The Nether Regions Episode 1 "Pharmakia"

Here is the first episode of The Nether Regions podcast, available here so you can stream it:

The Nether Regions Episode 1 "Pharmakia"

For more information go to www.candle-ends.com.

Dry/Cathy and Al

Two songs this week, sort of, held together by the fact that I recorded them back to back and each was affected by a recording mishap. To me they seemed to fit pretty well together.

I had read in the manual for the Fostex that you weren't supposed to use a cassette that was longer than a certain length, but I ignored it. The wobbly effect that's on these songs is because this was recorded on the tail end of the cassette. I believe that there was more recorded for "Cathy and Al" but the tape came to the end and stopped.

These were recorded at the same time as "Reality" and "Have You Ever Spent Too Much Time" I believe, when I was still doing completely improvised recordings.

Dry/Cathy and Al

Have You Ever Spent Too Much Time?

This is another improvised song, recorded at roughly the same time as "Reality." It was pointed out to me that one of the lines is unfortunately close to a line in a song by The Police, which I guess is the hazard of making a song up as you go. I remember wanting to record on this day because my voice was very hoarse from a cold and sounded interesting. You can hear me coughing throughout the song.

Have You Ever Spent Too Much Time?

Reality

This was recorded in 1996 or 1997, I believe, on my 4-track Fostex. For some reason, after buying the Fostex, I went through a long period where I never wanted to write any songs down or plan what I was going to record to any significant extent. Instead, I just made up the lyrics and chords as I went along. Then, if I liked what I had done, I might go back and add a few more instruments or additional vocals. On "Reality" there was a part where someone later suggested one of the lyrics was weak, so I basically just put a big space where that part of the song was and added a little joke.

Reality

Brokedown Rubbernecker

There's a lot I like about this song, though like many it's a work in progress that I don't see myself working on any time soon so I figured I'd post it as is.

Brokedown Rubbernecker

Anniversary of Nothing

This was written around the same time as "The Crawl." Geez, I'm talking about 17 years ago here. Early Tom Waits was a clear influence. Like "The Crawl" I had an idea more recently to record it and try to sell the song to someone -- that's the version you will find below. I didn't have much success with that.

Anniversary of Nothing

The Crawl

This was literally one of the first songs I ever wrote when I started getting serious about writing songs. This recording was made more recently when I had the idea to see if I could send the song out and see if someone wanted to record it. See other posts for how to subscribe to the podcast!

The Crawl