Tantrum Of The Muse - The Heart Is A Two Headed Sperm - 10th Anniversary Remastered download...

TANTRUM OF THE MUSE - THE HEART IS A TWO HEADED SPERM - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION


This October, I am making the very first TOTM album, available for a digital download, with bonus tracks, live tracks, and some new artwork, not unlike the picture preview that is above. The album was unable to be remixed, which is very unfortunate, as there are LOTS of things we would love to repair, as far as production value. There is definitely something here to love though. I am not a fan of some of these songs anymore, and especially some of the lyrics, ESPECIALLY some of the unreleased material, but I am very proud of this artistic statement which was made when we were quite young and ignorant!!! I can recall being offered a record deal with the infamous Tooth & Nail Records (Starflyer 59, Mewithoutyou, Underoath, Danielson, Roadside Monument, etc, etc) and we passed because they wanted us to go and re-record the record, with new lyrics, new song titles, and a new album title. Well, being the proud and inspired young fools that we were, we politely passed them by, and held out for a smaller, lesser known, but fiercely passionate Takehold Records, all of this, of course, after our first record label, Sofa Records, decided that the record was a waste of their time and money!!! I recall Bob from Sofa asking me, once he listened to the album "Is all of that whispering and mouth noises supposed to be there"? I answered, "Of course", and he kinda changed the subject. I mentioned bands like Roadside Monument, and Blenderhead, bands that, at the time were giving us some pretty awesome post punk/hardcore/noise rock stuff that was underproduced, again, proudly, and just delivered with a ton of inspiration and passion. We were big fans of bands like Karp, Melvins and Today Is The Day, as well as some of the more melodic stuff like Sunny Day Real Estate, Quicksand, Built To Spill and Shudder To Think. Not to mention the prog stuff, oh and of course our wholesome upbringing on the Christian rock of Amy Grant, Keith Green, Petra and Stryper. We were a mess musically, and just coming out of the fundamentalist Christian school, unleashed into a public mainstream of different beliefs, and lifestyles that we were unfamiliar with. Christians gone wild? You bet!!! So much went on in those graduation years, and we had our whole lives ahead of us. A unique thing happened, where Rick and myself were making a bunch of noise, learning how to play our instruments (still haven't done that), seeing the, then, thriving music scene, still running off of the fumes of Nirvana's wake (etc) we wanted to be a part of the musical history, something we now refer to as, "the 90s" where so much great inspired music, with passion, was coming out, and everything was being recorded on analog, and 4tracks, and bands swapped cassette tapes, and making it in the music business, was a demo sent, snail mail, to a label of your choice. It was so easy for us. TOTM was always bigger than us. It was always a living beast of its own, and this record in particular is the reminder of that. In 1998 (actual year it was recorded) we sold it, diy, until takehold finally put a nice legit version out in stores, and in that year, we had developed a sorta, word of mouth, about what was going on at our shows, what kind of reaction we were getting. By the time we traveled out of PA, and DE, into the dirty south, and western states, there were droves of people asking what the heck we were doing, saying, playing!!!! It was an exciting time, and by the time our second album rolled around in 2000, people, i think, had come to know what to expect from us. I harken back to that first 2 years though, when the hope of continuing and playing the songs for years and years to come, was supported by the intense experiences we were having, playing these songs for the first time, in such a religious area like Lancaster county!!! I have a lot on my mind in reference to this album, and i do not look to it as just an album from my old band, but rather an album that is the staple of my angry attention deficit ridden youth!! Unlike Modernmu$ick, this record has a little light at the end of its very dark tunnel, and there is a naive innocence about this one, where we were not thinking like victims, entirely, but kids with a bit of steam in us. And, while we did correct some of the sonic (some) and performance quirks, i still believe this is the truest TOTM album. Sadly, Jim didn't play a lick of this one. Rick, and myself, along with any of our friends who were available for making added noise and screams, were along here for this project. Jim had joined the band around the same time, and we started rehearsing with him immediately following the mixing of this album.

I would like to do a commentary podcast, going through each song, and discussing things we remember, and tid bits that might strengthen your listen to it. I am really proud of this one though (You should hear the crap we did before this..UGH)
This is the first album from both Rick and myself, where it wasn't completely dated crap! It was ahead of its time in 1998 that is for sure, not sure what year to drop it in anymore. Who cares? Unteachers is a vast improvement all around anyway.

So, anyway, just giving you all a heads up that its coming soon, and while id love to release a vinyl record of it, im not sure any one label would be interested!!! Maybe though, who knows. For now, i leave you with a reminder of the upcoming record, not remixed, but remastered, edited, restored, cleaned up, majorly repaired, and sounding the best it can ever sound!!!!

Keep poking back in here, i should have links to everything in a few weeks.

CHEERS!!!!

- Stephen