Garrett Oliver split with The Stone Wings

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I had a lot of fun doing the fake band of Menards, while sitting on a stack of fake band ideas. One of those fake bands turned out to be The Stone Wings, playing romantic songs with acoustic guitar, the way I used to with Super Famicom, back when I had a lot of fans. A lot of those old fans are parents now, so I thought I'd make some music for them, and perhaps see if they'd be into it. I've always been a fan of Garrett's music, having engineered his two solo albums from 2009 and 2011. That was a long time ago, and I was really excited to hear he was working on some new stuff, but a new album was a lot to tackle. So it made perfect sense for us to do this split. I hope you love it!

Punishing the Faithful by Super Famicom

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After a while, living on the bottom didn't just make me angry. It made me sad. So Punishing the Faithful is more sad and serious, at odds with the society who I felt rejected me. Was it too much to want a room with a complete floor and an air conditioner? In desperation, I moved back into my parents' house and recorded this album. I used a lot of midi drums, since I wasn't allowed to have real drums at my parents' house. Living in Illinois, I had hopes of reconnecting with my old 'fans' by further exploring my emo roots. So if you like Emo, this is the tape for you.

Super Famicom split with Noah Eagle

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In the summer of 2011, Noah and I had been housemates for a year. He's one of my best pals, and I've always intended to support his musical endeavors. I don't know whose idea it was to do a split, but I was down. In fact, I needed to be doing more splits. At the time I was doing a lot of loud singing and loud screaming, and felt like I had a strong voice. Half my tracks on this are serious, and done with acoustic guitar. The others are weird and heavy, including a powerviolence song about my friend Garrett Oliver getting his drivers license. Justine did the cover art.

The Bottom by Super Famicom

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This is Super Famicom's punk album, and I was sick of everyone's crap. I 2011, I'd been living on the bottom for a good four years. I wrote some songs that I thought were funny, at the expense of a world I didn't like. It seemed like a lot of punks liked this album, and thought it was cool. It felt pretty neat while it lasted. You may have noticed how this album has two covers, one is on the far right of the above image. I don't know why I haven't used two covers for an album in the future, since I thought it was pretty cool, to do one just as a Fuck You to whomever isn't punk enough for me.

The Diamond Rainbow by Super Famicom

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For most of the writing and recording of this album, I didn't have a working computer, countered with an excess of heavy music ideas. Some might say this album would have had more appeal, had it had less songs, and less songs that don't sound like the last eighty songs I'd recorded and released. Songwriters evolve, and that evolution happens within shorter time frames when you write as much as I. Too bad it took me so long to get good at drums, but what can you do? I didn't want anyone else playing on my album and trying to tell me how my songs should be played. The original tapes I put this release on were found in the dumpster of a thrift store. So punk. 

Perilous by Super Famicom

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Following 2008's Wandering Floret Octology, it seemed prudent to make an especially great album, especially since I didn't have any deadlines. I could have spent the entire year doing nothing but writing my album, which is what I picture people doing when they say they spent an entire year on their album. It's not like they were going to work, or forming relationships. I, for one, had moved onto my back porch because the back porch so someone could rent my bedroom, then everyone at the house (especially me) could live more cheaply and more punkly. Musically, the Perilous album isn't much of a departure from what I was doing on the Wandering Florets. I got ghosted by the label that was supopsed to put out the cd... ghosted over a cd-r. Either way, I released it myself and then made some tapes.

The Wandering Floret Part 8 by Super Famicom

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So yeah. I had my friend John Carling do the artwork for the Octology, and it was the only time I willingly let anyone do album art for me. After all, I was too busy writing and recording the eight albums. Despite all of my intentions, I wasn't very good at organizing my time and sticking to a schedule. But I had to focus on getting a job first. I couldn't owe my roommates money forever without prioritizing the search for work. Even then it was very easy for pretty much anyone to disrupt my recording and waste the rest of my day. Some might argue that it's not a waste to relax with your friends, but relaxing isn't that easy when you are neglecting the promises you've made to yourself. And part of why I chose to put so much of myself into my work was to prove that I had better things to do than entertain people by watching tv with them. Not all of us just want somebody to sit with us while we wait to die?

About the tracks: for part 8, I wanted to use my darker, more goth songs. It was my intention to go more goth with super famicom, and wear turtle necks, and use drum machines. Maybe I would get a little band of little keyboard players. There would be no future blues dads to decide what tones and beats my songs needed, because I couldn't be trusted to decide that, because I didn't Really know how to write music. There would not be a band to douchify Super Famicom, and slow my progress.

