It's been ten lonely years now of being a solo artist, and fifteen years total of recording music, which means that I've been doing solo stuff as long as I've been doing anything, though it doesn't seem like it. It still feels new, or like a spinoff project, and of course it is. My spinoff stuff tends to be more successful than the big stuff. My most famous band, The Mnemonic Devices, is a spinoff of my solo recordings: me focusing on one very specific style. So there's a lesson for you. Broadness sucks. Keep narrowing things down until someone likes you. Give them something to define you by. "Oh, he's the keyboard guy," etc. This is probably why my recordings as Rusty Spell haven't exactly caught on, even after a decade; they're way too broad.
This broadness made it difficult to compile this collection. I should say first of all that this isn't a "best of" and it certainly isn't a "greatest hits." The best word I could come up with was "retrospective" or maybe "survey." If I gave you a best of, I wouldn't be using stuff from all eighteen albums as I've done here. I'd only pick songs from six or seven of those albums, the "real" ones. I tried for a few minutes to make a list of what I consider simply to be my best songs, and it didn't give an accurate view at all of Rusty Spell. Part of what I do is make songs and albums that aren't exactly what you'd call "good."
So I picked at least one song from every album I have, whether you know it or not. I did try to pick all the "famous" songs, all the songs that have become well-known for one reason or another. There actually aren't too many of those. That's why I will do Rusty Spell collections every ten years, while Mnemonic Devices collection come every five. I'm now going to talk about the songs on this collection and the albums associated with them. I arranged the songs on the album in non-chronological order because it sounded better that way, but I'm going to talk about them chronologically here. Feel free to stop reading now.
No Way of Knowing -- The "single" from my album Mailbox, an album that's okay. It did everything it needed to do. This song became pretty popular with everyone, maybe because it was the most straightforward song on the album. Making this album was fun and simple, though. Noby recorded it for me back before I knew what I was doing. We did a lot of cool things that you shouldn't be able to do with a tape deck.
Panoramic Lens -- When I began The Mnemonic Devices in 1996, it wasn't like anything anyone in 'nikcuS Productions had done yet. It was so "real." This of course caused us boys to hate it in a certain way and have lots of reactions to it. Yo! Mahma was the most extreme (and funny) reaction, and my own personal one was to record Covers By Casio in a couple of hours. A few good songs came out of it, and my favorite was "Panoramic Lens." One reason I liked it was because it was a song that no one but me knew, cause it was done by a kindred home-recording spirit (Julia Pietrus) in Canada.
Staying -- If Covers By Casio didn't make my solo work messy enough already, then Experiments and Outtakes certainly did. This isn't the best or most interesting song on the album, but again it's the most straightforward and the most popular.
No, Virginia -- I still like the Christmas album I did, Christmas Again. It's got some good TMD-style songs, and it's got this one which became a minor classic.
The Matter -- One of my favorite Rusty Spell albums is still indie rock credibility. If you look at the things I'd done so far (even non-Rusty Spell stuff), you'd have never have expected this one. It's not a surprise that four songs from that album made it on this collection (and there could have been more). It's not that I spent a lot of time on it either, since I only took six straight hours to do it, just four more than the crappy Casio album. The album reminds me of a very specific time of my life, but I think it still holds up. This song is a good representation of the rest of the album.
Hambone -- Track four from indie rock credibility, a song that to me always sounds like it could have been a radio hit in another dimension.
Dead Father -- I still don't know what this song is all about, but I still like it a lot. It has a specific reference in it that only one person has picked up on (or told me about) yet.
Hyperboles -- The best song on indie rock credibility in a songy-song way. It's probably the most popular.
Give Me My Money -- Alterna-Chick was a pretty successful blend of noise and music I was going for, and of course this reality show track became the most popular. It makes people laugh or sad or both, depending on who they are and what mood they're in. I still think that, as an album, this is one of my most solid in terms of focus and mood.
Little Love Song -- A song that would have never appeared on any collection unless it had to. Rusty Strums The Mnemonic Devices is still the most pointless, confusing, and frustrating Rusty Spell solo record, even for me. But do I like it? Yes. Do I ever listen to it? No. I chose "Little Love Song" only because it's one of the least-heard (but most popular when heard) Mnemonic Devices songs.
Boogers -- This song is one of my most famous of all, which is both expected and annoying. In making an album for kids (This Album Belongs To...) that catered to their most "immature" qualities, I didn't expect that any adults would like it, but they did, and this song in particular has become my most-requested song during live shows (followed by "the Creed song" 'nikcuS's "Pearl Jammin'").
Nothing Matters When We're Dancing -- My most often "purchased" Rusty Spell albums online are the three volumes of The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs, which isn't surprising: not only is it a remake of a very popular three disc album, but it's free. I'm not sure how many people who bought the album liked it, but many have said good things. In a true best-of, I would have included more of these songs than three, but in another version of a true best-of, I wouldn't have included any songs that weren't written by me, but in this version, I realized that my covers were important to Rusty Spell solo stuff. This song is my favorite from volume one.
No One Will Ever Love You -- Oh, if only I had written this song. I'm not shocked that the 69 Love Songs I chose were ones featuring Liza Marshall singing. This one is her by herself.
Busby Berkeley Dreams -- I like my version of this song as much or more than Merritt's, so up his.
And I Shudder -- From Plagiarism, one of my more successful outings, both in terms of execution of idea and the resulting good songs. This is the fake Lambchop song that Carrie Hoffman has declared one of the saddest songs ever recorded.
Angela -- My plagiarism of Cake is the most famous song from the album.
My Sweet Lord -- My dad liked my gospel album Loud Cymbals so much that he spread the gospel by getting all his friends to buy it, making me at least a hundred bucks. A hundred bucks! This was the song he played for them to "sell" it. I liked my gospel album too. It's got some of my prettiest stuff.
Dangle -- From I Can Sing These Songs, Now My Folks Are Dead, my best album that no one likes to talk about because it makes them feel icky. This is a song, though, that everyone admits to liking: some of my fastest adlibbing ever.
Nine Syllabakky Words -- My personal favorite from the dead parent album, one I like to sing live.
Bootylicious -- And speaking of live albums, this is from my first collection. If I bought someone's greatest hits album, I would be disappointed to find live stuff on it, but here you are. My live shows become less about my songs and more about what goofy things I can do on stage. I chose this track because it's got some of the best audience reaction, and because I like Destiny's Child.
My, What a Happy Day -- From the fan favorite Charles Grodin, a song that makes me giddy each time I hear it, just like the album itself. It ain't all bright and yellow for nothin'.
Ralphie -- Tommy Burton declared this
the quintessential Rusty Spell song (or something like that), and I kind of see
where he's coming from.
Don't! -- From the even-better Plagiarism 2, this is probably the best
song on this collection. Other songs from Plagiarism 2 might make
it on the next collection, since I was thirty when I did this and the next
collection will be called Age 30 to 40. We'll just have to see if
any of them gain additional popularity.
I Want You, Girl -- From the second live collection, I picked this song cause it
features Tommy Burton on drums, making it sound like I actually have a live
band.
I'm Singin' While I'm Playin' the Guitar (Fan-Bait Version) -- What's a Rusty
Spell album without a dumb joke?
Final note: For the back cover, I squatted, then jumped squatting. That's not photoshopped.
Copyright (c) Dec 2005 by Rusty Spell and Love and Letters Music