What a month. I haven't done much in terms of adding stuff to the Townedger's site. We had way too many flooding rainy days to the point it stressed me out and couldn't think straight. I hate this weather, even more so than snows and ice of the wintertime. At least they don't seep into the basement like a six inch rainfall and lot of areas around here have gotten hit with way too much rain and the Cedar is out of its banks, just like it was five years ago on that infamous 2008 flood. I hate this type of history repeating. But at least the no rain prayer has held up the past five days. God willing.
I doubt if the Townedgers will do much touring behind No Exit. Reviews have been lukewarm and sales nil. Maier Records announced that Curio will be the third and final single off that album, the previous two failed to chart.
Thanks to Miss Mouse and Diggy Kat for playing the new album and some of the songs. I love them both.
Next month will be the 20th anniversary of Modern Problems In Reflected Living. I promise I'll write something about that album next month.
I don't expect the Smith/Orbit/Miller/Redding lineup to play at any time. Too many issues and the guys really don't want to deal with Jack although I continue to write songs with him.
Some of the TE back catalog will fall by the wayside. The 1989 albums have been a problem of trying to get the sound right and only thing I can do is re record the drum parts over again but that would ruin the original intent.
Still no intention of playing The End live.
Brian Mullahan could be a pain in the ass when he was producing but unlike other bands he knew when not to push, but sometimes the mistakes he left in the recording didn't help either. I cringe when I hear myself singing the wrong words in certain songs.
I could do another best of, or 3 decades of Townedger Rock And Roll. We'll see.
Walk A Thin Line, from Travelogue is the best version. The Soul Biscuits version tries but when I hear the 1988 remix version, it's garage punk heaven. That'll be on the best of.
Every Hour On The Hour, the 1986 Wendy Oaks farewell gig? Don't look for it on CD. It served its purpose back in 1986.
God is love.
Wednesday 29 May 2013
Saturday 18 May 2013
Down On The Farm
This song was recorded for a forthcoming 2011 album that never got finished once my ex girlfriend moved into town, I basically shelved it and forgot all about it till going through tapes and picking up ideas for what would be No Exit. Elements of the song came from Daddy Put The Bomp, an old song from Ducks Deluxe to which song writing credit was given to Sean Tyla for inspiration. Working on a dead line to complete the album, the drum tracks were all over the place to which the final part is just me tapping on a mic stand since it sounded like a bass drum anyway. The album working title was Between The Cedar And The Wapsi, which I live between both rivers.
Down On The Farm (Smith/Redding/Tyla) 4:56
Between the Cedar and the Wapsi
This is where that you can find me down the road, down the road
Living easy and living free
Ain't no place that I rather be, rock and roll, rock and roll
Cuz down on the farm we put the rock in rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll
Cuz down on the farm we put the rock in rock and roll
See my baby such a cutie
She can shake it like a willow tree rock and roll, rock and roll
She's a wonder and she's a dream
She knows the ways to make me scream let it roll, let it roll
Cuz down on the farm she puts the rock in rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll
Cuz down on the farm she puts the rock in rock and roll
(repeat)
Love my baby love her too
Without her charm I wouldn't know what to do rock and roll, rock and roll
Do me wrong do me right
Why don't you do me like a Saturday Night, let it roll, let it roll
Rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
cuz down on the farm she puts the rock in rock and roll
cuz down on the farm she puts the rock in rock and roll
etc.
etc.
(c) 2011 Hot Air Music
As you can tell, this was a songwriting in process as we were trying to get into the groove and upon looking at the finished product this is not one of the better songs ever written. Later on, when we performed this life, I changed the lyric See my baby, such a cutie, she can shake it like an old time movie which sounded better than the willow tree comment. For a throwaway, the music is actually quite good.
