Tripecac - Songs to Sleep By (1988-1993)

This is the original ASCII tape sleeve for the 1993 version of Songs to Sleep By:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                    |
|       This was recorded with DOLBY NOISE REDUCTION set to ON.      |
|                                                                    |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                         "Songs to Sleep By"                        |
| A Brief Glimpse Into the World of Travis, IPECAC and the Anchovies |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                 Z    Z             |
|        Songs                              Z                        |
|                              . . . .  Z  .  .                      |
|            To            .          .  .     .                     |
|                        ._   ---      ..   . . .                    |
|               Sleep     .             .  .    .                    |
|                         .            .  .    .    _________________|
|                   By     .         .   .         |   __   | = - - -|
| . . . ..  . . .  ..   .    '. .  .    .     .    |  /  /  |  ----- |
|     .                              . .     .     | |    | | | o o ||
|    .                      .       ..             |  /__/  | |_ _ _||
|    .       .. . . . .  .       .  .      .       |________|________|
|    .    . .                  .   .  .  .               |           |
|.  . . ...  .  .  .  .  .  .                            |    c 1993 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                           INTRODUCTION                             |
|    "In June, 1988 the group 'Apostrophe' was formed."  This was    |
| the genesis of Travis Emmitt's musical "career," if you'd call it  |
| that.  Truth is, though five years have passed since the fateful   | See Note 1
| formation of Apostrophe (later renamed IPECAC), Travis has yet     |
| to sell any albums, perform professionally, or even get a song     | See Note 2
| played on the radio.  So hesitate before you call it a "career,"   |
| but don't go so far as to think his songs aren't worth listening   |
| to just because they haven't gotten much publicity.                |
|    Now, sit back and relax to the songs you are about to hear.     |
| Don't relax too much or you'll fall asleep.  That wouldn't be too  |
| good the first time around - you'll never know what you've dived   |
| into.  Save the snoozing for a rainy night when you're sick of     |
| the whining strains of Enya and you want a real man's nap.         |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PHASE I:  IPECAC 1988-90                                           |
|    IPECAC, originally known as Apostrophe, was a two-person        |
| rock/jazz/funk/rap/reggae band consisting of Travis Emmitt and Jon |
| Friesen.  Both musicians played a wide variety of instruments,     |
| but the "normal" configuration was Jon on the saxophone and Trav   |
| on keyboard, lyrics and mellophone.  IPECAC wrote and recorded a   |
| total of ten albums over a span of about eight months in late      |
| 1988 and early 1989.  Here is a handful of their better songs.     | See Note 3
|                                                                    |
|            "Trek" and "Better Drumsticks" from GOURMET             |
|               "Apostrophe Song" from BEST OF IPECAC                |
|         "Five Through Night" from LEAPING LEPER LIMOUSINE          |
|            "Tunes From the Bottle" from FAKE REVERB II             |
|               "Downpour" from LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL                |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PHASE II:  Master Anchovies 1989                                   | See Note 4
|    IPECAC didn't last forever (thankfully, you might say).  But    |
| that did not mean they stopped playing together. Instead, Jon and  |
| Trav and a few friends started a new band, which they decided to   |
| call The Master Anchovies.  They still played originals, and even  |
| some IPECAC songs, but now found themselves with five musicians    |
| at their disposal rather than two; they had a drummer, two sax-    |
| players, two keyboardists and plenty of mikes.  So in a few short  |
| months the Master Anchovies had built themselves a five or six     |
| song repertoire which they occasinally performed for friends,      |
| family and even a couple parties.  Here are some examples:         |
|                                                                    |
|        "Anchovy Rock," "Fish Time," "Christmas In Cancun,"         |
|      and "How Ya Is'n?" from various live Anchovy Recordings       |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PHASE III:  Travis 1990-1993                                       |
|    Eventually, Jon got tired of playing with the Master Anchovies. |
| He left them for a spot in a REAL band, which actually played gigs |
| at bars and weddings and theatrical productions.  The rest of      |
| the Anchovies were left hanging.  With their main sax player gone, |
| the band lost the will to continue.  A year later they headed off  |
| to college.  That heralded the end of the Master Anchovies.  But   | See Note 5
| Travis still had the urge to write songs, so he bought himself a   |
| keyboard-workstation and turned his creative juices loose.         |
|                                                                    |
|                  "All My Love" from 1990 ARCHIVES                  | See Note 6
|           "The Dairy Poops" from 1992 COLLEGE COLLECTION           |
|     "Painted Friend" and "The Flop" from 1993 COLLEGE COLLAGE      |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|               THE BAND IN THE LAND OF THE ANCHOVIES                |
|    This is Travis Emmitt's newest creation.  Its ten songs are     |
| based on the screenplay The Band in the Land of the Anchovies,     |
| which was written by Travis in the summer of 1990 on a boring      | See Note 7
| vacation in Paris.                                                 |
|                                                                    |
|          "Eaten By Mimi," "LoveFish," "Anand's Journey,"           |
|       "Allen and Luke," "Travis and Jon," "Testing the Cup,"       |
|    "Almost There," "The Battle," "Gonna Die Today, "Goin' Home"    |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|            All songs were written, performed, recorded,            |
|                mixed and mastered by Travis Emmitt,                |
|                   IPECAC or The Master Anchovies                   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
      

Notes

1. As of 2004, it's been 16 years since IPECAC started... Wow!
2. During college I played a couple of my songs on the radio (ahhhh, the power of being a DJ...) and even sold a few copies of Songs to Sleep By to friends. However, since I've never supported myself off my music, I don't think I can regard myself as "professional"... Yet...
3. The date range does not account for Live At Carnegie Hall, which was recorded in January 1990. This could either be because I forgot about Live at Carnegie Hall or because I regarded it as an EP rather than an album because it only had four songs. Nowadays, I regard Live at Carnegie as a mini-album, since the song are so long...
4. Actually, I think The Master Anchovies recorded in January 1990 as well, but I'm not sure.
5. During summers and winters home from college, I managed to cajole the Anchovies (minus Jon) into reunion practices. Never knowing which practice would be our last, I recorded everything we played, and the results are the Dead Anchovies Sessions, which comprise half of the entire Anchovies catalog. I included four Dead Anchovies songs on the 1997 version of Songs to Sleep By.
6. The Archives album included songs from January 1991 as well.
7. I don't know why I said the trip to Paris was "boring". That "vacation" turned out to be a very memorable summer, both for sightseeing and in terms of creative productivity. In addition to Band in the Land of the Anchovies I wrote three huge (100+ page) stories and the lyrics for a few songs.