Album Archives: Modern Problems In Reflected Living

Although The First And Last Reunion was done and in the can, Brian Mullahan made a suggestion about reuniting Ken Miller and Jack Orbit back to the band for the first time since Postcards From The Edge.  But the bigger reason was I could still be on nights for a while longer and actually come up with new music.  To commence the 10th anniversary of Town's Edge Rock, we wanted to celebrate the true spirit of that album with a return to that sound.

Like Town's Edge Rock, Modern Problems In Reflected Living was recorded quickly. Sessions beginning on May 27th and ending on June 12th.  This time, the sessions were documented beginning with four songs on the 27th of May.

Recording sessions:

May 27th
Waste Of Time Wynna
Pillar Of Salt
Hard To Love You
Hey Bama

May 29th-Still Got A Long Way To Go
May 30th-Missing Her
June 1-Minor Miracle, Little Girl
June 2-Lies, Sun Ra
June 3-Away From You, Straight Laced And Gone
June 5-Girl On Your Mind, Don't Let Me Know, How Far It Goes
June 6-Frosted Flakes
June 12-When The Night Comes, Debbie's Winegarden

Waste Of Time Wynna kicked things off, basically a get lost song of sorts and another reminder that I couldn't pick the right woman to save my soul. I'm always constantly reminded all the time about my crappy choices of women, not all of them were wastes of time.  But that time spent with Wynna really left a bad taste in my mouth particularly to the point that if I never chased another woman again it wouldn't break my heart.

A lot of songs came from writing about the night life up at DeSodas.  Missing Her came from hanging around the bar and was about some woman that I danced with.  Frosted Flakes is not about Wynna, I think it was some bimbo on the news but Geoff threw such a goofy little guitar lick that we had to put that into a song.  Debbie's Winegarden aka Deb's Song was supposed to be sung by a woman that I met at work who told me she wanted to sing in the band and if I could write up a song that she could.  So on the 12th of June, I jotted some words down, Geoff thought up some chords and we waited and waited for her to show up at Broadcast Manor, our little makeshift studio in the duplex I lived in.  I called her about 3 oclock that day and left a message for her brother to give her but after waiting five more hours and calling back and having him saying she's out barhopping, I sang the damn thing myself.  Imagine my surprise she called the next day saying she forgot about coming over, even though we planned to record the GD thing a couple days in advance.  I just rolled my eyes over that and said never you mind, there's not a second time go get drunk again, it's what you do best anyway.

Sun Ra was improvised on the spot.  It was a tribute song to the jazz musician who passed a day again and I thought we should do one on one take and see where it leads.  The digital delay came in quite handy that day.  When The Night Comes, is me actually playing lead guitar for a change, although it was very simple, I think the sadness coming from that lead pretty much summed up my frustrations toward Debbie Winegarden and for that matter Wynna but the song does date back to 1988 when Ken Miller and I messed with it and couldn't find the right words till June of 1993.

Recording the album was a lot different than the others.  We used a direct input into the four track to give a different sound to the guitars.  Hugh McConnell tracked two mics into one channel giving the drums a false stereo sound which really did sound quite nice.  And for the first time, the vocals came through bigtime.  I don't know how he did it, but the counterpoint vocals of me and Jack Orbit may have the best we have ever done.

While compiling it for the cassette, I put on two leftovers from The First And Last Reunion, Are You Gonna Be The One and Her Lightning Ways, but on the CD version, Her Lightning Ways was replaced with Still Got A Long Way To Go.  Are You Gonna Be The One was the best song from the previous album and one of the better songs as well.

At the time, I thought Modern Problems was the best of the albums of the comeback era and it still holds very well to this day although I disagree with Diggy Kat on Pillar Of Salt being a major song.  Basically it was a song knocking Oprah Winfrey.  Modern Problems is even more power pop than Drive In Blues and most songs around 3 minutes with the exception of When The Night Comes which is 6 minutes long.  Out of all the Townedgers albums, this one is the most playful and  more humorous and everybody in the band was getting along quite well.  And it could have been the one that might have made me a bit more known around the parts.

But a couple things happened along the way.  A month later, in July, the rains came and it rained about 10 days straight, flooding Cedar Rapids, even to the point that we may have to vacate Broadcast Manor and seek higher ground. In fact I started putting records and CDs up on higher cabinets in the house just in case we have to move.  Thankfully the Cedar River didn't make it that far. (It did in 2008 with the 31 feet of mad river but by then we located out to the country and was 12 years removed from living there).  And then I decided I was going to retire from music and start dating my ex girlfriend once again.  Which turned out to be an even bigger mistake.  

So The Townedgers became on hiatus as they say and Modern Problems In Reflected Living would end the so called classic comeback period.  The guitar and drums would gather dust for a while.  But even more changes would be coming.  A new woman would replace the second and final go around with the ex high school sweetheart and a new sound coming, but in all fairness had I retired there and then and gotten married and start a family Modern Problems In Reflected Living would have been a good record to call it a day.  But more songs were on the horizon and the next album would be a much different sound than the good vibes that was Modern Problems In Reflected Living.

The Songs:

Waste Of Time Wynna (R.Smith)  2:53
Pillar Of Salt (Smith/Miller)  1:40
Hard To Love You (Smith/Orbit)  2:53
How Far It Goes (Smith/Redding/Orbit/Miller)  2:49
Hey Bama (Smith/Orbit)  3:49
Debbie's Winegarden (Smith/Orbit/Redding/Miller)  2:44
Missing Her (Smith/Redding)  3:28
Minor Miracle (R.Smith)  2:44
Little Girl (R.Smith)  2:25
Lies (Smith/Miller)  2:40
Are You Gonna Be The One (R.Smith)  3:27

Long Way To Go (Smith/Miller)  2:48
Away From You (Smith/Orbit)  3:45
Straight Laced And Gone (Smith/Orbit/Redding/Miller/Mullahan) 2:10
Girl On Your Mind (Smith/Orbit)  4:25
Don't Let Me Know (Smith/Orbit/Miller)  4:00
Frosted Flakes (Smith/Redding)  2:05
When The Night Comes (Smith/Miller)  6:45
Sun Ra (Smith/Orbit/Redding/Miller/Glarington/Mullahan) 2:00

Lyrics: Rodney Smith  Music: Where Noted (C) 1993 Townedger's Music Emporium

Produced by Rodney Smith and Brian Mullahan
Are You Gonna Be The One: Produced By Rodney Smith and Richard Dennanbaugh
Recorded April-June 1993 At Broadcast Manor, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Recorded by Hugh McConnell with Tim Wakefield
Assisted by The Townedgers

When The Night Comes and Debbie's Winegarden Recorded by Kyle Guttenburg 6/12/93

Participants: Rodney Smith, Geoff Redding, Jack Orbit, Ken Miller

Issued as Maier Records MRK 24766  Modern Problems In Reflected Living  June 24, 1993