Liner Notes:
By Ernie Gray
The Alexis Wax
damon
kaetron - guitar, voice, tire iron
joseph campbell -guitar, voice, treatments
ernie gray - bass, voice
eric augenstien - percussives
Downloads:
Seven Ion Six-
Mp3 160kbs
Written by Damon Kaetron
Produced by Chris James and Ernie Gray
She
Walks Through Walls - Mp3 160kbs
Written By Joey Campell
Produced by Chris James and Ernie Gray
Guillotine-
Mp3 160kbs
Written
by Damon Kaetron
Produced by Chris James and Ernie Gray
Psychics
Are Standing By-
Mp3 160kbs
Written
By Joey Campell
Produced by Chris James and Ernie Gray
Notes:
Joey Campbell was getting tired of Johnson City. He had been living in
the area since birth, and had been playing music since he was a child,
making waves at Dobyns Bennett high school when I was a freshman (he was
a senior) with Cricket Machine, and later with the original
lineup of The Alexis Wax. He was serious about making music
his life, and he knew it wasn't going to happen in the Appalachain mountains.
Damon Kaetron was Joey's long time best friend and fellow songwriter. I believe they collaborated on every musical project they did from 1991? to 1998. They have a large catalog of songs and had developed a unique harmonizing vocal style. At first, in Cricket Machine Damon played guitar and Joey sang, but soon they were both playing and singing, interweaving voices and guitars effortlessly. Damon was also growing impatient with the local music scene. He had just completed his degree at ETSU, Alexis Wax ("the" was added to the name when the project moved and I joined) wasn't playing out anymore due to personality differences with the drummer. He was working a dead-end job and wanted badly to get out of the Tri-Cities.
Five hours west of the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee, beyond the edges of the Appalachain mountains on the flatlands of the Cumberland Plateau was Nashville, the counthry music mecca of the world. Twenty-five minutes south of Nashville was a hotbed of modern alternative music that was recieving national press attention for hot new acts like, Self and The Fluid Ounces. Murfreesboro was home of one of the best recording industry programs in the world, and a reasonably successful alternative record label, Spongebath Records.
The darling of Spongebath was also a Kingsport native, Matt Mahaffey. Matt had achieved a top 40 hit and MTV video time with "Cannon," much of which was allegedly recorded in his MTSU dorm room.
If there was a place to make music business dreams come true, Murfreesboro seemed like it might be something like it. Musicians had been leaving the mountains for years to find better opportunities in the Cumberland; the path was well worn, and the sounds of Nashville owe more to Appalachain folk music than any cultural influence. Joey enrolled at MTSU and moved to Murfreesboro. I moved into his apartment.
Six or so months later, Damon visited Joey and returned to the Tri-Cities resolved: Joey's girlfriend and he had split, and now it was time for music. The scene was happening, there was talent everywhere, and Joey had become acquainted with several artists signed to Spongebath, including Seth Timbs, the amazing pianist-singer-songwriter of The Fluid Ounces.
Damon left the Tri-Cities, and I followed, planning to attend MTSU's music industry program as well. I enjoyed hands-on studio experience working with Richard Ashman in Johnson City, and loved every minute of it, developing a fetish for all things electronic (that hasn't subsided). I wanted to be a professional recording engineer (and play in rock band).
I dumped all my furniture
and belongings at my parents house. I had one carload going to the Boro:
a bass, a guitar, a stereo, a sleeping bag, and clothes.
I didn't go back for anything for over a year.
We arrived in January. It was raining all the damn time, but wan't terribly cold that winter. We lived in Joey's tiny two bedroom apartment with me on the couch. We slept all day, stayed up all night listening to music and partying. Damon had a job at first, but quit. I waited tables and made some cash. Damon got another job.. we all worked here and there and managed to pay the rent, buy beer, and eat rice or noodles. We all got nice and thin (wow, even thinner?).
Hungry, running on faith and testosterone, we started writing music on an old four-track that I borrowed from an Auburn University buddy who was also now in the recording industry program, Kitt Keen. We were intensely inspired by not only the optimism of Murfreesboro, but the history and ethic of old Nashville just a short drive away. We went to see everyone on the scene as often as we could, partying in Nashville or Murfreesboro, especially The Katies, the Ounces, Self, Glossary (who are still active and making records out of the Boro) and The Features (also active).
