After a lengthy (10-month) haitus from Basement Tapes recording, attributable to a broken tape recorder, limited server space, and facilitator apathy, The Basement Tapes are Back in Action! I am so excited to get this new music out to you that I will forego the usual references to bestiality and necrophilia and simply say: Enjoy this Volume of impromptu Dumpster Madness and LONG LIVE THE AUDIO CASSETTE!
--Carter
recorded July 13, 2009
This is the latest melodic number from Carl Nash. Our Guarantee: If you don’t instantly love it, your family will rot in hell.
recorded July 13, 2009
Since Carl’s newest song, Swan Song of the Moth, is in an alternative open-D tuning, we played a couple additional songs in the same tuning that rehearsal night, including this excellent version of Carl’s classic The Roots, originally found (in two different versions!) on his solo album Return Trip.
recorded July 13, 2009
This is Carter’s newest magnum opus, a kind of musical “state of the union” on his current political beliefs, from the first night we jammed together on it as a band.
Snake Love
recorded July 22, 2009
An interesting improvised song that I believe emerged from a discussion about a snake hissing as it emerges from a man’s ass. This led Carl to extrapolate this lovely ballad about a snake charmer, a boa constrictor, and a lonely man’s special relationship with his snake. Stuff like this—possibly the best purely improvised song since Scotch Tape (Vol. 8)—is why the Basement Tapes exist.
recorded July 22, 2009
This track, which we are here rehearsing for our August 8 “Carter’s Birthday” show at the Oak Street Speakeasy, contains many stops and starts as we collectively attempt to re-remember the song. (It would seem Carl is the most forgetful this time; he comments on this fact at the end of the track, and is administered a “typical band punishment”). This kind of raw stuff is exactly what you listen to the Basement Tapes for, yes? If not—if you are some kind of Nazi perfectionist who wants more “production value”—why don’t you go fuck yourself?
recorded July 22, 2009
Actually an old song of Emily’s written and first performed with the band Local Buddha in the 1990s, Something To Feel is a sultry-then-rageful number that shows off Emily’s vocal range. Make out with a cheetah!
recorded July 22, 2009
Despite its playful exterior, this is a highly philosophical song, with Carl offering some extremely useful advice. Another totally improvised number.
recorded August 12, 2009
Klalg-dalg is a blues song I have had in my head for maybe a year or more; I sing it to myself (and my cats) around the house a lot. In fact, the version I hear in my head and sing at home is more hard-hitting and rockin’ than this rehearsal version, and since I plan on encouraging the band toward my imagined heavier interpretation of the song, this recording will likely prove to be the rare, mellow “first rehearsal” version of a #1 hit blues-rock song!
Snake Love with extra verse and bridge
recorded August 12, 2009
Apparently, “Snake Love” mania has caught on! The catchy improvised number originally recorded on July 22, 2009 (see above) was circulated amongst band members via mp3 by yours truly in the week following that rehearsal. A week after that, Carl came to rehearsal on August 12 and invented a new bridge for Snake Love, and also improvised a new second verse about the song’s protagonist’s cinematic tastes. Thus, it would appear that Snake Love is being developed into a full-blown song for public performance. Huzzah! Snake Love = A triumph for art!
recorded August 12, 2009
An interesting scientific proposition put to song by our generation’s most uniquely gifted songwriter, Carl Nash. Listen and learn!
recorded August 12, 2009
A recent hard-rocking song of Emily’s that evaded Basement Tapes capture in previous months due to a crapped-out tape recorder. But I just bought a new RCA model RP3536A cassette recorder a month ago and so at long last we may enjoy the Basement Tapes version of Game Over. Fuck off!