albums
Sessions
1989 Master Practice 1
1989 The Party
1990 Master Practice 2
1990 Master Practice 3
1990 Master Practice 4
1991 Dead Practice 1
1992 Dead Practice 2
1992 Dead Practice 3
1992 Dead Practice 4
1992 The Floor Gig
1993 Stand Up Anchovies
1994 Super Studs Session
Compilations
1994 Complete Anchovies
2012 Anchovy Picks

Track List

# title lyrics time download listen started recorded rating
1 Chatter (1) lyrics 2:24 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
2 Anchovy Rock (2) - 3:13 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
3 Chatter (2) lyrics 2:12 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
4 Fish Time (1) - 4:39 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
5 Chatter (3) lyrics 0:43 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
6 How Ya Is'n (1) lyrics 4:42 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
7 Chatter (4) lyrics 1:05 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
8 All Blues (1) - 4:12 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
9 Chatter (5) lyrics 0:44 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
10 Canon (1) - 4:31 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
11 Chatter (6) lyrics 0:17 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
12 Christmas in Cancun (1) - 5:28 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
13 Chatter (7) lyrics 0:51 download listen locally - 1989-12-21
Total 35:01 play all locally album rating:

Notes

After six months of pizza, patience, and practice, the Master Anchovies were finally ready to start playing for other people. We barraged our families, friends, and parties with the "interesting" sounds of our jazz/rock group.

Yes, that's right, we actually played some parties. We recorded the second one with Jon's 4-track.

I'm not sure who played drums for each song. Anand and Allen used to rotate. I don't know what they did while the other was playing. So anyway, I'm having to guess as to the instrumentation.

There were about 10-20 people in the room. This was the biggest audience we ever had. In fact, except for the first party it was the only audience we ever had.

We had hopes of someday playing Battle of the Bands. These parties were supposed to be our warm-up.

We recorded with Jon's 4-track. We used one mic (and no direct inputs) to preserve the "live" feel. When Jon copied the recording onto tape, he accidentally set the 4-track's speed slower than it was during the concert, so I had to speed it back up later. The sound quality isn't very good, but this is as close as it comes to sounding like you're in the same room as us. What a priviledge!

Songs

Chatter (1)

We start with pre-song chatter. You can hear the audience. Yes, that's right, I said audience.

Lyrics to "Chatter (1)":

TRAV:
  3,2,1 contact

AUDIENCE:
  ha, ha travis

JON:
  trav, i don't wanna

JON:
  we never actually played this song...

TRAV:
  we don't want to broadcast that
  actually

JON:
  ???

TRAV:
  we've never played this song before but

JON:
  we're making it up as we go along [???]

TRAV:
  fake reverb, fake

JON:
  hey, feedback
  oh yeah, you guys [???]

  [lots of shouting and talking]

all the way up

what?

all the way up

LUKE:
  trav, are we gonna..

TRAV:
  ok, everybody

    [chatter]

TRAV:
  allen, you ready?
  listennn...

???:
  are we ready?

???:
  go
  

Anchovy Rock (2)

This is a nice, fast version of our theme song. It sounds much more powerful than the one from the first practice.

Chatter (2)

Jon was playing the announcer. He was good at it, because he was funny and responsive. I tended to be more introverted and oblivious when there were so many people around.

Lyrics to "Chatter (2)":

JON:
  first of all
  can you hear anything at all now?
  uh, all right, i'm gonna this ??? away

  we are, uh, the master anchovies and
  this is but a taste of
  what will happen later on at this party

  can you hear the saxophone?

AUDIENCE:
  barely
  ...
  turn down the keyboard
  turn down that keyboard

JON:
  turn luke down a little bit
  also, i hate being in front 'cause it's like ???
  tra-la-la-la-la

TRAV:
  anyways...

JON:
  anyways, that was
  that was anchovy rock
  what a great song it is
  and now we're gonna play a little rap

LUKE:
  reggae song

JON:
  what?

LUKE:
  reggae?

JON:
  we're playing
  we're not playing a rap
  we're gonna spare you the experience

TRAV:
  not now

JON:
  uh so we're gonna play some ???

TRAV:
  reggae song
  we'll tell you who wrote most of these songs afterwards

JON:
  travis wrote most of these songs

TRAV:
  no, afterwards

JON:
  i wrote --
  no one wrote most of these songs
  darn it
  ...
  this is really distracting
  ...

TRAV:
  ok, we're now ready
  

Fish Time (1)

This was the Anchovies' second reggae song. Jon and I wrote and recorded the initial version as IPECAC (on Extras). The Anchovies version omits the difficult intro and outro sections.

The original instructions for the song were for Anand to play drums, so he probably played them at the party. What was Allen doing? No clue.

Chatter (3)

More between-song chatter.

Lyrics to "Chatter (3)":

TRAV:
  ???

JON:
  ??? extra ???

TRAV:
  extra long

JON:
  concert version

TRAV:
  extended play
  yeah, that was the dance mix

JON:
  i love this reverb
  ??? i ???

TRAV:
  yes

JON:
  we're gonna play the rap?
  are you gonna start with the vocal?

LUKE:
  need some lyrics, trav

TRAV:
  got the lyrics this time
  got the lyrics this time

LUKE:
  yay

TRAV:
  yeah, some of you will remember this one
  it goes way back
  jon wrote the lyrics to it

JON:
  i wrote most of it

TRAV:
  ok, are we ready
  do you know how to start?
  ok
  

How Ya Is'n (1)

This was the Anchovies version of IPECAC's "How Ya Is'n". The main changes are the rhythmic chords during the chorus and the omission of Jon's rap.

