To create the overdub effect in my earlier recordings from 1994 to 1995, I used a Realistic brand cassette player similar to the one in the picture. It had a built-in speaker that had a metal grate over it, which provided extra rattle and distortion when played loudly, which was most of the time as it was to be heard along with the live performance then captured on a separate tape on my Emerson boombox.
https://bandcamp.com/stream_redirect?enc=mp3-128&track_id=3435218128&ts=1544324982&t=416e46bfdbfd1538ddf7835d370dbc05799521b7?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/size=medium/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/notracklist=true/transparent=true/album=1951374273/
Listen/purchase: Stay Up All Nite by Jackass Penguins
I’m going to a wedding today near where I shot the cover for this EP. This tape actually has some songs that were used for Hourglass. These are some of the songs that didn’t make it on the album. It’s free and sounds great for a boombox recording.
KIDS REACT TO WALKMANS (Portable Cassette Players):
Watch “KIDS REACT TO WALKMANS (Portable Cassette Players)” on YouTube
This is how I used to listen to Weezer. For a while I only had this tape, Siamese Dream, Zooropa, Pablo Honey, Led Zeppelin III, In Utero, Dookie and Wool Box Set. On an endless rotation. And it was awesome.
Released in 1998 amidst headlines of terrorism, salacious sex scandals and cigars, “Pornucopia” was the first album of material by Jackass Penguins that was really thought out and held to a concept. Remastered for the 15-year anniversary of its original release, it still is very lo-fi, but for the most part, you can hear what was played instead of mostly cassette noise.
Another demo from the scrapped “Flat Earth Society” album. I only recorded this demo and maybe played this song 2 or 3 times, which is why I stopped in the middle of it. I think it needs a bridge or something, but it has a nice flow to it.
By 1998, I had a second acoustic guitar and an electric, so I converted my first one to a slide guitar since the frets were shot. It turned out to be a perfect slide guitar as the action is super-high (because the neck is bowed slightly out). I played “In My Time of Dying” a million times before I wrote this song, the first for slide guitar. I realize it’s not the best song now that I listen back, but I had fun playing it back in the day. Another Pornucopia outtake.
This is another demo from the scrapped “Flat Earth Society” album. This particular song would have been in the same theme as “Honest Engine”. I lost the lyrics sheet, but I can barely decipher the lyrics here. I need to record this one properly, as the melody gets stuck in my head 11 years later.
Washington is really mad, California’s all been had, Oregon is smoking pot, Arizona’s way too hot. I’ve been thru the west, time to pave the rest. Idaho is such a drag, all the guns in Utah sag, in Nevada, lost my cash, Colorado’s smoking hash. I’ve been thru the west, time to pave the rest, I’m sick of the west, time to pave the rest.
This song was originally recorded in 1997 on “Stolen Shoes” and was remade in 1998 for “Pornucopia” but was dropped because it was too long. This song is nearly six minutes, which is pretty self-indulgent for a pop-punk song. Here are the lyrics, loosely based on the pledge of allegiance and “America”:
We, the people, the united waste, of thee I sing. We are wasted in a nervous daze, let napalm sting. Strife, poverty and the nappiness, pursue these things. Overcrowding our retired place, multiplying. We are the scum of the earth. We do pledge allegiance to the slag heap of our dreams. One dead nation that is overtrod, dead or dying. And to the republic which it stands on our bodies with poverty and injustice all we are dying. We are the scum of the earth.
Jackass Penguins 