Pianos Become the Teeth, Baltimore.
Pianos become the teeth released this crazy aggressive album and it was about being from Baltimore and all of the gun violence that was there. These guys sung about being around people whose families were changed by murders, by people who were accused of murder by association, by being friends with guys who were accused of wrongdoing because of their skin color. In between each song there would be interviews with the guys from the band intermixed with feedback and ambient noise and music similar to the beginning of as cities burn’s record when they spoke about the existence of god. And these interviews were clearly heavy interviews with heavy content for each guy, some of them breaking down and that would be on the recording. Some of it was just recordings of the dudes rehearing their story and crying, saying they didn’t want to hear the story again. Some of it was even then laughing at trying to explain the story. It was a super personal album all surrounding that sense of Baltimore. I remember crying at the end of it.
The final song was ending and the final notes were ringing out and then it shows visually as if we’ve been watching a movie. It fades in from a first person perspective someone walking and you can almost see what they’re seeing. It’s dark and they’re walking from the street across this wet lawn into this apartment complex. They turn on a flashlight and sort of shine it around the outskirts of the building, checking it out. He looks into the darkness of an archway in the building and at first it looks like a subway station but with the stairs leading up and the flashlight is checking the corners almost as if he’s checking for rats or bugs or anything like that. He knocks on a door (which doesn’t make sense because he’s not in front of a door or anything) and two doors open up about 10 and 15 feet away and a person stands in each door frame. He says “hey what’s up guys. I know it’s crazy and everything, I’m not like trying to take y’all money or anything like that, I have this recording if you want to do the same I understand. I want to let you know I have my car parked out here and it just died, and it only has three tires so I know I can’t leave it out here because I know the police are going to suspect me of something so I wanted to know if i could get your help to maybe put it in your parking spot so it would at least look like your car” or something along those lines and both guys come out of their apartment and start speaking with the guy.
One of the dudes is the bassist from pianos become the teeth and he’s laughing and he’s like “yeah man you can totally park it in my spot but this apartment complex is going to start trouble anyway because I’ve always had issues with these guys but yeah let’s do it” basically. And as he’s speaking two car headlights pull up and he says “oh great it’s” something, and that something is this name of the guy who pulled up.
It’s a security guard from the complex, doesn’t look too official or anything but his supervisor is there as well who introduces herself but almost immediately is calling in to headquarters or base or something like that. They begin to question the people and what’s going on and as they’re explaining the same story that just happened, there are two red laser pointer lights shining and the ground and the woman says “gunshots?”
Suddenly the idea that these are snipers becomes too real and the two guys from the apartments, the first security guard, the supervisor and the person who is running the camera all scatter as gunshots start going off and heading into brick walls and buildings. The other guy who isn’t the bassist from the apartments gets shot and the supervisor woman is speaking into her walkie. She gets shot as well and is explaining how she got shot because she was talking to them.
The main security guard is nowhere to be seen, the main camera is trying to squeeze down in size to a point where he’s behind this building with slat openings so he can’t be seen but the sniper sight keeps searching back and forth and has him cornered. It doesn’t feel like he has long left to be able to have safety there. The thought gets pushed in that there’s no way that if these guys have been watching they’ve lost count and they know there are three people left (bassist, camera, security guard). There’s a sense of relief as we finally see the security guard run off towards the street and the sights point at him and the camera runs off the other way and sees the bassist up against the corner of the apartment complex and he’s in full fear mode, both of them not sure how to handle this or who is shooting or why. The “tape” ends and there’s that sort of fade to black, and then the words pianos become the teeth fade into the foreground in white lettering and the “album” ends.
The final song was ending and the final notes were ringing out and then it shows visually as if we’ve been watching a movie. It fades in from a first person perspective someone walking and you can almost see what they’re seeing. It’s dark and they’re walking from the street across this wet lawn into this apartment complex. They turn on a flashlight and sort of shine it around the outskirts of the building, checking it out. He looks into the darkness of an archway in the building and at first it looks like a subway station but with the stairs leading up and the flashlight is checking the corners almost as if he’s checking for rats or bugs or anything like that. He knocks on a door (which doesn’t make sense because he’s not in front of a door or anything) and two doors open up about 10 and 15 feet away and a person stands in each door frame. He says “hey what’s up guys. I know it’s crazy and everything, I’m not like trying to take y’all money or anything like that, I have this recording if you want to do the same I understand. I want to let you know I have my car parked out here and it just died, and it only has three tires so I know I can’t leave it out here because I know the police are going to suspect me of something so I wanted to know if i could get your help to maybe put it in your parking spot so it would at least look like your car” or something along those lines and both guys come out of their apartment and start speaking with the guy.
One of the dudes is the bassist from pianos become the teeth and he’s laughing and he’s like “yeah man you can totally park it in my spot but this apartment complex is going to start trouble anyway because I’ve always had issues with these guys but yeah let’s do it” basically. And as he’s speaking two car headlights pull up and he says “oh great it’s” something, and that something is this name of the guy who pulled up.
It’s a security guard from the complex, doesn’t look too official or anything but his supervisor is there as well who introduces herself but almost immediately is calling in to headquarters or base or something like that. They begin to question the people and what’s going on and as they’re explaining the same story that just happened, there are two red laser pointer lights shining and the ground and the woman says “gunshots?”
Suddenly the idea that these are snipers becomes too real and the two guys from the apartments, the first security guard, the supervisor and the person who is running the camera all scatter as gunshots start going off and heading into brick walls and buildings. The other guy who isn’t the bassist from the apartments gets shot and the supervisor woman is speaking into her walkie. She gets shot as well and is explaining how she got shot because she was talking to them.
The main security guard is nowhere to be seen, the main camera is trying to squeeze down in size to a point where he’s behind this building with slat openings so he can’t be seen but the sniper sight keeps searching back and forth and has him cornered. It doesn’t feel like he has long left to be able to have safety there. The thought gets pushed in that there’s no way that if these guys have been watching they’ve lost count and they know there are three people left (bassist, camera, security guard). There’s a sense of relief as we finally see the security guard run off towards the street and the sights point at him and the camera runs off the other way and sees the bassist up against the corner of the apartment complex and he’s in full fear mode, both of them not sure how to handle this or who is shooting or why. The “tape” ends and there’s that sort of fade to black, and then the words pianos become the teeth fade into the foreground in white lettering and the “album” ends.
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