San Francisco's go-to producers The Rondo Brothers set to release club-worthy Seven Minutes To Midnight. Duo proves its versatility with songs in new Ice Cube flick, Sundance indie hit and upcoming Wu-Tang documentary. What would it sound like if Danger Mouse produced a New Pornographers record? San Francisco's leading production team, the genre-bending Rondo Brothers, likes to think that the end result might come out sounding something like their upcoming album, Seven Minutes To Midnight (May 22, 2007).
Guest vocalist Kelly Atkins (20 Minute Loop), whose pipes stand out on the track, "Crazed" is considered to be the Rondos' Neko Case. In true Rondo Brothers chameleon style, Seven Minutes To Midnight also features Pedro Shanahan (Dirty Little Pedro) as a stonerish Peter Gabriel, whose vocals take the lead on "Dun Stalker." And, Poach Stevens is the record's featured rapper. The album also gets a helping hand from frequent Rondo collaborator Daryl Palumbo (Head Automatica, Glassjaw, House of Blow), Vinne Carruana (The Movie Life, I Am the Avalanche) and Samantha Stollenwreck. All of the above were also featured on the Rondo Brothers' first release, No Time Left On Earth (War Chant 2005), a record that established the Rondos firmly in the collective music consciousness as a force to be reckoned with: a U.S. and Europe tour with Handsome Boy Modeling School brought their eclectic live show to the masses. Since then, the Rondos have been in such demand on the production side that they have hardly been out of the studio.
2006 allowed the Rondo Brothers to reach some of their widest audiences yet -- thanks in part to laptop prodigy rapper MC Lars (Nettwerk) who tapped the pair to produce his underground hit "Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock" and their contributions to the hit single "World's Gone Mad" from Handsome Boy Modeling School. Other projects include the Rondos' contributions to a 2006 Killers remix by Dan The Automator (Gorillaz, Deltron 3030) as well as a recent collaboration with him on a Peeping Tom track and Galactic's Ruckus.
The Rondos also worked on a New York Dolls remix for last year's release on Roadrunner records, commissioned by legendary producer Jack Douglas (Cheap Trick, John Lennon, Aerosmith) who has also been utilizing the Rondos regularly in the studio since a chance meeting early in 2006. Artists seen working at the Rondo studio recently have included seminal guitarist Luther Dickinson from the North Mississippi All Stars, keyboardist extraordinaire Ivan Neville (Neville Brothers, Rolling Stones), F Sean Martin of Hatebreed, Casual from Hieroglyphics, Motion Man from Kutmasta Kurt's Threshold Records, Chali 2Na from Jurassic 5, Andre The Giant, Prince Paul and more.
While rocking the punk and hip-hop worlds, the Rondos' love of all genres has also allowed them to reach other audiences, thanks to their talent and versatility. A lounge remix of Ella Fitzergald's "Beginning To See The Light" was included on several remix compilations, and the Rondos collaborated with legendary keyboardist Bernie Worrell (Talking Heads, Parliament) on a remix record for Bay Area jam band Vinyl. V2 records commissioned them for a Madness remix and current buzz band Scissors For Lefty (Rough Trade) signed the Rondos up for two remixes for its 2007 release.
No Time Left On Earth defined a new genre deemed "Hawaiian hip-hop" and was a forward thinking, good balance of moody and cerebral songs with straight up pop singles. Maintaining the same cast of characters on Seven Minutes To Midnight, along with the addition of SF/Brooklyn/Shanhai soul guru/ice cream fanatic Bing Ji Ling, The Rondo Brothers -- A.K.A. studio wizards Jim Greer and Brandon Arnovick (they're not literally brothers) -- have made a new album that is decidedly not Hawaiian hip-hop. In fact, they have gone an entirely different direction.
"We love mixing organic instruments with beats and other production trickery," says Arnovick. "But this time we wanted to make a darker record with splashes of light in it. The other one was kind of the other way round." The recording combines skillful songwriting, great performances and top-notch beat-driven production along the lines of Air, Massive Attack, The Neptunes, Gorillaz and Outkast.
Seven Minutes To Midnight is what the team considers an album of post-apocalyptic love songs -- tunes where all the writers were encouraged to envision the currently somewhat bleak looking future of the world. "We are very affected by the war," Arnovick says. "Especially the way people are killing each other.there's not a single political word on this album, but hearing about women and children dying every day makes you certainly think about how in our lives we don't usually have to deal with that kind of heartbreak. If anything we wanted to pay some respect to all the lousy things happening in the world, to acknowledge it. So on this album there are dark songs that look into the darkness, and happy songs that celebrate life. We asked our variety of guest singers to just channel a little bit of that instead of just writing from personal terms."
The cover of the album, which is a fantastic piece of artwork by renowned artist Sam Flores, depicts a couple having a picnic while a nuclear blast goes off in the background, and that is probably the strongest metaphor for the album's theme. Material from the new record was tested in December on a three week tour opening for and playing with Dan The Automator, Chali2NA, A.G. and Casual from Hieroglyphics.
Also actively scoring commercials and indie films, the Rondos have scored spots for Toyota, the NHL, The NFL, Chevy, Dodge and several other corporate clients. In fact, Bengals player Chad Johnson was nicknamed "Ocho Cinco" after the Rondo Brothers commercial featuring rapper Casual which airs constantly on the NFL Network. The Rondo Brothers song "Pineapple Wine" from No Time Left On Earth, is prominently featured in the new Ice Cube movie, Are We Done Yet?, and Sundance sensation My Kid Could Paint that features five of the duo's original compositions. The Rondos will also have a track in the upcoming Wu Tang Clan documentary.
Seven Minutes To Midnight Tracklisting:
Release Date: May 22, 2007
01. Intro
02. Crazed
03. Dune Stalker
04. El Corazon
05. Liberation
06. Hard Rocks The Roof
07. I Fell In Love
08. Still Your Ghost
09. Sing Into The Machine
10. Houston
11. New York Kid
12. Hooked On hookers
13. Until We All Fall Down
14. La La La (Get Out Now)
15. In The Valley
16. Come Down To Me
17. Apologists
On The Web:
www.rondobrothers.com
www.myspace.com/rondobrothers
More like this story
Support our reporting -- Follow the MFP.