(from the Soul Biscuits! CD)
Down On The Farm (Smith/Redding/Tyla) 4:56
Between the Cedar and the Wapsi
This is where that you can find me down the road, down the road
Living easy and living free
Ain't no place that I rather be, rock and roll, rock and roll
Cuz down on the farm we put the rock in rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll
Cuz down on the farm we put the rock in rock and roll
See my baby such a cutie
She can shake it like a willow tree rock and roll, rock and roll
She's a wonder and she's a dream
She knows the ways to make me scream let it roll, let it roll
Cuz down on the farm she puts the rock in rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll
Cuz down on the farm she puts the rock in rock and roll
(repeat)
Love my baby love her too
Without her charm I wouldn't know what to do rock and roll, rock and roll
Do me wrong do me right
Why don't you do me like a Saturday Night, let it roll, let it roll
Rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
cuz down on the farm she puts the rock in rock and roll
cuz down on the farm she puts the rock in rock and roll
etc.
etc.
(c) 2011 Hot Air Music
As you can tell, this was a songwriting in process as we were trying to get into the groove and upon looking at the finished product this is not one of the better songs ever written. Later on, when we performed this life, I changed the lyric See my baby, such a cutie, she can shake it like an old time movie which sounded better than the willow tree comment. For a throwaway, the music is actually quite good.
(from the Soul Biscuits! CD)
Thursday 9 May 2013
Soul Biscuits!
In keeping up with the fine "missing pieces" series, a new comp of unreleased songs and covers comes out this month with Soul Biscuits! (add exclamation point) a collection of songs that were slated for 2011 album but got shelved when my ex moved down here to be with me for a year. Also a good chuck of songs came from a late December 2012 session which yielded some cover versions to see if we had anything left to prove, as well as some songs that didn't make the No Exit cut but we put the copyright down as a 2012 release. That way we proved that there was an actual album release that year.
The tracking order:
1. My Girl Josephine (Barthomelow/Domino) 3:00
2. Down On The Farm (Smith/Redding/Tyla) 4:55
3. Queen Of Anamosa (Acoustic Version)(Smith) 2:30
4. Walk A Thin Line (Smith/Orbit) 4:09
5. I Thank You (Porter/Hayes) 3:24
6. Amtrak Baby (Smith/Miller/Castleman) 2:09
7. Jet Airliner (Pena) 4:58
Side 2
1. All Along The Watchtower (Dylan) 3:44
2. New Maierburg Blues (Smith/Verhoven/Miller) 3:40
3. Dead Of Night (Smith/Orbit) 4:20
4. Greenback Dollar (Band Version)(Axton) 3:00
5. Serenade In Blue (Smith/Redding) 4:25
6. Soul Biscuits (Redding) 3:00
7. The Mouse And Kat Show (Smith) 3:00
Bonus Tracks
Greenback Dollar (Kingston Trio Version)(Axton) 2:55
Sweet Jane (Reed) 3:29
Chapters (Smith/Redding/Orbit/Miller/McClelland) 2:33
Chapters recorded 2001 during the We're Getting Nowhere sessions
Sweet Jane recorded 2007 during the The Highway Home Sessions Produced By Rodney Smith
Produced by Richard Dennanbaugh
Co Produced by Rodney Smith
The participants of the sessions were
Rodney Smith-Vocals, drums, guitars
Geoff Redding-Guitar and backing vocals
John Verhoven-Bass except where noted
Ken Miller-Bass On Walk A Thin Line and New Maierburg Blues
Martin Daniels-Bass on Sweet Jane
Mark McClelland-Bass on Chapters
Recorded at various locations May 2011 and December 2012 at Junkyard Studios Viola/Springville IA
2012 The Townedgers Music Emporium
The tracking order:
1. My Girl Josephine (Barthomelow/Domino) 3:00
2. Down On The Farm (Smith/Redding/Tyla) 4:55
3. Queen Of Anamosa (Acoustic Version)(Smith) 2:30
4. Walk A Thin Line (Smith/Orbit) 4:09
5. I Thank You (Porter/Hayes) 3:24
6. Amtrak Baby (Smith/Miller/Castleman) 2:09
7. Jet Airliner (Pena) 4:58
Side 2
1. All Along The Watchtower (Dylan) 3:44
