(no subject)
1999 - Crimes and Misdemeanors - I left this in the same state I conceived it - a complete fucking messy wreck. A concept album about sex and murder, the libretto following a man just out of high school who has broken up with his lover of many years, and finds himself slowly losing his sanity and sense of perspective. Um. Mildly autobiographical. Similar in spirit and sound to somewhat realized Without Feathers EP, which means it sounded like The Smashing Pumpkins and Our Lady Peace. Abandoned due to nervous breakdown, so it's like SMiLE! except shitty. Songs included "The Many Faces of Eve," "Song for Tennessee Williams," and "Everything Will Be All Right.
2000 - assorted computer demos, along the lines of aforementioned project. Abandoned because I discovered Elvis Costello, also extreme disinterest from other musical parties. (Recently, though, I found a demo tape of some songs, and some of these are not completely terrible, such as "Until it All Falls Down," "Words Are Like Bullets," "Cinematography," "Melanie," and "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" not to be confused with the hit song of the same name)
2001 - Led Zeppelin IV, by reconfigured Odd Random. I'm as aware of my old band's faults as anyone, but I swear, hand to God, that even though the live show didn't show it, and even though we were covering Nintendo songs, we were finally on to something, at least as far as songwriting and a melding of influences went. Of all the things that never came to be, this is the one that stings. An EP was finished, which we decided to expand into a full length, but then we broke up. The EP's tracklist is "Close," "It's Too Much," "Jennifer Tells Me," "Poetry on the Bathroom Wall," and a song Josh wrote called "Run Away from You" which included the theme from Super Mario Brothers 2. Songs in various stages of completion at the time of our break up were "The Surface Value," "I'm Never Going Back to Red Bank," "Work," "September," "x.o.x.o." and "It's Time to Start over Again," as well as the title track.
In 2002 I attempted to rerecord this album with just myself and an electric guitar, a la Billy Bragg, with two additional songs called "Nerve" (which is more or less a reworking of "x.o.x.o.") and "Don't Bother to Make an Offer, I'm Not for Sale" (complete lyrics: "Don't bother to make an offer / Don't bother to make an offer / I'm not for sale, I'm not for sale / I'm not for sale") but this wasn't finished for reason of wandering interest, realization that it just wasn't the same.
2002-03 - Assorted Deific Trio songs. We sort of had an inkling going into this that it may not be conceived, but we hit on a sound rather quickly (even if it was mostly Mogwai's) and we had fun working on the songs. Abandoned due to college, first Mark's and then mine. Songs included "But Hark!" "Red Snapper," "Huey P. Newton is My President, Part One," "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Something or Other, Bonk," Jim Chorman's take on "Don't Look Back in Anger," and sundry other songs I could never complete.
2006 - Olympia: Songs 2003-2006. This album is pretty much done, it just needs to be recorded. I have no means to do this, of course. This was more in the vein of singer/songwritery stuff, pretty heavily influenced by Warren Zevon, Nina Nastasia and The Mountain Goats. List of songs: "Olympia Part I," "Perfume," "This Time of the Night," "The Puget Sound is Rising," "The All-America City, Olympia Part II," "Untitled, Unfinished, Unwritten, Unconceived," "Everything Has Sugar," "The Last Slow Dance with Jeanine Redux," "The Tornado Song" (two versions, one subtitled "Spooky," the other "In Search of Lost Time in the Key of Jack Daniels,") "No Title in G Minor," and "I Was a Catholic." Abandoned because I moved out of Olympia.
Too much detritus for one life, if you ask me.