We felt that we were locked into the energy of the music scene. Everyone we knew was in a fucking great rock n' roll band, and they knew that we were musicians -- but we had one glaring problem -- no drummer.
Eric Augenstien was a long way from the speed and energy of the Cumberland valley when we called. He had left the Johnson City area for the backwoods of Mt. Carmel Tennessee to find a simpler, more peaceful life, and perhaps pay off a significant credit debt that would haunt him for the next few years. We convinced him that Murfreesboro was the place where it would happen, and before long, he was packed in Joey's van and was the new drummer for the Alexis wax.
Around the time Eric arrived, we rented a house on the outskirts of town. It was a shit hole, but it had four bedrooms. We decided that the rehearsal space would have to be in the master bedroom, and we drew straws to see who would have to sleep in the same room as the gear. Damon won.
We proceeded to staple $70 worth of mattress foam on the walls and put forklift pallettes under the drum set to "sound proof" the practice space from the neighbors.. We had amps, monitors, guitars, mics, and a drum set crammed into a tiny bedroom, with the mixing board in the nearby kitchen.
We rehearsed like crazy, and got tight as hell.
We opened for the Katies, the Ounces, the Features, and Glossary. We played a few of our own shows as well, but I remember most venues doing rock things with multiple acts. We were not an overnight success by any means. We were loud as hell, and could be quite abrasive at times. There were sections of experimental noise, and much of the prewritten material was very demanding to listen to. The more traditional pop passages were usually very dark and dramatic, with an interesting mix of what Joey called Appalachain post-rock.
My contribution was a good melodic embellishment of the low-end, and even elements of Drum n' Bass and Dub Bass --which worked suprisingly well, and certainly wouldn't have happened were I out of the picture. Otherwise, my songs were usually a bit outside of Joey and Damon's well developed symbiosis, and despite being good tunes, really just diluted the project's identity.
Eric began to transform his playing style into a more intense, bashing style, that he really wasn't always satisfied with. Still, he played with amazing speed and accuracy at times that really drove the band, and the audience into a frenzy.
After 6 months or so of playing together, we had become a pretty formidible live rock group. I think we were more popular with the local musician community than anything. We wanted to "make it" of course, but really, we were so fucking serious about our music that nothing else mattered.
We recorded two releases: the first was a three song demo cassette done on a four track. It actually sounded pretty good considering the medium!
The second recording was a full-length album. It was tracked at our house in the winter of 1998? and mixed by Chris James (Self) at his Nashville home studio. It is a record that I am certainly proud of.
During the final stages of mixing the record, Eric and I were working 8-10 hour days in an auto plant in Smyrna Tennessee. Eric was struggling to pay off his debt, and it seemed he was barely keeping his head above water. I enjoyed my work, but realized that this was a far cry from what I had anticipated two years earlier. I was 24 and without a degree, driving a forklift all day, and playing in a band that rarely booked gigs, and despite being amazing, had neither management, nor real market potential. I had also been seeing a woman.
I decided that I would leave the band, move in with my girlfriend, and return to MTSU as a philosophy major. I considered myself expendable as a bass player, but I don't think they ever considered replacing me. My leaving was at a time when morale was low, so the final incarnation of The Alexis Wax disbanded after nearly a decade.
Damon moved on to New York City where he is working and making music.
Joey stayed in Murfreesboro for a time, left for South Carolina, returned and started another amazing band, The Gold Room. They recorded and released a blisteringly heavy record that in many ways was the best work he had been involved with to date. The recording absolutely blew me away. Recently, Joey moved to San Diego, where he is likely starting a band as I write this.
Eric joined the Russian Orthodox church, became a monk in West Virginia, changed his name to Nathaniel, and stopped playing drums. He works hard, meditates, and is very happy.
