Roots, part 12: Shooting Stars

Most likely this is the end of the series, and so far it may be the most important.  No, it's not really related to anything I'm doing now, it doesn't have any of the familiar characters, it doesn't even amass any great talent like BATWÖLF.  In fact, it was far from my band.

What is so special about Shooting Stars is that they are the oldest.  Xyster (whose material will probably never surface) was barely even a thing at this point.  I believe that Tommy Holden, Adrian Ricelli, Aidan, and myself had only played all together once at this point.

It was July 2001 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.  I was in my first week of the legendary Summer Music Programs in a "misfit band" that I decline to name and discuss in detail, mostly because it was just lame kid stuff - nothing interesting, offensive, or competent.  The three boys (not even one girl that week in the overnight program) were not on the same wavelength musically and it seemed like few others were.  That was, until I met Shooting Stars.

They kept to themselves as they had all come together.  Two of the oldest - Chris Ott and Emilio Rovello, and one of the youngest - Johnny Ott, students at the program.  I sat with them one day at lunch and we connected over love of the B-52s, Ramones, and many other hip artists.  My band didn't appreciate this desertion, but I didn't care.  I learned that these three were the only kids in the program for all three weeks, they had traveled unaccompanied via train from Stamford, CT, and had rented all their gear.  None of them had any experience playing music, even on their own, until that summer.

Of course that put off other students, but I knew that training had nothing to do with making music. These three had no boundaries in the music they loved.  They were some of the only people there who liked hip-hop, they liked punk, and ska, and psychedlia, and experimental rock, and even jam bands - even though they couldn't see how anyone would listen to that exclusively.  It was liberating coming from an enviroment full of very close-minded music fans.  They were open to anything but Weezer.  Despite being thrown into their guitar, bass, and drums and having to sing at the same time they managed to make a big splash on the scene their first week.  Their key composition "Current C#" with its infectious reggae-inspired groove became the best remembered song in that program's history.  No joke.  Instructors would be playing this catchy tune for years afterward.

So, with it apparent that these were the koolest cats in Bryn Mawr I asked Chet, the leader of this fine institution if I could join Shooting Stars despite there already being a bass player.  Luckily it was allowed and that Friday night I became another Shooting Star.  On Monday we were given a slightly hippie-ish instructor named Josh and we went to work on the next EP.  Josh was pretty helpful despite being in over his head and he more than anything was there for an extra skilled hand as the four young musicians swapped instruments and made Summer Music Programs history.  Here is the evidence:

Back and front cover, featututing the barely visible typo from our designer.

These are thanks you's that are hard to read, and most are not that important, mostly obvious.  There's a lot of thanks to the Sage Dining Service and their gruff employee Tyone Ellis and no hanks to Weezer and The Bon.  Also thanked are Pooch, the "industry insider" that would speak at Summer Music Programs for many years, and "bitch on wheels" which was a catchphrase of that week.

Inside artwork, taken from a fun and immature afternoon with Hayden Wright.
That's us in tennis skirts.  Shame Emilio was cut from that image, he cross-dressed too.

Back cover starring Johnny Ott.

The EP kicks off with "Music,"young (12) Johnny's original, which despite being sung from a drummer's perspective features Chris on drums playing some really cool awkward-length fills (on purpose).  It features Josh on Chris's role of guitar and is the only song with two basses.  It's pretty cute.

Next is my vocal spotlight "Now I wanna Sniff Some Glue" which we had to change to "snip" some glue, if you can even tell.  It's kinda ruined by the high, snappy snare that EVERYONE had to use on that trip to the studio, but also established me as "the Ramones guy" for many years at the program, almost more than I wanted.  For the sake of extension, we added a solo that Chris made real weird.

Then things really move into our unique territory with "61 Cans on the Wall/The Bon" which, of course, was mixed up on the CD.  This was a loose, reggae-inspired jam, with hippy-dippy rap lyrics a la De La Soul from Chris and Emilio.  The tracks features myself and Josh on piano, but no need to mention that - it's mentioned in the improvised lyrics towards the end.  Chris gets really weird on guitar on this track, further showing how willing this group was to just have fun and be weird.  At the end we go into the noise breakdown "The Bon" - a noisy punk attack with all four of us shouting out the memories from the week, largely about Tyrone Ellis and "Johnny Dinglehopper." Johnny Ott's screams my be my favorite part.

Ending it is the six and a half minute instrumental "Twisted Symphony" which really foreshadowed just about everything I have done with music since.  Chris Ott gets even weirder with his guitar parts and he and Josh overdubbed some pretty weird sounds.  Emilio is on keyboards, and I play a repetitive bass drone.  On the rhythm track josh lended an extra set of hands on drums.

