finally,we made it to post # 100....over a month in the works,199 tracks clocking in at 9.9 hours of ridiculous goodness.the picture above shows all the tapes(minus 2 i found after the picture,bringing the total to 47 tapes) that i pulled this together from,and believe me there's much much more.for the downright greatest hits of all,grab "litterbox",a compilation found elsewhere on this blog.this here thing tho',being split into 10 zip files,runs thru every era.cat machine b.c.(before chipmunk),the chipmunk era,4-track era,live rehearsal era.it all started one day when a friend stopped by and happened to bring joel rizzo with him,we hit it off and even jammed a little on a few things i was working on at the time,and he said to come to his place and rock with him and his brother,tony.i was there soon and we took off on a year long spree of music making as cat machine.gramp's house where we usually recorded,became cat machine house to all who knew us.we had many guest stars,as anyone who showed up when we were recording was in cat machine.dave roth,katie ball,nathan adams,tall ray,chris nicholson,philbert ze chocolat clown,brian"snax"siders,sean sommers,dave antelope leaps,chuck connell,and more people joined in on various songs.more frequent collaborators were billy drake,shane carwile,vance burdge,who were all practically full fledged members,they played with us so much.we recorded direct into a boombox usually,but as you'll hear,we hit our stride on the 4-track sessions.when chipmunk joined,on the 19th tape,"a chip off the old monk",he brought with him to the group,great knowledge of guitar and music,and added a new dimension to our sound.between billy and chris ,we had a couple of the greatest guitarists i've ever known in my life.also imbibing substances and alcohol fueled our furor,hell,we were tripping on the "god's afterbirth"tape(i should post that in it's entirety,it' s a blast!).we would trade instrument and vocal duties after each song,even live on stage,which probably made people think we were totally nuts(we were).chris also wrote some of the greatest and funniest lyrics ever,but could sing anything and make you burst a blood vessel laughing,using many voices and personas.the first gig we ever played was the best anyone could hope for.(oh.yeah,gramps was also a frequent "guest",as he would bust in on the proceedings with a shocking regularity.once i walked in on gramps in his bedroom,he had a dirty blue fuzzy blanket laying on his bed,with about 6 cooked hot dogs and 6 buns ,which he was in the process of constructing.)we played for about 35 disgruntled youths in a juvenile detention center,i wish we had a recording of THAT! 2 kids liked us, the rest just sat there brooding,we felt like the cramps at napa state mental hospital,it was swell.then we got a show with myopia at visions,a nightclub.no recording of that either,probably for the best,as the owner said we were too loud and rattling every window in his establishment,and we weren't allowed back,but myopia played ther a few more times(cat machine pre-made flyers for a few more shows there,before we found out we were 86'd).we were supposed to do a benefit gig at norma jean's for some dead chick,but we fizzled out before that happened(me,chris,and joel played there as one fell swoop tho')we existed sept.90-sept.91,then me, joel ,and tony re-formed for a reunion tape(projek pimps)some of which is featured here,in mid 1992.we also re-grouped again with vance and did "the last newest one",to be found elsewhere on this blog along with our xmas release"poolside yuletide".cat machine was very important for many reasons.first off,we spawned over 100 bands and projects featuring one or more of us,before,during and long after cat machine.we heavily influenced many young kids just getting into the scene into starting their own bands.we were at the very beginning of a scene which died as we knew it by 1997.we were somewhat of a mysterious bunch,kinda secret society stuff,in our little cat machine world.the name cat machine came from the 1st tape,when we took a bunch of crazy mary's cats and put them in a pillowcase and recorded it.thus we invented a cat machine.it's the first track on "litterbox",if your'e interested(also now included here! track 00).we all wrote lyrics,mostly me ,i had notebooks full,i used to bring to every session,tony wrote some,chris wrote some,joel kicked in,and we all passed around a note book and took turns writing lines in some instances.we all sang,we all played any instrument or non-instrument that we could get our hands on.we experimented with many styles of music,blending them into the signature cat machine sound.at sessions usually someone would come up with a riff,then it was 1-2-3-go!,making for some crazy ,sometimes improv,songs.even this makes cat machine important,the name"sluggisha"came from a song(included here)called"let me be your soybean buddy"and the line,"eat meat,makes you sluggish-a",which was a thing we picked up from listening to the fall.the singer,mark e. smith,has a habit of adding "uh" to the end of each line."3 mark smiths-ah"(included here) is me ,tony ,and joel going off at the same time,spouting lines from books,mark smith stylee,just laugh ,dummy.anyway in conclusion,september 25th,2010 will mark the 20th anniversary of the band.i always hope for the big reunion gig,so guys if you're reading this,let's set something up,we could rule the world about now.but on that date i will post a comp. of the weirdest,strangest,mind-bendingly off the wall tracks we ever laid down,there are so many to choose from.i'll put up more before that,but until then try dissecting THIS! also in the zip files is a bunch of flyers,info on which tapes the songs came from,a list of guests and the tracks they appear on,and the original sluggisha logo,drawn by steve reed.there are many gems here,and everything we did pretty much rules,so you can't go wrong .oh and one more thing:PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS,WITH YOUR NAME ,E-MAIL,ANY INFO YOU WANT TO LEAVE,BUT PLEASE GIMME FEEDBACK ON THIS AND ALL POSTS!!THANKS-----G O D.click here :
https://archive.org/download/POST100CatMachine-theMysterytheHistoryShita/100CatMachine.zip
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