The R&B Crisis Center
damon kaetron
- guitar, tire iron
joseph campbell -guitar, treatments
ernie gray - bass
mike shoun - percussives
Joey Campbell had a huge impact on my life at a time when I felt like I was moving into a new period of growth, and out of parents house (he he). Joey was an avid fan of music, and it was he who preached the gospel of nonsense: the way into new territory was to stop making sense. He would come visit me at the Boys and Girls club on his lunch breaks, and we would talk about aesthetic philosphy, electronics, and improvisational music. Alexis Wax was on the skids, as was my band, Vibraflux. Joey wanted to start a new group that would represent the antithesis of everything artificial and contrived that we had both been involved in up to that point. He wanted to deconstruct.
So we deconstructed.
Through Joey I met Damon, and I set up my Sony reel-to-reel at Joey's (and soon to be my) apartment. Damon and Joey had been writing songs together for almost ten years. They had a wonderful catalog of rich songs. The kind of songs that stood on their own, with just acoustic guitars and voices; the kind of music that is timeless, above the transient foolishness of fashion. I drank rolling rock beer, hit the record button, and realized that these guys were for real. More real than I had ever been.
Mike Shoun was friends with the two of them. Mike had the kind of record collection that makes your average music snob tremble in awe. And it was mostly records: vinyl, dude. Wax.
Through his expansive interest in great recorded media, Mike reached a sort of status that allows one to enter the cockpit and fly the ship, even if the training isn't there. Mike knew WHY to play, and where NOT to play: probably the two most scarce (and valuable) skills in the world of musical egos.
Mike played drums, I played bass, Damon played guitar, Joey played guitar. And the sony tape machine just sat there: its eyes rolling in its head. We all became very fond of the tape machine, because it sounded good -- warm gentle tape compression and good dynamic range with a two good condeser mics..
We made cassettes from the Sony and got to revisit our little meditations, listening to the past and thinking about the future perfomances as wholes, not parts.
We only had 4 rules,
We play for the tape
machine.
We don't start anything twice.
The song is over when everyone stops.
We never talk about fight club.
And we played after hours in a bookstore located in a commercially zoned area of Johnson City. It was beautiful, free, and a tremendous way of harvesting energy.
Shoun's roommate and former Alexis Wax saxaphonist, Joe Garber actually came up with the moniker. It was originally intended as a jibe: he thought Joey and Damon were perhaps a bit prone to emotional crises, and he knew me from my absurd R&B identity crisis in the studio with the band Vibraflux (I used to wear Rasta tams, Adidas wear and try to sing like a black girl). Whatever the case, it was instantly the name of the project, no questions.
I think I purged everything pretentious and formulaic from the Vibraflux period during that little experiment.
We played two shows in public. We got a binary reaction from the audience: walk out quickly, cringing, or stare with mouth open in total awe. We knew we were doing something right.
One show in particular was on the fourth of July. We all agreed that it was a personal apex of creativity that was way above the heads of anyone in town. Mike Shoun is currently in San Francisco playing drums for an experimental group, where it is much better recieved...
I have a 1/4" tape of this group that I hope to get digitized soon (I'll have to find an old 1/4" machine).
Vibraflux -
bo bradley
- bass, voice
mino fukushima - guitar, voice
eric augenstien - percussives, voice
ernie gray - voice, guitars
In 1996, I was back in Kingsport for the second time, this time working with children 8 hours a day at the Kingsport Boys and Girls Club. I enjoyed my work, but it took a lot out of me. It had been almost two years since I ran into Eric Augenstien over at David Cate's house in Mt. Carmel. Eric was rooming with Mino Fukishima, a Japanese music student at Milligan College with long black hair and a cool nose ring. Mino was into a variety of metal/fusion bands, and had a soft spot for Kiss. They had a band with former watch bassist Bo Bradley. The three of them had already worked up solid block of material and were looking for a vocalilst to complete the classic equation for a formidible rock group. Eric often said that we had the best rock players in the area -- that it was his dream band.
I came into the fold. We rehearsed, hung out constantly, and I often spent the night in the band house, woke up in th morning with a hangover, and drove 30 minutes to work with the kiddies. We were tight then, we had an identity of being in "a band" and played out twice a month or so at the two local bars. Great fun.
One night at Whittle's bar (where we hung out almost nightly) Eric and I meet this bearded guy in his forties who had just moved to Johnson City from Phoenix and bought the corner building on the block and converted it to a recording studio. He was very interested in our band, mainly because he wanted our business.
It was a real studio: 24 track analog, great mics, great tube preamps, tons of rack effects, the best in the tri-cities.