My dad drove me to staples to copy the covers for the Octology. When he came in, I was copying part 8, and I immediately flipped over the cover so he wouldn't see the tits on my album cover. It was an instinctual reaction, and somewhat regrettable. As a kid, I would have gotten in trouble for something like that. In fact, my parents would have taken my guitar and my computer, and anything I might have used to make cds. I never wanted to hide my work from my parents, but they've never acknowledged my achievements in music. It's as if, to them, I've never done anything but fail to finish college.

The Wandering Floret Part 7 by Super Famicom

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Of the Wandering Floret Albums, I put the least amount of thought into the theme of this one, having some of the Octology's shortest and weirdest songs. However, I don't think the likeability of my work is dependant on the amount of attention I put into it. In fact, I'm well aware of the patterns and formulas that can make a nerds-only piece of a crap into something as enjoyable as it is forgettable.

The Wandering Floret Part 6 by Super Famicom

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Most the songs for this album were recorded on my Nickelodeon boom box in the bathroom at 165 M. L. King Avenue in Saint Augustine. Our house never got an official name, which was probably for the best. I would have ended up hating it and feeling misrepresented by it, or something like that. Regarding the album, the songs are all romantic. You might like them.

The Wandering Floret Part 5 by Super Famicom

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I thought this number of the Octology had a lot of hits on it, and a lot of acoustic guitar, embodying the formula I was trying for with Super Famicom. I would start with a finger-picked guitar riff, and use half that riff for the chorus and the other half for the verse. Then I'd add two verses, using the last two lines at the chorus, and then add layers to make each verse different. If simple yet weird hits are your thang, this is the album for you.

The Wandering Floret Part 1 by Super Famicom

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When planning the Wandering Floret Octology, to be released on August Eighth, Two Thousand Eight (on 888), I had a story concept in mind for the lyrics. It was a story about a young woman who had committed herself for life, to tend to a certain magical garden. Unable to leave this garden, her use to the outside world was gone. She was dead to the world. Useless, and reflecting on this sad truth. However, there were plants in this garden that, within them existed a mass of entirely new worlds. Part 1 was the last set of songs with which I used my half sized acoustic guitar. It needed to be tuned so high to be intonated, and the neck was badly bowing. I used a lot of weird sounding percussion on these tracks, and I think it sounds cool, sloppy but cool. Lost Sound Tapes made a tape of this, but I think for the release show, I made cd-rs. For the PJ Records page, I thought I'd check to see if Lost Sound Tapes had any copies available, but it seems they've erased any evidence of me having ever had a release with them. As if my day in the sun decided to have never been. So it goes.

Super Famicom split with Fire Island, AK

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Fire Island, AK was a solo project of a guy named Thomas, who at the time (I think) lived in North Carolina. Most of my friends in the freaky folky scene, including myself, were fans of Thomas's music. It was dark, ambient, and translated well when played with an acoustic guitar. However, I'm not sure if I know anyone who's met the guy who made the music. There wasn't a ton of communication about this split. My side was more hit-oriented, and Thomas's was more experimental and longer. Either way, I made a cd-r of this split and I think it'd pretty good. I think all of my songs from it were recorded in Bloomington Indiana, at a house called The Lattice of Coincidence.

Texas by Super Famicom

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Like the state, I considered this album to be diverse and expansive, full of inside jokes and easter eggs. Its tracks were recorded in a number of places, using a lot of different stuff. Some are hits, and others are just silly, the kind of stuff you'd expect on an edgy cd's "hidden" track. In 2007, you could get away with calling it experimental. This is also my Super Famicom album with the most guest appearances. Maybe if you listen really hard, you'll hear yourself on it. The original cds were released on a short-lived label from the Kansas City area, called Red Chair Records. I might have chosen a less obvious, less wholesome album art. But you know how it is. You have to support these kids when they want to start their record label, even if they do jump the gun on the art for Your album. Cause you never know. Maybe they'll get really big and Not forget they ever knew about you.

Super Famicom split with Kids Are Goats

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Kids are Goats is a solo project of my friend Levon from Tennessee. While on tour with Redbear., Levon came out to our Nashville show. It was an early thing at this singer, Kelly Shay Hicks's house. Levon and I decided that day to make a split cd, and record it right there, since I had my four track with me. The acoustics at that house were really nice, and Kelly Shay offered to play viola on my tracks. We banged on the floor, and on our laps, to add percussion to Levon's tracks, and I didn't do very well at that. Instead of putting one of us at the first half of the cd, and the other on the second half, we mixed up our tracks. It was weird and we were weirdos. So in case you could never tell the difference, my songs were tracks 1, 3, and 6.

