Driverdome Flyers From A Bygone Era (i.e. 1995)

November 12, 1994 - Inkwell with Deterrent and Deus Ex - Technically this was not from 1995, but it was one of the first shows we had at the Driverdome, and I don't remember much except that both Deterrent and Deus Ex used drum machines, and we did not have the kind of PA to handle that, so both bands were pretty weak. Of course Inkwell did the job that was needed to be done.


January 8, 1995 - Policy of 3 with Thumbnail, Scout and Thenceforward - This was a great show. I love that we screwed up and put Fence Forward on the flyer, blame Scott Wishart as I'm sure he designed the flyer. I will still refer to them as Fence Forward instead of their real name. I was also a big fan of Thumbnail, and thought they never became as popular as they could have been. Policy of 3 were awesome that night, as it was right around when their last 7" came out, and I believe they broke up a few months later.


March 2, 1995 - Griver with Year Zero and the Pink-Collared Jobs - Griver was a fun band to have play, and we were friends with Charlie in the band so we had a soft spot for them. Year Zero of course was Jon Lukens' band after Cough Syrup and Astrosmash but before Retconned. Year Zero was my favorite Jon Lukens "band", i.e. pre-electronics. I will post more on them later. I don't remember anything about the Pink-Collared Jobs, but maybe someone will enlighten us. It is interesting to note that the shows only cost 2 or 3 dollars. Our theory was to keep the cost so low that people felt like they could come and hang out and take a chance on whatever band that was playing that night, and for the most part I think it worked. We always had a pretty decent crowd (except for the Sunbrain show below), and people seemed to have a good time and never complained about the cover charge. Normally we would only be able to pay a band about 50 dollars, but we didn't keep any of the money for ourselves and it was possible back then to make as little as 20 dollars a show and still break even after tour. This system works much better to me than passing the hat around, as I think that practice is essentially disrespectful to the bands playing and never produces more than a few dollars. We wanted the Driverdome to put on shows, and passing the hat gives the impression that we are having a party with bands playing. These were not parties, they were shows with touring bands - some of which would become extremely influential, and at the time Atlanta clubs were not providing any support. These house shows definitely filled a gap during this time.


This was another flyer for the same show as above.


April 1, 1995 - Lowboy with No Matter and White Trash Superman - This might have been Lowboy's last show before Craig and Brian went on to form The 42 with Francis. I remember No Matter being very good, but I have no memory of White Trash Superman.


April 13, 1995 - Slant 6 with Jonathan Fire Eater and Year Zero - This was probably one of the top 5 shows the Driverdome ever put on, mainly because of Jonathan Fire Eater. At this time, they only had a demo out, and when I saw their name on the show list, I was very skeptical. However, if you know who they were, you can imagine what an amazing show this turned out to be. These guys were unbelievable - you can see some footage of them here. It was the birthday of the bassplayer from Slant 6, and we made a banner for them from an old church revival banner I had, and then after the show they took it with them! That banner was part of the Driverdome decor, it wasn't a gift.


April 17, 1995 - Inkwell with Bloodlet and Thenceforward - As you can imagine, this was a good show. Mark had joined Inkwell by this time and they were becoming the powerhouse that you know and love them as. I remember joining The hal al Shedad at this time, and Phil making these flyers and hanging them up at our shared practice space (Black Box). Of course the degenerates that hang out there drew penises, etc. all over the flyers, and Inkwell was pissed.


May 23, 1995 - Sunbrain with Barrel and Drip - I will still apologize to Barrel for this one, as it was probably the most sparsely attended Driverdome show ever. I really felt bad, as I thought Barrel was awesome, and David Dondero was in Sunbrain, who I have been a big fan of since he started doing his solo stuff. Maybe it was because it was on a Tuesday, I can't remember why we were doing the show on a Tuesday, but either way there was nobody there and I somehow feel responsible.


