Red October - ProfilesArchive

About Me

"I was a...piano player in my last lifetime.
Now I write rhymes, sip white wine and let my life shine." Except for those last two. Let me elaborate briefly on the piano part...
I dabbled with violin, recorder, piano and rubber-band cereal box (not necessarily in that order) as a kid. But really, I started out in 6th grade on flute. That eventually became too feminine for my insecure middle-school self. So I switched to sax. That was cool cause it got me into jazz band and (more importantly) preliminary dabblings in an incredibly important component of the African-American experience. It also allowed me to turn a punk band in high school into a punk-ska band. That got me checkered pants and a studded bracelet. Wowed by the guitars in the band, I then decided to learn guitar, start singing, and start a more ska-oriented band of my own.
That band went in a Maceo Parker type funk direction eventually, after getting bored with Ska, and then in a jazz direction after getting bored with funk and key cats graduating from high school.
I hit a plateau with jazz guitar, so I took up the piano. That's when I really jumped into music in the sense of practicing long hours. Being a visual person, the piano just made sense more than any other instrument. One middle C and I could always see it.
At the end of college, I got radicalized so it was only a matter of time before I would get seek a more political avenue of musical expression then jazz piano. Put simply, its hard to say "smash imperialism and the state" with a bebop line, no matter how good you are. Eventually, it dawned on me that I could combine writing, music, and politics in hip hop.
So a few months ago, I just up and decided to become an MC.
And here I am.
(Profile edited with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4 )

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/4/2006
Band Members: Red October
Influences: US imperialism, Coltrane, Miles, Dead Prez, A Tribe Called Quest, world music, Chopin, Bach, Palestine, Cuba: rumba and son, James Brown, Maceo Parker, Keith Jarrett, Immortal Technique, Son of Nun, Ryan Harvey (riotfolk.org), Illogic, Haiti, Aesop Rock, Cypher:Dissident, and on and on
Sounds Like: proletarian thoughtcrime in a bucket full of liberation hip-hop transmission signals
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Years-old poem found

So hear's an old, old stream-of-consciousness style poem I found. I think this is from ~2004, the beginning of my radicalization. Random. Dig it anyway.Statistical conniptions are ammo, style-shippedi...
Posted by Red October on Sun, 29 Jul 2007 07:13:00 PST

New-ish ish!

Yeah, that's right people. Got some new-ish stuff up on the page for all you cats lookin for som more Red Octane to pump into your veins and burn my claim to fame like propane. Visions of Solidary, an...
Posted by Red October on Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:59:00 PST

Socialism 2007 (*now w/ instant promo song!)

Socialism 2007: Socialism for the 21st Century A weekend of debate, discussion, and entertainment June 14-17, 2007 Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Harewww.socialismconference.org Socialism 2007 is...
Posted by Red October on Wed, 30 May 2007 08:51:00 PST

New Song (for Cristobal Colon...

...and his derivatives). Whew! I finally finished (for now?) the song about colonial conquest I've been working on for a while. Initially, I thought I could do 500 years of Columbian-era imperial hist...
Posted by Red October on Sun, 08 Oct 2006 01:48:00 PST

New (old) track: 3 Syllables

So I was in the "studio"(a technotronic wrestling ring consisting of a computer stic-mic and old-school, bug-ridden software) all day today. The lyrics developed out of a poetic excercise I made up to...
Posted by Red October on Mon, 02 Oct 2006 05:46:00 PST

I need FEEDBACK, SHOWS, BEATS

Preferably in that order. Seriously, I really would like some feedback on my songs. Even "you suck" would be cool, cause then I'd know I need to quit or something. I'm working on a song about Columbia...
Posted by Red October on Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:44:00 PST

New songs posted, for better or worse

As you can see, I got some new tunes up. Been cutting tracks all day Monday and Tuesday. My style and vocal presence is changing everytime I record. I guess that's what happens when you've been rappin...
Posted by Red October on Thu, 24 Aug 2006 07:25:00 PST

testing 1 2 3

Yo, cyberspace. I'm finally on the myspace thing. This is a test blogging, so check it. Mic check 1-2, 1-2.-Red
Posted by Red October on Mon, 07 Aug 2006 03:50:00 PST