2. New Maierburg Blues (Smith/Verhoven/Miller) 3:40
3. Dead Of Night (Smith/Orbit) 4:20
4. Greenback Dollar (Band Version)(Axton) 3:00
5. Serenade In Blue (Smith/Redding) 4:25
6. Soul Biscuits (Redding) 3:00
7. The Mouse And Kat Show (Smith) 3:00
Bonus Tracks
Greenback Dollar (Kingston Trio Version)(Axton) 2:55
Sweet Jane (Reed) 3:29
Chapters (Smith/Redding/Orbit/Miller/McClelland) 2:33
Chapters recorded 2001 during the We're Getting Nowhere sessions
Sweet Jane recorded 2007 during the The Highway Home Sessions Produced By Rodney Smith
Produced by Richard Dennanbaugh
Co Produced by Rodney Smith
The participants of the sessions were
Rodney Smith-Vocals, drums, guitars
Geoff Redding-Guitar and backing vocals
John Verhoven-Bass except where noted
Ken Miller-Bass On Walk A Thin Line and New Maierburg Blues
Martin Daniels-Bass on Sweet Jane
Mark McClelland-Bass on Chapters
Recorded at various locations May 2011 and December 2012 at Junkyard Studios Viola/Springville IA
2012 The Townedgers Music Emporium
New Bottles For Old Wine 1999
There are many compilations than there are actual albums from the Townedgers in the 30 year history as I continue to try to horn my craft into something more meaningful. There's comps that do a good job, 2009's Country comes to mind, so does Observations From The Forefront which gave me a played song in Teri. And there's comps that have way too much filler or songs that sounded good at the time but not any more. Such is the case of New Bottles For Old Wine which took certain failures that didn't make the cut and when this album didn't tickle my fancy, the better songs got used for More Rodney Smith And The Townedgers and Even More. The ones that didn't, remains here in this junkyard of tunes.
The outtakes from albums of that era.
Lover's Night Out (Light At The End Of The Tunnel) 1996 Originally part of The First And Last Reunion, I decided to revisit this song three years later. This is a better version but since we have enough songs for Light, this one didn't make the cut. Later appeared on More.
Walk A Thin Line (Tales Of The Red Caboose) 1987 Two different versions of this song was released, the first one was a edited version that made Tales but the better version was reworked with a better drum sound for Travelogue, our 1988 live double. This version ended up being on Stories From The Road, The Best Of The Townedgers and remains the definite song. We made another attempt of this song for 2012 Soul Biscuits album and although it's a noble effort it pales next to this one. Side note, this was one of the last songs that I ever did using my old K Mart Telisco guitar and with the tube stack volume up high the sound kills. After that the guitar blew up.
The Question Remains (1989 Single) First song that I did on a regular four track and not exactly working the controls very well. Too much echo and the backing vocals are buried. Later attempted for 1993's Modern Problems In Reflected Living but never used till We're Getting Nowhere CD.
Hard Tellin- (Tales Of The Red Caboose 1987, drums overdubbed in 1995) Had we had a four track, Tales would have been a good album but with wrong headed ideas (recording on metal tape?). Richard Dennanbaugh convinced me that if we added new drums to the guitar it would sound better. Which does but one glaring fact: the guitar's out of tune! But at least I got the drum breaks right.
Girl From The Other Side Of Town (Tales Of The Red Caboose 1987) First version which was about going down highway 1 in Mount Vernon and seeing some chick sunbathing topless which became the inspiration of this song. Jack Orbit's lead didn't work very well and couldn't get the drums right till much later. Includes the line Sweet enough to eat which Maier Records rejected upon hearing it and we did a different take. But this one would make it to the More R.S and TEs CD.
The Way I Look At Things (1989) Attempted a couple times in the studio and then forgotten.
