Clams wrote:This just in from Patterson's iPad...
Pizza Deliverance 14 Years Later
Seeing all of the posts about our second album inspired me to drop a line or two about it.
Pizza Deliverance came out nearly fourteen years ago. Since then, my life has changed in ways I wouldn't or couldn't have fathomed at the time. I can barely fathom all of that now.
When PD came out, we were so focused on moving forward that I could barely see out the side windows. We were about 2/3 into writing Southern Rock Opera, two months into two years of constant touring behind PD, and I was already writing my 'Heathens Songs' that later became known as our Decoration Day album. Two weeks after it came out, we began recording our live album Alabama Ass Whuppin', which was compiled from the tapes of all of our Georgia shows that year. We knew we were doing something special (at least to us) and were doing it with all our might. It was an unbelievably fertile and exciting time. Somewhat terrifying also, although we were usually way too busy in the thick of it all to ponder all of that yet.
As I mentioned in the liner notes that I wrote for it when it was released (and referenced in the new ones I wrote when it was reissued in 2005) PD captured a time in the band that we had already moved on from. (To put in perspective, I wrote Let There Be Rock, Wallace and Angels and Fuselage on September 13, 1998, a few months before we recorded PD). John Neff had already left the band and we were quickly moving away from the more country influenced roots of our early days. Still,I felt like what we had done was very valid and I wanted to capture it before it was too late.
Another problem facing the band at that time was a lack of funds to make another record. We sold out our initial pressing of Gangstabilly really fast and didn't have the money to order more, much less record the followup. This taught me a lesson about the complexities of record distribution that haunted and influenced us for years to come.
(In a nutshell, you send the distributor most of the 2,000 copies you press up, they sell them in 2 weeks, but don't have to pay you for them until after the first 90 days, which actually means you really only see a little bit of the money, months later, by which time the record is old news and the next bunch you send them mostly live in a warehouse somewhere. Brutal for a band living hand to mouth and sleeping on floors). We weren't big enough to get an advance, but couldn't keep up with the demand for what we were doing.
As I said in liner notes, Earl Hicks and David Schools came to our rescue. We also benefitted from help from Andy Baker, Andy LeMaster and David Barbe who owned the Chase Park Transduction studio. Earl and I lived in a big haunted white house out Jefferson Road on the outskirts of Athens and our living room was big with very high ceilings and a really cool sound. Earl was really into field recordings, live recordings and DIY aspects, all of which suited our sound to a tee. We had many long conversations about the concept of an album being a document of a moment in time, a concept I've kind of moved away from in later years, but still find very valid, especially in regards to where we were at that time in our lives and history.
We spent all day saturday (in late January, 1999) setting up in the living room which also opened up into the dining room. We had some amps in the kitchen and front bedroom for extra isolation, although most things were left to bleed into each other, which accounts for the rambunctiousness of the sonics. We started recording around dark and worked late into the night. I'm a little foggy on what songs we cut which night, but am pretty sure Uncle Frank, One Of These Days, Too Much Sex, Box of Spiders and Tales Facing Up were among the first night's work. I remember vividly that the first night ended with us recording Mrs. Dubose (during which my two dogs, Porter and Loretta got into a fight over which one would eat the vomit that one deposited on the dining room floor and is caught on the take) and Love Like This. We recorded them in the reverse order of how they appear on the album. I know that my then-wife Donna Jane had to work a double at The Grit the next day and sometime around 3AM, she threw her cowboy boots at the door signifying the end of our recording session. (I think we had just ended our take of LLT).
On the sunday, we invited some friends over to hang out while we cut some of the more raucous songs "live" in the living room. The Company I Keep, Nine Bullets and The President's Penis is Missing all came from this session. I know that Jenn Bryant was there, Donna Jane came home during a break from work but was still pretty pissed about how late we had kept her up. She had OK'd us doing it, but I think was unprepared for the reality of what making a record at our house really entailed. Nonetheless, the afternoon session was a lot of fun and productive.
