Chris Picks:
Sheep Rarity of the Week
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~ Rarity #39 ~ "DANIELS FAMILY DINNER STORIES (Part 2)" by Benny, Paul & Jeremy, 1994
This is a truly true rarity from Paul's archival recordings, consisting of off-the-cuff button-pushing angsty commentary improvised by Benny, to the simultaneous accompaniment of Paul & Jeremy's suitably disturbing atonal arrhythmic soundscape. This is the second half of the diatribe. It was mixed by me (Chris) in 1994 at the same time as its first half, which appeared on the Various Artists compilization "SAMPLES 1994-1996" (which is now finally posted on this website!)...
You may wanna listen to the first half first. Or not. Doesn't matter. They're both full of hilarious un-deep dark sayings that Benny couldn't possibly really believe (or COULD he?!?!), such as, "Is necrophilia out of the question?"
(HARD-CORE SHEEP-FAN TRIVIA: You may notice that I excerpted a section of Benny's oratory for use on the very-first Rarity posted on this website, to a great contrasting effect with Steve Sidore's lyrics on "INTO YOUR ARMS.")
(BEN DANIELS FANS PLEASE NOTE: I am in the process of remixing Benny's full album of proper poetry readings that John recorded back in 1991, and it will be re-released sometime soon!)
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~ Rarity #38 ~ "MISSILE" (original version + live Stonehenge version) ~
Here combined are two recordings of Trippi Rudd's famous anti-nuclear plea, his first-ever song, "MISSILE." The studio version (from mid-1980) is produced by Paul by bouncing back & forth between stereo cassette decks OVER and OVER and OVER. He had just learned how to do this stuff from me & Danny at the time! It begins with Steve Sidore's famous bass riff which never stops, then drums by me (Chris)(overdubbed at Paul's request weeks later). Then we hear many, many guitars played by Mike, Paul, and Trippi's brother Geri. And at last there's Trippi, singing and playing his famous mono-phonic ArpAxxe synth.
Fast-forward to March of 1981. Which was A LONG TIME later when you're like SIXTEEN! Which we were, most of us, then. Trippi had joined me, Danny, Rob(-b) & John in a band we ignorantly named STONEHENGE for no good reason. I painted my drums ALL BLACK -- with RED splattered all over! Ooh--SCARY! Then they (the hiring committee for the Sadie Hawkins Dance at Northview High) unwisely hired us, to play it. The dance, that is. And we SUCKED. Who in their right mind would play a song like "MISSLE" at a SCHOOL DANCE? We, that's who. You can practically hear the apathy echoing in the gymnasium in this recording (which Keith Neal mixed live and recorded for us). Rob(-b) gets yelled at and finally starts the famous bass riff. Then me on sloppy drums. John is there on rhythm guitar, somewhere, microscopically low in the mix. Trippi bemoans and doodles on the Axxe. Note how Danny applies fancy reverb-pedal special effects to his guitar near the end! Then, finally, Keith requests another Stonehenge favorite, "Danger!"
Below is my original sketch for the show "flyer," surrounded by photos taken by Mike and Paul in that era.
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~ Week #37 ~ "NELLIE THE ELEPHANT" by Haakne & The Willies (Sheep, actually) ~
Recorded May 1994. "NELLIE" was a cover version of a Toy Dolls song, selected by Harry to be the B-side to his one-and-only 'solo' release, the super-rare cassingle "DON'T YOU WANT ME" (which you can now find on the SONGS page). The production and instrument-playing is by me (Chris), and singing background (as you can see in the short video clip I posted on YouTube) are: Jeanne, Harry, Lillian, John, Jeff, Me, Mike, Monique, Paul & Ken.
(NOTE: The meaning of the group name "Haakne & The Willies" is a mystery to me, and probably also to Jeanne, who made it up!)
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~ Week 37 ~ "YOU'RE ALL I NEED TO GET BY" by Jeanne with Stephen Burpo (1989) ~
This rarity is the rare "45RPM mix" of the song Jeanne chose as her first-ever single from her first-ever album "IF I WERE A SHEEP" in 1989 (actually it was only ever released as a "cassingle" and it's just so SUPER-RARE--with the fantabulous cover specially drawn and colored by Paul Sidore, as reproduced below!)...
Jeanne's ancient scratchy 45 of the original version we were copying (more or less) was by Marvin Gay and Tammy Ternel I think, inspiring Jeanne to choose as her singing partner weird ol' young Stephen Burpo who was like 13 at the time (or 20). And he is quite hilarious of course, pretending to be a big gruff Black man singer.
I produced the music and played all the instruments, but Stephen produced the vocals himself alone (with Jeanne) at home, and he did good job human teddy bear!
