A Few Selections
From The Archives
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| Brain Bootlegs |
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Free MusicDonovan's Brain, in one form or another, has been recording non-stop since the late 80's. A lot of good songs have not seen the light of day. We'd like to think that one day there will be a box set that gathers together all these orphans. For now, here are a few bits from the vault for you to enjoy, More unreleased music will be appearing here soon.
The Great Leap Forward Sessions 2000-2002
Jeff Arntsen - bass, vocals; Ron Craighead - drums, vocals; Colter Langan - guitar, vocals, Your Number was one of two songs Colter wrote for the album which didn't get used. Once The Great Leap Forward was completed, we returned to this one and did some additional guitar overdubs and gave it a new mix. Considering how hard Colter worked on this one, it's a shame it didn't fit on the album. Live At The Filling Station May 17,1995Ron Sanchez -guitar; Paul Rose - guitar and vocals; Jim Kehoe - bass; Jason McKnight - drums The first is one of two songs which were rehearsed and played live, but were never recorded in the studio. Paul wrote these for The Brain, and as far as I know they never were heard after that line up collapsed. New from the archives comes a live version of Joey's In The Pouch. The Eclipse And Debris version was recorded a couple of years earlier after "K", Paul's band failed to capture it while recording at GLEA. The live arrangement is a lot funkier thanks to Jason's breaks. The Brain were opening for Southern Culture On The Skids this night. Paul Rose has recently recorded Across The Creek, which you can hear on his myspace page. Tiny Crustacean Lightshow Sessions 1998
Ron Sanchez - guitars, vocals, keys; Seth Lyon - Drums; Kels Koch - bass; Richard Treece - guitar; I think the original version of this song was written back in '94. Several demos were recorded before it was remodeled as Punch Wax. This was one of the 24 tracks cut in 1998 for Tiny Crust. It was set aside along with a few others which became the genesis of The Great Leap Forward. We played this live and did a fair amount of work on it during the course of the Leap sessions. In the end it didn't fit on that album either. Live At The Filling Station 29 October 2000Jeff Arntsen - bass, vocals; Ron Craighead - drums, vocals; Colter Langan - guitar, vocals, Richard Treece returned to Bozeman in the fall of 2000 to rehearse for the Seattle Terrastock. These recordings are from a wonderful relaxed warm-up show. With out the time constraints of the Festival, we were able to stretch out on these numbers. We played these three songs as a medley. They are avalable here as three indivdual tracks. You can restore them to the way they were performed, just don't put any gaps between the songs. 99 Sense Soundtrack sessions 2002Jeff Arntsen - lap steel ; Ron Craighead - drums, vocals; Colter Langan - guitar, vocals, We were asked to compose some original music for this independant ski film. The director had a very specific idea in mind for this cue. It was meant to be built around the drums. I just told Ron to imagine he was skiing and put that into his drum part. Jeff and myself just built on to that foundation. The doom laden remix was performed by The Armchair Explorers and will appear in the Where The Djs Roam documentary. Live At The Zebra Below 23 October 2002
Jeff Arntsen - bass, vocals; Ron Craighead - drums, vocals; Colter Langan - guitar, vocals, We began work on new material just two months after we had wrapped up work on The Great Leap Forward. At the end of summer, Chris Martin called and asked if we could put together a show with Kinski. We took this opportunity to ask Deniz to come over and play the gig with us. At the rehearsal, the afternoon of the show, we cut the first five songs for A Defeat Of Echoes. I asked Deniz if it would be ok to play More Fun. It made sense to play a Birdman tune, and this seemed about as easy as it was going to get. Live At The Zebra Below 17 June 2003
Jeff Arntsen - bass, vocals; Ron Craighead - drums, vocals; Colter Langan - guitar, vocals, Colter suggested we add this to our live set. It's one of Neil Young's songs from the first Buffalo Springfield album. This is from our gig with Sub Arachnoic Space. We did cut a version in the studio, but this performance is going to be hard to beat. A Defeat Of Echoes Sessions 2002-2005Jeff Arntsen - all instruments When we began work on this album, everyone was asked to submit material. Jeff brought Resolution and Come To My Party to the first rehearsals. These were both played and recorded at the Oct 23 session and gig. Control was rehearsed and recorded the following spring. Here are the demos we heard and learned the songs from. The Brain added their own ideas to the mixture. In the case of Control, Jeff decided the rambling 15 version wasn't what he had in mind. For the second attempt, Jeff directed the band through an arrangement that closely resembled his demo. • Sitting On My PorchJeff Arntsen - synth bass, Ron Craighead - drums; Colter Langan - guitar, vocals, During the course of recording Defeat Of Echoes, there were two songs that we recorded twice. In both cases they were distinctly different versions. Control being one of them. In that case we used the first version for our video. Sitting On My Porch was a bit more problematic. This is another one of those songs that I demoed several times before it was good enough to present to the band. For some reason I rewrote the melody and a drafted a new set of words for this variation. The lyrics caused some concern with the other members of the band. I was asked several times if "I was ok". This bleak song was an excercize to see how deep I could reach into the dark corners of my mind. Apparently it worked, and disturbed the others to no end. After doing this mix, I decided I wasn't completely satisfied with the way the band approched the arrangement At the very last possible minute, I returned to my original concept and finished the lyrics for a song now known as The Boy Who Cried New Town. We recut the song durning a break in the mixing of the album. I kept the bits I liked from the first recording and worked with everyone to get the feel I was looking for. Dream Mag Session November 2005
Ron Craighead - drums; Colter Langan - guitar, vocals, Ron Sanchez - guitars, organ, bass, vocals; Kaz -"the girl of your dreams" George Parsons asked if the Brain would contribute a song to the Dream Mag CD. When I asked him what he had in mind, he said something with a "dream theme". Sleep Deep dates back to 1993-94. It was intended to be a part of the Shambaholic album. In the end it was released on the Lightproof Visions EP, our first release. For the 7". When preparing that master, I edited the song, removing several lines of each verse. This updated version restores the lyrics, and adds new drum, guitar, and vocal tracks. In the end, George chose the other song we submitted, but this effort won't go to waste.
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