A battered four-track recorder sits on a fold-out table with a unidirectional fostex microphone nearby, perched erect by a bundle of questionably off-color socks. On the wall hangs a mysterious curiosity which can only be described as a crayon drawing depicting circles, one inside the next, of varying colors. Like a child's rendering of a tunnel, the directional rotations of the planets around the sun, or psychedelic ripples in a pond. The only place to sit appears to be on the bottom half of a bunk bed, the top permanently cluttered with trays of cassette tapes, pieces of loose-leaf paper torn from a binder, and endless boxes of unstored clothing and books. Against the wall is a large metal locker with a little mirror on it. A television glares in the corner with the sound turned down.
Near the bed is a large electronic keyboard covered by a towel. On the floor is an acoustic 12-string guitar with an electric one laying against the wall. Under the bed sits another guitar case with a bass guitar on permanent loan. On the end of the room is a large bare apartment window, facing a concrete yard 14 stories down, and a little to the left, the roof and terraces of the connecting tenement building. The police sirens and traffic noise from the Bronx River Parkway are constant, barely muffled by the closed window. It is almost always hot in this room - frequently stuffy. Just a mere half hour or so in this room can change you in a myriad of ways - deservedly earning it's nickname "the house of pain" it will drain you of your bodily fluids, leaving you parched and thirsty. Your nose will become simultaneously stuffed up as your back and legs cramp up from sitting on the bottom half of a bunk bed with it's caved in mattress.
This room also served as the main recording studio of the Out Of Bodies....
Like minds brought together by strange happenstance - the Out Of Bodies have probably never assembled all at the same time in the same room - although it's been documented at least once they've merged in a group of four. More often they'd meet in threes and twos. But when they'd meet, however sporadically, sooner or later a guitar would find it's way to Dan - for without Dan there is no Out Of Bodies - and spontaneous happy combustion would ensue. Never ever in a studio or organized settings, but in bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens and once or twice a bathroom.
For the most part written lyrics were never on hand, and it was seldom that the OOBs ever came prepared. When Dan's 4-track recorder wasn't available for a session Donald would usually substitute with a boom box - which the guys affectionately referred to as the "wheezer" do to it's excessive tape hiss. But the preferred recording method was always 4-track, which Dan worked like a mad scientist - especially when he worked on his own recordings. Overdubbing and mixing that would make even George Martin woozy!
The tunes selected here run the gamut from raw to elaborate, with any number of OOBs involved - recording by any means and instrumentation available at the time - both cover songs and original compositions...
We believe, a little something for everyone!
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