Tripecac - Pho Kit (2008)

  1. Noodoodle [10:32] 2008-01-28 - 2008-02-02
  2. Panning Foro [5:38] 2008-02-05 - 2008-02-09
  3. Brightens Day [6:15] 2008-02-11 - 2008-02-15
  4. Boarded [4:36] 2008-02-16 - 2008-02-21
  5. Reboarded [3:39] 2008-02-16 - 2008-02-28
  6. Dictaphony [4:43] 2008-03-03 - 2008-03-12
  7. Loopless [6:48] 2008-03-13 - 2008-03-25
  8. Drumentia [4:50] 2008-03-27 - 2008-04-02
  9. Protein Shake [4:03] 2008-04-03 - 2008-04-08
  10. Serenitea [6:40] 2008-04-09 - 2008-04-15
  11. Follow Down [8:35] 2008-04-16 - 2008-04-19
  12. April Snowers [6:45] 2008-04-21 - 2008-04-23
  13. Dirteen [4:08] 2008-04-24 - 2008-04-26

Pho (with a squiggly "o") is one of my favorite dishes. It's a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually with thin slices of beef and sprouts sprinkled on top. There are at least two good pho restaurants in town, but I've always wanted to make my own. Last Christmas I got lucky, receiving noodle bowls, chopsticks, holders, and different types of pho mix. So, now I have my own "pho kit". :)

Apparently, however, having the right ingredients wasn't enough. No matter what I tried, I never got my pho tasting anywhere close to the real thing.

The album follows similar lines. It's about trying (and failing) to re-create things that I like. Sure, a lot of Tripecac is emulative in nature, but these songs' attempts were more deliberate and blatant (like the pun in the title). By the end of the album I had given up emulating and just started exploring ideas that sounded neat. I actually like those songs the best. So as for the original idea, well... :)