Shadow Puppet Disco - Slam Dunk

Alex used to have a t-shirt that was a letter to Tom explaining to him the rules of basketball. I'm still left with some many questions about this t-shirt. Had Tom had been living under a rock or just woken up from a coma that he had never heard anything about basketball in his life? Why would you end a letter inexplicably with "slam dunk?" If Tom has never heard of basketball before, how is he going to know what a slam dunk is? If you could think of any adjectives in the world to describe basketball, why would non-violent be your first choice? How do Tom and Dan know each other? Why did Dan choose a short letter as the best format to tell Tom about basketball? Why didn't he try to elaborate more to get him excited about basketball like tell him about the strategy or his favorite players? Did Tom ever make it to a basketball game? What does Tom think about basketball now after reading this letter? Are Tom and Dan still friends now? What was Tom's final grade in AP Calculus? Does Alex still wear this shirt? Does Alex still think this song was pretty good? Who was the mysterious masked man appearing on the back of the long lost SPD album? What if God was one of us? Who put the Al in Alabama? Where do babies come from?

Despite all of these questions, we definitely have something that resembles a non-violent song here. Martin plays a little ditty on the keyboard before eventually going into a very repetitive tune where I read Alex's t-shirt. I remember we just thought this t-shirt was ridiculous and wanted to incorporate it into an SPD song. I think we probably put a total of like a minute and a half of preparation into creating this song before we recorded it. But this might be the most famous song ever about a t-shirt. Can you think of a more famous one?

Now I'm a Baby a Long Way from Home

Here is another long lost SPD track that never made it on one of our albums. It was recorded slightly after we finalized Awareness of Being Alive and it seems like it would fit right in on that album and even maybe be one of the standouts (which isn't that hard to do). I remember Mayank heard this song and told me that he didn't think blackholes worked that way.Also check out the sweet wicker wine bottle lamp from the 70s that our parents used to have. And the sweet digial blasphemy wallpaper on the monitor.

The New Spokesthing for Dia-beetus

 

Wilford Brimley has had a good run as the spokeman for Dia-beetus. But every cowboy finds their time to ramble on down the road to make room for a newer, hipper, and hairier voice in the war on Dia-beetus. Introducting Dia-Geedis . . .
 

Yehhhhhhhhhh!

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Good shit! Stay till the end. George Harrison's son looks just like him when he was younger.

I'm Thinking of Starting Up the Business Again, Part 2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CGNP7GG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00CGNP7GG&linkCode=as2&tag=drsynth-20&linkId=6Y3NZ37GOPY52TDP

I'm Thinking of Starting Up the Business Again

What's A Website?

I Need This!!

K-Strass, the Yo-Yo Master

The Skippy Tapes - Volume 1

Joey and Tommy recorded a couple of conversations they had on the phone with Skippy in the early 2000s. This is the only evidence we still have of the existence of Skippy aside from some grainy photos. You have to appreciate how Joey pivots from the Rusty vs. Wolfie argument and then totally pwns Skippy in an argument about whether he looks like Harry Potter. Then there is an SPD style musical cacophony interlude in the middle. Also, Skippy (who's real name was apparently Chris) was pretty hung up on the concept of puberty. We should find a Canadian to break Skippy's code soon. Maybe it will have the key to everlasting puberty.

Shadow Puppet Disco - Mertle

This is an SPD track that for some reason never made it on to our 2nd album (possibly it was recorded after it was released). I didn't even realize this song existed until I was digging through the SPD folder on this old Windows 2000 computer my parents had. So, there are a few other hidden gems on there that I have rescued and will share as well. If I feel so inclined, I may end up posting video files for our more popular songs and writing blurbs about how their history, inspiration, and how they were created. For posterity.



This song file was just labeled "polka.mp3" for some reason, but I have decided to call the song Mertle. It is a bizarre track that seems like it is constantly building up to something and getting ready to spin a folksy tale with an important lesson. But it really ends up having no substance (big surprise, I know). The lyrics are weird and cliche at the same time, a random mix of sayings that could fit in a children's song or video game repeated over and over. It feels like it fits well alongside Flight #467 (or whatever) or Jovian Cowgirl. The drumming is a delight, sort of intentionally off beat and random, going it's own way whenever the drummer felt like it (maybe from the crazy mind of Alex?). And the piano playing has that wondrous SPD repetitiveness along with the competent play of Martin. There is also what may be the best use of the zip whistle ever in an SPD song. However, my favorite part is the random sound clip towards the end. I can't entirely understand it, but it sounds like some kind of children's cereal commercial. It's probably giving any of this nonsense way too much credit, but I imagine this song to be a bizarre critique of how so much pop music is style over substance, sounding exciting without really ever doing anything unique or interesting. I suppose that is sort of what SPD is all about. That and Elmer's Glue.

Stay tuned for more soon . . .