Wow, has it really been six months since I posted that first blog? Time flies when you've got a life (aka, career that tends to suck away all your energy to do worthwhile things in your spare time). I'll try to make more of an effort to update this thing frequently in 2007.
So this is entry #2. I left off where the four of us got together and started playing and writing songs in spring of 1991. Treiops was 23, Scott and I were 22, and Justin was a few months shy of 21, as I recall. Looking back, we were so young and stupid that it's a miracle that we managed to get our shit together enough to do anything substantial. But that's a testament to the power of youthful optimism and enthusiasm.
During the spring and summer of 1991, we practiced a lot -- like three or four times a week. I can't imagine keeping up that kind of pace now, but at the time we couldn't play enough -- we wrote a full set of songs in the span of about eight weeks, in fact. The method was established right away: someone would come up with a guitar riff, bass line, or (in my case) a beat, and that person would play that riff/line/beat over and over and over and over and over again, for like 15 or 20 minutes at a time if need be, while the other three experimented with parts that they would like to add to the song. Now and then we'd stop to discuss: "I like that squiggly guitar thing there," or "can we put this in 5/4 time?" That sort of thing. And then we'd play the part for another half hour or whatever. The second part of the songwriting method was to have three or four parts worked out and then try to fit them together somehow, adding intro and outro parts and maybe a bridge in between. We were conscious of trying to do things differently than most bands, so conventional transitions were typically eschewed in favor of trainwreck segues from one part to another and jarring stop/starts. The idea was to make things interesting for us and to keep potential audiences on their toes, not letting them predict what might happen next in a song. Vocals were always an afterthought, and that remained the case throughout the four-year span of the band. Indeed, the longer the band continued, the less prominently vocals figured into our milieu.
The initial batch of 10 tunes we wrote were included on a self-released cassette we made in early summer of 1991. The plan was to sell these at shows and send them to 'zines for review. We also made a truncated version with three songs, for the purpose of sending to clubs and schools so we could get shows. The long cassette featured songs recorded in Treiops' basement on, I believe, a four-track machine. The 10 songs were:
1. Redcap. A Treiops song about UFO sightings with this frantic, almost flamenco-like guitar part. The second song we wrote, it would also be the first song on our first CD.
2. Comatose Snail Punchout. A song that never appeared on any of our records, this one was sung by me and was one of the more danceable, groove-based songs we wrote -- it had a bouncing bass line locked in with the kick drum and 16th notes on the high-hat, on which I had placed a tambourine. Tres disco. I'll be damned if I can remember the words or tell you what the song was about, but I know that the vocal style and melody was completely ripped off from Peter Prescott/Volcano Suns.
3. Tuffet. Another song that never appeared on records later on, this one had kind of a garage sound, like Mudhoney, with a martial, sort of marching band cadence to it. It was way more traditional rock than anything else we wrote (hello, guitar solo!), which probably explains why it never made the cut later on. I also sang this one, and unlike Comatose, I clearly remember the theme and vocals -- it was a sloppy critique against the Catholic Church. One of the verses went: The Pope/ with his kind smile/ and his big ring/ and his peace sign/ he'll bless us/ kiss his ring/ wind up/ and kick some papal ass/ cause we're rockers/ and rollers/ with thirty-day molars/ and we don't need providence. The pope can't groove/ like Jagger or Bowie/ the pope can't stop the blowjobs from blowing/ the pope only cares how his kingly robes are flowing/ John Paul Two can't stop hunger from growing." Fifteen years later, I look back on having written these words with equal parts amusement and horror.
4. Sum. A jangly pop tune sung by TT that seemed to me to be about the frustration of good housekeeping and home improvements. This song would later be re-recorded for our first 7", paired incongruously with the much heavier, noisier "Lacquer Box."
5. Pilot Light. Later would be the last song on our first album (minus the added Sum/Lacquer Box 7" on the CD). The music sounds VERY much like one of the Wedding Present's slower songs... think "Bewitched" from Bizarro. Lyrics and vocals by Scott.
6. Lacquer Box. Possibly the densest and most punishing song we wrote, it had drop tuning and the time was kept on the floor tom -- hedging on heavy metal territory. I did the vocals, which was essentially just shouting a bunch of random, meaningless phrases. Even in some of our final shows, we either opened or closed with this song, just because it was so effective in setting the tone, or leaving a lasting impression.
7. Sawed-Off City. Basically the same as the song later re-recorded for our first CD. Scott wrote and played guitar on this one and Justin played bass. I wrote the words and did the vocals, which were about the peculiar (short) skyline of Washington, D.C., paired with a play on words commenting on gun violence in the nation's capital. Unlike Tuffet, which I'm kind of embarrassed about now, I still really like the words to this song. The music is hazy and waltz-like, with an old-west sounding lead guitar line by TT.
8. Infinite Mouse. Far and away the silliest song we wrote, it never appeared later anywhere, and I think we only played it live a few times. It had this rambling rhythm and shimmery guitar riffs that were really pleasant, and TT wrote the lyrics about a superhero he created. The chorus went: "O brave mouse/ mouse of steel/ mouse mountain/ save us now/ kill our foes/ vaporize them/ cut them down/ please Infinite Mouse!" And the verses were a call-and-response thing where TT would say something like "Who will strike giant reptiles down?" and Scott and Justin would respond in falsetto "Mouse! Mouse! Infinite Mouse!" It was super-catchy and almost like the Beach Boys in a way, but totally out of character with all of our other material. Needless to say, this was written at a time when the band was still trying to find its voice.
9. Drop in the Big Drink. An uptempo rock number initiated by Justin, I think, and sung by me. It was later re-recorded with different lyrics (and a saxophone riff!) for a 7" compilation that also featured Rodan and Rocket From the Crypt. The single was badly mastered, if I'm not mistaken, and fell between the cracks of time.
10. Cars. Yes, the Gary Numan song. Justin and TT were huge into Numan, and this was one of only two songs we did for which Justin did lead vocal (the other was Ninevolt).
Coming next: the first non-show show.