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PLEASE READ!
This is a collection of unreleased recordings and mixes of Vaganza and related projects. These were ripped from old DAT tapes in '09 and are far from lossless files, but they get the point across.
My personal Vaganza page (w/ some photos and nonsense) can be found here: https://www.mattquigley.net/the-ancient-past
Vaganza's story is, more or less, summarized here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaganza
These recordings originate from 6 sources.
1) Tracks 1 - 4: Our 1993 demo/E.P. 'Are You Willing to Die for Rock 'n' Roll?':
The full EP/demo includes 2 songs missing here, "She's Crazy" and "Everyday." They were re-recorded in superior versions for our album. I would actually upload the demo versions, but I don't have them in my possession.
Our birthdays being two weeks apart, Wallingford and I both turned 23 while recording this. We embarked upon the whole Vaganza excursion two full years prior and the road to this point was a ridiculous one. Dysfunctional and delusional, but a lot of fun.
The year that followed was a roller-coaster ride of unimaginable triumph and unprecedented grief and loss.
2) Tracks 5-9: Original mixes of tracks from our album.
We spent between January and July of 96 recording the album and all of August mixing it. Soon after, our A&R guy at Elektra, the late and legendary Terry Tolkin, was shitcanned. This found us w/ a completed album but a disinterested label. Undeserved luck on our side, as always, within days we were offered another deal from a brand-new Geffen imprint called Outpost Recordings.
Before releasing our album, Outpost felt we needed to remix it and we did in 97. We've always been okay w/ the released mix, but time has made it clear that the original mixes - done by the album's co-producer, Greg Frey - while imperfect, were more accurate representations of "the Vaganza of the thing." From the perspective of now, for their flaws, these sound more like what we intended.
Wallingford has long insisted that these mixes were superior and truer. They highlight the nonsense, the noise, and the spectacular Rock 'n' Roll death rattle we intended. If they're messy, that was part of the point.
These are the 5 mixes that I feel are most superior to the released versions.
3) Tracks 10-11: 2 outtakes from the sessions for our album.
Both songs felt a bit too "normal" for our purposes at the time, and were cut before we remixed the album in 97.
4) Tracks 12-15: 4 songs from the demo we produced, co-arranged, and in parts co-wrote, w/ our good friend, former co-Vaganzan, and theoretical protégé Abraham Green.
It should be noted that Abe plays drums and piano, in addition to singing lead on all songs.
5) Tracks 16-17: Two rough basement demos of songs written by Abraham Green, arranged and produced by David and I. These were intended to be recorded w/ full orchestration eventually.
6) Tracks 18-19: The last songs are two of the very first we ever worked on as Vaganza, in late-summer/early-fall of 91. We acquired a 1/2" 8-track tape machine and built a crude basement studio at my parents' house. We went into hiding to learn how to be the band we wanted to be.
These are poorly recorded, as we were simply eager to get our ideas on tape.
We were still working w/ Tim Smith, the lead vocalist and drummer in Wallingford's previous band, Astronaut. He's on lead vox, while the above-referenced Abe Green plays drums.
"I Know Ann" is problematic on a lot of levels and contains a use of the r-slur (not an excuse, but it was over 30 yrs ago and we were 20). Musically and structurally, though, coming from our indie backgrounds, and w/ a lot of friends, peers, and colleagues thinking we were nuts, this dumb song - recorded quickly, just throwing one idea on top of the other, in a fit of inspiration - was all the proof necessary to be certain we were doing the right thing.
In the end, none of it played out as we had hoped. We both remain quite proud of this mess, regardless.
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