The Phoenix Foundation
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It was odd. Everybody plays everything on these, except for the odder noise quartets. Pure democracy. Late nights. Absinthe. Mushrooms. Horrid, horrid pot. Frat kids on bongos. There are three songs out of it that still sound ok. I tend to like the Weez compositions, except “Baby Come Back.” “Skoo” still reminds me of a Standells’ outtake, in the best way. ”Neurotic Soul/Betty Butler” is the max, to me. “New Cookbook” kinda blows, sans “Neurotic Soul. “On TV,” originally written as a bad cover of Blur’s “Coffee and TV” sounds shit here. “Rolling People” is my favorite, mostly ‘cause I’m singing. “Glance of You” is nice in a 20 year old heartbroken douchebag kid way. Personally, I think it’s 75% crap with 25% greatness, which is what you need. Heath Hendon: What you say is true, but not entirely accurate. Memory seems to go a bit fuzzy here, but I remember New Cook Book for Metal being recorded primarily over two consecutive Sunday nights in the spring of 2001 in either March or April. This was after I munsoned out of our Herbert Street apartment, located way down in Starkville’s famed Hammock District. The music for “Neurotic Soul” and all of “On T.V.” and “Mean a Thing” were recorded at Tombo/Grandrew’s place, which was right next to the spot favored by the Starkville Police Department for setting up road blocks and having a fine time harassing college students. Some of ‘em deserved it, granted, but a hell of a lot more did not. “Ever Swooning Feeling” was done entirely in James’ bedroom and, at one point, we attempted to substitute a bag of sugar for a maraca. Who knows or cares if it ended up on tape? I did the vocals for “Neurotic Soul” in my bedroom at my folks house on HWY 448, just outside of Indianola, a couple weeks after the other tracks were done and promptly took the master with all four songs over to Massey’s Holly Drive house, the original home of Goodmoon Studios. That same night Massey and I walked over to Mark fuckin’ Silva’s to mix down and put ‘em on CD. As a side note, “Hypnotize” (and I say oooh baby), a song that may or may not have found its way to tape, was intended as a blur rip off, not “On T.V.” JTM: Damn, your memory of our personal lives far exceeds mine. HH: That’s probably because your social life at the time far exceeded mine. |
James Thomas Miller: First of all, you can’t really reconcile “The Early Years” with “New Cookbook”. It’s just plain impossible. Weez and I had been living together for about a year, just across the street from Beckham and Alan, but above Bozo and Joey, two dyed-in-the-wool Jethros from Drew who were 23 but looked an easy 35. The ultimate Rob usually swung by for a late night jam and to dole out his personal philosophy, a mantra somewhere between Bukowski and the more laissez faire tenets of a welfare state like, say, Sweden. If there’s any harp on here it’s his, and the best. We recorded anything that came to mind/mindless.
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