FROZEN ITERATION
released MARCH 9, 2017
ALBUM 3, RELEASE 9
Maybe the first good album. If not this one, then the next two are, but I generally do not feel embarrassed about anything on this one. These are the first songs I wrote and recorded as an adult, although that's not entirely accurate. The album's bookends, also the only songs to break the 3-minute mark, have roots in pre-HW songs. Would you have noticed if I didn't tell you? Probably not. It's also one of only a few HW albums to feature other musicians. I believe this means the first non-me person to play on a Hello Whirled recording (or at least in release order...he definitely sent me his part last) is none other than Ethan Oliva, the frontman of an incredibly sick band you might know called Ex Pilots. That band didn't exist in 2017. I like "Up In Flames" as is, but really I think it's most memorable for being the one where my friend plays a searing lead guitar over the whole thing. "Indigo Crystal Asshole" was always a favorite of mine. That's why I re-did it, faster and with more discernible vocals, early last year. "Song For Athena" has the next guest, and this time it's Dan Jircitano from Rectangle Creep and Dirtman, not to mention two different projects I have with him (the Tin Can Laughter, whose last album came out 2 days before the first Hello Whireld EP, and Embalming Druid, who will make a 3rd and final album some day before I die). I knew he had a chord organ, so I asked him what chords it could play and wrote the song using only those chords. I wish the vocals were louder at all. "Meteor Power Hour" has kind of the opposite problem. I like this one, but those backing vocals are the loudest part of the song. "Patriot" was my attempt to write a hardcore song. I don't think I was ready for that kind of thing just yet. "Right Arm!" features the first of a VERY small number of non-me singers on HW songs, in the form of my buddy Randy (from the same circle of GBV fans that I know Dan J from) who also added some lead guitar. I wish the song had more power in it, but it's nice hearing Randy sing on it. "Early Morning Dry Heave" is funny to me. It's clear I wanted to make more aggressive stuff, but I didn't really have a great frame of reference on how to do that, so my attempts sounded like this. "Empty Husk of a Young Man" is also funny, in the sense that I grew up and realized I wasn't a man, or didn't want to be, or whatever, but that aside this is easily my favorite song on the album. It has a simplicity that my songs these days don't really have. The right channel guitar plays the most beautiful chords when the 2nd chorus starts. I think it's about 48 seconds in. You'll know it when you hear it. "Mirrored Aztec March" has the final guest, in the form of someone I only ever knew as Magic Booka. I have no idea what he's up to these days. The title was, at the time, me claiming a name that Robert Pollard (if you're on the Hello Whirled website, you know who that is) had planned to name the second Teenage Guitar album, but didn't. 3 years after I wrote this song, it became the name of a Guided By Voices album. "Retiring Fortuneteller" is maybe my other favorite song on here. Couldn't tell ya why. It just works. "Trying To Fly (And Landing)" is a good way to end this album. I'm especially proud of the harmonies here.