You can barely hear the vocals during the chorus. In fact, I doubt I even sang them during the last two choruses. I think I had my hands full with the keyboard part; it was hard to sing and play at the same time.

My keyboard solo is horrid. Sorry!

Lyrics to "How Ya Is'n (1)":

INTRO:
  and it goes a little something like this
  hit it!

VERSE 1:
  cruisin' down the street i got to the place
  where the weirdos hang out and i got my mace ready
  for an incident 'cause you never know
  what a blind quadroplegic morphodite might show you

  i kept my distance from the darkest alley
  where the schitzofrentic ninjas were having a rally
  i heard a noise and i spun around
  but couldn't [see who] made that sound

CHORUS:
  how ya is'n?

VERSE 2:
  suddenly i saw what i really had feared
  worse than kleptomaniacs, he really was weird
  behind him was a trail of arms and legs
  he stuck out his tongue to show his underarms

  he said "you got a nice tan but i got a nice blue
  that's right, i'm a leper, you can be a leper too"
  i said, "god you're slimy" and walked my own way
  the guy was gross enough to finish my day

CHORUS:
  how ya is'n?

VERSE 3:
  i kept on walking to find my friend jon
  the leper had disappeared; i hoped he was gone
  i went to jon's place and he was waiting for me
  i was glad to be there, with a capital "e"

  i said, "hey jon, what's shaking?"
  "cooling.  what's up?"
  i said "girlies!"
  "oh, i guess i better get ready [huh]!"

CHORUS:

  [solos]

VERSE 4:
  i saw an ant by the side of the road
  beside him sat a rabbit and a big fat toad
  i asked him to my house and see if he did
  he came instead with some friends of his

CHORUS:
  

Chatter (4)

This introduces "All Blues".

Lyrics to "Chatter (4)":

TRAV:
  smattering of applause
  uh, uh
  oh my god it's time

JON:
  ??? microphone

TRAV:
  ok, i'll ??? jon
  and allen get ready
  ??? sorry

LUKE:
  tell this it's the first ???

TRAV:
  this is the first song that we ever learned
  that we haven't written

  it's called "all blues" and it's by miles davis
  if that makes any impact on you at all
  so if it sounds bad that's because it's bad on the tape
  we play exactly like it's on the tape
  even that feedback
  it's all ...
  ready?

JON:
  yeah
  

All Blues (1)

This was written by Miles Davis. Jon transcribed it for us. It was years before I heard the original (on Kind of Blue).

I think Allen played bari sax, which means Anand was on drums. I was on mellophone, which is definitely not my most comfortable instrument. I also played a painful keyboard solo.

Chatter (5)

Jon was introducing "Canon".

Lyrics to "Chatter (5)":

TRAV:
  quickly we go into "canon"

JON:
  ???
  
TRAV:
  no, canon
  gotta end on a positive note, jon
    
JON:
  ok, well ???
  oh, this song, by the way
  this song is not an original
  it's by klaus dorfeldingeldorf

AUDIENCE:
  ???

JON:  
  miles davis
  i learned this from miles davis

LUKE:
  ??? finished, jon

JON:
  uh, i'm gonna solo on it for a long time        
  by the way
  ???
  and then

TRAV:
  ready? we're losing our audience    
  

Canon (1)

This was by Klaus Doldinger. I don't think I ever heard the original; Jon transcribed this for us.

I really didn't like this song. I hated the harpsichord sound. The rhythms were awkward. You couldn't dance to it. You couldn't even tap your finger to it.

The only good thing about it was that it sounded sophisticated and made us sound like a "serious" band... Well, we had the school band for that, so why subject ourselves to this weird classical stuff for fun? Why not rock our in our free time?

My banging around through different sounds shows my frustration. My keyboard was way too loud. It obliterated Jon's solo and all the other music. You can barely hear anything other than my bang-bang-bang chords and clunky melody. So much for ending the party on a positive note.

Chatter (6)

I was eager to wash the memory of "Canon" from our heads and ears. So I got us to jump immediately into our "encore" song, "Christmas in Cancun".

Lyrics to "Chatter (6)":

JON:
  will you people stop laughing at us?

AUDIENCE:
  we weren't laughing at you
  we were laughing with you

TRAV:
  ???

JON:
  wasn't that exciting?
  

Christmas in Cancun (1)

This was probably my favorite song for the Anchovies. I wrote and recorded the demo one evening after a practice, layering at least 3 parts on top of each other. You can hear the original version on Trex's A Caustic Gutter.

The song was named after one of my family vacations (to Mexico). For Tripecac I later wrote a completely different song called "Christmas in Cancun 2". Both songs were great (IMO).

The Anchovies liked it too, although this particular performance was sluggish and lifeless. The audience seemed bored. I think they'd had enough of our racket for one day.

Chatter (7)

We asked if they wanted to hear more. They said no.

Thus ended the concert.

And our dreams.

Well, it wasn't that bad. We kept practicing, and kept recording. In fact, the vast majority of our tapes are from after this gig. Interesting, huh? Not really.

Lyrics to "Chatter (7)":

TRAV:
  does anyone want us to play another song?

AUDIENCE:
  no

TRAV:
  does anyone want us to play another song?

AUDIENCE:
  negative

JON:
  we don't have any more songs to play

AUDIENCE:
  majority rules
  you lose
  do you want me to stop this?
  travis, travis?
  push stop