elizabeth fischer - recordings

well, some persons have been bugging me for a long time to put some music up... consider this a start. a few things for now, from various recordings... i'm gonna keep adding to this, especially the older things... as soon as i find it all.. as usual, i'm totally disorganized.

i figured i might as well do this, to give people a glimpse into some sort of process. and also to play on my own nerves, seeing as i am so brutally self-critical, blech... which, i guess, explains my ahem, reclusiveness.

so here we go: various musical endeavors chronologically backward from the more recent. also, some texts, more to come. pictures eventually... covers, posters, bandphotos... whatever i can find.

i write all the texts and do all the art. some of the songs i wrote myself, others were composed collaboratively with whomever i was playing with at the time. the credits are embedded in the files.

if you like this stuff, check back often as i will be adding more every few days. i might upload several versions of songs as well... there are a couple that refused to die and got remade with different people playing them.

the music files are mp3's, sampled at high bitrates, so they are kinda largish. the titles link to the files. feel free to download.

everything i ever did was engineered and produced by Greg Reely.

DarkBlueWorld:

i am presently in a band called DarkBlueWorld and we just released our first CD, titled what else, Dark Blue World, on the Drip Audio label. if you so desire, you can get it here.

here is a tune from the CD:

WARM COAT (4'23 mins, 6MB)

elizabeth fischer - vocals, text
ron samworth - guitar
tony wilson - guitar
skye brooks - drums
pete scmitt - bass
peggy lee - cello

sorry, i'm not able to put up more of these songs for free at this point... Drip Audio is a great little label and we badly want it to survive.

however, you are very welcome download everything else that i have ever done, most of which you will find here below.

Orphans and Dogs:

i am also presently in a band called Orphans and Dogs which is more esoteric, kinda, and in which i dare to sing the tunes of billie, bob, tom, billy, hank and other societal misfits and miscreants. also, we have started to work on some original tunes cause hey, i can't stop ranting about the shit that bugs me.

there are a couple of tunes to listen to if you click the link above, including jazzier reworking of an older song "party" which you will also find here below, when it was done by murder museum. i guess this song just won't die.

elizabeth fischer - vocals
tony wilson - guitar
tommy babin - bass
and sometimes
skye brooks - percussion

 -up-

Murder Museum:

HELLO (4'57 mins, 5.9MB) -- text --

JUMP (9'18 mins, 11.3 MB) -- text --

PARTY (9'56 mins, 11.8 MB) -- text --

these are three songs i wrote with the (then) Murder Museum... which imploded (not the songs, the band) rather spectacularly in an ill-advised road trip. so then i recorded it with some other people --actually, David Roundell did not implode away with the rest of the band but stayed on to record these and beyond too.

HELLO is kinda discordant at times, but what the hell, we ended up liking it this way. now i think we coulda played it a bit faster.

on JUMP, the mix ended up strangely to demand that we dump the drums, so we did. the song turned out pretty weird,nothing like what it was at the start... but i kinda like it like this. except it's so fucking long... i always have a hard time cutting parts away.

PARTY exists also as something totally different, which i will upload here sometime as well. it's loooong, it's really loooooong... oh well, i had to get alla them words in...

recorded in greg's living room, mixed in his bedroom. long live digital recording, yay.

the other thing is that i don't remember some of the people who played on this recording. pretty embarrassing, that. well, here is the ones i do remember:

elizabeth fischer - vocal, 2 finger shitty accordion
david roundell - real good accordion, bg vocals
darren paris - bass, guitar
paul brennan - drums
bill clark - trumpet

and some other people i don't remember

 -up-

Improv, kinda:

LOVE MARKET (5'22 mins, 6.3 MB)

a really crappy recording... flowing mud comes to mind... but of a pretty inspiredly wild performance. this was in my period of brechtness, especially brecht and eisler -ness, thus LOVE MARKET. i love brecht and eisler songs more than i love brecht and weill songs, although i've done those too. well, some more than others. but hans eisler had a much darker take on brechts texts... gutwrenching, even. i've always had a weakness for gutwrenching, haha. WELL OH WELL is one of my old songs, although it did change an awful lot since its first incarnation.

