Eight Room Diesel Funk
I’ve always felt a little unsettled* by 1998’s One Fine Ride. We tried to make something that turned out to be not necessarily honest with the base recording sessions; with the performances of that time. We tried to make a studio album out of session recordings and it came out a sloppy, overreaching mess** of a record. But that’s how we did it back then. We mixed hubris and ambition and didn’t really care all too much about outcomes. No apologies, I love what we did but had we released the base recordings unadorned, I would be just fine today.
By mid-1998 we were very tight performers but we couldn’t play the songs to save our lives. That was way too boring and unfulfilling so we chose to just play together and figure out where the sounds went. What came out is what came out. We stopped using set lists and sometimes didn’t even load all of our equipment in. We felt most confident when we intentionally made things difficult for ourselves.
We recorded a lot.
Most of these futuregifting recordings were captured around the time we recorded the One Fine Ride tracks. Most of these are from rehearsal sessions at Smelly Hell. The Greatest Story recording is from a show on June 4, 1998. This release feels more true to the performing experience of that era. It is the literal height of the tripgrass era.
This piece feels a lot like how I heard everything in my headphones. And maybe that’s how someone would listen to this supercut; headphones straight off the board. I feel more settled about this representation of tripgrass era tKoL. That's all I have to say on the matter.
It's definitely not for everyone.
Clicks:
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* By contrast This is the New America is an amazing and timeless treat. It’s intimate, it’s true to the performances.
** Except for Princess Bridge. The OFR version is the ultimate iteration. In fact, the OFT Princess Bridge/Ruins of Pagosa/Kids in the Street run is the very best of that record.
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