vwvuvd (1990)
© 1990, Phil Thompson
Summer/Fall 1990
In 1990 I was stationed at Howard AFB, Panama, but lived on a different U.S. installation altogether--Albrook Air Station. And I was about to learn you could go digital in 1990 without being some millionaire's spoiled kid. I credit Manuel Noriega for this lucky turn of events, his menace having motivated Uncle Sam to send more airmen than could be accommodated on Howard.
Although I was notified of the assignment a few weeks before Operation Just Cause, I didn't arrive until after the U.S. had captured Noriega. So life wasn't nearly as tough as I'd thought it might be. And living on the South American Side had plenty of advantages, one of which was being in a dorm with a much wider variety of dormmates than I'd have had living on Howard AFB.
One of my fellow dorm rats was a guy named Dan Holmes, the rock DJ for the AFRTS* radio station located on a nearby Army post. From the moment we met Dan and I hit it off famously. It was a weekday, around 7 or 8 pm, and from another room I heard the new Queensrÿche album. Not yet in possession of the album, but fairly sure what I was hearing was the 'rÿche, I followed my ears. Dan was jamming with his dorm room open, introducing the rest of us to "Jet City Woman."
Beyond digging the new music and hitting it off immediately with Dan, I was astonished to see in his room a large studio rack with some choice music-making electronic gear: a MIDI keyboard, a Korg emulator, and an Alesis digital 8-track recorder. With his recent reenlistment bonus, he explained, he'd picked up all the gear with the goal of learning to play the synth, and mastering the programming multitracked music into the Alesis. Pretty damned cool, huh?
In 1990 I was stationed at Howard AFB, Panama, but lived on a different U.S. installation altogether--Albrook Air Station. And I was about to learn you could go digital in 1990 without being some millionaire's spoiled kid. I credit Manuel Noriega for this lucky turn of events, his menace having motivated Uncle Sam to send more airmen than could be accommodated on Howard.
Although I was notified of the assignment a few weeks before Operation Just Cause, I didn't arrive until after the U.S. had captured Noriega. So life wasn't nearly as tough as I'd thought it might be. And living on the South American Side had plenty of advantages, one of which was being in a dorm with a much wider variety of dormmates than I'd have had living on Howard AFB.
One of my fellow dorm rats was a guy named Dan Holmes, the rock DJ for the AFRTS* radio station located on a nearby Army post. From the moment we met Dan and I hit it off famously. It was a weekday, around 7 or 8 pm, and from another room I heard the new Queensrÿche album. Not yet in possession of the album, but fairly sure what I was hearing was the 'rÿche, I followed my ears. Dan was jamming with his dorm room open, introducing the rest of us to "Jet City Woman."
Beyond digging the new music and hitting it off immediately with Dan, I was astonished to see in his room a large studio rack with some choice music-making electronic gear: a MIDI keyboard, a Korg emulator, and an Alesis digital 8-track recorder. With his recent reenlistment bonus, he explained, he'd picked up all the gear with the goal of learning to play the synth, and mastering the programming multitracked music into the Alesis. Pretty damned cool, huh?
I was fascinated with his gear, and he showed me how to program separate tracks -- as played on the keyboard, using patches from his Korg-into the Alesis digital recorder. Having already multi-tracked plenty of my own (analog) stuff, the concepts were already there, and it didn't take long to pick up on the workings of Dan's nifty digital gear.
We were both huge fans of Rush, and pretty soon decided to put together a collection songs, calling the project "Slush" (our brilliant transfusion of "sloppy" + "rush"). These were to be Yankovich-like spoofs of actual Rush songs, my having programmed the 'band' into his Alesis, and Dan having sung all the goofy lyrics we'd written for them .
Our first creation was to be "Long Division," about the woes of a nerdy student having to do math homework for his classmates, all of whom had been spoiled by their TI-59s. I remember us coming up with the idea over a burger in the bowling alley on Albrook, and rushing back to his room to start the thing.
