Chris Picks:
SHEEP Rarity of the Week!
(Updated monthly!)
~ WEEK 25 ~ "BEAUTIFUL ONE / AN EYE FOR AN EYE (Reprise)" from D'Arcy Drollinger's SUBURBIA 3000
Paul & Jeff & I (along with pianist Carolyn Engelmann plus Tim Perdue on bass) worked out dozens of swell arrangements with D'Arcy for his play "SUBURBIA 3000", including these two contrasting ditties. One is real pretty; the other is real scary! Paul's guitar work is dazzling, whilst Jeff's weird and wild Electronic Wind-Instrument Device (the "WX-11") sounds quite superb as he plays in concentrated complexity...
It was a mighty challenge pulling these off LIVE on stage night after night way back in 1997, partly because we--the band--were stashed UNDERNEATH the stage and therefore could never see the gigantic cast singing or dancing.
This was the third full-blown stage-play I'd done with the gang from my rock&roll band, with many additional singers and actors joining us. All of it came from the twisted mind of D'Arcy Drollinger, who, along with Jason Mecier, fronted "Enrique" pretending to be demented twin brothers. (The first of the plays was "THE CEREAL KILLERS" which featured Christof W. Certik on guitar, who just happened to also appear on the first Mad Morticians album, recorded years earlier -- total coincidence! The next play was called "THE POSSESSION OF MRS. JONES", and it marked the first time Paul Sidore joined us on guitar. Music from that show--as well as ALL the songs from "SUBURBIA 3000"--are posted on the "Songs" page of this website!)
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~ WEEK 24 ~ "LAWN CLUB"/"PART THREE INTERMISSION" (v.2 w/Paul & Lenny) by Sheep
The epic Sheep masterpiece "PART THREE" is finally fixed and re-posted on the "SONGS" page of this website, divided into "Acts I/II/III" and free of glitches!
And in gleeful celebration, I give you these two rarities from that LP's sessions.
In "LAWN CLUB" from 1990, you hear me, Mike & John setting up to record the song "CLEM & ROJILLIO STEAL A TRUCK" late at night in John's Valinda Street front yard. (This track appeared on the "Sheep Shit" compilization in 1992.)
The short version of "INTERMISSION" used for PART THREE was supposed to be a demo for this longer version done in 1987 by me, John & Tina (on guitars) joined by Lenny on bass and Paul on conga (he was gonna play my warped old 12-string but 'twas impossible you see). Taped in the kitchen (!) at Grant Street just moments before John & Tina were to leave and drive home, this was the VERY FIRST song done for the PART THREE project, incorporating the "Clem" theme from PART ONE. We decided against using this long version and it vanished, never to be heard again until 1994 when it surfaced on the rare bootleg cassette "SHEEP COLLECTIBLES" from France.
Click on John's fancy portrait of Old Clem the Dried-Up Desert Rat
(below) to start the playback!
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~ WEEK 23 ~ A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1989) ~
This is a short excerpt of the classic Dickens tale as re-enacted by all us Sheep during the famous KWWT 1989 “CHRISTMAS SHOW” at Jeanne & Kathy Mac’s house in Fullerton. (That entire show has just been posted in the “Albums” section of this website, enabling you to hear the rest of Ebenezer Scrooge’s story as well as two and a half hours of other utter insanity...)
Starring Robb as Scrooge, with Mike & Paul simultaneously playing Bob Cratchit. Danny & Tina narrate, whilst the rest of us make sound effects and take on other characters as they come up. (The party tapes also feature me, John, Steve, Stephen Burpo, Erin, Jeanne, Lillian, Jeff, Ken, Harold, Aprille, Cheryl Perrone, Kathy MacLaughlin & Ken Collins--so please locate “THE KWWT CHRISTMAS SHOW 1989” album on this website’s “Songs” page to hear everyone’s contributions...)
Click on the funny portrait of Robb (as Half-Naked Scrooge with Cloying Employees) below to listen to this short excerpt from the Show. (This was just one of dozens of cool classy black-and-white snaps shot by Lillian and Jeanne later that night.)
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~ WEEK 22 ~ "I JUST CAN'T GET RID OF THIS ANGST" (1990)
Now here's a real piece of crud NONE o'youz has heard before--a true Sheep Rarity! (It only ever appeared on the super-mega-rare compilation CD "THE ROMANTIC TALE OF CHRIS & JEFF" which is forbidden to own.)
