Any Questions? - Secret (Live)

This video is from the very first Any Questions? live performance back in 1990. Since it's Ttam Troll Plays Bass Week on the blog, I felt compelled to include at least one video and this happens to be the only Any Questions? performance where I played any bass.

The song is called Secret (aka Pocket of Sucrets) and was originally released on our Illegitimate Release 1990 cassette. You can be the judge but, when I listen to this song, it reminds me of a cowboy galloping on the range. That image is quite disturbing to me since Any Questions? is known for our uncompromising "Hypermedia Industrial Death" music. Images of bloodied corpses, cybernetic organisms, and post-nuclear landscapes are more akin to our music than an image of a cowboy galloping on the range. Maybe that's why I stopped playing bass in Any Questions?. MC2P4 also delivers a rare vocal performance in this song. It's certainly not one of our better performances and the audio mix is very poor but it is nonetheless humorously entertaining.

This performance took place in Valley Forge, PA at the Park Ridge Hotel at the wedding reception to celebrate the marriage of Scott and Jackey McConnell. That's right, Any Questions? were a wedding band for one day.

Special thanks go to Michael E Lightkep - House Mix, Kurt Smith - Light Operator, Steve Olsen - Follow Camera and Post Edit, and Matt Skirpan - Neo Nazi Cam for helping us to pull off this first live performance.

Remembering Miranda

Today would have been my littlest friend's 18th birthday.  Though she plays at Rainbow Bridge now, I know she'd still love to hear me sing her favorite little song...

It's February number two

Happy Birthday from me to you

Happy Birthday Miranda!

Any Questions? - Follow

We start off Floating Fish Studios Ttam Troll Plays Bass Week with one of my favorite early Any Questions? songs. This unrelenting aggressive track is full of angst about the human condition, a cynical view of society, and the youthful frustrations of trying to change it all. This song was written and recorded at Der Palast des Goldes in March 1990 and features two blistering bass solos.

After I wrote and sequenced the music for this track, MC2P4 joined me in the studio and we recorded several live takes with him adding keyboard accents and backing vocals as I screamed lead vocals and played live bass. The end result is a great mixture of cold synthesized sound with harsh human aggression that we've rarely matched since.

Rather than trying relay how I was feeling at the time I wrote the lyrics to this song, I'll simply share the words with you. My mental and emotional state will become quite apparent.

I'm living in waste

I try to break free

I'm trying to get out to make you see

This is not how life should be

Living in this sympathy

Follow me, talk to me

I'll try to show you the way

Follow me, talk to me

I'll try to show you the way

The way

I'm tired of this, I'm tired of this

I want to get away

I'm tired of this, I'm tired of this

Oh just go away

People always telling me

That I'm not OK

Living in their glass houses

Letting life slip by

Watching their bank accounts

Grow above their heads

Waiting for the day

Their spouse is dead

Is dead

Waiting for the day

Their spouse is dead

Is dead

Dead (repeat)

I guess I had some issues. Here's the track. Enjoy!

Ttam Troll Plays Bass Week!

It's Ttam Troll Plays Bass Week here on the Floating Fish Studios Blog. Some recent blog posts (Brian "Who" Black and Jesus Christ Superstar) reminded me of other classic, rare and/or unreleased recordings that feature my bass playing in the FFS Vaults. What makes these recordings rare and "special" is that I essentially gave up bass playing back in 1990 after I began composing and programming electronic music entirely with synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and computers. Several years later, I dusted off my basses and other stringed instruments and have used them sporadically since but never with the same driving intensity that you'll hear in the songs featured this week.

Join me as I revisit some of these classic recordings. Let the assault of low end frequencies begin!

SASHS Mid Winter Concert 1987

This photo was taken at the Shippensburg Area Senior High School (SASHS) Mid Winter Concert on 02/02/87. However, the Christmas decorations that still adorn the auditorium would suggest that this picture could be from The Christmas Program which took place on 12/14/86.

Featured in this photo are (L-R) Donny Ernakovich - Percussion, Matt Norcross - Electric Bass, and Jason Wert - Drums.

P.S. Note to self - Stop trying to look like Geddy Lee (Rush)!

First Assault

This photo is taken from the first Any Questions? live performance in 1990.

Brian "Who" Black

In Fall 1989, we formed our electro-terrorist unit called Any Questions?. In the very early days of the band, MC2P4 wrote and sang most of the vocal parts but we also worked with a few other singers before I (Ttam Troll) eventually took over all of the singing (term used "loosely") duties.

One of these singers was our friend, Brian "Who" Black. He had sung with some other bands so we decided that it was worth giving him a chance and see how well he could do with the material we were writing.

The first song that we worked with him on was a track called Slam. I had spent several days sequencing this song and working out the live keyboard parts and bass solo. During this period of production, I recorded numerous versions of it. In fact, this is probably the most recorded song in the history of the band. There are well over 20 versions of this song on 4-track tape.

I had originally intended for it to be an instrumental but, after realizing that is was "lacking something", we brought in Brian to see what he could add to it. His sharp, biting vocal performance fit the musical style of the song well and we were somewhat pleased.

MC2P4 continued to work with Brian on a few more songs but, eventually, we decided that Slam and the other songs that Brian contributed to didn't fit in with our other compositions. By this time, our music was becoming much more industrial and aggressive and I had begun to be the voice of the band. Because of this, all versions of this song have sat unreleased in the FFS Vaults for over 20 years.

So, after 20+ years in the FFS Vaults, here is Any Questions? - Slam featuring Brian "Who" Black on vocals. This recording is rather "noisy" but I have chosen it because it also includes one of my favorite electric bass solo performances. As you'll hear, I obviously have a "little" Peter Hook (New Order/Joy Division) influence in my playing.