Skip to main content

WINDOW

Samarkand "Window (rehearsal)" MP3

This is Samarkand Frenzy week, in anticipation of our first gig in over thirteen years!

This recording was made in the basement during summer 1993. The lineup was Dr Rhythm on drums, Brian Lewis on guitar and keyboards, Jeff Sampson on bass & me on guitar & vocals. "Window" was mostly written by Jeff, except for the fruity major-key middle eight I apparently insisted on inserting. Which was mine.

The lyrics were a culmination of things that were in my head at the time. I had a postal friend whose full first name I thought was Window. I applied the old cut-up strategy to the lyrics, so the imagery of falling out a window was all out of order. Falling out of a window might've just been that week's variation on the theme of being down, being depressed, being down in a valley of deep depression. Or something, who knows.

slipping back into the night
sinking like a rock
looking back at where we were and
wishing I was there

I can still see the window
that we both fell through
pushing away from us
can all this be true

I wanna devour your body
just to be closer to your mind
get inside your body
see what I can find




Samarkand flier that I didn't make, 1993


the now-obvious downside of naming your band Samarkand (see also: Smarkland, Snorkelman)





Samarkand/Samarket "live" in 1993, Freakin' Pizza. We're playing "Eye," which you can tell because of everyone's thousand-yard-stare. That's Jeff Sampson (looking sleepy), me (drifting off) and Brian Lewis(fast asleep).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Unknown Samarkand track circa 1999-2000

Judging by the drum & bass loop I'd say this recording predates any PC multitracking attempts. I was definitely in the zone with the guitar, though. It sounds like an old Cure riff that was abandoned at birth. Maybe it was, who knows. Ian C Stewart - 1999-2000 Unknown Samarkand Track MP3 The other side of the cassette is labeled CLUB AUTO NARRATION SOURCE. My Tokai and BC Rich guitars, circa summer 1987. Posed seductively on my bedroom floor.... in the basement.... Speaking of basements, anyone who came over to my house to jam from 1989 onwards would've had this low-hanging ceiling light to contend with. By contend with I mean leave skin and hair cells upon. The number of times I and everyone else smashed our heads on that thing was quite funny, thinking back.

THESE CHORDS ARE LIKE FAMILY TO ME

Ian C Stewart "These Chords are like Family to Me" MP3 From the 2003 made-to-be-made-not-made-to-be-heard album I Don't Know Why You Think I Won't Kill You .... this is the last song. This was the beginning of my dabbling with intentional randomness in songwriting. The lyrics for the whole album were compiled from albums by other artists that I enjoyed a lot, such as Adrian Belew's Twang Bar King , The Cure's Pornography , Voivod Nothingface , Mercyful Fate Melissa etc. I wrote out entire lines of their phrases and chopped them together. I think at the time I described it as 'sad psychedelic love songs about satan' overall, which is really being too generous. The music was also randomly chosen from tablature found on t'interwebs for favorite songs of mine. In general I played the chords in reverse order to the original songs but I can still kind of tell in a couple of places what the songs were. The titles were my own, obviously. Although I did cho...

EXGIRLFRIEND

SAMARKAND FRENZY WEEK, DAY THREE Samarkand "Exgirlfriend" MP3 This song is from the limited release cassette Sensitive , which was issued in a handpainted edition of 10 in January 1993. Naturally. Sensitive was 60 minutes of almost entirely brand new material, only one or two songs were recycled. It was recorded during what I thought would be my winter break from Berklee in 1992. Of course that turned out to be my permanent break from Berklee in 1992 since the cash had completely run out for my tuition. All the songs were recorded on a borrowed 4-track, possibly Ray's Porta 05. I also had my uncle's massive Carvin PA, Sennheiser mics & Ludwig drums in my basement. All of which feature prominently on this here release, along with the brand new Zoom 9002 effects. Which was an amazing combination at the time, I really felt like the boundaries were down on the equipment end of things for the first time. "Exgirlfriend" is a riff recycled from Domestik Quarrel...