ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS ABDUCTED BY ALIENS!
AP Wire Service
DENVER-Early Thursday morning, Flip Nasty backup singers JOHN SPERANZA and THE CODIES were reported missing from the secluded mountain-man residence of fellow backup singer CAT “THE BASS FROM SPACE” MAYHUGH. Authorities suspect foul play and reportedly are questioning Mayhugh with regards to his alleged extra-terrestrial sympathies. PETE VINCELETTE, who played the guitar solo on Million Valentines, was quoted as saying, “this is the kind of loss that people probably won’t notice in the traditional manner of feeling sad....” An entirely different JOHN SPERANZA, who also played drum set on Island and auxilliary percussion along with CODY WEATHERS, could not be reached for comment. “All programming and incidental music by CODY WEATHERS,” reported one source from the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
PRODUCTION STAFF PERFORMS ALIEN AUTOPSY!
UPI Wire Service
DENVER- Although Archaeology was produced by CODY WEATHERS for Checkmate Productions, the real story of the day hinges on a top-secret military autopsy performed on the presumably alien pilots of a mysterious craft which crashed last week near Skokie, Illinois. CAT “WE’RE GOING BACK, RIGHT?” MAYHUGH, who also took all the photos of Flip Nasty, launched an immediate inquiry into the procedure. JOHN SPERANZA used his status as producer of Island to demand the release of all documents pertaining to government secrecy. CODY WEATHERS, who once worked with SPERANZA to engineer this recording according to standard alien procedure, was spotted coming red-handed out of Buckley AFB. Confronted, he could only say, “I’m not really sure what my extra-terrestrial medical qualifications are, but here are some abductees and expert witnesses whose speech was provided to us courtesy of Truth or What? Productions, Frumples Pictures, and Checkmate Live Archives: JOH3N “NECKMASTER” O’MEARA, SARAH “MEGHAN O’MEARA” GLINDENKOPF, DR. OWEN P. O’MEARA, M.D., ANNIE STAMPER, SPERANZA, FRIED, and CODY”
FLIP NASTY THANKS UNUSUAL BEINGS FROM SPACE!
UFO Wire Service
DENVER- SETI radio telescopes decoded an extremely complex geometric sequence of radio pulses in the waning hours of last night. The shocking results read, as we’ve always suspected: “Cat, Pete, our families, Joh3n and the rest of Clan O’Meara, Annie, Eric, fellow voyagers from planet Attrac-ton, everyone on our fabulous mailing list, Taco Bell, Siri, Seyca, Brian, Addington, Doc, Eli, Lyn, Robert, Elise, String, Christy, Vaunne, Gin, Karma, Jess, Kathy, Dannielle, Dave, Alaina, Scott, Jake, Lon, a gigantic list of coffeeshops and waitresses, the rest of you.”
Notes on the 2000 CD re-release of Archaeology: [by Cat Mayhugh, independent record producer]:
When I first got the call that Flip was going to start working on Archaeology and needed me to produce the album, I was ecstatic. I was told the band was tired of studio production and was returning to my jazz-basement “lo-fi” stylings which made early Roque recordings so ground-breaking and exciting. In addition, I was told, a certain young guitarist was being added to the group’s lineup (Pete Vincelette) who had at least some formal blues training and who might take on the sorely vacant spot on lead guitar that Nick Walsh had so competently occupied. Of course, the situation turned out to be quite different than what was described to me so that when I arrived on the first day of rehearsal I wasn’t met, exactly, with what could be called open arms. Of course, Cody begged me to do some back-up vocals for the album, but in the same breath he informed me that I wouldn’t actually be producing the album and that there had been some miscommunication between himself and the label. I was disappointed, needless to say. After replacing John Speranza’s guitar (a careless mishap which needs no explanation) the band resumed rehearsals and I joined them, striving to do my best to keep things simple.
Now, although the album was recorded primarily in the basement, rather than use the Label’s old boom box and return to a 2-track, more gratifying sound, Cody bought his own 4-track and layered much of the album by “bouncing down” tracks. It was a long and unnecessarily tedious process, but it did prove somewhat advantageous. Particularly on the first two tracks, Cody’s inexperience with the 4-track imbued the vocals with a deliciously muddy, “lo-fi” edge. Other stand-outs on this album include Pete Vincelette’s solo on “Million Valentines” (sadly, the group was unwilling to work with Pete through most of the project…ultimately only this solo was finally accepted among all his contributions…to be honest, I suspect that Cody was somewhat jealous of Pete’s uncanny ability to maintain almost perfect, a-synchronous rhythms. But that’s another story…) As usual with Cody’s “late-millenium” projects, a certain intellectual fervor pervades this album (the use of Ivesian independent simultaneous orchestration on “Hero”, the complex (although conventional) rhythms on “Wish You Were Here”, “You Can Wait”, and “Champagne”, the blatant musicianship (sometimes I wonder why Cody insists on impressing all of us by playing most of the instruments on some albums? And why can’t Speranza just stick to guitar? Drums?! Bass Guitar?! I mean, granted he’s some sort of mutant Wunderkind, but my personal opinion is that the band could have used a healthy does of modesty…really, whenever they record). Regardless, I hope these brainy intrusions don’t intrude upon the listening pleasure of the album too much. I did what I could to keep the guitars scratchy and real, Cody’s lyrics are at the best they ever really get (although too intelligible for my tastes), and “Skulls of Angels” is given “new life” in a (too keyboard-intensive) version. It’s best not to worry about what this album might have been with a few more guitars and a lot more distortion and noise. It’s better to enjoy the album as it is. After all, it is a Flip Nasty album and even with its failings, it’s still better than half of at least a third of the other music out there.
