Well, Trylemma and myself, along with anyone else who preordered Ceschi's final trilogy of albums on vinyl got a surprise email earlier this week from the man himself. Imagine my surprise when while scrolling through it I realize it contains a download of a completely new unheard collection of songs! No shit right?!
By this point I assume most of you have heard this, and that most of you know what I do at this point. Ceschi really does just keep improving over time. His guitar playing is amazing, his songwriting has matured considerably with every release (especially over the last decade), and what I find most remarkable about this particular collection of songs is that he's managed to blur the lines between folk, punk and rap to such a degree that there is really no way to classify this anymore under any existing genre label.
That said for the most part this is a punk record. In places it's brutal tempo, irreverent go fuck yourself attitude and fast paced guitar make that obvious, in others it's roots are more hidden behind the masterful musicianship and beautiful moments of vulnerability, so unlike the garage thrash antics of the angsty punk rockers of last century.
I call this a punk record for three reasons. One, because Ceschi calls it that on the genre section of the files info, and who am I to argue, two for the structural reasons I state above, and three most of all because it purely embodies the DIY ethic that made punk rock in some ways the only place to find honest rock music at one point in it's history. This Guitar was Stolen Along with Years of Our Lives is the result of a musician needing so badly to say something that they assembled it through blood sweat and tears, without any corrupting influences. Ceschi has always been about that, and it's only been lately that I've seen how very punk that is.
It's interesting to me that at the time this record came out I was slowly reintroducing myself to punk music through the folk punk scene. Get Dead, We the Heathens, Pat the Bunny and related bands, basically everything Bandits Never Die puts out, etc. I never would have bothered if it wasn't for Ceschi and to a lesser extent Sam King fka Lewee Regal and thank you guys. This is a hip hop blog but that doesn't mean we only like hip hop.
So finally, is this a good record. The short answer is yes, the long answer is fuck yes. Basically it combines the maturity and technical skill of Ceschi's split with Pat the Bunny with the genre melding goodness that was Elm Street Sessions and slaps on a layer of professionalism that comes from working with some truly talented individuals (this record seems to have involved more collaboration than either of the other Ceschi guitar driven releases).
I need to give this more time to sink in, but I did think just in case some of you weren't aware that there was a new Ceschi it was worth shouting it out. If you like music you will probably like this. That's it.
Get This Guitar was Stolen Along with Years of Our Lives right here as a pay what you want download because Ceschi really is that cool.
