Poster Child
Another great example of the rest o’ the reptiles taking something I thought was halfway decent and spinning it into gold. Then forcing me to post something about it, despite knowing that Mondays mean martinis. I have therefore become cheap drunken entertainment for the Internet, rather than just the band. Hooray.
Poster Child’s another one of the mental miscreants who makes up the unfortunate song-cycle of Four H and Fourteen, in the company of Paisley, Laurie, Four H and the rest – a gang without a god stuck in the center of the Fox Valley circa 1985. They’re all fleshed out somewhere in between the memories and mushrooms that make up my subconscious … he’s either the one I feel sorriest for, or the closest thing to a proxy I’ve got in the deal. I haven’t figured that out yet, but I’d lay even money on the latter. I’ve always had a weak spot for the mean girls.
Gecko took the style of music that he and I wasted our youths listening to and hammered it out as easily as he did when we were jamming in my mother’s dining room, quickly followed up by Sir Pent’s enthusiastic skinslaps. Pent admitted later that it wasn’t gelling as well for him as many of the others did, but he played along nicely for the sake of the song.
It languished for a good long time until I’d pretty much resigned myself to its oblivion. Then in the middle of one moonlit night, Chopper sent around lyrics and harmonic guitars with a one-liner that might sum up the entire LFA comeback: “Been fuckin’ overthinking shit.”
(I have added the punctuation for grammatical correctness, on account of my Darcyism.)
As always, it sounds absolutely nothing like what I had in my head, and is far superior for that fact. I keep hoping that I’ll schlep the entire song-cycle off to the band in one fell swoop at some point, then wake up in St. Tropez two years later with a completed box set and a tattoo that reads “Fuckin’ overthinking shit,” but I’m probably about fifteen years too late for that dream.
Click on the ReverbNation banner to the right and listen or download the mp3.
Lizards From Afar 
February 9, 2009 at 10:21 pm
There’s a whole song cycle? Do I smell a punk rock opera concept album?
What you guys won’t believe is that I have a friggin’ wild version of Whoops Democracy! coming your way by about midnight tonight….
February 9, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Ramblings of a madman…makes almost no sense but also explains things perfectly.
February 10, 2009 at 6:54 am
I dig this song, man, it’s clear moog. Where it’s at.
February 10, 2009 at 6:55 am
Who in this band owns a moog?
February 10, 2009 at 7:42 am
What the hell are you guys talking about?
I have a VST moog, I suppose, but I haven’t used it lately…
Funny that Poster Child sounds nothing like what you had in your big fuzzy dome, Gator… to me it sounds very much like the “vocal demo” you sent out, at least in terms of cadence. And, yes, the song is awesome. I listened again on the way in to work this morn. Sure does bring back 1985.
February 10, 2009 at 7:42 am
btw, I’ll post the elements of Armor and Whoops this eve if anybody wants them.
February 10, 2009 at 7:44 am
And one other thing: did everyone get a look at my new axe over on the Esquire build post?
Of course, now I’m so strapped for money I probably ought to sell it.
February 10, 2009 at 2:10 pm
The cadence is just about 100% – it’s the music that’s different, and the better for it. Too often I tend to write lyrics to music that already exists, and by handing the harmony off to you guys we avoid sounding too much like other bands.
February 10, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I think all of your songs have a Satanic “Pat Boone-ish” quality.
February 10, 2009 at 6:42 pm
No, it’s Gator that has a Satanic Pat Boone-ish quality, not his lyrics.
February 10, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Agreed
February 11, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I still want to know what “it’s clear moog” is supposed to mean.
February 11, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Let’s face it…he was on drugs when he wrote that.
Dexatrim
Vicodin
I’m not gonna deny the state he was in.
February 12, 2009 at 8:47 am
Chopper just likes to be cryptic.
