21 August

If Only You had Tried

I was 20 when I recorded this demo... Recorded it on my first Tascam port-a-studio... I never really got the hang of it... My friend Dave was a master at it.. He could make real professional sounding recordings with it.. I never could.. I think I was using his first synthesizer for the strings on this...

Anyway, this was the song that changed my father's mind about my decision to become a musician... he was blown away by it.. maybe 'cause it reminded him of all the sentimental kind of music he grew up with... My mother said this was the last thing my grandfather listened to when he was dying in the hospital... So there is a history to it.. It's a bit hokey now listening to it (especially that falsetto bit I do at the very end).. but I think the chord progression is still pretty great and the solo is pretty decent.. My voice is real young on it.. I don't even think it had changed completely at that point.. I gotta get on it and transfer these tapes before they completely disintegrate..

 

 

1 August

Don't Step in Doo Doo...

 

For some reason, recording prank phone calls were all the rage in the 90s.. Jerky Boys were the most famous of the bunch.. This was before Caller ID.. now this shit would be impossible.. One of our A&R guys at the time was a huge fan of this guy Silverman... He wanted to sign him to our label.. but he never could fo it cause he had so many celebrities that he called.. Anyway, he gave us a compilation of Silverman's pranks which we must've played a thousand times when we were travelling on tour... Haven't heard it in years.. but it came with the bunch of cassettes my friend sent.. and I must say that most of it is not funny.. we used to die laughing at this tape.. now it just seems 90sy and unfun..

However, this bit will always make me laugh..

 

29 July

It Can't be That Bad

Breaking the one song a week rule, 'cause I'm just really digging this tune.. This is a truly lost song.. We wrote it and recorded it and forgot about it.. It's off a long demo that was the only thing that I ever fully produced and I must say I did a damn good job of it.. I went crazy with the vocal arrangements on the project, and the sound is strong and clear (through the stereo at least)... It was recorded on this super deluxeTascam 8-track home recorder that we had for about two seconds before some cunt asshole we used to know borrowed it only to never return it.... Never saw that thing again and never saw the tape again until now.... Fuck that two faced faggot motherfucker..

Anyway, great song I think... There's a few on this tape that were lost as well.. they'll be making their way to Walrus in good time..

 

28 July

Sex on the brain..

As I mentioned earlier, our old pal (and our old band's tour manager) Rich, sent us a bunch of tapes from the old days... among them were a few of the radio appearances we did.. Today's installment is one of 'em... It's a fairly amusing one.. Me and my brother just always sounded so weird in these things.. uncomfortable.. but then when we got around to playing it was a totally different matter.. much more comfortable playing than being forced to speak.. It's still that way.. only now I don't get a chance to play so.. I'm generally uncomfortable 100% of the time.. Anyway, this bit is particularly funny, 'cause the DJ was obviously "into" us... I remember noticing that right away as soon as we got in the studio.. and then, as you'll hear, it all came out in a very embarassing slip on her part..  

Ahh the old days, to have the ability to make the ladies swoon by just entering a room.. Then again, it could've been our body odor.. We hadn't showered in days at that point I think..

Jus KEEDING..

Then again, maybe I'm not..

 

 

24 July

Misery

 

Right around the time my band Johnny Bravo left our label (Arista) to seek another deal somewhere else, we got hit with a lawsuit from our first "manager"... I used the term loosely.. We never had a contract with him.. but that's a whole other story.. for another time.. or maybe not.. Needless to say, no record label wanted anything to do with us while we were entangled in a huge legal deal, so we sat out a year while we tried to extricate ourselves from the mess.. I basically went into hiding while my brother went every day to these traumatic hearings.. A year goes by and our drummer had moved to LA... and we were completely out of the loop.. So we did what we always did at the time write songs and push on..

This is when our great friend Dave V. entered our lives.. He answered our drummer wanted ad in the Voice and from then on we were all inseperable for the next year working on our new music and band which we called The Sons (might I add a this was a good 4 years before any of the 'the' bands started cropping up)... Anyway, not only was he a drummer but an actor, a writer and could OUTcurmudgeon us on a good day.. and he knew every obscure quote from any film.. we could go on for hours just quoting shit..

Anyway, we recorded a few demos together around that time.. I considered it and still consider it the best work we've ever done just on a professional level alone.. Eventually we got the tape to our old A&R guy at Interscope Records.. He adored it.. He began the proceedings to have contracts written up and we were on our way.. This was on a Wednesday I believe.. THAT Friday EVERYONE in Interscope was fired.. including our A&R guy..

I guess God.. or whatever you wanna call it just didn't want to give us a second chance.. because after that, the window of opportunity closed and was painted shut.. This song here is part of a demo that only exists on ONE cassette.. The DAT (what masters were put on back in the 90s) somehow got in the hands of some fucking cunt that we used to know.. and there's no way I would ever ask that miserable fuck for anything.. not that he would have it now anyway.. So this one cassette holds the ONLY record of the few songs that I consider to be the best thing we ever laid to tape.. I will eventually upload the rest of the songs, but today I'm starting with the song 'Misery'.. I feel it's the closest thing I ever got writing a conventional 'slick' professional tune.. and I like the sound of it.. Dave V. was always my favourite drummer.. and I've worked with some great ones, but he was the only one who really played to the song.. and as a singer and guitarist that made it so much easier to spread out.. the songs breathed when he was behind the kit.. He's still one of our best friends and I'm happy that he's around..

From this Cassette on, I will be putting up ONE a week.. I'm only putting this one up today, because some people had a problem with the audio on the last one... Ahh the old days, to have the ability to make the ladies swoon just by being in their prescence..

 

 

23 July

And so it begins...

 

So I got this cassette deck that converts tapes to MP3s.. It works like a fucking dream.. Lemme tell you ION products are the BEST!! Not only are they cheap, but they WORK!! Right out of the box... It's incredible.. It's almost too good to be true.. But there you go.. Anyway, Now that I finally got this thing, I can now go through a mountain of old cassettes that have been collecting dust over the years.. Some will be radio interviews... some old rehearsal tapes (which might include some very interesting fights between me an my brother... We put the Gallagher brothers to shame)... Some might be just old demos.. idea tapes.. outtakes from the few albums we made.. I don't know.. We'll see..

My first installment is off of the first cassette I pulled out of the box... I was 19 when this was recorded.. a few years yet before the record deal... I was actually pretty surprised as to how my voice really hasn't changed that much.. my true singing voice (which this is sung in).. I thought it would be embarrassing.. but the chord progression really isn't.. It's actually not that bad.. the lyrics are pedantic but I was still, after all, a teenager.. I forget what girl this was about.. maybe no one.. who ever she was she "rained on anything I'd do"... man..