10.14.2011

Glad to Be Unhappy (1997) Go! Dog! Go!

Dateline: 1997...
Never mind that the fuckin' album didn't even come out til we'd been back a month from our 7 week tour to support its release...

Our record label was actually nice enough to make sure that we had some copies to take out on the road with us, along with a box of our t-shirts...















Never mind that the fuckin' van broke down so many times that we started (half-)jokingly calling it the PepBoys tour...

We actually got to learn quite a bit about the inner workings of a piece-of-shit van. Rather useful, that...





 
Never mind that the fuckin' booking agent lied repeatedly about 'confirmed' shows that we were later told by him were cancelled (only to find out in at least one case that he'd never even contacted the club til that week)...

We had some excellent shows to help make up for that sorry piece of shit not doing his fuckin' job... + even bookt some while on the road - in a pre-cellphone, pre-internet world...


Never mind alla that shit, cuz we didn't know any of that was gonna happen a year earlier when we recorded this album, Glad to Be Unhappy by Go! Dog! Go!

In January 1996, we were fortunate enough to spend two weeks recording with now well-noted producer (and Drive Like Jehu drummer) Mark Trombino (Mark's on the right, trying to get out of the picture, I'd imagine...) at Big Fish Studios in Encinitas, CA.

We met with Mark in LA a couple of times, once notably in the bowels of the Capitol Records building, where he was using some of their classic studio space to work on some mixes for the then-soon-to-be-released self-titled Jimmy Eat World record (their first on Capitol, I think). And he was a decidedly nice guy, very easy to work with even though he'd just quit smoking prior to our fortnight of recording.



And below's the result, for yr downloading pleasure, recorded + mixt by Mark Trombino at Big Fish, produced by Mark Trombino + G!D!G! (except Bloated Worm, recorded + produced July 1995 by Andre Champagne + G!D!G!)


(<--That's Tim B. + me in Andre's bad-ass gingerbread home studio)















 ____________________________________________


track listing:
  1. Intro (It Could Happen)
  2. Socket
  3. Engine
  4. Drive, Turn Left
  5. Rolled into One
  6. Intent to Change
  7. Soft Spot
  8. Bacon Shrinks (All My Blue)
  9. Lobby Song
  10. Ceiling
  11. Borrowed
  12. Pillow Soft
  13. Spinch
  14. Platter
  15. Spacegirl (Live)
  16. Bloated Worm
1997, Risk Records.
Eric Beetner. guitars/vocals
Tim Boyd. alto+soprano sax
Tim Christopher. drums
Craig Smith. bass/backing vocals (lead on Borrowed)
(Eric, Tim C., Craig, Mark Trombino. trumpets on Spinch)
(Oh, and the cover photo credit: Marie's dad)


4 comments:

  1. At first I thought, "Free?! You're giving that away free?!" But then I remembered it's out of print, so, what the hey. Good stuff. If I didn't already have the actual CD, I'd be downloadin' fo' sho'. Somewhere I've got a tape and I think a 45... and I still wear the tee-shirt on a regular basis, 'cuz I can get away with it at work. :)

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  2. Yeah, there's at least 2 different 7" records: Engine b/w Borrowed + Socket b/w Shelter (which was a non-album track). If there's another single besides those, I don't have it (but I still want to post it, so let me know if you've got it).

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  3. Love this album, huge influence on me actually. Picked it up at a used record store for $2 simply because my high school band at the time went by the same name (we changed it of course) and come to find that the album rips. All I can do is try to return the favor. Check out more recent music here: cotillion.bandcamp.com

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for checking in, Ben! Glad that you dig it...

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