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~ Week 36 ~ "KEN'S JINGLE BELLS" ('81) ~
~ plus LETTERS TO SANTA ('80) ~
~ and NEW YEAR'S EVE ON GRAGMONT ('79-'80) ~
Here are a few truly obnoxious bits of Sheep history, the centerpiece of which is a gnarly jam in Danny's garage in 1981, with Ken Garkow mashing out "Jingle Bells" in anger on guitar with singing, sort-of, backed up emotionally by me (Chris) on drums and Danny (Danny) on bass. It's MONO, taped on a mini-boom-box cassette recorder. Hey, at least I edited it a lot!
But anyways before that, to start it off, is the famous lost-but-found tape of Ken "reading" completely fake Christmas letters to Santa. This was taped in 1980 in Danny's room, probably as part of the KWWT festivities of that year. I think he's just making them up as he goes along (or maybe we wrote out some of it, I just can't properly recall!)...
Then finally at the end is another really-super-famous piece of special tape, from the midnight mayhem of New Year's Eve 1979-80, recorded out on Gragmont Street in Covina where Danny's, Ken's and my house all converged. Actually this is just a short excerpt---I took out the part where somebody throws a firecracker into our (presumably) lesbianic neighbor's passing car, and a big fight almost happens! Exciting! (Well it WOULD be if you could hear it...) ...anyways you DO get to hear Patsy (the Garkows' little doglet) yapping away, as if to say, "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"
Or maybe she was just joyfully belting out "Mary Christmas and a Happy Nu Year, humans!"
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~ Week 35 ~ “WORDS” by Sheep (1989) ~
“Words” was written by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart and originally recorded by the Monkees in 1967. Our version features Robb doing his best Peter Tork impression and me (Chris) singing like Micky Dolenz. Sort of…
This quickie jam from Sylvia’s Diner was taped sometime in 1989, on the same day we did all kinds of live-band stuff for the PART THREE project, and soon thereafter we added the vocals at Jeanne’s pad in Fullerton (with me, Danny, & Mike shouting the backgrounds). ‘Twas then released on the SHEEP SHIT rarities collection in 1992 (coming soon on actual CD)…
The adorable intro segment was left on my answering machine right around that same time, featuring Casey singing along with Mike his da-da.
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~ Week 34 ~ Mike, Paul & John recording “PAMELO IN A BOTTLE” (c.1990) ~
FINALLY this week I have posted the complete original WIDE OPEN SPACES album from 1992 (click HERE to go THERE) – which was Paul & Mike’s non-Sheep project featuring a whole bunch of Sheep people anyway…
You see, Mike & Paul & John & Danny were all living in SoCal at this time, so occasionally they’d gather at Paul & Monique’s pad deep in darkest East L.A. to make music. Recently, whilst contemplating remixing some of the more reverb-heavy WIDE OPEN SPACES tracks, I discovered among Paul’s masters an entire tape of he, Mike & John writing and arranging one of the great classics on the LP, a song they Da-da-istically entitled “Pamelo In A Bottle.” Here, heard for the first time by anyone anywhere, are the edited highlights of that session. Click on the bizarre picture below to begin!
(By the way, this and many, many other interesting Wide Open Spaces oddities found on Paul’s tapes from this era will soon be issued on a companion disc! Swear!)
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~ Week 33 ~ “ALWAYS” by Ali, Robb & Danny (circa 1999) ~
In honor of her recent rare visit to the West Coast, here’s Robb & Cheryl’s daughter Alchemy Danielle Perrone singing on a rare old unreleased recording, made on another rare visit to the West Coast almost a decade ago, in which she proficiently interpolates lyrics and a melody from (probably) some other song she once heard somewhere (which has never been revealed) on top of a very nice normal music track created by Robb and Danny. Who knew Robb could even play bass so normal? Not me.
By my calculations, Ali was likely just 8 years old at this time! And pretty good at jamming along on vocals! (To begin, just click on her much-more-recent pic below…)
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~ Week #32 ~ POOR OLD WHITE WOMAN (REHEARSALS) ~
Oh so humorous is this set of outtakes by Jeanne and the rest of us weirdos, spontaneously recorded at Danny's wise beHesst onto a cruddy TDK "D" the night of the big session at Steve's pad in Azusa, March 1989...
I, Chris Matthews, was Producing, but as you can hear here, John and Danny and Jeanne and even Steve got quite involved in shaping what was obviously gonna be a big smash hit single (to hear the Actual Hit Single in its final form JUST CLICK HERE!) -- Jeanne and John has devised the wacky unworkable lyrics some months beforehand, leaving it to Danny and me to make them fit into actual chords (which we did). Then Jeanne had to learn it, and since we kept messing her up (as you can hear), and since Steve could NOT get his ONE LINE right--take after take after take--the ensuing jolly-ness endured way into the wee hours that night...