A side note, the biggest controversy about Pizza Deliverance, then and still all these years later involves us putting President's Penis on the album. Hindsight is 20/20 (or perhaps 50/50) so I have always kind of regretted it making the album. Perhaps it should have been pressed into a single (or forgotten by that point all together). One must remember that at that time, our international fan base was about 2,000 people, more or less what we can play for in one night in our better towns now, so I kind of looked at things in a different light. We all liked the take, as it was sloppy and fun and reminded us of The Replacements, who we all loved. The song is kind of silly but I still stand by its sentiment. It was written during the thick of the Clinton impeachment thing and made fun of how hypocritical congress and the media were about it all. It felt good so we did it, which was pretty much our operating strategy at that time in our existence.
Unfortunately, when the album came out, hating that song got more attention than anything else on the album. The very first review (in Flagpole, by a guy who had loved Gangstabilly) was basically an essay on how shitty that song was. When we licensed the album to a small UK label, we left it off and I guess should have left it off of future US pressings also, but we didn't. I still like that is says "Ole'" in the chorus for some reason, but I'm weird, so there...
The take of Margo and Harold was a leftover from the very first day of the band. We had recorded 5 songs at Andy Baker's house on June 10, 1996. Two of those songs were the original version of Nine Bullets and Bulldozers and Dirt that we pressed up as our debut single in 1997. The take of Margo and Harold was either a first or second take, (I think first) and was the high watermark for the day and to this day one of the most magical takes I've ever been a part of. I was always proud of that song and the way the band played it that day was beyond magical.
Likewise, the take of Zoloft came from a previous session. We had recorded an original take of that song that first day also, but the version on the album came from a live recording Earl had made of us at The High Hat Music Club in the summer of 1998. I believe it was actually recorded on a sunday when the club was closed. We had basically demoed most of what became PD that afternoon, but that was a particularly spirited take and we included it on the album. I caught a lot flack for that song at the time. I had several friends that thought I had written it about them and was making fun of them. Actually, the song was not about that at all. It didn't in any way reflect my viewpoint about anti-depressants, then or now. It was written about someone else's viewpoint and was more of character study than indictment. I did a lot of that in my writing at the time (and still do from time to time) and it still gets me in trouble sometimes. If I ever get to meet Randy Newman, perhaps we can have a discussion about that kind of thing.
PIZZA DELIVERANCE - 14 Years Later
Seeing all of the posts about our second album inspired me to drop a line or two about it.
Pizza Deliverance came out nearly fourteen years ago. Since then, my life has changed in ways I wouldn't or couldn't have fathomed at the time. I can barely fathom all of that now.
When PD came out, we were so focused on moving forward that I could barely see out the side windows. We were about 2/3 into writing Southern Rock Opera, two months into two years of constant touring behind PD, and I was already writing my 'Heathens Songs' that later became known as our Decoration Day album. Two weeks after it came out, we began recording our live album Alabama Ass Whuppin', which was compiled from the tapes of all of our Georgia shows that year. We knew we were doing something special (at least to us) and were doing it with all our might. It was an unbelievably fertile and exciting time. Somewhat terrifying also, although we were usually way too busy in the thick of it all to ponder all of that yet.
As I mentioned in the liner notes that I wrote for it when it was released (and referenced in the new ones I wrote when it was reissued in 2005) PD captured a time in the band that we had already moved on from. (To put in perspective, I wrote Let There Be Rock, Wallace and Angels and Fuselage on September 13, 1998, a few months before we recorded PD). John Neff had already left the band and we were quickly moving away from the more country influenced roots of our early days. Still,I felt like what we had done was very valid and I wanted to capture it before it was too late.
Another problem facing the band at that time was a lack of funds to make another record. We sold out our initial pressing of Gangstabilly really fast and didn't have the money to order more, much less record the followup. This taught me a lesson about the complexities of record distribution that haunted and influenced us for years to come.
(In a nutshell, you send the distributor most of the 2,000 copies you press up, they sell them in 2 weeks, but don't have to pay you for them until after the first 90 days, which actually means you really only see a little bit of the money, months later, by which time the record is old news and the next bunch you send them mostly live in a warehouse somewhere. Brutal for a band living hand to mouth and sleeping on floors). We weren't big enough to get an advance, but couldn't keep up with the demand for what we were doing.
