So in 1993 when I was 18, my friend Christine asked me if I wanted to join some band that her friend Dawn was in. I tried out and for the next 8 years and 3 drummers, I developed my own style of bass playing that combined drones, doublestops, multi string basses (4 and 8), ultra-melodic lines, upright bass and other really weird stuff people never could quite understand. A lot of musicians would come up to me after the show and say things like "How did you do that?"

In large part this was in response to Christina's two-chord writing style. I was 'filling in' space and adding complexity, almost playing a lead role. I used to joke that we'd credit me as playing "lead bass." Her later stuff is more chordally complex and we rehearsed less often, so my bass lines became much more supportive. I especially like my performance on Chin Up. I didn't think I was going to keep that bass line so I treated it like a scratch track, but after we did that take the engineer (a bass player as well) came out and told me I wasn't allowed to change a note. I'm still trying to figure out what I played!

You can tell by the dates on the CD (1999, 2000) that this was our 'latter' stuff, but you can still hear some of the odd riffing bass lines in a few of the songs, especially Rocket. The Proper Case stuff is from 1999, and the lower case stuff is from 2000.

I've made all of the mp3's on our CD available free for download. I'm proud of what we did and think we really had something unique to offer the world. So consider these mp3's my gift to you.

Sure we were out of tune, bombastic, and more talented than we were skilled, but that was just fine by me. It's just Rock N' Roll. Everything was recorded at Fast Lane Studios here in Brooklyn, NY.

Check out The Complete Pettycoat Recordings for downloads & a history of the band.

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