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The American Analog Set a sorti en digital une série de chansons inédites. L'ensemble s'appelle Hard to find: Singles and unreleased 2000 - 2005 et se trouve dans sur les principales plateformes de téléchargement légal... [plus d'infos]
Tracklisting :
1. Stoney Chariots
2. New Equation
3. Make It Take It
4. Sharp Briar (feat. Matt Pond)
5. Choir Vandals (demo)
6. Cool Kids Keep (12" version)
7. First Of Four (12" version)
8. The Only Living Boy Around (Know By Heart version)
9. Hard To Find (original)
10. Hard To Find (reprise)
11. All I Want For Christmas
12. Green Green Grass (12" version)
13. Everything Ends In Spring (12" version)
Stoney Chariots
Recorded in Fort Worth, TX during the first "Set Free" sessions in January of 2004.
This was a half time version of a song called "Promise Of Love". It was the result of a typical rehearsal goof. You've been there. Playing things half time or double time is a laugh until one day something like this happens and you say, "oops.. this is much better".
"Chariots of Mutherfucking Fire" was the working title for the song "Promise Of Love" and so this version became "Stoney Chariots". It was our default opener from 2003 through our last tour in 2005. We're here. We may require your attention.
When I try to explain to people why Sean should've sang more, this is the song I send them.
New Equation
Recorded in 2000 in Austin, TX. Released on a 7" in the Fall of 2001 on Tigerstyle Records.
In 2000, a second era began for the AmAnSet. We lost Lisa, but gained Tom and Sean. In the summer of 2000, we recorded a 4 song demo that we would use to gain interest in the forthcoming full length, "Know By Heart". The four songs were, "Punk As Fuck", "Choir Vandals", "The Only One", and "New Equation". The recording was lovingly produced by new keyboardist, Tom Hoff, and employed a load of new and generally less comically backwards techniques that would define the recorded sound of the new 5 piece band.
The sounds of the instruments were still honest and accurate, but generally more colorful and full frequency. The reverb on the drums and vocals that had been a staple on earlier releases was also absent. Below the wash, there were songs. Tom Hoff went and found them.
"New Equation", specifically, was the first time I ever doubled my voice an octave higher. This effect was borrowed for nearly every song on 2003's lp, "Promise Of Love".
Make It Take It
The basic parts were recorded in the Spring of 2002 in Austin, TX. The recording was completed in Brooklyn, NY in the Fall of 2002.
We never played it live. In fact, the song was a late addition to the "Promise Of Love" sessions and still a work in progress when we left on tour for the Summer of 2002. Upon completion, it was decided that it didn't make sense on "Promise Of Love", but that it would make a great companion to "Hard To Find" on a 7" single. However, the 7" never happened and so the song and this recording was shelved.
Sharp Briar (feat. Matt Pond)
The basic parts were recorded in Austin, TX with the second "Set Free" sessions in May of 2004 and the song was finished at the Laboratory in Jackson, MS with the rest of "Set Free" later that year.
Matt recorded his voice at the Hotsy Totsy in Brooklyn, NY in early 2005. When Matt came over to sing backups on "Everything Ends in Spring", I asked him if he wanted to have a go at anything else. This is what he laid down and remains one of my favorite AmAnSet moments.
Choir Vandals (demo)
Recorded in 2000 in Austin, TX. Released on a cd compilation that accompanied Comes With A Smile issue #14, in the Spring of 2004.
There was an earlier 4-track demo of every song on "Know By Heart", but his was another song from the 4-song demo recorded by Tom Hoff.
Cool Kids Keep (ep version)
The basic parts were recorded in Austin, TX in May of 2004 with the second "Set Free" sessions. It was completed later that year in Jackson, MS with the rest of "Set Free".
When I think about the marathon recording sessions and late nights we spent finishing this record, I usually think of this song. Instead of the usual "find something that sounds great and let it ride" philosophy that characterized some of my favorite and longer AmAnSet moments, Chris Micheals and I decided to chase this one a little further. We took our favorite two guitars and our favorite 4 amps from the session, and played 4 voicings of D and D7 in the 32 different combinations that were possible. We took out a few that we didn't like, arranged the rest in some semblance of a rise and fall and recorded each in order on opposite sides of the studio's tracking room so they would speak to one another in call and response within the stereo field. Was there nothing good on television?
I should also mention that this ending was inspired by a song called "Promenade" by the Underground Lovers. I don't know how much about their recording process, but I always imagined it was something like this.
