Two Reel
Written 6/21/94 - 9/12/94 * Recorded 9/16/94 - 11/10/94 (20.5 hours in studio)
45 minutes, 14 Tracks (+2), Featuring MiSfiT, SoySos and Rob G
Rob G also appears on "What You Think" (background vocals).
The songs written but not recorded were "Infinite" & "So Sad".
Notes:
This is yet another major milestone in my "career". I had always just used the tape decks at the station to record the master copies of my tapes. But, there was a reel to reel that no one seemed to know how to use... and I thought if I could figure out how to use it (there were loads of reels laying around), I could get a better tape and use the other tape deck for more channels for mixing. So, I searched around and finally found the manual, read it, and started to mess with it 'til I figured it out. Then... I made this album. Initially, I thought I could fit a whole tape on one reel, but I found out that at normal speed, a reel only holds 30 min. So... side one and side two of TR are on separate reels. Subsequent albums were recorded at a lower speed and on one reel. The title is a play on words because the whole "keep it real" bullshit was getting outta hand. I tried to poke a little fun at it.
This was also the first tape that I got around to making a "real cover". I started to fiddle around with the Paint program on the computers and figured I would try to make something that looked like a tape cover to put with the tapes so they looked better than just my awful handwriting. I came up with the "circle OB" that is all over this website and decided to make that the cover, and added the name of the tape and the rest of the stuff.
The recording itself went ok... it took me some time to get used to the reel machine and all that. This tape had one of the highest studio time/album length ratios of them all. I also had planned for Stan to come down for us to do a couple tracks, but he never made it for this tape. The intro and outro tracks were both pretty cool, and I didn't speak or rap over either of them. Primate Exhibit used a Bob Newhart sample from his standup days way back when, and I used a live radio talk-show clip (recorded at random off the radio) for People Will Talk. Both were backed by cool beats that weren't used for songs. A few other randomly recorded radio clips make it in the mix: Rush Limbaugh in Skinny Cowhide, a news guy in No Alcohol At All, and a preacher in Same Old Thang. MiSfiT makes his debut on this tape... aka Shawn DeVries, my roommate fall semester '94. He and Jay bring in the funniest track I ever did, I'm Gladys Knight - I came up with the title, and it came out hillarious. Shawn rips shit with his own original verse and even Jay comes off with a lil' rhyme at the end. We did it probably 4 or 5 times and only finally got it right on the last take (at 4 a.m.!) - we had to beg Jay to do it one more time. The result was worth it, though.
Speaking of Jay, he got a new bass machine and we worked on a couple more completely original tracks in his mini-studio. Jay (on bass) and I (on keys) funked up a cool breakbeat that I made up, and it ended up as The Plate (which Shawn would scratch over during the recording, it turned out amazing). I did another track by myself and it came out as Open It Up. I also messed around with some of the reel machine's effects, and that song begins with a conversation with myself: a different voice on each channel. I also did some vocal layering on that track, and moreso on Break Out. Rob G makes another appearence on Same Old Thang and does some backing vocals on What You Think. He was really busy with his new wife and baby, but made some time to come from way off campus to rip it. I did some more CD looping and scratching at various places in the tape.
Most of TR's songs were written during the summer of '94 when I was working at the zoo. If you listen closely you can catch a variety of zoo references. I worked on a lot of the songs on breaks, writing on the back of blank reports or paper towels. Some of the lyrics would come to me while I was working, when I would be doing something mundane (imagine that) and I would just think of some lines, work on a progression and remember them, then when I got back to the breakroom I would write them down. I'd take them home and work on them with a beat until a song came out.
So Sad (a very topical song that was the first song written for this album) was actually recorded and almost made the final cut, but I never got the exact sound I wanted, so I ended up leaving it out... it was supposed to go in between What You Think and Break Out. Infinite was a good song, too - with a killer beat - but I couldn't come up with a decent 2nd verse. I came really close to putting this on the next tape. Actually, I'm surprised I didn't.
The Rill Dill - a word play on "keepin' it real" and also on the way my then-girlfriend used to speak. We would break up by the time the tape was finished.
I'm Gladys Knight - I'm definitely NOT a morning person.
The Plate - OB pitches, James Combs and Wendy Oberlin attempt to swing - but miss. Step up, step up, step up...
Skinny Cowhide - what's a wallet made out of?
Open It Up - Lyrical expansion, yo.
No Alcohol At All - Nada nunca.
What You Think - based in part on a trip to Florida with my big bro; (attempting to be) very introspective.
Break Out - sometimes we just gotta get the hell out. Witness my cerebral therapy.
Curiosity - I'm all about causin' confusion.
It's Easy To Be Hard - yo, I don't got a gat, so what's up with that?
Lyric of the Album : "Slip into the chasm as this funky organism comes and hits you with a rhythm that'll jazz 'em like an orgasm" (It's Easy To Be Hard)
Honorable Mention : "So now you're bitchin' 'bout your life in the trailer park, but I got no heart, 'cuz all you do is smoke, sit, sleep, eat and fart" (The Plate)