February 12, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Dad said that when he was a kid there was a short period while his older sister was a teen that she used the phrase “clear moog” as slang for anything cool. There’s no independent support for this term ever having been in wide use outside of, like, Gridley apparently. I was hoping then that its meaning would be determinable through context. Alas.
February 12, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Yeah, I sort of got that it was about being “cool,” but I was curious about the context–whether it referred to some obscure pop culture event or something. I like it, tho’, so I’ll use it from now on. “Damn, that’s clear moog!” (copyright (c) C. Stucky’s aunt).
Speaking of cool, did you hear the demo of Whoops Democracy 2009? Damn, I love that bronzemaster stomp effect–it’s positively freaky. I had to go back and work on the intonation of the esquire after hearing my own demo, tho’, because it clearly wasn’t all there. I think I got it fixed.
I’m stuck in NYC another night (poor me) on account of high winds resulting in all flights being canceled. The really annoying thing is that the morning flight to Dayton was already overfull, so I had to get on a really early flight connecting through DC. Damn, I hope my wife gets that job in NYC she just interviewed for. Sure would make my life easier. I don’t even like flying.
February 12, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Add it to the growing list of potential album names:
Copyright is for Losers
Clear Moog
Flaccid Reign
February 12, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Clear Moog is indeed a good album title.
Flaccid Reign?
How about Priapus Shrugged?
February 13, 2009 at 6:58 am
Priapus Shrugged is simply fantastic. Bravo. I mean, really, that is bloody genius. If anybody read this stuff, it’d get stolen before we had a chance to use it.
So, mastering is coming along. There’s going to be a good deal of tweaking before anyone besides me gets their ears on these, but as I figured, it’s pretty minor already after using my new fave preset on the mastering plugin.
My report so far – nothing else really sounds as awe-inspiring as Poster Child sound-wise. Most things don’t sound much different. Clipboard, though, is pretty revelatory in it’s properly dressed-up form. I did the fix Bob wanted on Powderkeg, and I will grudgingly admit that, yes, he’s right for once in his miserable life, it’s better that way. Now just trying to balance the track levels so that they can sound relatively uniform one after another, and I’m getting there.
All songs newly treated, some with minor mixing tweaks – exceptions are KFL because I’ve never gotten the new drum track (I don’t think) and SWM. SWM is problematic.
February 13, 2009 at 7:08 am
1) Priapus Shrugged is quite humorous.
2) New KFL drums should be on the uploader, yes Matthew?
February 13, 2009 at 7:09 am
I will start working on getting art “print-ready” with back pages and a back insert too. (Just in case we DO decide to press some.)
February 13, 2009 at 8:52 am
A “digital booklet” would be a nice touch, pressed CD or not, and could certainly repurposed for actual printing. I was thinking we need some way to document writing credits, thank yous (to the podcasters who’ve played us, if nothing else), etc.
Having said that, I’ve never bothered to look at a “digital booklet”, so I don’t strictly speaking know what one is.
February 13, 2009 at 12:49 pm
“digital booklet?” You mean like in pdf format?
New KFL drums are probably still on the uploader. I don’t think I removed them.
Looking forward to hearing the remastered tunes.
February 13, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I submitted us to a shiteload of podcasts last night. See if we can get some plays for PC.
I wasn’t thinking of doing a “booklet” per say, just a square sheet…front and back. The back of the cover would be credits and song-credits.
I hadn’t thought about thanking podcasters individually since, really, we’ve been played by so many it would be hard to do nicely without an entire page to devote.
(BTW-The inside cover is going to be a pic of me taking a dump in a magazine.)
February 13, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Failed attempt at humor…
I’ve been meaning to submit Block Party to insomnia radio, but will just wait for the final masters.
Maybe SWM needs some parts redone? What else is wrong with it?
We have to keep it, however, since it’s a bone to our old fans. Just like we have to do my new version of Whoops!
Been listening to Rush “Hemispheres” today–18 minute song! Also, not feeling so good about flying after today’s disaster over Buffalo….
