TA-80: 4

4




"4" was supposed to be the 6th TA-80 release. It was a 3 song e.p. that was never
put out but eventually became the 3 bonus tracks at the end of the "Are Go!"album . The line-up on this album is Amy, Jamin, Russ and Cullen 80. It was recorded at Nova studios by Mikey "The Woz" Wozniak in 2003. It was the first time we had left the garage to record something...and the one thing I want every band reading this to take away from our story is this...

Never leave the garage.

It was called "4" because originally it was supposed to have 4 songs on it. "Psychic Headache", "Super Slob" and "I'm Giving You All of Me" were finished at Nova Studios and the 4th track we started but never finished, it was a then-new song called, "You Don't Seem to Mind", that later ended up on "Are Go!".

The story of "4" started one night after a show at 7 Black Cats in Tucson, AZ. We had just finished playing when a woman with a raccoon-tail fur coat approached us with a business card. Her name was Lori and she was starting a management company and wanted us to join her roster.

This was pretty exciting... it was only our second time playing a show that wasn't someone's house party and already there was someone willing to back us. So we signed a two year contract with Right Time and she quickly booked us some studio time at a real studio.

Lori and Mikey went through our old material and found 3 songs they could live with and heard an upcoming one called "You Don't Seem to Mind" and flipped over it.

Now, re-recording was torturous for me at the time. My mindset is usually, "I did it once, why do it again?!?!" but I was wrong in this, and from this e.p., I have learned to do demos first and that has made all the difference in the world.

Another thing we learned from these sessions is song writing. We studied song writing religiously at the time, learning the new techniques and theories that also account for the gigantic leap forward in quality from "Psychic Headache" to "4".

Drawbacks... well... there were alot... the producer had no idea what we were getting at and, like most people we end up working with, wanted to turn us into the most generic pop band possible...

I clearly remember this being said, "We need to cut away the punk rock stuff and get you more into a Natalie Imbruglia vibe!"

Natalie InWHOglia?!?!?!

Also they re-wrote most of our lyrics to the song "I'm Giving You All of Me", apparently the original lyrics weren't generic enough for them and decided to re-write it so it could include such earth-shattering poetry as "I give you a smile to hang on the stars..."

Now, anyone who knows TA-80 knows that isn't us!

We agreed to do this since we were not paying for the sessions. In retrospect I wish we had stuck to our guns a bit more.

Actually, I showed up to these sessins as little as possible. I watched Cullen play drums, sang a million takes of "Psychic Headache" cos I wasn't enunciating enough, and eventually successfully de-railed the sessions on the last day by insisting that the backing vocals on "Psychic Headache" say "Shoot up!". I remember the Woz shrugging his shoulders and giving up that day. It was a small victory. Now, me not showing up to sessions is extremely rare, I'm usually the person there the most, so when I say I barely showed up that speaks volumes on how I felt.


Actually all of the "4" e.p is available on the TA-80 compilation "Atari du Cirque" which you can buy at http://interpunk.com/item.cfm?Item=68094&

So, yea, a mix of good and bad experiences.

Good: Learned to demo, learned songwriting basics. Working with Right Time was an overall good experience for us. They booked us a lot of shows, we never got paid for a single one but they did buy us things like equipment and did pay for studio time. It was also good in that, prior to this it had never crossed my mind I could do music fit for human consumption. We gained a lot of confidence 6`9`16

Bad: Having others who don't understand the music try to shape it into something faceless that even the people who created it could not identify with...

We never released this because, if I remember correctly Lori, was going to put it out or something as a slick demo to send to record labels but she never got around to it. While we were working on "4" at Nova studios, we were also recording "Are Go!" in the garage. Eventually we finished "Are Go!" and the "4" songs were still just lying around collecting dust, so we just decided to throw them on as bonus tracks.

Note they are unlisted on the back cover of "Are Go!" because we didn't want Right Time to know we were releasing them independantly. Shhh!

Track Listing:

1. I'm Giving You All of Me
2. Super Slob
3. Psychic Headache
4. You Don't Seem To Mind

We played all of these live; the version of "You Don't Seem To Mind" has never been released. The version on "Are Go!" is a different recording. The other 3 tracks have been released on both "Are Go!" and "Atari Du Cirque".