Jenny Sez Hi (Tales Of The Red Caboose 1987) We had plenty of ideas going full tilt during Tales and this one was more of the harder rocking tracks but that crappy assed marching snare drum didn't do much favors for me. Another bad idea gone wrong. Originally on Collecting Beer Cans For Fun And Profit, the first batch of TE leftovers ever put on cassette tape.
Miss Crank (Moonlight Chronicles 1989) Love Geoff Redding's Wilko Johnson guitar licks but the lyrics didn't fit the song very well. Attempted a few more times and gave up soon after.
Material Girl (Moonlight Chronicles 1989) A lot of songs that I writing back then dealt with bad girls and most of the time forgettible. It has some nice breaks in this but I didn't like this song much to give it a second thought. Purple Passion was much better.
Cocaine Train (Floodlands 1989) A acoustic version of the Paraphernalia song that the guys did back in 1984. Russ chose it since it had the C word in it. The TEs have done it on occasion.
Highway Of Love (Nice Weather We're Having 1990) Not as wild or over the top as the Postcards From The Edge version but Geoff adds some nice LA Woman type of guitar work on this and Jon Castleman plays bass. Left off the cassette version of Nice Weather but was later added on the CD version of said album.
Black Girlfriend (Nice Weather We're Having 1990) A song about racial tolerance but I think I wrote that song in response to my folks saying no of bringing a black GF home on a date. Didn't make the cut on Nice Weather, always thought it was lacking something.....
Sometimes I Do (Drive In Blues 1992) A cover of the Social Distortion song, sped up and full of backing vocals but thought it was too busy and not good enough so left it off DIB. 10 years later, we would do a much better and much more faithful to the Social Distortion version on The Road Less Traveled and five years later done to better effort on a 2008 live showcase.
You're Gonna Miss Me (Light At The End Of The Tunnel 1996) On a B Side You can do anything and so we did a attempt of the 13th floor elevator's only hit. It's kinda clumsy in its own way but I thought our version was better than the Sand Rubies version that made it to their live album.
Midnight Blue (Light At The End Of The Tunnel 1996) Trying to do something different so I lifted the chorus from Melissa Manchester and Carol Bayer Sager and gave them credit although I was also incorporating Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground's I Found A Reason in a way. We had enough songs for Light, this appears on More.
Her Lightning Ways (The First And Last Reunion 1993) Appears on the beginning of side 2 of the cassette version of Modern Problems In Reflected Living, this song pretty much is a jam song like Getting To This is a jam song or Tornado is a jam song. I was using my long time old K Mart guitar amp on this with the digital echo running through it. Left off the CD version of Modern Problems.
Gone Fishing (Diamonds In The Skies 1991) Originally slated to be the last song after Back To Marion but after hearing the final version, I didn't like the mix nor vocals to this. The titled lifted from Chris Rea but that's there the similarities end Not sure who I wrote it about, maybe Sweet Melissa or some part time chick at work that I had an eye on. Attempted to do this song a couple more times later on, but got bored with it and moved on to other things.
The outtakes from albums of that era.
Lover's Night Out (Light At The End Of The Tunnel) 1996 Originally part of The First And Last Reunion, I decided to revisit this song three years later. This is a better version but since we have enough songs for Light, this one didn't make the cut. Later appeared on More.
Walk A Thin Line (Tales Of The Red Caboose) 1987 Two different versions of this song was released, the first one was a edited version that made Tales but the better version was reworked with a better drum sound for Travelogue, our 1988 live double. This version ended up being on Stories From The Road, The Best Of The Townedgers and remains the definite song. We made another attempt of this song for 2012 Soul Biscuits album and although it's a noble effort it pales next to this one. Side note, this was one of the last songs that I ever did using my old K Mart Telisco guitar and with the tube stack volume up high the sound kills. After that the guitar blew up.
The Question Remains (1989 Single) First song that I did on a regular four track and not exactly working the controls very well. Too much echo and the backing vocals are buried. Later attempted for 1993's Modern Problems In Reflected Living but never used till We're Getting Nowhere CD.
