TITLE After School Special
META Description Collected musical ephemera of The Dudes, 2001-2006.
After School Special is a collection of musical ephemera from the
early- to mid-2000s, recorded by me and my friends; notably my girlfriend
(now wife) Sumana Harihareswara, Adam Kaplan, and Kristofer Straub. It includes
passionately worked songs, painstakingly written songs recorded under
primitive conditions, and crappy improvised songs that happened to
make it into an MP3 file.
For mass downloads, see MP3 and OGG directories.
Quick note on cover art. Front cover is a painting I did in high
school, based on a random shape from my sketchbook. Back cover is the
traditional musician's embarrassing photo of himself when he was a
kid.
Track List
-
After School Special: The original
Adam/Leonard/Kris collaboration. Puts us on the map as children of
the 80s. Full of ridiculous goings-on.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce 1)
(Announce 2)
-
Frog/Antifrog: The earliest recording
on this album tells the story of love and loss in video games. Thanks
to Andy Holloway for keeping a copy of this recording after I
unaccountably lost mine. I'm almost certain to re-record this for a
future album, because it's beautiful.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
-
Hard Like Steel Pk5 (not classy): The
first of two collaboratively written songs where the lyrics come from
spam in Adam's inbox. Music mostly by me and Adam. Also includes
Kris, Kim, and a spam-maddened Sumana. My ending rant where I accuse
others of ruining my classy penis enlargement song has become a minor
classic of our household.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
-
Viagra Pro has become available since
1998 and: This spam was actually written as a song. My favorite
part is Kris's New Wave "let's go!" at the beginning. Everyone in the
room joins in on the classic line "2".
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
-
Attack of the Good Ol' Boys from Planet
Honky-Tonk: The title of this song was inspired by the only funny
joke in a science fiction novel I wrote when I was 12. Just thinking
about it right now I can come up with all kinds of SF riffs that are
funnier than what I originally wrote. That's experience!
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
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The Whiskey Rebellion Activity
Zone: Inspired by a page on the IRS's website for kids. Sumana
tells the story. According to me-of-the-past it is "the only song
ever written in the Cory Doctorow/George Saunders/Ken MacLeod mode,"
and I stand by that, though now I'd say Charlie Stross instead of Ken
MacLeod. The original Whiskey Rebellion Activity Zone can
be found via
the Wayback Machine.
Sumana made a music video for this song.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce 1)
(Announce 2)
-
Sand Bar: In 2002 Jake Berendes
decided he would do a compilation of ten-second songs. I sent him two
songs; "Sand Bar" and "Android Assassin From Vega XV, The". I don't
think he ever actually did the compilation. "Sand Bar" is interesting
because it's actually a twenty-second song, but I cram it down to ten
seconds by playing both verses simultaneously.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
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Android Assassin From Vega XV, The:
My second ten-second song. Mainly my tribute to indexes that move
articles in noun phrases to the end of the noun phrase. I remember
being a little kid and looking through some collection of Disney
songs or something, and being really creeped out at index entries
like (let's say) "Bear Necessities, The". Actually has kind of the
same meter as "Sand Bar".
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce 1)
(Announce 2)
-
House, M.D.: Jake Berendes was
extremely disappointed when I told him this was a song about a TV
show; he thought I had invented the character, I guess. Originally
improvised for Sumana, and the first song I ever did a drum track for
with Hydrogen.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
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Cowboy: Another improvised song.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
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Pirate: Mike Popovic filked "Cowboy"
for his daughter, and I recorded it. There was a brief vogue for
filking "Cowboy", as I was thinking of doing a whole album of these
songs about people pretending to buy into various
professions/lifestyles and defensively making it part of their
identity. Some of the filks were pretty good but I didn't feel like
recording them all.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
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Doob-Doob: An a capella tribute to the
"vain, stupid, but loveable" crocodile from India's Amar Chitra Katha
comic books. Probably unlistenable. Might be slightly more listenable
if all four voices in the a capella weren't me.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce)
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Superstar: I saved the best for
last. An epic Adam/Leonard/Kris collaboration with guitar solo and
proper mixing and everything. Where "After School Special" explores
the television aspect of the 80s kid-oriented media environment,
"Superstar" explores an aspect found in music videos and teen movies:
the idea that rock 'n' roll itself has totemic power that thwarts
adult plans and absolves teenagers of responsibility. As with "Viagra
Pro has become available since 1998 and", Kris has a great
interjected line that has no meaning but is funny in context.
Funny story about the last two lines. Adam wrote them in the text
editor while Kris and I were away, and then tried to convince us that
someone else had written them. This might have worked if there were
hundreds of people working on the song, and if Adam had been able to
pick a scapegoat and quickly turn everyone else against the
scapegoat. But Adam's ruse was quickly discovered, and to punish him
Kris and I made those lines part of the actual song. They're my
favorite lines in the song.
(OGG)
(MP3)
(Announce 1)
(Announce 2)
- Put Meat On The Online Bone: Bonus track. I forgot all about this
song until I saw an old weblog entry just
before releasing the album, and quickly recorded it. It was inspired by a press
release in which Omaha Steaks was hailed for putting said meat on
said online bone. For a while I would sing this song to myself,
wondering if the mysterious "online bone" was something out of a Pound
Puppies relaunch or what. Then I forgot about it for seven years. Now,
it's your turn.
(OGG) (MP3)
(Announce 1)
(Announce 2)