"Music For The Masses" February - March 1988

Since it's the last day of February, I thought I'd post this, one of the first (if not the first) write-ups of LOOB, from some little magazine that was distributed to various college campuses across Long Island.  At the time, I was going to CW Post where Valerie Sicignano was a ubiquitous presence, especially on the school newspaper (and later at many a LOOB show!).  I was a ubiquitous presence too, strolling around from dorm to dorm with a guitar, warbling my little songs like some campus troubadour. No wonder why it was hard getting me to band rehearsal in those days! Anyways, she was always a big Michael Goodman (and LOOB) booster, and slipped me (and us) into many-a-column, though she didn't actually see (or possibly even hear) the band until a couple of years later.   I'm not sure where the barbershop harmony reference comes from (I had done a barbershop harmony thing on my 4-track, maybe that was it) but the article is correct in at least one respect: at this point we were "getting together (our) new set", there are many rehearsal tapes between February and April of 1988.  In fact, I shall be posting one tomorrow!

Recently, I stumbled upon this interview with Joe Franklin on You Tube, conducted by none other than - you guessed it - our gal Val!  This interview is both vintage Joe, and vintage Val! Once, when I was sick in bed, Val  had Joe Franklin call me to wish me well....."Hello, Michael?  This is Joe Franklin....I understand you're not feeling very well."  Completely flummoxed as to how and why Joe Franklin would be calling me, it was a good five minutes before he dropped her name...ha!  "I want to tell you something, Michael....you guys have a great gal in this Valerie here!"  "Yeah, Joe, I know, thanks!"  Valerie was always willing to give us a hand and watching this clip makes me think, gee, it would have been great to do things like, say, book an appearance on the Joe Franklin Show!!!!  Can you imagine Hubie and Joe mixing it up? How about Ted and Joe?  Lawrence and Joe!  Mama mia! TV gold, baby!  Anyways, enjoy this clip....and Val, if you're out there....thanks a lot for everything, we salute you, we speak your name!

Hubertsongs, 1989

Well, today is a real treat, a masterpiece actually, if I may say so myself!  And I may say so myself because I am not even on it!

For the year of 1989 there is exactly one recording of LOOB....and that recording contains exactly one song!  ("Some Other")  That means a bunch of songs from that year are as lost and gone-for-good as an old silent movie.  There are, however, recordings one or more LOOBites did outside of the band and this is one of them.

One day, Hubie came to rehearsal and at some point we went into his car in the driveway of the Rocky Point house and listened to this tape of demos he had made, bouncing between two cassette machines.  To this day I don't know if he did this all in one sitting, or over how much time, but it was a batch of quirky, sometimes very short, songs.  At first, Ted and I were a little cold and standoff-ish towards this collection.  I think we were looking for songs we could do with the band, and didn't hear any.

But, over time, this tape became a cherished thing!  So cherished that, years later, I perchanced to see the naked, caseless tape languishing on Hubie's car floor!  I asked him if I could take it and dub it -which I did. And I'm really happy I did because the original tape was eventually lost!  On top of that, by the time I dubbed it, Hubie had accidentally erased short sections of a couple of songs!

If you ever wanted some undiluted Poole, this is your chance! It's a full-blown Hubie solo album,  I put this right next to Syd Barrett, and Skip Spence, it's as compelling as that. Thankfully, unlike Syd and Skip, our LOOBan brother went on to live life as a functioning adult, but with its soft, disembodied voices and general mood, the tape does give one the impression of being inside Hubie's skull!  Years later we did add "Jack" and "Cats" to our sets, but nothing else was really adaptable and so it became this sort of enigmatic, mysterious oddity that kicked around forever.  Even the titles are just my own guesses, something I put on the tape card years later, something to jog my mind as to what they were.  The only thing that was written on the original cassette was what was on the tape label: "Hubertsongs".

Water damage.  See why I need to do this blog?  It's funny seeing the Grateful Dead on the flip side of this tape.  I was not particularly enamored by the Dead until I was literally dragged to see them that year (1989).  I was impressed by how they structured their shows, their songcraft, and their willingness to take chances and play free form, something we already did to an extent.  This ended up an unlikely influence on the next couple of years of LOOB, along with Fela... and all of Bob Marley's albums! 

