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The Masked Animals
After I listened to the "anthem for a new tomorrow" record from screeching weasel I wanted to play just that kind of music. The only guys I knew who played an instrument were either idiots or wanted to cover nirvana songs. So I asked my buddy sami why he didn't want to start to play the bass. Thank god we already had drunk some beer so he thought it was a glorious idea. The next day we bought the cheapest bass guitar we found (and sami's still playing with it) and I taught him the one or two things I knew. By now he has improved a little bit, I guess. So, we started with covering screeching weasel songs and enjoying ourselves in my room. One day we happened to run into an old friend of ours who just started to play the drums and had an own apartment. His drums skills were even lower than our own musical skills but he was the only drummer we knew and he would let us practice in his living room so we thought he'd fit just perfectly. By the way, his name's george. Naturally, we fucked up our first show that we were playing as headliner. George was way too stoned and sami and me were way too drunk. After some time george's drums fell apart and they unplugged us. We played another show with george before we exchanged him with dominik.
Finally we could play fast. And boy, do we like playing fast. Sometimes it seems to me like some kind of speedaddiction but that's still better than being addicted to methangas or moonlight or pain... Anyway, after we played some shows with our new drummer we decided to record an own album. A friend we knew who just opened a studio let us record two days for the money we could afford. On that weekend in cold and snowy November '98 "seize the world" was recorded. The songs were recorded live and we added vocals and guitarmelodies. We thought we had to celebrate our first recording before the actual recording session. Not so a bright idea if you asked me. I was so hungover sami had to hold me back from tearing dominik's head off when he made the sound check for the drums. Drums are so loud!! For the singing dominik brought two bottles of wine and said wine would be like oil for the vocalcords. Whatever he meant with that it was another bad idea. It's hard to hit the right tone when you have to concentrate on singing into the microphone and not hitting it with your head at the same time. All in all we were pretty content with the result. Our friends liked it too so it was all good.
One year later we had enough material to record another album but too little money to afford a studio. We bought a digital recording machine and thought we were clever enough to manage our own recording. It was not a bad idea just a stupid idea. For about two months we spent most of our sparetime in dominik's practiceroom recording and mixing our songs. It was a good experience and I hope that it will remain the only one. Don't get me wrong, it was fun and we learned a lot in the way how to record but a way too big expenditure. We put a lot in background vocals and harmonic melodies. By the time we finished recording the new founded swiss punk rock label asked us if they could have a song for their first compilation "no-fi trash". We gave them "you moron" and then them greedy bastards wanted all our songs. The pussies we are we gave'em all they asked for. "are you up shit creek w/o a paddle? You'd better call TMA" was then released in summer 2000 by floppy cow records. We signed a contract and each of s brought a ten pack with us.
The guys from our label are pretty cool guys and by now we become just like a big family where everyone loves the other with all his heart (I hope they read that). Why else would they pay for our recording for our latest record? Hehehe anyway, in summer 2001 sämi and me intended to go to the states for vacation. Our friendly label asked us if we wanted to record a new album. After three hundredth of a second we agreed. We only had to persuade dominik who hasn't ever travelled by plane then. When we promised him that we would just get drunk and sleep the whole flight through he agreed after a short hesitation. We did as we planned and domink was amazed about the sizes of the liquor bottles they were selling in the dutyfree shops. In Denver we recorded at the eight houses recording studio with matt vanleuven who's the former bassplayer from the gamits. It was fun and also amazing to record with matt. He's a genius! We stayed at the house of my cousin marcel and everything was just fine (except when sämi had this psycho day I was really worried about his condition and our safety and pretty relieved when he got back to normal). The vacations were great. We also learned more about ourselves and each others. Like never let dominik go alone in any huge supermarket or else he gets lost for two hours. Or don't start to talk to sämi in this certain retard language for he can't stop it. Or don't piss me off while driving in a traffic jam from bumper to bumper or I will kick your ass. Or don't think it is a good idea to save money by getting drunk before going to a club…or just don't over do it! All those little things, you know! "sideshow pleasure" was released in early 2002 by floppy cow and we're proud to present you a high quality record that also has our songs on it. thwipp!!
thank you for your precious time.
marco
ps: sämi and dominik say hello
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Discography
"SEIZE THE WORLD" (1998 tma-records)
our first album. thirteen songs recorded on a weekend at a newly opened studio from a friend of ours. we were a little bit hungover but we had fun. it was the first recording for us and for the engineer as well. therefore the quality is not actually high standard, as you are used to. the songs are not too bad. it has some good melodic pop punk qualities. mp3 from "fool's paradise" at interpunk.com
"ARE YOU UP SHIT CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE? YOU'D BETTER CALL THE MASKED ANIMALS" (1999 floppy cow records)
we recorded and mixed all seventeen songs by ourselves. it took us a hell of a long time but we had a great time, gathered a lot of experience, lost a lot of braincells and busied our liver a great deal. we put a lot in background vocals and guitarmelodies and we got a little bit faster. the quality still sucks...mp3 from "i killed my neighbor's dog" at interpunk.com
"SIDESHOW PLEASURE" (2000 floppy cow records)
finally, our first high quality, ordinary standard album. recorded and mixed at the infamous eight hauses recording studio in denver by matt vanleuven.
we took veins in keeping it smooth and not overdo it and we got a itsy-bitsy faster. oh yeah, three songs are rerecorded from the "are you up shit creek" record. good quality, hulk like, not smash! mp3 from "not my bad" at interpunk.com
Compilations:
"NO-FI TRASH" (1999 floppy cow records)
you moron
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