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Under The Radar Vol. 2: 1997​-​2021

by The Green Pajamas

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Agent 99 03:49
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William 03:17
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about

This is Volume Two of "A Bootleg History" of The Green Pajamas

‘Agent 99’ was recorded around the time Joe and I were putting ‘Strung Behind The Sun’ together. It’s a silly song but sometimes when an idea comes to you, you just have write it down, you know? So I did. I think I was trying to write a 1960’s style pop song, like the Hollies or something like that and it works in that sense but it never found a home. Too novel for ‘Strung’ and when I sent it to Tony Dale for possible inclusion on the ‘Narcotic Kisses’ compilation his only reply was, “What a song!” I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, so… Here it is, finally, around 25 years later.

Largely thanks to the imaginative, Tony Dale, and his Camera Obscura label in Australia and the support of Phil McMullen and his magical magazine, The Ptolemaic Terrascope, in England, The Green Pajamas had a kind of rebirth in 1997. From that point on, when I wasn’t working at the hospital or spending a couple of hours in the park with my family, I was in my basement studio, day and night. Songs like, ‘Shock Of Blonde,’ ‘The Secret Of Her Smile’ and Eric’s ‘Happy Again,’ were knocked off fierce and quick, no looking back, on my 8-track cassette deck. I had a tiny Marshall amp and one cheap mic that I’d put into things like a little glass lamp shade to try to make the guitar sound bigger. Or at least weirder. Lots of songs about girls and sex and love and desire and sex. Seemed like it would stay summer forever: make another Manhattan, record another song. It felt good to be young and great to be making records again and, to this day, ‘All Clues Lead To Meagan’s Bed,’ is still probably the most popular of all Pajamas albums.
I’ve included these three early mixes because I can still hear the joy and spontaneity of that creative process. It was fun to hear them again (I had forgotten Joe and I took out the “Samantha” vox at the end of ‘Secret’ for the final mix) and, though it’s a tad bit indulgent, I left them unedited and let them run until the end, I guess just because it sounds like I was having so much fun!

‘The Perfect Chill’ is a real oddball. I was trying to write a sort of tongue in cheek tribute to the Hammer Horror films I was watching a lot at the time. Anyway, it’s interesting as one of Laura’s first visits to my basement studio.

‘Missing Miss MacColl’ was and is my humble and sincere tribute to the singer, Kirsty MacColl, who had recently died in an accident. I was a fan of hers since I first picked up her, ‘They Don’t Know,’ single on Stiff at Tower Records back in the 70’s. I remember I had a cold when I recorded it so I kept my voice low in the mix for the version that came out on CD. I came across this first mix, which I now prefer because it’s easier to hear the lyric. Susanne and I were lucky to see her at a show before that tragedy occurred and she really did sign a picture for me…

I had forgotten I had a disc of rough mixes from the ‘Ten White Stones’ sessions and it was a lot of fun hearing this stuff. By this point, the live band had evolved into something quite different than the days of Joe, Karl and Jeff. Eric and Laura had been playing live with us for years, and by now, Laura’s husband, Scott had replaced Karl on drums. Erik 4A gave us the rare opportunity to go into his Vagrant Recording Studio and capture our current live sound with the luxury of actually being able to hear everything we were doing for a change via headphones, as opposed to the, often patchy, stage sound. A good time was had all around. So here are takes 1 of, ‘Bewitching Me’ and ‘Mrs. Caffery.’ I also had to include this rough mix of ‘Gazelle’ as I found it sounded superior to the one on the album. I’m so glad we got this few minutes on tape, thank you Erik! Between Joe’s bass and Scott’s drums and me channeling somebody’s spirit out of the ether on that guitar solo, it feels like, some kind of liquid electricity to me.

‘Hidden Minutes 1’ has just always been a favorite of mine and I like this different mix. I always loved the sound of the instruments on this track, especially the electric guitar which reminds me of ‘Revolver.’

By the time I was doing this mix of ‘Who’s That Calling’ my digital tape recorder was dying. But I wanted to get this alternate sax solo by Craig Flory so I would remember it. I met him when I was playing guitar in Joe’s bar band, The Birdwatchers. There is some beautiful playing on his part here, really haunting. I think this was the last song I mixed on that deck and it was a struggle. Now days I would have edited Craig’s different takes into one but for whatever reason, I didn’t or couldn’t do that at the time I was making ‘Poison In The Russian Room.’ Despite this being a rough mix and some unfixed sharp notes on my vocal, it’s fun to hear this again and some of that gorgeous, eerie shit Craig layed down.

The ‘Ring Around The Sun’ medley is restored here to the unedited original version meant for the ‘Death By Misadventure’ album. This whole piece was based on melodies and lyric ideas I wrote when I was very young.

‘William’ or, ‘The Men In The Black Car,’ is another one I wrote many years ago. Re-recorded it for fun and I considered it for inclusion on ‘Sunlight Might Weigh Even More’ but it didn’t sit well with the rest of the songs.

‘Copper Eyed Girl’ was hastily mixed for a Sugarbush LP compilation but sounded pretty bad. Both Scott and Laura contribute some great stuff here and I thought it was worth fixing up and remixing.

It’s funny, just when I think I know Joe Ross, he surprises me. Every fucking time. I had trimmed ‘Just To This’ way down, cutting out the cello bits and thinking, Joe would hate that ‘Dead Can Dance’ stuff in the middle of this. When the final version came out on CD, Joe said, “What happened to that whole part with the cool cellos??” Turns out his son really liked that version so I told him I would include it on the next compilation…

I felt like recording something but didn’t have anything new. It was October and I had always liked, ‘Blue Halloween Moon,’ so I made another version, just for fun.

The last track here, ‘La Folia,’ is the only one out of chronological order but I thought it would sound good at the end. At the time I did this, I remember liking the harpsichord sound on this keyboard Karl had let me borrow. This ancient tune has always been one of my favorites and I used to practice it a lot when we had our piano, based on an arrangement by Gregorio Paniagua and his Atrium Musicae de Madrid. This is an excerpt of a recording I made around the time I did the song, ‘Mina,’ on ‘The Night Races Into Anna.’ I believe it was meant for ‘In A Glass Darkly.’

-Jeff Kelly

credits

released February 4, 2022

Performers: Jeff Kelly, Eric Lichter, Joe Ross, Laura Weller, Scott Vanderpool
All songs produced by Jeff unless noted*
*See individual track info for detailed listing of performers and production credits. A two page jpeg of liner notes is also available as a download upon purchase of this album.

All tracks mastered by Jeff Kelly

Photographs by James Johnson, 2017
Cover montage by The Green Tea Graphic Design Co.

All songs written by Jeff Kelly except, 'Happy Again' and 'Mrs. Cafferty' by Eric Lichter and 'La Folia,' which is traditional.

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The Green Pajamas Seattle, Washington

Find Jeff Kelly and Laura Weller's Goblin Market recordings here: thegoblinmarket.bandcamp.com/album/ghostland
There are many more Green Pajamas and Jeff Kelly releases available here: greenmonkeyrecords.bandcamp.com

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