June 23, 1995 - Carbomb with The Trigger Quintet, Impetus Inter and Butch - Four out of town bands on this bill, no room for locals. It was an amazing show. Every band was awesome, every band was nice, lots of people were there. I used Tron imagery on the flyer. Still only 3 dollars, and we were able to pay every band well (at least for those times).


June 25, 1995 - Eagle Bravo with Hellbender and Peepsow - Eagle Bravo was a good band from the Carolinas, and I remember supposedly the drummer's dad was also a drummer back in the day and played on "Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups, which was produced by Phil Spector. Supposedly the drumset that the guy was playing in Eagle Bravo was the drumset that played on that song. I was in awe, of course. Eagle Bravo did a full-length album, but I never got it and have been wanting to get a copy ever since. If anyone knows where I could find it, I would be interested. Hellbender was Al Burian's band before Milemarker, and I remember them being very good as well. They had these boxes on top of their amps that lit up and looked fancy, but I believe had no real purpose. I can't remember anything about Peepshow from New Jersey, but there were a lot of random bands touring around and playing house shows back then.

Sonn Av Krusher - Tales from the Moshpit

Sonn Av Krusher has officially garnered our first superfan - Tim Shea who writes for Stomp and Stammer magazine. Here is his review of our performance at Corndogorama 2008 in the "Tales from the Moshpit" section:

One of the principal reasons I even bothered to come out to Lenny’s today, the second day of this year’s Corndogorama festival, was to see Sonn Av Krusher, who I had seen a year ago at Corndog and they blew me away. I haven’t heard hide nor hair of 'em since. Basically, throw the Swans, King Snake Roost and Skullflower in a blender and you get these guys. Needless to say they're one of my favorite bands in town. They don’t play out much, but do yourself a favor and catch ‘em when they do. If you're a lover of power-bore drone pummel they do it better than anyone else in town The drummer apparently plays guitar in Noot d’ Noot (for those who care).

Power-Bore Drone Pummel - love it. And I know people don't care that I play in another band, but I was just giving him some information.

Next show is on August 9th at the Drunken Unicorn with Lay Down Mains and Recompas. Flyer coming soon.

Atlanta Singles Week 28 - "That Was Then, This Is Now" Atlanta Hardcore Compilation

Here is the recording: That Was Then, This Is Now - Atlanta Hardcore Compilation

It was only a matter of time before I got to this record - somehow it was inevitable. I look at this as the possibly the seminal Atlanta DIY single of 1992 (along with Happy as a Bastard on Father's Day). Although maybe this came out in 1993, I'm not sure. These were four main bands of the Atlanta hardcore scene at the time - Act of Faith, Crisis Under Control, Spiney Norman and The Difference. I only really knew the guys in Spiney Norman at the time, and I remember convincing Spam that they had to use their ska song on the compilation, as it would set them apart and really bum out the people who bought the record wanting more standard hardcore. The song is actually awesome in the otherwise horrible cul-de-sac that is ska core. Also listening back to this 7" again, I forgot how tight and polished The Difference were. I have their demo tape in my stack, so I might have to transfer that one to CD just to give it another listen. Overall a good Atlanta single for the time, with the great cover art of the Metroplex after it burned down. I never went to any shows there myself, as I was a bit too young, but I might have been at the show on the back cover, which I believe was taken at the Wreck Room (right down the street from where the Metroplex stood). Anyhow, I'm glad I still have this record in my collection, and leave comments as I would be interested in knowing what your impressions are then and now regarding this release.

As an extra bonus, here is the Standfast Records News Flash, Volume 1 Issue 1 for your perusal. My god, just awesome on so many levels. Shelter show review, band photos, Midget Farmers and Habeus Corpses both name-checked. If anyone has any later issues, please email them to me.

Our Friends from Amish Country - The Spirit Assembly Discography

Here is the download: Spirit Assembly Discography

Actually, this is not the complete discography, as supposedly there was a 7" or demo put out before the "Old Joe the Eternal" single, but I do not have that one. You can check the earlier stuff out at their myspace page hosted by their original singer: Spirit Assembly Myspace Page.