We paid Richard for his fine studio and expertise. I sank probably two months salary myself into the recording. Everything seemed to go on and on forever. Richard became a close friend, and the money just seemed to end up in his pockets. It didn't help that we were all (with the exception of Bo) drunkards. Richard thought, at my best, I sounded like a modern Robert Palmer -- and when I listen to some of these tracks, I think he is right on -- especially Freedom.
What came out of that period was mostly complete total fucking shit that sounded really nice. And honestly, it was because the group lost artistic focus. It started out with a hard/funky edge, then Mino and I started getting into acid-jazz, and me into indie-pop, and it all got diluted and ended up sounding like muzak at points. Imean, check out "Silent Stare" - I mean, was I trying to be fucking Sade or something?
The best material was written by the group around the formative phase, when the personalities were first melding, and the sound was spontaneous. Some of it totally amazing.. Mino, Bo, and Eric were really top notch on these recordings. Mino had some fantastic pop material, and on some tunes I was trying to fulfill a vocal sound that we both imagined was best suited for a female, so listening to this, I am amazed at how asexual I was being. Or wait, maybe I was a raging faggot who could only get off with women?
"You and I" was an early tune, and it was a decent tune with Eric's lyrics. Unfortunately, when I got in the studio, it got really fucking gay. I remember trying to focus on relaxing my voice and singing properly, and perhaps Mino and I discussed sounding more R&B, and I thought by singing in a backstreet boys sort of way, it would work....
It had so much pop-potential,
that it had no pop-potential.
Once the album was finally mixed, the band started having rifts, and I
secretly was embarrassed about the artistic choices that were made on
some of tracks. I mean, if it only going to be released to friends, then
why the fuck were we trying to be the next thing on the Sony Pink Pimple
Bisquit label?
After the "record" floated into the island of unwanted toys, Richard and I became good friends. He soon discovered why he was the best studio in the area: there was no business for a recording studio in the area. He bagan to consider selling his building. Mino moved into the 3rd floor of Richard's building, and provided him with an added source of income (besides the rental space at the base of the building). I started hanging out with Joey Campbell, and playing in an experimental project called the R&B crisis center...
The Psychotronic Blues Unit
jeff harbaugh
- guitars
ernie Gray - voice
I was living in the dorms at Auburn university when a buddy of mine hooked me up with his guitar teacher, Jeff Harbaugh. Jeff was a veteran player from the 70s, and had worked as a studio musician. He was in his mid to late 40s at the time, and was heavily into blues-based jazz-fusion. He thought having a young frontman would draw a better college audience, so he hired me on to sing. It was a killer experience.
The band went through several personnel changes while I was there, and we played around quite a bit in bars. I was too young to drink, but usually after a set, a cool bartender would give me a few beers. It was my first band away from home, and the guys I played with were all old enough to be my father. The music sounded great, and I learned a lot about professionalism and rock performance.
I didn't carry any recordings out of this period. The only recording I know of was on a 1/4" reel-to-reel machine. Sand Mandalas
The Watch -
david cate
- synthesizers, key bass
derek helvey - guitars
eric augenstien - percussives
ernie gray - voice
This is from a public radio broadcast in Johnson City Tennessee, Fall 1993. Eric was playing drums, my long-time friend David Cate was on Keys and Key-Bass, and Derek Helvey was engineer and guitarist. Derek had 2 coffin-size racks of effects, compressors, pre-amps, and other expensive goodies). They had been playing together for several years and Eric had recently replaced Chris Jones with a much more versatile 90's fusion-style of drumming.
I knew Dave from the Shaft sessions (see below), was in from Auburn University for fall break. I went to his house the day before the show, ran down the tunes a few times. Eric had some rough lyrics, and I came up with a few, and we were set to do the broadcast the next day...
On the way to this recording Dave got me stoned out of my mind. On the recording, Dave doesn't seem to be stoned at all--he is very articulate and relaxed (he was a dj for a while)-- but I don't think I was accustomed to the quantity or quality of herb Dave had. When I used to get stoned, I would totally "clam up." I remember being isolated from the rest of the band in a sound booth with a nice mic and a headset. Being a bit clausterphobic, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack on several occasions. At the end of "Holding.." you can hear me trying to formulate language... Pretty funny.
