Chapter Thirteen
“IT’S ONLY A MOVIE!!!”
The group’s agent/manager at the time, Bob Singerman, was able to secure a record deal for the band with Shanachie, a label known mainly for doing folk music. The group recruited Joe Blaney, who had already made a name for himself as an engineer for the Clash, later branching into producing for the Bush Tetras, among others, to assist with the production chores. The album was recorded at Surf Sounds, a 16-track studio constructed in Christensen’s loft, during the summer of 1983.
“[Most of the] material on the record was totally influenced by the introduction of the drum machine,” Irwin recalled. “The drum machine was everywhere, and like most of us at that time, we kind of fell under its spell. . . . My memory of the drum machine is not a happy one. It was a sound that seemed to be everywhere and we just kind of went with it.”
One thing that all three band members enjoyed doing was recording a handful of songs live-to-two track. All the album’s cover tunes – Link Wray’s “Jack the Ripper,” Henry Mancini’s “Banzai Pipeline,” Booker T.’s “Jelly Bread,” and a medley of Jimmy Waller’s “Soul Beat” and Robert Hafner’s “Intoxica” – were culled from the live set the group was doing at the time.
“I love the live stuff,” Irwin said. “It sounds like the band.”
Christensen also enjoyed the live-to-two-track tunes, claiming them to be “the best stuff on the album.”
And Jody Harris [in a 1985 interview] commented, “It might make sense to do everything that way, but it would be like admitting that we’re never going to sell records. There’s just no way [that] records like that would ever get on the radio.”
Christensen also enjoyed the live-to-two-track tunes, claiming them to be “the best stuff on the album.”