Trex - Decadend

Very rough demo of "Baby Dew", which I later recorded for Tripecac. The talking in the background is another tape I was digitizing. The lyrics were completely different.

Not sure about the date. Since the Tripecac version was started on 2011-05-15, I'm guessing this was from the same day, but it could have been any time on or after the previous Trex song, which was 2011-04-22.

This is the demo for "Par", which I remade for Tripecac.

The lyrics are pretty close that what I ended up using, and it's neat to hear them evolve over the course of this demo.

More evidence that the 4-track was having problems. As was the musical portion of my brain. The acoustic guitar is the victim this time. That and your ears.

Kinda catchy, but obviously a struggle to play.

I dug out my old Yamaha PSS-470 keyboard for this. Not much here.

Talking about why I was testing power adaptors. Kinda boring, but I don't mind getting in a little jab at the incompetant RadioShack dufus who "helped" me.

Back on the mandolin. Hard to hear the vocals.

This eventually evolved into "Summer Up", which I recorded for Tripecac.

I didn't have any lyrics at this point. I barely had the music!

There's a very slight resemblence to Joy Division, but not much promise.

Tuneful but warbly and sloppy in parts.

I said the date wrong; it was actually still June.

Dumb mandolin riff with almost as dumb vocals.

Silly and crude, reaching the punch line way too quickly. Not horrible, though.

This long piano improv was recorded with the mp3 recorder in the local college's piano practice room.

The playing is labored and dull. You can tell I hadn't played piano in several months.

There was something wrong with the F key.

Another piano jam. Pretty standard. Pretty boring. The many bad notes don't help.

Very long and blah piano jam.

The talking is so faint I can't even hear the song title, so I'm making a guess.

This is livelier than the last couple piano jams, but is still crippled by bad notes.

The original recording was actually almost 12 minutes long, but it never developed into anything; it was just repetition after repetition, each one clunkier than the last. What I was thinking or trying to accomplish I really don't know.

This is the same song idea as "12 to 1", just extended a bit.

To be honest, the only reason I've kept this a separate file is I liked the title. :)

Dorky polyrhythmic exercise. Dumb and sloppy.

Repetitive, kinda trancy at times.

Another trancy piano exercise. Zzz. The original was 8 minutes long, with very little variation and lots of sloppiness. A minute or so is more than enough to get the gist.

Trying to play funk on the piano. Gradually builds, but is essentially the same thing over and over.

And over.

Back on mandolin with the hissy dictaphone. Very short.

This is the final Trex song in 2008, and the last one I recorded in Bellingham. I moved a couple months later, and sold much of my music gear, including the 4-track, dictaphone, acoustic guitar, and amp, thus ending Trex as we know it.

As of 2012 I still haven't recorded any more Trex songs. All of my recordings these days are either for Tripecac or in front of the girls and therefore captured on video.

Anyway, as for this song, it's a very faint mandolin idea. Enjoy the hiss. And the feeling of having made it all the way to the end!