Outtakes of the Gods (An Occasional Series)

Okay -- album art and mastered CD music have all been finalized, and we're on schedule to get The Album We Never Made© actually ready in physical form and on Amazon and iTunes by mid-August, if not sooner.

But in the meantime, here's a track that didn't make the cut but which I dig the most anyway.

Circa 1982, here's what may have been our very first home four-track demo -- an amusingly primitive early version of Andy's chilling ode to urban paranoia, the fabulous "What's Wrong With This Picture?"

A far more exciting and accomplished live version of this is one of my favorite things on the forthcoming album, but I think this one has a certain charm on its own. In any case, it's an interesting window into our creative process as we were getting the band together. If I may be so pretentious.

The Masses Are Clamoring For the Floor Models!

Okay, we're getting really close to the production date for this thing.

Here's the back of the CD front cover; it may be tweaked a tad before we go to press, but essentially this is what it will look like. Including the track listing.

And here's track 14 -- a very cool live version of Andy and Gerry's "Thin Air."

The last thing you bastards will get for free, I might add.

AN UPDATE BY THE COMPILER:

You may have noticed that the opening song on the CD --"Spin Cycle" -- features personnel other than the classic Flo Mos lineup. In point of fact, although the song was written and performed (often) during the Floor Models original run, no recording of the song from that period has survived. However, given that three of the people playing and singing the late 80s version included here were, in fact, Floor Models (Gerry, Glen and me on keyboards) I've decided that it's a de facto Floor Models track despite the absence of Andy. In more or less in the same way that "The Ballad of John and Yoko" is a Beatles track despite the absence of George and Ringo.

Manny Kellem Lives!!!

The finalized CD label for The Album We Never Made™

Sans one of those big CD holes in the middle, obviously.

Hey, We're Not Kidding Around -- This CD Really is Happening!

And it's gonna be a doozy. Here's the almost finished front and back cover and the CD label.

There's gonna be a credits/liner notes page with the front cover, and there's still a little tweaking to be done with the above, but basically I'm totally stoked with how this is shaking out.

Peter Lemongello, Eat Your Heart Out!

Oh for heaven's sake...I simply cannot believe this has survived.

The smart-ass flyer I cobbled together to announce our ultra-secret, first-ever, strictly for our friends, live performance in 1981.

Every ten years, a group of musicians emerge who fundamentally alter the way we listen to both rock and roll.

In the Fifties...it was Elvis, Chuck Berry and Tommy Sands...

In the Sixties...the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler...

In the Seventies...Bruce Springsteen, Barry Manilow and Lydia Lunch...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are proud to present

In Concert

Sept. 19, 1981 Rocket Studios (Studio B) 265 West 37th Street 944-2699 9:30-12:30 BYO

will be performing selections from their forthcoming album "We Can Get It For You At Our New Jersey Store." Be there or be square!

THE CRITICS RAVE!!!!

"A study in terror!" -- Lester Bangs, Village Voice

"I emerged shaken...a merciless dissection of the palsied heart of darkness that is contemporary American culture." -- Rona Barrett, Today

"A stinking heap of dead cod." -- John Lydon, PiL

"Sounds like an unholy schtup between Tom Verlaine and Boyce & Hart" -- Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone

"My favorite band." -- Steve Simels, Stereo Review

And I'll have you know that in the days before photoshop, this was a serious hassle to put together.

I should add that I totally ripped this off from a full page spread Paramount Pictures ran in the New York Times a few months earlier to advertise a theatrical re-issue of Ed Wood's immortal Glen or Glenda.

[h/t Susan Brewster]

Bonus Tracks of the Gods (An Occasional Series)

The Album We Never Made™ is done. Swear to Jeebus.

Seriously. The track listing is etched in stone, and the 19 selections your humble scribe has opted for -- a mix of studio, home demo and live performances -- have been painstakingly restored, edited, and refurbished from the best possible original sources by my genius pal Steve Schwartz. Who I'm taking to dinner on Thursday in lieu of payment.

In any case, here's something that didn't make the official cut, but still is pretty cool -- Gerry's "Sittin' Tight," from the sessions we did at WBAI-FM, engineered by super talented nice guy Edward Haber. Who had far more luck working with Richard Thompson on a couple of projects.

As soon as we finalize the cover art and get the rest of the production details taken care of -- which should be a couple of weeks tops -- we'll have an official release date to announce.

And here's the coolest part -- you'll be able to download the thing via iTunes and Amazon.

Ain't technology grand?

Let Us Now Praise Famous Crappy Demo Tapes!!!

A Floor Your Love update.

I'm mastering the final selections for the album on Thursday of this week -- depending on various technical issues, the album will have between 17 to 19 tracks. From live, studio, and home demo sources. All of which sound much better than they should, thanks to brilliant audio restoration by my chum Steve Schwartz.

Here's a fabulous track that didn't make the cut -- Andy, on WBAI, with a solo twelve-string and vocal version of our classic "You'll Come Around."

In any event, the album is now a definite lock for June release. And the digital downloads will be available on iTunes and Amazon.

How fricking cool is that?