Track Listing:
1. Pop Acculturation
2. It Wasn't Me
3. Equinox
4. Ingestion
5. In Order To Visualize
6. Simple Transaction
7. Continuity Without Question
8. Nameless
9. Convention Invention
10. Self Appointed Outcast
11. Pop Acculturation
12. Manmade
13. Stain

1-3: From Old Joe The Eternal 7"
4-5: From Split 7" with Car Vs. Driver
6-13: From Welcome to Lancaster County LP

Every once in awhile I will ask Gavin from Stickfigure Records when he is going to put out the official Spirit Assembly discography, and he just laughs and tells me that Sam (the guitarist) will never send him the DAT tapes, but that otherwise he is ready to go. I finally realized that I needed to make my own discography and post it for others to enjoy before people forget what an amazing band these guys were. No matter what show they played, they would decisively steal it from every other band that played with. Duelling yelling/screaming vocals, heavy rhythmic (pretty much all rhythm) song structures, such passionate performances. These guys were the best. They could level any house or VFW hall show out there, and almost never played clubs. When we played with them in July 1995 at the Somber Reptile in Atlanta, they seemed out of place on a stage. When I saw their next band, Fields Lay Fallow a few years later, they made sure they were on the floor and never above the crowd.

They were probably our first real out of town friends when Car Vs. Driver started playing outside Atlanta. When we did the split 7" with them on Yuletide records, we were so pleased with what we had contributed to the release (You Win Sucker and Peroxide), but when we got the 7" and put on their side, it was hands down some of the best postpunk ever created. I was a little crushed at first, as Car Vs. Driver was always getting demolished by the great bands we played with, but then again I was so excited about Spirit Assembly's music, I didn't even care. I still love those songs from that split as my favorites by them.

The first time we played with them was during our Summer 1994 tour, when we played at a VFW hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (their hometown area). I believe we booked the show with them based on a list of contacts from the guys in Hoover, but I could be wrong about this exact connection. They had only recently become a 3-piece, so I never saw them with their original lead singer, but I believe this was the lineup they were destined to have. They actually had very few songs overall - less than 13 after many years of playing and touring, versus the 41 that Car Vs. Driver wrote in only 2 years. The good thing about this was that any time you saw them, they played all the hits, which was pretty much every song they ever wrote. Also, their bassplayer Gus was the youngest guy I have ever seen that could grow a full Amish beard, it was cool and gave the band an ominent vibe.

So we played with them many times between 1994-1995, either in Pennsylvania or the southeast. I have several videos of them, and there is even a video posted on http://www.soundofindie.com/ here - Spirit Assembly in South Dakota. I think they lasted until about 1996 or so, then disbanded but started a new band called Fields Lay Fallow, which included Steve Wishart from Car Vs. Driver on bass for awhile, and their album was put out on his label Lunchbox Records. The bassplayer Gus moved to Athens, GA for a bit, and I would see him around there, but we never played music together. I should have started a band with him while he was living so close, but I was in the hal al Shedad whirlwind at that time and didn't have too much extra time for side projects (except Regicide, of course). If you look on http://www.bandtoband.com/, there are plenty of other bands started by these guys, but Fields Lay Fallow is the only one I have heard personally.

Here is the artwork for the first 7" (or the first that I have):


Here is the cover and insert from the Car Vs. Driver/Spirit Assembly split:


Here is the insert and band photos from the LP they released on Yuletide records (cover image is at the top of this post):


As an added bonus: here is their lyric sheet that they passed out at shows, remember those?

