The Making of “Stomp Box” -
To be blunt, one day I decided to make an album, all by myself, in my house. Now, my house isn’t really your typical house -- it’s full of college students and musical equipment. Our neighbors are an empty house and a construction site. So I suppose I have some things in my favor that not everybody has. Still, I am not really anybody special and I’m going to make an album anyway. There aren’t any laws against it, and I know how to kind of play lots of instruments. I can kind of play the guitar, the bass, the drums, the saxophone, the bongos, hell, I can kind of play the piano. Anyway, now that it’s done, you can listen to the album here, and hopefully get any questions you have about it answered.
Why is it called “Stomp Box”? -
First of all, this is a rock and roll album. It might have some funky, swingy kind of stuff on it too, but really, these are a bunch of songs to play air guitar (or real guitar) to. That thing in the corner of the picture is my friend Raz’s Marshall amplifier -- it comes with a little thing you stomp on (a “stomp box”, if you will) that turns on the distortion. Sometimes I think my songs aren’t really rock and roll until I stomp on it. Plus, “Stomp Box” is the name of a crazy song by my favorite band in the world, They Might Be Giants, so there you have it, an homage. How about that.
What does “Stomp Box” sound like? -
I was guessing that this album was going to sound like a punk rock record. Not really that razor sharp Sex Pistols angry punk rock, or the twenty bazillion hi-hats Ramones punk rock, but maybe something in the middle. Or maybe something a lot different, like Stiff Little Fingers - Green Day punk rock. Or maybe it would have a lot of swing, and sound like those Social Distortion songs that used to be on the radio. Now that it’s done, I was pretty right, although I think I added a few wrinkles for everybody.
Updates
* 3/13/04 : Yeah, I do feel like kind of an idiot for going an a tirade about non-updated web pages, and then proceeding to let this one decay into disuse over the next several weeks. I left the tirade up, though, as a reminder that nobody’s perfect. There is good news, though.
* Stomp Box is DONE... for now, at least. This spring break I stayed at the house and recorded for three days while everyone was away, and I did eight songs. I’ve got more I’d like to do, but I underestimated the time and the physical nature of doing it all myself, so eight is going to do it for now. But here’s a track listing for you.
1. Diversity Rules
2. Do It Badly
3. The Grand Scheme of Me
4. Some Great Circumstance
5. All Along
6. In Time
7. Best of Me
8. How Was Your Day
* Hopefully in the near future, I’ll put up some notes and observations for all the songs, and maybe some tips on what to avoid when recording yourself. One thing I learned, is that if you play an instrument incorrectly, playing constantly for three days is a good way to hurt yourself. I don’t play bass entirely correctly, but I at least had a few weeks of lessons in college where I learned not to give myself tendonitis. Guitar is worse, and drums... don’t even get me started. My hands are really messed up and covered in blisters, which made finishing even eight songs pretty hard. Oh well, someday I’ll get a real drummer to do all this instead. On the plus side, thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for the bongos (they’re on the last track, guys).
* I’m going to try to put as much of the album up to download as possible, since I don’t plan on doing a whole lot with this besides sharing it with everybody who wants to hear it; still, there’s pretty stringent space requirements on this site, so they’ll probably be limited in either quality or quantity (probably the latter). Also, I mastered the entire album myself the other day too, so when you hear it all together, it definitely adds something. If you’d like a copy, just email me (listed below) and I will try to send you one.
* That’s pretty much it for now, let me know what you think, and I’ll put anything interesting I come up with up here. Rock and roll.
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DISCLAIMER :
By the way, I’m intentionally keeping this website really simple. I hate webpages that never get updated and have fancy flash menus that don’t go anywhere and are impossible to get information from. Basically, that means I hate every single band’s webpage -- but I’m not a band, so I’m going to keep it like this. However, because I am so high-tech, I’ll put some random picture of my house here every time I update. If there is anything you want to see, just drop me a line at nsulliva@richmond.edu and I’ll take care of it. This really isn’t very hard. This week's picture? DAVE'S DRUMS!!! AND A WINDOW!!! WITH NO FLASH FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT!!! Fantastic.
The Nate Sullivans' Links
Glenn's Army - RI Punk Rock
ESPN - What I watch while I eat breakfast
Sons of Sam Horn - Where I read about the Red Sox
All about my thrill-seeking sibling, Bridget
