WCFATIYW - EP2 (2012)

The second EP from Walmartians side project We Come From Another Time Your World.

Angela makes a cameo appearance on Contagion with a line lifted from a Mudhoney song.

Kilt and Flange sounded a bit Scottish to me, hence the name.

Gravity Well is a bit of challenge. Pretty grating, but it works considering the subject matter.

Bad Luck III continues a series I started long ago in Austin with Bad Luck I and Bad Luck II during the Purple Fish days. A bit of an epic.

Cover image taken somewhere in Chicago.

Original liner notes:

THE EVIL THAT SWIMS BETWEEN US…

“What the hell?” Yes, that is the most common reaction upon first hearing Purple Fish. It is usually followed by something like, “have you started yet” or “yeah, i think it is infected.” Yet expletive-filled outbursts and frivolous litigation have never dissuaded the Fish from pursuing their hapless musical dreams.

And so 2002 finds yet another series of Purple Fish compilations flooding the music market. Though the band has been essentially defunct for nearly a decade there appears to be no limit to how many times the boys will repackage, remix and remake their legacy. It would be sad if it weren’t so pathetic.

Shoveling Chum follows a long tradition of career retrospectives inflicted upon the American people by what Undersecretary of Agriculture Ross Everman called music’s Axis of Evil – Darin, Rob and Bruce. Always swimming against the current, always fighting the pop culture jihad declared against them, the Fish have waged a lonely and pointless battle through the 1980s, the 1990s and now whatever the hell this decade is called.

And yet their influence continues to pervade even the most remote corners of the globe. From the high, windswept plains of Andorra to the sandy beaches of Wallis and Futuna, people around the world love fish. And sometimes they have even heard of the Fish.

What the hell? Yes, what the hell indeed.

Excerpted from “In Light of Recent Events… Purple Fish – Now More Than Ever” by A.Q. Martinez. Published 2002 by Humper Colons Press.

All songs written, recorded and produced by Brock, Brown and Cummings (or some variation thereof). Compilation design and production by Vortura. Photography by B.D. Cummings. Cover model Ayman appears courtesy of the Fjord Agency. Copyright (c) 2002 Vortura Masterworks (www.vortura.com). Released under license from Tonto Disco Records (www.tontodisco.com).

2010 digital edition song notes by R. Darin Brock and Bruce D. Cummings.

Smoking Tschaikovsky (2:25)
Brock & Cummings

Darin played keyboards and a real piano on this one! Bruce played bass, sang and did the drum machine. Recorded at Bruce’s parents house in Duncanville, Texas. The vocals were recorded while hungover one morning at the kitchen table. The bass part was supposed to be a banjo, but budget limitations (and musical ability) prevented that dream from being realized.

From the unreleased Music Isn’t Fun project. Copyright © 1989 Dying Horse Musique.

Eat It Tracey (3:24)
Brock & Cummings

Written somewhere in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. A floor tile was cracked in the kitchen of Bruce’s parents during the recording of the intro on this one. Bruce played bass, sang, did the drum machine thing, and played some keyboards. Darin played keyboards and sang. The vocals were recorded through paper towel cardboard tubes. Seemed like a good idea at the time. This song was inspired by the lovely Tracey Plantenga (where are you now Tracey?). The song is indeed about food so get your minds out of the gutter (you know who you are).

From the unreleased Music Isn’t Fun project. Copyright © 1989 Dying Horse Musique.

I Could Almost Love You (4:23)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

This is the fifth or sixth version of this song. Robert played guitars and did the drum machine. Darin played bass and some keyboards. Bruce sang, played the guitar and did some keyboards. Somewhere out there is the very first version of this song which was recorded in Darin’s dorm room at Sam Houston State. If you have a copy of it please let us know.

From Wash & Eat, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1991 Tonto Disco Records.

Building Finland (Reconstruction 1991) (3:10)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

A version of this appeared on I See How You Are and the original was on Disappearing Twin. This version was inspired in part by Peter Murphy’s Roll Call, at least the drums were. Darin on keyboards and bass. Rob on guitars, drum machine and keyboards. Bruce singing and playing some keyboards as well.

From Wash & Eat, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1991 Tonto Disco Records.

Love Thy Sister (The Reunion Version) (3:52)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

One of the loveliest and sickest entries in the Purple Fish catalog. The strings really bring out the perversion. As someone once noted, “such a beautiful song and then you guys wrote that crap.” Darin on keyboards. Rob on guitars, vocals and drum machine. Bruce on vocals, bass, guitar and strings. Originally appeared on I See How You Are.

From Wash & Eat, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1991 Tonto Disco Records.

900 Girls (Xylem Hemp Edit) (5:08)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

The full length version of this song runs about 15 minutes, includes an herb-induced (and covertly recorded) rant by some of Bruce’s college friends, and segues into an unreleased song by Bruce called Rhythm of the Rain. Perhaps it was the 40s of Fischer Alsace, but Rob and Bruce just couldn’t stop jamming! Darin, operating under his nom de mix Xylem Hemp, was wise enough to edit it down to a nice 5 minutes or so. He also wrote the lyrics on this one, but did not play on it. Rob on vocals, guitars and bass. Bruce on vocals, guitars and keyboards. Sid the cat (RIP) did the drum machine.

