released June 1, 2014

I was listening to Neil Young's triple best-of "Decade". I realized it's been a decade since I released my first Seattle recordings. Time for a retrospective. Let's do it.

In January of 2002 I got a Tascam 4-Track cassette recorder. For the next 18 months I obsessively experimented with it and serially released the often hysterical results as CD-Rs, all the while teaching myself how to better play drums, bass and guitar. I moved to Seattle in September of 2003 with a friend from high school (known alternately as Kevin M, Opal Stone or Opalo) and the intent to start a band called Luxxe.

In the late spring of 2004 I released my last solo album recorded on 4-Track cassette entitled "Shapeshifting Venus And The Many Faces Of Love" from which we draw the opening track in our collection, THE STATIC. This is the song that i decided I could really play drums and guitar solos on.

Shortly after this I met a Jim Smith who began playing drums in Luxxe. Jim owned an 8-Track digital hard disc recorder and far better mics which he taught me to use as well as introducing me to the magazine Tape Op, probably the greatest recording resource I've encountered.
With new tools in hand I recorded the album "The Ice Cream Man Cometh" in 2005. STARR is based on a finger picking motif I wrote when first learning guitar, contains my first use of a digital synth, and is the moment I started to really appreciate writing for bass guitar. SPINDLE PRICKED hosts some very poetic lyrics and a strong Smashing Pumpkins influence.

All the while I had been working on a lineup for Luxxe and had finally put together a performing band. Upon first moving to Seattle, Luxxe had consisted of myself and Opal Stone. For a brief moment in late 2004 drums were played by Nate Moore (more from him later) before Jim Smith taking that position in 2005. Opal Stone was followed by Danny McCarthey on bass in 2006 and finally the personnel had settled with myself on vocals and guitar, Danny on bass, and Jim on drums and keyboard. With this lineup the "Demon On Phone" album was recorded in 2006 containing MACHINES and MOONSTOMPER, the first songs in this collection not recorded by myself but by Jim Smith with me assisting. Though the lyrics are mine alone and a large part of the music as well, MOONSTOMPER at this point in the band is a song touched by everyone to have passed through it, the original theme being written by Opal Stone and myself on our first night in Seattle and parts of the instrumental section being conceived during an improv by a short lived version of the band consisting of myself on guitar and vocals, Danny McCarthey on bass, Jim Smith on drums and keys as well as Nate Moore on drums and guitar. Luxxe's next album was "An Elaborate Lie" recorded over the course of the band falling apart, finished by myself alone and released in 2007. Here we find DETHMUSHEENX, about America's car addiction, performed by the live band plus Chelsea Moon on piano and KISS THE GLASS PT1 performed largely by myself with additional contributions by Chelsea Moon (piano), Opal Stone (horns), and 5-Track (guitar solos).

With the band at an end I returned to solo work and invested in a laptop based digital recording system. Partially to teach myself how to use this new system I recorded "Z Plays Ziggy", a complete rerecording of David Bowie's album "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars" performed on acoustic guitar and toy instruments with crazy alien vocals. Originally released under the title "Jasper Johns Plays Ziggy Stardust" in 2008, Z Plays Ziggy is not represented in this collection but is available in complete here: zzzz.bandcamp.com/album/z-plays-ziggy-2013-zmstr

Following the Ziggy album I hooked back up with Nate Moore and began a series of recorded improvisations under the name Chicken McFaggot. One CD-R release from 2009 entitled "Amusicment" provides us with the track MUPPETS!, a brief example of the sounds Nate and I were creating before the project transformed into the performing duo The Fool The Magician, consisting of Nate on drums and myself on guitar, and releasing two albums in 2010; "The Preeminent Heavy Metal Acid Jazz Duet" gives us the songs SNAP! and EPIC FUCKING while from "The Search for a Proper Cup of Tea" we have MALIFICENT.

My next solo endeavor was recorded before and during the time of The Fool The Magician and released in the latter half of 2010 after the folding of TFTM. "Rockstar Fuckup" was simultaneously a focusing on more "pop" oriented arrangements as well as a return to some of the experimentation of the 4-Track cassette years. We get our first cover of the collection with my arrangement of Syd Barrett's BABY LEMONADE, a tribute to my favorite Sesame Street character and some sweet wah guitar in FOR LOVE OF GROVER and the mbira driven delicateness of LAST DANCE OF THE WOODLAND FAIRIES.

After completing "RockStar Fuckup" and unsure of where to go next I experienced a sort of artistic wandering period. To entertain myself on the side while recording and performing on an album for a friend I began playing with some bass and drums improvisations by Nate Moore and myself from back in 2009. After cutting them up, adding layers of guitars, exploring further into keyboards, and experimenting with spontaneous lyric composition I ended up with the album "Carousel Of Dreams" released in spring 2011 and represented by CAROUSEL RIDE. Then I toyed with the idea of trying the acoustic guitar singer/songwriter gig. I put together a collection of songs and released it as "Sketchbook" a month after "Carousel Of Dreams". RIVER OF LIFE is something on 12 string cooked up playing with the opening chords of Neil Young's On The Way Home and David Bowie's Watch That Man. NEW AGE by Lou Reed, the other cover in our set, done with the lyrics found in The Velvet Underground Live 1969 version of the song (far superior to the Loaded version in my opinion). ROCKN'ROLL BITCH is a song I wrote back in the late 1990's that I've yet to accomplish a full band version to my liking as of this writing but have played alone and with others for years. Shortly after finishing "Sketchbook" I decided I was not interested in solo acoustic guitar/voice performance at that time and the project was abandoned.

Inspired by reading a biography of Brian Eno and my then heightened obsession with Bowie's Low and "Heroes" albums I began experimenting with keyboards, drones and for the first time, drum programming. I continued my use of spontaneous lyric composition as well and the result was my third release of 2011 "The Outrider" from which we have THE LINES and an excerpt of TREMBLING MAJESTY. "The Outrider" was a cathartic but somber affair and I decided it was time for the air of a specific inspiration that can only come from playing with other people. It was time to form another band.

Through answering an advert I met drummer Mario Silva and with the addition of Jason Kisch on bass we formed Magnetic Circus at the start of 2012. The band began playing regularly in Seattle and in the fall of 2012 released the "We Die In Fire" EP from which we take the track LSD. Continued gigging and writing lead to us entering BLDGs studios and recording the "Hits Of Evil" EP in early 2013. This gives us the only other two songs I didn't record on this compilation, EVIL and ROBOT SLAVES recorded by Aaron Schroeder. In July of 2013 Magnetic Circus disbanded.

A sequel in part to the "Z Plays Ziggy" album of 2008, "Z Plays The White Album" released in March of 2014 is a complete recreation of the massive self titled double album by The Bealtes done with acoustic guitars and toy instruments. Again, though not represented on this collection the album in full can be found here: zzzz.bandcamp.com/album/z-plays-the-white-album

From "Shapeshifting Venus And The Many Faces Of Love" in spring of 2004 through the release of "Z Plays The White Album" in spring of 2014, a decade of musical growth is touched upon in this collection. This is the story of my ten years in Seattle.


All tracks remastered by Z in April and May 2014. A Paper Doll Recordings production.
Contact: zzzzbooking@gmail.com
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