Album name: New Mexico Igloo
Release date: December 17, 1996
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio
Tracks:
1. Run, Run Rudolph
2. A Homeless World
3. The Holiday Song
4. Jingle Bells
5. Patricia Corrigan
6. Silent Night
7. My Toy
8. Merry Christmas, Baby
9. Oh, Isthmus Tree
10. Baby, Please Come Home
11. Oh, Holy Night Blues
12. Speech Impediment Wino
13. The Christmas Song
14. Speech Impediment Wino Returns
This album came from a jam session that Harry, Jason, and Jimmy had on Tuesday, December 10, 1996. This was the third Isthmus jam. There were two things different about this jam than any other previous Isthmus jam: there was another person playing on the album and they recorded the album in a church.
Jason played guitar. Harry played bass, then guitar, then keyboards. Jimmy was bass and then drums. And Tim was the guest musician who played drums, then bass, then lead vocals. There was also another person, Erik, who showed up and played guitar but most of that was not recorded.
It was recorded in the church Harry attended. They decided to record there for the acoustics of the sanctuary. But the acoustics did not help, this album is considered to be the biggest flop in the Isthmus catalog. The mix was bad for the recording, the songs they played were nothing special, and it just did not have the "Isthmus spirit" that the other albums had.
As far as recording equipment, they ran all the mics and instruments into a mixer and from the mixer into a standard cassette recorder. So it wasn't quiet as primitively recorded as their previous album, Lambskin Temple, but they needed to work on their live mixing.
They had set out to create a Christmas album. So many of the songs they recorded that evening were traditional Christmas song, some were their version of Christmas songs, and then the rest was original material. The majority of side B is a track called "The Christmas Song" and is basically a twenty-minute free form jam with hints of Christmas thrown in.
The image on the album cover is a molecule of salt. They thought that was appropriate since salt is what you put on the road or sidewalk to melt the ice and snow. So in an Isthmus sort of way the molecule of salt represents Christmas.
An alternate title for the album was An Isthmus Christmas, but that was dropped for New Mexico Igloo. And what is a New Mexico Igloo? Harry and Jimmy's dog, Jake, had an enclosed dog bed that had a southwestern pattern all over it. So one day Harry mentioned that the dog bed looked like a New Mexico Igloo. They had their album title!
Next week's Album of the Week: Ideas by Isthmus from 1997.
No comments:
Post a Comment