Atlanta Band Genome - Summer 2008

Hey everybody - sorry I have been out of touch for a few days. I have been busy with many different little projects, including my baby daughter (or "ultra-pet" according to Kip Thomas). I hope to have more stuff posted starting this week, but for now I have updated the Atlanta Band Genome with all comments incorporated, or as much as possible. I receive a lot of comments related to a specific link being missing between two bands, but most of the time I am aware of the link, but omitting it due to the complexity of the drawing and the number of lines crisscrossing the entire page. Please let me know what you think, and I will continue to update as time goes on. One notable addition is Mastodon linked with Noot d' Noot after Rich Morris' set with them at Bonnaroo this year. We now have a 5-step link between Sonn Av Krusher and Brutal Truth, which is pretty awesome.

Scott from Amber Inn (DIY hardcore/postpunk band from Sacramento, CA back in the 90's) contacted me about the genome, as he runs an amazing site called bandtoband.com, you really need to check it out. I can get lost in that site for hours.

Atlanta Singles Week 26 - At the Price of the Union/Some Soviet Station Split

Here are the two songs from the split 7": At the Price of the Union/Some Soviet Station

I have a large stack of classic singles put out by Atlanta bands over the years, and I am trying to keep a regular post going each week to showcase these records. This is planned for every Monday, but I already missed the first one, so we'll just have to see how well I can keep to my schedule. Let me know if you have any requests for old 7"s that you haven't heard for a long time, or would like MP3s made, as I might have them.

The first single in my stack was the split 7" on Buddy System Records (our friends in Brooklyn who helped put out the hal al Shedad records), with Atlanta/Athens bands At the Price of the Union and Some Soviet Station. At the Price of the Union consisted of Craig Dempsey from Lowboy and The 42 on guitar as well as Josh Lott on drums and Luke Gilbert on bass. They were a power trio in the vein of Hoover (you can tell they were big fans) but with a slightly more Ebullition-style hardcore thrown in. Craig is one hell of a guitarist, and the band could ride that deep bass postpunk groove like there was no tomorrow. One interesting thing is that Josh as a drummer plays right-handed, but with his left hand on the hi-hat and right hand on the snare, like Doug Scharin in June of 44 and Codeine and also coincidentally Francis Jensen from The 42. Playing drums like that is strange, normally as a right-handed drummer you hit the snare drum with your left hand and kick drum with your right foot, producing a natural side to side "dancing" motion. With Josh's style of drumming, you have a much more up and down motion without the swaying, and my main concern with this method is that you may lose the natural rhythm of your body when keeping a beat. Fortunately Josh didn't have this problem, and as an advantage, his right hand was free when it wasn't hitting the snare, so he could do a lot more tom work in the songs. Luke is also a natural groove-oriented bassman, and fits Craig's style perfectly. They are so matched together, it's like one guitar unit that cannot be separated. Chocolate Kiss played with them a few times, and I have to say they would put on one hell of a show. They lived in Athens, but was not really considered an Athens band as all three members originally came from Stockbridge (south of Atlanta), and we had known them for so long. They also played Atlanta all the time, not like some other Athens bands that never play the big city. Other than this split 7", they came out with a 5-song CD on Buddy System, which also had a plane on the cover. There was something with them and airplane/military imagery, it was cool. "Shifting" is also a great song, as should be when doing a split 7" with another band. The band didn't last much longer after their CD came out, and Josh went on to play with the string-guys in Some Soviet Station under the name Paper Lions. Craig and Luke went on to form Thoroughbred and released a single a few years ago, and still jam together but I believe no current bands at this time. Josh later played in a band called Teenage Meth Lab with Justin from Some Soviet Station, and now is the drummer for Elf Power.

Some Soviet Station was of course a powerhouse in their own right. They were like taking Drive Like Jehu and making them a band on Dischord Records, and you got an idea of how the did their business. Jesse Smith (ex-Kossabone Red) is a great frontman, Lee Corum (ex-Chapterhall) is one of the great drummers of our town - a real drummer's drummer, Justin Snyder and Chris McNeal held their own in respective duties, especially in Chris' backup vocals. They also used a lot of airplane imagery in their band, which also seemed to work with their sound somehow. Their song "Pistol-Whipped" was a hit single of theirs, with some of the strangest lyrics for this type of music. Click on the insert below to check them out. These guys got pretty popular, but after their full-length came out on Moodswing Records they somehow fizzled. Jesse now fronts the band Gentlemen Jesse and His Men, and they just released an LP on Douchemaster Records. Lee has been playing in many bands over the years, including Copa Vance, Home of the Wildcats and most recently Lay Down Mains, which is about to release their full-length on Moodswing Records.

