Sweet Sweet Runaway (Final)

Sweet Sweet Runaway (Final)

(D.Lux Cheeseburger)

As promised, here's the final version of the preview track from the Cheeseburgers' "Desolation Boulevard II"! Hope ya dig it in all it's 70's power pop glory...

Featuring D.Lux Cheeseburger, Junior Cheeseburger, and various other meat patties (to be updated)...

Sweet Sweet Runaway (Demo)

Sweet Sweet Runaway (Demo)

(D.Lux Cheeseburger)

Well, kids, instead of posting anything I did today, I wanna put something up that got leaked to me and I'm very excited about: an original demo from the Cheeseburgers! (You DO know about America's favorite rock group/cartoon show, dontcha?) Reported to be one of the tracks on the upcoming release "Desolation Boulevard II", this cut showcases why so many folks are raving about 'em and comparing them to 70's rock warriors The Sweet! Excelsior!

Anyway, here's another installment of "demo tonight, finished track tomorrow". Tomoorw's cut should be on the album, and tonight's is a 365 exclusive! Enjoy!

D.Lux Cheeseburger: The works

Nothing

Nothing

(Morgan)

I know the title lends itself to a snarky review, so let's just acknowledge that and move on. Anyway, I don't even remember recording this one (rare for me) but it should date from around '96/'97; kinda cool sampled voice-thingy happening there. Far out, man!

Al: Something from nothing

Get It Together (Final)

Get It Together (Final)

(Morgan)

Okay, the more developed studio version happened about 5 years after the demo, when I was looking for a song to record for my birthday (like on "Pantalones", invite some friends over to Dr. Dave's studio, record, mix, drink, viola!) Lot of fun to record, and we can see the difference it makes in actually recording with other people...

Al: Vox, backing vox, guitar & percussion
Steve: Bass, backing vox & percussion
Dave: drums, "sax", backing vox & percussion
Neil Levin: guitar, backing vox & percussion
Also featuring Sook, Toni Morgan, Heather Jorden, Cindy Lee, and my apologies to whomever I'm forgetting...

Get It Together (Demo)

Get It Together (Demo)

(Morgan)

Let's try something new here...I'll post a song demo here tonight, and the more developed "Dr. Dave" version tomorrow, for a little compare & contrast. Hokay?
Here's a fun little pop number...designed to be all sunshiney and shit. A punch in error results in the keyboard coming in a few bars too late, but hey, it's a demo, right? Enjoy.

Al: Gettin' it together

Wrapped In Plastic

Wrapped in Plastic

(Morgan)

To the cassettes, Batman! I was apparently reasonably busy back in '96/'97, since I found a cache of demos from that period. That was when I was in the first house that I owned (well, the bank owned it, but don't burst a guy's bubble, right?) and had partially converted the garage to a home demo studio.

All right, all right, it was really a four track, a drum machine, an effects box and a synthesizer set up on an ironing board. Plus a microphone looped over a rafter. But it worked!

This one's about the freeze-dried commodification of modern life (Oh, the humanity! Get a grip!). In reality, probably just about all the frozen foods I was eating...

Al: Wrapped

Start Right Here

Start Right Here

(Morgan)

Marriage, as many of us know, seems to be a series of compromises (wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in creamy nougat). Eventually you fight, and then either go back to "I wuv you, woogums!" or move on to "will you please hold still so that I can carom this set of dishes off your pointy little head?" I've had it both ways, the latter most recently. Hence tonight's entry.
It's a song about how hard it can be for two people to communicate, but ultimately it's hopeful. Of course, I may sound emotionally drained, but I have been cleaning house all day...just to get the world-weary tone necessary for the song! The things I do for my art...

Al: Guitar, voice

Cheesesteak Blues

Cheesesteak Blues

(Mike Wall)

Why, yes, a blues song. John's bro Mike wrote it and it was henceforth recorded for the ages. My voice was pitched down for extra "authentic blues guy" vibe...though instead you may think I've just overdosed on Vicodin. Dave saves the day as usual...

Al: Vox
John: Guitar
Dave: Gets his mojo workin' on the rest of it

Clap Your Hands

Clap Your Hands

(Morgan)

Well, this post would have been on time for Monday if my GODDAMN ISP DID WHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO FUCKING DO. WHAT THE FUCK AM I PAYING ALL THIS MONEY FOR, ANYWAY?

There. That feels marginally better.

Anyway, here's Monday's entry. It's about that feeling that someone might be staring at you for unknown reasons, in the spirit of a 70's singlong song. It's really a chance to juxtapose some Pop Machine & Osmium loops to see what happens...bonus points for anyone who identifies 'em.