I edited together seven minutes and fifteen seconds worth of the best bits, releasing it that year as the B-side to the rare cassingle of "Whenever A Teenager Cries" from Jeanne's first solo album, IF I WERE A SHEEP.
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Week #31 ~ "PART 3 JAM AT SYLVIA'S DINER" (1988) by Sheep
Though the master cassette from 2/15/88 shows the title above, this is not really a "jam" per se, nor was it ever even used as part of PART THREE project. Forever abandoned after this one take (recorded direct-to-stereo), it was in fact apparently somewhat worked-out structurally, even having the composing credit "Hesse-Sidore-Matthews-Perrone" -- but, as you can hear, it's just too very complex for us to pull off, despite being the professionals we are (and were) and therefore degenerates into UTTER MAYHEM predictably...
I do love the "sound" of the Diner atmosphere here, though -- no extra reverb has been added! And the dark, moody pic below (shot by Jeanne) may very well actually be from the day of this recording (though the master tape lists John as having played acoustic guitar and Tina on Fender Rhodes piano, in addition to Paul & Danny on guitars, me on drums and Robby-boy on bass, as pictured here)...
This originally appeared on the Various Artistes collection "Junk & Songs" in 1989. Click on Danny's head to begin!
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~ Week 30 ~ Outtakes from "PUMPS PART TWO" (starring everybody) ~
HEY YOU PLEASE READ THIS! Before listening to these out-takes, you may wanna check out the finished final version of "Pumps Part Two" -- Jeanne’s 15-minute quasi-mini-movie-fake-soundtrack opus featuring nearly each and every one of us Sheep amidst actual sound effects and musical segues!
This was originally the big Finale of Jeanne’s 1993 album GET OFF THE ROAD, which is finally being re-released to the general public after being delayed due to sensitivity over the untimely death of our dear friend Erin Connelly -- she stars in "Pumps Part Two" as Myrna, who gets run over by a truck (twice, sort of)...
Erin improvised nearly all of her lines, based on Jeanne’s bizarre concept outline wherein a comatose Myrna fantasizes about going back in time to a Disco club, only to find an endless string of icky pickup lines from the brainless men she encounters there. (The outtakes contain rare sound-clips from video recently found by Jeanne that show Mike--as Ned Velcro--and also Paul doing a swell job in improv with Erin, who’d had actual actor training!)
The whole thing is bookended by hospital scenes loosely scripted by Jeanne and mailed to John, Aprille, Danny and Lillian in L.A., who impressed me greatly with their funny, strong performances as the Pakistani Doctor, stuffy Nurse, sleazy husband Efram and hysterical best friend Ishraya! The outtakes show how quickly they worked the script into shape, alongside other scenes-in-development such as the hilarious Bimbos-on-coke-in-the-bathroom sequence with Tina, Jeanne, Monique and Lillian--plus Kathy Edwards!
Listen in both clips for improvs by Jeanne’s old pal Matt and her mom Grace, both of who have now passed away. Listen for Ken, Benny and Steve Wirth portraying slimy guys in the bar; Robb is also there with Cheryl who, confusingly, is supposed to be something like a secretary being ignored by her adulterer boss who has taken her out to this club but instead tries to pick up on Myrna. Haaah!?
Harold is the kindly bartender, and Jeff plays the DJ-announcer, and let’s see, who else...? Oh yes, there is the crowd of screaming babies put together from tapes of little Ciara Hesse, Ali Perrone, Lilyan Harrison, Bethany Bridges and Adam Edwards, plus Casey who was the only kid old enough to speak actual lines! (He says, "I want my MOMMY!" and "I want COLD CEREAL!") (Hey where was baby Angus!?) Anyways, at the very end of the outtakes there is a precious bit where Casey tries to prompt Adam to make some noise--it’s just great!
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~ WEEK 29 ~ PLASTIC LAND/CARIBBEAN SUNSET (ROBB & CHERYL'S WEDDING NITE)
After their wedding and after the official "reception" at some Mafia den in Covina, newlyweds Robb and Cheryl Perrone partied on over at Danny's pad with the old Sheep gang in tow. 'Twas July 16, 1988. I taped it!
Excerpted here, you first hear Mike & Paul attempting (and failing) to remember their old classic tune "Plastic Land." Then, once Danny bursts into the never-fails-to-get-'em-going party favorite "Caribbean Sunset," Robb is drawn to the microphone like a moth to a flame...
