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It was really great to be working by myself again after doing the band thing for 4 (or so) years. I had forgotten how much fun it is to experiment with sound without having to worry about being able to reproduce it live. Decisions get made so much faster when working alone. I may not always make the right decisions, but they get made and I move on. Bada bing! Just lika dat. That said, it still took a year to make this recording. So I guess it wasn't really all that fast. Maybe it just seemed fast because the only person I had to please was myself. I did have some outside help. Drums, always my weak point, were handled by Jason White (of the Ghosts) and Eric Nowinski (the legal scholar behind the Disgraceland jugernaut) and a long-time-in-the-making collaboration with DiY legend Michael J. Bowman (check out www.semperlofi.com for several days of inventive fun pop listening). The story is that back in 1996 he sent me some fragments of music he had laying around, including several short drum parts. I received them and promptly lost the cassette tape. Years later, (seven, to be precise) I came across this unmarked cassette and popped it into my player and found the contents. I strung a couple of his remarkable rhythms together into a loop and built "The King of Saturday Night" out of it. I've never actually met (or even spoken to) Michael. Our correspondence has been strictly by internet and U. S. Mail. But I feel like I know him, and a nicer more talented guy you couldn't ask to meet. Also, laying down some searing lead guitar is the frighteningly talented Po Hannah (of Beanland/Tim Lee Band). He came over and whipped the solo to "King of Saturday Night" out in about 3 takes and I still can't believe how effortless he made it seem. Pop legend Tim Lee (of Windbreakers fame) made a key contribution to "Myrtle Lee". I had written and recorded the music and the song was this close to being finished (makes pinching motion with thumb and forefinger). And then it just sat there. And sat there. And while I worked on other songs, I had a complete mental block about this one. Couldn't get going on it no matter what I did. So I asked Tim to come by with his guitar. I didn't tell him the chords or anything. I just said "play whatever pops into your head". His simple repeating guitar line spurred the melody that the whole song is based around. Thanks Tim. And Michael. And Jason, and Po and Eric. As for the topics of the songs. Let's see, we have telemarketers, corrupt CEOs, a prisoner in a psychiatric hospital, Elliot Smith, writer's block, my ancestors, a barge and hip replacement surgery with a couple about basic nonsense. You decide which is which. It may all be nonsense. You have to decide that too. Thanks for listening. Check out Disgraceland for all the skinny on this and other cool releases. Send me an email and I'll write you back. Promise.
-- John T. Baker
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DISCOGRAPHY JOHN T. BAKER Faux Pas Harmony 1987 - Cassette Bangorooma 1993 - Cassette Itchy Scalp Theater/Sounder 3 1995 - Cassette Paddleboat 1996 - Cassette Little Rock Songs 1998 - Cassette Woods 1999 - Compact Disc Rough Skeleton 2004- Compact Disc MARTINI AGE Hippop 1992 - Compact Disc* Guitarsmack 1993 - Cassette FRENCH BROADS My Friend Speed 2001- Compact Disc Tubes, Wood & Metal 2003- Compact Disc Better Wings, Better Happiness (new Broads Stuff) Early 2005- Compact Disc |