Ian C Stewart Archive of Sound

The Uncultured "I Need an Aspirin" MP3 Recorded February 28, 1988 life gives me a headache I need a major cure I need an aspirin something white and pure I need an aspirin to take away the pain addicted to the fire fire in my brain too much knowledge all I see is black by knowing what I want I make a knowledge stack where do I live what do I eat what a waste it hurts my feet who cares who cares no one at all who cares who cares no one cares who cares who cares no one I know gives a shit about what I have to say and I never want to hear your voice again! Ray Lilly - vocals Michael Million - guitar & vocals Aaron Pauley - bass Ian C Stewart - guitar Mark Ward - drums

portrait of the artists at a wedding, 1998 Daniel Prendiville "Burst Me Stitches" MP3 Burst Me Stitches is a song from Daniel Prendiville's forthcoming album, RAW MESH, which is due for release in the Autumn of 2008. The album will feature a remixed version of the song, so the first sentence in this paragraph was obviously a lie. The whole song was thrown together in a morning and then went through an extensive period of editing to get it into a serviceable condition. To paraphrase the old proverb, record in haste - edit at leisure. Poor ol' Daniel has been listening to too much Fall of late... Plus it makes use of the first of my 'let's jam, I'll play drums' files. So, well done that man.

Ian C Stewart "Torture" MP3 Last song on side two of 'motion'. Lyrics by Marian. The music is kind of oppressive. It's all tension and no release. I'd only been listening to Swans for a couple of months at this point. So it's like Godflesh crossed with Swans attempting something with the atmosphere of the Cure's 'Pornography' album. The militaristic snare drum program was kind of in the air at that point, there are a few early Godflesh tracks with this same vibe. Every layer of this song seems to be trying to blot out the one before it. Which, I guess kind of goes along with the lyrics. Which is just a happy coincidence, I wouldn't have planned something like that. The loop at the beginning is a sample of Andy Partridge singing "Leisure." when you walked away silently begging me to stay no tears, nothing left to cry all the unspoken words went to whisper goodbye brooding eyes such torture to me

Devilcake "Pie. Hair Pie" MP3 This is an early rehearsal tape of the newly named 'devilcake'. Recorded probably at the rehearsal place near downtown. It sounds like I used Christine The DeathBox to record, most likely sitting her near me behind the drums, which is why the drums are so frickin' LOUD. This version of the song is so funny, it's like a Polaroid where all the colors haven't quite set yet. I like it a lot though, the band sounds like it could go in any direction. And check out the faint little analog drum machine blips at the beginning, how rad is that crap. Even all these years later this song makes me want to stand on my desk & swing my shirt around over my head. What can I say. I wrote the lyrics to "Pie. Hair Pie," which was like "bond, james bond" but not. The music was a group effort, just like many of the early Devilcake tracks. Someone, me, someone would come in with lyrics & we'd just jam out an idea. Whi...

Ian C Stewart "Glowing Letters" MP3 side one, track one, of 'motion', the other half of my 1992 'box set'. "Glowing Letters." This song lasted through a couple of lineups of Samarkand. It was kind of impossible to argue with at the time since the entire song was programmed into my drum machine. And I thought it was a convergence (needless, pointless, as it happens) of all the genres I loved at the time, rap, death metal, techno, wimpy/alternative. When the first Samarkand lineup played it in Boston, Stephanie even added a hint of r&b to the equation. The title was obviously inspired by (stolen from) Ned's Atomic Dustbin's "Capital Letters." Well, it's obvious now! The tape cover was an odd shape, I remember the look of confusion followed by disgust when I took it to Kinko's to be copied. I didn't understand that the copier had margins, so some information is lost on the copies of the 'motion' covers. I tended...

Ian C Stewart "Surveillance" MP3 Eventually in 1992 I acquired enough bulk cassettes and had logged up enough hours with my 4-track to attempt something slightly larger in scope than I had ever attempted. Late summer I had the idea for a double cassette 'box set', two hours of new music. The first hour, 'insomnia,' would be two extended, improvised, dark ambient pieces.... 'surveillance' and 'abduction'. Layers of gritty Casio SK-5 samples mingled with heavily processed keyboard drones. This is an excerpt from 'insomnia'.

Ian C Stewart "Possibility" MP3 Track one, side one of 'euphoria suicide', which was my second attempt at making & releasing a full album. It was hot on the heels of my first album 'conspiring myths'.... 'euphoria suicide' was made a scant two months later, January to February 1992. I was already pretty focused on writing and recording with my 4-track, so it was no problem to keep the wheels moving. I remember moving my bed to the basement & using my bedroom as a studio for recording and painting. The finished album was another 60 minute cassette with handpainted covers. I forget if there were 20 copies, maybe 30 tops. It looks like I did a second pressing in August 1992 with a few different songs at the end of each side.

Ian C Stewart "Forget" MP3 Side one, track one from 'Conspiring Myths,' my first attempt at making an album of my own. It was a 60 minute cassette, jammed to the edges with teenage angst and distortion. The lyrics were written by Marian, an old pen friend from Massachussetts. This was 4-tracked in November 1991. The drum machine was my brand-new DR-550. In those days I'd buy a 10-pack of blank cassettes, slap together some cover art and make an album in an evening. This recording is quite boomy.