Who else is on the tape, you wonder? Well, Steve Wirth's obnoxiousisms will be obvious to you, but also listen for wry comments from Stephen Burpo, and the chorale made up of John, Benny, Ken Garkow, Aprille, Tina, Jeanne, Brian and his mom Elan, and me (Chris). Click on the funny foto below by Jeanne to start the party!
(COLLECTOR'S NOTE: This was originally released as the opening track on the 1989 Various Artists compilization "JUNK & SONGS" which has recently been remastered for CD at last!)
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~ WEEK 28 ~ "REMEMBER (WALKING IN THE SAND)" by The Wrecking Two (Lillian & Buggs)
Without authorization of any kind, I decided to compress and re-EQ this wonderful cover version of a song by The Shangri-Las that Lillian sent out about a year ago, in order to bring up the oh-so-gentle background vocals and to generally mush it all together. Buggs Manocchi (Danny's long-ago drummer in The Boys) produced it all fancy and plays all the instruments, enlisting Lillian to sing along and form with him "The Wrecking Two" (a play on the name of the Phil Spector studio team known as "The Wrecking CREW" GET IT!?)...
There's nothing I love more than hearing music made by our gang that I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH RECORDING! Only then can I enjoy the trip and whatever free-associative feelings I might get from the music, instead of just recalling memories of the recording session, as I usually would do. Hey, Buggs and Lillian -- there must be MORE of this stuff, no? I, for one, would LOVE to HEAR IT!
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~ WEEK 27 ~ "PASSENGER" by Quadrilateral (Ken/Danny/Chris/Robb) 1980 ~
Okay technically this is NOT really "Quadrilateral" but it is the same exact lineup of that VERY FIRST band we had way back on Gragmont Street in 1980. By the time this recording was made in the Garkows' garage it was November and things had grown cold in Covina. As Danny recounts for posterity in the intro to this Rarity (bless you Danny!), Rob(b) had already been thrown out of Quadrilateral, and he had formed a "rival" band called REVOLVER with John and Steve and a cruddy drummer named Barry. Ken, Danny and I ostensibly continued on, briefly adopting the title SHAMAN (like a "Doors" kind of thing in case you hadn't figured that out by the hugely derivative portrait I drew of us, pictured below)...
Well then Ken quit (a short bit of the ACTUAL MOMENT he quits is heard here in this intro!) but he agreed to do ONE MORE BIG CONCERT (which in the end was attended solely by our fierce rivals REVOLVER and maybe Benny and Annette). Lacking a bassist of our own, we had to beg Rob(b) to play bass for us, essentially making Shaman into QUADRILATERAL once again...
At least I got to use Barry's expensive drum set! Though I sorta suck in this performance, I beg you to realize that this was less than ONE YEAR after I (or Rob or Ken for that matter) had even begun LEARNING TO PLAY! I think Ken's wild distorto-guitar sounds great here, so nearly out of control and reminding me of Neil Young.
Danny leads us all proto-professionally thru "Passenger" which he wrote. Years later the song would be the subject of a multi-million dollar lawsuit when the members of the one-hit wonder band LIGHTHOUSE claimed Danny subliminally ripped off the main riff from their song "One Fine Morning." But of course this is ABSURD! As anyone can hear, the LIGHTHOUSE riff goes "Dun-DOON-Dun" whereas "Passenger" goes "Pan-TAN-TAN." The judge agreed.
This is an excerpt from the upcoming 10-volume box set called "101 COVINA BANDS" which will be done as soon as I can find recordings to include of RAVEN, and also THE DRIVE when they had four guys, etc, etc...
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~ WEEK 26 ~ "HOUSE OF PAIN" ~ Sheep Party at Steve's, 1984
Steve Wirth has not shown up much here on these Rarities, so here he is finally, singing a real "heavy" Turtles folk-rock song called "House of Pain," accompanied by Danny on guitar while I try to keep up on 2nd guitar. This is from John's reel-to-reel recording of a long, long party at Steve's "Woodglen" apartment in February, 1984, near the end of the night as we slowly b-u-r-n o-u-t... Steve inexplicably sings "Cocaine Train" for no good reason instead of "House of Pain," while Robb mumbles along sleepily in the background. I think Benny and Mike were there also. The party began earlier that night with Steve performing the two classic "Dave Cox" diatribes that would eventually become the opening tracks on the "VICIOUS RUMORS" album (which is posted here on the "Songs" page). THIS performance, along with the rest of the tape, will someday be released as part of the mammoth "SHEEP PARTY ARCHIVES/RHYTHM BUTCHERS" series, which I'll start working on as soon as I finish 75 other projects...
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