DUET YOURSELF remaster now available

The next reissue is my 1990 album DUET YOURSELF, which has been remastered and includes one extra track. DUET contains eleven originals and two cover tunes (Sweet Young Thing and You Just May Be The One, both Monkees tunes). This was my first album-length cassette (all my previous cassettes were eps), and was originally released by the Ooh Ooh Music cassette label in North Canton, OH, which was run by my friends Mike Gonzalez and Julia Devine. The original cover art was horrible (lifted from a magazine ad for a books on tape company). The new cover art features a picture taken by my friend Mike Crooker (of the GGE Records label, who released my early eps) during a photo session for my NOTHING PERSONAL cd, which Crooker also produced, and was being recorded for the Emigre label in Sacramento, CA at the time.

The music, as usual, runs the gamut from power pop to bubblegum, from avant-garde blues to autumnal ballads, from fake industrial noise to fake film music.

This one continues to be a favorite 27 years later...

The track listing is as follows:

1. Passive/Aggressive - 4:11

2. Brand New Boyfriend - 3:37

3. The Weight - 3:24

4. You Just May Be The One - 1:59

5. Why - 4:58

6. Sweet Young Thing - 2:43

7. Love The Hard Way - 3:01

8. Beckoning - 2:44

9. Ode To Jandek - 3:14

10. Summer's Day - 2:37

11. The Fall - 3:07

12. I Know A Secret - 3:23

13. Fast Asleep - 2:07

All songs were written by me and published by Radio Friendly BMI, except

track 4, which was written by Mike Nesmith, and track 6 which was written

by Mike Nesmith, Gerry Goffin and Carol King, and were published by

Screen Gems-EMI Music. All instruments and vocals by moi, and was

recorded at home on an old Fostex four-track cassette deck, with no

mixing board, in 19889-1990. I'm surprised it sounds as good as it does.

Thanks to Mike Crooker, and Rudy at Emigre, as a few key tracks from this

cassette were re-recorded for NOTHING PERSONAL.

It's available for $5.00 postage paid. Send a check or money order payable

to Ray Carmen and send to: Cut And Paste Records, POB 152, Green, OH,

44232, USA. Cash will be sent at your own risk. And please don't make checks

or money orders payable to Cut And Paste Records, since it will only get me

funny looks at the bank, and I'll have to send it back.

More info, including online liner notes, will be posted soon.

Coming soon will be the remixed/remastered version of 1993's BUBBLEGUM BUDDHA.

Lydia Tomkiw, R.I.P.

I found out yesterday afternoon that a friend of mine from several years ago passed away. Her name was Lydia Tomkiw, and she was the lead vocalist for the art pop duo Alegbra Suicide. Her partner in Algebra Suicide was guitarist Don Hedeker.

I met Lydia back in the late 80s/early 90s when I managed (and I use that term loosely LOL) a Kent, OH based band called Indian Rope Burn. IRB's guitarist Mike Crooker produced my NOTHING PERSONAL album for Emigre in 1991. Anyway, IRB opened for Algebra Suicide, and we call got to know Lydia and Don quite well. They were wonderful people and Lydia was a real sweetheart (and Don was a shit-hot guitar player!). I still have my vinyl copy of their album THE SECRET LIKE CRAZY, which Lydia very sweetly signed "To Ray, one who manages well".

After Algebra Suicide broke up, Lydia went on to pursue her poetry, and solo music career (see the cover to her solo CD INCORPORATED above), while Don went on to form other bands, including the Ramones-influenced Bouncing Balls, and The Polkaholics, a rock-n-roll polka band!
WMFU's online blog has a blurb about Lydia here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/09/algebra-suicide.html. There is also a video of their signature song, Little Dead Bodies.

Thanks to my friend Mike Crooker for passing this info along to me.