"Steamrollaz N' Effect" was the 4th TA-80 release. It is a 6 song E.P. that featured outtakes from the last two albums, therfore the line-up is the same as those albums: Amy, Jamin & Russ 80. It was released in late 2002, only a couple of months after "Psychic Headache" and at the exact same time as the "Diggity" E.P (which we'll get to tomorrow).
And somehow this is 10 times better than the last two albums. I still like most of these.
The song "Steamrollaz N' Effect" was an outtake from the "Expansive...Yet Inexpensive" sessions, and it would have easily been one of the best songs on it. The only reason it wasn't used was because of a flaw in the actual tape it was recorded on and back then I refused to do a second take of anything so... but eventually what we did was load the 4-track recording into the computer and were able to overlay new instruments over the warped section and fix it. We later worked out a KILLER live version of this song, that only Cullen could play...and Cullen had to quit to devote more time to school...so...
"Candy Girl, the Mall is Closed" was also an outtake from Expansive...", I have mixed feelings about it but I think the overall result is pretty good, even though the chorus is a little weak...
"Lynyrd Skynyrd Box Set", "Man-Thing Vs The Micronauts", "The Art of Zen Gardening" and "American Stunt Driver's Association" were outtakes off of "Psychic Headache", all were rejected for being too bizarre. I actually kinda wished we had scrapped all of "Psychic Headache" and wrote a few more songs like these and just put out a weird album. It would've been way better, but perhaps not necessarily indicative of the direction we were heading in.
Sadly, this album no longer exists. It had an extremely low print run of about 15 and were given to family members and friends...all of which it appears have lost them. I never saved a copy for myself and all I have left is the origanl cover drawing. So will I ever hear these songs again? Very doubtful. Will it ever be re-released? Uhhh...even if it did still exist I don't think I'd re-release it. The sound quality on it was really bad, and the subject matter, while largely abstract is still a little personal for me to comfortably share with people... I really doubt anyone would actually be interested in hearing it.
Outside of the "Expansive" outtakes, which were straight up rockers, the "Psychic Headache" outtakes were a weird lo-fi space rock things, with fake sitars and all kinds of weird stuff..."American Stuntdriver's Association" was actually a weird New Wave song-suite... just bizarre stuff...
Track Listing:
1. Steamrollaz N' Effect
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd Box Set
3. Candy Girl, The Mall is Closed
4. Man-Thing Vs the Micronauts
5. The Art of Zen Gardening
6. American Stunt Driver's Association
I think the only song we ever played live from this album is "Steamrollaz 'N Effect"
- Jamin 80
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I really don't share Jamin's praises for this album. I think he's thinking more nostalgically than realisticly. These songs were outtakes from "Expansive" and "Psychic Headache" for a reason. They weren't as good as the songs that appeared on those albums. They're all either too long, too short, too repetitive, too weird, too sparse or too messed up. I like my vocal harmonies at the end of "Lynyrd Skynyrd Box Set". If I was a better singer I'd tell you what I did but I sing my harmonies off of instinct, not my knowledge of music. The song "Steamrollaz" is a great song but with a terrible recording. If we could've gotten a recording with Cullen 80 on drums, I would probably still consider it one of our best songs.
Like Jamin said, no copies exist anymore. At one time, seeing the 1 copy I had was becoming damaged beyond repair, I loaded it into my laptop for safe keeping. And that worked great until the laptop got stolen. The cd we have of "Steamrollaz" won't even play anymore and anyone we had given to has lost it. I wish I still had a copy just so I could have the entire TA-80 collection but I'm not really sorry it's lost. It's probably better that way. Though I did just remember...We gave a box set to Robert Pollard at a GBV show in Tucson and that had a copy of "Steamrollaz" in it and was also the only box set we ever made. Maybe Robert Pollard still has a copy. That's a sad and funny thought.
- Amy 80
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The sound a giraffe makes.
- Klae 80
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