About five or six years ago, I was involved in something of a rock band. I've been a drummer for several years - since maybe 1996, and what inspired me was The Beatles's 'Rain' and Ringo Starr's drumming on that track - and my friends and I joined together in about October 2000 to form a band. I'd been in one before, but this was really a step in what you might call the right direction: we started jamming and coming up with songs out of those jams.
In March 2001, we recorded seven songs at a professional recording studio (Menagerie Studios in Bumblefuck, Pennsylvania), and the album has been called "We're All Going To Hellertown". I now offer these songs to you.
'Mainline Shuffle' link
'Medicine Man' link
'Dance' link
'Supermarket Song' link
'Miracle' link
'Sitting On My Front Porch Sipping A Glass Of Iced Tea Wondering Which Soap Opera To Watch Next' link
Some notes about the songs:
I wrote the music for 'Dance' and had unintentionally turned 'Mainline Shuffle' into a shuffle. I also came up with the title for the last song, and even named the band. But I wasn't the creative force; that was the two guitarists, Matt and Tim.
Tim played rhythm and lead guitars, piano, harmonica, and sang vocals on 'Medicine Man', 'Dance', 'Supermarket Song', and 'Miracle'.
Matt played rhythm and lead guitars, ukulele, and sang vocals on 'Dance', backing vocals on 'Supermarket Song'.
Gorzo played bass and sang backing vocals on 'Supermarket Song'.
I played drums, cowbell, and sang backing vocals on 'Supermarket Song'.
Tim wrote 'Medicine Man' and 'Miracle'; Matt wrote the words to 'Dance'; Tim and I wrote the music to 'Mainline Shuffle'; Matt wrote 'Sitting On My Front Porch' and I came up with the title; Bill Bloom wrote 'Supermarket Song'.
Personal notes about the songs:
My favorites are 'Medicine Man' and 'Dance'. I absolutely hate 'Miracle'. 'Mainline Shuffle' was better in rehearsal, where it lasted nearly ten minutes long. I still have those tapes, but they're pretty old and I haven't listened to them in forever.
Feel free to download these, share them, what have you. It's really just four guys having a good time in a recording studio. There's far too much reverb and echo on these tracks, but judge for yourself. Leave comments, criticisms, and so forth.
Tequila Mockingbird exists no more, and it was the last time I was really in a band, though I would love to get back into one. Just recalling these memories was a lot of fun for me.
Enjoy!
P.S. Oh yes, keep listening toward the end of the last track, around 8'54 in... there's a surprise.
iGSM wrote: I freakin' love these blokes.
I didn't know Gorzo was actually useful. h0h0.
Yeah you'd be surprised. I came up with the bass riff for 'Dance', and pretty much hummed it to him, because I can't read or write musical notation. So he really turned it into something good. He should've gotten a co-credit, but I'm a greedy bastard (not like I made any money from writing that damn song anyway).
Friends of ours have said that 'Dance' was the most commercial and "single-like" track on the album. I could've had a hit on me hands!
Well, I could've sworn that I did, but apparently I subconsciously dreamt it (not like John Lennon saw the man on the flaming pie who proclaimed that they will be The Beatles with an 'a', but it just came to me at some point) and later discovered that The Simpsons had made reference to it in some episode. And here I thought I was being devastatingly clever...
But as I said, TM is no more, we've been "broken up" since August 2001, and only these recordings (and our amateurly-taped home "demo" sessions) exist.
Well, we only broke up because we all went off to college, and our interest in the band was starting to dwindle. It cost us $90 each to record this stuff, so that was a total of $360. How could we afford it? I dunno, I guess we were lucky. $90 was a lot back then for a senior in high school, so it took a considerable chunk out of my bank account, I know that!
Pretty good, Mr. Burnham. And to think that I thought wit was your greatest attribute!
But seriously, the tracks I've heard so far are great. The guitar in Medicine Man reminds me of Carlos Santana. And the rhythm guitar (the wah funk bit) in Dance is pretty freakin cool, as is the drum solo.
Minor bit of trivia: in 'Supermarket Song', I sang backing vocals along with the other guys in the band. Now, not being a singer of any sort, I actually messed up the last version of the chorus. It's supposed to go: "Everybody goes to the supermarket, everybody I know goes," but instead I sang the normal chorus. If you listen carefully, you can hear me say "Shit" just before the monkey chatter, and I believe you can also hear two of my bandmates starting to laugh.
Also, I compared 'Medicine Man' to a combination of Frank Zappa (vocals) and Pink Floyd (the psychedelic section). And yeah, I think Tim - who played lead guitar on 'Medicine Man' - was trying to go for a very Santana-esque sound.
Heh, having done some home recordings and been on vocals I know that singing the wrong line is horrible.
Every so often I'll get a lyric wrong and go all John Lennon on it - 'Fuckin' 'ell'
Heh. Good stuff.