Kick The Habit
LFA’s second official recording, Kick The Habit (1992). Recorded in Chopper Newt’s “home studio” (i.e., his parents’ basement) with a four-track and a rented mixing board, KTH may have lower quality sound than How Old Is Your Sister?, but we spent more time getting the songs right (well, sort of), did a better job mixing them (relatively), and ended up, as a result, with a better collection of tunes (in my opinion).
Cover Art By Serpentuh, reformatted for CD Jewel case:
1. Whoops… Democracy!
2. Indian Summer
3. Grain Elevator/Funk This College Life
4. Cigarettes
5. I Wanna Be Good
6. Channeling Lou
7. Yoko
8. Caramel Obsession
9. Lady Bugs’ Picnic
10. Stars
July 31, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Stars in a gymnasium actually SOUNDS like we’re in a gym!
July 31, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Funny that. I just wanted to make that version sound a little more like the original “acoustic” version Chopper Newt recorded on his own, so I added a reverb filter called “gymnasium.”
July 31, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I didn’t think I would like it…and yet I did. Added it to my ipod today!
July 31, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Cool. I’ve effed around with many of the tunes, adding delay, flanger, chorus, and reverb–but most sound silly and I haven’t put them in any directories for downloading.
I’ve been thinking about doing some true remixes, adding more drums, and splitting up the tracks, etc., but I’d really need the master 4-track tapes (or the 8-track from HOIYS) to do it right. And anyway, between wife, daughter, life, teaching, writing, and research, who has time? Not I.
August 2, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I am sad to say the original 8-tracks (reel to reel no less) for HOIYS no longer exist.
I don’t remember how I came into possession of them, but 2 years ago I was having much construction done to my home, they were crushed. Assuming at that point that no one would have reel to reel, I made no attempt to save/keep.
As to the 4-track master tapes for KTH or TP, I have no idea what happened to those. I want to say that I also had them, but looking through my collection of cassette tapes this past year to prepare for the digitizing of the tracks, I didn’t find anything.
PS-add more drums to anything and I will cry…
August 2, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Well, of course, I would only add loops from your own drumming to extend the songs to hour-long rave mixes.
I remember I had possession of the original 8-track recording of HOIYS for a while. I don’t know why. But I left them in a closet at Gator’s and that was the last time I saw them.
August 3, 2007 at 12:54 pm
BTW, how many copies of this tape did we have made? Because I will swear in court that there are at least 100 still residing in my house. Talk about overestimating demand.
August 3, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Didn’t Bob arrange the whole business? If so, he alone would know. I didn’t know we had made more than 100, which would mean you have them all!
BTW, out of total boredom, I’ll probably take down KTH soon, maybe today, and post TP for you guys. No need to wait a whole week, really, is there?
I recently listened to a few Fearless Freep tunes that Bob e-mailed me. They’re good! It’s too bad you guys didn’t record more stuff.
M
August 7, 2007 at 2:04 pm
To MY recollection:
HOIYS = 500-600 produced (Sold ALL except our 10 free each copies)
KTH = 500 produced (I sold all of mine except 2!)
TP = 300 produced (sold about 50…)
August 8, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Channeling Lou and Cigarettes are personal faves, but the whole album is pretty solid.
August 8, 2007 at 11:18 pm
mp3s removed?
how dare you??!!
can i get the files for KTH?
hm can i, hm hm? can i, can i?
August 9, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Gordon,
As always, if you want to e-mail me, I have mp3 files of all the stuff available on an FTP location. The files are quite large (as they have been kept in their original WAV file format to prevent any compression degredation). All 3 LFA albums PLUS the stuff Stucky, Carm and I did after Wesleyan. (Fearless Freep.)
I can be contacted at:
lizardsfromafar@comcast.net
Bob
August 9, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Gordon,
If you don’t want to download Bob’s monstrous WAV files, I can still provide the KTH mp3s I have. They sound different than the original recording as I ran equalization and noise reduction filters on them (which I think improves them, but that’s an opinion). If you can provide me with an e-mail address, I can try to send you the whole album in a zipped file.
August 11, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Mr. Gecko,
I don’t mind the files in any format.. the extra stuff appeals to me as well.
But if you don’t mind sending the EQed and NRed files you made, I’d be happy to receive them.
my email is.. gbazsali1@mac.com
Thanks..
The Lizards shall rock the ex-pat community in Korea as they have my personal world!
~Gordon
August 12, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Mr. Gecko? That’s funny. But it’s Dr. Gecko, if you please. Ha!
I’ll try e-mailing them sometime this week. It will have to be in multiple files. If it doesn’t work, I’ll repost them on the server for download. In fact, I will repost them soon since I haven’t had the chance to remaster any of the other rehearsal stuff yet I have nothing new to post anyway.
I’ll put a message on the blog when they’re ready.
Matt
August 13, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Or Professor Gecko?
I’ve been dying to ask you since learning of your doctorate:
Professor, what’s another word for pirate treasure?
August 14, 2007 at 9:56 pm
?!
August 15, 2007 at 1:23 pm
You’re supposed to say “Booty”…
1) I just wanted the Gecko to “Booty”
2) There is a clip on a Beastie Boys album wherein a boy asks a professor:
boy – “Professor, what’s another word for pirate treasure?”
professor – “Why, I think it’s booty!”
And then the song starts.
July 16, 2008 at 7:56 pm
OMG you guys, I can’t believe it’s you. I am trying to explain about you to my (good lord) 14 year old son, and it thrilled me to be able to show him the pictures. He didn’t believe it was actually me in one of those pictures. I am so excited you are getting back together. Let me know when I can buy a t-shirt.
Norah
July 16, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Norah,
If you go to the myspace page and click on the videos…the concert you and Kris did the back-up singing for is all available for viewing!