You'll soon see why this never appeared on any other compilization. You'll soon hear the marvelous patented John Wilson Guitar Chord Progression, repeated by him on many-a-song in the Greater Sheep Catalog of Tunes. I play bass, I think? Danny Hesse I think is in charge of the Absurdity Drumsample Robot (and as you have all doubtless guessed by now he also made up the song's name). And he sings at the very very very end. Perhaps he was dancing the rest of the time. ?.
Singing and Making Up Stuff throughout is Jeff, Jeanne and Erin. "What was the Concept?," you'll wonder I'm sure. I can't answer that. 'Twas just a frivolous attempt at being creative, way back in early 1990, when Jeanne lived with Kathy Mac in Fullerton. I recall this was done during the daytime. I had only known Jeff for a year or so. He is Pushing Buttons, figuratively speaking...
This Fancy Mix of the song was done by me in the Analog Domain way back in 1993 at the Antenna Theater studio. Note the many clearly-audible razor-blade edits in the master tape. The original tape goes on for about 15 minutes! But here it's only 4:22, mercifully...
Click on the adorable picture of the Sheep below to begin the music (photographed by Jeanne in Pu'Y'allUp, probably...)
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~ WEEK 21 ~ "I'M A MAN" from the 2004 Sheep Reunion Jam
This is, so far, the only part of the first-ever Sheep Reunion audio that I have finished editing (and it's been over four years already!) -- I previously emailed this mp3 to many of you way back when, but now here it is officially, again...
Danny leads us thru a Chicago Transit Authority-influenced jam-along version of "I'M A MAN" (originally done by Stevie Winwood & The Spencer Davis Group). This was pretty far along in the session (taking place in August 2004 in the "big room" at Lennon Studios, South of Market in San Francisco) and many of the party-goers are probably gettin' real real drunk by this point, which makes for a willingness to join in and play along--so there is LOTS of percussion and singing! It all sounds pretty swell (especially since I edited out the bad parts)...
SHEEP as heard here is: Danny, John, Chris, Mike, Paul, Robb, Ken, Lenny, Jeanne, Lillian, Monique, Jeff, Rick Tippet, Nick, Angus, Linda, Annette Garkow and Ken's friend from church Robert Hardy.
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WEEK 20 ~ "TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES" by Sheep ~
One day in December 1989, during a tremendous marathon of recording sessions at Steve Wirth's pad in Azusa (see Weeks 12 & 13), the next-door neighbor's 8-year old kid (named Joey) somehow got in and was probably criticizing some cruddy track he heard us doing. "Fine," we sez, "You think you know how to produce a Real Song, youngster?" "You bet!" replies Joey, as he proceeds to hop right on the fancy 4-track cassette set-up we got goin' (as in photo below).
"What's the song, hot shot?" sez one of the Adults.
"It's called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
"Did YOU write it?"
"Oh, yeah, uh-huh," lies the Kid. The rest of us glance at each other knowingly, for Joey is not as tricky as he thinks he is.
"Well then how does it go?" sez Danny, pulling out his trusty old Acoustic.
Joey does a little spastic dance, muttering a vague melody under his breath. We are unimpressed.
I go, "OK how does it start? (Grrr.)"
"It is night. A full moon rises over a cityscape through a chain-link fence, reflected in the dirty water pooled near a sewer plate..."
"NO! How does the MUSIC go, PUNK ROCKER!"
Joey motions silently with his arm, drawing an arc thru the air. "It goes like THAT."
By now the Girls are laughing at me. Jeanne is taking pictures and Tina and Lillian are probably just laughing. "It's John Lennon," says someone.
So anyways me & Danny devise some synth-y sound that sounds like a moon rising over a cityscape, and that starts the song. We cobble together a rhythm and some chords that more-or-less match what Joey is throwing at us, with Jeff on tambourine, and one take later it's "good enough!" We have Joey double-track the "chorus" lines, simultaneously adding the Group (John, Mike, Steve, Jeff, me & Danny) clapping one time and singing one dissonant "Uh-HUH!" Brilliant!
