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I don't know who's more excited about Sluggo! finally being done, me or you. Probably me. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember that I've only recorded one full studio album, and that was Z's Music For Pets, hardly a case study on the creative process at its finest. As the year wore on, I discovered anew the massive amount of energy required to see a musical vision through to the end. Not because I was there every step of the way, slaving over details concerning arrangements, mixes, artwork--no, that was Keneally's job. But I understood what he was going through because I was going through it--with the book. I finally gained a window into what it's like having all that shit crawling around inside your head, struggling to get out. It's been my privilege and honor to assist Mr. K in helping his vision come to life. He doesn't always realize it, but with this website, he's already assisted in bringing my creative vision ever closer to the ultimate clarity. We often joked about how, on New Year's Eve 1997, he'd hand me the first copy of the finished CD, and I'd hand him the first copy of the finished manuscript at the same time. Well, MK, you beat me. I'll get back to you in four weeks.

As you know, Sluggo! was recorded in sporadic bursts throughout the year, mostly due to the daunting schedule of the Vai tour. If I recall correctly, the first such burst took place in early January '97, when MK, Joe Travers and I got together to record basics for three tracks: "Frozen Beef", "I'm Afraid", and "Own" (which at the time was called "Motor Skills"). The feel on each track was undeniably good, but the sounds to tape...let's just say I wasn't thrilled with them. But I ain't no engineer, and the performances were rockin', so I just said 'OK' and went home.

A couple of months later, Keneally got his first break from the Vai tour and wasted little time in getting us back into the studio. This time it would me MK, Toss and moi. Conscious of the less-than-stellar sound I got out of my Fender Jazz Deluxe V in the previous session (don't get me wrong--for live stuff, it's unbeatable, but sometimes it gets a little obnoxious in the studio), I asked the president/founder of SWR, Steve Rabe, if I could please borrow his Tobias Classic 5-string for the session (to try and get the "My Dilemma" sound; my own pre-Gibson Tobias was stolen out of my apartment just months after the "Dust Speck" sessions). He agreed. The results were telling--I used it for almost everything we did that day. And what did we do that day? "Voyage To Manhood", "Beautiful", "Chatfield Manor", "Why Am I Your Guy?", and even an impromptu version of "Hawaii Five-O." The rough mixes of the Toss tracks sounded awesome. Then I heard rough mixes of the Travers sessions, and I still thought they sounded weird, but hey--I ain't no engineer.

Sometime in the spring, Keneally hooked up with Frank Briggs and slapped together "Potato" and "Looking For Nina." "Potato" I knew about from the last day of the "Thanks, Toss" tour in Farmington, Maine (more on that later). "Nina" shocked me, especially in the sound department. Briggs' Noble & Cooley drumset sounded god-like. Good stuff, I thought. Then MK handed me a tape with half-done (or less) versions of the three songs I had left to do: "I, Drum-Running, Am Clapboard Bound" (for a bass solo only), "Cardboard Dog" (eight minutes of thru-composed form), and the first thirty seconds of something called "Egg Zooming." It was, for lack of a better term, a bitch getting this stuff underneath my fingers.

But eventually I did it. Over one early summer weekend, I did the "Drum-Running" solo and all of "Cardboard Dog." Just call me Mr. Punch-In. Then, in late summer, I finally tackled "Egg Zooming." These were both overdub sessions, attended by MK, yours truly, and the engineer only, and boy am I glad for it. Talk about a Sausage Factory. Hey, it got done. That's all that counts. I see that, in the latest MTTY, Mr. K goes on and on about how lucky he is to have guys who can whip out his tough stuff in a relatively short period of time. What he doesn't mention is how wonderful it is to record for him, because he's a such an insightful producer. He knows how to get what he wants without being overbearing or intimidating, and he brings out the best in me as a result. It was pure joy to go through the utter hell of "Cardboard Dog" with him, if that makes any sense at all.

You know what happened next (pardon the pun)--Keneally and Jeff Forrest (the engineer) worked like maniacs to try and get the thing mixed and mastered in 47 minutes flat, and it didn't work. It was an admirable effort that they put forth, and I understood why Keneally wanted to get it done before he left for another eight weeks with Vai, but when he brought the supposedly "final mastered version" over to my place, it was the original session with Travers that offended me the most. The sounds to tape were never spectacular in the first place; combined with the rushed mixing schedule, the result was three tracks in which the low frequencies rumbled and the high frequencies were nearly muted. "Voyage To Manhood" was the clincher--I had a cassette of the rough mix and compared it to the mastered CD. It was no contest. I kind of felt like an asshole voicing my true opinion--after all, I couldn't have done any better my-idiotic-self--but facts were facts. It needed remixing. All of it.

