When Life Gives You Cellos, What Colour Do You Paint Them? | Atmosphere’s Slug and Ant send beautiful music into the ozone.
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w/ Josh Martinez, Attracted to Gods. Starlite Room (10030-102 St). Tue, Apr 28 (8pm). Tickets available through Ticketmaster, Blackbyrd, Foosh, Listen.
Since its release last spring, I’ve probably listened to Atmosphere’s fifth album, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, more than 50 times. But until I started doing some research in preparation for my interview with Slug, the rapping half of the Minneapolis-based duo (rounded out by producer Ant), I had no idea musical legend
Tom Waits was featured on the album — but my ignorance doesn’t bother Slug in the slightest. Waits doesn’t sing or play an instrument on the song “The Waitress”; rather, he beatboxes, which may be why it took me so long to clue into the fact it’s him doing the Rahzel impersonation.
“He didn’t try to own the song, and I loved that,” Slug says. “He just climbed in and found somewhere he fit, and it didn’t have to be uncomfortable or weird. It wasn’t contrived — I told him, ‘If you think you can add something, great. If not, don’t try to force it.’ And how often do you get Tom Waits to beatbox on your song?
“When he sent me what he came up with, I was actually really relieved,” he continues. “I didn’t have to feel like I was exploiting his voice or his name.”
But the collaboration almost never happened. Slug and Ant were in the middle of recording the bulk of what would go on to become Lemons, and Slug had already written “The Waitress.” He knew the song’s subject matter was very Waitsian, but felt conflicted about asking Waits’ son, whom Slug has been friends with for a few years, to put him in contact with his legendary pops. As they were wrapping up recording, Slug finally bit the bullet and asked; to his relief, his friend was more than happy to hook the two artists up.
“[Ant and I] actually considered not putting his name in the credits,” Slug adds. “I wasn’t working with the guy to get critical acclaim to sell more copies. In the end, I figured I should at least put ‘T. Waits’ in the liner notes so when I’m old and have Alzheimer’s I can still look at it and go, ‘Hey, I did a song with Tom fucking Waits!’”
And although Slug might not have been concerned with how a Tom Waits feature could have increased sales of Lemons, the album debuted at #5 on the Billboard charts, selling more than 36,000 copies in its first week — an impressive feat for a rap group on an independent label. But Atmosphere has built up a loyal fanbase over the years, often touring colleges and smaller towns that major-label artists routinely skip over. They also give away as much music for free as they can.
Before the release of Lemons, for instance, Atmosphere gave away Strictly Leakage, a collection of more lighthearted party tracks, for free on their website. And older full-length albums, such as God Loves Ugly, which has just been re-released after being out of print for more than a year, have also been available for download on the group’s website at different points in time.
“From now on, we’re going to release much more of the material we record, which is what the Leakage series is for,” Slug says. “I just don’t want quality, I want quantity too. I want to be the Lil Wayne of the underground.”
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