Listen.....do yourself a favor: get mellow, turn the lights down, maybe put on the headphones and let this tape take you back into Maestro Poole's world of 1989, a world of never-ending work, responsibility and expectation, wistful sadness, regret and melancholy...but also a whole lot of humor, playfulness and brilliant musical ideas to get through it all!  Of course that's in there!  After all...these are Hubertsongs!

Hubertsongs, 1989
I Know You (You Should Have Been A Dancer)
Big Black Cloud
Jack
Social Requiem
A Rose In Winter
Cats; Call The Dogs
...information...
Captain Jack
Fascination
A Man And His Dog
Going Home
What's The Matter With Godfrey?
Standing Alone In The Rain
In The Cellar
Instrumental

tape-to-tape recordings by Hubert Poole.  For some reason, I am getting the hazy memory that these were recorded at his parents' place in Stony Brook, but that may be totally wrong.

BONUS!
At the end of the tape, there were a few things that were recorded a little later, including a demo of Hubie and Howie playing an early version of "I'm Crying" at Hubie's place in Glen Cove, and solo renditions of "This Is Not The Case" (a song I'm not sure LOOB ever did) and "End Of The Story" (aka "Violin Without A Bow").

guitar
I'm Crying
This Is Not The Case
guitar
End Of The Story

mp3
http://www.mediafire.com/download/018x9sd0znxbt0q/1989_Hubertsongs.zip

The All Aboard, April 16, 1993

Wow.  Gents of LOOB, if you were in the band during this time and want your ego stroked, then this is the tape to listen to! Compare this to the first All Aboard show.  Here, we sound completely confident, relaxed, and playing to a really enthusiastic and responsive audience, at a local place we'd played many times.  Steve plays great on this show, actually everyone plays great on this show!  The banter is great, and this tape is just LOOB giving the people a good night out, no two ways about it!

We played with Piltdown Man on this show.  Years later, Piltdown Man's drummer, Bob D'Amico and I would play together in the Fiery Furnaces.   Piltdown Man's Jimi Durso can be heard loud & clear on this tape as well as friends & family like Jim Giargiana, Lisa, Chris & Ward (of course!), Guy from the All Aboard, and other familiar voices.  There is definitely the sensation of a "night out of time" even more than usual with this tape.

A great show, and a great night to be sure, with all five band members hitting home runs and playing really well together......that audience got themselves a show!  And now you will, too.

Life Out Of Balance at the All Aboard, April 16, 1992
Baby, It's Warm Outside 
Thundersong
Dog Days
Bambaleda
I Owe ->
It's All Right
Bottle In The Ocean
I Know Your Name
Caveman ->
Someone's In My Head
Bucketful Of Rice (All I Wanted)
Soon Come
Gimme Fun

Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal, percussion
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal, percussion
Lawrence Krauser - electric piano, synth, trumpet
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal
Steven Goodman - percussion, accordion

recorded yet again by the great Chris Ivers on his portable cassette deck. I think this is the last time Chris recorded us, at least during my tour-of-duty. I don't think I have any live shows after this date, and only one rehearsal tape (which may be from before, I haven't heard it yet and there's no date on it)

Download here:
https://www.mediafire.com/?hsuxnbz564pxnn3

...and the archiving continues....!

No music to post today,  just wanted to take you into the studio.......give you some coming attractions....see all those tapes?  LOOB tapes all, those are just the "on-deck" piles! 

That picture on the left used to hang in our Rocky Point studio....one time I was so "blotto" (on music!) at one of our post-rehearsal hangs that I actually hallucinated that the picture came alive, and LOOB was bopping along to whatever music we were listening to! What really started to freak me out was when the graven images of LOOB would actually turn, look at me and make faces!  Especially Frank's picture!  On every fourth beat!  It was like "bop-bop-bop....LOOK AT MIKE! bop-bop-bop....LOOK AT MIKE!"

(I wisely kept it to myself at the time - who would believe me? - but now the truth can be told!)


More musique tomorrow - a real good show from 1993!