I will admit it can be a rough listen at times, but far less than Chronic Insurgence.  If you want to hear a bunch of kids who love music and hate rules and conformity here it is.  I have never had more fun recording in my life and when I hear this all the memories come back.  You can hear some of these tracks and realize that I really haven't changed in the 12 years since making this.  Shooting Stars was a rare band, especially this week.  We genuinely liked each other and shared a lot of vision.  Never gain would Summer Music Programs have a band go into a professional studio and just jam and mess around.  Just listen for yourself, you will be glad you did because there is nothing else like it.  Maybe the Shaggs, but I think it's a lot easier of a listen!

DOWNLOAD:  Shooting Stars - Politically Correct (2001)

Roots, part 1: Hurtu - The Power of Rawk

In late 2002 or early 2003 with the departure of Adrian Ricelli, Xyster dissolved and left Aidan McEneaney, Sam Deutsch, and myself to become Hurtu.  This was a brief period before the addition of Alec Signorino and the name change to the Shears.  In the summer of 2003 Deutsch and the McEneaneys recorded the EPs ¡Swing Pad! and Smokin' in the Girls Room with stand-in drummers Tin Nelson and Jeff Ziga (former Affirmative Action Jackson and Knives Out, later founder of Little Baby's Ice Cream).  While those recordings were mostly tight and professional, this is a noise-lo-fi mess.  Afterwards, with the departure of Signorino for "The New Shears," the core trio became Love Athena, working with drummers Peter Cross and Will Floyd.  Both band's work will be posted later with a more in-depth history.




















It was a tumultuous time and this recorded document crudely captures this unique transitional band, perhaps at its worst, but should be interesting for fans of outsider music, especially that made by teenagers.  It has a rare combination of teenage stupidity and art-damaged pretension, to the point where distributors Barfbag Records features several warnings, such as "Explicit Content," a warning about long gaps of silence, and another about the extremely violent threats dispersed throughout the record (though no one complains when Wu Tang does it).  There was never a track list and some of these songs may have never had titles at all.  Some did and those are recorded and here is the analyisis.

So with that that album begins with "1:  You Wanna Die?," the first of four of the threatening tracks performed by Aidan in his heavy metal singer alter-ego.  They are all some of the of the most explicit and hilarious manifestations about early-teen angst and this first track is the only one with full musical accompaniment, making it one of the album's most listenable "songs."  Batwölf may or may not have played it live.  The character is first introduced and luckily the music hides the other members' laughter.

"2:  Creep Street" is an instrumental that goes back to the earliest days of Xyster originally composed by myself, Tommy Holden, and Adrian Ricelli.  As the Popes, Aidan and I recorded that as well in a professional setting in the Summer of 2002.  IT owes a heavy debt to the Fall's "Mansion" and is one of the best places to hear the use of cheap multi pedals.

"3:  The Power of Rawk III" is another instrumental based on "What Is Love?" with a blistering lead from Sam that used to be my favorite song on the album.  It doesn't really hold up as well, I must admit.

"4:  Parallel Lines" is yet another instrumental, also led by Sam's guitar.  It gained its title later when lyrics were added and was eventually recorded as such on the ¡Swing Pad! EP, to be shared next time.

Track five is another threat from Aidan, this time directed towards me.  The laughs are not a problem and his love of prolonging torture and saying "Shut up, bitch!" is exposed as well as his misunderstanding of the word "arsenal."

Six's drum track is one of the coolest sounds on the whole record and the bass playing on this fuzzed-out reggae track is solid, but otherwise it's a failed experiment, though I have to admit a bold one, mixing such elements together.  It's bad teenage heartbreak, but has to be heard to believed, tough I suppose it may not be too different from nu-metal, especially 311...  That was not the intention.

Next up is "Flavia," a long comedy jam.  It is the only song recorded completely live with guitar, bass, and drums, and even more surprisingly only one of two songs featuring Deutsch on vocals.  IT's an absurd love song to a girl who may not have deserved such treatment.

"Lost on Gilligan's Island" I think had the most potential to be a great song.  It's lyrics are still kind of funny, in a really cute way, I can't remember exactly what I was going for, but I think it just came to me title first.  It's a mess but the idea is there and it has the best home-made feeling to it with my "wait, stop" beginning the song.  The drums are more shambolic than I still think is possible, but there is some tune and a lot of playfulness yet if you stripped it of that it's some top-notch noise rock.  The actual song section concludes with piano credited to Ben Folds and the following "silence" is actually Aidan talking shit on Nirvana.  If you can get through the whole thing you still won't believe it was for real.

The ninth track is maybe the best-realized song, a sludge-metal, on which I think I played everything.  It's simple and I think it would be cool to play again.  Some find it boring and the timing of each instrument sucks, but there is one moment where the solo is absolutely transcendent.

"Crop Circles," on the other hand, is probably the biggest mess on the album with horrible over-driven bass leading the whole thing and deafening clipping drums.  Maybe some potential in there too, but who cares?  If you can hear anything resembling music in there you will know for sure that this is Sonic Youth-aping, but hey apparently that's what everyone wants, so you'll probably like it.  I, however, hate it and I love outsider music like this.  Actually, Aidan's screams are kind of cool, mine too, or Sam's whatever that is...

