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(Photo of M7 by NASA)
Songs About Girls Who Never Existed was one of the first albums I finished after I moved to NY. I was having a really hard time connecting with anybody musically, as I was (and still am) on the ass end of Long Island where people get their cultural relevance from television and radio. I actually had some redneck asshole tell me that the music I like couldn't be any good since he hadn't heard of it. So I holed myself in my apartment, got really drunk and stoned and recorded music on my own.
I'd been a huge Helios Creed fan since I was 14, and I always wanted to do something along those lines. I even bought a bunch of effects pedals to get that spacey sound. Finally, I decided to put together some older tracks of mine, record some new tracks, and have a spacerock "band" of my own.
I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. My dad was even impressed with my guitar playing. Maybe you'll dig it, too.
Best heard under the influence of something or other.
About the songs:
(note: songs that are linked can be downloaded as samples)
01. I Saw You (Crying) - An old song from my solo recordings. Go here for more info.
02. Lady Dragon - Another old song from my solo recordings. Go here for more info.
03. Descent Into Your Mind - This was the first song I recorded after buying my Danelectro phaser pedal. It had been a long night working in the bar (I was a barback) and I was irritated at having to listen to Rush on the satellite radio, so I went home with a few drinks in me, quickly assembled my recording gear and basically improvised this. It's mostly influenced by The Butthole Surfers' "Human Cannonball," especially in the vocals. It's a fun song.
04. Mistress Morphing - The guitar riff was inspired by a song from the cult science fiction animated movie Rock & Rule, where the character, Mok, is summoning a demon in Ohm Town. I believe this was recorded under the influence of opiate pills, hence the pun title.
05. Space Flying - This was centered around a riff I had written for The Gardeners that was really influenced by Neu! and Stereolab. I kept it an instrumental and recorded two guitar tracks. I always liked this one.
06. Xolotl/I Wanna Be Your Dog - "Xolotl" was a song I wrote for Anubis Rising, but I was never happy with the way it came out with them, so I redid it and tacked The Stooges to the end for some reason (probably because I could, and because I wanted to do a cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" that didn't try to sound like The Stooges for once). By the way, "Xolotl" means "monster" in Nahuatl, the language of pre-Columbian Mezo-American cultures, i.e. Aztecs.
Messier 7Songs About Girls Who Never Existed CDR(MPAE)2001
(Mr Phreek circa 2000 - Photo by Judy Jean Kwon)
The first three songs were recorded at my mom's town house in Northridge. 4 and 5 were done at my mom's house where the first five Books of Pope Goat VII were channeled. 5-9 were recorded in the apartment Ack and I shared in Granada Hills. Track 10 was one of the first songs I recorded when I moved to NY.
The "bonus track" mentioned on the cover art isn't included because I used it on my spacerock album along with two other songs from this CD and that would have put about half the album up here. I'll be posting that spacerock album in the future.
About the songs:
(note: songs that are linked can be downloaded as samples)
01. That Certain Feeling - This was an attempt to do something "industrial" sounding, but it just sounds like something Steve Albini would have done with Big Black. I wanted single note arpeggio, like you'd get from a Moog, as the bass. I didn't have a keyboard yet, so I used a real bass. It was hard keeping time. The guitar line turned out well considering that I played the whole thing through the song. I also incorporated some sampling elements that I had begun with The Goatfish Oratorio. I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. It ended up on my digital hardcore/industrial album, Luddite Surprise.
02. I Saw You (Crying) - My first stab at psychedelia and spacerock. I tuned my guitar to some strange tuning that went something like E B D A B F#, essentially making power chords out of the three pairs of strings. I spent a lot of time programming the drums, which wasn't easy considering I have a Yamaha RX-11. I actually mic'ed the bass and guitar, too. I think this is one of the best songs I've ever recorded. It opens my spacerock album, Songs About Girls Who Never Existed.
03. Can't Really Complain - I was big into digital hardcore, ie Atari Teenage Riot, and this LA band called Babyland, who were the closest thing to DH that I had heard locally. This was my tribute to both. I recorded the vocals in a friend's (John from The Gardeners) closet. I played an early version for my friend Mark Lovretovich and he said it needed some squeals, so I got our friend Phil, who would become Sir Oedipus Beer in Pope Goat VII, to play a noisy guitar solo over the whole song, which I edited. Many people love this song, which makes me very happy. This is the first track on Luddite Surprise.
04. Torn Apart - This is the original version of "Torn Apart," and to me, it's far superior to the one on the Anubis Rising demo. It's very Slip It In Black Flag with a heavy dose of Hammerhead.
05. Is It Worth It? - I wanted to do something like Flipper, but ended up with this teen angst anthem instead. Features the first extended guitar solo that I ever wrote.
06. Kicking Self - This was a less successful attempt at psychedelia. It's kind of a spacerock version of Flipper. My vocals sound very drugged-up - I probably was.