Suffolk Office demo, August 1987

This was our first attempt at doing a demo on my 4-track, at the Suffolk Office.....a place I can only try to convey how great it was to those who haven't seen it.  We had a whole office suite and two gigantic (empty) warehouses in an industrial park so we could make all the noise we wanted. Our rent was.....nothing!  Rent-free! We had all of our equipment there, our own "relaxation lounge"...it wasn't just our rehearsal space, it was our clubhouse!  I'm not so sure that the only reason LOOB stayed together during this period was because of this amazing scam we had!  Let's put it this way.....when we finally had to move out of this space, as soon as we had shut the door for the last time and were in the car.....Ted and I actually shed eye water!

But that was two years later!  At this point, we've had the Suffolk Office for just under two months.  I think Hubie said we needed a demo to get a show so we picked these three as the most ready to go and laid 'em down one night.  I remember it was night because as soon as we were done, Ted and I went to his mother's house and mixed the tapes on the living room floor at, like, 3 in the morning! We could hardly keep our eyes open but we were dying to hear how it came out.

The following evening the three of us drove in Hubie's car directly to the Rainy Nighthouse (do I have that name right?) and dropped it off to get a gig.  Back then, there were NO places to play.  Very few.  And virtually none on Long Island (if you weren't a metal band, or didn't play covers).  Anyways, we didn't get a gig at the Rainytime Nighthouse Tree, or whatever it was called. In fact, we wouldn't play a gig until the following winter, and then not again until two years after that! In the meantime, we were stockpiling tons of songs.

The three songs we did on this 1987 demo are:

"Is It Safe?" - Hubie & Ted's ode to safe sex!  Remember, this is the 80s! If I think of this song, I can't help but grin like a big pumpkin, there's not a bad line in the entire song! Ok, look, normally I wouldn't do this, but here's the lyrics to "Is It Safe", written by Hubie & Ted together, so you can follow along.  I wasn't there, but I can guarantee you there was a lot of laughter during the writing of this song!

Is It Safe?
What you got to hide?
I've seen it written in all the papers.
But it's all right
I'm aware of all the dangers.

So come with me now
Everything will fall into place
What's all the fuss?
I've got it all figured out!

Is it safe.....(to love you?)

Is it safe....(I love you but.....)

Is it safe.....( to love you?)

Is it safe?

What's all the fuss?
I've got it all figured out!
There sure is no guarantee
unless you've been to the Board of Health!

So let me inside
It's cold out - my hands are freezing
so give me some gloves
If you don't care then I'll be leaving!

Is it safe....(to love you!)
Is it safe...(my loins are trembling!)
Is it safe...(to love you?)
Is it safe?

See what I mean?  When it came time to learn "Is It Safe", Ted instructed me to do the answer lines ala Otis Redding, which I did with varying degrees of success over the years (and virtually none back in those days!)

"Easier Said Than Done" was a beautiful, sad Hubie tune (also with great lyrics) that we all loved but it soon fell out of rotation for some reason, try as we might to bring it back from time to time.

"Wintertime", on the other hand, never left rotation! Not for the next six years I was in the band, anyway!  And, for me, this is the definitive version, Ted's bass playing specifically gives me goosebumps, the instrumental breaks, the chords...it'll all take you to the back of your mind, trust me. A huge jump from how we sounded just two months earlier.....but that's a story for another post!  In the meantime, dig Life Out Of A Balance as they were in August of 1987.  Yadahaaaaaaaay!

Suffolk Office demo, August 1987
Is It Safe?
Easier Said Than Done
Wintertime

Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal

recorded on Tascam Porta Two studio, taken from my original dub

Download here: (mp3 & lossless flacs in one folder -delete flacs if you have no use for them)
http://www.mediafire.com/download/v9nb9u6q626a4ec/1987-08_Demo,_Suffolk_Office.zip

"Metal" tape compilation

That's one fancy tape

At some point in (probably) early 1991, I "comped" a few of my favorite LOOB performances onto a super-expensive "metal" cassette (one cassette = $25!) that, I can now confess, I shoplifted when I was much younger from a major retailer!  I held on to this tape forever, figuring I would put a 16-track mixdown or something fancy on it.

