N*tra Sw**t Pi*ie Sticks

(Self-Titled) (Nutra Stick Productions, 1997)

Timeless Towns and Haunted Places
Returning to the Fetal Position
Those Wacky Crazy Canadians
N*tra Sw**t Pi*ie Sticks*

I was, perhaps, too excited to have completed a demo tape in 1997 to consider the quality of my recordings. This essentially documents the learning process in which I became a four-track-machine wizard, but it doesn't demonstrate my four-track wizardry. The vocal tracks are even worse than on my later albums and the arrangements are generally guitar and a poorly played keyboard or MIDI track of something else.

But that's not to say I don't have affection for any of the tracks or songs. "The Story of Orpheus," lyrically a simple retelling of the Greek myth, is the most ambitious track on the album and I'd soon go on to use MIDI for tracks like "Two-Star Movie" and "The Food Chain." Also, "If I Only Had a Time Machine" and "The Happiest Girl in Utah" proved capable of standing up to later material, with some tweaks in the arrangements. "Society," with its wild percussion track, may yet resurface. I'm also rather fond of the odd tale of loneliness "Little Head, Big Toe" and the guitar work on "Moving to the Moon."

—Jeremy Mathews

Lyrics