Al: Loopy

90

90

(Morgan)

"Hey, Al."
"Yes, self?"
"It's almost midnight. Time for another song."
"Already? Crap. All right, what have I got lying around?"
"Lying around? Hey, what about a new one?"
"What? No, no time. Besides, people are going to see thru my 'bang it out on acoustic guitar thing' soon."
"Well, you'll have to suck that part up. You've got about 280 entries left to go."
"Fine, fine, whatever. I just don't have time for a new one tonight."
"All right, just don't give out any of the well-produced expensive ones. Gotta dole those out slowly."
"Right, I'll go to the cassettes. What have we got?"
"Well, let's stay away from Mindflux. We just introduced that stuff and we don't want to scare everyone away totally."
"Good point. I did just transfer some early 90's stuff onto the computer...how about that?"
"Is it from the 'OOP' album?"
"Noooooooo! That's pretty hardcore goofy. I've got that slated for 2007."
"Right. So....?"
"Instrumentals. From that LA period where Sook and I were sharing a pad and I was sleeping behind a cardboard box in the living room."
"Okay....."
'No, really, some of this is pretty decent. Like this one, yeah, the drum sound is very...uh, 80's, but it's got a cool little tune. Always had a soft spot for it...."
"(Sigh) Fine. Just get to work on some new ones, all right?"
"Relax. I gave 'em a few new ones this week and some good archive stuff. I'm on track."
"Right, right, whatever. So have you noticed that the dodgier the submission is, the more you oversell it in the print portion of the entry?"
"...So what's your point?"

Al: Straight outta 1990

I Wanna See You Tonight

I Wanna See You Tonight

(Wall)

Sometimes John can really class the joint up. I give him full kudos for this very nice love song that it was my pleasure to be a part of...so nice that my wife and I danced to it at our wedding (well, she certainly wasn't going to whirl around the dance floor to "Time To Make The Donuts"). Dave makes with the tasteful arrangement and accompaniment as always, and I give the ranting and funny voices a break and...you know, sing.

Al: Lead & Backing Vox, Piano
John: Guitars
Dave: Lead Guitar, Keys, Bass, Drums

Time To Make The Donuts

Time To Make The Donuts

(Morgan-Minken)

Let me tell you about Mindflux.

You could argue that this whole thing had its roots at Syracuse University, where a bunch of young smartasses got together and worked on a campus sketch comedy TV show (we called ours “Null and Void”, and I believe an incarnation of it is still going at SU today). As teenagers do, some us decided that we wanted to be ***ROCK STARS***. The real problems is that most ***ROCK STARS*** are sexy, can play their instruments well and/or are very clever songwriters & performers. For Sook and I the first two options were right out and we really hadn’t had any experience with the latter, so we decided to do what many great bands throughout the ages have done: we faked it. (Hey, if Spinal Tap and the Sex Pistols could make a go of it, why not us?)

We decided to go heavy on the humor and maximize what few assets we had while pulling in a few ringers from the TV show: Scott Hewitt and Andy Hammond jumped in on guitar (the latter especially had a facility and fondness with the Led Zeppelin catalog), Dave Minken joined as “intense bass playing guy”, and eventually he drafted a friend named Mike Wyenth for drum duties on our live show. I appointed myself keyboardist as I had spent approximately 3 months noodling around with a cheap Casio synth I got for Christmas, and both Sook and I grabbed the vocal spotlight whenever we could.
The whole thing might have stopped at a few quirky bedroom jam sessions if not for another buddy of ours named Phil Chernack. Turns out he and his roommates had rented a house and built a full ½” 8-track recording studio complete with isolation booths! Sweet! Phil was a good guy and magnanimously recorded our fledgling unit when paying gigs for the studio weren’t happening. After that, we were bitten by the recording bug and the rest is history….(i.e. Mindflux evolved/devolved into Pop Machine, which activated Osmium as a recording concern, and eventually led us to this very site. Hurrah.)

This particular track was an early signature song (or rant, to be more precise). We punked it up pretty good for our second time in the studio and I pulled out a passable Johnny Rotten impression (which I have been refining ever since). It’s really a snide whirl of ad slogans, many of which you youngsters may not remember, but enjoy nonetheless. Some of my once and future bandmates may blush a bit at having such old skeletons come out of the closet, but may I remind everyone involved that A) I warned you this was coming, B) I have 365 days of songs to fill and C) This is MY site, dammit, and if you don’t like it get your own site or perhaps a court injunction. Me, I think the stuff is fun for what it is. Ah, youth!