We were both huge fans of Rush, and pretty soon decided to put together a collection songs, calling the project "Slush" (our brilliant transfusion of "sloppy" + "rush"). These were to be Yankovich-like spoofs of actual Rush songs, my having programmed the 'band' into his Alesis, and Dan having sung all the goofy lyrics we'd written for them .
Our first creation was to be "Long Division," about the woes of a nerdy student having to do math homework for his classmates, all of whom had been spoiled by their TI-59s. I remember us coming up with the idea over a burger in the bowling alley on Albrook, and rushing back to his room to start the thing.
The six-fingered hat
The unit I worked in, in Panama--the 24th CAMS (Consolidated Aircraft Maintenance Squadron)--had a patch showing a normal hand holding a wrench. We were "Knucklebusters." Our hat, however, showed what looked like five, non-opposable fingers holding a wrench.
The first track I chose to lay down was the drum line. I'd spent probably close to an hour perfecting my best fingers-on-keys 'Neil Peart' rendition, stopping when I made a mistake, and punching back in where I'd left off. I recall the drum line being spot-on, and felt it was destined to be a work of art in and of itself. Programming one of Neil Peart's closing fills for the song, I was a gnat's hair from wrapping it up... when the Alesis crashed.
Gone. All of it... gone. The whole thing. The Alesis' memory was completely wiped. As vacant as a convenience store trashcan.
So we decided to write our own Rush-like songs and stick with the "Slush" theme. I would write/program the music, and Dan would sing our Rush-like lyrics over it. Except Dan wasn't really into it anymore, and soon lost interest in the project. I'd programmed two "Slush" songs, incorporating a guitar part** into the first, and a third song by "Slyx" - hoping to motivate him (he was a big Styx fan; the song itself was going to be "Ring Around the Collar Man").
But Dan was more content watching me do my thing, and very graciously allowed me to create more stuff with his equipment. Ultimately I'd programmed five more songs, in addition to the three spoof pieces I'd recorded, into his Alesis. The first was a "Slangelis" piece, followed by something I originally intended to be "Slood Sleat and Slears," but turned out sounding like nothing more than cheesy lounge music.
One of these last originals is lost forever. I believe I left the cassette
So we decided to write our own Rush-like songs and stick with the "Slush" theme. I would write/program the music, and Dan would sing our Rush-like lyrics over it. Except Dan wasn't really into it anymore, and soon lost interest in the project. I'd programmed two "Slush" songs, incorporating a guitar part** into the first, and a third song by "Slyx" - hoping to motivate him (he was a big Styx fan; the song itself was going to be "Ring Around the Collar Man").
But Dan was more content watching me do my thing, and very graciously allowed me to create more stuff with his equipment. Ultimately I'd programmed five more songs, in addition to the three spoof pieces I'd recorded, into his Alesis. The first was a "Slangelis" piece, followed by something I originally intended to be "Slood Sleat and Slears," but turned out sounding like nothing more than cheesy lounge music.
One of these last originals is lost forever. I believe I left the cassette
onto which I'd transferred that one in Dan's tape deck (yes, even the tape deck was his), and when one of us PCSed (transferred back to the States), it was a goner.
But the rest of it is here-straight to your ears from 1990, Albrook AFS, Republic of Panama. Enjoy!
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* Don't spell it out - sound it out. All together now: "ay-FARTS!"
** I'd bought an Epiphone SG from the Albrook music store -- the base had a music (instrument) store! -- but returned it after a week or so because I'd not accurately balanced my account and didn't want to bounce any checks (bad news for an enlisted man).
7 a.m. Records Bandcamp
But the rest of it is here-straight to your ears from 1990, Albrook AFS, Republic of Panama. Enjoy!
----------------------------------
* Don't spell it out - sound it out. All together now: "ay-FARTS!"
** I'd bought an Epiphone SG from the Albrook music store -- the base had a music (instrument) store! -- but returned it after a week or so because I'd not accurately balanced my account and didn't want to bounce any checks (bad news for an enlisted man).
7 a.m. Records Bandcamp
