Robot Cousin Soundworks

I have been a huge, long-time fan of Tripping Daisy. When Wes Berggren (guitarist) passed away in October of 2000, I felt sad. Both for the loss of Wes, and also for the loss of that beautiful sound.

After TD understandably called it quits, they released one more album, self-titled, and on it held the magificient opus Tragiverse. I believe I’ve already spoken about that.

Anyway, Tim Delaughter (singer and ‘leader’ of Tripping Daisy) went on to form ‘The Polyphonic Spree‘, a 20-or-so member musical troupe that is always uplifting and magical. But despite being a fan, I always thought that the slight ‘edge’ that was in TD’s music was lost when it went in this new direction. So, I kept up with some of the Daisy’s old members, more specifically Ben Curtis.

Curtis, after Tripping Daisy, went on to form The Secret Machines, who are very excellent, and I strongly suggest getting their first 3 albums, September 000, Now here is Nowhere, and Ten Silver Drops.

Curtis left TSM a few years ago, and I’d still be sore about that (he’s just so damn good!) if he wasn’t doing an AMAZING job, along with the Deheza sisters, rocking it out as the School of Seven Bells. I find it really tough to get into new music (crank old man here!) but I just can’t help but love SVIIB.

This is one reason I don’t mind not having him in TSM.

Everything’s been up and down lately. Not much music has been coming out of me. It’s a block, but I know it’s temporary. I’ve started taking my Microtrack with me to a lot of places, as I find myself alone in the car, driving, and I’ll have a musical idea that I know won’t last more than 10 minutes in my head. I record a crude version of me humming or la-la-la-ing it out (quite embarrassing even when it’s just me listening back to it) so at least I’ll have that “really good idea” for a while, until I can get back to Logic.

What’s been inspiring me lately is Tripping Daisy’s “Jesus Hits like the Atom Bomb“, which is, hands-down, the best album I’ve ever heard. I bought it when it came out, in 1997, and at first, as with most music I end up loving, I didn’t like it at first. Why not? Because it wasn’t as “alternative-rock” as their previous album, “I am an Elastic Firecracker.” There wasn’t a track on there that could, at the time, match up to my then-favourite 9-minute grunge-opus “Prick“.

However, after only a few listens, I quickly came to realize that this was an amazing musical treat.

From the get-go, the ever-energetic “Field Day Jitters“, followed by the wonderfully epic “Waited a Light Year” (yes, we all know it’s not actually a measure of time), and all the way until the last murmurs of their Brainiac tribute, Indian Poker Parts II & III, “Jesus Hits…” is an ear-opening and emotional journey through a very abstract and candy-coated sonic landscape. I still, to this day, have it constantly playing in the car. I sing along to it. I don’t do that very often, but I can’t help but make an exception. Am I any good? No, but it my imagination, I’m awesome. This album makes me feel awesome. This album makes me feel more everything than anything that came before it. This one album has seen me through pretty much every good and bad time of my recent life, and I know it’ll be there for anything in the future. I know I’m coming off as some sort of fanboy, and because of that, I try each and every time to listen to it critically, objectively. In doing so, I’m still amazed by how it all comes together, so very fresh and dynamic, although I have found a few editing errors. One of the best things about this album is that I actually do notice new things every single time I listen. How could they ever follow it?

While I do very much enjoy Tripping Daisy’s post-humously released self-titled final album, it has its dry spots. This is very much not the case with “Jesus Hits…” If I wanted an amalgamation of both albums, I would simply add “Drama Day Weekend” and “Tragiverse” to it, but that might upset the flow of it all.

I’d love to give all credit to the band itself, and I’m sure that that’s where the majority of it should be placed, but that would be overlooking a very important individual named Eric Drew Feldman. There are no words for the music this man produces. He knows how to hit those fantastic moments time and time again. Another one of my favourite Feldman productions is Frank Black’s “Teenager of the Year“. Speedy Marie, ahead of the now. She’s better built, that’s how. She’s built for speed.

I think I’m done gushing for one post. Next up, the sounds of post-apocalyptia.

I’m about to start work on something big. Something (in my world) that is the biggest yet. I can’t reveal what it is just yet, but in the coming months, if we (a filmmaker-friend/colleague and I) get funding, the creative floodgates will finally break open, and my god, I’m going to keep the pencil moving.

What we’ll be doing isn’t very large on the Hollywood scale of things, but with the scale we’re using, I don’t actually think it’s been done before. If there has ever been a cause for me to get my thoughts and ideas in order, this is it.

I wish I could say more, but I’m sworn to secrecy and all that.

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My fiancée, who’s recently studied colour theory, has let me know that the colours for this site don’t really “work” as well as they could. My whole purpose for the look of this place was to make it seem young and fun, but not in a Gap-sort-of-way. Truth be told, I was 110%-directly-inspired by this album. Their music was like candy, like sweet chaos to my ears, and I will always think of them as one of my primary inspirations, whether it shows or not. Tim Delaughter, you have a wonderful mind. In fact, the whole reason I changed my site over to this blog format was because I stumbled across his blog, and thought “I should post the stuff I’m doing.”

I digress. The colours on the page might be changing in the next little while, but the layout itself is staying right where it is. I enjoy it too much (And it just plain works!) to change it again so soon.

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Well, all of that aside, I think sometime today (later today) or tomorrow, I’ll finally be re-uploading “Nothing Fancy” for all to enjoy (again). I had a ton of fun and a ton of headaches working on that album, but it was worth it in the end. Headaches? For a 9-track, 28-minute album? Yes. Many. You see, I ran out of ideas after the first 3 tracks, and strained and strained for months. All the while, this was meant to be a Christmas present for my friend Ben (who still owes me a 100×100 pic for linkage to his excellent artwork and comics), so I wanted it to be “good enough”.

More stories to come when I actually post it.