Sandman's Journal

Someone wanted to know why my two newest cds are sequels...

Before I start, I want to say that these are possibly two of my most favorite cds ever. Many Hollywood movie sequels are created to capitalize on past successes, and often times wax duller than their predecessors. My new pair of cds, I feel, are much more inspired than their prequels. Here's a contrast and comparison of both sets:

1997- the blackhole (...of outerspace) - A six-song cassette-only release produced by Giles O'Dell in his living room. Camo Davi, my hip hop sidekick at the time, joined me on a few of these tracks. Camo was always notoriously late for everything, so while waiting for him to arrive Giles and I recorded one song, all freestyle, called "Waiting for Camo." Giles had only planned to record one or two songs, but by the time Camo arrived we had an EP.
vs.
2005- (return to) the blackhole (...of outerspace) - In March of this year Giles brought up the idea of doing a sequel to blackhole 1, as sort of a joke (or so I thought). I was still in Olympia. He said that he had some fresh beats and a free schedule. I said I had a notebook full of new raps that I could probably patchwork together. We made a date for recording some of them on the day before I was to depart for North Dakota. Our rules were simple: we had to complete the project that day. I was thinking we might finish 9 or 10 songs, but by day's end we had a 19-track masterpiece. The trickiest part of the process was deciding which of my rhymes fit best with his beats. Camo's southern-fried beatboxing is included on this one, too . . . but you have to wait for the hidden track.
p.s. I should add that Giles and I cheated on the "one-day rule." He spent at least 50 more hours, after I left, polishing up the beats, adding samples, and getting Blandow Charismium to scratch on some tracks.
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1997- Love's Hangover Sale - This cd was recorded at Dub Narcotic (Calvin Johnson's K Records studio), by Diana Arens. I put down 30 songs during a couple days onto two-inch analog tape. I then brought these songs to Montana and let my mom help me choose which ones to keep and in what order to put them in. We narrowed it down to 14 songs. The only track I redid was "Love's Hangover Sale" which I had my old pal Carl Dexter produce. Camo played harmonica; Chad Austinson rocked percussion; Carl strummed mandolin; and I sang and played guitar. Then we overdubbed the vocals of Christine Cory, Andras Jones, and Carl Dexter. This record got favorobly reviewed in No Depression, and a few people consider it their favorite record of mine.
vs.
2005- Love's Hangover Sale, pt. 2 - My mom catalyzed this one. She thought I needed to document all the folk & country songs that Jen Grady and I used to sing together when we toured. I told Jen about this idea and she was game. Jen's friend Bob Schwenkler recorded six of the songs; Shawn Parke (who recorded Long Ride/Walk Home and Slippery Goodstuff) recorded nine more; and Carl Dexter produced one. Chad Austinson drums on three of these songs; Madeline Gonzales plays violin on one; and Jen Grady plays cello on one track, and sings with me on ten more. She also contributes two solo songs. This 16-song album is full of my (and Jen's) best love songs ever-- plus one of despair.