Cody Weathers

Listening Log:

The fake sampler of all the fake bands on my fake record label.  This was a fun project we mostly did to work out the kinks recording with the ADAT, but it also allowed us to stretch outside of our normal schtick and try some radically different things on for size, some of which (like the texture-guitars of The Brothers Three) proved useful on future songs ("Love Is A Secret," "Eclipse").

Fanfare for Glenn's Ferry (Nuffin): One semester, the advanced composition seminar hired a horn quartet (2 trumpets, french horn, trombone) to read pieces we wrote.  This was mine, obviously.  Glenn's Ferry is a very little town nestled on the Snake River between Boise and Twin Falls (about 80 miles east of Boise on I-84).  It was one of my landmarks on my many drives from Denver to Portland, and the fictionalized setting of the first annual Checkmate Exemplathon.  Do you guys mind that I'm breaking out of the Torch & Bacon myth, or should I resume my self-aggrandizing propaganda?  You're aware I've sold like 500 total albums ever, right?

I Can't Have Two (Leaky Joe): Joh3n O'Meara singing, Speranza on guitar and bass, me on piano and drums (and screaming).  The "Smells Like Flowers" bridge harkens back to my first side project with best buddy O'Meara, The O'Weathers Jazz Duo.  Speranza screams "Tell it like it is!"  This is a fairly meaningless fun song about some poor bastard getting himself into a pickle over two archetypical women --Laura the "girl next door" and Beth the "bad girl minx."  That jerk deserves what he gets!

No One Could (Fingernail Factory): Dave Potts singing, Eric Rorem on bass, Speranza on drums, me on guitar and high backup vocals, Dixie Rorem on guitar solo.  All the negative thoughts eroding at a battered confidence (not mine, obviously --I was dynamite with the ladies in 1998).  At first, I considered this a throwaway song, but subsequently re-evaluated it as one of my best.  It says a lot about your writing ability when the line between garbage and genius is so fine. 

Two Make One (The Executioners): This song is hyperserialized prior to the fade, with every element in some sense controlled by some version of the row.  Speranza and I play all the instruments, Cat & I contributed poetry to the blender.

Bang Bang Girl (Leaky Joe): Much of the instrumental track was recorded while on tour, staying with Brian Costello in Portland (guitar: me, djembe: Robert McIntosh, harmonica: Brian).  Speranza on bass.  Me trying to disguise my voice as Leaky's backing vocals.  Me on the slide guitar solo.

And You Say (The Brothers Three): This kind of intro is what happens when you make home recording equipment cheap enough for layabouts to purchase.  You asked for this, America.  That's an actual thunderstorm recorded underneath the track.  Stream-of-consciousness reminiscence of running into an old flame over a bed of guitar textures.  Speranza, Cat, and I sing the whole line in unison.  I play tablas, Speranza and I cover the four guitar parts together, and he plays the written bass part.  This song is prime for re-recording.  Guntar: Cat.  Ynkwar: Me.  Hutwar/Interviewer: Speranza.

Class (Farm Sister): This was an exercise I wrote in college for modern theory.  I wanted a recording of it, and also was interested in refining my use of speech in songs.  Eric Rorem reads the main part, Speranza and I are the other voices and percussion.  The chalkboard is the sound of all the chalk strokes to write uppercase "I LOVE YOU" 123-12-circle-12-1234-123-circle-arc.

M (Jiffle Baf'T'Bak): Speranza singing lead, all instruments covered by me except the violin (Dixie Rorem) and harmonica (I think Dave Potts did that).  Some extra percussion in the final solo by Fried.  The bridge is nearly-alphabetical All By Charm Does Each Fool Gather His InJured Kiss --Love Makes No One Promise.  How incredibly clever.  The fade is part of the "Afraid of Love" song cycle of songs sharing that theme (Afraid of Love, No One Could, M, Train).  Fortunately, I was able to crank out a song in the approximately one week between getting Mimi's # and being told to not use it except for in medical emergencies.  Truly, these fascinating stories of unparalleled rejection juxtaposed against finally finding true love are clinching proof for the existence of God.  The Lord had a plan for me, and I'm not even joking.  I have beautiful daughters and a fantastic wife and will never be loveless again.  Who would've bet on that in 1998?  Not me, that's for sure.  I was busy spooking friends of friends.

