Ian C Stewart | Michael Million "Eye"MP3
I know, I know, this is like the 50th time I've uploaded "Eye." This recording was part of an extensive batch of songs done and redone by Michael and I in spring 1996. We had the opportunity to record a bunch of our old and new songs on my 8-track, using all our best equipment and with the thought of doing the songs justice. Live drums were the order of the day and we spent many weekends that spring down in the basement at my mom's, just as we had when we both lived in the same town. Of course much of the stuff we did was never finished and only consists of an abandoned drum track with a scratch guitar beside it. But on the other hand there were a few old chestnuts that finally got their due. Now that's not to say that this is THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE version of "Eye," though in all actuality it may be.
I played drums, I think one track of guitar and two tracks of vocals. Michael did the bass and maybe one guitar. The vocals still had the juice to convey the vibe of the song. It sounds like I was drumming along to the Dr Rhythm, which was coming through on my headphones only. At the beginning of this recording you can hear the drum machine through my headphones!
We recorded so many things during these sessions, including many of the first songs we'd ever written together, most of our songs for the band (in Parentheses), the first proper Irreligion EP "Eyes of the Lonely," an XTC cover for "Skylacking," and a few Evil Bread songs for what would've been an EP release at the time. I think that was my plan anyway.
There were also a few songs & riffs from the aborted metal band we tried to have in 1995 or so, with Michael and Gabe on guitars, Brian whose last name I forget & who was in Borborygmos with Mike Gourley on bass and Mike Gourley on the mic. Gourley. Me on drums. We all wrote songs. The band never had a name and never got beyond jamming in my mom's basement several times. I wanted to call it POOPY, which was like the little kid's equivalent of doom & gloom. Which was kind of what the music was like at the time, a bit childish and depressing. Hah. I mean already by the mid 1990s I think we'd all cut our hair and weren't really taking heavy metal seriously in the way we did with Evil Bread in 1991. It was kind of like one big ironic joke or something. But this unnamed new band didn't really have a direction, and we didn't really want to do the food lyrics thing. Which was noble enough in theory but in practice it meant that most of the jam sessions consisted of the four of us (or the three of us if Gabe was AWOL that weekend), mapping out riffs while Gourley sat on the couch with a notebook & a pen, brainstorming who-knows-what.
Consequently Michael and I later recorded the pieces we could remember from that band a few months later & they have names like "Gabe's Thing," "Brian's Thing" "Ska Thing," "Heavy Metal Disco." Working titles.
If Michael and I had a fan base now we could release the spring 1996 8-track stuff as a plush box set. As it is, you're getting "Eye" for the 200th time. Not all of the recordings were slam dunks. The version of "Valley" we did was sped up and had some wrong notes in it. But that's what happens when you just keep hitting record without sitting down & mapping everything out first. Sometimes it works, sometimes you forget how the song goes & you skip a few vital bars or you repeat the fat too many times, whatever.... anyway. It was a good time.
This batch of recordings is where the LET'S JAM, I'LL PLAY DRUMS!!!!!! tracks are mostly coming from. Speaking of which, I'll post more drum tracks soon despite the fact that no one has done anything with the first ones yet.
----------------
Now playing: The Mess Makers - Down The Creek
via FoxyTunes
I know, I know, this is like the 50th time I've uploaded "Eye." This recording was part of an extensive batch of songs done and redone by Michael and I in spring 1996. We had the opportunity to record a bunch of our old and new songs on my 8-track, using all our best equipment and with the thought of doing the songs justice. Live drums were the order of the day and we spent many weekends that spring down in the basement at my mom's, just as we had when we both lived in the same town. Of course much of the stuff we did was never finished and only consists of an abandoned drum track with a scratch guitar beside it. But on the other hand there were a few old chestnuts that finally got their due. Now that's not to say that this is THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE version of "Eye," though in all actuality it may be.
I played drums, I think one track of guitar and two tracks of vocals. Michael did the bass and maybe one guitar. The vocals still had the juice to convey the vibe of the song. It sounds like I was drumming along to the Dr Rhythm, which was coming through on my headphones only. At the beginning of this recording you can hear the drum machine through my headphones!
We recorded so many things during these sessions, including many of the first songs we'd ever written together, most of our songs for the band (in Parentheses), the first proper Irreligion EP "Eyes of the Lonely," an XTC cover for "Skylacking," and a few Evil Bread songs for what would've been an EP release at the time. I think that was my plan anyway.
There were also a few songs & riffs from the aborted metal band we tried to have in 1995 or so, with Michael and Gabe on guitars, Brian whose last name I forget & who was in Borborygmos with Mike Gourley on bass and Mike Gourley on the mic. Gourley. Me on drums. We all wrote songs. The band never had a name and never got beyond jamming in my mom's basement several times. I wanted to call it POOPY, which was like the little kid's equivalent of doom & gloom. Which was kind of what the music was like at the time, a bit childish and depressing. Hah. I mean already by the mid 1990s I think we'd all cut our hair and weren't really taking heavy metal seriously in the way we did with Evil Bread in 1991. It was kind of like one big ironic joke or something. But this unnamed new band didn't really have a direction, and we didn't really want to do the food lyrics thing. Which was noble enough in theory but in practice it meant that most of the jam sessions consisted of the four of us (or the three of us if Gabe was AWOL that weekend), mapping out riffs while Gourley sat on the couch with a notebook & a pen, brainstorming who-knows-what.
Consequently Michael and I later recorded the pieces we could remember from that band a few months later & they have names like "Gabe's Thing," "Brian's Thing" "Ska Thing," "Heavy Metal Disco." Working titles.
If Michael and I had a fan base now we could release the spring 1996 8-track stuff as a plush box set. As it is, you're getting "Eye" for the 200th time. Not all of the recordings were slam dunks. The version of "Valley" we did was sped up and had some wrong notes in it. But that's what happens when you just keep hitting record without sitting down & mapping everything out first. Sometimes it works, sometimes you forget how the song goes & you skip a few vital bars or you repeat the fat too many times, whatever.... anyway. It was a good time.
This batch of recordings is where the LET'S JAM, I'LL PLAY DRUMS!!!!!! tracks are mostly coming from. Speaking of which, I'll post more drum tracks soon despite the fact that no one has done anything with the first ones yet.
----------------
Now playing: The Mess Makers - Down The Creek
via FoxyTunes
Comments
Regards,
djp