But after a long time, I was just dying to see what the big fuss was.  $25 for one tape?  How good could it possibly sound?

Finally I broke down and put a few random things on......and frankly, I don't know what the hubub is all about!  Maybe it's my ears, or what I'm playing it on, but I don't hear the 25 bucks! The expense certainly didn't prevent it from having tape dropout in the beginning of "I Owe"! I'll tell you this, though: the tape is very heavy.  As in what it weighs!  It literally is a "heavy metal" tape!

What's good about this compilation is that it contains three of our performances from Tony Traguardo's "One More Saturday Night" show on the CW Post college station (WCWP) in early 1991.  As of now, I don't have the remainder of this - possibly our best - radio appearance.  Anyone out there have it? 


This tape also has the original (better) mix of the July 1990 "Return Britain" that I posted a couple of weeks ago.  I ran this one song through a "de-noiser", the first "treatment" I've done to any of these tapes.  It also has a couple of things that are "trailers" for upcoming posts: a summer 1990 rehearsal ("I'm Crying", which could bring a tear to the eye of even the most-hardened of criminals!), our WUSB radio broadcast (Hubie & Mike singing "Babaloo"), and "Steve Antos Night" ("It's All Right"....back in the early 90s when I was mixing this, I must have discovered that playing "Babaloo" backwards was really beautiful, haunting, almost scary!......so at the end....where "It's All Right" segueways into "Sailing" (!), I flew in this backwards track.  Because it was such an "oddity", I included it on this tape/blog.  The full, untouched version of this, and the rest of "Steve Antos Night", is coming soon, Loobsters! )

This short tape is a somewhat good introduction to Frank-era LOOB!

Life Out Of Balance metal tape compilation
I Owe (from WCWP broadcast, January 5, 1991)
Return Britain (original mix, July 1, 1990 demo)
What You Say (from WCWP broadcast, January 5, 1991)
I'm Crying (from Rocky Point house rehearsal, summer 1990)
Don't Step On The Bluegrass (from WCWP broadcast, January 5, 1991)
It's All Right (from "Steve Antos Night", August 1990)
Babaloo (from WUSB broadcast, August 1990)

Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Frank Russell - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, guitar, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums, quatro, vocal

special guest: Steve Antos: 3rd guitar on "It's All Right"
 
Download here:  http://www.mediafire.com/download/iwbyx6z8ka18pem/1991-01-05+and+various+1990+stuff.zip

Two Evenings with Life Out Of Balance - AJ's/Scandals, August 23 & 24, 1991

Two great shows, possibly the first two gigs we did with Lawrence guesting on trumpet. We used parts of both shows as a demo for a spell, and no wonder!  From the first wah-wah "wah" that opens the AJ's tape  to the last moments of the Scandals' "Gimme Fun", the spirit is upon LOOB!

On evening one, the Friday, we played at the newly-opened AJ's, a big room with a new PA and a swanky bar.  The Skels topped the bill that night and - if I'm remembering correctly - they asked us to play with them the next night at the more divey Scandals ("Entertainment & Dancing"!).  Always ready to "mach shau", we obliged!

We particularly enjoyed the "relaxed summer dress code".  

AJ's closed two weeks later.

AJ's, 8/23/91
Smile/
I Owe ->
It's All Right
Baby, It's Warm Outside
Return Britain
Bambaleda
Ocean Town
I Know Your Name
Wintertime
Gimme Fun/

Scandals, 8/24/91
We Both Wobble
Bambaleda
Smile
Return Britain
Beating A Dead Horse
Baby, It's Warm Outside
I Owe ->
It's All Right
Ocean Town
Gimme Fun


Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Frank Russell - guitar
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal
Lawrence Krauser - trumpet


Download here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/11att04hamsaud8/1991-08-23-24+Two+Evenings+With+LOOB.zip


These are two of only a few 1991 recordings of LOOB I have here, most of the rest were recorded on DAT tapes, and only the black crow knows where those ended up! This is from my original cassette dub.

Suffolk Office "Live Demo", April 13, 1988

In April of 1988, we tried to make a live-to-four-track demo.  It didn't work very well as a demo recording (we recorded a proper demo later that summer, which you can find here), but as a document of a where we were at in April of '88, it'll do!