For the final touch, we have Joey himself play a stunning lead-guitar solo at the end. For this mix I have tagged on the isloated vocal track as he hears his performance back for the first time. He is clearly dismayed by the guitar solo. But, as Jeff informs him, "That's the best part!"
(This mix was originally released on the 1992 rarities album SHEEP SHIT, minus the isolated vocal track bits you hear here.)
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WEEK 19 ~ "HARD TO HANDLE" (live in concert on Portrero Hill, SF)
For some reason I left this excellent previously-unheard live version of the smash-hit Sheep single "Hard To Handle" off the "WTO2" CD (which contains much of the rest of this concert we played in someone's living room on Portrero Hill in San Francisco around April 1990 -- Danny joined us unexpectedly that night and helped negotiate the drunken frat-boy crowd's inane requests, and I remember me & Paul & Dave going down to Lenny's work the day of the show and literally BEGGING him to play bass at the gig, which he did do, quite flawlessly with NO rehearsal and I am obviously eternally in awe)...
Click on the bootleg album cover below (drawed by Danny Hesse) and Paul will SING for you...!
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WEEK 18 ~ "MORTUARY MAN" (Complete Version) ~ by The Mad Morticians
This 4-track masterpiece is 18-and-a-half minutes long, but worth every second. It is an all-star extravaganza! Written and roughly mapped-out by Robb, it was recorded at Steve Wirth's pad in 1986 during sessions for "SHEEP FOR SALE." The entire saga was literally started and finished in two days, with each section completed in the order you hear here. Robb, Steve, John and I would just take the end of one bit and build upon that to start the next bit, using whomever happened to be passing through to augment the vocals. (For example, Mike was around when we first began the intro, then he had to go to work; Tina Rainwater appears all thru the first day's recordings, but it's Aprille Curtis and Stephen Burpo you hear on the second day; Danny showed up near the start and helped out thru to the hilarious ending featuring Steve -- and even Benny has a few golden moments.)
Coinciding with this posting, the Mad Morticians' "greatest hits" compilation "WILD HYACINTH" is finally being put up on the website -- restored to its original length and track order (the 1994 double-play cassette release had to have some songs removed in order to fit on the CD reissue). There are many fantastic gems on it -- Robb's freakiness never ceases to amaze me!
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WEEK 17 ~ "SUMMERTIME" / "MISSION OF MERCY" by Erin (with Sheep)
Our dear creative and talented (and prolific) friend Erin would have been 45 years old this month, and in her honor I present two little things most of you have never heard..
The first bit is a one-take improv she taped at Steve's pad late one night in 1987 -- she'd probably watched us all doing tracks for PART THREE or MORTUARY MAN all day, and then once everybody'd left, felt like singing something herself. I recall she asked Steve what album he might have handy that she could easily add vocals to; he chose this instrumental rendition of "Summertime" from PORGY & BESS, and Erin did her blues thing all over it, with a little bit o' spontaneous Janis making its way in here and there...
The second part is a mercifully-short edit of Sheep performing the Motels' "Mission of Mercy", recorded live circa 1990 at Sylvia's Diner during a marathon recording session for the PART THREE project (the same day we did basic music tracks for "Brock Boulder In Jail" and "Indecision Blues", as well as nearly finishing the original version of Erin & Danny's "Ring Song" with Paul on piano and me on drums -- that song will eventually be part of the "new" Sheep album to be released next summer!)... Anyways the parts of this one-take "Mission of Mercy" you hear here sound really swell, whilst the parts I cut out sounded really horrible -- O the magic of editing! In addition to Erin's singing, you hear John & Danny on guitars, Rrob on bass, and me on drumming.
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Week 16 ~ THE WHOMBATS OF CHRIEGHTON by Jeff and Paul ~
This is an "album track" many of you have probably not heard in a very long time, from Jeff's 1994 ghetto girl LP "OUT OF ONE BODY AND INTO ANOTHER." (That entire album will be up on this site very soon, with lots of GAYGAYGAYGAYGAY bonus tracks!)
For this song, Paul had apparently written and recorded pretty much all the music already when he gave it us to finish; in fact, he'd fully completed and sung the chorus section, so Jeff took those words and basically constructed the whole "story" around them. Then we had Jeff's sister Heather call up on the telephone and do her part howling "Emilio!" over and over. And it was all done on four-track cassette, incredibly!
