Towards the end of 1998, E-Jam had somehow went from a medium sized band to a small trio. My memories of how this came to be aren't very good, so I won't bother with the details. Asa had previously been our keyboardist, but had shown some interest in the guitar, so for a while, we were a two guitar band (in addition to keys, bass, and drums). Since we were down to just Asa, I, and Hiro on drums, I took up the vacant position of bassist (I happened to have just such an instrument).
Some friends of mine had secured a gig at a local bar and wanted us to open for them. Cool, but they soon broke up, leaving the gig to us.
We rehearsed for a couple of weeks, mixing covers and originals. The originals were mine. I don't think Asa was comfortable playing his songs with our reduced line-up, which had us sounding almost punk-ish. Then again, the almost smooth jazz elements of one of our previous line-ups made me very, very uncomfortable.
The gig went well, though it certainly wasn't a huge turn-out. We played with a great deal of energy, and many of the questionable moments heard in the following recordings were smoothed out. Well, my voice didn't get any better, but every thing else was cool.
The actual performance wasn't recorded, unfortunately, but a few of the rehearsals were. Most of these songs were recorded on October 24th, 1998 at Ultra Sound studios in NYC. The last tune was from 2 weeks before (Oct. 10th).
Line up: George (me) on Bass, Asa on Guitar, and Hiroaki Ogawa on Drums. Vocal duties shared between me and Asa as noted. To download, simply right click on the song titles, and click save target as...
Sacrificial Lamb written by George-Williams Isaacs, vocals by George
Emotional Coward written by George-Williams Isaacs, vocals by Asa James
Inside Your Heart written by George-Williams Isaacs, vocals by George
One Headlight written by Jakob Dylan, vocals by Asa
We Can fall In Love/Butterfly written by George-Williams Isaacs, vocals by George
The segue into and out of Butterfly is a bit sloppy
Creep/In The Wee Small Hours... written by Thom Yorke/Radiohead, vocal by Asa
There's a bit of an old Sinatra song in here. Don't know the writer's name right now.
Hands & Knees written by George-Williams Isaacs, vocals by George
This is kinda a making of... In this recording, the band is still learning the song.
Creep written by Thom Yorke/Radiohead, vocal by Asa
Butterfly written by George-Williams Isaacs, vocals by George
From the previous rehearsal
PsychoVoyager |
More fun stuff |
© 2003 George-Williams Isaacs, Asa James, and Hiroaki Ogawa
Illustration at top left based on a photo by Holly Lochner
