AND I'D LIKE TO THANK MY POPS...

for making me take piano lessons. i'd also like to take this moment to apologize for only being a mediocre player. but when yer on a voyager shit bumps regardless. photo by joey raia.

ANOTHER BORING PHOTO

what can i say i dont have much to "blog" about. im just in the depths of creating this thing and im finding it kinda hard to do the dear diary thing every day. what does one blog about if hes not either criticising someone elses art or making fun of a celebrity? i dont believe in publically shitting on other artists stuff, especially if you yourself fancy yourself an artist. to me thats like being a cop whos locked up. if you are gonna do it put it to music, or give up music and write full time. that being said, heres another boring photo of one of my sessions that has nothing to do with anything i just said. but its my life right now and its really not supposed to mean anything to you other than being proof that i am really really really trying hard to make a sick album. i cant wait to get out there again and rock for yall.

love, el

ps: the songs not actually called ball of confusion. thats just the name of the temptations song ive been listening to non stop for the last week. if you dont have it yet, pick up psychadelic soul (lp). no ones fuckin with the temptations.

ME AND DIBBS

thats mr dibbs. hes the other dj doing cuts on my record. hes a fuckin madman. hes rollin next week and staying for 3 weeks as i tear the hairs out of my head with tweasers in an attempt to self flaggelate for the gods of hip hop and get this record delivered.

CRYYYYYYYIIIIIN

fell asleep late, neon buzz, P.T.S. stress we do drugs,
city air strange, sticky lungs,
mayor doomburg gives no funds and i am cryyyyyyyyiiiiin

call out with a fiendish ring, broken into to smithereens,
everythings exactly how it seems and it would seem that i am cryyyyyyyyiiiiiiin



hangar 18 rolled through to joes studio yesterday and added their special brand of painfully off key back up singing to the new jam i just did called smithereen. we then went and got chicken wings. then we drank. then alaska and wind decided to go home. so we drank more. then they said ok we gotta go man. so we went to another bar. then another. then i forgot the pin number to my new atm card so i went home.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY NOBODIES

i've been wondering how arrogant it is to keep doing the things that killed so many that we know.
i've been noticing how quickly motherfuckers have the answers to existance just as soon as someone goes.
we change the channel for a week or so of cleansing and reflecting on ourselves but then its back to that old show.
i hear the cackles of the crowd they're laughing at us and we havent even gotten to the part where its a joke.

SHIT EATING GRIN

the longer i stare the clearer i see the evil face looking back at me. i'll make deadline on this bitch but im not gonna be sane when i do.

HOLY SHIT


there are a lot of you checkin for this blog. weird.

i'm so horribly, horribly hung over. a man without moderation. the good news is the temptations are still the shit. ball of confusion.

thats mike relm up there. hes doing cuts for me and touring with me for this record.

STRESS PIZZA

from the files of the delapidated lifestyle of a 30 year old bboy losing his fuckin mind.

CLEAN YOUR SNEAKERS

some use a toothbrush. i prefer a towel or paper towels dipped in warm soapy water. one of the worst mistakes you can make is wprking with house hold cleaning products like windex. you know, in some ways cleaning your sneakers is kind of like making an album. nah im just kidding its nothing like that.

FIND THOSE DETONATORS!

down at the labor camp, they make a drone of men, mamas boy once but now i learned to speak draconian, and this is all for you, another tatterd kite, i feel it too this is a beautiful and tragic night, all i covet is honor, reaching in murky waters, and barely blink when pirranah teeth turn my hand to schwarma...

THE TEST PRESS IS IN

my kitchen. first vinyl from the album. emg.

emails get sent, messages conveyed, etc. every once in a while i get one from a fan that makes me glad i do what i do still. heres one:

im a camera man for a local newstation in el paso texas
and i work the night side on weekends. I start my shift
@ 1:00am. I see alot of shit, roll overs, head-ons, drownings, shootings, stabbings all that in the wee hour shit and all the while im listening to collecting the kid. this is my theme music. if you could only imagine sitting in the news vehicle, in the rain, with a dead body
in front of you because he wanted to end his life and threw himself in front of a car going at 70 miles an hour
all while listeninig to oxycotin. its amazing el-p. it all puts me in a state well lets just say off kilter.

ELECTRIC SHEEP

one of the reasons that it takes me so long to make records (apart from the fact that i lead a double life as a record label owner and producer) is that my process is demented to say the least. most of the songs you've ever heard from me are 6, 7 or 8 times removed from what the original attempt sounded like. i build entire songs musically that end up getting scrapped, with only a few elements remaining that get thrown on the final. for instance, flyentology is the song im mixing now. its the bastard hybrid of no less than 5 completely different and finished versions of the jam. its a fucked up way to work but it serves a few purposes: the first is spontenaity. most of the time a piece of music, a sample, a drum break serves only as the medium to get me off my ass and writing. but ultimately its not meant to exist in that form. the second is perfectionism. once the writing and performance is done i've got the pleasure of sitting naked, drunk and crying in front of my equipment for weeks, months and on occasion years trying to tune the shit into something that feels perfect to me (at least for the time). the only way to stop is to force myself. being in a group was cool cause i could turn to someone and say "is it done?". thats why i produce for other people. its easier. other people arent as much of an asshole as i am.

the tat is by grimey. hes a master of his craft.