This was also when we started going by the abbreviation "TA-80" rather than the full title of "These Acoustic '80's", due to the suggestion of Lori that the band name was too long. No one would remember it. They would remember a random group of letters and numbers much better. Also, the picture above was not the original cover. The original cover was a drawing I did of the band similar to the cover of "Expansive...Yet Inexpensive." Jens was kindly enough to make this one for us 10 minutes ago...

- Jamin 80

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This was an exciting and frustrating time for the band. I kinda felt like I had fallen asleep and started up on one of my favorite dreams. Lori talked big. I was easily impressed and unfortunately, still kind of am. Is it really being naive if all you're doing is appreciating a good story? Oh well...

She used to always hang out in the smoking room of the Denny's on Speedway in Tucson. There was always such an interesting crowd in that place. Anyway, Russ and I would meet her down there for planned or unplanned meetings so she could tell us stories of how she was going to make us famous along with stories of her crazy, Native American drum circle bullshit. Apparently she was Native American or something. She also used to buy us food and since we were broke and basically unemployed, I was always appreciative of a free meal.

I remember one very exciting night at Denny's when Lori informed us that we would be doing a summer tour in Bei Jing. Yeah, that's right. China. At the time, I really didn't know if she was serious or not. I think she probably honestly believed every word she spoke. This shit was entertaining. The conversation quickly spiralled into us playing on the Great Wall, being the first band whose show could be seen from space and then eventually, the first band to play in space as Lori confidently told us that she could see us playing a show on the moon. Or Mars! Who knows? It's a universe of possibilities!!

Lori really liked our music. We used to spend hours showing her all of our material. She would sit, cross legged on her floor, chain smoking cigarettes and talk excitedly of putting us into a real studio so our full potential could finally be showcased. It was a good idea. It's just too bad that she had no idea what she was dealing with.

Recording with Mikey was one of my least favorite experiences of all time. If only we could have just sat there and watched him destroy our songs, but no. We got to help him do it. I remember the day my mom and step dad came out to watch us in a session. It was the day I recorded the vocals for "I'm Giving You All Of Me" and it was also the day that Mikey re-wrote the lyrics for the song, as Jamin mentioned above.

Mikey had a nice looking studio. To the casual observer, very professional. I remember my step dad mouthing to me, "He's good." I seriously wanted to cry. The Woz was a complete idiot running a studio that might have been halfway decent in 1992. He recorded us on fucking DAT, for chissake! He was a joke and completely clueless. I won't even get into how awful his band was. I like the time he told us we needed to have a bit of edge to our lyrics and demonstrated by playing us one of his songs and pointing out the line, "You're breaking my bwaaaawwwllllzzzz..." Ooh, edgy!

A couple of highlights from those sessions are when Russ told Mike that he couldn't sing while wearing clothes because they were too restricting. He then proceeded to strip down to the nude and sing Super Slob. There was another time that Russ and I didn't want to go to a session so we sat around in our apartment getting high until we were a good hour late. We then started out on the hour long trip to his studio. Earlier that week, Russ had been side swiped by a car and so I decided to tell Woz we were late because we had been in an accident on the way to the studio. Russ and I then went and got some McDonald's, came back to the studio and ate it and ended up telling Woz we were gonna head home because we were too shaken up from the accident to record. We're assholes.

We trudged through the sessions and finished with a recording I really wasn't surprised by. It sounds as lifeless and uninspired as The Woz wanted it to be. Mission accomplished. I later found out from a friend that Mikey was trash talking us in a bar after he recorded our E.P. Jealousy, she is a bitter mistress.

- Amy 80

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I still wasn't in the band yet, so I don't have any deep insights regarding this album, but all that stuff they already mentioned did lead to me signing on with Lori as an independantly contracted A&R man. OOH!!! The soul crushing experience of bilking local high school rap acts out of money at pay-to-play showcases at the Rock! Eh, whatever, she did reimberse me for going to local shows, buying the bands drinks(mostly bought myself drinks) and passing out business cards, plus my fee. It wasn't real money, but damn, that kinda deal'll kill a month or three. Plus, I got to see a bunch of TA-80 shows that I only might have gone to see otherwise. They were fun and I sometimes I got paid for just being the only guy in the room wearing a suit(that was mostly at the rap showcase things, though). I also think I eventually learned how to play "You don't seem to mind" not long after this stuff happened. And, while I promptly fergot how to play the song, I did learn how to play somes chords, including what we call the "TA-80" chord, and I use that thing in about half of the stuff I write to this day... That's good anow fer me.

-Jens 80

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Robert Cop

-Klae 80