Definitely good "turn of the century" stuff here.

Corndogs of Years Past

Next Friday will be my 5th and 6th appearances playing in Corndogorama - the big festival held every Summer in Atlanta by Dave Railey. I dug up my old flyers/lineups from the past festivals I have played in and decided to post them here. I wish Dave would post flyers of all previous corndog fests, but so far I haven't seen anything.

Above: 4th Annual Corndogorama July 3rd, 1999 at Dottie's (it actually might have been the 5th). Bob Medina from Chocolate Kiss designed this flyer, and we played sometime in the afternoon, I believe. We have never played Corndogorama later than 5:15 or so - definitely never at night. That will change this year when Noot d' Noot will play on Friday night late as hell, I'm sure. I believe this was Haricot Vert's first show, as they were going under the plural version of their name. Other notable bands on the flyer are The Stimulants and Plastic Plan, but I do not remember many of the other bands. This was also held at Dottie's, the original location before it moved to the EARL in 2000 and Lenny's in 2007.

Below: Corndogorama July 1, 2000 at the EARL. This was a great lineup - probably band for band the best lineup the festival has ever had. I guess this was a pretty good time in Atlanta for local music, as we have The Close, Chocolate Kiss, Spectralux, Plastic Plan, Copa Vance, Hell Mach 4, Ocelot, Black Mollies, Some Soviet Station and Dropsonic all on the same bill. All of these bands made some kind of name for themselves in Atlanta, and it was quite a show. I believe Dropsonic has probably played more Corndogoramas than any other non-Dave Railey band. Let's hear it for longevity.


I love this message on the back of the flyer - total Kip Thomas



Above: Corndogorama June 30, 2001 at the EARL. Compared to the great year before, this was a bit of a let down lineup-wise. Peaks and Valleys. The notable acts being Chocolate Kiss (of course), Remuxers, Haricot Vert, Rizzudo, The Rock Coaches and Copa Vance. Heinous Beinfang is actually playing this year's festival on the nostalgia trip.

Below: Last Year's Corndogorama July 12-15, 2007 at Lenny's. This is the big time. Now we have an amazing lineup of bands, but spread out over 4 days and way too much time spent at Lenny's. This would make an unbelievable one day event taking the best 10 bands (Mastodon, Zoroaster, Gentleman Jesse and His Men, Judi Chicago, The Selmanaires, Sweetloves, ANDPW, Lay Down Mains, Space Seed (!) and I'll even give you Snowden, Magnapop, Coathangers and a couple of others and you got yourself one hell of a show. Fortunately, Dave allows more breathing room so bands like Sonn Av Krusher, Mistaken for Them, Forever War, and others to get on the bill and contribute what they can.


So thanks, Dave, for everything you've done over the years getting this behemoth of a show going every year, and hope you have many more years to come. For your information out there, I will be playing on Friday June 27th with Sonn Av Krusher at 4:30 in the afternoon (Happy Hour) and at 10:50 that evening - my first Corndogorama night performance. Other notable acts include Tenth to the Moon on Thursday, Sonn Av Krusher/Noot d' Noot on Friday (of course), Five-Eight/Anna Kramer/ANDPW on Saturday, and Rizzudo/Battle Cat/Maserati/Let the Night Roar/Zoroaster/Tornado Town (Will Green's new band) on Sunday. Sonn Av Krusher was supposed to play then, but a family trip to the beach happened to be planned during what was to be our moment of triumph. Next time.

