“Rat Trap” – LIVE MUSIC VIDEO (recorded at Revolution in Amityville NY)

The Black of Space had our first show on 12/20/15.  We want to dedicate this video to all the people who went out of their way to take some video of The Black of Space performance – the only video provided by The Black of Space is the close-up shot of Jimmy behind the kit.  All other video comes right from you awesome people – thank you!!  Here is the the video link for “Rat Trap” – Live @ Revolution in Amityville, NY on 12/20/15

Like what you see?  Help us continue the journey by picking up a CD – or maybe you’d rather download from iTunes?  Don’t forget to visit our Web Store for T-shirt!

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3…2…1…CONTACT!

WEB STORE LAUNCHING IN 3… 2… 1…

A sincere, ‘Thank you!!’ to all who have supported The Black of Space in the days since our album release this past April – your support has not been taken lightly, especially in this climate. THANK YOU for supporting the arts – WE SOLUTE YOU. It’s exciting for us to know that some of you will be familiar with our tunes when we [finally] hit the stage \m/ (O_o) Next up: T-SHIRTS – they have ARRIVED!! The Black of Space will be launching some promo’s very soon – we’ll be offering some sweet deals between the T’s and the MP3’s to help us spread the word at Mach-1. For now, we’re pleased to cut the proverbial ribbon on our store front – *SNIP* Feedback is always welcome! Watch out for kick-ass deals, they’re a-comin’… 

The Black of Space WEB STORE

Where’s the Music Already?!

The Black of Space is incorporating. Once the smoke clears, we’ll have that little “R” with a circle around it next to The Black of Space, if all goes well.

We are opening a label to house our music immediately after learning that “The Black of Space” is officially available for the taking – we will be receiving the news within 2 weeks from now.

Very shortly thereafter, The Black of Space debut album will be released to the world. Generously-lengthed previews of each song will be available to stream through our website, and the full songs will be available through Amazon, iTunes and CD Baby, as well as other digital outlets.

We have had a helluva ride prepping for the future, but we will not be entering the world of entertainment half-cocked, that’s for sure.

Thank you all for your patience – “If you’re gonna do something, do it right.”

Love,

Phil & Jimmy

What Is Going On Here?

Most of you know that we have a music video out for a song called, “Zeek the Pig” – in this song, we express our distaste with one aspect of the Police Officer’s job that we have personally protested over the years – not at demonstrations, just in spite of ourselves, really. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

However, we feel that now is a necessary time to stress the overall truth of the matter:

Yes, the public shares a love/hate relationship with police officers, but so do parents and their kids, teachers and their students, bosses and their employees, wives and their husbands… and yes, Police Officers and their Public (civilians).

What all these relationships have in common is the very slogan that the police go by: “To Protect, and to Serve” – this is a relationship, like any other relationship, that both sides must nurture in order for it to flourish – it is an ongoing battle for relationships to prevail, and the relationship between officers and the public is no different.

The fact is, we decided to release this video at such a turbulent time, so we feel the responsibility falls on us to draw the line in the sand here, at least from where we’re standing:

The deaths of these two officers sickens us to the core, so much so that it’s comparable to hearing about a distant aunt, uncle, friend, or relative being killed in the most tragic of ways. Our hearts bleed and go out to these officers and their families. This whole thing is now way out of hand.

Some Real Talk:

Phil Laudin, here. Being that the story that our music video is based on is autobiographical, I have some experience with getting into trouble with the law. 15 years ago, some friends and myself, got in trouble with the law for smoking weed in public. Did we appreciate getting arrested? No. Did we feel ill feelings against the officers arresting us? Naturally, we were getting arrested. Did we resist arrest? What, the FUCK, are you OUT OF YOUR MIND??

Did we cooperate with the officers 100%? Abso-fuckin-lutely – we were CAUGHT, red handed – they got us, game over. We knew before we did what we did that we were taking a risk by lighting up in a parked car, 2 or 3 blocks from our high school like it was nothing. And we got busted, so we had to take responsibility.

Just because we were in COMPLETE DISAGREEMENT with the laws surrounding marijuana, we were livid at the officers – especially because we were never about to hear the end of it from our parents, not to mention the lawyers’ fees we were facing as high school students – add to that, the extra added bonus of humiliation: getting stared at and snickered at by certain peers in the high school hallways – Yes, we were angry, but just the same, we were CAUGHT.

I can’t imagine resisting arrest the day we got caught… “No way, man! It’s only a little bit of pot, I didn’t hurt anybody, fuck this, I can’t be arrested today. I put money in the collection plate every Sunday; go bother somebody else, Officer Zeek…” That is no reality that I am familiar with (especially the collection plate part).

