Trex - Casio Picks

This is the first recording I have of myself on my Casio CT-310. I recorded it in the summer of 1986, when I was 13. My cousin might have earlier recordings (which I mailed to her), but until I hear them again, they don't count.

I was sick of other boys my age always bragging about how awesome they were. So I made fun of them by pretending to brag about beating my sister in basketball. This is a joke, because Jessica was 3 years younger (10) and almost never played basketball. My song jokes about her having her "hands tied behind her back" while I beat her. Yeah! Go, me! I'm awesome!

Seriously, it's neat to see glimpses of subtle, insightful humor at that age. I certainly was a clever little kid. Yeah! Go, me! I am the greatest!!!

;)

This is the self-mocking sequel to "I Beat Her". It uses a simple blues progression, and has some improvised bits.

This is the first song that uses a fake British accent. Yum. The funny thing is that I was affecting the "-a" suffix five years before I ever heard The Fall, who ended up becoming one of my favorite bands of all time!

Wow! Chipmunks! Pretty funny and catchy.

This song (and the next few) are pretty ancient.

The intro for this is long and sloppy, with slow solos and lots of fiddling. When the vocals finally drag themselves out of bed, the energy level increases but the sloppiness still spoils the fun. The recording quality is also all over the place; I think I knocked over the mic while recording.

From my notes to Kim:

10:05pm Wrote it yesterday waiting 2 hrs for school to start. A couple mistakes. You'll like this one.

Like it? Not really.

This is a musical remake of "Land of Hunger", which was first written around 1982.

From my note to Kim:

My voice cracks in the middle of it, so I start talking.

The spoken ad-lib ended up being one of my favorite parts! Thank god for puberty. :)

I like the energy on this track. Some of the singing is kinda lucky, too.

This epic reggae rap has "yikes" written all over it. My fake Jamaican accent was horrible! I admire my persistence, however. :)

My notes to Kim say:

I think you'll like it if you can understand the lyrics.

The lyrics are kinda insightful (when you get beyond the accent). They're about the malaise of mediocrity, trying to find a skill to make yourself stand out. The "character" in the song was a reggae star whose only skill was music. When he was performing, he got respect, but outside of the context of music, he was a nobody.

Is this autobiographical? Not really. I'm sure I had teenage dreams of meta-stardom (I wrote stories about it at the time), but I never actually believed that my music would make me "cool".

For me, making music has always been something I do for fun. It's childish. Like playing games. Or watching TV. A nice benefit is that I can re-experience my "fun" later (since I record most of what I play).

Who cares about being "cool" when you're having fun? And how can you have fun when you're concerned with being cool? Coolness is in the eyes of the beholders, anyway. And I don't really care about other people's perceptions of me. As you can probably tell by now. What matters is that I am happy with how I spend my time.

No wonder I moved to the Pacific Northwest!

The music is very simple. The vocals are repetitive but kinda catchy.

This was the eve of my 15th birthday. It sounds like I was pretty excited. Being alive is cool.

The suicide references are a bit cliche. I guess teenagers think a lot about mortality? Or at least artsy-fartsy ones like me? Oh, how very "emo" of me. Snort.

The solos are lame, but the singing is heartfelt and funny, expecially towards the end.

This is a moody story about domestic violence. It's not autobiographical in the slighest. I probably wrote it for a girl I knew.

I like the texture. It's very subdued, and whispery. Atypical and kinda cool!

This is a long, slow, melodic song which starts as an instrumental. It sounds very cool coming after the monotony of the previous songs. It was recorded late at night (11:52pm according to my notes).

The lyrics again revisit the themes of teen angst and "Jah". I was listening to lots of reggae at the time. The funny (but not so ha ha) thing is that this song sounds nothing like reggae. It's more like semi-cheesy, jazzy slow rock. I really like the vibe, though.

This is a silly song about a vampire. I think the idea came from the "stake" reference in the previous song ("Proper Perspective"). First genies, then vampires... I guess I was geeking out that day!

The music is repetitive, but so is the "bite into your neck" theme which keeps going through the vampire's head. Not too bad.

This is the first "Scat-Trav" song. It has a solid melody and (laughable) attempts at harmony. I have no idea how the title fits with the lyrics.

I wrote these lyrics for this music, but later loaned them to IPECAC for "Apostrophe Song" (for which Jon wrote the music). There's lots of energy here, and several catchy moments. This is one of my favorite songs on the album, and was an easy pick for title track.

There's a note on the lyrics sheet indicating that they were written September 1988. This is when IPECAC was in full swing.

Hmm. Teenage angst. That's something new. Not much improvisation here, but the writing is solid.

There are several dates associated with this song, on the lyrics sheet, tape cover, and mentioned in some chatter. Pinning down a recording date has been quite a challenge, and I'm still not sure about it.

The lyrics sheet has three dates listed on it: 1989-01-02, 1989-01-18, and 1989-01-24. I think it's safe to assume that the earliest date represents the day I started writing the lyrics. The others could have been days that I updated the lyrics, either before or after the recording. Or maybe one of them represents the recording date itself.

Meanwhile, this song is the first track on a tape labeled "1988-1989". This would imply that it was recorded in 1988. However, that doesn't make sense if the lyrics weren't composed until 1989. Since the lyrics' dates are more precise than the table label, I'll trust them instead, and will assume that the "1988-1989" was an inaccurate label which I added later.

We have one more clue. "Final Kim Chatter" was recorded on 1988-01-21, and mentions that I recorded a song "yesterday" called "I Need a Little Help". That's probably just another name for this song, which would mean that this song was recorded on 1988-01-20. Of course, it's possible that I was referring to a different version of the song, although I doubt it, since no other recording exists, and this is the sort of song that I would have kept.

For now, my best guess is that I started writing the lyrics on 1989-01-02, edited them on 1989-01-18, recorded the song on 1989-01-20, and then updated its lyrics once last time on 1989-01-24, which may have been the day I recorded the final mix of "We're Heathen".

This is what happens if you don't say your prayers.

Seriously, though, this is one of my favorite songs on this album. It's got tons of energy, relatively tight keyboard parts, and better harmonies than anything I had recorded so far. I even like the "descent into Hell" bit at the end.

This is the full version of the song. There's a "simpler version" on Kim 13 (recorded 1988-01-21) that I sent to my (very religious) cousin. This full version adds vocal overdubs, and was probably recorded a few days later. My best guess is the 1988-01-24, since that appears to be the last day that I updated the lyrics for "The Time Will Come", and I tended to work on songs in clumps back then.

This sounds like martial music. It has a decent melody. I don't remember why I called it "HN Filler". What's the "HN" mean???

This is my original version of "Maybe", which I recorded with IPECAC and then later as Tripecac.

This version includes horribly out of tune singing, excruciatingly bad guitar playing, and cheesy keyboard drums. Enjoy!

This is the long, complete demo of "Christmas in Cancun", which became a favorite of the Anchovies. This recording consists of three or four tracks, layered via either a 4-track or pair of tape recorders.