Search - :: The Young Snakes featuring Aimee Mann

Review from the Young Snakes' guitarist

DougV | Cambridge, MA | 11/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hi, my name is Doug Vargas and I'm the guitarist featured on this CD. I'd like to clarify a few things about the recordings on this CD, since the CD's sleeve contains no information about their origin.



-- The first song (Brains and Eggs) is a studio recording we made in 1981. It was recorded and produced by Rob Dimit in his infamous studio "Perfect Crime Productions." Rob did wonders in his primitive analog 8-track studio, and was a great friend to the band.



-- The rest of the songs on this CD are from a college radio live broadcast called "Metrowave." The radio station was WERS (Emerson College) and in the 80s they featured live local bands every weekend. Hundreds of bands performed on WERS over the years, and many of their live broadcasts ended up on CDs. I don't remember who engineered our session.



-- The CD's liner notes make this incorrect statement:



"The Young Snakes recorded a full-length album and it was never released... until now!"



The truth is that the Young Snakes DID record a full-length album, but this ain't it. Our 10-song studio recording (also done by Rob Dimit) has never been released in any form.



So although this CD is NOT the Young Snakes' polished studio recording, it IS superior in one way -- it's the true demonstration of what we sounded like live -- complete with crazy tempo shifts, out-of-tune vocals (courtesy of me), and manic punk-funk riffing.



On our studio recording, tempos were controlled, errant vocals were fixed, and craziness was generally reigned in. So although it's far more listenable, it's not a real representation of what the Young Snakes sounded like. The WERS radio broadcast (which makes up the bulk of this CD) is truly what you would have heard if you'd seen us live. For better or worse!



-- The lyrics on the 3rd song ("Everything goes out of control") were written by Jed Donelan, a bartender at a dive where we used to hang out called TC's Lounge. All other lyrics were written by Aimee (except the Bill Withers song (#10)).



-- "Karl K9" (track #11) is one of the first songs we wrote. We soon dropped it from the set because it was so ridiculous. But it made it onto this CD in all of its inane glory. I must admit it's one of my favorite songs on the CD-- really shows off our wingnut cache!



-- In a perfect world, this should have appeared on the CD's liner notes:



==============

Special thanks to Amy Lucker for her incredible generosity in the years that the Young Snakes performed-- driving us to gigs, putting up posters, loading gear, buying drinks, putting up with our whining, etc. etc.

==============



That's all from me, listen to this CD at your own risk! :)



Doug



*** NOTE ***



My understanding is that the distribution of this CD has been halted. So if you managed to get a copy, hang onto it-- it may become valuable."