Hard Tellin- (Tales Of The Red Caboose 1987, drums overdubbed in 1995) Had we had a four track, Tales would have been a good album but with wrong headed ideas (recording on metal tape?). Richard Dennanbaugh convinced me that if we added new drums to the guitar it would sound better. Which does but one glaring fact: the guitar's out of tune! But at least I got the drum breaks right.
Girl From The Other Side Of Town (Tales Of The Red Caboose 1987) First version which was about going down highway 1 in Mount Vernon and seeing some chick sunbathing topless which became the inspiration of this song. Jack Orbit's lead didn't work very well and couldn't get the drums right till much later. Includes the line Sweet enough to eat which Maier Records rejected upon hearing it and we did a different take. But this one would make it to the More R.S and TEs CD.
The Way I Look At Things (1989) Attempted a couple times in the studio and then forgotten.
Jenny Sez Hi (Tales Of The Red Caboose 1987) We had plenty of ideas going full tilt during Tales and this one was more of the harder rocking tracks but that crappy assed marching snare drum didn't do much favors for me. Another bad idea gone wrong. Originally on Collecting Beer Cans For Fun And Profit, the first batch of TE leftovers ever put on cassette tape.
Miss Crank (Moonlight Chronicles 1989) Love Geoff Redding's Wilko Johnson guitar licks but the lyrics didn't fit the song very well. Attempted a few more times and gave up soon after.
Material Girl (Moonlight Chronicles 1989) A lot of songs that I writing back then dealt with bad girls and most of the time forgettible. It has some nice breaks in this but I didn't like this song much to give it a second thought. Purple Passion was much better.
Cocaine Train (Floodlands 1989) A acoustic version of the Paraphernalia song that the guys did back in 1984. Russ chose it since it had the C word in it. The TEs have done it on occasion.
Highway Of Love (Nice Weather We're Having 1990) Not as wild or over the top as the Postcards From The Edge version but Geoff adds some nice LA Woman type of guitar work on this and Jon Castleman plays bass. Left off the cassette version of Nice Weather but was later added on the CD version of said album.
Black Girlfriend (Nice Weather We're Having 1990) A song about racial tolerance but I think I wrote that song in response to my folks saying no of bringing a black GF home on a date. Didn't make the cut on Nice Weather, always thought it was lacking something.....
Sometimes I Do (Drive In Blues 1992) A cover of the Social Distortion song, sped up and full of backing vocals but thought it was too busy and not good enough so left it off DIB. 10 years later, we would do a much better and much more faithful to the Social Distortion version on The Road Less Traveled and five years later done to better effort on a 2008 live showcase.
You're Gonna Miss Me (Light At The End Of The Tunnel 1996) On a B Side You can do anything and so we did a attempt of the 13th floor elevator's only hit. It's kinda clumsy in its own way but I thought our version was better than the Sand Rubies version that made it to their live album.
Midnight Blue (Light At The End Of The Tunnel 1996) Trying to do something different so I lifted the chorus from Melissa Manchester and Carol Bayer Sager and gave them credit although I was also incorporating Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground's I Found A Reason in a way. We had enough songs for Light, this appears on More.
Her Lightning Ways (The First And Last Reunion 1993) Appears on the beginning of side 2 of the cassette version of Modern Problems In Reflected Living, this song pretty much is a jam song like Getting To This is a jam song or Tornado is a jam song. I was using my long time old K Mart guitar amp on this with the digital echo running through it. Left off the CD version of Modern Problems.
Gone Fishing (Diamonds In The Skies 1991) Originally slated to be the last song after Back To Marion but after hearing the final version, I didn't like the mix nor vocals to this. The titled lifted from Chris Rea but that's there the similarities end Not sure who I wrote it about, maybe Sweet Melissa or some part time chick at work that I had an eye on. Attempted to do this song a couple more times later on, but got bored with it and moved on to other things.
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