As I said in liner notes, Earl Hicks and David Schools came to our rescue. We also benefitted from help from Andy Baker, Andy LeMaster and David Barbe who owned the Chase Park Transduction studio. Earl and I lived in a big haunted white house out Jefferson Road on the outskirts of Athens and our living room was big with very high ceilings and a really cool sound. Earl was really into field recordings, live recordings and DIY aspects, all of which suited our sound to a tee. We had many long conversations about the concept of an album being a document of a moment in time, a concept I've kind of moved away from in later years, but still find very valid, especially in regards to where we were at that time in our lives and history.
We spent all day saturday (in late January, 1999) setting up in the living room which also opened up into the dining room. We had some amps in the kitchen and front bedroom for extra isolation, although most things were left to bleed into each other, which accounts for the rambunctiousness of the sonics. We started recording around dark and worked late into the night. I'm a little foggy on what songs we cut which night, but am pretty sure Uncle Frank, One Of These Days, Too Much Sex, Box of Spiders and Tales Facing Up were among the first night's work. I remember vividly that the first night ended with us recording Mrs. Dubose (during which my two dogs, Porter and Loretta got into a fight over which one would eat the vomit that one deposited on the dining room floor and is caught on the take) and Love Like This. We recorded them in the reverse order of how they appear on the album. I know that my then-wife Donna Jane had to work a double at The Grit the next day and sometime around 3AM, she threw her cowboy boots at the door signifying the end of our recording session. (I think we had just ended our take of LLT).
On the sunday, we invited some friends over to hang out while we cut some of the more raucous songs "live" in the living room. The Company I Keep, Nine Bullets and The President's Penis is Missing all came from this session. I know that Jenn Bryant was there, Donna Jane came home during a break from work but was still pretty pissed about how late we had kept her up. She had OK'd us doing it, but I think was unprepared for the reality of what making a record at our house really entailed. Nonetheless, the afternoon session was a lot of fun and productive.
A side note, the biggest controversy about Pizza Deliverance, then and still all these years later involves us putting President's Penis on the album. Hindsight is 20/20 (or perhaps 50/50) so I have always kind of regretted it making the album. Perhaps it should have been pressed into a single (or forgotten by that point all together). One must remember that at that time, our international fan base was about 2,000 people, more or less what we can play for in one night in our better towns now, so I kind of looked at things in a different light. We all liked the take, as it was sloppy and fun and reminded us of The Replacements, who we all loved. The song is kind of silly but I still stand by its sentiment. It was written during the thick of the Clinton impeachment thing and made fun of how hypocritical congress and the media were about it all. It felt good so we did it, which was pretty much our operating strategy at that time in our existence.
Unfortunately, when the album came out, hating that song got more attention than anything else on the album. The very first review (in Flagpole, by a guy who had loved Gangstabilly) was basically an essay on how shitty that song was. When we licensed the album to a small UK label, we left it off and I guess should have left it off of future US pressings also, but we didn't. I still like that is says "Ole'" in the chorus for some reason, but I'm weird, so there...
The take of Margo and Harold was a leftover from the very first day of the band. We had recorded 5 songs at Andy Baker's house on June 10, 1996. Two of those songs were the original version of Nine Bullets and Bulldozers and Dirt that we pressed up as our debut single in 1997. The take of Margo and Harold was either a first or second take, (I think first) and was the high watermark for the day and to this day one of the most magical takes I've ever been a part of. I was always proud of that song and the way the band played it that day was beyond magical.
Likewise, the take of Zoloft came from a previous session. We had recorded an original take of that song that first day also, but the version on the album came from a live recording Earl had made of us at The High Hat Music Club in the summer of 1998. I believe it was actually recorded on a sunday when the club was closed. We had basically demoed most of what became PD that afternoon, but that was a particularly spirited take and we included it on the album. I caught a lot flack for that song at the time. I had several friends that thought I had written it about them and was making fun of them. Actually, the song was not about that at all. It didn't in any way reflect my viewpoint about anti-depressants, then or now. It was written about someone else's viewpoint and was more of character study than indictment. I did a lot of that in my writing at the time (and still do from time to time) and it still gets me in trouble sometimes. If I ever get to meet Randy Newman, perhaps we can have a discussion about that kind of thing.