The ending, as you'll find out when you listen to it, was a happy one. A machine used in the mixing process was found to be the chief culprit in the Case Of The Missing High End, and the boom problem was fixed by taking the bad bass sounds (specifically "Frozen Beef" and "Own") and shoving them through every compressor, chorus, doubler, and studio-trick-machine you could think of. Thank God it worked. Overall, MK cleaned up the sound, and even added some overdubs at the last second (can't remember exactly where at this point). When he brought over the "new, improved master," I fell in love with it immediately.

One of the reasons I took to the second master so fervently was because I got to see the artwork for the first time. The man behind the visuals on Sluggo! (as well as Half Alive) is a man known only to me as atticus wolrab. I can't say enough about how cool I think this CD jacket looks. From the crossed out 'e' in "Potato" (for you Republicans out there) to the snowed-over cow next to "Frozen Beef", from the floppy-disk-shaped "Chatfield Manor" to the tempted bunny who symbolizes "Own", Mr. wolrab has way outdone himself. MK and he were in constant contact near the end--Keneally can attest to the invaluable-ness of this man. atticus, for what it's worth coming from a man who can't even draw a stick figure worthy of the game "Hangman", the artwork looks fantastic.

As you probably already know, MK has already weighed in with his own track-by-track rundown of Sluggo! For the sake of Conceptual Continuity, I would highly recommend reading his stuff first. But, if you're one of those dessert-before-dinner people, I won't stop you from plunging in. Hey, it's your website.

1. "Potato"--I remember being sick, tired, and run down on May 5, 1996 in Farmington Maine. We were over at an officially-sanctioned U of Maine "party pad" off campus; MK and I were the oldest people there by far. I couldn't wait to go to sleep and get home. He had an acoustic guitar in his hand and was imploring me to pick up my bass (which was also there for some reason) and learn this song he'd just written called "Potato." I tried to concentrate, but I was so wiped out that I couldn't even pick up the changes to this simple pop tune. Still, Keneally wouldn't give up on me, so I gave up on myself for him--I kind of bitched out on him and said, "you know, can we do this another time?" Keneally's revenge: he played the bass part on the track. Actually, he did it for that fat pick sound which I'm not the best at getting. Love Briggs' drumfills on this one.

2. "I, Drum-Running, Am Clapboard Bound"--you know, it's funny. Much like someone else we know, I too wake up in the middle of the night with song titles like this in my head. They're just usually laced with obscenities instead of commas. Seriously, I was scared of doing the solo in this one. Keneally and his fucking keys--first, the "Dilemma" solo in Eb, now this thing in Ab and weird time signatures to boot. Hey Mikey, ever hear of the key of E? You know, "Dazed and Confused", "Paranoid", that kind of stuff? It took me forever to finally understand how to approach the bar phrasing (four bars of 4/4, bar of 2/4, a bar of 4/4, two bars of 5/4, repeat with slight changes). Once I finally got it, the solo came quickly. What's quickly, you ask? How many takes? I'll admit to the low double digits and nothing more. I love the melody of this song; it makes me wish I played more piano, just so I could hit those bass notes at the end. Instrument used: Tobias Classic 5-string.

3. "Why Am I Your Guy"--ladies and gentlemen, I give to you, the SWR Interstellar Overdrive. Super-cool fuzz tone, just as Mr. Rabe designed it. The approach I took was John Entwistle all the way, with "The Real Me" being the direct influence. You want to know why I love being in BFD? Toss, MK and I did the first take and listened back. MK rocked, Toss raged, but I was namby-pamby about it. So we did it again. This time, MK rocked and I raged, but Toss wasn't as sharp. I begged and pleaded for us to keep it (MK didn't take much convincing), but what of the drums? Toss went back and recorded to the guitar and bass in one pass. What a fucking stud. Instrument used: Tobias Classic 5-string.

