Reactivating the Post Modern Cadaver Magazine, and the remastering of the Roman Invasion Suite catalog.
The Post Modern Cadaver Magazine ran for two issues back in 2005-6 and featured stories and art that were setting the stage for the much longer book- Journey By Ferry To Celibate City Or Thigh Town (196pgs). I ran out of gas at the end of Journey By Ferry and the rest is a murky, messy, strange period. Issues no. 3 & 4 will deal with leaving kalamazoo, the brief stint in Chicago and feeling discombobulated in NYC again. lots of sketchbook things, stories, journal blah etc. Stay tuned.
The Roman Invasion Suite was a Kalamazoo band I played guitar for in 1996/1997. This band resides between my time in The Paraguay City Rollers 1993/1994, and The Bridge Over River Qua 2003-4. I have all of the DAT recordings we made for the 7", comp, and LP. I'll eventually find a studio in NY that has a DAT player/recorder and transfer those puppies and some rare cassette stuff for remastering. This will be the first time that stuff will be properly available. Everything else floating around was either culled from the vinyl or from horrible low-bit transfers. Should be a total of 15 tracks and a full 80 minutes of material. (news update: 6/1/09- i just found ten cassettes of Romans stuff, demos rehearsals and session alternate takes. Alot to sort through but when it's finished, it should be quite packed!)
News update! (7/6/09) The cassettes have been gone through, and it's pretty much the conclusion I came to in 1997. This is the track listing for the Roman Invasion Suite collection I'm putting together from original master sources-
1. Exit 84
2. Fourteen Miles
3. Sixth Small Jack (home demo excerpt)
4. Farewell Miss Sands
5. The Metric System Remembers Me (Live)
6. The Second Book of Discipline
7. 8/9
8. Carnations
9. Sixth Small Jack
10. The Metric System Remembers Me
11. Hide & Seek With Burkah
12. Maltese Capital Execution
13. Absolutely Vile
1,2,& 4 are from The Siege of Port Theodora Sessions recorded at Western Michigan University Studios by Steve Versaw. While this isn't the entirety of the sessions, they are in fact the best offerings. Sixth Small Jack and Carnations were also recorded and didn't really come off the way we wanted. The subsequent LP sessions provided better versions. "Driving Time In Five" was also recorded at this time but was more of where we were coming from rather than where we were going. Our early songs weren't that hot.
6-13 are from the "Plays For One" Lp sessions Recorded at WGNS studios (Washington D.C.) by Jeff Turner. This record was supposed to be released by Longbow Records but at the last minute instead they put out another band's album. We weren't very happy about that.
Anyways, I'll have the DAT tapes transferred and the extras coverted as soon as I can afford it. If I'm lucky, I'll get the whole thing mastered. I'll make a limited book/cd/ dvd version (yeah, with a show/art etc.) and also have a high quality version online for people to do whatever with. I just can't stand the idea that people are listening to these terrible low res versions.
6 comments:
I was getting around to asking why the 'rollers weren't listed in your bio, and ex-specially where the Romans were..
Surely people still have DAT?!!?
The album cover killed me. Beautiful.
I'm excited for this.
hi this is leo from italy! the 7" is really great, i found it after a loooong research from a 2nd hand metal record shop in norway... excited about the stuff you'll upload as well!
Thank you Ben, Kosinski, and Leo! I've been digging and digging and digging and finally found the three videotaped shows for the Romans. There's a fourth that was shot in Washington D.C. that I've never seen that was supposed to be included in a video compilation with Hoover, Crownhate Ruin etc. Anyway, one of the three I found has excellent sound and bridges the gap between the 7" sessions and the LP sound. I'll be extracting tracks from that to add to the tracklist. I'm sorry if this project is taking awhile to compile but the whole idea is to do it carefully and thoughtfully so that everybody can have access to some high fidelity/quality stuff. Thanks again for writing,
Derek
I would kill for that Roman Invasion Suite Full Length. I've had the 7" for years and i still listen to it. I saw you guys at the first unitarian church in philly wayyyy tooo long ago. please let me know how i can get a hold of those songs.
mike spoiledredjeeps@gmail.com
Hello Mike, thanks for the message- that was a great show! I'll post my version of that show flyer sometime this week. The 7" and LP are being remastered by Bryan Heany inbetween his other engagements. It'll be available for high quality downloads hopefully soon. There are a few xtras including alternate takes and live tracks to spice things up.
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