The songs

(If you're looking to just check out one song, Holding Out, I am the Miracle, or From the Corners are probably the way to go. Information about the songs is further down)

The story:

Three weeks ago, a problem in the studio gutted most of what had been recorded for the second Scab record. Generally not taking entire songs, it left me with pieces of the material I had been working on. Some of the songs that survived did so as earlier takes or rough mixes, and every one of the songs I would have called the most exciting of the original batch was gone.

Now, I'm not about to spend months rerecording it all for three reasons: it would lose some semblance of what this project is trying to be, it would set me to working on old material for months while essentially being stagnant about creating anything new, and I've got the third volume already written and ready. I actually wrote volume three early on during the sessions for one...came out clean, and felt they were better than just about anything I'd ever written. Still do. So I knew I couldn't record them. Heh. Not until everything was right, anyway...the players, the equipment, the right mood. And this being the time and place, 52nd Street being the band, sessions are scheduled for the second week after New Years.

So what to do, you know? I just lost an entire record.

Sort of.

I had a few new songs with no homes, good songs that weren't going to fit in with volume three and would probably be lost by the time that ended. We spent three days in the studio cutting the cores of them. But the process entire takes too long, so final working tracks will not be done. Instead, what I have are untreated recordings of those songs stripped pretty bare....sort of a "live in studio" kind of thing. Live at Pipe Dream. Some of them live well that way...

I may go back in the far future and follow through on some of these songs...maybe some will resurface for Volume IV or V. I'd love to have the Zappa-inspired Adolf in my hands, or the bare Tomorrow (a cousin to Technicolor Yawn). If you can imagine being in the heart of Time Out of Mind and slowly surfacing into The Flaming Lips leading a marching band, you'd have the suite of Watch Out/You've Got to Try. Spent a looong time on that one...even recorded a thunderstorm to run in the way background for Look Out.

Would have been fun. But someday. In the mean time...moving on.

Pick and choose. About the songs:

10.09.08
This one probably reveals more about the record that wasn't than any of the other tracks. It was fun to cut...played it all myself, one thing at a time. Didn't always play it well, but what do you want? Drank a lot of coffee and looped the song, ranting about old songs, new ideas, whatever. Was pleased to find that the resulting voices inexplicably respond to each other and seem to link up in really odd ways. The title is actually the date of the recording...serendipity.

Skies Go Dark
An early take. Wish I had the final. Still, not a bad one...it's got the stumble to it. I like songs with the stumble.

A Message from the Machine
Never got to put the low end in, but maybe it shouldn't have it. The recording process was a lot more organic than you might think, to hear it.

You Don't Mean...
As good an example of the chaotic anything-goes attitude as 10.09.08 I suppose, but in a different way. Everybody hates this but me and my wife, so of course it was going to make the final cut.

We'll Take it from Here
This one was done better elsewhere, too...especially vocally. When I hear this version, I'll always miss the creepy organ.

Like Weary Pilgrims
Field recording. Not the only one attempted, either. Cheap equipment, playing on the hotel bed the night after a Tom Waits concert. Or very early the next morning, really...Had to record the spastic guitar at the end on the same equipment, to make it fit well.

Me Against the Microphone
Therapy. Actually written well before the crash, but I couldn't sing it until after.

Holding Out
This is one of those songs that would have required some overdubbing, but this spartan recording is worth sharing. Wrote it the evening the album died.

I Am the Miracle
I love this song to death...maybe not the recording. But it's just never had a home. Part of the problem is that I think it reveals a bit too much about the Scab series...a bit too direct, although I've been told the opposite is true. Heh.

From the Corners of the Dream (a fable)
This was from a record I made...uh...three years ago? Didn't plan on playing it, just realized at the end of that version of I Am the Miracle that the last chord was from this song...you can hear at the end of Miracle that I kept playing, thinking "hey, I know this guy." Nobody else knew, though, so you can hear them trying (sometimes failing) to find a home in this mysterious entity. I like the mood that results from that better than the original recording. Not perfect, but moody.

that's a real bummer....losing your work like that sucks....

grabbed the songs i could d/l...i'll be checking this out next week (sorry - i'm off in a couple hours until Mon)

I'll look forward to hearing what you think.

i cant wait to listen to these...

i still love 'i dont have the blues' like its family (i think thats what its called, its saved on my computer as "12871627162" or something like that)

I Ain't Got the Blues. Heh...pretty proud of that one. Afraid there's nothing of that style in here. But I've got a song like that written for the next one.

That sucks, all that work, gone. Anyway, I'm liking what I didn't have already.

Some cool ideas in those tracks, but sorry you ended up losing all the work.

Yeah, does suck. But mostly I'm excited to be moving on, and I think a few of those songs survived in enough shape to enjoy.