4. "Looking For Nina"--I hate to admit it, but I can't hear the MK vocal sample that Briggs used in constructing this track (alluded to in MTTY). Oh well. Love Keneally's bass sound and part in this, probably because no bassist (save perhaps Thunes) would be caught dead doing this on a CD listened to by musicians. One thing Keneally didn't mention--there used to be a whole 'nother part tacked onto the end of this. It was about fifteen seconds long, and it included some real cheesy keyboards underneath a TV-announcer-style voice saying stuff like "LOOKING FOR NINA! BROUGHT TO YOU BY...". I have the uncut version. It's funny. If you listen close enough to the part right after "Cash-ola", you'll hear fractions of it.

5. "Frozen Beef (Come With Me)"--Keneally pretty much said it all on this one. The only thing I have to add is that, again, MK and Jeff Forrest deserve major props for rescuing this tune from the sonic garbage disposal. Early mixes of this track were not pretty. Trivia question #1: What are the background vocal lyrics during the climax, specifically after "I want some frozen beef" and just before the na-na's? By the way, the end of this one gives me chills. Always a good sign. Instrument used: Fender Jazz V Deluxe.

6. "TRANQUILLADO"--OK, I wish I got to play bass on this one, even though I'm not sure I could've copped the trademark open-string shit that Keneally does in the intro (on MY bass, no less, the '51 Precision re-issue). Love the background vocals, although I dread the day we first attempt them live. On the scratch vocal track, Keneally belched loudly and laughed just after the guitar solo, during the build. He almost kept it in the final mix. Almost. This may strike you as weird, but I think that this is my favorite Keneally guitar solo on record to date. It's just so...cool. As for THE REASONS FOR ONE HUNDRED AND SIX THINGS NOT TO OCCUR, WITH TREMENDOUS, I can only say that my book is very much not like that.

7. "What Happened Next"--grrrrrrrrrrr. More bassist's jealousy. Not because I wanted to do this, but because Keneally's plays it in a way I never would been able to come up with. And how about Tom Freeman? What a man he is on this one. Great buzzing sound on the fade, too.

8. "Chatfield Manor"--Keneally has already provided the definitive take on the origin of this song conceptually, so let me be musical about it. 'Twas another one of those "kicking around for a year" tunes; we'd gotten to a certain point with it but no further. It just seemed to grind to a halt in the bridge no matter what we tried. Finally, MK came up with the part that eventually became the solo. I had a different idea for the changes, but his idea was better. That's why they pay him the big bucks. This was a first take for me, and I should've held out for another one. While the bass performance is "fresh", there are many moments of unsurety and one big huge fucking clam that I can't believe I didn't insist on fixing. Live and learn, I guess. Even though it's patently obvious, it deserves a repeated mention: Scott and Karen Chatfield are magic people in my life. I will never be able to repay them for allowing me into their cool little world, and Scott deserves extra kudos for urging me to even do this column in the first place. Instrument used: Tobias Classic 5-string.

9. "Beautiful"--a magic first take. MK: "this is the sort of groove which Toss was born to devour." Enough said. Even I, the wearer-out of the punch-in button, made it through this in near flawless fashion the first time around. I can listen to the ending of this one a hundred times in a row and never get sick of it. The bass part of the verse is a pattern--check it out. I love MK, but boy am I glad that "A Comforting Thought" never came to pass. Instrument used: Tobias Classic 5-string.

10. "I Guess I'll Peanut"--so you're gonna peanut, huh? At first I thought that the scream near the end was "Goddamn, I'm so ashamed!" That's not it. I don't know what else to say about this track, except that I really like the noise right before "yeaaaahhhh."

11. "Voyage To Manhood"--I'll say. Would you believe that Toss did this in one take? It's true. Would you believe that I did this in one take? If so, you're mightly gullible. I had to put in some heavy practicing to get this one into shape, and I still needed to do some maintenance on it afterwards. But you'll have to forgive my vanity for saying that I love my own bass sound on this song. It's so...raunchy. The Hammond organ makes me squirm in ecstasy, and Toss' fills over the outro are fucking remarkable, but Keneally...the guitar solo, the mandolin intro, the structure...no question, this is my runaway favorite tune on the album. Trivia Question #2: Two other songs are quoted simultaneously in this song. The collage happens twice. One is a Keneally tune, the other is not. What songs are they? Hint: the Keneally tune contains my tribute to Doug Lunn. Instrument used: Fender Precision '51 re-issue.

