Click on the thumbnail to view a printable cd sleeve.- Title: Apostrophe
- Artist: IPECAC
- Timespan: June 1988
- Theme: earliest recording
- Length: 5:48
- Tracks: 2
- Lyrics: 2
- MP3s: 2 play all locally
- Rating: ** [2] (1 rating) rate this album
Track List
| # | title | lyrics | time | download | listen | started | recorded | rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Piston Alley | lyrics | 3:38 | download | listen locally | - | 1988-06-?? | *½ (1) |
| 2 | Trek (1) | lyrics | 2:10 | download | listen locally | - | 1988-06-0? | **½ (1) |
| Total | 5:48 | play all locally | album rating: | ** (1) | ||||
Notes
Jon and I started making music together after our freshman year of high school (early 1988). Jon played sax and I played keyboard and brass. We also messed around on "percussion" (pots, pans, and tupperware) and acoustic guitar.
Neither of us wanted to appear to take our musical efforts seriously, so we chose a band name that was [subtly] self-deprecating: "Apostrophe".
For our first session, we used dictaphones to speed up our solos and disguise our voices. Our friends laughed at our tape, and we ended up erasing everything except "Piston Alley" and part of "Trek".
In a journal entry dated 1989-02-15 I wrote:
Apostrophe was a modest collection of three songs: "Fake Reggae", "Stop All Time", and "Better Drumsticks".
- "Fake Reggae" was a massive improv which featured me on keyboards and Jon on sax, a popular instrument arrangement for the duration of our recording sessions.
- "Stop All Time" was a song I spent time composing and
- "Better Drumsticks" was Jon's first contribution to the group.
"Fake Reggae" is probably not related to the same-titled song on Gourmet, because the latter does not contain any sax. Neither does "Piston Alley", which is not mentioned in the journal entry. Hmm...
"Stop All Time" was an early name for "Trek". I'm guessing that that's the version you can hear here. ("That that", "hear here"? Yikes!)
"Better Drumsticks" later appeared on Gourmet. I'm not sure if there were one or two versions of it.
On the Trex CD Kim 13, "Trek Chatter" suggests that Apostrophe was actually recorded in two sessions. This might explain the missing and extra song. Also, keep in mind that the journal entry was written 8 months after the recording dates, so my memory (or notes) could have been glitchy when I wrote that journal entry.
Songs
Piston Alley
- Apostrophe track 1
- Complete IPECAC track 1
- recorded: 1988-06-??
- length: 3:38
- Travis Emmitt - Casio CT-310, percussion, talking
- Jon Friesen - percussion, talking
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
This is the earliest IPECAC recording. Atypically, Jon doesn't play sax on it; he sticks to percussion (no pun intended). Our playing is very sloppy and repetitive, but there's a solid energy here.
The recording is sped up, so it sounds like Scat-Trav (1988-era Trex). When I was transcribing the lyrics, I had to guess who said what.
Lyrics to "Piston Alley":
[spoken intro] TRAV: okay, this one... oh, does it have a name? here, test... JON: no, it's basically mass improvisation, man TRAV: i thought so ???: it's ... [practice?] JON: let's call it um, uh, "piston alley" TRAV: what? JON: "piston alley" ???: ... [operation?] TRAV: ok, wait, make sure that works JON: ready TRAV: we're ready! wait, here's, here's i have to do a drum solo at the beginning ready? 1, 2, 3... oh you can't start that ... not the drum part... JON: well that, that way... you don't want it at all TRAV: all right well, ready, here's the, here's the beginning [spoken outro] JON: it's time to go TRAV: wooh! was that crazy or what? JON: that was interesting TRAV: uh, who gets the tape? JON: ??? TRAV: you gonna let your parents hear the tape? JON: ???
Trek (1)
- Apostrophe track 2
- Complete IPECAC track 2
- recorded: 1988-06-0?
- other names: Trek, Stop All Time
- length: 2:10
- Travis Emmitt - Casio CT-310, percussion, talking | wrote: music
- Jon Friesen - sax, percussion
- mp3: download listen locally (flash player)(HTML5 player)
This is our earliest recorded version of "Trek", from back when I called it "Stop All Time". The talking in the beginning ("this is our second take") suggests that there was one earlier version, which we probably recorded over. It sounds like we sped it up using a dictaphone.
According to "Trek Chatter" (on Kim 13), we may have recorded this (and possibly "Piston Alley") at Jon's house about a week before my piano-only version, which was recorded on 1988-06-16. However, the percussion and screaming were usually things we did at my house, so I'm not sure.
As for the song itself, well, it's only a small part of the "Trek" suite. The performance is peppy, but sloppy. The sound quality is crummy (as is the case with most IPECAC). However, at least you finally get to hear Jon playing the sax!
Lyrics to "Trek (1)":
TRAV: this is our second take [scat] wow again ??? one more time and here it is [shrieking]