Thanksgiving Brown. A name of recollection, for those, dedicated to the art of movin' butts. The story is there is no story, you be the judge. Recorded in a tree-stump-converted house w/ studio (early works in an A-Frame on the same property) in a Redwood forest section of Arcata, California. 4 or 5 albums were produced and recorded from 2002-2004. All production by DJ CJ (Stewart) with unfashionable computer programs. All songs improved off tha top from Thanksgiving Brown (unless otherwise a noted). "The Ultimate Ego Trip" was our first LP, which featured the hit songs "Red Balloon", "I'm Sensitive", "Chinatown" and many more. "Behind Closed Doors" was the 2nd album, and my personal favorite. That featured crowd-favorites "You Gotta Dance To This", the explosive "Rolling The Dice", "Exiled Impresario" (about me doing too much in the rap industry and being exiled to a remote island - which was also released as separate limited EP), "I Shoulda Wrote My Raps" and 20 more. The 3rd album, and the most difficult/challenging to record was "Black Scorpio Vertigo" - a complex, introspective, extremely paranoid, liquor-soaked rage, ranting & raving, debacle (that included loaded guns and empty So Co bottles).
Thanksgiving Brown's Peter Agoston was hospitalized only days after this album was recorded for severe strep throat, exhaustion, and mono. It was not a good scene! So by my 4th album I had no other choice but to go into the ole' studio without booze (kinda like Slash had to do). So we just got high as hell and did whatever we could to create another album. It was liberating and frustrating at the same time. A Kafka-esque Metamorphosis. It should be noted most all of the albums were created in one session or two. I tried to get up to 20 songs, per album. All freestyle//All drunk. All right baby. Word is Bond. Which ultimately lead to a break from the bottle during production time. So our 4th album was entitled "Monday Morning/Untitled" because that's all I could freeking come up with when I titled the CD-R. I was that uninspired. But the album's material is strong, on point and energized and almost focalized. I did more DJ-cuts on album (although I did some on all the albums). We did weird skits. And some wild songs (including topics about urination, robbery, alcoholism, the club. I need to find that album, it’s the least distributed of them all. My 5th album, was a Best Of style compilation released on Matt Kennedy's Monosyllabik Records label, now de-funct, then-Arcata based imprint (Kennedy now resides in Portland, OR - ironically the city that created the name and subsequent character that is . Thanksgiving Brown). That comp was titled "$cene" - which is an old Mike Zoot song produced by DJ Spinna that I loved so much I homage-d the title with the title of my album. Forest Stearns did an sublime drawing for the cover (he was not credited in the liner-notes, which I've always been sorry about) I also owe Forest money so he's mad at me (ahh! i'm sorry). Anyways. After '$cene' (my only truly distributed album - pretty much thru cdbaby.com -- yuck) I stopped recording. I performed more. And dreamt of my own DJing-only album, entitled "On The Other Hand". I have a ton of "unreleased" stuff I did (that didn't make the CD-R albums I'd press about 10-20 up of). I'd like to put out an album of unreleased material simply called "Unreleased Shit" and have a photo of an x-ray of a person with a piece of feces still in their intestines. But lay it out in a cool way. See, the stuff that made the albums was pretty bad, the unreleased shit is mostly horrible unusable songs. A lot were posse cuts and collabos with drunk A-HOLES (aka my friends) that I'd bring up to the studio w/ me. They are usually blathering self-aggrandizing, mic-hogs, and I the same, attempting to record like professionals. I also recorded a collaborative EP of material with my man Z-MAN from San Fran, producd by CJ. The songs are crazy. I can't finish verses, I'm keeping all the takes. Z does his best to keep up with my non-sensual and sensical ramblings in the booth. He's a fucking Genius (who just got signed to Def Jam) anyway so it was fun for him! Big up to him major influence and friend in the game. Props to Gametightelectro who inspired me through their music to rhyme. Props to P$C from the Legends for dissing me on record and fueling my fire to express myself as an emcee (also shout out to Mazzi from Soul Purpose for dissing me on record this year and MF Doom for dissing me on record in 2003/4). Also: shouts to Jerry Blue our engineer, how we met, I do not know, but I loved working with you - you old stoney hippy! Love your St. Bernard too, he was the greatest/ever to have around. To the random people that came up to the studio with us and got totally blasted listening to me talk shit and love it - hey I paid for that studio time - I was not going to let it go to waste! I've performed live as a rapper opening up for Sir Mix A Lot once, and went on to rap on some tours, on my
Numerable DJ backing tours I’ve been on all over the world (Japan, Europe, UK, Canada, US). I usually kicked the same rhyme every single night, its the only rhyme of mine I can ever remember (since all my shit was off the top!!) it goes like this "I walk into a party, lookin' for a body, trying to get naughty, I'm all wound up". You've heard it from me a million times. If you want any of my albums, email me, $5 each plus shipping and handling. $5 extra for a PERSONALIZED mix-CD for you (1 of a kind - what!!!).
Many of you know me, as DJ Thanksgiving Brown. My DJ persona. I've DJed all over the world, sharing stages and DJ boothes with the likes of Damien & Julian Marley (Ghetto Youth), Brand Nubian (tour DJ), De La Soul, Sizzla, Cypress Hill (as their DJ!), Pete Rock, DJ Premiere, DJ Spinna, Anticon, Project Blowed, Hieroglyphics, ?uestlove, Equpito, Numbers, Town & Country, Pleaseesaur, DJ Andy Smith, Greg Nice of Nice & Smooth (tour DJ), The Shapeshifters, Prince Paul, Saul Williams, DJ Spooky, Rodey O. & Joe Cooley, Atmosphere, People Under The Stairs, Sage Francis, and a million more and then some. I've been a DJ, MC, host, cultural icon and trendsetter - as Thanksgiving Brown.
I run Female Fun Records and Culturama as well. It should be noted, that during this time frame and slightly before I was also the "lead singer" in a noise band I started called 'High School'. I sang covers and "played the guitar" with a rotating cast of people I lived with at the time and other "musicians" in Eureka and Arcata, Calif. Our key cover was "Elenor Rigby" which I usually opened and closed our sets with. I also sang covers of "Hotel California" "Black Hole Sun" "Shock The Monkey" and a couple others I forgot. We would also change instruments during songs, so that I could plays drums and guitar and sing all in one song. The effect was both aggravating and excruciating. I was often booed, tackled and envied by many people.