From Viva Mopeding!, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1992 Tonto Disco Records. Recorded at Tranquility Bass, Austin, Texas.

Stopsign Girl (5:04)
Brock & Cummings

You can probably guess the inspiration for this one. Darin’s always been surprised at how this initially stompy dirge turned into a dirgey stomp of a pop song. Darin on bass and vocals. Bruce on vocals, guitars and keyboards. Sid probably did the drums on this as well.

From Viva Mopeding!, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1992 Tonto Disco Records. Recorded at Tranquility Bass, Austin, Texas.

What I Wanna Say (4:59)
Brown & Cummings

Clearly inspired by The Velvet Underground’s Sweet Jane. Nice atmosphere on this one. Rob on harmonica, guitars and vocals. Bruce on vocals, guitars and bass.

From Viva Mopeding!, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1992 Tonto Disco Records. Recorded at Tranquility Bass, Austin, Texas.

Rocket Scientist (3:19)
Brown & Cummings

An unusual entry in the Fish canon in that there’s no drum machine. Rob on guitar, spoons and piano. Bruce on vocals and bass.

Previously unreleased. Outtake from the Viva Mopeding! sessions. Copyright © 1992 Tonto Disco Records. Recorded at Tranquility Bass, Austin, Texas.

Happy Guy (With The Green Hat On) (3:24)
Brown & Cummings

This little oddity was inspired by Rob’s experience on a city bus in Austin, Texas. Rob on vocals, keyboards and probably guitar. Bruce did the Tourette’s Syndrome drum pattern, some keyboards, guitar and vocals. One of Bruce’s favorites.

Previously unreleased. Outtake from the Viva Mopeding! sessions. Copyright © 1992 Tonto Disco Records. Recorded at Tranquility Bass, Austin, Texas.

Rock & Roll Vegetable (4:17)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

This is the sound of Purple Fish trying to rock and roll. It actually works pretty well. Darin on bass. Rob on lead guitar. Bruce on rhythm guitar and drum machine.

From Trashy and Sassy, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1994 Tonto Disco Records.

At Any Given Moment (4:36)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

There are times when certain events just overlap each other and something great occurs…purely by accident. The writing of this song is not one of those moments. But at any given moment, it could happen. Seriously one of the rockingest, riff-tastic tunes of the purple fish catalog. Sorta Wedding Present meets Big Country. Darin on bass and vocals. Rob on lead guitar. Bruce on vocals and rhythm guitar.

From Trashy and Sassy, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1994 Tonto Disco Records.

I Guess That Ruined Their Day (2:53)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

The alternate title for this one was The Ballad of the Baboon Butt-faced Boy. It took about 28 takes for Bruce to record the vocals on this one without laughing. And even on this take it is iffy. Darin on bass. Rob on electric guitar. Bruce on vocals and acoustic guitar. Drum machine by accident.

From Trashy and Sassy, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1994 Tonto Disco Records.

Hey America (The Shorter Version) (1:55)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

This is the sound of Purple Fish live more or less. Recorded in Gonzales, Texas. This version omits the final verse, but is faster and works better than the first version. Darin on bass. Bruce on guitar and vocals. Rob pounding the skins. One of the few songs where Bruce wrote lyrics. And yes the riff is a rip off of ELO’s Do Ya. And thank you to Pat Fish (aka The Jazz Butcher) for the title.

From Trashy and Sassy, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1994 Tonto Disco Records.

Pleased To Meet Me (Roll Your Own Version) (5:36)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

This song first appeared on Disappearing Twin and then again on I See How You Are. This is probably the best of the bunch, though no one seems to have a clear memory of recording it. Five minutes of grinding, rolling rock and roll. Darin on bass and vocals. Rob on guitar and vocals. Bruce on guitar and vocals. Someone did the drum machine.

Previously unreleased. From the Trashy and Sassy sessions. Copyright © 1994 Tonto Disco Records.

Proud Penis (3:50)
Brock, Brown & Cummings

The very last track ever recorded by the Darin, Rob and Bruce lineup. As Darin once noted the fart sounds and dick jokes seemed a fitting way to end that era of Purple Fish. Darin on vocals and bottles. Rob on bottles and vocals. Bruce on out-of-tune guitar, vocals and bottles.

From Trashy and Sassy, Tonto Disco Records. Copyright © 1994 Tonto Disco Records.

Walmartians - Mariner EP (2011)

These songs were originally to be used on the second EP by Murray. But after recording them it seemed more like a batch of Walmartians transmissions. Thus the Mariner EP was born.

Sort of a nautical / space theme going on here, particularly with the second and fourth tracks. And a bit more keyboards thrown in this time around.