Jokes aside, marijuana was/is still illegal in NY State. Zeek the Pig is our way of expressing our distaste with the use of tax dollars going toward locking up a perfectly peaceful pothead, for example – and I understand the laws have recently been bent slightly in our favor in NY State in this regard (look it up, not getting into it here), but the point is, “Zeek the Pig”, is OUR way of dealing with our opinions.

But all of our opinions aside, we simply NEED OUR BOYS & GIRLS IN BLUE. Reading some of the disturbing, misplaced comments on some of these posts we’re reading, we can’t imagine people actually going out of their way to try and justify this shooter’s behavior – because first of all, he was a mentally disturbed man, with an arrest record a mile long, who had just come fresh from shooting his ex-girlfriend – I don’t care why this guy said he killed the officers, he was a sick man to begin with. All this guy seems to have needed was an excuse to do what he did – Eric Garner.

Although our hearts totally go out to Eric Garner and his family, the fact is, HE was caught breaking the law, too, and HE had no business resisting arrest at the time of that fateful occurrence. He didn’t die because he was selling cigarettes; he died because of a sad state of affairs that ultimately led to his demise, after he wrongfully resisted arrest, and unfortunately, ended up falling into the hands of a seemingly inexperienced officer.

Yes, excessive force was used, and SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE about the manner in which these types of situations are handled in the future, going forward, because our lives are ultimately in the hands of police officers in these situations – but again, although it doesn’t justify that officer’s actions, it wouldn’t have happened if poor Mr. Garner had cooperated with the officers in the first place, instead of acting the way he did – he was arrested near 30 times since 1980, so I can’t believe he hadn’t learned this lesson by that point.

He looked to be a very nice guy, and I know he was loved dearly by his friends and family, especially the six kids he is survived by. Our hearts are heavy for him, his family and loved ones, as well… But, I am a nice guy, too, and I didn’t resist arrest when I was caught, even though I wholeheartedly disagreed with the reason I was getting arrested, so really, let’s not lose sight of the details here.

Everyone knows that Police Officers are in place to protect the collective interest of the public – without them, there would be complete chaos and anarchy – we NEED OUR OFFICERS. Are they perfect? No, they are human beings.

Look at it this way, if robots were programmed to uphold the law, do you think there would be ANY negotiations when it came to resisting arrest? No, the law is the law, and those robots would have taken Mr. Garner down, as well. He was an asthmatic, so whether he would have died or not, nobody will ever know, but that is why when you are a suspect in a crime, or get caught breaking the law, you must not be so dense as think that being a nice guy justifies an out for you when the shit hits the fan. Cooperate with the officers, and these things won’t happen.

We are so sorry for the officers who tragically lost their lives because of some convoluted idea of a crusade against injustice for a man, who quite frankly, lost his life for all the wrong reasons – anybody who thinks the deaths of these two officers are justified in the slightest: WAKE THE FUCK UP, ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A CIVIL WAR??

Do what you’re supposed to do, and everything will be fine. Break the law, and don’t blame anybody but your fucking self when things go south for you. Bitch all you want, go ahead and write a book, WRITE A SONG like we did, but if you don’t respect the law, to the point where you are actually going to think retaliating against two officers who were just MINDING THEIR OWN BUSINESS, IS JUSTIFIABLE?!… I don’t know, go fuck yourself.

We need our officers, and anybody who doesn’t think so does not have a grip on reality. Are there dirty cops out there? Yes, there are. There are also, dirty business men, dirty husbands, dirty wives, dirty politicians, dirty teachers, dirty bus drivers, dirty laundry… there is dirt in every profession in every corner of the world imaginable, OK?? Why should we expect the justice system to be any different? This is HUMAN NATURE; it has NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE.

The man who shot these two officers was no crusader – he killed himself after he killed the officers. Since when is suicide just simply overlooked?

Those were not the actions of an honorable man; those were the actions of a cowardly, ex-girlfriend-shooting, delusional man, who never had any intentions of taking any real responsibility for what he did. This guy had issues LONG before Eric Garner made his way to the news, which is why any claims of revenge by Ismaaiyl Brinsley for Eric Garner should be automatically and immediately dismissed as nonsensical. The man was a disgrace to humanity, and his final actions on this planet prove that.

We may have our opinions, and we can fight for what is right – this is ‘MERICA, but we have to do it civilly, and within the confines of HUMANITY. MOST OFFICERS in the position of the officer who killed Eric Garner would not have ended the situation [with such a severe choke-hold], and MOST SUSPECTS who are under arrest usually comply with the arresting-officers. This was an imperfect situation with imperfect people in an imperfect world – so it’s a shame that two innocent Police Officers, just SITTING in a squad car during the line of duty, subsequently had to pay the ultimate price for the actions of an armed whacko – if you’re still sleeping, now is a great time to wake up –

Like kids need their parents, like students need their teachers, like employees need their employers, like wives need their husbands and like husbands need their wives:

We need our Police Officers.

RIP: Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos; Eric Garner

Zeek The Pig: Video Release