Trex - Soundtracks

I recorded this and the next few songs on the floor of my parents' house in Charlottesville. I don't know why I wasn't up in Alexandria yet; maybe I was on Christmas break?

Anyway, the first 6 songs all use Anand's old keyboard (Yamaha PS-470), which he sold to me for $50 or so. The recording quality is muffled and noisy, but I like the vibe of the tunes.

This first song is a melodic reggae ditty which felt like a soundtrack to a film. Despite the sloppy solo, I like this song's bounce.

This is a lot darker than "Filmy Reggae". It's also very repetitive and "driving". I think it was mostly improv; the chords which start before the 2:00 mark seem adlibbed.

The title means "clutzy swing". I don't know if I would call this "swing", but it certainly is clutzy.

The most interesting part (to me) is when we hear my fingers banging on the keys. This unintentional ambience made the song sound more "live" (which it actually was).

This was supposed to sound like "house" music. I don't even remember what house music is anymore. All those electronic genres got sort of jumbled together at some point.

Anyway, this is fast, repetitive, and very short. I tried to add melody but it was too fast, so I gave up.

This track's a lot cooler (than "Baby House"). It's got a nice little groove going. Yeah, it's not really "trance", but none of my stuff sounds like real music anyway, so that's okay. I just wish it were longer.

This song is named after the "wah" sound of that bass instrument. The subsequent melody kinda messes things up by obscuring the bass, but oh well. That's what I get for recording with a dictaphone.

The phone rings at the end, which is a funny way to end this series of keyboard-based improvs.

I thought this sounded dark and trancy, like Julian Cope's "Rite" series. It's kinda relaxing. I like it.

I thought this classical song sounded pretty sick. I still do. Barf! Fortunately, it's very short.

This final piano song is boring and feels long and boring and long and boring and... Yeah. I got bored with it too; hence the "whatevah" at the end.

I was now moved into my apartment in Alexandria. My dad let me bring his acoustic guitar with me, which resulted in a lot of fun recordings.

This song is the first in a series of guitar jams. It's an improv with some silly lyrics. It's very rough in the beginning but gets more cohesive as it goes on. Or does it? Oh, never mind; it's rough all the way through.

This shows off my pitch-black sense of humor and my excellent, excellent guitar skillz. Ha!

The song starts off innocently enough, with bouncy and tuneful guitar. But then it strips down and darkens... and then the lyrics start. Oh, what lyrics! Be prepared to cringe.

Although the words are horrid and bound to offend people, they always make me laugh, and my quick (though perverse) thinking makes me a tiny bit proud. What, proud of this pile of potty humor? Yeah, kinda; I must admit.

Note: Despite the offensive nature of this song, I've uploaded the mp3 so that you can hear the glint in my eye and tongue in my cheek.

This little a cappella ditty sounds positively uplifting after the dark-and-naughty ("Family Values"). Since it doesn't use the guitar, I'm guessing I recorded it on a different day.

I was very drunk, and singing/talking about a crazy night on the town with some new pals, including a girl on which I had a small crush. Nope, this is not very cool!

On paper, these lyrics are almost as cringe-worthy as the ones in "Family Values", not from being offensive but from being a little too open. However, they get funny when I start singing about the roaches in my apartment. Not that the roaches were funny at the time; they drove me nuts.

I seriously doubt that this was recorded on the same day as "Drunk Crush"; it has a different instrumentation and sound much more, um, sober. The lyrics are self-centered (as usual) but tuneful and kinda funny.

This song consists of me thrashing away at the guitar and complaining about how much it hurts. It's not as embarassing as the previous songs, but not as tuneful and funny either. I think I prefer the other ones.

The presence of piano indicates that I was back in Charlottesville. From the title, I'm guessing that I was trying to sound like a cross between George Winston and Keith Jarret. Hmm.

It's not all that great, but at least it isn't offensive. Right? Is "inoffensive" the best compliment we can pay to songs on this album?

I was recording over a tape that my friend Hubie had made me, and I was feeling bad about it.

Pure improv. At least it's only slightly offensive.

You can hear Hubie's voice in the background. Not a very high quality tape. Or a very high quality song.

Interesting jangly sounds on guitar plus silly, inoffensive™ lyrics make this a winner! It's actually catchy in moments, but then sort of loses it in the middle. Oh well.

I don't know if i recorded this the same day as "I Don't Know What to Do". My notes say that the tape ended in April, so that's my closest guess.

This is an instrumental version of "Shame Knack Blues". It's okay. Kinda cheesy, though. At least it's short.

This is a blues improv. Not too bad. You can hear music in the background; it's probably bleed-through from Hubie's tape.

Can you hear Bob Marley in the background? That's from Hubie's tape.

The stuff in the foreground is the thematic prequel to my "Artificial Life", which I recorded around the same time (on 1997-04-19). It's rough, but kind funny. Like many of the songs of this album.

Note: I'll probably have to censor the profanity before uploading the mp3. This is a shame, because it's a pretty cool song.

This is just beating on the guitar faster and faster.

Yet again, blaming the equipment.

Basstar = playing bass lines on guitar. Clever, huh? Neither is the music.

I was struggling to strum some chords. This is pretty bad, but thankfully short. The chord at the end is the best part.

Falsetto? Dunno why. I made this up as I went along. It's moody and sad. I don't know all the lyrics. I was watching a movie while I recorded it.

I was strumming, getting louder and softer, like a wave. Very short.

More inept strumming and thumping on acoustic guitar.

Yay, it's over!