February 13, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Sorry…it’s a reference to the famed “magazine story”.
I’ve got some casts lined up. I’ll announce/post on here as they come to fruition.
February 14, 2009 at 8:46 am
I expect the old fans would prefer us to have the original recordings available again, if that’s who we are looking to serve.
February 14, 2009 at 9:22 am
18 minutes! I could have sex twice, eat a snack, take a dump and be back in time to hear the ending…
February 14, 2009 at 11:39 am
We can always put original recordings on reverbnation. But the poor quality of them! I should actually re-do them since I have a better set up now, might get a better quality restoration, but even a better digital conversion is going to sound like crap.
So, just speak clearly: there is or is not any interest in doing a remake of Whoops Democracy or any of the old songs? Did you hear my demo? It rocks, men!
And also if not, I’ll have to come up with something new that has that kind of energy, as I dig it.
February 14, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Btw, I was just thinking my guitar solo on Mr. Peabody could use some compression to get rid of the piercing highs, and level it out a bit.
February 14, 2009 at 10:55 pm
With the limited amount of time available to record…I’d prefer to focus on new stuff right now. However, I’m more of a mind that I’ll do whatever everyone else decides is best.
February 15, 2009 at 8:34 am
Oh, I figured it would be a pretty quick little remake–that demo was maybe an hour of work. Maybe less. And it’s clear moog, man. If you had a functioning drum kit, Pent, you could do a track in about 5 minutes.
I haven’t had any inspiration for new stuff recently, unfortunately. Must be the lack of time. I did render out wav files for the acoustic guitar and organ for Armor, but haven’t had time to upload it yet. I’ll do that later this week.
February 15, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Did not accomplish anything today. Stayed in bed sick…I hope I am not getting the strep throat that is rampaging through everyone at work.
As I said about what we record, I’m just going to try going with the flow from now on…so it’s whatever everyone else decides.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
I’ve been trying to get PC on some podcasts and I think at least one is in.
I also decided that since we haven’t been given a lot of Canadian love that I would focus on Canadia. There are not a lot of rock/indie rock podcasts but I’ve now submitted to what I think are most of them…
…Stay tuned.
February 15, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Everybody I know is ill. Even I, although I only seem to have a mild cold.
February 16, 2009 at 7:03 am
I should really stay home from work today, but I have a couple of important meetings that I cannot miss this morning…so I’m at least going in for a half day.
February 16, 2009 at 8:29 am
Meetings, schmeetings. Go play drums.
February 16, 2009 at 3:50 pm
back from work.
in bed
February 16, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Wuss.
February 16, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I’m all beered up and experimenting with drop D tuning. I’m wondering if it will work with Pent’s lyric “We’re Going to Crush You.” Seems like a likely candidate for the ultimate in heavy metal guitar tuning….
February 16, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Yeah…well this wuss just submitted our music to about 30 more podcasts…
February 16, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Good work, wuss.
February 17, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Acoustic guitar and organ tracks for “Armor” in your inboxes, comrades.
February 17, 2009 at 9:57 pm
This makes me want to actually record something with my sheety drums.
February 17, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Too bad you can’t get better drums.
Received your new lyric and like it very much. I think I’m inspired; if only I weren’t so tired: I already have a music idea and the chorus is in 7/8 time!
February 17, 2009 at 10:56 pm
I’m gonna get them when Choopy is ready to start the next album.
Otherwise it’s hard to justify.
February 18, 2009 at 11:59 am
Well, now you need some other reason to justify it…. I just ran out of inspiration entirely, despite having an extremely cool Smashing Pumpkin-esque melody going on for your new “Outside” lyric.
I know: throw your old set out the window. Certainly that would be justified.
February 18, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I’ve been thinking about starting a RAP group.
I just can’t decide if I want to be Old School, New School, R&B or Hip-Hop.
February 18, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Seeing you rap would be high comedy.
Seems rap is adopting guitar driven rock tones recently, too.