Here is the full lineup for the show: Corndogorama 2008 Lineup

Mr. Bob in SoCal - Cabron! and the Mexican Shoe Thief

Here is the album for download: Cabron! Mexican Shoe Thief

Chocolate Kiss played our last show on July 4, 2002, and Bob moved soon afterwards to San Diego in time to start teaching for the upcoming 2002-2003 school year. He is an elementary school art teacher, which is only one of the thousands of professions he has had over the years, and something I know he really enjoys. I got a message from him recently that due to budget cuts he will most likely be layed off from the educational workforce out there, so I hope the best for him and Ana. For the 4-5 years that Chocolate Kiss was together, I think he liked playing our indie rock stuff, but if he could join an old-school punk/hardcore band, he would have been in old-man heaven. Well, when he moved out west, he immediately started playing with various bands and settled into this group of guys here and started Cabron!, which is probably the band he always dreamed of playing guitar for. They seem to be doing very well for themselves out there, playing regularly in SoCal and Mexico, but no plans to come East anytime soon. Bob tells me that they play in Tijuana a lot, and it's like going to a show in the US 20 years ago. Kids in Black Flag shirts, stolen power for the amps and PA being run from one extension cord down the street, completely random bands playing together, good times. They are recording some new music right about now, but here is their original release as well as liner notes, etc. for your enjoyment.

They also have a myspace page (of course). Here it is - CabronSD. You can demand that they come to Atlanta and play - I placed my vote.

Krusher and F.U.C.T. - Together at Last

Sonn Av Krusher is playing this Thursday at Lenny's Bar in Atlanta, but this is not the typical Thursday night out - the classic metallic hardcore band F.U.C.T. from Nashville will be sharing the bill with us. They were around back in the late 80's/early 90's and played with bands like O.C.B. when they would come through Atlanta, and now they are playing with the Krusher. Hope they are ready.

Here is their Myspace page - check it out efyouseetee.com

We are also playing with locals Mourdella and Sex in Cars (myspace pages attached).

It should be quite a night of pleasure.

P.S. The flyer (designed by Gray Kiser himself) has a Car Vs. Driver reference - see if you can find it.

Here is a bonus flyer from Sex in Cars - righteous.

The hal al Shedad Self-Titled Album (1996)

Here is the album for download: The hal al Shedad Self-Titled Album

Where oh where to begin? We had done 3 singles with At A Loss Records (Sound of Swords Clashing), Lunchbox Records (split with Inkwell) and Auto Stop Records (Symbol of Sound Progress), respectively, and had enough music ready to do a full-length. On our winter 1995 tour, we played in Austin, TX with Action Patrol, and Mark Owens from Buddy System Records came out to the show and I guess liked what he saw (or was it Matt Owens?). Later on he talked with his brother (the other one) as well as Mike Simonetti from Troubleman Records in New Jersey and decided to put out a split-release LP/CD. Mike told us that except for Carbomb, it was the first band he ever released without seeing live first. We recorded the album in March of 1996 in New Jersey with Alap Momin (from Dalek) studio in his parent’s house. He had recently recorded all of the Rye singles and the split LP with Karp, and we were big fans of their sound, especially guitar and cymbal sound, so we went for it. The songs were literally tracked in his garage, with the guitar amp on one side, the drums on the other, and the bass amp in the next room. I’m pretty sure the songs were recorded on ADAT tapes, just to give you an idea of the era we are talking about here. Alap was very fond of telling us that something sounded “sick”, which we weren’t used to hearing coming from Georgia, but we liked it. People seemed to enjoy this record, I have gotten many good reviews from all over and the only complaint I ever had was the recording quality. But we are talking DIY postpunk here – sorry the production value is not what you are used to. I believe we recorded the entire album in 3 or 4 days, and then drove home overnight to play with Dahlia Seed at the Driverdome. For the most part there is only one guitar, bass, drums and vocals on the album – we played it live with no overdubs or extra instrumentation. The album didn’t come out until December of 1996 (9 months turnaround time), and by then we already had the next two singles and some of the Textures of Tomorrow album written and incorporated into our set. Ben and Phil Dwyer from Inkwell worked the night shift at Kinkos during this time, so we had inserts printed in file folders for the LP release, just as something special. I think we did two pressings of this album and the file folder insert was only included on the first. Phil Dwyer also did all the artwork, which we loved and were really proud of. He basically legitimized our band through his design. Around this same time the Promise Ring’s first album came out, and it kind of looked like ours, which was kind of a bummer, but what can you do. I also liked the idea of the Hal al Shedad identification cards, which expired on March 15, 1998 although I can't remember the signficance of that date. Perhaps it was 3 years after the first show. We actually had these laminated ID cards printed, but these are long gone now. The video stills on the front were taken by Phil Dwyer from a show at a former frat house at Emory University in Atlanta, I believe it was a Food Not Bombs benefit. I still have the original video, and about 100 still images that Phil went through to find these. One of these stills is included above. The photographs were taken by Valery Lovely, a local scene icon, photographer and sister of Lewis Lovely from Scout. We walked around downtown Atlanta and used Tim from Scout's car trying to get some good surveillance-type photos to include in this release. We almost called the album “Surveillance of Heaven”, but I never had a self-titled album for any release I played on, so I recommended that we just keep it nameless. That is about all I can think of regarding this album, send me a comment if you have any questions and I can try to answer them.

