Murray – M EP

Murray - M EP

Murray - M EP (2011)

A quick bit of something here with the M EP by Murray. Not sure what inspired these, but here they are in their lo-fi glory. And with original lyrics and singing on each one!

The lyrics for Life By The Numbers were written in 1990. I’ve recorded the song a few times. Here’s the latest.

Thanks to Ian for the intro on Penny. If you listen close you can hear both Ian and Colin’s displeasure with my recording efforts during that song.

A late addition to the track listing is a cover of The Mavericks 1994 hit What A Crying Shame. Unfortunately I can’t sing as high as Raul Malo, but here’s my shot at it.

For Darin Brock. Cover image from the fuse box in the basement.

2011
09/05
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We Come From Another Time In Your World EP 1

We Come From Another Time In Your World EP

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.

2011
08/21
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Walmartians – Nine

Walmartians - Nine

Walmartians - Nine (2011)

The ninth full-length collection of Walmartians transmissions. Recorded in fits and starts through the winter and spring of 2010 in Chicago. Not sure how I ended up with the multi-part epics but they work fairly well.

There are three other songs for this release which I’ve not managed to mix as of yet. They are Approach Vector / Crashing The Colony, Munt and Walmartians (Kontakt Something).

Also, there are lyrics for The Brown Girl and Systems Analyst (He’s A), but I didn’t feel like recording them. The former was partially inspired by a co-worker.

Entertaining Lady Fishmouth At The Bar is a blatant rip off of Luna’s 23 Minutes In Brussels. I do love that song so much. My title came from a late night observation at one of Chicago’s many drinking establishments.

Cover photo was taken in Washington, DC on lovely Sunday morning while taking a walk with my good friend Jen.

2011
03/08
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Walmartians – 909 2 1504 EP

Walmartians - 909 2 1504 EP

Walmartians - 909 2 1504 EP (2011)

A brief, semi-conceptual effort and precursor to Nine. Inspired by the two different apartments I had at 415 Howard in Evanston, Illinois.

909 reflects the initial studio place that faced the Chicago Transit Authority’s switching yard (seen in the cover image above).

1504 (Parts 1 and 2) represents the more tranquil other side of the building with its amazing view of downtown Chicago.

2011
01/13
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Walmartians – Viva Las Ocho!

Walmartians - Viva Las Ocho!

Walmartians - Viva Las Ocho! (2011)

The eighth collection of Walmartians material is Viva Las Ocho!.

All songs written and performed by Walmartians. Vocals on What Is Happening by Ian. Among the things used on these recordings – Samsung Galaxy S phone and several little apps and the Isle of Tune website.

Outro bells on Walmartians (Kontakt Amor) recorded at the Cameron Park Zoo (Waco, Texas). All songs recorded and mixed at either The Litter Box (Dallas, Texas) or Studio 909 (Evanston, Illinois). Cover image is from Lake Michigan.

2011
01/04
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Bigfoot Motel – Magic Fingers EP

Bigfoot Motel - Magic Fingers EP (2011)

Bigfoot Motel - Magic Fingers EP (2011)

The first songs by Brock and Cummings since the early 2000s. Some good work to be sure.

There’s a guitar wall rocker with Connect The Dots to kick things off. Then a visit back to our favorite Scandinavian nation with Still Building Finland. Longtime fans (ha!) will recall Building Finlandfrom the hallowed Purple Fish days. It’s a metaphor OK?

To close things out there’s a rough demo of Darin’s murder ballad Red Was Never Her Color. Nice take on it, but I wouldn’t want to be one of his former paramours.

Then there’s an epic instrumental version of Our Stupid World. “Menacing” is how Darin describes this one.

Bruce plays sings, plays guitar and does the Stylophone thing on Still Building Finland. Darin wrote the words and plays the bass guitar.

Recorded in bits and pieces in Dallas, Waco and Chicago from 2010 to 2011. Eternal thanks to Jazz Butcher for the band name.

2010
09/17
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Walmartians – Queen Mother Space

Walmartians - Queen Mother Space

Walmartians - Queen Mother Space (2010)

The title of this collection is a bit of an ode to Julian Cope and his spacey goodness. I’d planned to conclude this collection with an epic length title track, but personal circumstances led to me just wrapping it up with the eight songs presented here. There’s an overall sci-fi, space theme that I think works well.

Q.M.S. Dreadnought kicks things off with a big dubby sound. Yes, I’m trying to ape Bill Laswell’s deep bass sound on this one.

My friend Darin described Your Quadrant or Mine as Mediterranean surf space rock. That’s a great description I think.

The title Damnick comes from Ian’s attempt to replicate my profanity at a young age. Yes, I’m a terrible parent.

The title Never Ending Now was inspired by The Chameleons, a criminally unrecognized band. If you have not heard Strange Times seek it out immediately.

The four tracks that make up the second half of this collection – Walmartians (Kontakt Renovo), The Thinner The Air, The Quicker The Joy, Every Star Dies Alone, and Inner Core Collapse (Subterra VI) – are probably my favorite sequence of Walmartians material. They seem to flow well into each other and the scratchy piano outro on the last track caps things off well.

Inner Core Collapse (Subterra VI) concludes the Subterra series I started in the 1990s. The song is for my late friend Kirby Haltom.

Originally released March 2010. Available on Amazon.com and iTunes for purchase.

