TEETH

I formed TEETH my senior year in high school with a freshman named Devin Tyrrell. We wanted to make music as ridiculous and brutal as possible. Inspired mostly by grindcore and noise, we recorded this 10 song, 9 minute album the first time we got together. All of the songs were about eating or being eaten. I think we had one practice one time and played a shitload of shows.

After we recorded, we set about looking for a place to play. We knew Thomas Yates threw house shows, so we asked him. Naturally he was down. The night before we made a bunch of CDs and buttons and hand-drew every one of them. We were planning on selling the CD for a buck, so on the inside we wrote, "You could have bought a coke with that dollar."

We crammed into Thomas's cramped basement filled to the brim with people, where we proceeded to play dozens of three or four second songs, separated by made up names or "1-2-FUCK-YOU!", bite people, and play guitar with rocks, like actual physical rocks. We sold every goddamned CD and most of the buttons. We played every chance we could. Sometimes the Coup would make the mistake of booking us with metal bands. Metal kids fucking hated us. At one show, we began playing to about a dozen people, I looked down at my pedals for a second, looked back up and there was one guy left in the room. He was a drummer in a different band that we borrowed a cymbal from. He stayed because he feared for the safety of his cymbal. I destroyed a guitar at our last show, the only time I ever did that. It was more or less on accident but whatever.

Anyhow, we never recorded anything else and we just stopped playing shows all of a sudden. But this was for sure one of the funnest live bands I was ever in.

You can download TEETH here for free.

Nicholas Riley- guitar, vocals
Devan Tyrrell- drums
All songs written and recorded by TEETH in Clarksville, TN in 2008

Johnny No-Nothin and the Goodwill Snaredrum featuring The Mountain Pirates

The No-Nothins were an important part of the Clarksville music scene in the late 2000's. They were guys I went to high school with, all a year younger than me. They played many of the Thomas Yates house shows and organized a few of their own. The No-Nothins played that anarchist folk punk all them kids liked so much a few years ago here in town and in one or a few of Nashville's now legendary Folk the World shows and probably the first band around here to cover Wagon Wheel.

This is one of the first recordings I ever did outside my own. In 2007(8?) these four, long haired, barefoot, smelly teenagers (because deodorant gives you Alzheimers) from the other side of the river showed up at my conservative parents' suburban home. My folks seemed somewhat curious, but not wary. I recall them buying the No-Nothins cheese pizza on one occasion, acquiescing to my friends' vegetarian morals.

The actual sessions, of which there were two, were lighthearted and enjoyable. It was probably what made me love recording other people so much. The tracks themselves were simple, folk chords, inconsistent tempo, at times playing in two different time signatures. Their lyrics were stark at times, funny at others, these kids had a good sense of humour. I remember being made uncomfortable by Take to the Streets, I was also fairly conservative at the time. The writing comes across as being pretty high school, but that's because it was. These seven songs were a thoughtful look at their relationships, the war, their peers, and themselves. It's honest and I'd go as far to say innocent, but not juvenile. I still think Frozen in Time, which was written by the Goodwill Snaredrum, is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. We never got a full take on it, and it ends starkly and abruptly, just like relationships, just like friendships, just like life. It seemed fitting.

Anyhow, I'm proud for these guys to have been one of the first bands I ever recorded. If you dig it, they have more stuff here, which also has a full version of Frozen in Time.

You can download John-E No-Nothin and the Goodwill Snaredrum featuring the Mountain Pirates here for fucking free.

John-E No-Nothin- vocals, guitar
The Goodwill Snaredrum- percussion, vocals, banjo
The Mountain Pirates- percussion, train whistle, harmonica, vocals, screams, piano
Recorded by Nicholas Riley in 2008(9?) in Clarksville, TN
All songs written by the No-Nothins except:
   Low:  Tramar Dillard, Faheem Najm
   Wagon Wheel: Bob Dylan, Ketch Secor

PS I don't remember if their name had a g or not in it. Sorry if it does.

Dead Billy-Dead Billy EP

You ever get bummed that the last Big Black record was released in 1987? Well, dry your tears friends, because now we have Dead Billy.

Cody Jarman, aka Jiggy, asked me to record his EP in 2009-2010. I agreed under the condition that he try to smoke a cigarette, mostly because I'm a bastard. On the way to my home out in the country, Cody put the cigarette up to his lips and drew deep. Through his fit of coughing I pitied his ineptitude and confiscated the cigarette for myself. Over the next few months (years?) we recorded his first EP, which became the first official badtapes release.

His influence is obvious, as Dead Billy is a Big Black song. Cody also likes Rush a little too much. All of the bass and drum parts are performed by a classic Nintendo Gameboy with a program called LSDJ. Cody then throws his wonkyass guitar on top of it and weaves his overly-theatrical vocals through the mayhem. The lyrics are satisfying, chalk full of literary references to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and A Clockwork Orange and at other times, delving into a stark, more personal realm.

Cody has put the first EP up on Bandcamp (linked below). He's also in Vash the Stampede, a weird roots rock band that likes Rush a little too much. He's recording with both Vash and Dead Billy; a Dead Billy/Sam Gray split cassette is expected in the near future.

Here's his Facebook and his Soundcloud.

The Dead Billy EP can be downloaded for any or no price you want here.

All sounds by Cody Jarman.
Recorded by Nicholas Riley in Ceder Hill/Clarksville, TN somewhere around 2009-2010.

All songs written by Cody Jarman.