Eyedea & Abilities at Intermedia Arts
From the first line—“I’m not shit, I’m champagne / let’s go home and kill ourselves and our radios”—Eyedea & Abilities’ new By The Throat is a visceral set of contradictions and criticisms, an explosive album of self-aware hip-hop that blurs its own distinctions. Coming five years after the pair's previous disc, E&A (and eight years after their debut, First Born), this highly anticipated record feels like it’s arriving right on time. Before a lucky crowd of fans at Intermedia Arts on Saturday, MC Eyedea (Micheal Larsen) and DJ Abilities (Gregory Keltgen) discussed By The Throat and sequentially played live versions of every track.
After being introduced with a little back story—both were members of the Battlecats B-Boy crew; their first incarnation, Sixth Sense, was the first outside crew to be featured on the legendary Headshots mix tapes—and tearing through opener “Hay Fever,” the duo took a minute to acknowledge the incongruity of the setting. “This is strange, but we promise we’ll make it good,” Abilities said, to which Larsen laughingly shot back, “You’ll make it good. I’ll make this more and more awkward.”
Clearly more accustomed to performing than public speaking, the two were earnest and funny throughout the night. Before kicking off “Time Flies When You Have a Gun,” Eyedea shared the genesis of the song: At one point in time, his family was in trouble, and a police officer told him that buying a gun was the best way to protect them. The rapper also kept it tight with Mitch Hedberg one-liners and talk of how collaboration can lead to musical and personal development. He said that his work with punk band Carbon Carousel and free-form group Face Candy has allowed him to use a more melodic flow and incorporate choruses, a sophisticated compliment to his battle-tested lyrical speed and explosiveness. Eyedea also cited multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Ylvisaker (currently touring with Andrew Bird) as an influence. A member of Carbon Carousel, Ylvisaker encouraged Eyedea to dedicate himself solely to music itself. He also contributed live instrumentation to By The Throat, which, according to Abilities, brought everything “to the next level.”
Abilities has done some level-jumping of his own by teaching himself how to use a new turntable, the Vestax Controller One. With buttons on the side acting like stops on an organ, the new deck enabled him to control the pitch of notes playing on the records. Running the signal through overdrive and wah-wah pedals, he was able to control sound effectively and create melodies using only the turntable itself. As Abilities put it, this turntable was “one of the few things that has expanded music as a whole.” This became abundantly clear as the duo played “Forgive Me For My Synapses,” finishing with a fiery crescendo of scratching that snapped silent. (One spectator broke the hush of the stunned audience with a simple “wow.”)
Another featured collaborator was artist Michael Gaughan, whom Eyedea called “the ‘and’ in Eyedea & Abilities.” During the event, Gaughan painted onstage and gave away the finished product to a lucky fan. Throughout the evening’s live performances, he bobbed his head and occasionally looked up with a smile, seeming to enjoy the night as much as the audience.
DJ Abilities
Michael Gaughan and Eyedea
Eyedea
Painting by Michael Gaughan