The track 059 is a bonus. It was recorded sometime around 2009 and got lost along the way. At some point I mixed it (prior to the hard drive crash). So here it is for your enjoyment.

Cover image of Lake Michigan from South Beach in Evanston, Illinois.

Cinder - Sharp Edges Dulled (1998)

A while back I ran across a copy of this CD I had made at some point in the early 2000s. It compiles a bunch of demos I did in Austin in the late 1990s. It is pretty much a lo-fi mess, but there are some good ideas here and there.

At the time I was recording with a broken Tascam four-track (the rewind didn’t work), a broken Realistic analog synth (one oscillator was shot), the same Alesis drum machine I still have today, my trusty Fender Strat, and the Peavey bass that Darin Brock and I sold back and forth to each other for several years.

I used the name Cinder for a while. Then I found out some crappy metal band had the same name so I dropped it.

Anyway, I recorded a bunch of songs during this time. Being both recently divorced and unemployed provides ample time for such diversions. Even when I started working later in 1997 my non-existent social life at the time didn’t interfere with my recording endeavors.

Closet Groove is actually a single song I split up for some reason. I was listening to a lot of DJ Shadow at the time. For some reason I thought this sounded like his stuff.

Song For You is pretty noisy but has a decent riff. The lyrics are pretty hateful, which is why they are mixed so low. Well that and my microphone kind of sucked at the time. Concerns a couple of individuals exiting my life around that time. Stupid I know, but there it is. Issues.

You can probably guess the inspiration for No More Apologies. Not a bad song. Some nice atmosphere on it.

I have no idea what prompted the lyrics for Dumptruck. This is actually the second version. The first is really terrible.

Magnetic Fields have been a favorite since I discovered them one winter’s evening in Boston on a radio station. Get Lost remains my favorite of all Merritt’s work. This is my take on Famous from that album.

It’s That Time is a driving bit of rockish music. Lyrics are meh.

Untitled No. 2 is an instrumental wherein I made the best use of that malfunctioning synth.

A former employer was the source of the lyrics on Faithfully Blind. Yeah issues again.

Apologies to Tom Verlaine for this country-fied take on the brilliant Breaking In My Heart. I love the song and have recorded it several times. Not sure what inspired this take on it, but here it is.

What A Place is another instrumental. I think it was inspired by some stupid local car dealer commercial in Austin.

Darin and I were both sober (or at least hungover) when we gave birth to Hurtin’ The Barney. This mix of the Barney theme song and NIN’s Hurt is one of the more interesting detours we’ve taken in our recording partnership. I like it still today.

O.S.H.A., which stands for obligatory self-hatred anthem, was inspired by Marilyn Manson and all the lame creatures who followed him at the time.

There are at least five versions of Life By The Numbers floating around. This is one of them.

I first heard Death Of The European on the Rock and Roll Alternative in Dallas, Texas some time in the 1980s. I found the 12-inch single later at VVV Records on Oaklawn in Dallas. It is a great song and this is tribute to it by me and Darin.

Rock and Roll Colostomy Bag – yeah who knows? An instrumental.

My Own Disaster is, as the title implies, an epic take on my own errors in judgement around this time. Nice riff on this one.

There was to be a version of New Life with vocals. And somewhere the actual lyrics might still exist. In place of that version there’s this one. Kind of a nice song.

Silent Tracks 1 – 5 were on the CD I found. I guess I thought it would be a real CD at some point and these would be the teaser tracks between the end of the album and the hidden bonus tracks (see next paragraph). Ah ego.

Backwards Things / Roundboy Lounge Intro / You Can’t Turn It Off – I’ve really no idea what is going on with these. Certainly too much alcohol figured in there somewhere.

Recorded at the apartment by Pease Park in Austin, Texas from 1997 to 1998.

All songs written by Cummings except Hurtin’ The Barney (Brock and Cummings), Famous (Merritt), Breaking In My Heart (Verlaine), and Death Of The European (The Three Johns).

Darin played bass guitar, keyboards and contributed vocals on Hurtin’ The Barney and Death Of The European.

Cover image is from a photogram I made in college. Why I had so many fish hooks I do not know.

We Come From Another Time In Your World (2011)

The first EP from We Come From Another Time In Your World.

A bit of a different sound on these from the Walmartians material. The rhythm tracks and most of the synths were done with Uloops on my phone. Added some guitar, bass, melodica and additional keyboards. All in all they turned out pretty.

There is in fact an Impact Event 1. It’ll probably be on the second EP. In the meantime enjoy Impact Event 2.

Clean Your Pipes sounds a bit like Orbital’s Style, particularly the Big Pipe version.

Every Star Dies Alone (Supernova) is a new version of the track which originally appeared on the Walmartians collection Queen Mother Space.

All songs written by Cummings. Performed by We Come From Another Time In Your World. Cover image by Cummings. Thanks to Ian for the announcement on the title track.

All songs copyright © 2011 Dying Horse Musique.