07. Lady Dragon - Hands down, this is my favorite spacerock song and one of my favorite songs that I've ever recorded, period. It's "Lady Dragon" as in "chasing the dragon," something I was doing heavily at the time until I switched to a much more sordid way of getting high. The song was recorded very Pope Goat-ish - mostly improvised. It came out perfectly. This is also on my spacerock album.
08. Freight Train Baby - I was really big into The Stooges' Funhouse and it shows here. I even programmed a pseudo-funk, Ron Asheton-style drum beat.
09. Highway Driving - I really shouldn't have used the same beat as "Freight Train Baby," but I think I was just trying to get some ideas down as quickly as possible. More Funhouse-infused Stooge-rock.
10. Liz Thinks I'm a Bore - A very trashy garage rocker that marks my transtition to NY. I was using a really shitty Radio Shack mic that was meant for portable tape recorders, which is where all the noise comes from in the middle of the song.
(Photo by The Jeneral)
My good friend, Ack, and I worshiped Karp and The Melvins, and we wanted to form a band where we could make a lot of noise, do a lot of feedback and scream in goblin voices, a la Chris and Jared from Karp. I called a drummer, Alex Bytnar, who I knew from a band called Zipper Kitty. He said he'd be totally into it, but he knew some other guys who wanted to do something similar and we should all get together and see what happens.
Ack and I met Alex down at a rehearsal space in Reseda, CA where we met the other guys, Sacha Dunable - the other guitarist - and Kevin Henson - the would-be vocalist. The rehearsal went really well, although it wasn't anywhere near what Ack and I wanted to do. Plus, we both thought that Kevin completely sucked as a vocalist.
After the first or second practice, we decided to come up with a band name. Sacha suggested something he really wanted to use. I looked in the LA Weekly and, lo and behold, there was a band with that exact name playing at The Whiskey that Friday. Hilarious. So we went with the name I came up with, Anubis Rising.
We continued practicing and Ack and I quickly lost interest. We weren't getting to do our noisy goblin metal and Kevin was turning out to be a douchebag on top of being a shitty vocalist. Ironically, I got along really well with Sacha, both musically and personally.
After our first show at Cobalt Cafe, Ack and I bailed to pursue our weirdo improv group, Pope Goat VII, who, incidentally, opened the show with our first live performance (or mass, as we called it).
I remained friends with Alex until I got too heavy into drugs. He's a good guy, not to mention an excellent drummer, and I'd like to talk to him again. I never heard from the other guys again. Of course they went on to get somewhat of a following and release a few CDs.
So here's the document of what the band sounded like in the very beginning. It was recorded by a guy named Tom (I think) from a band called Kung Fu Chicken. He did a great job and he was supercool. My guitar is in the right speaker. Ack plays bass. Sacha is in the left speaker. Alex rocks the drums. Kevin and I shared vocals, to a certain extent.
About the songs:
(note: songs that are linked can be downloaded as samples)
01. Torn Apart - I orignally wrote this to sound like Hammerhead, not what it is here. I far prefer my original four-track recording of this song and I'll be posting it in the future. I'm the main vocalist, with annoying flourishes from Kevin. His solo vocals at the end really irritate me. I never agreed to them.
02. Behold the Future - A great example of Sacha's epic songwriting. Too bad it's not what Ack and I wanted to do. I bust into a crazy Greg Ginn-style solo at the end.
03. Bleeding Heart - A Sacha song. For some reason, this is the song I always associate with my bad memories of Kevin. I kinda feel bad picking on the guy like this, but I really, genuinely did not like him.
04. Emptiness - Sacha's fast song. Cool bass/drums intro by Ack and Alex - sounds a little like Karp.
05. I Hope - One of mine. Black Flag influence here. Why did Kevin insist on blabbering over my vocals?
06. Eternal - Another Sacha song. I don't remember much about this one except the cool riff.
07. Untitled - I wrote this song, but never came up with any lyrics, so Kevin gets to ruin it. I think I'll end up using the music I wrote for my second black metal album.
08. Boiling Pot - Epic instrumental courtesy of Sacha. Some of it reminds me of "Good Natured Emma" by The Amboy Dukes.
09. Laughter - The band in in a good mood.
10. Hippie Drum Circle - I'm not sure what was going on with this. Were we trying to be Neurosis?
11. Xolotl - This semi-improvised track was the closest Ack and I came to our original vision. I wrote the riffs and we basically jammed them out. I think I'm playing trumpet in there at one point. I ended up reworking this song for my spacerock album, Songs About Girls Who Never Existed by Messier 7, which will be posted here in the future. Thankfully, Kevin's vocals are buried in the mix.
(Photo by The Jeneral)
Anubis RisingDemo 99 CS
(n/a)
1999
(Photo of M7 by NASA)
Messier 7
