Inspired by the painstaking musicianship (and great sonic results) of
Slayer's
Reign In Blood,
Brer Brian - fresh from his retirement from touring - set out to make a psychedellic "masterpiece". Very influential. The LP's song cycle (the CD-R had no divisions between the songs) featured numerous overdubs and FX, and plenty of good songs. This was probably the soundtrack to 2000 (to a few select individuals) and its "Autumn of Trepidation". Other innovations: the newsprint packaging and its hand-printed liner notes.
"Signal was probably the one Brer album I can say was someone else's idea,"
Major Matt Mason told an interviewer. "It was
Lach's idea to say, 'Hey, how about disguising yourself and getting an alter ego, because I'm Lach and I've had it. Every time I approach a song, Matt, you gotta produce it like Matt would. Every time I approach a ballad, it's gotta be like Lach would. Why don't we just make up some incredible alter egos and think, 'Now how are we gonna make this shit? How would he approach this track?' And it just totally liberated us. It was a very freeing thing to do."
However, aside from the quasi-witch doctor and bloody brain surgeon costumes, the opening theme song and its reprise near the end, and Leticia's take as the "Dominican who was Allergic to Beans", these alter egos really didn't make a whole lot of difference. On the other hand, just looking at the newsprint packaging gave you a very good view of how the performer had grown from who he was.
So much happened in 2000, but this was one of the major events to an elite group of people. It was truly a visionary breakthrough in
anti-folk music. Certaily, we expected no less.
Hammel on Trial's Choochtown had been great, but we were looking for revolution. And this album deranged music in a way that none other ever did. As most modern films come from
The Godfather, most modern anti-folk music comes from Signal to Noise.
This album was also notable because:
It was one of the first concept albums (although I don't know where it fits in with "Dirty Pop" which was released the same year) to fully deconstruct the entire concept of the concept album.
It was the first album in which none of the lyrics printed in the liner notes belonged to the songs on the album.
Most of what happens in anti-folk music today owes at least a little to Brer Brian.
The cover Signal to Noise was first concieved by Brer and was intended to be a tribute to the current events of the day. Brer sketched out an ink drawing of Lach and the Major in ballerina outfits, but later the decision was made to hand-draw the witch doctor and bloody brain surgon outfits on each individual copy.
He took the design to Brendan Larouche, friend and art gallery owner, who suggested hiring pop artist Sidney Gauche to execute the idea.
Gauche made many changes to the original design, but Brer thought that the changes were for the better. The flower-bed clock changed into a punpkin-seed lunchbox, the Lord of Darkness was dropped, and Gauche was paid a hundred thousand English pounds.
The Recording:
"Brer insisted that everything on Signal had to be different," says Harvey Crumpnick, an engineer at Olive Juice Studios. And everything was. This album changed the world for a few selective people. It didn't define a whole generation. "So," he says, "everything was either distorted, heavily compressed, or treated with equally excessive whatthehell-ization."
They turned bass mics into headphones, put brass sections down in the bells of the churches, sent Hammond organs through to the cheesecake factory, and even used oscillating fucks to fan stuff up. You know how you talk in a canyon and you sound like
Moses? Well, the Brer did that too.
Brer Brian's Signal to Noise was a ground-breaking piece of music. The very end of the album epitomizes the low-tech (of any age) studio trickery applied throughout the CD. After the last ringing guitar chord of "Come Let Us Sing", there are a few seconds of a recording of a dog being fixed, especially to annoy your dog. (Or any human being with a sense of common decency.) Then there's a bunch of feedback, as well as taped chatter that's been looped upside down and cut and put back again backwards and deflected through the fourth demension of the universe, beyond the very reaches of space and time. People took a lot of drugs.
The recording of Signal to Noise took ten days. "Probably the most INSANE ten days in the history of anti-folk" says Matt. Brer experimented with an ass-load of instruments, from Malaysian skinflutes ("we're Not the Champions") to a bass trombone ("Get That Thing Out of My Ear!") to a sneaker and shoestring ("Love is for Pussies"). Also notable is a male organ (slowed down in its contractions a thousand and forty-one times), and a zebra.
The Songs:
Letter from the Great I Am
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 10, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Brer Brian
El Babazoro
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 12, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Brer Brian
Cigarettes, They Cost Too Much
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 12, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: The Debris
Love is for Pussies
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 15, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: The Debris
Your Mother Has a Questionable Reputation
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 17, 2000
Writer and Vocal: Matt
Lift Up Your Kilt and Show Them Your Balls
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 10, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Raven Solano
We're Not the Champions
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 10, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Paul Rose
Getting Worse
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 18, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: David
I Finally Found the Love of a Lifetime (And We'll Keep on Fighting 'till the End)
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 10, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Telf
I'm Allergic to Beans and I'm Dominican (So What, I Don't Give A Fuck)
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 10, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Leticia Veloria
I Got Some Candy
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 16, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Brer
Come Let Us Sing
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 10, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Brer
Hey its a Reprise of the Original Song
Olive Juice Music Studio Two, December 10, 2000.
Writer and Vocal: Matt
Three other songs were recorded during these sessions: "You're My Bestest Friend", "Dog Gone", and "You're Still My Bestest Friend". "Dog Gone" and "You're My Bestest Friend" were released as a CD-R, and "You're Still My Bestest Friend" appeared on
Reverend Jen and Nick Zedd's "I Was a Quality of Life" soundtrack.