S.A. Sebastian: A View From The Bottom

A couple weeks ago I recorded another bass track, a song called “Masters of Limitation,” for Freedom. It’s very cool hypnotic track that combines acoustic and electronic instruments. This is also the first release featuring me on upright bass. (I played the upright on the 2 live tracks on Atomic Brother’s Pretty Little Lunatic Ep, coming out May 25th). You can check out “Masters of Limitation” by going to Freedom’s website at http://freedom-artist.com, selecting the Age of Aether album and then click on  ”Masters of Limitation.” You can listen or download for free.

Production on the latest Atomic Brother Ep, Pretty Little Lunatic is almost complete. The artwork is complete, and now we’re in the mastering stage with Roman Vail over at Joe Lambert Mastering in Brooklyn. James and I have been working with Joe Lambert since our first release together in 1998, with the band NVR. Joe’s been real busy lately working some major players, we thought we’d work with his protégé Roman this time around. We’ll be releasing Pretty Little Lunatic digitally through all the major online services like iTunes, AmazonMP3, Napster, eMusic as well as through our own portal at http://music.atomicbrother.com, where you can get it free, or pay what you like. Of course we’d love for you to give us a little something for our hard work, but the free option is always there.

The Pretty Little Lunatic Ep releases on May 25, 2010. Check out the press release for more details.

Work on the new Atomic Brother Ep, Silence Collide, is finally done! After moving to Austin in July, I got back to editing the tracks in August and searching for a mix engineer in September, and overseeing the creation of the artwork in October and putting together the distribution and new http://music.atomicbrother.com website.

Silence Collide features 3 new songs plus 2 live acoustic tracks and will be available on iTunes Worldwide, AmazonMP3, Napster, eMusic, Rhapsody and more in November. The new songs feature me on bass, James Melillo on guitar and vocals, and Robert C. Kelly on drums. The Guitars and vocals were recorded at my old studio in Montclair, NJ, the bass in my new studio in Austin, TX and the drums were recorded in Seoul, Korea, at the university where Rob is a professor of music. The live acoustic tracks were performed by me and James and recorded at his place on Long Island, NY. You can get the Silence Collide before it’s released directly from Atomic Brother at http://music.atomicbrother.com where you can name the price you want to pay, and you can get the Ep in AIF, MP3, ACC, Flac and WAV file formats. In addition, you will get the digital artwork PDF and the “Making of Wastin’ All My Time” video as a bonus.

In September, I went back to Long Island, NY to finish recording our next, and still untitled, Ep. We set up a makeshift studio in James’ apartment and recorded guitars and vocals on 3 new songs, and bass on 1 of those songs. Plus a whole bunch of acoustic tracks to accompany the studio tracks. The bass on the 2 other tracks was recorded in Austin, TX. This time we have both Robert C. Kelly and Patrick Aeby playing drums on this Ep. Rob’s drums were recorded again in Seoul, Korea, and Patrick’s recorded in Lausanne, Switzerland. I’ll be back to editing, and getting ready to mix these songs in November for a January release. I just have to tidy up the Silence Collide release, and finish getting Ep number 3 ready for Patrick to record drums.

On Weds, Nov. 28, Warner Brothers announced that they signed Frank Sinatra… well actuall they acquired the full rights to Sinatra’s catalog from Sinatra’s family.

The partnership will operate under the name Frank Sinatra Enterprises and will manage all of his musical, film and stage work, as well as administer all licensing for the name and likeness of the star who died in 1998 at the age of 82.

The family wants to preserve Frank’s legacy by releasing “films, TV specials and unreleased footage, photos and audio recordings and pursue new products and ventures.”  I expect we’ll be hearing a remix of “Love and Marriage” a la the Elvis remix album.

What I want to know is, isn’t his legacy preserved in every pizza joint, Italian restaurant and Olive Garden across the U.S.? I think I’d rather dip my head in a vat of acid than hear what this unholy alliance is going to bring us.

Quiet Riot singer, Kevin Dubrow, died last Sunday night at his home in Las Vegas. I’d post a link, but so many blogs and websites and news sites are covering his death I wouldn’t know which one to post. So, if you have been living in a cave and really need to read about it do a search on Google or Yahoo!.

During the course of the last week Kevin’s death have been covered all over television, radio and the internet. There were many tributes to him on specialty hard rock and metal shows, and for the ones taped in advance of his death, probably more to come. The amount of other people coming out of the woodwork to pay tribute to Kevin Dubrow is tremendous. The music of Quiet Riot has even made back into regular rotation on a few stations here in the New York/New Jersey area.

While I think it’s great that Kevin and his music are getting all this attention, but I kind of find it troubling that it took his death to make people remember him. Everyone is saying so many great things about him, as people often do about people when they die, which is nice. I’ve got nothing bad to say about him. I had the chance to meet Kevin once a long time ago and he was a very nice guy. People go on to say how wonderful, great and influential Quiet Riot was but what they don’t realize is that Kevin was still an active singer and entertainer, and an active member of Quiet Riot. To many people Kevin Dubrow and Quiet Riot were “residing in the where are they now file.” But, unlike all the 80s glam and metal bands getting back together to make a few bucks because of the rising interest in 80s music, he kept Quiet Riot going, no reunion necessary. The band was still making their way across the US and parts of Europe, playing music year after year. I didn’t get to see the band back in the 80s, but I did get to see Quiet Riot in several small clubs on Long Island in the 90s, and once in a minor league baseball stadium a few years ago in New Jersey with Rudy Sarzo playing  bass. Every time they were fun and kicked ass.

It kinda makes me sick listening to all these hypocrites. So, to all of you that are eulogizing Kevin and calling him an enormous talent and great friend, why weren’t you supporting him, band and his career? If he meant so much too you, where the hell were you?

It’s great that you can hear him on the radio again, but it sucks that it took his death to make it happen.