Photography Information
The front cover is a picture Liza took of herself. This album wouldn't have been made so quickly if it weren't for that picture and the album cover it inspired. I had the idea to do this kind of an album for a while, but having an album cover ready really pushed me, as did having one week before school started again. Liza is Liza Marshall, my girlfriend, the alterna-chick. That's also her on the back as a kid with her brother Joe. That's me on the inside with hair longer than I've ever had it (though I never quite wore it in front of my face like that). I also included a postage stamp size version of that picture on the front so I wouldn't break tradition of having my image on the cover. I took the picture of myself. Liza and I are always taking pictures of ourselves. I took the cute one of us together on the back, too. Liza's mom took the picture of her and Joe.
Song Information
(4 Jun 1998/30 Sep 1999)
Give Me My Money -- The music was a song I'd
tried recording for The Mnemonic Devices's Midi Skirt.
It was originally called "Let It Bleed" and had lyrics,
but the lyrics didn't seem to work right, so I left it as an
instrumental and called it "Slacker in the Dark," but
that didn't work for the album either, so when I recorded these
people arguing outside my window one night, I trimmed that up and
put it over the music.
(20 Jul 1998/4 Jan 2000) The Sound of Emotion --
This music was also recorded for Midi Skirt. I had
written the music based around Debi's lyrics, but she didn't
think the music fit her words, so we didn't use it. I wrote new
words for this album, did some more pitch bending on the vocals and
music, and here it is.
(19 Jul 1999) XXY Chromosomes -- At Diamondhead
(where I recorded some of my Mnemonic Devices songs) Lee Rozelle,
Liz Goodridge, and some of the other guys were in my room
recording some stuff. This is a loop I made of a few of those
seconds. That's Lee and Liz doing the dirty work.
(19 Jul 1999) Space Toys -- Lee Rozelle.
(Fall 1999) BMX Bandits -- For some reason I
decided to record some stuff on my tape deck (instead of computer)
and this was the first thing on that tape.
(Fall 1999/4 Jan 2000) The Tape Recorder -- From
the same 30 minutes worth of random tape that night, I recorded
some sounds with my hand-held and put them on here.
(Fall 1999) Insomnia Drinking Song -- From the
tape again, which I did while suffering from insomnia.
(8 Oct 1999) Desperate Legs -- Something I
recorded one night, not knowing where it would end up. I feared I
was sounding too much like I did on indie rock credibility.
I didn't want another one.
(13 Nov 1999) Liza -- I recorded this the night
Liza and I had our first phone conversation. I had previously
recorded a pretty good song called "The One" which
isn't on this album because it uses the exact same chord
progression/strumming/etc. as this song. Maybe for a future
outtakes album.
(4 Jan 2000) Yellow Towell -- This is how Liza
spells towel. I had made a little demo for this song 22
Dec 1999, but it barely sounded like this turned out. Recording
this song is what got me thinking I could dig around for old
stuff and make some new stuff and come up with a new album.
(4 Jan 2000) Have a Nice Day -- Experimenting
with the pitch bend and time compression, I made one of my
favorite songs from this album.
(4 Jan 2000) The World Accordian To Spell -- I
still don't feel I've properly used my accordian, but I recorded
this in an attempt to.
(4 Jan 2000) Gen XY Post-Slacker Realization --
I made this song last, specifically to be the first song. I
didn't have anything that sounded like a first song. After I made
it, I went out to USM with my pocket recorder to get some sounds
for it.
(4 Jan 2000) Car -- From the same USM tape.
(4 Jan 2000) SOB -- An afterthought, something I
thought would be funny.
Copyright (c) Jan 2000 by Rusty Spell and Love and Letters Music