imaginary music blog

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One month to go in this illustrious “Naught-ies” decade and we’re happy to provide one more post — and with that, to step forward into a glorious new era in 2010, filled with even more “exciting”, “compelling”, and “really long” pieces of “music” than ever before! Although we haven’t finished posting all the old material we have laying around (not by a long shot) it is our sincere desire to start posting things recorded this very year. We’re thrilled at the possibility of any one or more of the following outcomes:

1. you might listen to at least half a song before having second thoughts!
2. you aren’t reading this post and never will asshole!
3. you’re our mother and will love whatever it is we put up here, even if it’s a 40 minute long track of someone banging on a bucket with a miniature Dodgers bat while several 10 year olds make fart noises fed through a digital delay pedal!
4. you’ve already clicked the Back button and have returned to reading all the Farmville updates!

In any case, we’re pleased and delighted that you’ve spent some time here and hope you’ll be back in the FUTURE!!!

Now on with the hit parade!

I Am Eagle! – Bark Beetle | 3:31
Long Beach CA, 2005
What the…? All that intro and here’s a track with a stupid name we’ve already posted? Well, yeah. It’s true, but now it’s being included with the FULL E.P. and NEW ARTWORK! See, we’re just like THE MAJOR LABELS!!!

I Am Eagle! – Dead In Amsterdam | 6:10
Long Beach CA, 2007
So you know how you go to an Amsterdam coffee shop jet-lagged in the middle of the night, sample something called NYC Diesel, enter a visionary trance out on the tram on the way to Central Station, wake up being cradled by a beautiful and kind Italian couple after the tram operator makes an emergency stop thinking you’ve had a seizure and end up in a convenience store that doesn’t sell any water? This song has nothing to do with any of that; it’s just supposed to sound like an old Slowdive song.

I Am Eagle! – Ass, Grass, Or Gas | 2:34
Los Angeles CA, 2008
Yeah, yeah, we know: another repost. We happen to like this jangly little 3/4 number and besides, it’s fairly short. Still featuring drumming by “Robot Steve”!

I Am Eagle! – Method Air | 3:36
Long Beach CA, 2006
We’ll admit to being pleasantly bemused by this cut; it presents a subtly different shade from the I Am Eagle! palette, and is sure to delight and confound the expectations of close listeners. Appreciate if you can the way the studio engineer explores and subverts the “spectator/participant” dichotomy, casting aside the usual strictures of “ABACBABB” songcraft with a challenging — yet not unfamiliar — digitally processed and manipulated pattern of notes and guitar figures that play off one another, the stereo-spatial field, and ultimately the listener’s expectations in a surprising array of tonal colour and variety.

Oh who are we kidding, it’s another vocal-less song with guitars and drums and shit. Yeah!

I Am Eagle! – Time Suit | 6:00
Long Beach CA, 2005
Perhaps the oldest song ever featured here on etokle.com. Probably one of the most over-dramatic things we’ve posted yet! Check out those melancholic guitars! Those weeping synthetic strings! That irritating radio announcer speaking in a combination of Farsi and Klingon! Oh hey, bells!

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In the interest of full disclosure we’ll start this post by pointing out that while this is the first real new update in nearly 8 months, it is technically still 2009 (well, not technically – it *is* still 2009) and so we are still operating under the strictures of the New Year’s Resolution to post all the old music that has been polluting our iTunes library for the past half-decade. Lucky you and Happy New Year in 2009!

With that in mind we are proud/obliged to bring you the debut/sole existing output from Film In America. As a special “bonus”, we are additionally proud to present it uncut, unedited, and complete from start to finish. Actually there was no question about how it would be presented, what else were we going to do with it? So yeah, it’s all here.

Film In America is yet another “rock” band in the “rockist” tradition of “rock music”. Or something like it. Existing for a scant two days, the band’s less-than-spectacular career is represented in its entirety by this E.P. Give it a listen and decide for yourself, and notice that all but one of these “songs” is under the three minute mark – a good sign in most cases.

