SOOPHIE NUN SQUAD-- "vs. the United States of America" 7" (FCH006)

Soophie Nun Squad-- "Vs. the United States of America" 7" (Food Chain Records #6)

DOWNLOAD HERE with extra songs!

6 songs.
Recorded January 13-14, 1995 by Chris Atwood, live to an 8-track digital minidisc recorder, at Jonathan Thompson's house in Cammack Village, AR.
500 copies pressed on red vinyl. Released March 10, 1995.
(Food Chain Records, for this release, was a joint effort among Eli, Dustin, and I.)

Credits:

Dustin Clark-- guitar
Mark Lierly-- drums
Mike Lierly-- voice
Eli Milholland-- bass
Nate Powell-- voice
Mikael Wood-- backing voice, dancing

Track Listing:

1. Soophie Nun Squad
2. You Purple-Eyed Beeyotch, You Broke My Heart
3. Push It
4. Swamp Thing
5. Another Day
6. Ignition!

Notes:

* This 7" used the same means of recording as the final William Martyr 17 songs (for which Dustin was also guitarist), but damn, those WM17 songs sound a lot better. These were recorded directly to a minidisc with no option to mix, overdub, or isolate anything. After each take, we'd unhook the minidisc recorder, take it to Jonathan's living room, hook it up to the stereo, and listen to the take. Since we had just one full day to record, would it have been a better idea to record a handful of songs over and over to get the best possible recording (like WM17's four songs)? Maybe, but we're Soophie Nun Squad, so we left there with 17 songs total, many of them captured in one take. What do you want?

* The muffled vocal quality is partially because 3 or 4 people are trying to share two microphones while jumping and dancing around just feet from the live drums, and partially because Mike and I were both horribly sick during this recording. (I was actually supposed to sing throughout "Ignition!", but I lost my voice entirely during the previous take. It's better on this record with just Mike, though.)

* "You Purple-Eyed Beeyotch, You Broke My Heart" (originally with an even shittier, but less questionable title) was written for Little Rock's own Ashlie Atkinson, now best known for her roles in Compliance, Rescue Me, and Fat Pig, as the viral hit Chunky Pam, and in a shitload of TV roles. Hell yeah Ashlie!

* The impenetrable vocal rant in the middle of "Ignition!" ("...One out of every four mammals is a bat-- and it kills crickets!") is a parody(?) of a rare version of Downcast's "They Are Not" released on a compilation 7". This is relevant only because our first review was in HeartattaCk zine, and the only thing that turned Kent McClard over to the Soophie side was that damn Downcast bit. Now look at us, rolling in rubies and emeralds.

* The extra songs on the download are "Something Pretty For Someone", which we recorded for the We've Lost Beauty comp LP (File 13 Records, 1996) in memory of our friend Chris Horne (drummer extraordinaire for William Martyr 17, Generation Of Vipers, and Crown Of Glory) who passed away December 3rd, 1994 at the age of sixteen; "Counterculture" and "Feedback" are both songs that I thought should've been on this 7" instead of some others. I think this recording of "Feedback", despite the muffled vocals, is the best version we ever did.

* Members also in Humanbeast, V Manuscript, Sand City, Universe, Pallbearer, R.I.O.T.S., The Evelyns, Divorce Chord, Wait, The Insides, Tem Eyos Ki, Sugar And The Raw, Rainy Day Regatta, Boomfancy, Gioteens, Shake Ray Turbine, Revolver Red, William Martyr 17, and K.

SNS at Vino's. Little Rock AR, December 1995.

13-year-old Mark Lierly and John Pugh. Riverfront Belvedere, New Year's Day, 1995.