PRE-pre-emptive hype for "Human the Death Dance"
Written by Sage Francis
Friday, 15 December 2006
I have finished recording and mixing my new LP, "Human the Death Dance."

As the album stands now it is 55 minutes long and although some people complained that A Healthy Distrust was too short (about 45 minutes in length.) I'm hearing some grumbles from Epitaph that the album might be too long. I want it to be something people can digest in one sitting. Not something you have to break up in 3 parts just to hear the whole thing. But I think 55 minutes is a good length. Perfect for an hour long road trip. heh. I don't know. Shit is crazy right now. I'm trying to finalize the record so that I can get going on the artwork. There are a couple hold ups in the business world. meh. I'm proud of every song, I just want this album to work as a whole. It's a good mix between dark and fun. Maybe too dark. I dunno. Maybe needs more light. We're working on it still. If they think it's too long I have to take a step back and consider the possibility. As it is, I am way too attached to these songs to have any a perspective I can trust at the moment. This was a problem I had with some previous releases as well. I need to just sit on it for a little while and make sure it is what it needs to be.

The reason this album won't be coming out until May is because Epitaph, and any label really, requires four months of set up time. Once I get this record to them mastered with art work and all the ball starts rolling. If I was putting this out on my own, it would come out next month and it would sell 20,000 by the end of the year. If I was incredibly lucky. With all the work Epitaph plans on putting into this record, I suspect it will break the 100,000 point, which is something I have never done. Fingers are crossed. The material on this album is strong as hell. I have to say...there are Personal Journals moments...there are Hope moments...there is ONE Healthy Distrust moment...and the rest is probably the stuff I will be most remembered by.

I'm trying to work out a 26 page booklet full of writing and sketches. This would include lyrics, stories and background info on all the songs. If there's enough space I would like to include lyrics that didn't make it onto the album. That way I won't be sitting on a bunch of lyrics until the next album comes out. They haunt me. They yell at me in the back of my brain. "Hey...Hey...remember us?? We've been waiting here for 5 years you fucking slouch."

I did want to give more on this album than I did on the last album.

The one song I removed for sure is the Survived Another Winter track with Prolyphic and Reanimator. The song needed a little more work than I could give it with my time restraints, and by removing it I've stuck to my non-rapper cameo tradition as far as my proper releases are concerned. If the song was in top form by deadline time it definitely would have made the cut. Instead, it will be appearing on the Prolyphic and Reanimator album.

Another song that Epitaph has suggested that I remove is the Ode to 2005 track. Not only because it's already been released online, but because it doesn't match up in terms of overall sound compared to the other songs. However, that was the first song I recorded for this album and all the other songs evolved OUT of it. It's sort of the mother song of the album, and I don't want to remove it. It anchors a nice mellow 3 song period of the album before the energy picks up for the final 3 songs. Not only that, but there's a Buddy Wakefield sample that appears on the end of it that applies to the song and perfectly transitions into the next. I gotta keep it.

Buddy Wakefield helped tie in many parts of the album with a poem he has titled "Human the Death Dance." He wrote it and performed it for us once the album was finished, and without him hearing anything I had done yet, much of what he talks about synchs up with what's happening on the record. This is the kind of stuff I rely on when I am in last minute territory. Chance. Chance worked out for us in many ways.

as it stands now:

I have an intro track that is a montage of my kiddie songs (circa 8 yrs old-13 yrs old.)

The following song is called "Underground for Dummies", prod. by Odd Nosdam. It's the first time I've worked with him since the Eviction Notice song on Personal Journals. This song chronicles my rise in hiphop and how it all worked out. It is not veiled with poeticism...it's just a straight up account of how things happened and how an underground artist is able to utilize any and all opportunities presented to him in order to rise up. This song also addresses the color issue in hip-hop, which to this day seems to be faux pas subject matter.

Civil Obedience follows this song. The fastest song on the album. I've performed it live a couple times. When I performed it in LA a guy passed out in the front row. I blame the funkiness of this song. He tried mouthing along to what I was doing but without proper breath control there's no way you can survive a track of this sort. The beat was provided by a UK producer named Mr Cooper. Reanimator does the cuts. This will most likely be a single and I would love to do a video for it.

The next song, Woke Up This Morning, is what Epitaph has suggested the first single be. It features Jolie Holland on vocals and fiddle, and the beat was provided by Buck 65. It is very gritty and bluesy, and the story I tell is tightly wrapped up at the end. Everyone I've played it for is really into the vocal interaction between Jolie Holland and I. This song also features the harmonica stylings of Nathan Harrop. Incase you don't keep a close diary of my life, he is the guy I took on the Fuck Clear Channel Tour and he left without notice 3/4 of the way through. He flew home because he was having big troubles with his partner. He got married to her and they had a kid. She just left him. He started talking to me again and when I heard that karma came back to pwn him in the ass I felt like I had no place to hold a grudge. He adds something very subtle but significant to the overall sound of the song. The song ends with Jolie saying, "What you want with a woman who won't do what you say?"

shit...this explanation is getting long. I will follow up some other time. Plus, the next song relies on the business matters between Epitaph and New Line Cinema. So when that deal goes through I can continue with the break down.

whoooooo,
Sage Francis