MPW - vox, gtr
DD - drm, vox
GCL - bss, vox, synth
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SS - gtr
AS - gtr
Influences
we listened to way too much sonic youth and dinosaur, but thats not a bad thing... others influences might be... the nation of ulysses, drive like jehu, the minutemen, home, schellac/big black, the jesus lizard, various jazz folks, various writers, various effect pedals... or not.
Sounds Like
someone once said when i asked him what he thought of a show: "it sounded like my face was being ripped off". that was quite accurate.
a local music critic once wrote "angular and grating". that made us happy.
the ACU formed from the ashes of another band that MPW and DD were in. they parted ways with their bass player in late 1993 and reformed with GCL on bass in january 1994 under the new moniker of "The AmeriCar Underworld". songs were written, shows were played, fights were fought, fun was had. a second guitar was added. those duties were handled first by SS, and then by AS. one show was played as a five piece with both SS and AS. by october 1995, things had run their course. the band was over. at some point, not too long after, the band was reformed with a few new members, AL and JS, minus GCL. it came to rest again some time later in 1997. so it goes. this little place on the web is a document of the first incarnation of the ACU that i was a part of. the later version of the band went beyond the nosie into some very interesting places, making them two very different beasts altogether.
the first three songs up right now were recorded in chicago in march 1994 at gravity studios on 24 track ADAT. we had friend who worked at the studio that got us a free weekend of recording. if i remember, the owner had a wedding or something like that to do, so he had no one booked to record. he let our friend bring us up to use the place for free. it was cheeper to fly 3 people to chicago than to get the same studio time here in tampa. we flew in on a friday night and had a quick practice at the studio. between saturday and sunday, we spent about 28 hours in the studio and recorded 7 songs, only leaving for food and sleep. we laid down the drums, bass, and the main guitar all together, live, as is, no edits! it took us a few times to get some of them. we added a few extra guitars where needed. MPW had no voice by the end of doing the vocals. we finished mixing about 3am on sunday and flew home monday afternoon.
a few more notes... "A R T T I O T C" stands for "a real teenager takes it on the chin". the title is too long to fit in the myspace music player. and "bastard son..." was recorded as one track with another song. together, the whole thing is about 10 minutes long, so i'll spare you for now. and, these tracks were taken from a cassette master (maybe the only one) that is now 11 years old!!! i was surprised at how good it held up. enjoy. more to come at some ponit.
the fourth song, "as ornament...", was one of the last things we recorded. compared to "sealpointe", which was the first song we wrote as the ACU, we covered a lot of ground in almost two years. "as ornament..." was recorded at SYCOM @ USF on 1/4 inch 8 track reel to reel tape. fun times.
