OK, so for as down and dirty two-track rough as The Belts were, my next band, Rare White Squirrel, was downright poppy in comparison. But not popular pop. Because it’s still four-track, lo-fi, analog home recording. But at least it (usually) had a beat.
RWS was me, Josh Andra, and Gary Brownstein. We actually managed to record six albums (er, cassettes) in five months during 1995—nearly 100 songs. The brass at Botulism Music—our label in Athens, Ohio—is re-releasing all the cassettes from their back catalog for free and as of December 23 the Rare White Squirrel double album Duck Hunt, Duck Stab is is available again on Bandcamp. It was our 2nd/3rd release. The rest of the cassettes listed below will be posted over the next couple months.
Rare White Squirrel discography:
- Hey Hey Hey and Hey (February-March 1995)
- Duck Hunt (April-May 1995)
- Duck Stab (April-May 1995)
- Russell’s Viper (May-June 1995)
- Songs that Suck Pretty Bad (leftovers from February-June 1995)
- Super Belts (July 1995)
All RWS songs were recorded on a rented Yamaha MT-50 four-track and mixed down to a Panasonic two-track. I think the list of instruments used on our first release, Hey Hey Hey and Hey sums things up perfectly:
- Wurlitzer hollow body guitar with two missing strings
- A bad Foundation bass
- A Lab Series L5 amp
- Bontempi xylophone
- Bontempi B1 chord organ
- An echo-singing toy microphone
- 3 drumsticks
- A Reader’s Digest book of Synonyms
- Fake drum machine
- Vintage standup ashtray
- 16mm Kodak film canister
- A file cabinet
- A piano shaped like a dinosaur
- Assorted drinking glasses
- A Tropicana orange juice bottle
- An aluminum photolamp
- Coffee can
- Coffee table
- Mr. Microphone
- A Budweiser can
OK. Well, just remember to turn it off if it bothers you. Otherwise irreparable damage could occur. Personally, I still love these cassettes. More soon.
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