Released June 1, 2004
Written, produced and performed by Jay Gironimi
Liner Notes
“Unnecessary Purchases” or “The Hidden Dangers of a Blues Jam”
I came up with the title of this album while I was at a Journey concert. Somehow my ironic appreciation of the Journey arcade game made me think it would be fun to tag along with my friends to an actual Journey show. Around the time the band announced that “Dr. Blues” was going to “give us a little education”, the title popped into my head. The cover picture is the first one I didn’t take myself. It was commandeered from my friend, Heather Stone.
The recording of this album had a couple of big upgrades in that I got myself a new computer for my 21st birthday and I bought a Digidesign Mbox interface which meant I could record with 32 tracks instead of the 8 I was using with Pro Tools Free. That means that all the guitars are doubled here for the first time and I used a lot more vocal tracks than normal.
It also means that I almost lost this whole thing when the computer crashed while I was recording and then stopped recognizing my external drive. Somehow the old family computer was still able to see the drive though, so I was able to burn everything to discs and get back to work. It probably does not seem like much of a tragedy if this didn’t exist, but I assure you at that point I would have walked into the ocean.
This gave me a little extra trouble when it came time to remix it in 2024, because opening 20 year old Pro Tools files is something like answering a bridge troll’s riddles. Luckily, I found the arcane sequence of tasks that brought all the tracks back from the grave. They actually sound pretty good now, though it’s funny that the closer the original recording was to “correct” the more delicate the remix has to be. It’s kind of like the difference between demolition and repair. For As We Suffer I could really slap those tracks around. For this, I had to be a little more careful.
-Jay G, Feb 2024
Track by Track
“One Small Break” – This marks the first song I ever got paid to write, because I wrote it while I was working third shift at a hotel. Once the rest of the employees cleared out for the night, I snuck my guitar in and got to work (unlike all the cameras in the hotel, which did not work and were just for show).
The title comes from a Spider-Man collection I picked up at comic convention, but the lyrics are about how little moments can have a big impact, usually bad. At least that’s what the chorus is about. I think the rest of the lyrics are just lines that sound good together.
I actually really like this song, even if this was still in my really long intro phase. It has a lot of moving parts without being overly technical. I eventually re-recorded it on Knowing Then What We Know Now.
“Just Like Hell” – The first half of this song is me trying to write something that would have fit on Satyricon’s Volcano album. I loved the idea of “black n’ roll” and this was as close as my skills would get me. The back half mostly sounds like I’m just throwing ideas at the wall.
I remember a friend telling me he didn’t like this song and I didn’t really have any rebuttal to that one. I think I had to do some experimenting here to get my songwriting to the next level, but it sure is awkward.
“A Broken Figure” – I find that I don’t have a ton to say about these songs. I think it’s because I really dislike listening to this, save for “One Small Break” and “Perfect Plastic World.” Things were not going my way at the time and a lot of these lyrics are a weird cross between self-flagellation and pseudo-motivational bullshit. Like I’m legitimately disappointed in myself that I wrote these. That being said, it was cheaper than therapy and it seems to be what I needed to do at the time.
“Not What You Asked For” – This one is slightly better lyrically and I think the keyboards are kind of fun. Actually the only thing I remember about this is that it was a lot of fun to play that intro guitar lead. This is one of those songs where I had one idea—that lead—and then had to write the rest of the song around that.
“Perfect Plastic World” – A re-recording from the first All Hallow’s Evil EP. I thought the Casio keyboard I bought would add a classy symphonic edge, but I ended up putting it pretty low in the mix because it actually sounded like shit. I’d re-record this one more time in 2009 on Knowing Then What We Know Now
The Official All Hallow's Evil Archive 