Spell (The Brothers Three):  I originally meant for this nest of guitars to be distorted, and now think I probably should've stuck with that plan.  The luge call (Speranza) was definitely a topical reference to the ridiculous Winter Olympics going on at the time.  Treatise on the dark fantasy of love via hypnosis as an expose on the desire for control.  If you look it up, you'll find that "treatise" is a synonym for "lame-o juvenile song idea."  Check it out.  I'll wait right here.  Oh, I do like our little interlude jokes.

Love Tears Bears (Jiffle Baf'T'Bak): Speranza singing again, also covering bass.  Me on drums, piano, guitar, and backup vocals.  A favorite of Eric's.  I've never actually been cheated on because you have to actually set up a stable relationship in order to subsequently ruin it.  But I'm an angry little guy nonetheless.

Grip of the Pete (The Executioners): This is entirely experimental pastiche, loosely emulating the style of Stockhausen.  We made several passes over the song, randomly punching elements in and out each time like layers of swiss cheese.  That's how delicious it is.  The title comes from random text Speranza was reading aloud during one pass from a book on bog mummies.  The actual passage is "the grip of the peat," but it caused us both to crack up (as you can hear) since we were both trapped in the clutches of Pete Vincelette in Live Bait at the time.  It's odd that I can remember so much of the text as it whizzes by.  There's a distorted sample from a song called "Nang Nang" that Brian Costello and Robert McIntosh improvised during the Bang Bang girl session

Cruel (Flip Nasty): I remixed this version for Flame Cow to get rid of some muddiness.  Like No One Could, I didn't realize how much I would like this song once it was actually on tape.  Best werewolf song since Warren Zevon!  Don't you get it?  If you love me, you'll get infected!  Wait, that sounds a lot more dangerous than I meant it to....  Fantastic solo from Speranza.  I played bass on this since Fried was in Japan (again).

I Was There, It Just Wasn't Funny (Farm Sister): This was an extremely early ROQUE-era speech song written by John O'Meara and myself and kept alive by the surprising memorization skills of Matt Preheim.  There's actually an original version of this lying around somewhere that I'd completely forgotten about until just now.  Again, Eric Rorem reads the main line, with Vaunne supplying the "No, I'm shy" samples for me over the phone back before she would admit how smitten she was with me.  Speranza reads the infamous tomato monologue.

Make Still Your Wings (Flip Nasty): This is an augmented live track.  The original live performance was from Gussie's, during one of four consecutive 4-hour nights where Speranza and I were really stretching and exploring the material in a very loose, improvisatory manner.  As mentioned elsewhere, that was a watershed gig for us, and that kind of free expansion --very much in the vein of how jazz is played live-- became our default modus operandi pretty much from then on.  On the original track, I'm playing the rhythm guitar and Speranza's playing lead.  For this CD, however, I wanted to build even more upon the orignal performance by adding some extra studio tracks (bass & djembe, which I played).  With those, I tried to remain faithful to the feel of the song, reacting or pre-announcing different motifs throughout.  To cap it off, I invented the fake introduction (explaining the fact that there were now four instruments as the artifact of a fake special guest) and obviously flew in some applause from other sources.  This performance really vaulted this song into a prominent position in the live show.  For a while, I consistently opened with it, to warm up my scat chops and establish the tone of the show (i.e. give people an opportunity to evacuate the premises).  This version really shows off Speranza's skill as an improviser.  One of my favorite ideas of his during the course of the song is the eerie "fade-in" effect, achieved by rolling his guitar's volume knob in from zero with his pinkie as he played.  The cookie after the song is a quarter-tone jazz loop I threw together.  Sweet.