WeekOfBones – LostItAll

Surrenderdorothy is the collaborative efforts of SESH members, Bones and Greaf. Together, the two have a successful career in their own solo music projects, even working as partners through production on several of Bones tracks so it would only make sense to finally create a group together and release a new style of tracks under that moniker. Nobodywantsme is a beautiful combination of a different approach to making records and while Bones has been known to make softer, more easy on the ear style of songs, surrenderdorothy makes him completely abandon any past sounds and become an entirely new entity.

While only six-total tracks, nobodywantsme is a fantastic journey of mostly acoustic instruments and soft, almost spoken word singing. Beginning with a short message from Minor Threat’s Ian MacKaye, MacKaye states a personal disdain for record labels and major companies, similar to the members of SESH as well. “One of the main ones, is that we deal only with our friends, we don’t have to rely on business contracts or anything like that. We don’t use contracts. We don’t make them sign anything.” MacKaye then proceeds to say, “…I have a lot of contempt for the record industry and I don’t particularly want to be a part of it anymore than I have to. The fact that we started our own label is proof of that. When you don’t want to be a part of something, you do it yourself, so we did.” This has always been SESH’s personal mantra of going about making music and finding a way to distribute their music as well. Together, the members all work together as friends and allies to create the best personal product without searching for a company to rely on or to use.

As surrenderdorothy moves onto the first true musical track, “whatcouldpossiblygowrong” opens with a cheerful sample of Mr. Wizards World and conducts a conversation where an older man turns into a skeleton. As the word skeleton is said, Bones then comes in with a soft-spoken, gentle giant style where he lumbers on the dreamscape-esque production that Greaf does such an incredible job on. The creative efforts from both artists make an eerie, but graceful style of sound and Bones lyrics of “While you’re out there settling, I will turn to a skeleton. All you’ve ever longed for is relevance, I’m bursting at the seams with elegance,” make for an unforeseen match of beauty.

The following track, “Iwearyourlove,everyplaceigo” is subtle, has few lyrics, and has a focal point on the acoustic guitar and atmospheric styled bass lines that play in a droning style. The track is incredibly quiet and features no percussion as well. Even when there is a use of percussion on nobodywantsme, it is extremely subtle and that is the on-going theme of surrenderdorothy’s musical approach, subtlety over complexity. Bones is actually listed as a featured artist and is present on the track, “dontbeafraidibroughtmyknife” which uses a sampled voice that is replayed backwards to give off a creeping, more demonic tone of background noise while Bones gives off the closest thing to rap on the entirety of nobodywantsme. Bones describes, “Too many reasons why nobody can touch me. I make the door, I make the key, I make the wrist that will clutch it.” Surrenderdorothy ends the track by letting the instrumental rephrase and then reaching into an undefinable silence.

The final, self-titled track is an instrumental that uses a sample to illustrate a story of a man inside a chatroom selling “bootleg games.” The words “Bootleg Games” are the final stepping stones into the inevitable silence that follows as Bones and Greaf creep out almost as quickly as they came into frame. A short, but beautiful arrangement from two unlikely artists does truly make, for one of the best surprises coming out of Team SESH’s library.

Listen to nobodywantsme Here!!! – Soundcloud