SHAFT-
andrew taylor
-guitars
landon pratt - guitars
steve demik -percussives
ernie gray - voice, bass
Sometime before my senior year, I finally managed to get Steve Demik to play drums for me. He was probably as good as any drummer at our school, but more importantly he was much cooler and closer to where I was mentally than anyone i had played with. We had been friends before, but the music created a very strong bond between us. I think we jammed a few times, played over at his place a few times, but nothing ever stuck.
Landon Pratt and I had Advanced Psychology together. Landon was a skinny guy like me, and really shy. I had jammed with his previous group, but thought they were too derivative--too metal. I told him that we needed to start a new group with Steve Demik: I thought that the personalities would really click. My neighbor down the street, Hugh Garrett had a bass and amp, so he covered bass for a gig. Hugh was the first to admit that he wasn't the greatest musician, so we stuck to pretty simple stuff.
Andrew Taylor was a freshman when I was a senior. I met him at Morell Music shop where he went almost every day after school. At fourteen, Andrew already acted like an adult, smoked like an adult, and knew everything about electronics, which impressed me quite a bit; not to mention that he had a pretty nice vocabulary, of both words and guitar licks. I wanted a good lead guitar player, so despite his being freshman, I asked him to join the band.
Andrew and I have remained close friends to this day.
So, Shaft was formed. I think we played a three or four real gigs, the first with Hugh under the name Priapism, the others as Shaft with hired gun Kieth Harkelroad ,an older, established rock bassist. The gigs we played were sponsored by high-school sororites through Landon, and we were paid discusting sums of the girl's parent's money without any kind of proof that we didn't totally suck... It was a big opportunity, so we spent hours after school preparing for the shows, writing originals, learning covers, and we always got the best sound guy in the area to setup a monster stage rig with lights and everything... Ahhh rock stardom. The shows were a success, and we came out of it with a bit of money.
Andrew was buddies with Derek Helvey and David Cate from the coolest band in the area, The Watch. They had a self-produced tape that was really impressive for the time (the price of technology back then made it very difficult to afford a home studio). Somehow Andrew talked Dave and Derek into recording a demo for us. So, we took over David Cate's house in Mount Carmel for a weekend in May 1993. We tracked everything in a day, and mixed everything in a day: fucking unbelievable (I've never worked so fast since!).. Of course, we managed to party too.
Dave Cate was and still is an amazing guy: he was already into computers, had several keyboards, and a very nice stereo. I don't know if he realized it, but he was a major role model for me. you can visit Dave's World on the web here.
Derek Helvey was a perfectionist, and really an engineering genius. He also had more fucking gear than anybody in the tri-cities. He had a huge soundcraft recording console running into an ADAT 8-track. The Control room was an upstairs bedroom with a snake running through a hole in the floor to the basement, where the band played. Everything had a microphone... It was the coolest thing I had ever seen!
What came out of that
weekend was pretty impressive as far as we were concerned, and I still
have to say that it is quite a fine recording.
The songs?
Well, we were kids...
Easy -
A song I had written on four track and brough to the band. It is about reciprocity and oral sex.
Precepts -
This is a song that Andrew had chords for, but no arrangement. I originally wrote some very simple, honest lyrics about a girl that had used me. Andrew thought they were stupid and simple the day before the recording. So, I proceeded to take a bunch of $10 words and throw them together just to be spiteful. I used them on the recording and they make no fucking sense at all. The thing is, nobody ever had the courage to say anything about it -- or even better -- no one noticed.. -- no wait, like a year later, Andrew's brother's wife, Annette noticed... Ha ha ha ha ha ha hah
This is pure shit
Nihilism - Steve smoking a cig, reading his poem, and the band making pseudo-spacey music in the background. Steve is still a bleeding heart bastard, I'm sure.
The Way-
By far the best song on the record.. My music, Steve's lyrics. Steve was
a more advanced thinker and writer at the time. The song has a catchy
80's / 90's feel to it. The whales were my idea? Pretty gay.
ILL -
Landon and I came up with most of this one -- I did the Sabbath intro,
Landon had the punk thing, my words. I don't think we were listening to
LIVE at the time, but this track certainly sounds like them!
Early Demos
Ya know, if you are a one of the few, the proud, the martyrd artists, when you die every work you every you produced, from your best work to your worse crap, will be examined under a microscope. That is a bit scary, and I'm lucky that there's no chance of that for me--because I have made some real crap over the years! But hey, it didn't seem like crap at the time.
These are the surviving four-track demos from my teenage years. Most of this material was recorded from 1992-93, when I was 17 and 18. It was originally put down on a very primitive cassette 4-track, a couple of cheap mics, and an outboard delay box. Tread with caution, because some of it is pretty rough soundwise: the only surviving media was a very worn and weathered cassette-- there has been a lot of loss of analog information. I used some modern sound restoration filters to make it a bit better.
Listening to this brings me back to my early influences: Old R&B and soul records were plentiful in my house, and my parents didn't really get very excited about much after 1980, so I listened to the older stuff -- which was certainly good: Sam Cooke, The Isley Brothers, Otis Redding, Sly and The Family Stone. If anything, I was a little too much into H
Torn Again
4 track
Ernie - All Instruments
A little folkish thing that makes me think of fields of grass... reflecting
against a moving car window...
Shock Me
4 track
Ernie - All Instruments
An experimental thing likely inspired by Hendrix's electric ladyland stuff.
Hey There, Knock-Knock
4 Track Summer
Ernie Gray Guitar
Ben Roosevelt - Bass
Steve DeMik - Percussion
This song is a nice R&B tune about my favorite subject at 18: sex.
Touch the sun - June/July
1993?
4 track
Ernie - All Instruments, Voices
More R&B. An astrologer recently told me that my libido is ruled by Mars. I'd believe I almost feel a little embarrassed about the sexual honesty of this recording... but then again R&B has always had a pretty blatant sexual nature. The problem is that I was taking myself seriously here.. I think??
Cool Summer Rain -
July/1993
4 track
Ernie - All instruments, Voices
A pop song about leaving my lover to go to college. Uses a lot of 80's pop tricks (except is acoustic) Most people at the time thought this was the best tune in the collection. Should have faded out a lot sooner -- and I was singing like Ernie Chedder on this one...
Grazz
4 Track Fall 1992
Ernie - All Instrumetns
This song was recorded in my parents unfinished loft around the time that the band Shaft was rehearsing. This was my favorite track on the record. I remember thinking that this was a revolutionary combination of Grunge and Jazz.. But a year later, after getting out of the house and listening to assloads of 70s music - I realized that it was just leaning a bit towards rock-fusion, which had been completely exhausted 20 years before! The playing is horrible.
The Future is Endless Tonight
4 Track Summer 1993
Ernie - All Instruments
A pretty little meditation
Crickets
4 Track Summer 1993
Ernie - First Guitar
Ben Roosevelt - Second Guitar
Ben Roosevelt was my best friend growing up. He had just returned from two years in Belgium and we were spending lots of time together. We wrote this song one evening over crickets. Ben now lives in Nashville, and I'm going to see him soon.
Red Moon On Water
4 Track Summer 1993
Ernie - All sounds
This is actually a very pleasant track.
Cracker Jack
4 Track Summer 1993
Ernie - All Sounds
I was not Jimi Hendrix, or Lenny Kravitz -- everything is out of tune and I can't stand to listen to it.
And God Says...
4 Track Summer
Ernie Gray Guitar
Ben Roosevelt - Bass
Steve DeMik - Percussion
This is the band Transonic Delta playing in my bedroom along with a radio broadcast of Billy Graham. Pretty fucking funny.
Drivin' South (Old
R&b Song)
4 Track Summer
Ernie Gray Guitar
Ben Roosevelt - Bass
Steve DeMik - Percussion
More from the Transonic Delta trio. I had just gotten a record of Jimi Hendrix covering this song live on the BBC, and we learned it that day. I think the recording is a little fast.. And for some reason I thought it wa a good idea to fuck the live recording up with an overdub of an mc with an annoying fake african american accent.
Paid In Full / Do Ya Wanna Go With Me?
4 Track Summer 1993
Ernie - All Sounds
A funky hats off to the Isley's. I'm rapping "Paid in Full" by Eric B. & Rakim