1990s

gina and i bought a big house in mahomet and i set up recording studio in one of the large downstairs rooms. dan and i had ended the happy campers and i was probably organizing my mid-life crisis heavy metal band around this time.

Callipygean
(lyrics)
Gina and I have now moved to our big house in Mahomet where I have an enormous basement studio area. This was recorded using Keith Harden's Fostex 8 track. I'm probably just getting going organizing my Midlife Crisis Heavy Metal Band. I was listening to Def Leppard a lot, and had been influenced also by seeing my brother's metal bands. This is actually one of my fave tunes tho. Keith Harden did a really nice job singing it and playing the guitar break. I borrowed Tom Green's Roland R8 for the drums and used I Yamaha floppy-based sequencer to drive a Roland D50 for the bass part. Shortly thereafter I think I popped for my own R8 which I used heavily for years thereafter.

Lookin' Up Your Number
(lyrics)
Pretty dorky lyric with a really awkward, lumbering groove (if you could even call it that) from my Def Leppard-influenced phase. Keith Harden and his girlfriend Frankie came out for an evening of partying with Gina and me, and we recorded this rather quickly. I called Frankie down to deliver the "I wanna make love" line, which she was terribly retiscent to do. But she finally complied, rather hesistantly as you can tell. I repeat myself in the guitar solo. Only thing I like from this tune is the bridge section, but overall I'd say this one wouldn't have made the album. (Needs more cowbell.)

Can't Have This
(lyrics)
Rose and Bryan Garber did the vocals, recorded in my basement at Mahomet, still in the early phase of the Stiletto band. It's almost a cute song. I think this was back on the Alesis drum machine though. Um, where's the guitar solo? I'd lost track of Bryan for a while but he popped up playing in Vegas in a Stevie Ray tribute band called Coldshot. Now he's in Austin and we even got together for a Stiletto reunion.

What Comes Next
(lyrics)
Yikes, what sound quality! I'd purchased a cheap 4 track cassette micro-studio thing, I have no idea why. Maybe I'd decided I needed to do more spontaneous stuff with less production or something, I dunno. But I did this all on that machine, mixed to another cassette deck, and then all that fine audio is here captured in crisp digital format.

Fade
(lyrics)
Actually much later, probably not long before moving to Seattle. I'd written this grunge-influenced thing and while doing some other 8 track sessions for 3rd Stone at "Creekside Studios" when I lived on Cypress. They recorded this version for me with Jeff Markland on drums and sorry, don't remember the rest of their names.

Venezuela
Venezuela (mp3)
(lyrics)
I think this was the first tune I did with Ginger. Not sure where this came from, slightly predated my interest in Spanish. When I wrote it I had no idea exactly where Venezuela was or if they might or might not have had a part in the Colombian drug trade. But it's a nice tale, kinda metaphoric for a phase of life I was leaving behind I think.

Costa Replacemen
(lyrics)
I'd written and recorded a version of this with Erin years before, but I now reshot it as kinda a reggae thing with Ginger singing. Jeff Helgesen played the amazing trumpet stuff, and maybe it was Peter Rouble on sax, don't remember the bone player.

Let Go
(lyrics)
A kinda party tune I did with Ginger, a really nice track. I sorta forgot about this, didn't think I really finished it, and then I "found" it a few years ago and was knocked out with what a nice vocal it was. I was listening to the bass and thinking "wow, I was smokin" but then as I pondered it a bit more, I realized that wasn't me, that was Vic Serbe. I think Brian Wilke played guitar.

The Right Thing
(lyrics)
Sometime while at Cypress I had Keith come over and record a song for old time's sake. I wrote it at Gina's apartment on Washington, and it's probably as close as we come to a divorce tune. The lyrics are kinda cool but the story bit (as usual) gets a bit heavy handed. Keith did a version of this live occasionally with a simplified altered bridge, probably a good call.

A Man She Once Knew
(lyrics)
Just found this tune (11/30/2013) going through old Fostex 8 track masters. Never finished it and frankly completely forgot about it. It's Ginger singing, Jeff Helgesen on trumpet, Peter Roubel on sax, no one remembers the 'bone player, me on "else." Nice tune, I gotta say, great horns, pretty "jazzy" horn writing from moi, not something I usually do. And some fairly deep lyrics for me. Yes, same guy wrote Callipygean "you've got such a beautiful butt".

The Hardest Part
(lyrics)
Ah, the good ol' breakup song. Nice tune, me trying to sing, occasionally successfuly, other times a little painfully.

And of course most the 1990s went to recording Dawna and Rose each of whom get their own pages. Oh wait, I'll repeat the Ginger tunes on her own page because I've found enough stuff we did.
Rose
Dawna
Ginger

And the mid-life crisis heavy metal band:
Stiletto

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