Hey Gang-
Time to get your summer tunes on. This are them. Two years ago we re-released the Queen Annes Something Quick 1980-1986 in its full splendor. People liked it! There was rumor of an entire unreleased album titled Revenge! Well, here it is, with a new eight-letter title – RELEASED!
The scoop: shortly after releasing The Mire on Vagrant Records in 1997, the Queen Annes headed back into the studio with Eric 4-A to record their masterpiece, REVENGE! Squeezing in time when they could, they brought in horns and cellos as the spirits moved them. Upon completion, the album was sent out to master and then … nothing. A few CDR copies with a rubber stamp cover circulated around, but it never found a home beyond the dustbin of history. Nearly two decades later, we have recovered the 1997 master, restored the original front cover and are presenting it to the public for the first time ever. Glorious!
RELEASED! contains not only eleven unheard and quite fine Q.A. songs – it has a Beach Boys and two(!) Bee Gees tunes, both from the 1968 Horizontal album. Top that!
The QAs will be playing at their record release on Friday, June 24 at Slim’s in Georgetown. How smashing!
See you there!
td
June 2016
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The Queen Annes Released!:
01. Circus Train
02. The Earnest of Being George
03. She Swims Sideways
04. What’s It All About?
05. Caught Underneath the Light
06. It’s Not My Life
07. Kiss Me I’m Dead
08. Please Come Back
09. Drift Apart
10. I Owe You Nothing
11. Lady of the Waves
12. This Whole World
13. Harry Braff
14. We Picked a Good Day
Produced by Erik 4-A and The Queen Annes
Recorded by Erik 4-A and The Queen Annes at Vagrant Records Studio in 1997/1998 on 1″ 16-track analog tape.
”We Picked a Good Day” recorded at the Art Institute of Seattle.
Mastered by Troy Glessnerat at Spectre Mastering.
Other musicians:
Joe Meyering – Harmonica, Chris Laughban – Trombone
Kurt Silver – Trombone, Alan Rhodes – Trombone, Dave Carter – Trumpet
Josh Stewart – Trumpet, Jason Nelson – Alto sax, Fran Lukas – Tenor sax
Nancy Wharton – Cello, Cello Arrangement by Kevin Goldsmith
Horns arranged and conducted by Ian Rashkin
She Swims Sideways, It’s Not My Life, Please Come Back, I Owe You Nothing, We Picked a Good Day by James Gascoigne.
Circus Train by James Gascoigne/Thomas O’Connell.
What’s It All About?, Kiss Me I’m Dead, Drift Apart, Lady of the Waves by Kip Phillips.
Caught Underneath the Light by John Carey.
This Whole World by Brian Wilson.
The Earnest of Being George and Harry Braff by the Bee Gees.
℗ The Queen Annes © 2016 Green Monkey Records, All Rights Reserved. Released Courtesy of Vagrant Records
The Queen Annes Facebook page
As is often the GMR way – TD asks the band a few questions about the making of this fine album:
TD: Did you think this album would ever see the light of day?
James: Yeah
Kip: Yes, I knew it would eventually come out.
TD: What was the process of recording this album like?
James: About three days in the studio. We made up songs right outside the studio with an acoustic guitar.
Kip: John wrote lyrics for “Underneath the Light” about an hour before we recorded his vocal.
Thomas: We were also brought in as guinea pigs ‘cause 4A had a new machine he had to troubleshoot.
Kip: We are not the fastest working band. The record took a while to record but the QAs tracked it quick and Erik was not slow with the mix and overdubs. Basically as he is saying goodbye to me he lets me do my vocals on the way out the door.
James: “We Picked A Good Day” was recorded at the Art Institute of Seattle studio.
TD: What made you decide to add horns and strings for this album?
Kip: Erik had a lot to do with getting the horns and strings together.
James: Erick 4-A said that he could get the musicians, and I thought that it added a unique sound, especially on “Circus Train.”
Thomas: I was at Vagrant when the horn section recorded. Ian had an arrangement for everyone written for 2 and was writing up the third one during breaks. He had something going and they took 3 or 4 takes on each one but when they hit it they all agreed that was it. It took a few hours and Erik was really awesome and positive with those folks. He showed me a little something that day.
TD: Kip said that this is an album about death and something. What is it about?
James: Separation
Kip: The part about death is that six of our friends died that year and it was definitely on our minds. Some songs more than others.
TD: What inspired you to pick the two Bee Gees songs?
Thomas: James would play me Horizontal at the pink house up in his room. He was also REALLY into the Hollies’ “Bus Stop” and “Carrie Anne” at the time!
James: Because of how great they really sound. The ’60’s Bee Gees had phenomenal vocals and a real ‘family’ sound.
Kip: We had had those two Bee Gees songs in our set for a long time. We recorded them because we wanted to submit them for a BG tribute album that was coming out but we missed the deadline. With those in the can we figured we might as well work on a new album. Everyone pulled together what we had.
TD: If you record another album will it be new stuff or old stuff?
James: Old stuff! Beautiful songs that have been written for a long, long time that would be a shame to throw away. We already have a list started
Thomas: We’ve got 3-4 mid-era tunes that need to be recorded. Probably a coupla oldies and a coupla new compositions. “Naked Man,” “Roomful O’ Monkeys,”