anyways, i spent the year of these playing with mostly improvisational musicians, which was fun as far as that went. then it went no further.

we did this recording in a small, donated studio, playing live off the floor, improvising on the song. that is, the melody is there but then we all took, ahm, liberties with it. skip these if you don't like noisy wanking.

after which greg took the tape and tried to save it, tried to make it sound better. this is as good as he could do, under the circumstances.

elizabeth fischer - vocals, accordion (yeah yeah 2 fingers, don't laugh)
ron samworth - guitar
peggy lee - cello
david roundell - accordian
dylan van der schyff - percussion
paul blaney - bass
bill clark - trumpet

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Solo Stuff:

CRUMBS (5'00 mins, 5.8 MB) -- text --

CHURCH OF THE BLIND (4'01 mins, 4.7 MB) -- text --

IN THIS HOUSE (5'53 mins, 4.5 MB) -- text --

DERES MAR A HATAR (3'30 min, 4.2 MB)

1993. solo stuff. after the animal slaves broke up for good, i was kinda at a loss as to what to do. so i thought i'd experiment around with sequencing and programming keyboards and then singing along with that. worked okay, did a bunch of material most of which i still, miracle-of-miracles, like... went on a tour too, me and my keyboard, on the train across canada. and to japan too. it was fun, more or less, except i ended up really bored by it all. i actually much prefer persons to machines, well, it all does get more ahm, ecstatic that way. what with fear, and frailties...

anyways, i recorded a buncha stuff this way, alone, with sometimes a friend coming in to overlay something neat. greg recorded it all, of course. here, where i live.

oh yah... that song, DERES... that is in hungarian, used to be my father's favorite song. back when he was alive... he don't sing much anymore on account of being dead. i have no idea who wrote it so i can't credit it.

elizabeth fischer - vocals, keyboards
earl oddstadt - violin
peggy lee - cello
ryan moore - bass
rick kilborn - bass
zeb piggot - violin
.... and some other people who wandered in and out

 -up-

Animal Slaves - A Fine End (CD):

CONTEMPORARY ARMOUR (4'45 mins, 5.8 MB)

SAVAGE GARDEN (5'46 mins, 6.9 MB)

PIECES OF BREAD (4'56 mins, 5.9 MB)

THINK OF THAT (5'43 mins, 7 MB)

DOUCE AMNESIE (4'43 mins, 5.8 MB)

off the Animal Slaves, A Fine End CD, 1991. after which the whole concept of the Animal Slaves finally, totally, ended, in fact, the cd release gig was the last.

this was the second version of animal slaves, with ryan and paul who, ironically, had been utter fans of the first version of animal slaves. and ended up playing in it. also, this time, we had a veritable plethora of guitarists, steven and pat.

and yah, i sang in french on 2 songs... i really do like speaking different languages. but since i write much better in english, translations of my texts into french were by therese champagne... and very good translations they are, too.

having the animal slaves end after it being my prime mode of well, expression, or life or something for nigh 10 years or so, really broke my heart. for a while, i felt pretty lost; acted a bit weird too, as i remember. and i'm sure other people remember it too... oh the embarrassment.

the CD was recorded at Profile Studios, greg producing, as usual.

elizabeth fischer - vocals, keyboards
ryan moore - bass
paul brennan - drums
steven nikleva - guitar
pat sproule - guitar

 -up-

Animal Slaves - unreleased:

IN TOO DEEP (4'06 mins, 4.9 MB)

EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE (4'19 mins, 5.3 MB)

EMPTY ROOM (5'41 mins, 6.8 MB)

FINE AND DANDY (3'44 mins, 4.5 MB)

COCOON (4'22 mins, 5.2 MB)

and here it i, previously never heard, unreleased Animal Slaves recordings... 1986, from the original lineup of the band. me, rosco and rachel. just after coming off a horrible road trip in the middle of winter and just before rachel decided to move to toronto. we recorded a a bunch of new material. which tape, then, sat in greg's closet until he gave it to me, now it sits in my closet.

