Category: Russ Ellis

Oom Chugga Remix # 5 (by J​.​K Ellis)

On this the first Caturday of a new era, we are proud to present this exciting new entry in the Oom Chugga Remix Challenge, from J.K Ellis. As we had hoped at the beginning of this endeavor, each version in this series has been inspired and unique. Young Joshua Ellis expands on this, taking the audio in new directions. It’s a remarkable sound collage that reframes the original stems in brilliant and unexpected ways. Have a listen and a share, do!

It’s worth noting here that at age 20, Joshua is by far our youngest remix contributor so far.  For behind all this was Russ Ellis’ inspiration to employ his original song, Oom Chugga, toward inspiring and motivating young people to register and vote. This is effort is ongoing, and of course our fun remix challenge is just one small piece of a much larger picture. All together, when we engage, we can win. Let’s win some more. Here’s to the youth. Here’s to the future. Love from all of us at Berkeley Cat Records.

-Eric Din

BERKELEY CITY STREETS 2020 featuring “Oom Chugga Remix #3”

Alrighty! For our Caturday share we have this marvelous surprise, a new video created by Berkeleyan Ian Ransley with our Oom Chugga Remix #3 ommchugga’ing along throughout!

This came about in the most Berkeley Cat way. Ian sent us a note saying “Hey, I’m doin this, is it cool I use this track?” We replied “Hella yes it’s cool, may we share?” And hella yesses ensued and here it be! As a lifelong Berkeleyan myself, I was struck as I noticed that every scene in here I know well (except for the newer buildings), and many of these places have numerous memories attached. Subway Guitars! I got my first guitar there as a wee lad when they first opened up, around the corner from my childhood home. The Jupiter is in here! And scenes of the Berkeley good and bad and the all of it. The images fit beautifully with the song, so from here, a big Berkeley Cat Records THANK YOU to Mr. Ransley for creating the video and to all the cats who made this marvelous music track as well. All the Oom Chugga remixes are here. You can read about and listen to all of Russ Ellis’ recorded works to date here. Info on videographer Ian Ransley can be found here. Please share on all the Berkeley pages and whatnots, and tag your hella Berkeley cats! Thanks and stay safe through all this kerfuffle. Love,

-Eric of Berkelshire

Russ and Zoe Ellis on the Break It Down Show with Jon Leon Guerrero

Check out this fun interview Zoe and Russ Ellis did with Jon Leon Guerrero on the Break It Down Show. Guest appearances by Darryl Anders and yours truly. It was really fun watching and listening to this, and being invited to the discussion. There’s more to come from these marvelous individuals and collaborations. Humble thanks to all involved, and to you, for lending an earball.  Much love,

Eric Din

Oom Chugga Remix #4 (WTS remix feat Cam Perridge, Michael Marshall, Emcee Soulati, Lexxx Luthor , and Zoe Ellis)

Stop the presses and hold the bus! The latest entry in the Oom Chugga Remix Challenge is up! And yes you read it right, this features Cam Perridge, Michael Marshall, Emcee Soulati, Lexxx Luthor and Zoe Ellis. (Check out the full credits, it’s quite a chorus!) I’m very excited to share this with you today. Have a listen and a read, and please share it up. Thank you!

-Eric Din

Liner notes from Zoe Ellis:

I often wonder where my father gets his optimism. I just know I got mine from him. We both love to celebrate. Even when the odds are against the good news lasting. These are strange times, but my brother and I were gifted a dad who continues to take chances. Songs from the Garden is more than just dad finding his song writing voice at 85, it’s his celebration of learning and doing. He is a participator in life and a connector of humans. With that in mind, I called on many of my music friends to add “a something” to this remix. There are 20+ people on this track and all of them knew why they were there and who they were there for. Some of them know him, some don’t. It didn’t matter. What you hear is all the ways dad taught me to be a participant, and to connect humans. Even though the story in the song is hard and it hurts, it was still a vehicle for celebration. A push for more conversation and connection, and my gift to my father. You can participate in the gift too……Vote.

Credits:

Oom Chugga Remix #4
Written by Cam Perridge, Zoe Ellis, Lex Lewinski, Tommy Shepherd
Based on Oom Chugga by Russ Ellis and Dave Ellis
Producer/Engineer/Mixing – Cam Perridge @ El Sob #1
Mastered by Jon Uhland @ Studio 1225
Guitar – Cam Perridge
Bass – Darryl Anders
Drum Loop – Tommy Shepherd
Sung Vocals – Zoe Ellis, Michael Marshall
Rap Vocals- Emcee Soulati, Lexxx Luthor
Spoken – Lillian Ellis, Faudah the Lion, Troy D, Zora Turman, Julia Turman, Russ Ellis
Outro Vocals – Zoe Ellis, Michael Marshall, Lillian Ellis, Maya Fleming, Will Hammond Jr., Leah Tysee, Jenna Mammina, Bryan Dyer, Luq Frank, Destani Wolf, Audrey Gilbert, Mic Blake, Chris Burger, Sonya Distel, Dan Turman, Zora Turman, Eric Din, Kaitlin McGaw, Bryan Dyer
Photo – Era Balestrieri
Vote Art – Russell Bloom

Oh and here’s the uncut version with the naughty bits:

© 2020 Zadell Music

Oom Chugga Remix 3 (Panther Fist Studio Collective)

This is the 3rd entry in the Oom Chugga Remix Challenge and the Panther Fist Studio crew has taken this to a whole ‘nother level! Play and share and get out and vote vote VOTE!!

