Live at Gee Coffee
On February 17, 1996, Paul Solecki, Jim Kelly, Ryan Griffin, Jeff Mitchell, and Dave Perdaris played at the Olathe, Kansas mecca of civilization known as Gee Coffee. Friend and all around good guy Zach Ross recorded the gig on his trusty tape 4-track and it became the only official full-length Carnivorous Grass release. The boys made 100 tapes and they sold out in three days. Now, for your listening pleasure, Paul has finally digitized the album and we present you with Carnivorous Grass: Live at Gee Coffee. Unfortunately we didn't record the other bands playing on the night, Nuke City starring Jason Henslee and the great Kid Niko. And you won't get the luxurious Gee Coffee atmosphere either...
Download the entire album
Paul's track by track commentary
Secret Surprise Song
We wore sombreros and other Mexican stuff and sang this to open the gig. Dave bought some special castinets and Jim got to show off his Spanish language skills while Jeff wowed the crowd with his trumpeteering.
Ms Wheelchair USA
The song wasn't fully written yet, as I realized when I was up on stage singing the second verse...
Waltz in H-Flat Minor
That's our friend Brad Kracht cheering when we announce the song. The sound man at Gee Coffee fell asleep so it's very badly mixed for most of the song, but luckily Zach Ross takes over and fixes it towards the end and for a lot of the rest of the gig. Thanks Zach!
Justin Bradford
This song had a lot of different endings, we'd change it at every gig. First it was "Clyde is not a whore" which confused a lot of people, even us. It was also "Stop licking Al Gore" and "Moved to Singapore." For this gig we sing "Ran right through the door" and Justin himself came up on stage with a real door that we sawed a Justin-shape in, just like in the cartoons!
Pants
This is one of the oldest CG songs, we probably played it at our first gig in Jim's backyard.
Tonito
This was our favorite song, everyone's probably. A bit of the beginning is missing from the recording.
The Theme from "Shaft"
One of my old teachers, Mr. Birt, was supposed to sing this for us, but we forgot to arrange it with him and he didn't turn up to the gig, and I realized just after we started playing that I had to do it! That's Patrick Danko, former Carnivorous Grass bassist, playing the wah-wah guitar.
Fred's Disembodied Head
Andrew "Paco" Walker joins us for this classic.
Love is All Around
The band listened to R.E.M. a lot and we liked to sing this Troggs song that they covered in their Unplugged concert. We'd usually do it slow with just me and Jim but when the full band formed we sped it up. A while later I'd learn who Bess was.
The Man Next Door
Sounds like I didn't like singing this one anymore! We didn't rehearse this with the band at all.
Bob Ross (The Trees)
Our favorite TV painter had died and we built this song around Jim's best bass line ever.
Chinese Boy
We planned the set list a few days before the concert, and I figured I'd write some lyrics for this one before the gig. I didn't, still haven't, and for some reason we played it anyway...
The Bow Song
This is another song we heard R.E.M. doing at the end of one of their videos we borrowed from Jake Chambers.
Superman
Yet another cover of an R.E.M. cover!
No One Knows My Plan
A They Might Be Giants cover...
Funtime
And yet another cover of an R.E.M. cover to end the show.