NO KINGS

its a brutalized lab bunny jumpin the fence, grab the money and the charger for the micro chip embedded in head,
brooklyn is the life equal parts joy/striphe, i sit up in the cribbo and carve these noid kites out of lead, the same weight of the monkey on my neck, who crawled off a my back and tried to make friends, now im runnin round lit like the fun never ends... but someone ran their key on my whip plus left dents

THE TOWER CARD (from tarot)

synchronicities abound. this shit fucked me up when i saw it. look familiar? heres a description:

Synopsis
Rigid or imprisioning structures need to be torn down and replaced with the new.

General Description
The Tower shows that we have walled ourselves into an area of supposed security that suddenly starts to waver. This is very much a matter of structures and dimensions that have become too small and narrow for us. Convictions and basic principles of life could be affected by this, as well as our thoughts of security in the professional and financial sense. Last but not least, our personal friendships and other partnerships could also be influenced. In every case, the Tower stands for a concept that used to give us a reassuring measure of security, perhaps even a feeling of safety. But now we have grown out of it. These old concepts are usually toppled by surprising experiences, sometimes even true flashes of genius. Since this is a matter of the supposed basis of our security, these sudden changes are often first experienced as catastrophes. It is only when the first shock has been overcome that we sense with relief that we have been freed from old burdens. This breakthrough can be triggered through our own perceptions as well as external events. The I Ching says in this regard: "The storm with its thunder and lightning overcomes the disturbing tension in nature."

KEEP ME IN THE SKY THAT ALL THAT I CRY
i'll become your servant (at least for that time)



joey raia mixes FLYENTOLOGY. hes good at what he does.

SCOTT LAROCK AND CED GEE TAKE ACID

i've been trying to figure out a neat little way to describe the beats im doing for this record. you know, something catchy for the kids. i think i figured it out. basically its like a psychadelic BDP record. maybe. the picture is of my roland vk 8. it an organ. its fresh.

ANOTHER WEAPON

this is a nord. in the right hands its grimey as fuck.

a brief list of some of the people who appear in some form on my record (so far):

in no order and in varying degrees of performance:

Tunde Adebimpe
tame 1
mr lif
aesop rock
trent reznor
the mars volta
matt sweeny
james mcnew
rob sonic

im not a big fan of records that have a bunch of (featuring so and so) after every song title. my collaborations for the most part come from friendships i have with people who happen to be in the vicinity while im making my shit. little splashes of other peoples voices, talents, energy used in subtle ways is the way i usually like to freak it. rob does some back ups, sweeny plays some guitar, aes drops a verse, james plays some bass... whatever works at the time. its the southpark theory: when george clooney appeared on southpark it was as a gay dog. thats the type of shit that makes my day.

that being said, im off to mix flyentology (featuring trent reznor)

DRIVE, DRIVE, DRIVE... HOPPED IN THE HOOPTY SCREAMIN FREEDOM IS MINE

"i knew a kid who navigated it slipperry and fuel injected a speedball on his way to atlantic city (peace dan), out the race before even making his mark and now he'll never pick his shit up out of long term parking.."

POISENVILLE KIDS NO WINS

this is the last song on the record. being that i only pretend to be a musician, it was a pain in my ass to switch meters from 6/4 to 4/4 then back again repeatedly. the end of the song had 2 james brown samples that were the fucking shit, but i bowed to pressure and im gonna have them resung and changed up. fuckin sample laws. i swear to god when the first nuke is dropped in the middle east im immediately dropping an album that is produced with no regard for any sampling laws what so ever. every beat will have impeach the president drums, james brown screams, 16 bar philip glass loops and a verse from biggie grafted on the end of that bitch. you cant telll from the flick but this song has over 80 seperate tracks of music. for those who arent familiar, thats a pro tools file. pro tools isnt some magical cheating machine, it a digital recording and editing program.

room in flux. shithole of randomness. the triton is a cute little machine but it aint fuckin with the eps. good effects and filters though.

here she is: 16 bits of pure ancient glory.. the eps 16 +.

no flash drive. no stereo sampling. alarm clock radio style display. broken keys. a beast.

i didnt underline it. i dont know who did. maybe my publicist. emg is getting pressed up on see through yellow vinyl.

"bush was with it, blair complicit, cheneys laughin, hello fascist,
you're my daddy, you'll protect me, i need guidance to live correctly,
i cant fight you, feed me ether, im your servant, your the teacher,
what the fuck el? oops so sorry, that the implant, talking for me,"

still trying to name this joint. shit is like 125 bpm. god help me.