Hubie in our rehearsal room at the Suffolk Office, summer 1988.

part of Ted and a glimpse into the storage room of the Suffolk Office, circa February 1988

He don't hide in bathroom....he don't need to!

Hubie relaxing in our lounge at the Suffolk Office..  Most of these pictures were taken in the summer of '88...which is why we look so shiny with perspiration!  If memory serves me right, we'd overdub the vocals in this room when we'd do recordings.

Hubie poses with Mike's body after killing him.  Someone had to!

 The bass is plugged in direct, the drums sound like they're recorded with one mic (onto one track), the guitar is recorded at a moderate level, and for the vocals, we just took the P.A. outs.  For "That's Not The Way" only three of the tracks were used.  So while this isn't high fidelity, or an ideal mix, it's definitely listenable....and enjoyable!

This isn't like me! This isn't like me! This isn't like me at all!

 

 
"This Isn't Like Me" was a Ted song that had a great riff....years later it was recycled as the break in "Dog Days".  Also I have to share something about "I Know Your  Name", something I remembered as I was dubbing this.  "I Know Your Name" starts when it looks like there's no tape left.  But the tape gods were smiling on us, and the full rendition was captured....with about three seconds to spare....that's why you can hear me exclaim in triumph at the very end of that song, before the tape cut out!

Anyways, hope you have fun listening to Life Out Of Balance valiantly try to make a demo!  Maybe we didn't get the demo....but, as you can hear, we had ourselves a good time!



Life Out Of Balance, "live demo", Suffolk Office 4/13/88
Return Britain level check
Inside Outside level check
Inside Outside
Return Britain
Phobia
Blue Billiards
I Hear A New Voice
This Isn't Like Me
In The Desert
Difficult Dance
I Know Your Name
She's Not My Girl * (available only to band members)
That's Not The Way
What You Say
I'm So Tired
Rise

Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal
recorded on Tascam Porta Two 4-track.


Download here:
https://www.mediafire.com/?br64fvbhi3mh8ho

Ted driving post-rehearsal at Suffolk Office, 1988. Vote Dukakis!

The Right Track Inn, July 18, 1992

Continuing on with another Right Track Inn tape....this one is a WILD show and it just keeps getting better and better, and crazier and crazier as it goes on!  This was the first Right Track Inn gig we played after our review in Good Times (see this post here) (or see flyer above, where we reprinted it!).  As I said in that post, we had made a good impression on the soundman, Jon, who fast-tracked us into an opening slot for the Zen Tricksters.  The Tricksters at that point in time, on Long Island, was the "biggest" band, they played the Right Track every Saturday night. Maybe that's why we played so "out"! For instance, this has to be the craziest  "It's All Right" ever, and that's just for a start!

The tape also includes the soundcheck at which we did the seldom-played (and half-written!) "Girl So Sweet (She Don't Know)". During this part of the tape, you can hear Lisa chatting away with someone about the Spanish restaurant nearby....it was getting me hungry just hearing about it!!

Nothing more to say about this show, just strap yourselves in and prepare to have your mind blown by a very confident Life Out Of Balance at the Right Track Inn, July 18, 1992.

The Right Track Inn, 7/18/92
* soundcheck

Wintertime *
Girl So Sweet (She Don't Know) *
Baby It's Warm Outside
When Happiness Is Here
I Know Your Name
Bucketful Of Rice (All I Wanted)
I Owe ->
It's All Right ->
Someone's In My Head ->
Thundersong
We Both Wobble ->
Caveman ->
Gimme Fun ->
No Excuses ->
Smile
Bambaleda

Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal
Lawrence Krauser - electric piano, synth, trumpet
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal
Steven Goodman - percussion, accordion

recorded by Chris Ivers on his portable cassette recorder.

Download here:
side 1: https://www.mediafire.com/?4b40i2na4rcjq72
side 2: http://www.mediafire.com/download/sc1o9vf7t5zurlr/1992-07-18_Right_Track_Inn_-_part_2.zip

The Right Track Inn, April 2, 1992

You say you want more Dancing Lawrence…you got more Dancing Lawrence! And what about Steve?!  Have you ever heard another accordion player play like Steve? Not me!