Film In America – The Saddest Girl In School | 1:07
Los Angeles CA, 2007
There are several conflicting stories related to the brevity of this track. The most reliable witnesses point to the fact that the original guitarist Jefferson Prantz was a complete asshole who refused to work in a room oriented on the north/south axis due to some kind of “energy drain” and abandoned the session (and ultimately the band) based on this and other “negative wave field attacks” he discovered surrounding the studio’s drum kit. He appears on this track only and is currently living in a hotel room ouside Joshua Tree with his dog Petey.

Film In America – Portion Control | 2:55
Los Angeles CA 2007
The following session found the band with a new lead guitarist, Mark “Mondo” Monroe,  who the band discovered playing in an 80’s cover band at Pepper’s in the City of Industry the night before this song was recorded. He proved to be both a blessing and a curse, as he could be heard constantly rehearsing the solo to “Dr. Feelgood” between takes. Ultimately (actually 20 minutes after his final take) the band’s drummer Ira Mountain offered to drive Mark to the nearest 7-11, which was supposedly 15 miles away. Oddly enough, Mark never made it back to the studio, but the track was deemed “done enough” for inclusion here.

Film In America – Points Deleter | 4:37
Los Angeles CA 2007
Fed up with the seeming lack of guitar talent in the immediate vicinity of the studio, the band decided to move in a more “keyboardly” direction with its next session (held later that same afternoon). This track stands as a testament to the evolution a two-day old band can experience during the course of a single recording session, especially when you let the bassist start writing the songs.

Film In America – On the Fix (Mono Version) | 1:50
Los Angeles CA, 2007
The final output from a band born to lose, this track was recorded in new lead singer David Goldberg’s “music room” (actually, a broom closet with a tape deck in it). It captures the band’s first – and thankfully last – brush with vocals. Following the tracking of this song every member of the band took a vow to never play music again, a promise that they have kept as far as the other band members are aware. Regardless, we are honored (obligated) to provide this E.P. as a document of their instant rise to mediocrity. Please enjoy responsibly.

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Thanks to the (hypothetically) overwhelming response to the now quite stale first post (sample comments: “it gave me flashbacks”, “the tracks were really long”), it is our distinct pleasure to offer up a few – thankfully – much shorter tracks.

Recorded at The Good Life in 2006 by Long Beach unknowns Softpack (UK), these three tracks from the unreleased and previously unheard (ahem) “debut album” are less likely to induce any unwelcome fits of post-psychedelic trauma or spontaneous napping.

Addendum, Oct. 2009
Recently, it has been brought to our attention that there is indeed a real-live genuine BAND going around performing under the obviously popular and clearly ingenious name of “The Soft Pack”. Please be aware that this actual living, breathing group of musicians has nothing at all to do with the tracks available here (to their relief, undoubtedly). We regret this mistake and will heretofore refer to the band championed here as “Softpack (UK)”. We hope that this will clear up any confusion, lost wages, or damaged relationships this egregious and inexcusable error may have caused.

Softpack (UK) – One for Gene | 4:49
From the unreleased “Softpack” debut
Long Beach CA, 2006

According to the track notes this one has something to do with some kind of “metaphorical universal wheel”. We’re not entirely sure what Softpack had in mind with that exactly but it sure sounds like guitar music to us. No keyboards, no vocals, no problem.

Softpack (UK) – You Are Apollo 13 | 4:18
From the unreleased “Softpack” debut
Long Beach CA, 2006

Simple, straight-forward 80’s-inflected guitar music. What, no vocals on this one either? What a surprise! The lead guitar is slightly out of tune? What another surprise!

Softpack (UK) – Mouth Hole | 3:37
From the unreleased “Softpack” debut
Long Beach CA, 2006

Take your standard issue guitar/bass/drum/keyboard combo, add in a bit of minimally disguised 80’s reference, and forget about any vocals ever appearing and you’ve got this easy-listening number. Ignore if you can the seconds-long silence that opens the track: the sign of a lackluster audio engineer asleep at the switch.