Here are some alternate pictures from that photo session:

Here is an overview of each song:

Walking Blind Dancing – Good early-style song of ours, like the early singles but starting to move in the more varied dynamics direction of our mid-period stuff. Since Ben starts with the big “IIIIIIIII”, we thought it would be good to start the album that way. I liked to play things with a shuffle rhythm, and then back to straight rhythms. This is also done well on After School.

Unification – I liked how Franklin’s first album had a long instrumental song after the first rocker, and we decided to go the same way. We were into non-conventional song sequencing as a band. Josh Lott from At the Price of the Union told me once that he saw us play this song in a house in Athens and that convinced him that this type of music was the way to go.

After School – A good start with the drum fill, shuffle/straight/shuffle structure. Ed does vocal duties, which was very rare. I think Ben wrote the lyrics but wanted Ed to sing them. I always liked Ed’s singing/yelling voice, but he barely used it in the band.

Postcard Communication – We were big fans of the song “The Everyday World of Bodies“ by Rodan, and I think this was our kind of homage to it. Ben used to always start his drives in the van by putting that song on. This is when we started getting into longer and more orchestrated songs, also with The Art of Mapmaking on the same album, but didn’t really hit our peak until Textures of Tomorrow, which has a few big ones. I think we did this in one take, just because it was so long to start over.

Spoken City – This was one we wrote and almost never played live. The only time I remember playing it was in Rapid City, SD when we played someone’s hallway and the conditions were so tight an loud that we had to play the end part just to blow the place out. That end part has 3 basses going at the same time, by the way.

Consolation Prize – Great middle part that had the token “Troubleman Rhythm”, i.e. da-da/da-da, da-da/da-da, da-da/da-da, da-da/da-da. We played this one quite a bit live, along with Local Seeing, Unification and That One (of course).

The Question is Moot – My only singing on a song post-Midget Farmer days. It was fun to play, and I liked the mix of having Ed sing some, Ben sing some and myself. However, Ben was really the singer, and I was just messing around. No more singing after this one.

Falling Out – Another one written pretty much for the album and almost never played live. Like a lost HAS song that I hardly recognize when I hear it again.

That One – If hal had a hit single, this would have been it. We played it at pretty much every show. It was fun to play, and was always powerful. I really miss playing it.

The Art of Mapmaking – We split it into 2 songs just because of the length and to be pretentious. I remember playing it in Philadelphia and getting a great response. We liked to play with dynamics at that point, and trying to make the quietest parts as quiet as possible, and the loudest parts as loud as possible, hopefully in the same song.

Here is the artwork and a promo poster from the album: