Cratch Groovin' (1987) Brian Dieg was Cratch. I cannot remember how he got that name but Cratch Groovin is in reference to Crush Groove, the break dancing film from the 80s. Brian was (and still is) a character: we featured all his little sayings and catch-phrases into the song like "Wha-taa!" I mean, who walks around their high school going "Wha-taa?" Cratch, that's who. Der Fuhrer (1989) Taking a break while jamming together as Vila Parisi one day, Skeet Besley wrote these lyrics about Hitler's fascist rule but Frank Piper and I saw a comedic opportunity. Plus, it's the one of the only songs to find a suitable rhyme for "orange." Frank himself performs vocals here. Happy As Can Be (1989) Melanie Kowalski, a classmate of mine from Mohawk Valley Community College, showed me this twisted poem she wrote about her family. So I turned it into something resembling a toe-tapper. Heavy Metal (1989) By the late 80's, the metal music scene was bigger than ever but it was reaching the point where it all started to get really formulaic. I was never a big fan of the genre but I was a huge Spinal Tap fan and I could see how presumptuous and drawn-out many of those songs were. In other words, fodder for parody. Of course, for my own music, I don't feel it's ironic at all that I'm both presumptuous and formulaic. Not irony, anyway; more like fate. ; ) Oh, listening to this tune, you can recognize the blueprint for Happy Birthday, one of my new tunes. See? Formulaic as hell. Jibberish (1989) The lyrics to this "song" tell the story of exactly what happened. Someone really did leave a note on Chad's car and it really did contain that nonsense. Chad Bachert himself plays guitar on this tune. Slow hand, indeed. The Factory Song (1989) Influenced by The Dead Milkmen, here's an ode to my time spent at Anchor Glass in Elmira Heights. This remaster sounds the best of the bunch, I think. Wait For the Film (1989) Can you name all the films sampled in this tune? Valium and Velcro (1989) This is a fictional account of my time at school. It received a new arragement for Cruel & Unusual in 1999. Plastic Jesus (1990) I'm not exactly sure where this song came from but the earliest version can be heard in the film Cool Hand Luke. My sister Melissa was lead vocal on this one. aMUsed Theme (1992) This is a truncated version of Happy As Can Be used as the theme song to a sketch comedy TV show that I produced while at Mansfield University, a TV show that none of you will ever see. Skeleton Man (2003) This was my Bob Marley-inspired entry to the Frank Black tribute album titled "You Ain't Me." The full album can be downloaded here. The Fixer (2004) Doug Stein and I got to talking about music and songwriting one day and he gave to me these lyrics about beer. I modified them a bit and wrapped a song around it.