Verse Chorus Verse: Average Rap Band

Average Rap Band on their new album, El Sol.

Verse Chorus Verse sees local artists break down the stories behind their music. For the latest in the series, we asked Average Rap Band's Tom Scott and Lui Tuiasau to run through the songs on their just-released album, El Sol. We can't really describe what we got back. Just read it.

***

'Introduction' 

It's 42 degrees. You're sitting in your room above a pawn shop on Smith Street with fans spitting the devil's breathe in your face. You're looking out your window at melting brick and naked gum. You're high as a koala's stash spot. You start singing something and it sounds like a choir of Ziggys. You hit record. 

'El Sol'

You're walking to the studio soaking wet on a winter's day. How the hell do you write a summer song when your socks smell like wet labradoodle crotch? The first line that comes to you is 'the sun is underrated'. You then proceed off into a rant about it. It's magnanimous presence nowhere to be found. Joni Mitchell never lied.

'Fly Casual'

You catch yourself in the mirror one lucky day. The raggedy second hand shirt worn last by a deceased man fits like you were made to die in it. The cap you've been wearing for the last 840 days looks even better than it did on day one. You're ready to strut through this cruel world unfazed by your lack of financial stability and fashion sense. 

'Pool Side'

You have dreams. Dreams of sitting by a pool. Bluish. With a tinge of green. Somewhere. Sunny. A girl there maybe. An umbrella. A little one in your drink. You lie in it. Dreaming of somebody finding you face down in it the next morning. All your problems, over. Finally. Pool Side. 

'Purple Mink Suit Rap'

The synth rings like a call from an old flame. You extinguish the call. Pull your mink jacket over your right shoulder and walk off into the sunset, gators clicking like hoofs crossing the sand of an hour glass. You're the shit. Tell the principal. 

'Pizza Man'

You've been waiting 16 minutes for a pizza you are rightfully entitled to as a man of the first world. The delivery boy who used to have a job making modems from e-waste in a trash heap in a Bosnian slum is greeted by a passive aggressive glare toward a watchless wrist, shattering any sense of achievement he and his starving family felt about escaping decades of hopeless dictatorship.

'Jealous'

You've burnt more plants tonight than the D.E.A did in the Reagan era. Where is she? Maybe she's fallen deeply in love with that hot bald head barista chick she works with. She's convinced her that the XY chromosome is destined to die and now so is your relationship with it. Castration is the only logical option left. You sit and wait for her, scissors in hand. 

'What Am I Doing With My Life?'

You arrive at the venue, surprised by the staggering number of pool tables where you had thought the dance floor would be. Why is the rugby commentary louder than the opening act? You don't answer these questions. For they have none. Neither does the most important one. 

'El Eh'

You towed a few wheelie bins out the window of speeding cars on motorways during your youth. You experimented with psilocybin in mass dosages and got into a pant-less fight with a police officer who you later believed was your biological father. You are now faced with the aftermath of your uninhibited idiocy. Take a seat and wait for your number to be called. Only your lawyer can OJ his way out of this now.

'Entertainment' 

All your heroes are dead. Puffy just sold the rights to another Juicy mashup. Dilla's Mum is broke again. Buy a Phife t-shirt. Long live whoever died today. R.I.P respect and humility for the dead. You sit backstage listening to the murmur of bored teenagers talking over a disheartened artist's attempt to communicate. You wonder if this gig would have sold more tickets if it was your wake. 

'El Sol (Reprise)' 

The sun comes out again. Everything is temporarily fixed. Hooray, global warming, hooray. It's too hot now to contemplate your inevitable demise. Cancer is the only concern during this season and even that seems worth it for a good tan. All praise due to the divine light giver.