for a few hours, so he drove to my friend Rick Riacigni’s studio in Pennsylvania. He laid down his vocals and I built up the song around that in my studio. I love it cause I’ve always wanted to do a track with my brother and we just never got a chance. I think his verses are some of the best on the album.”
Sean DeLong of Full Fledged Unit sings the first verse of Stick Martin onstage favorite, “Marvin Gaye.” Local DJ, DJ Backbone also appears on the track. “(He) did a ton of record scratching on a few different things,” Martin said. “We’ve done some shows together and he did a remix for us a while back, and we really wanted to work with him on the album.”
“Mix Tapes and Madness” offers some good advice for the kids like “F_ _ _ your family if they think you’re a freak, you’re unique” and insights like “Did you ever notice the acronym for crack in America is CIA?” Without missing a beat, “Mind Movin,’” with guest artist, Steady Matt, begins “Advice, receiving it is nice, but what you gonna do when you roll the dice. “
“A Broken Heart and Some Break Beats,” a collaboration with Noah Broe, is one of the most innovative songs on the album, with rap verses by Martin and Broe and chorus sung by Justin Villardi of Weak Sauce. “A Broken Heart and Some Break Beats is about me and this girl, Krysta, breaking up,” Stick Martin said, “My old room mate, Noah Broe, had just ended a relationship with a girl as well, so we were both in the same place. I kick the first verse and he does the second. That song was written, recorded and mixed in two days. It’s one of my favorites and as soon as it was done, I knew I wanted it to be the last song. Then, Justin from Weak Sauce comes in with the chorus and the bridge part.
Also, that’s me playing the cheesy piano part at the end. I’m not much at piano, but I really like the sound of chords just ringing out and slowly decaying. If you turn your CD player up really loud, these chords seem to last forever. There aren’t many broken-hearted hip hop songs out there, but I really like how this one came together.”
The cover of Thrilla is eerily reminiscent of the album whose name it parodies - one that recently released its Anniversary Edition. “We had like six people working the on the cover alone," Stick Martin said. “Eric Boyer is our design guy. He and Crafty Dan from our label, Crafty Records, did the album design and my boy, Louie and his girl, Barb, took the Michael Jackson picture and the stuff on the inside. A lot of people don’t realize how much work goes into an album cover. But you really do associate those images with the music. At least I do.”
The Stick Martin Show Thrilla Album Release Party at the Dunedin Brewery on Saturday, June 28th, themed "Party Like It's 1992" will feature Live DJ's, Tracks From The Album, Breakdancers, and a live performance by the band. The
ticket price includes a CD and a special limited edition porcelain green elephant. Tickets are available in advance at The Dunedin Brewery and at thestickmartinshow.com.
