The Smush Newsletter, July 25th, 2001 Contact: oskillator@hotmail.com Home: http://www.mindspring.com/~pfister_/smush/ Table of Contents: 1. The Beginning ............... Line 20 2. New Music ................... Line 50 3. Interview ................... Line 69 4. Classics .................... Line 107 5. Another Day in the Grinder .. Line 131 6. Curtain Call ................ Line 147 7. If You Want More ............ Line 153 THE BEGINNING ------------- Let me tell you a little more about us. I'll make it a serial, because I don't have much time to write this newsletter between pen fillings. But let me tell you about how Smush came to be. It officially formed in 1999, but it really began in 1985, when Lemon Head, aged six, and Rubba Head, aged four, were locked in the basement of our parent's house. We were stuck there for three years, until Lemon Head developed the finger strength to play Chopin's Flight of the Bumblebee at full volume on the Hammond B3 in the basement. When the police asked us why we didn't call for help, Lemon Head slapped his forehead as hard as Rose did at the end of Titanic when she realized that if she had just taken the lifeboat when it was offered to her, Jack could've survived by climbing onto that door. And when we later found a can of WD-40 hiding in plain sight that we could've used to grease up that rusty volume slider, Rubba Head slapped it too. But how the world had changed since our incarceration! Ronald Reagan had revitalized the economy, the Nintendo Entertainment System had gone through the roof, IBM introduced the first laptop computer, and fly-fishing was invented. The first time Lemon Head saw someone fly-fishing through the new hole in the roof, he thought the guy was trying to catch a bird. Turned out he was just trying to catch a fly. Ha ha! I got a million of 'em, folks! Tune in to next week's issue, where I tell you about how William Golding ruined our lives. NEW MUSIC --------- CRP: This is kind of a set piece, my attempt to stylistic blend of punk, ska, and musical death metal. I think I did a pretty good job. If you listen all the way through to the end, you can hear a quote from the Wagner classic, "Catch A Tiger By It's Toe". cnn: We tried a new tack with this rubbahead piece. It's pretty goddamn heavy on the analog effects: mostly moog filters and tube distortion. Nothing beats a good tube amp. qvc: This techno piece is heavy on the swirly synth and 808 lines. The siren represents the fire department coming to put out the extra hot synth licks! tnt: I wrote this on the subway ride to try to make up with my ex-broker. The lyrics are really just a list of excuses, though the song is not strictly autobiographical. INTERVIEW --------- Rubbahead has always wanted to write for the Rolling Stones Jr. gazette, and he recently asked me to indulge one of his fantasies... interviewing a big rock star. The interview was conducted over the internet. Rubba: Hey, Lemon Head, how are you doing? Lemon: Really good, thanks. Rubba: I hear a lot of people yelling in the background, what is that? Lemon: There's always a group of fans outside the studio... fans, and people I nearly ran over on the way to the studio. I feel kind of guilty because that's how Robert Froese was killed. Rubba: Yeah, I remember hearing about that. Lemon: That was a cool car that ran him over. It was a sweet Firebird Calimari F7 with whitewall tires. We still have unreleased material from Robert in our smush vault ... we'll be putting some of it on the next album. Rubba: Speaking of the new album, how's that coming along? Lemon: Well, things are looking good. We still need to get cover art done, and RubbaHead put the entire album through the flanger, so we had to restore it from a previous mix. Not much was lost, fortunately. Rubba: That shithead isn't too bright, is he? Lemon: He's just absent-minded. You know, when our father worked at Grumman, they had to get an intern to walk with him everywhere and make sure he didn't walk into walls. Rubba: Any other surprises on the new album? Gimme some dirt, just between you and me. Lemon: One big surprise: it'll be our first album with a song name longer than three characters. Rubba: Really? Lemon: Yes. Also, we'll have the first four episodes of the Facial Fantasy series... some of you wrote in and asked about those, why we started at number five. All will be explained. Rubba: Well, look, I've gotta go take a shower. I'll be back in a few. Lemon: Uh, ok. [two hours later...] Lemon: That's a long fucking shower if you ask me. CLASSICS -------- Here's where we talk about some of our music that's older but still worth listening to: Pyr: This is a frozen acoustic waltz arranged with the classic combination of acoustic nylon-string guitar and vibraphone. The vibraphone has a haunting sound that will lift your spirits. And chill you to the very bone!! MAT: This Rubbahead ditty will stretch your ability to hear, but there's a great artistic reward for those who listen to it all the way through. Finding it is an exercise for the listener. umm: This is arguably the precursor to qvc, and it's also arguably better. It's not nearly as heavy on the beats, though there is an insistent 808 hihat and snare line going on in the background. But I think that the squiggly synth line that it opens the piece is a real gem. rub & bul: These are, in a sense, sister-songs. They were both written in a very difficult time of my life, which I assuaged by listening to a lot of Frank Zappa. You can hear his influence pretty clearly on both songs. ANOTHER DAY IN THE GRINDER -------------------------- LemonHead: The guy from the delivery service is here to pick up our tapes. RubbaHead: Uhh... I just, uhh... put the whole album through the flanger. Do you, umm... like it? LemonHead: What? That's horrible! RubbaHead: Listen to it first! [60 minutes pass] LemonHead: That's horrible! You didn't erase the old master tapes, did you? RubbaHead: I don't know, let's see... LemonHead: Christ. We almost released in like this. Since I'm part of the Smush entity, I feel partially responsible for nearly unleashing this atrocious atrocity on the world! RubbaHead: Damn you! It's a good thing I saved the day by finding these old master tapes. CURTAIN CALL ------------ Another week in the life of smush. Not a particularly productive one as Smush weeks go, musically, but we untangled a bit of red tape, and hopefully we'll have the album done by next week.