LYRICS

Motivate like…
Great like date night..
No break lights stay bright …
And get ready for the great fight..
==
Eye on the eagle
Calling all people
Everyone of us jus wanna be equal
The fat cats lack dat pulse of the populus
We demonstrate-illuminate like oculus
Akhenaten knockin at ur door
To the rhythm
The sun is risen
Feel the light thru the prism
-Deface racism
Put in place by the system
Keeping us behind
With the pipeline to prison
Time to make decisions
W the bind that we live in
Revolutionary w a very true vision-
Binary proof, given-
Come to Carry you get in
The power thas inside of you
It is or it isn’t-
Prolly won’t feel pleasant-
It’s the struggle of the peasant-
Gotta bright clean patina-
Thas the sign that you present
7 and 11 is the age
Get to steppin
The ballot is the mallet
Meant to smash their perceptions
==
Big poppa Russ Ellis (Zo and Lil double)
Can’t believe what they tell us
Try to be sane
When the other side’s hellish-
Insecure and jealous
Like the Kraut to the relish
They puffin up their chests
But the mess can’t repel us
They try to cling tight
to their symbols of hatred
Colonial conquest tradition
Ain’t sacred-
Hey Kid, time to bust out the Matrix-
Face it-
The mask that you’re wearing
And the latex
You could read a book
And let your mind keep growing
Take a good look
At the author James Loewen
Michelle Alexander
And the new jim crow-
Song of Solomon-
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
Ay yo
Get ready for the payload-
-let your horse out the stable
-put some more sustenance in your ladle
Informed, get active
-sweet like sugar-
-let your locomote smoke like
Oom Chugga Chugga
==
Tik Tok
This is how we rock
You tried to hold a rally
With nobody in the spot
Dropped the mic
When you sought that light
But it wuz kinda easy
Cuz your mind aint right
ALL GENERATIONS
HERE TO HEAL THE NATION
EVERY MEANS NECESSARY
EVEN LITIGATION
PATIENCE IS WORN
NOW WE ON THE MOVE
SURROUNDING THE FRONTLINES
AND ROUNDIN UP THE YOUTH
Freedom to the people
In the cages and prisons
Health decisions
With a scientific vision
Represent good trouble
When incidents bubble
Then we nip it in the bud
Up front or subtle
DYNAMIC, WHY SOULD I PANIC-
ON THE MIC I MANAGE
TO FIGHT FOR MY PLANET
You, Me-all of We in Unity
The Oom Chugga Chugga
Is the way come Free
==

🎶Oom Chugga Chugga is the way we come alive
The mode of locomotive
Pull the pin on 45🎶

credits

Vox – MicBlake, Chris Burger, Lily Ellis, Zoe Ellis,
Josh, Eli, and Ava Lubensky (vox hooks)

Bass – Angeline Saris
Mixing and Guitar- Cam Perridge
Mastering – Justin Weis @Trakworx

Arrangement – Josh Lubensky, CB, Cam Perridge, Angeline Saris

Panther Fist Studio, West Oakland

© 2020 Zadell Music

Russ Ellis interview on Break It Down Show

In this lively interview, Jon Leon Guerrero chats with Russ Ellis about his life, what led Russ to become a songwriter in his 80s, his song inspirations and collaborations, the Oom Chugga Remix Challenge, the upcoming election and plenty more. It’s a fun and inspiring talk full of energy and realness, and some hilarious and delightful moments. Check it out and please feel free to share it up!

Berkeley Cat Records recording artist Russ Ellis joins us to talk about new careers and taking your muse all the way to the goal line.

The Oom Chugga Remix Challenge continues with Din’s Psychopathic Caturday Dub Mix!

For my entry in the Oom Chugga Remix Challenge I went berserk on the tape echo and emphasized my unhinged guitars and Dave Ellis’ elegant keyboards to frame Russ’ concise and poignant vocals. I added a little vocals of my own (lyrics below) and mixed it as wildly as I wanted to. Even spun some parts in backwards here and there. It was a lot of fun.

Here’s the Oom Chugga Remix Challenge Album in progress! Track 1 is the original mix, produced by Dave Ellis, who also made the audio stems for these remixes. Track 2 is Micblake and Chris Burger, mixed by Josh Lubensky. And then my new crazy one is track 3 ->

What will be next after that?! Goodness knows. Are YOU up to the Oom Chugga Remix Challenge?! Send us a hello at oomchugga @ berkeleycatrecords dot com
if you’d like to have a go. Your note will magically be delivered to the Oom Chugga Remix Challenge Committee (ooooh!) so tell us who you are and what you envision for your remix, HOPEFULLY with an emphasis on lyrical content motivating people (especially young people) to register and VOTE. Mkay? And we’ll write you back with more details and probably the stems. That’s it!

Happy Caturday! US citizens, check your voter registration here! Do that now, right now! Byeeee!

-Eric Din

Lyrics (Russ):

Oom chugga oom chugga oom chugga chugga chugga

Ain’t got no money
Done lost my honey
My nose is runny
The president’s crazy

Insane

Lyrics (Din):

Cuckoo, cuckoo

What?

Meow

I can’t tell sometimes if it’s the end or the beginning

Berkeley cats in a
Berkeley hats in the
Berkeley flats makin’
Berkeley tracks, what?

(All together now)

CRAZY