TA-80: Are Go!

TA-80 Are Go!




TA-80 Are Go!

"Are Go!" is TA-80's 6th release & 4th full-length album. It was recorded in 2003 using Powertracks Pro Audio in Amy's Dad's garage, except for "Morning Prayer" which was recorded on a 4 track in my apartment. The line-up at this time was Amy, Jamin, Russ & Cullen 80. Availabilty prevented Cullen from doing much on the album, he only did vocals for the break during "Small Moments", though he did do the live shows at the time. Russ actually plays drums on the record.

Our approach to recording "Are Go!" was much different this time due to the fact that it was apparent people were going to actually hear this one. Following the recording of "4" we started playing non-stop shows and even started to get local radio play. As a result we actually started to demo and polish songs before recording them, started doing second takes and we really started to pay attention to the lyrics and songwriting. The recording of the album was a shade less fun than the previous ones. There was definitely some differences in opinion, but all that aside, this is where TA-80 really found their sound. I'd almost consider this the first TA-80 album.

Looking back I think we may have refined things a bit too much...

I think we thought a bit too much about what other people would like...Although it's about a million times better than any of our previous albums, it's a tad lifeless...possibly too many ballads. It feels like we're afraid of being too weird, or too scary or too personal... Every member of the band was more interesting than this recording let on...I think the failure of the too-bizarre and personal "Expansive...Yet Inexpensive" still haunted us.


But when we did let our guards down the results were really excellent...

"Everything's Okay" is where Amy finally hits on the intense punk that becomes her trademark... Russ' "Perplexing Beings" is one of his best songs. Really weird and really great. And I can honestly tell you that "Small Moments(in the big day" was the absolute best I could do at the time. I shouldn't of sung on it though.

I remember pushing carts on a cold winter's night in the Safeway where I worked at the time and the entire song popping into my head... the rest of the band helped me sharpen up the music and it felt really special when we were recording it.

Amy later got a line from the song tattooed on her arm: "What's your name? A sequence of letters that describes you better than a number does..."

I will also say "Rock Robots" is the blueprint for alot of what we did later.

I do have a hard time listening to the album now, mainly due to the digital drumset which was all we had then. Also I think the first half isn't quite ballsy enough, and I really can't stand "Morning Prayer"... I should have had someone else re-do the vocals. I do like the answering machine that goes off in the middle of the song (and the tribute to the Moody Blues).

The cover photos were taken from a show at a local (and horrible) venue called "The Rock." One of those pay-to-play places that really goes out of their way to screw young & upcoming bands...

There were about 250 of these made... it will never be reissued but three of them are currently available on Atari Du Cirque which is available at http://interpunk.com/item.cfm?Item=68094&. "Small Moments" was later re-recorded circa 2006 and is also available on "Atari Du Cirque."http://interpunk.com/item.cfm?Item=68094&

Track Listing:

1. No One's There
2. Ties That Bind
3. Spinny
4. You Don't Seem To Mind
5. Love
6. I Wanna
7. Rock Robots
8. Everything's Okay
9. Drown You Away
10. Morning Prayer/the Day She Flew Away
11. Randy
12. Perplexing Beings
13. Small Moments (in the big day)
14. Super Slob
15. I'm Giving You All of Me
16. Psychic Headache

Note: the last 3 songs were from the unreleased "4" e.p. they too are available on "Atari Du Cirque".

We played alot of these live: "No One's There", "Ties That Bind", "Spinny", "You Don't Seem To Mind", "Love, Everything's Okay", and "Small Moments" were all played live. "Spinny" became a contest of sorts where eventually we'd try and see how fast we could play it at each show. The 2 minute song eventually became about 40 seconds...

- Jamin 80

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This album happened at a very busy time in the TA-80 history. We were full on going by TA-80 at this point and had come, fresh out of a semi-pro studio, ready to record some real songs. We now knew a format that worked and we were ready to start playing with it. We hadn't, however, mastered it quite yet.

I didn't really write a whole lot for this album. Russ was living with Jamin and I at the time in a closet sized, one room studio apartment. I remember coming out in the morning (or afternoon, as it usually was) to hear Russ jamming out new "Are Go!" songs on my black with red trim, magnum acoustic guitar.

I got that guitar when I was 15 at a garage sale in Long Lake. I really learned to play and write on that guitar and there are pictures of all TA-80 members with it (including Matt 80). It was my special, first guitar. I had plans of passing it on to children, if I ever get around to having any. But, unfortunately, it got stolen, along with a fist full of only copy, original songs that I written as I was learning how to play guitar. I'm sure the songs were thrown away and the guitar was sold to a pawn shop, somewhere, though I did call around to all the Tucson pawn shops for months afterwards looking for it. I never found it. I miss this guitar.

Anyway, there's some really cool stuff on this album. "No One's There" is way too long but it's a great venture into the punk rock writing that everyone says I've become so good at. I can listen to that song, along with "Everything's Okay" and totally hear my approach to our current songs. I found my niche on this album. I didn't fully recognize it as that for a few more years still, but I did find it and recognized it enough to constantly come back to it when I wasn't feeling too confident about whatever I was working on.

At this point, I kinda feel like I'm saying the same thing for every album. It's not bad, not good, some growth, blah blah blah. I had fun making this album and I can still sit back and listen to it and not feel too embarrassed. So, it can't be that bad.


-Amy 80
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Huh, alright, at this point i still wasn't in the band yet, but when I eventually joined I did have to learn learn how to play a bunch of these. "Psychic Headache" was always a real crowd pleaser, "Spinny" lasted a really long time in set(at least two drummers, if not three) and I got to do the guitar for "Small Moments" when we rerecorded it at Randy's Basement Studio. Fer a long time this album didn't really have a name. Jamin finally told me it was gonna be called "Are Go!" ands I says "Oh! Like Thunderbirds?" He said "Yeah..." and so I made this cover that was a collage of various images from Thunderbirds and then we never used it. Based on this tenuous connection, an artsy chick I knew at the time said she would make marionettes of everyone, Gerry Anderson-style, but that never happened, either.

Still, I agree that this album, more than any before it, really set the stage for what TA-80 would eventually sound like most of the time. Accepting that punk rock was a viable medium for exploring the new ideas that everyone was coming up with was(ironically) more rewarding than making broad, stylistically diverse records. By the time this album got released, so many live shows had happened that anyone that might be called a fan had seen TA-80 live, and the disparity between the early albums and the subsequent live performances really forced everyone to make an album that would show off some of that enegy that TA-80 projected on stage.

Personally, I think they did it. It's not a bad album (I like it, a lot) and the only real bitches I hear about it from everyone is usually focused on the technical aspects of recording/final product issues. We all still listen to it, from time to time, and we always talk about how some songs are great first drafts. If we ever really wanted to, we could prolly make some decent, new recordings of some these tracks.

- Jens 80

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I can't comment at this time... I can't judge your guy's shit and post it on the... I don't know. I would just say as I heard these demos as they played them for me... I was impressed...they're just gay... gay, they're...really gay... I was impressed.

-Klae 80
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