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.
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.
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.
Upon deciding not to limit my number number of planned releases, I planned a ton of split cds. Emily and I decided to do a split, and record songs with an assigned restriction, for instrumentation were to only use bell sounds from a keyboard. She was more of a piano player than a guitarist, so it made sense to me. My tracks were recorded in my parents' basement while I still didn't have a room. I think some of them are pretty good, and I think it's silly that I haven't recorded more Just Keyboard songs. You might be wondering why I didn't include the beautiful art from the other side of the split. The truth is Emily and I don't talk, and I didn't get her permission to share anything of hers on here.
In the fall of 2006, it was an imperative that, if I were to remain Emily's boyfriend, that I would need to go back to school and get a good job, and support her financially until her career as an opera singer took off. FYI, I don't think she did find a career in vocal performance. The only school I could afford to go to was Illinois College, where my dad worked and got me some free classes. So I moved back to my hometown. Most of my friends had moved away, and I no longer had a room at my parents' house. I slept on the old couch in the unfinished part of the basement. I was very depressed about this bad decision, and wrote songs about death. With my music, I didn't want to do what it took to attract the younger crowd of new scenesters. In fact, for a long time, I'd wanted to write music for grown-ups and hipsters. The only way I could figure to do that was to start singing with a weird, fake accent. So I did, and it worked. As a cool freak folker, I got a label called Tract Records to put out this cd.
Stream it - YouTube Download it - Nextcloud Here is yet another album from Super Famicom, my solo project since the year 2002. As ...