Al: Vox, laughably monotonous drum pattern
Scott Hewitt: Ryhtym Guitar
Andy Hammond: Lead/Slide Guitar
Dave Minken: Bass

Engineered by Phil Chernack (Note: this version is taken from Phil's original mix.)

Questions

Questions

(Morgan)

Inspiration comes from the oddest places, in this case a TV commercial. Just seeing Ellen Degeneres doing an ad for...well, something...prompted me to ask myself "Just what is this woman still doing on television?" From there a list of questions I have for the universe popped out. Those who know me will not be surprised by the Howie Mandel reference.
This one was really close to the wire, hence the opening expletive.

Al: Questions

Pick Up The Phone

Pick Up The Phone

(Morgan)

Lyrically, inspired by some late-night crank calls I had the displeasure to deal with. Oh, well, art comes from annoyance. That's better than causing it.

Al: Wring, wring

The Bouncer

The Bouncer

(Wall)

Studio fun. John loves that crunchy power chord goodness, and we get to playact through another tale of a tough guy and the bar that loves him. Yes, I am shouting "Free Bird!" at the beginning.

Al: Lead & backing vox, funny voices
John: Guitar, more funny voices
Dave: Drums, Bass, Guitar, yet again funny voices

Start the Clock

Start the Clock

(Morgan-Wall-Waterbury)

Ah, the early 2000's. (Just what are the 2000's called, anyway? The "Aughties"? The "Ohs"? We'll need to be able to refer back to this decade soon enough, so let's get cracking, folks...) Our reference to the travails of Robert Downey, Jr. may date this plea for stardom, but the subject matter remains timeless. I want my 15 minutes!
Really a Dave Waterbury opus, musically, this features a rare John Wall vocal cameo; see if you can spot it. It moves along nicely and has garnered occasional kudos. Enjoy.

Al: Lead & backing vox
John: Guitar, backing vox
Dave: The rest of it

¿Dónde Están Mis Pantalones? (Demo)

¿Dónde Están Mis Pantalones? (Demo)

Obviously kin to the studio version of this song (see 9/10/06 entry), I've always kinda liked the demo for capturing more of the faux-Beck whiteboy beatbox vibe. Since this demo really originally only had chorus vocals. I've since added a lead vocal track with the lyrics we came up with in the studio. Break it down...

Al: Guitar, Leonard Cohen impression

Antigravity

Antigravity

(Morgan)

If Bowie's "Man Who Fell To Earth" was just a poor schlub with women problems he might resemble our protagonist here...not exactly "The Little Prince", I grant you. I must be a frustrated astrophysicist or some such as I've launched songs with space metaphors more than once. Enjoy this with some Tang...

Al: Major Tom (decommissioned)

Louie Louie (Extended Remix)

Louie Louie (Extended Remix)

(Berry)

Since I'm on a roll with remixes this week, here's one "Doctor Dave" did for us when we recorded our "Louie Louie" cover back in the day (See 9/20/06 entry). Besides some different instrumentation, the main selling point here is the extended fade complete with trademark Pop Machine wackiness for your eye-rolling pleasure. Playing with the tape speed is fun!

And here's the original listing for those keeping score at home:

Continuing the covers, this one's good for a larf. I remember discussing the following back in the early 90's with the other Pop Machine guys whilst washing the dishes one balmy LA evening (my wife will dispute this, as she insists I NEVER washed the dishes back then).
Our mutual buddy Tommy G had jokingly observed that many Steely Dan songs started out in D minor; being the smartasses we are, this caused a mutual lightbulb to go on over our heads (this was actually the lightbulb in our front hall, which had been on the fritz). What was the most un-Steely Dan song we could think of to transpose into Becker-Fagenland? Why, the mighty "Louie Louie" of course. With the help of Dr. Dave and his magic sampler, we were on our way.
Mike, being the true musician that he is, considers this a bad joke and has voiced his displeasure on occasion. Naturally, we consider this a sign that we have succeeded in our misanthropic goals...

Al: Backup vox, keys
Sook: Lead vox
Scott: Lead vox
Dave: SFX, sampling

Townhouse Ghetto

Townhouse Ghetto

(Wall)

Set the wayback machine for several housing booms ago and you have the Osmium ode to prefab living. We were building this up in the studio, adding synth horns et al. and couldn't quite suss out what it was supposed to sound like. We tried several vocal styles and I believe Mr. Sookman got the idea for the speak-sing thing. Voila! Instant Zappa. Quickly to become a group favorite.
The DJ at the beginning is a lady by the name of Kathryn Lauren from WHFS-FM in Baltimore/Washington. It got airplay! Now give me my check.