2010
04/15
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Walmartians – Series 7.1 & Series 7.2

Walmartians - Series-7.1

Walmartians - Series 7.1 (2010)

The seventh full-length Walmartians transmission and it’s a two-fer. Though not completely by choice. Originally this was titled simply Series 7, but in the aftermath of a hard drive crash I cobbled together these two entries. Some of the titles originally to be included were Transmigration (Parts I, II and III), a new version of Spoo’s Transitional Man, and 2 Pallas Dawn.

2069 (16 Cyg A) was inspired by the movie 2001 as well as some 1970s Italian sci-fi movie soundtracks.

Jump Jump Jump was written for Colin and features vocals (!).

Rendition 9 is a homage to Revolution 9 and critique of the Bush Administration’s policy of extraordinary rendition. Or something like that. Mainly it is a bunch of noise.

There were actually two videos made for songs on this collection.

The video for Matango was pulled from YouTube at the request of Toho Films. It included stills from the original 1960s movie. If you haven’t seen it you should.

The video for 1979 (Pioneer 11) is still out there on YouTube. You can view it here. The song is a tribute the Pioneer spacecraft.

Originally released April 2010. Available for purchase on Amazon.com and iTunes with different artwork. Thanks to Carl for the use of the keyboard on this one.
Walmartians - Series-7.2

Walmartians - Series 7.2 (2010)

The songs on Series 7.2 were originally intended to be a set of EPs. Each would include a cover song and an original one. A hard drive crash nixed that plan.

Bad Moon Rising kicks things off. Some people don’t care for this interpretation and I can appreciate that. However, I think it captures the soft underlying menace in the lyrics.

Almost Prayed is a terrific song originally done by The Weather Prophets.

Life of Illusion was originally done by Joe Walsh, the sole member of The Eagles with any sense of humor. This Omnichord-based rendition probably doesn’t do it justice, but it isn’t like I was going to be able play guitar like Mr. Walsh.

The Residents’ Hello Skinny has been a favorite of mine for years. I’m really pleased with how this version turned out.

Holding Me Up is a Dandy Warhols song. Not the best take on it, but it is OK.

Thoughtless was originally done by Purple Fish and a version of it was included on the compilation Ramon’s Trim Shop. This has a much bigger sound and slightly different lyrics.

The rest of the songs are odds and ends.

Before Zero Hour was recorded at the same time as the material for Are Gone, but somehow got overlooked.

Hooter Jam is an odd jaunty little number. I think it reflects a subconscious influence by The Hooters, but others disagree.

Armada is what it is and Attack Vector P is actually quite awful.

2010
04/15
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Walmartians – Joker of Hair EP

Walmartians - Joker of Hair EP

Walmartians - Joker of Hair EP (2009)

The Joker of Hair EP falls between This Is How It Ends and Queen Mother Space chronologically. Soundwise it also marks a bit of a transition from the lengthy experiments of This Is How It Ends and the tighter compositions of Queen Mother Space.

The title Joker of Hair comes from a sign I saw once while walking through the Ebisu area of Tokyo. There are lyrics for Joker of Hair, but I’ve yet to record them. Mainly they revolve around a malicious hair stylist and his efforts to provide uniformly poor service to patrons.

During the same walk I came across The Fairy Annex which led to the title Fairy Annex Inventory Clerk. I wrote some lyrics for Fairy Annex Inventory Clerk which detailed the day-to-day challenges of a minimum wage worker charged with keeping track of the all the fairies rented by people in a large, unnamed city. Yeah, I don’t know where all that came from exactly. Anyway, I didn’t ended up recording them.

The title The Instancy Flees Diagram is from the name of an emergency exit diagram in an office building in Beijing. I walked by it many times before one day finally reading the text.

Skylons is of course a reference to The Land of the Lost television series from the 1970s. Again, there are lyrics for this one.

2009
09/25
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Walmartians – This Is How It Ends

Walmartians - This Is How It Ends

Walmartians - This Is How It Ends (2009)

Epic is the word that best describes this semi-conceptual collection. A combination of repeated viewings of Southland Tales and jetlag inspired this group of songs, particularly the title track.

The title track was primarily constructed from a number of different websites offering online instruments, from loops to online synthesizers. The video for it can be found on YouTube.

…with a rumble and a drone includes a sound clip of Meg Tilly from the 1993 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Sort of a nice slow burn feel to this one.

I’ve been a fan of Loop for quite a while. Loopool was a bit of an homage to them, but not very successful in that respect. Still a decent track.

The title After Later comes from Ian. He used to say it quite a bit when asked to do something.

Longtime friend Darin Brock is a big fan of Wholly Light. Not sure I am quite as enthusiastic about it as him, but it is nonetheless a stomping good time.

Walmartians (Kontakt Aeternum) runs just over 17 minutes. It includes some sound clips of Ronald Reagan (barely intelligible – no pun intended – at the beginning of the song) and later Richard Burton and John Hurt from 1984.

…and stars is a nice break after the epic-length Walmartians (Kontakt Aeternum). The song is for my sons Ian and Colin. It makes me think of them each time I hear it. Inspired in part by Roxy Music’s timeless More Than This.

Thanks to Allan Tait for the use of his Microsynth on Walmartians (Kontakt Aeternum).

Originally released July 2009. Cover image is from Beijing.

2009
07/17
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