IPECAC - Extras

I'm not sure when we recorded this, since it wasn't part of any set of sessions. It might have been our first recording with Jon's keyboard (predating Best of IPECAC 2). It also could have been a warm-up for Live at Carnegie Hall... or anything in between. Since the drums were wisely kept simple, I'm guessing it came after Best of IPECAC 2 (which had crazy drums).

Musically, it was just an exercise. There's no melody or developed chord progression. Also, Jon's first note was a dud (which was rare for him at that point), which suggests that we hadn't rehearsed at all. Or maybe Jon was being intentionally atonal? Doesn't matter, really.

Despite the noodling and intentional jarring, this is actually a pretty soothing listen. I like the relentless bassline and metronomic drums in the first section. It was trancy, probably the closest IPECAC got to electronica or acid jazz.

The second section is a little less elegant, but it still floats by without getting cheesy or super-grating.

The short "Christmas in Cancun" reference near the beginning suggests that this was recorded around the time I wrote that song (late 1989).

We recorded this with Luke Marshall for an English project. I wrote the music, Jon and Luke recorded it with me, and then the class wrote and sang the lyrics in class.

I ended up remaking this as Tripecac's (on College Collection). I like my version better, probably because it has lyrics and all the parts are in time.

The clapping was to keep Luke in time; he had trouble matching tempos back then.

This was filler on one of the later IPECAC tapes. I think Jon played all the parts, because I don't remember being involved in any of it. This may have been from his solo album (I Am Not Spock).

This is another weird recording from Jon, found on the back of an IPECAC tape. I don't think I had anything to do with its recording, though I hear my voice in the background. Very strange.

At the end Jon talks about "Thirteenth Night". I think he was explaining how we should play it. This suggests that his solo songs were recorded right before we did "Thirteenth Night".

This was from a test of the opening credits for the "Thirteenth Night" soundtrack. The song itself was playing in the background (on my parents' stereo, downstairs); we captured it with mics.

This excerpt is probably directly from the full soundtrack.

This was the soundtrack to a movie that Jon, Luke, and I recorded for English class. It was a sequel to Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" play. Jon wrote the music. We later re-recorded it for IPECAC.

I really like this song. Luke played pretty well on it, too, much better than he did on "Demian".

According to the video, we started pre-production on 1989-05-08, which was a Monday. It's likely that we recorded the music on the previous day, which was Sunday 1989-05-07.

We wrote this for the Master Anchovies. This was our demo version. We used Allen or Anand's drums, which were left in my basement from a practice. Since there is only one sax part and two keyboard parts, I'm pretty sure Jon played one of the keyboard parts while I played drums.

There were three parts to the song. The first and third were hectic jazz/funk. The middle section was reggae. I think the Anchovies ended up only playing the middle bit; the other parts were too hard.

The first Anchovies version of this song was recorded 1989-12-21, so I'm guessing that Jon and I recorded this demo in the Fall of 1989.

This was our first mix of "Three Pointer" (from Live at Carnegie Hall). We really overdid the distortion on this one. You can barely hear the drums or any high notes in the keyboard. On the plus side, it sounds even more live, even more convincing.

This was an alternative mix of "Downpour" (from Live at Carnegie Hall). I'm not sure if it came before or after the album version. There's a badly overdubbed keyboard bit which starts off too loud and ruins the illusion of a live performance. Other than that, I think it's identical.

This is an excerpt from the second video that Jon and I made for my cousin Kim. The first video was mailed on or before 1989-11-13. This one was recorded on "Friday the 15th", which was probably 1990-06-15. (Clues include the shorts, the green lawn, the drum set, and references to girlfriends.)

Most of the video is boring, annoying, and/or offensive but the musical bits might be of interest to IPECAC fans.

Allen or Anand had left his drums at my house. Since Jon and I were filming in the same room as the drums, we kept gravitating towards them.

This excerpt is really short. I'm pretty sure that Jon is on the drums, but I won't know for sure until I watch the video again.

This is the second, longer excerpt from the video Jon and I made for Kim.

We were mimicking stand-up comedians, who were fixated with racial issues back then (this was the early 1990s). We took things to an absurd level. The humor might be thin, but I really like Jon's sax solo and the live drums. Also, it's neat hearing us improvise vocals on the fly.

Eventually Jon remembered that we were supposed to be making a video for my cousin (or perhaps he got tired of the metaphor). At some point, he put a big innertube around me to keep me from drumming (which didn't work); the "I know what to do" bit at the end was right before he walked to the video camera and shut it off.