Slug Keeps It Real

Alright so I confess I am actually writing this the day after I heard it. Now I know that it breaks the flow of things but I can explain. Yesterday was a hellish day. There has been no furniture whatsoever in our apartment (or the skeleton of what was left of our apartment) so we've been sleeping on the floor in the living room. Camp out style I suppose. So needless to say I haven't been sleeping too well. Waking up every forty minutes or so because I can't get comfortable. That is all besides the point. The morning started off with Hudson the Cat not feeling well and me being worried. He was very lethargic and unresponsive and I didn't care for it. I ended up having to leave work early to take him to the vet. He's doing better today (he has a urinary track infection) and the vet raped my wallet.

Once all that was taken care it was time to finish gutting the apartment. Everything had to go and be cleaned and let me just explain to you guys it was a process. It went deep into the night (I actually didn't return to my spot on the floor until 2:10 to be exact) and I had to open for work which means I had to be up at 6:10ish. Needless to say I'm running on fumes.

I didn't even get to the song of the day yesterday until after nine. For the majority of the day my heart wasn't in it and when I got home from dropping the last run of boxes to the storage unit I knew there was no way I was going to get to write a post. Of course I was disappointed but I knew that if I sat down to type anything up at the end of the night it would have looked a little like this:

"Music is fun. I like songs. Singing...aikfjdkj adhmcnmvaed jadfjakj zzzzzzzzzz"

Nobody wants that. So I chose to fall asleep on the floor and postpone yesterdays post for today. So yes that means you will be getting some double action today my fellow Shufflers. So the even though I didn't post anything yesterday doesn't mean we didn't get an awesome song.



I would have to say that Guarantees is the song that problem made me an Atmosphere fan (well that and Blamegame... actually it was more Blamegame and Guarantees just sealed the deal). This track is raw. Want to talk about about catching the mood of working class people (not working class heroes just people...yes John Lennon nod). I've said it before that Slug has this incredible ability to tell a story and this one happens to be personal or written in such a way that it's personal and we (the people) can totally relate to.

When the economy shit the bed things go real... real hard. There were people who were in denial who kept saying it'll pick up and that it was a fluke. There were others who took the opposite side of the coin and started preparing for the Great Depression 2: Now With More Depression. I feel it kind of hit in the middle, or is still hitting kind of in the middle. It sucks working hard and not being able to see a payoff. Guarantees takes all that fear, all that frustration and just slams it home. Everything that Slug is rapping about one can find a way to relate. There's no super hero antics here. It's about struggling to make ends meat and not knowing when it'll be enough. It's about trying to raise your kid in a way that they can end up not so messed up and worrying about how you're going to be perceived, it's about trying to find you in a time where there is just so much weighing you down.

I love, love, love this song. I love how there is no bass it's just Slug and the guitar. Simple chords with lyrics that knock you down. You throw a back beat on this song and I think some of it's rawness, some of it's edge gets lost. The guitar keeps it real. I also like how there is only one "F" bomb in the entire song (I also believe it happens to be the only swear). Yeah it's easy to write a track where you can cuss up a storm but the real art is making your point and not cursing. In a genre of music where edited versions become almost unlistenable it's nice to see a bit of restraint.

For me the best line of the song is "just another zombie walking blindly through your ghost town" For starters I just love how the words flow together. It has this driving up a hill, driving down a hill, driving up a hill feel to it. There is just a smoothness to it. Then think of the imagery Slug paints here. Being a person who is obsessed with zombies and the impending zombie apocalypse (yes it's coming folks don't try and kid yourself... that's why I keep a copy of the Zombie Survival Guide in my bag at all times. You just never know) I can take the line at surface level. A zombie just stumbling through a town that was once existent. Flipping it though I can take it for struggling so hard to make it, struggling so hard to provide that you feel like you're floating through the world with no clear destination... This song hits me at my core. All of the lyrics just click with me. Now that I'm on my computer I plan on moving it back on to my Want To Hear It Now list. Guarantees is one of my ipod's All Star tracks and I think it's time to put it back in rotation. Maybe one day I'll share with you guys my Top 25 most played songs. That could be an adventure.... Until then read this and thank me when the day comes.