12. "Egg Zooming"--whoa. Even by Keneally standards, this is a dense piece of music. Not for the faint of heart. Mike Mangini is the drummer for this track. Often, during the Vai tour, when Mangini was in the middle of his polyrhythms-on-crack drum solo, I would wonder to myself, "When would he ever actually use that stuff in a song?" Now I know the answer. He's pretty frightening. MK is awful kind to me in his write-up about how fast I laid this one down. The truth is, when I recorded it, I was so burnt out from a fucked up week of work and book writing that, by the time I got down to San Diego I was only half awake. It must have relaxed me or something. Now, if you've already heard it, just imagine this cut in between Michael Manring and another equally-mellow bassist's track on the SWR compilation CD mentioned in the previous part. Hehehe. Trivia Question #3: What is the polyrhythm in the melody during the spoken words "mother and explored?" Instrument used: Tobias Classic 5-string.

13. "Own"--shortened from "Your Own", which used to be "Motor Skills." Tough tune to learn on the spot, which Mr. K forced me to do. I just barely had this in my head and under my fingers when I did it, and I mean just barely. Keneally again has the right stuff to say about this one in general (including the guitar sound...how utterly bitchin'), but two things are worth mentioning: one, I'm a sucker for chords like the ones found in the intro of this tune, and Keneally knows it; two, I actually had a hand in shaping the end of the form. The quick hits right before the outro solo begins? That was my idea. You're welcome. Another miraculous save from the engineering department--this track sounded like ass until the final mix and the Leslie action made it great. Instrument used: Fender Jazz Deluxe V.

14. "I'm Afraid"--Martha Lawrence cried when she heard this song. If you've got kids, and you spend a considerable amount of time away from them, you may cry as well. I know Keneally thinks that he could do a better job on the vocals if he had another crack at it, but I'm glad this performance ended up being The One. It deserves to be so. Personally, I'm very proud of this track from a bass standpoint. I feel very comfortable in musical settings like this, and it's nice to be able to show another side of my playing to an audience who might not otherwise hear me do this kind of stuff. Nice overall sound as well. Instrument used: Fender Jazz V Deluxe.

15. "Cardboard Dog"--Keneally gave me a lot of room to come up with a bass part for this tune, since the tape I got was piano and drums only. Total time it took me to learn it off that tape: eight hours. Folks, that's a long time for me. That's not even counting the sections I learned incorrectly and then had to re-learn in the studio while the clock was ticking. I found it interesting to note that I was the only other musician besides Keneally (and vocalist Bob Tedde) on this track. Either I was the only one who he trusted with it (an egotistical thought, and a highly unlikely one at that), or I was the only one freakish enough to sit down and learn it. Or maybe he just really wanted to play drums on it. I think he does a hell of a job of stoney-grooving in the verses for someone not named Nick Mason. Instrument used: Tobias Classic 5-string.

16. "Sluggo"--[insert sound of loud foot tapping here]--I hope I can talk Keneally into some form of live arrangement for this. Hey, I want to play jazz too! Just picture it...the hi-hat intro pattern (deeeesssshut deeshdeeeesssshut deeshdeeeesssshut), a smoky bar, Keneally in shades, BFD as the Men In Black...seriously, I way dig this. Why didn't I keep up with my piano lessons? WHY?! And check out Mr. K with the full-on soloing-over-changes thing happenin'! Next thing you know, he'll write a solo for me in the key of E.

Whew. It's out there. Maybe not in stores, but something tells me that the lot of you ordered it from Immune. Feel free to e-mail me about your own opinions on Sluggo! (especially concerning the trivia questions), but remember--I'm only four weeks out from finishing the book. After that, I'll be the lovable, huggable e-mail boy that I was before I started this gargantuan project. But until then, please don't hate me for being brief in responding. Besides, there's always "Sluggo!rama". And you may even want to take a good couple of weeks to let the CD soak in before saying anything about it anyway (hint hint).

Before I go, let me just thank Keneally and everyone with whom I had the opportunity to share this fitful but wonderful recording experience. I'm pretty damned proud of it. I can only hope you like it as much as I do.

Last words...the third part of this Act will most likely be posted some degree of time after the first two, since it will take a little while longer to put together. But this way you'll have something to carry you into the new year. In the meantime, I wish you all a joyous and splendiforous (now there's a word I can't use in the novel) holiday season. The next time I write to you, it will be 1998 and the book will be done.

This year was hard work. Next year will be the payoff. I can feel it.

Coaster toss has set me free,

The Bassboy Number Sixty-Nine

The Life Of Bryan continues...

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