Art for this one was also done by Patrick Labahn of Redbear. fame. Aside from being recorded on tour, I'm pretty sure this cd was also released while we were on the road. So that's pretty cool, to have something for our friends who might have been wondering what an awesome time we were having. Keep in mind, this was before every cool rocker had an instagram to update every day. It was a time in which our musical work could be a primary connection between us and our distant audience.

Super Famicom split with Toby Foster, Ben Laatsch, and Redbear.

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One of the first shows of my long tour with Redbear., we played a coffee shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That night, we stayed at our friends' Mary and Ben's house, with Ben Laatsch and Toby Foster, who also played the show. We were having a pretty fun, exciting time, and decided it would be fun to commemorate the party by recording some songs. Patrick (of Rebear.) didn't want to record his songs that night because he wanted to play them really well. My songs were written on the spot, while everyone was going to sleep. Our friend Anna did guest vocals on one of my tracks, and I'm pretty impressed that she was able to just jump in and sing over my parts. The lyrics were already in my notebook, but the singing was all in the moment.

Pat did the art for the cd, and while I love his art, I'm really not into the use of band/musician caricatures. He also made himself a way more handsome than Toby and I, whom I consider both really good looking guys! There were no song titles listed with this release. What good were song titles if we weren't trying to push our smash hits onto people? This was cvlt before I knew what (I hoped) cvlt was, and this was what I wanted to do with PJ Records. Give artists an excuse to make something extra weird (and often) extra cool, while giving listeners something more intimate and genuine than whatever us songwriters were trying to commercialize for the sake of our brands and egos.

That being said, I'm not sharing for download or stream, any work done by my partners in splitting. I don't want to put them on the spot about it, after all these years. And if you want their tracks, you're on your own.

Super Famicom split with Real Live Tigers

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Upon first listen, I was a fan of Tony Presley's Real Live Tigers. I liked what he was going for, and we became fast friends, and did this split cd. Among twenty or so songs written and recorded in the same way in the same place, I hoped these few had the coolest vibes, representing more of what I was really going for. Ohio's famed Tract Records was putting out a cd-r of this, after all. And I also wanted Tony to think my songs were cool. I had to get the art for this from discogs, and I got to do the inside stuff (which you can find at discogs), which was a half-assed painting and a random photo of a tiger. I guess I kind of phoned it in, so I should probably remember that everytime I think of others going limp on me. But from here on out, I'm going to put maximum effort into every pixel of album art. Mark my words.

Super Famicom split with LA Beard Club

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The LA Beard Club was a musical project of a guy named Daniel Mueller, from California, probably LA. He was a total stranger who asked me if I, with Super Famicom, would do a split with him. I said that would be cool. It was 2007, and I was interested in doing what I could to help beginners get 'out there', the way I was 'out there'. My songs were all quickly recorded in my parents' basement, around the time that I did Emily Songs 2. There was a back room at the Red Herring Vegetarian Restaurant in Champaign, IL. That was where I did most of the singing and playing that went into the writing of these songs. I think there was someone who worked up stairs who didn't like that I did that. At the time I was really into writing lyrics at diners, and my songs were kind of goofy, and I used a very cool fake accent. The cd covers on hand-colored copy paper, wrapped in laminate, so I wouldn't say they're all of equal quality.

A Thousand Moving Lights by Super Famicom

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Staying the night at my friend Carlos's house, Evan (of The Winslows and Nice And Friendly) and I had just recorded our first pop punk song together. It had been a very fun day, and I wanted to write and record some music. While everyone was crashing out and watching a movie, I set up my four track and recorded this set of instrumental guitar songs. They are weird and sloppy, and really cool in some parts.

Emily Songs 2 by Super Famicom

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The spring of 2007 was a time of some severe ups and downs. There was something in the insert of this cd about how Emily and I had broken up before I finished this album. That's the truth. At the time, I really believed in seeing things through, and I was a little sore about having ruined my life for the sake of a relationship that wasn't worth it. Sometimes I chalk it up to my issues with self-worth. These songs were recorded in my parents' basement while they were probably sleeping. I didn't have a sleep schedule.

Super Famicom split with My Bicycle Emergency

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At the same time I moved back to Jacksonville, my buddy Wilson moved back to his hometown of Winchester, which was nearby. He also played guitar and had a solo project called My Bicycle Emergency. We hung out a lot and did some tours together. It made perfect sense for us to do a split cd, so we did. The cover art was done by a real southern guy named Chris Mantle, who Wilson and I met on our first tour together.