This was our first gig at the Right Track Inn, the big place to play on Long Island at that time.  We played a great set, as evidenced by both memory and the tape!  The opening "I Owe - It's All Right - Thundersong" combination is classic "circus-era" LOOB, we used that as our demo tape for a spell.  The soundman Jon did a fantastic mix for us (as you can hear), and championed us at the club thereafter.

That night there was a Dead show at the nearby-Nassau Coliseum, so our good friend, the late great Billy Capozzi, gave out hundreds of psychedelic flyers at the concert (see below), and - since we went on at midnight , post-concert - we had some sparkly visitors who came and got into it.

Before we went on, Billy had put together a hybrid band of some guys from a group called "Final Cry" and me on drums…with Billy doing spoken word stuff over it.  He called this thing "Finally Balanced" and we did a free-form set as an opening act.  (The result for LOOB was that by the time we went on, I had already played a full set, was warmed up and raring to go!)

I wish I could remember who made this psychedelic flyer because I don't recognize the name that's signed!  

Lawrence did this flyer.  It  also advertises a gig at NY Avenue on the 14th.  Hubie had to miss that gig due to illness or something and we had to play a weird Hubie-less LOOB show, the only such instance in LOOB history that I know of!

This show got us written up in Good Times, the big music paper on Long Island, so - on top of the fact that we played a great show - it had many benefits!  (don't ask me what he's talking about Charles Manson and Gandhi.....maybe the Deadheads that showed up?)

Hope you enjoy what was a great night for Life Out Of Balance!

Life Out Of Balance, Right Track Inn 4/2/92
I Owe ->
It's All Right ->
Thundersong
Bambaleda
Caught In The Rain
Smile
Someone's In My Head
/When Happiness Is Here
I Know Your Name
Baby, It's Warm Outside
We Both Wobble
Return Britain

Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal
Lawrence Krauser - electric piano, synth, trumpet
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal
Steven Goodman - percussion, accordion

recorded by Chris Ivers on his trusty portable walkman-like recorder.  Chris recorded virtually all of the 1992 shows and gave us an unbelievable amount of support, time and labor, including all stage and road management.  I believe he played on this night as well, as a member of "Finally Balanced"!

Download here:
https://www.mediafire.com/?2f7v99x3rzzjxwl

Never before published photos of LOOB at All Aboard, November 20, 1990!

Like I said, you never know what you're going to find in storage!  Here's LOOB in action at the All Aboard, the night before Thanksgiving, 1990.  The audio for this show can be found here.

Happy Valentine's Day from Dave & Lila Engelhardt!

Look what Cupid dropped in to my email this Valentine's morn! A timely message from one of LOOB's greatest friends (and most ardent of fans)!  Thanks Dave (who commissioned it!) and an even bigger thanks to (daughter!) Lila (who created it!).  I too love LOOB!  Especially their first album!
 

Rocky Point Studio demo, June 27 - July 1, 1990

When I played our 1988 demo to my Dad (who's a guitar player), he thought it sounded good except he thought we should put a guitar solo or something in the middle jam of "Return Britain", something I'm sure every listener thought as they listened to the demo!   Flash forward two years to the month, and here we are recording a new demo of "Return Britain" with Frank laying down a solo for the ages.  We also cut an out-of-tune version of "We Both Wobble" that we never used, and we totally abandoned a version of "I Know Your Name" that got as far as a scratch vocal.  There's some tape squiggles on "I Know Your Name" that I forgot to edit out, but it's just as well because it's definitely an "outtake"!  The only "keeper" from this session was "Return Britain".

I was amazed at the amount of tape dropout occurring on this cassette, one which has probably been played only a handful of times, has been kept pristine in its case for all these years and in cool, dry conditions to boot!   The demo itself was recorded by Kenny Dugan in a mobile truck he had parked outside our (second) amazing rehearsal space, the Rocky Point house.  I did (quick) new mixes of these tunes since I only had the original one of "Return Britain" (and that was very hissy).

