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  • 2009 Really Raw Honey Underground Mix

    RAD-901

    Artist: Various Ropeadope Artists

    Label: Ropeadope Digital

  • Inventing the Wheel

    RAD-902

    Artist: JDT

    Label: Ropeadope Digital

  • Undesirables

    RADDIG-82

    Artist: Kicksville

    Label: Ropeadope

    John Beecher's poem, Undesirables, was originally published in 1964. Unfortunately, it could have been written today, considering this country's attitude towards immigration issues has changed little in the last 45 years. The context may be different, but the end result is the same: our knee-jerk reaction to bar immigrants for political affiliations or ideas seriously undermines the basic foundation of our Constitution. As John points out in the poem, some of the most important people in our country's history have been immigrants, and we're far richer (both culturally and financially) for it.

    The Music
    Once upon a time, there was a song by the band Joi called What You Are, and they released the raw tracks for a remix competition. Since Joi is on Real World Records, we thought it would be interesting to see what we'd come up with, and in return, what ol' Petey G. would think of our approach. Well...as usual around here, we ended up throwing away all of the original samples, re-recording the song's guitar riff, and turning the lyrical concept on its head. Joi's song What You Are is about how we're all one people, peace, love, etc. Undesirables is the reality check/answer to Joi's idealism: we very well might be one people, but we sure don't act that way.

    Two funny things about this: None of us have ever actually heard the Joi song that gave us the idea for Undesirables.The sample pack we downloaded didn't have a complete mix, just isolated samples with no reference as to how they were arranged in the original song. Second, when we finished the mix and uploaded it to the Real World site for the competition, they wouldn't accept it! They said it had absolutely no relation to the original song, and since we didn't use any of the original samples, it didn't count as a "remix". Their loss, as far as we're concerned ;-)

    Citizens
    cover art: "cover #92" by Tone Deaf
    Conrad St. Clair: bass, keys, programming
    Mike Stehr: keys
    Lou Caldarola: drum kit
    Chris Huntington: guitar
    Aya Peard: vocals
    John Beecher: spoken word

  • Last Step

    RADDIG-80

    Artist: Kicksville

    Label: Ropeadope

    The Last Step is the closing chapter in the story of the characters first introduced in Evil Demon Weed: Bob (the Pusher), Candy (the Evil Temptress), and Johnny (the Good Kid on the Path to Ruin). Bob, Candy, and Johnny have been a big part of the growing Kicksville "mythology": they're featured on the cover on Enter the Flavor Hut, they're the thread that sews our live show together, and they're regulars in Tone Deaf's poetry.

    When we last saw them, Johnny was being introduced to the Demon Weed, led on by Bob and his femme fatale, Candy. Now, in The Last Step, Johnny has become a hopeless junkie, Candy has taken the Vows, and Bob has fallen into the depths of a drug-induced psychotic break. Fun for the whole family!

    Bonus question of the week! There are references to three other songs in this track: two Kicksville songs and a Rush song. The first person to guess two out of three gets a t-shirt - email your answers to info@kicksville.com!

    The Music
    To paraphrase Frank Zappa, music without dissonance or tension is like eating cottage cheese. If that's the case, then The Last Step is the spiciest Pad Thai you ever had! Musically, this song owes a lot to Zappa's work with Captain Beefheart: check out the song Sam with the Showing Scalp Flat-top, and you'll see what we mean....

    Citizens
    cover art: "Monkey's Memento" by Tone Deaf
    Conrad St. Clair: keys, programming
    Mike Stehr: keys
    Lou Caldarola: drum kit, percussion
    Chris Huntington: guitar
    Tone Deaf: spoken word

  • Touch The Ground

    RADDIG_93

    Artist: Kicksville

    Label: Ropeadope

    This track marks the first appearance in Season 2 of City Council member, Aya Peard. According to Aya, Touch the Ground is about "...keeping your head down and wits about you.... It's a no-worries song: move forward, follow through, commit, and don't get trapped!"

    We started working on Touch the Ground during production rehearsals for last summer's tour, which makes it one of the first songs we were able to write with the City Council all in one place at one time. We brought in Tim Gruber and Amir Alam to overdub some tasty extra bits, but the majority of the recording is pretty much the City Council, giving the track a very "live" feel.

    The Music
    The song is really built around the bass line - I started playing the progression, and everything else just fell in place on top. The bass on the final mix was actually recorded live (first take, too)as a scratch track for the initial sketch of the song, but we decided to keep it. There might be a few minor clams, but overall the part had such a good feel it didn't make sense to re-track it. And although we've mentioned this before in Season 1, it certainly bears repeating: guitar + E-bow + Filter Factory = seriously hot aural action!
    Citizens
    cover art: "Pity the Foo" by Tone Deaf
    Conrad St. Clair: bass, guitar, percussion, programming
    Mike Stehr: percussion
    Lou Caldarola: drum kit, percussion
    Chris Huntington: guitar
    Beaker: guitar
    Aya Peard: vocals
    Amir Alam: guitar
    Tim Gruber: percussion

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