The unnamed eleventh track is also somewhat well-realized in terms of instruments playing together (though the drums could use some work).  It sounds like it was recorded live, and I vaguely remember that being the case.  I felt pretty good about this one at the time, and structurally, I still do though the lyrics are god-awful weepy teenage boy garbage, but I was trying!  I noticed I had drowned out my vocals, so they cranked up a little high to compensate and all three of us sang on this one and Sam's may be the most pleasant sound on the whole album.  Aidan's have a real unusual rhythm that I still think is pretty cool too.  I was the only person who had any faith in this song, but it's really a pretty decent grunge rocker, theoretically.  With the right pedal it could have even been "Mudhoney-esque"

Twelve is the return of the heavy metal singer and is the best view into the deranged mind of a 12 year old boy with its mix of homophobia and homoeroticism.  If you can get over that it's probably the funniest one, especially when he talks about cutting off your penis and feeding it to his dog.  Then it takes the left turn with "ever since you signed up for the army" and it's self referential qualities which just grow and grow.  What's real and what is just black humor?  Either way it's gonna BURRRRRN YOOUUUU!

"13:  Smokey Bear Plays With Matches" is another old one.  The concept/lyrics came from Jonathan Lee in Mr. Clark's Comm. Arts class in spring 2001 and the music was from Panaphobia members Bo Liu and Doug Chee.  All that time makes this probably the strongest song on the album.  A loud, heavy, noise-blues tune which is the most apparent result of teenagers imitating Captain Beefheart probably ever recorded.  If any track needs to be heard on this album, it's this one.

In conclusion I accept, and grow tired of the heavy metal singer's threats, and he is eaten apart by his insecurities as I turn into him.  It's pretty jail.  Think about it.

I don't know what machine this was recorded on, but it was a cheap digital 12-track.  Production began at the Deutsch's West Orange McMansion and concluded after they relocated to a townhouse in the Cedars, Basking Ridge.  The guitars were a Mostrite Ventures II, a Fender Cyclone II, an Epphone Explorer and possibly an Epiphone Casino.  Basses were an Ibanez Jazz and Precision hybrid and a Fender P.  Drums and amps were a mixed bag and at some point everybody played every instrument, that was important to me.

Ultimately this album is pretty unlistenable, but it did live up to my artistic vision as something of a historical document.  I think it stands up to other teenage outsider music like The Shaggs Philosophy of the World or Todd's With Love... From Me To You or the younger crowd of Eyeball Skeleton, but is a lot more fun and with a far, far greater awareness of the whole expanse of rock music.  Just look at the artists I reference here, this is not in retrospect.  This is a fact, the experimental/noise rock of Can, Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart, etc was as much an influence as Weezer, Mudhoney, and At The Drive-In as the lo-fi challenges of Sebadoh, Guided by Voices, and Pavement.  I put this out here because it needs to be heard and be out in the universe.  It's just too funny not to.  You have enjoyed worse, I know that for a fact.

YOU WANNA DIE!? 

Next time:  The Shears.

I'm The Man With the Cabbage Head

With the deluxe American re-issue of his masterpiece Histoire de Melody Nelson, and subsequently arranger Jean-Claude Vannier's L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches Serge Gainsbourg's name has become a household world not only of the knowledgeable hipsters, but all of them. Obviously, though, they don't know much else about him, and that's where we differ.

This album, like the aforementioned one, is conceptual. Rather than Serge's own obsession with an Englsih teenager, this one is about another man. One with a cabbage for a head, and like the Kids in the Hall woudl years later, he really pulls it off. While it may not reach the same level of transcendent perfection like Histoire... this record dives into more styles rather than just funky orchestral porno music. Serge, as he would continue to, dives into the world of reggae and straightforward pop in addition to the psychedelic prog the dominates, all with his cinematic bend. With the complexity of the character's story it is a bit harder to follow, at least without knowldege of French, than Histoire..., but the music picks it up even when it can be a little jammy at times. While the music is not as perfectly arranged and there are some throwaway tracks, there overall Serge-ness is prevailent as always, and the music has a way of really carrying you away into the sleazy, sleazy Seventies. Standout tracks include the epic opening title track, "Aéroplanes," which with a little punchier of a mix could be your ultimate action-sexploitation film theme. "Flash Foward," with it's repetitive acousitc guitars and analog synths is the blueprint for much of what AIR became famous for, particularly on The Virgin Suicides, so much that you hardly notice the presence of a track called "Premiers Symptômes"! However, it is "Marilou sous La Neige," which is the real star and was an early favorite of his for me. Definitely a good next step for those already infatuated with Histoire de Melody Nelson and Initials B.B. but wary of something too loungey or Afro-Cuban.


Serge Gainsbourg - L'Homme À Tête de Chou (1976)