it's a rough mix... and some of it i no longer like... especially my singing. yuuuuck. talk about melodrama. but this particular tune is kinda okay, i can stand this. so here it is for your perusing pleasure. if and when i get more courageous about facing my fuckups, i will digitize more of the recording. really. i promise. hahahahaha

elizabeth fischer - vocals, keyboards
rachel melas - bass
rosco hales - drums
steven nikleva - guitar

 -up-

Animal Slaves - cassette tape:

GET AWAY (4'49 mins, 5.8 MB)

GARBAGE SONG (3'58 mins, 4.8 MB)

FAVORITE THINGS (5'15 mins, 6.4 MB)

Animal Slaves, Secret Sharer - cassette release, 3 tunes, something to take on the road with us to sell, made a real nifty teeshirt to go with it too. yep, on the ill-fated, november across canada, freeze-your-ass-off, tour. killed us too --see above.

recorded in someones warehouse, i forget who. greg dragged a whole lot of equipment in, we set up and then proceeded to smoke ourselves into reverb heaven. actually, it was a lot of fun, i mean, we all liked eachother a whole lot, still, then. the only band i have ever been in that loved to rehearse, 5 nights a week. we were truly obsessed.

okay, i admit it: i loved this band like no other. 6 years.

elizabeth fischer - vocals, keyboards
rachel melas - bass
rosco hales - drums
greg reely - percussion and a whole lotta reverb (haha)

 -up-

Animal Slaves - Dog-Eat-Dog (LP 1985):

LEARNING TO LIVE (5'26 mins, 6.8 MB)

SAVE ME FROM RUIN (4'26 mins, 5 MB)

ONE IN TEN (5 mins, 5.7 MB)

IT NEVER HAPPENED (3'30 mins, 4 MB)

CATHOLIC BOY (3 mins, 3.4 MB)

ANALYZING (2'49 mins, 3.2 MB)

EYE OF THE HURRICANE (5'37 mins, 6.4 MB)

PRISONER OF SILENCE (4.10 mins, 4.7 MB)

i just listened to it, ohmyghasp. better yet, ohmyrasp. i sound like i'm choking or something. but the bassplaying is great, and so is the drumming. funny 80's recording, lotsa reverberberb... hahaha. of course, this does not excuse that my singing on the lp was more or less fucking horrible. hah.

this was when we eschewed guitar players all together. rachel and rosco bought me a $25 yamaha keyboard and said, you play keyboards. but, i said, i can only play with one hand. no problem, they said.

eventually, i traded up to a $200 keyboard and then totally got in debt for an $800 kind. which is what you hear here. and i learned to play with 2 fingers on each hand, which made four fingers altogether. wheeeeee.

we did ask harris come and play guitar on hurricane, and paul played santoor, and iranian instrument on ruin. and extra percussion by greg and ahmed.

learning to live was some kinda radio hit on alternative radiostations. it made us fans in strange places, some of whom were certifiably insane.

and we toured a lot in a rusty pickup, floors across nations. i made some comics about it.

elizabeth fischer - vocals, keyboard
rachel melas - bass
rosco hales - drums

guests:

harris van berkel - guitar
paul serret - santoor
greg reely and ahmed hassan - percussion

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Animal Slaves - EP (1982)

CONTRARY TO RUMOUR (3'11 mins, 3.9 MB)

CHINESE RESTAURANT (3'59 mins, 4.7 MB) -- text --

WASTING TIME (4'16 mins, 5.3 MB)

MAN FROM GLAD (2'31 mins, 3 MB)

SCRATCHING HIVES (4'58 mins, 6 MB)

1984. the very first record, an ep titled animal slaves. a week before we were to start recording, our guitar player at the time, the ubiquitous and given-to-alcohol stan, fucked off to mexico and forgot to return. so we asked some of our friends to come play guitar. various people on various tracks. after this recording, rosco and rachel decided to forego guitar adventures altogether and make me play keyboards... see above.

recorded in a garage-studio, i forget its name. greg reely's very first ever engineering/producing gig.

elizabeth fischer - vocals
rachel melas - bass
rosco hales - drums

guitars:

harris van berkel, elaine stef, neil osborne, david phyall

okay, how far back did i get... 1982... soon to come, more stuff, newer stuff, older stuff, more texts.. and whatever else i can find... maybe some visual stuff too, posters, record covers, comics, etc...