The Official History of Instant Dogma

(Woodrose, snakes & ladders, Freak Music,
Punk Rock Treehouse and everything else.)

2001




Back to snakes & ladders
 
So we gigged and we gigged and we gigged,
throughout 2000 into 2001. We played anywhere we could,
clubs, coffee houses, open mics, street parties
but especially cable public access shows. We amassed
a wealth of video material for my nefarious plan.
And we started getting to be a pretty tight little outfit.
 
We were also writing in a very organic fashion,
with songs developing in rehearsal, creating
a sound that was really unique. 

 

              
               
      
Summer/Fall 2001 / Winter 2002
A Tale of Two Albums
 


A Video


Peter was petitioned to produce, and had a very specific vision -
“your best set on your best night mixed by God.” Okay. And we went to work.
Recording started in July and continued over several months,
one song at a time. Pete and I mixed December and January.
To Pete's credit he pushed Toad Hall's capability to the max,
doing clever reduction mixes, extensive effects chains and other wizardry,
creating a huge sounding record. We believed these songs were our best.
The intent was a record that would capture the band's strengths and
expand our following. We worked damned hard on that one, sweating the details.
No work of art is ever completed, only abandoned. Mastering was finished in
March 2002, and all that was left was to promote the hell out of it.
Started before the Staring at the Sun sessions,
most likely because we were a little anxious to record.
Also as Staring progressed, Noah became impatient with Peter,
feeling left out of the production decisions. So we went nutz.
This disc is one of those intersections between whatever project
Greg and I were working on and Freak Music. In retrospect it
could have been called a Freak Music album. I only have a few memories,
one being my then spouse attempting suicide on the day I mixed
Brain Surgery. This disc was also recorded in the shadow of 9/11. That
colored a lot of the tone on the record (we sorta knew nascent fascism
was going to rear it's ugly head and weren't wrong, Patriot Act etc.)
In some ways this disc was truer to the internal dynamic of the
band, though nowhere near as accessible as Staring.
It was was the only disc we made to have multiple guests
(Peter, Keith, Dave Nader, Polly Urban etc.) The cover graphic
came from some art, that my then very weak computer
garbled and spewed.


         
            
 Staring at The Sun / ExperiMental sessions

Next
Cheap-TV, Wormtown,
and Noah Departs

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