The last few days of the session get pretty foggy. I was drinking very heavily then, as were all of us. I know we spent all of monday night fighting about something that none of us could remember the next day. We spent most of an evening getting a take of Bulldozers and Dirt that felt right. (I think it was worth it on that one). Seems like The Night G.G. Allin Came To Town might have been the last song we tracked. That still is one of my favorite things on the album. I sometimes refer to it as my love song to Cooley, which I guess it is. I know that we spent the last day or two trying to do overdubs, which was a technical nightmare due to the logistics of recording at home. Some of what we tried to do eventually worked, some didn't but it was all we had to work with as time and money was running out.
During one of those afternoons, Cooley and I had lunch with David Schools. He had heard through the grapevine of our financial mess and offered to help. He actually brought his checkbook with him to The Grit and wrote us a check that enabled us to book studio time to mix the album and hire Rodney Mills to master it. It was an act of kindness that inspires me to try to help up and coming bands to this day. It was years later before we were able to repay him the loan (and when we did, he donated it to Nuci's Space. What a great guy!)
We completed our recordings and tore it all down. I'm sure we all had to work the rest of the week at our respective day jobs. Matt Lane, who was our drummer then, was running back and forth between our sessions and an album his band The Possibilities were then recording with Jack Logan. A few weeks later he was out of the band due to the relentless touring schedule we had planned for the spring (and the rest of the year). Brad Morgan was already waiting in the wings, as he had played quite a few shows with us whenever scheduling conflicts prevented Matt from playing. Matt is a great guy and terrific drummer and we're still friends all these years later.
One of those later nights of recording, John Neff, who was already out of the band, but friends and a big part of those songs, came over to play his parts on about half the album. He received co-writing credit on the songs he played on, as that's the way we've always rolled. His playing on the album is typically excellent, as his playing has always been. Even though he was no longer part of the touring band, we still considered him a big part of what we were doing.
A few weeks later, we mixed the album. Andy LeMaster ended up doing the mixes and he did a great job with what Earl had recorded. We released it in May of 1999 and toured extensively for two years straight behind it, recording the live followup Alabama Ass Whuppin' along the way.
The initial reviews painted it as the lesser followup to Gangstabilly, but in time it was (correctly) regarded as the better album. Around Christmas of 1999, Eric Weisbard wrote a glowing review of a show of ours in The Village Voice, leading to Robert Christgau giving it an A- a couple of weeks later (an A- from Christgau is a really big deal and it began a string of great press that this band has enjoyed to this day). Ann Powers put it in her Top Ten list in The New York Times around that time also, and has been a great supporter of ours ever since.
For most people, DBT began around 2 1/2 years later when we released Southern Rock Opera and our fan base expanded exponentially. Pizza Deliverance and Gangstabilly spent several years out of print and was considered a footnote by many, but it's always been one of the things I'm proudest of. Alabama Ass Whuppin' has been out of print for several years now, but we're about to correct that (release date TBA soon).
By the time PD came out, we were nearly finished writing Southern Rock Opera and I had already begun writing what I referred to as The Heathens Songs, which later became the albums Decoration Day and Killers and Stars (my first solo record). I always kind of considered Decoration Day as the true followup to Pizza Deliverance. A much more mature (and sonically pleasing) album, but still somehow kin. (It could be argued that PD, DD and Brighter Than Creation's Dark make up a kind of trilogy even and are related in a way similar to how I always think of SRO and The Dirty South sort of being kissing cousins, but I'll leave that for a later post).
Anyway, thanks for indulging me this ride down memory lane. I've been writing a lot lately; songs for the next DBT album, some non-fiction,some essays, etc. Anything to keep that muscle activated and engaged. Someday I plan on writing my big adventure book about our nights and days on the road and recording. It really has been an adventure and still is. I don't spend a lot of time looking back, but it's good from time to time to check in on the back catalog and see what's holding up and what's not. I'm fiercely proud of the 150 or so songs we've thrown out into the world (and our nearly 2,000 shows). As I said, Alabama Ass Whuppin' will be coming out again soon and we will be recording a new album by year's end. As always, Thanks for your support.
See You at The Rock Show,
Patterson Hood
(Athens GA. - Kitchen table, April 15, 2013)
Fuckin' a.
Reason #8,345,908 that these guys are the best band on the planet.