First Of Four (ep version)
The basic parts were recorded in Austin, TX in May of 2004 with the second "Set Free" sessions. It was completed later that year in Jackson, MS with the rest of "Set Free". I really liked the string loops that we got to work with on "Promise Of Love" and this was my only opportunity to use them for the "Set Free" era material.
The Only Living Boy Around (Know By Heart version)
Recorded towards the end of 2000 in Austin, TX. Released on a cd compilation that accompanied Comes With A Smile issue #10 in the Spring of 2002.
I have always loved this song, but it's lived most of its life under the edge of one rug or another. It was written too late to be on 1999's "The Golden Band" and so it was made into a 7" single and released around the same time. A much better version was recorded with the the "Know By Heart" era material and was intended to be released on an ep featuring all the organ heavy songs from that batch. I originally wanted "Know By Heart" to be a Farfisa-free record and so we'd planned an ep to feature songs like "Million Young", "New Equation", "The Postman", and this updated version of "Only Living Boy". However, it only took one disappointed yet stern look from Mark and I put "Million Young" back on the album. Once the Farfisa ban was broken, "The Postman" was an obvious choice to include on the album as well. "New Equation" was left to itself on a 7" single. That left "Gone To Earth" and "Only Living Boy" on the fence as the two previously recorded AmAnSet songs we were considering and the album only had room for one. The original "Only Living Boy" was due to be the first song on the developing singles compilation, "Through the 90's", that was released that same summer and so the updated version was stricken from "Know By Heart". I stand by this version.
The higher backing vocals were recorded over the now absent tambourine track and so you can hear the tambourine jump back in for an instant after the second chorus vocals are punched out at the very end of the song. It's a mistake but I've heard it so many times now it's hard for me to imagine the song without it.
Hard To Find (original)
The basic parts were recorded in the Spring of 2002 in Austin, TX. The recording was completed in Brooklyn, NY in the Fall of 2002.
This song was a live staple from the Summer of 2002 through our last tour in 2005. If you've ever seen the AmAnSet live, you'll recognize this version as the one we played on tour. The album version is 1:37 shorter and was originally intended to be on a 7" single with "Make It Take It". At the 11th hour we realized that side A of "Promise Of Love" was too long for vinyl, and we traded the longer version version out to keep the side under 20 minutes. We entertained the idea of making the 7" a 10" to accommodate the longer "Hard To Find" but sadly, Tigerstyle Records went out of business not long after the release of "Promise Of Love" and so this version of "Hard To Find" and "Make It Take It" were both shelved.
I have to admit, I'm a little partial to the longer version but side A of "Promise Of Love" is probably my favorite side of an American Analog Set record and I wouldn't change a thing about it now.
Hard To Find (reprise)
The basic parts were recorded in the Spring of 2002 in Austin, TX. The recording was completed in Brooklyn, NY in the Summer of 2003.
It was released on a split 7" single that accompanied Devil In The Woods Magazine in September of 2003
All I Want For Christmas
Recorded in 2000 in Austin, TX. Released on a 7" with "New Equation" in the Fall of 2001 on Tigerstyle Records.
This song was a little less polished than some of the others from the "Know By Heart" sessions, but it was the eventual inclusion of "The Postman" that actually bumped it from the record. Ben Gibbard sang on both recordings and when it comes to being upstaged by a guest vocalist that is way better than you... I have strict "once per record" policy. I'm talking to you too, Matt Pond.
Green Green Grass (ep version)
The basic parts were recorded in Austin, TX in 2004 with the second "Set Free" sessions. It was completed in Jackson, MS with the rest of "Set Free". This song was a one of my favorites from the "Set Free" recordings. And the moment when the tambourine brings the song back is one of my favorite AmAnSet moments ever. This was the first and only official guitar solo on an American Analog Set song and that dubious honor will forever belong to Chris Michaels. We finished "Set Free" at his studio in Jackson, MS.
Everything Ends In Spring (ep version)
The basic parts were recorded in Austin, TX in 2004 with the second "Set Free" sessions. It was completed in Jackson, MS with the rest of "Set Free".
Sometime in 1994, Mark, Lee, and I spent a weekend together near Possum Kingdom lake in North Texas. We wrote and recorded three songs and that was the beginning of the American Analog Set. Two of the songs, "Dim Stars" and "Diana Slowburner" would be rerecorded for our first album, "The Fun Of Watching Fireworks" in 1996. The third was called, "Everything Ends In Spring". Most of this version was rerecorded with "Set Free", but the end of this version was taken from the original 1/2 inch tape recorded in 1994. And so the Everything Ends ep and this compilation ends the way our band began. Quietly... like we're supposed to be.
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