Al: Vox, Keys
John: Guitar
Dave: Drums, Bass

Remixes 2.0

Go Home With Me
Lucky Number One

A few more SQ remixes; enjoy the quaddie goodness. Yes, "Lucky Number One" is pretty spare but, no, I didn't send the acoustic guitar bouncing around the speakers (next time, I promise). I just tried to open things up with a bit of reverb and vocal placement.

Remixes

Turn on the Magnetic Field
Singularity

Periodic remix time, which means 2-for-1 for you value fans. These are SQ quad remixes for you surround sound nuts like me; I picked a few recent entries wherein I could shoot stuff around the speakers. I'm like a kid in a candy store, I tell ya! Again, these should sound good on a Dolby ProLogic system as well...have fun with 'em!

Light It Off

Light It Off

(Morgan-Wall-Waterbury)

Our tribute to the late, lamented Joey Ramone, though true to form it sounds less like the Ramones than...well, us. Lotsa lyric references crammed in there, collect 'em all.

Al: Lead & Backing Vox, percussion
John: Guitar, Backing Vox
Dave: Drums, Bass, Guitar, Backing Vox

Lucky Number One

Lucky Number One

(Morgan)

Whilst noodling around with the chords that became the chorus for this 'un, the phrase "lucky number one" popped into my noggin, and I know a good conceptual hook when I see/hear/think it. So here's the tale of how one unlucky man's fortunes change when his girlfriend leaves him...

Al: Gets lucky

Pop Record

Pop Record

(Sookman)

Felt like offering up some classic Pop Machine tonight, which, BTW, you can apparently buy at iTunes. (Hey, if you want more, drop me a line at bizmopeen@earthlink.net and I'll hook you up. I know someone.)
A defining Sookman statement from our early years, I just remember it being great fun to record. A later version with me on lead vox can be found on the first "Cheeseburgers" EP (on colored vinyl, no less!) with an even more kitchen sink production. Hummable and fun, with a...thud, thud, thud, thud...HOOK!


Sook: Lead & backing vox, percussion
Al: Keys, backing vox
Scott: Guitar, backing vox
Dave: Drums, keys

Walk On

Walk On

(Morgan)

Never let it be said that I didn't know how to squeeze every last drop out of a metaphor (or as Mike might say "A meta for what?"). Put on your walkin' shoes for this stroll through...oh, whatever, it's a love song with a walking theme. It's too late to shoehorn a "These Boots Were Made For Walking" reference in, I'm afraid, but please know that it did occur to me.

Al: Vox, guitar

Singularity

Singularity

(Morgan)

So it's my birthday today, and wooden chew no it but I had to take an exam! So tonight's track semi-simulates the holding actions my brain goes through as all rational thought wriggles up the air ducts and I stare blankly at the paper in front of me. Kind of.
Part trancey-thing, part vocal harmonies, even a little rap thing in there. And I hit the deadline...

Al: Uh...what are Fourier tansforms again?

Hey, Einstein! (Semi-Acoustic Remix)

Hey, Einstein! (Semi-Acoustic Remix)
(Morgan-Wall)

Maybe we're a decade or so late for the "Unplugged" phenom, but enjoy this anyway. Always fun to revisit an old fave, especially one as snarky as this. For those of you keeping score, yes, this is encoded in SQ quad for your surround sound enjoyment. (I gotta get my money's worth outta this encoding equipment, dig?)

Al: Lead & backing vox, acoustic gee-tar
John: Electric gee-tar, backing vox
Dave: Bass, backing vox
Sook: Backing vox, laughter & snorts

Centralia

Centralia

(Wall)

Wherein the Osmium consortium tackles social issues and country music in one fell swoop. This one's an oldie about the semi-famous town in Pennsylvania that has a coal fire that won't go out burning under the town. Some people still live there and refuse to move even though the underground heat is killing off the aboveground life...kinda nutty. There's another (better) version John worked on without me singing, but since this is my site this one goes up.

Al: Vox, keys
John: Gee-tar
Dave: Drums, bass, more gee-tar

Turn on the Magnetic Field

Turn on the Magnetic Field

(Morgan)

Sometimes function follows form: when I was assembling this I didn't slow down the drum pattern so everythingmovesalongveryquickly. I tried to set down lyrics to match. The mood is enhanced by the truly dynamic thunderstorms we are still having...

Al: Magnetic field

Thunder and Rain

Thunder and Rain

(Morgan)

A brief sketch inspired by the thunderstorms we've had this evening.

Al: Guitar & Voice