Life Out Of Balance demo, 1990
Return Britain
We Both Wobble
I Know Your Name (unfinished version, scratch vocal, no backing vocals)

Hubie Poole - guitar, vocal
Frank Russell - guitar
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal

Recorded by Kenny Dugan at the Rocky Point Studio. Basic tracks were recorded on June 27, 1990.  We then mixed the band down to two tracks, and overdubbed vocal tracks on July 1.

mp3s and flac files in same link (if you have no use for the flac files, delete them as they are very big!)
https://www.mediafire.com/?zzqzw681blob831

Scapegrace soundtrack, Rocky Point Studio, December 4, 1990

By special request!

One day, upon arriving at rehearsal, Hubie informed us that we were going to be improvising music for a film his/our brother Paul was making.  Sounded like fun to me!  Four microphones were duly set up and LOOB proceeded to jam for a non-stop 45 minutes (maybe more, the tape stopped before we did!).

 





Below: the three types of microphones used  to capture the "Scapegrace" soundtrack, according to Ted's notes (left) Remember these beauties?!!!

 


We gave a copy to Paul and (presumably, as I've never seen it!) on to the film's soundtrack it went.  It features mostly made-up-on-the-spot music though it does includes a floating jam we used to go into from time to time (Ted called it "the art rock jam") as well as themes from "Sailing" and an obscure Mike tune "Jack On The Road". (I remember Frank being disappointed that we "fell back" on stuff we already had written!).

"Scapegrace" is, to this day and so shall remain, the only piece of music I have been a part of that I  listened to under the influence of a hallucinogen.....and hearing to it last night was giving me flashbacks!!! Frankenhubie! Aaaaaggggggggh!

Paul......if you're out there....as it was then, these 47 minutes are for you!  (and I'd love to see the movie one day, would love to know what sections of music you ended up using!).

Life Out Of Balance, Scapegrace soundtrack
Brief discussion, message to Paul
Scapegrace

Hubie Poole - guitar, go-go bells
Frank Russell - guitar
Ted Schreiber - bass
Michael Goodman - drums, drumming on guitar strings

recorded on a Tascam Porta Studio

Download here:  https://www.mediafire.com/?6t7398bpxfyovpe

Legend Studios demo, spring-summer 1986

I was asked to join LOOB when I was sixteen.  Two weeks after my first rehearsal we were in an 8-track studio recording this demo. The basic tracks and overdubs were recorded at Legend Studios in East Setauket, and were finished up in Kenny Kamen's basement studio.

The first session at Legend Studios was on April 12, 1986 and yielded Ted's song "Can't Say No" as well as "I Cried" and "Feast Of Reason", two songs that LOOB had already recorded a year earlier.  In August, we went back in and recorded the newly-written (and superior) "Above The Grass, Under The Moon" and "Heart And Mind". I remember the drumset at Legend was a huge double-bass affair, with tons of cymbals - cymbals I used liberally on these tracks! After initially cutting a vocal track himself, Ted turned the vocal duties of "Can't Say No" over to Ward, who did a great job with it.  The standout element of this track for me though has always been Hubie's guitar performance. Hubie (in the early days) was usually wary of playing lead for some reason (probably in response to all the guitar excesses that were going on at the time!) - whenever he'd start to play a lead, we'd go "yeah!" (you can hear this on some early tapes) and then he'd immediately stop, with a mischievous grin!

Once in a while, we'd do "Above The Grass And Under The Moon" in rehearsal and even did it as a trio on the radio once, but that song needs Ward!  "Heart And Mind" is another song I used to love playing but for some reason we didn't play that too much after this incarnation.  I remember when I got my copy of the demo, "Heart And Mind" was left off of it....so I had to call WUSB and request it!

Once we finished this demo, we hardly saw each other until the following summer! (Ward was at NYU, Ted was upstate in Fredonia).  I think we had one rehearsal during that time, in Hubie's parents' basement!  Another one and only!



Life Out Of Balance 8-track demo
Above The Grass, Under The Moon
Heart And Mind
Can't Say No
I Cried
Feast Of Reason


Ward Regan - vocal
Hubie Poole - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, 12-string acoustic, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums

recorded at Legend Studios, engineered by Bob (can't remember his last name!), finished at Ken Kamen's basement studio in Sound Beach.



mp3 @320
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