ANTIETAM
RIZZO 'S TAKE ON DET
Ten years ago began the dialogue that became Dark Edson Tiger; Tara got chocolate on my peanut butter, and I got peanut butter on her chocolate. Fed Ex made a fortune as we exchanged DAT tapes and we made a record.
It really started way back in Louisville — on my first visit to 1069 Bardstown Road — the blast of guitar coming from behind the doors of The Zoo Directors' (Bean, Weinert, Key & Harris) rehearsal was created by my kindred spirit of sonic guitar, Tara Key. Simply put, Tara could move sound through a speaker cone, the kind of endless wave that I’m always looking to ride. We became friends and guested on each other’s records over the years. Tara and her coffee maker joined eleventh dream day for a European tour to support Eighth. Tearing it up on stage together planted the seeds for collaboration. So, when we finally started to construct threads for songs, it might have been expected that guitar duels of Godzilla magnitude would have ensued. What came out instead was the quietest, most meditative music either of us had ever written. We never really talked about the songs we were constructing — we just responded to each other on tape and mailed it off. "Farfisa Wail", "8 Bells", "As It Comes", "Chasing Tails", and "Duo" were all long distance conversations.
I flew to NYC for one session together. Tara recorded me playing "Good Evening, Mr. Peckinpah", setting mics up in the bathtub for the best acoustics. Mostly, we ate, looked at paintings, and fooled around with those little Poloroid cameras. "Low Post Movement in D" was recorded live and "Missive" was the last exchange. Mixing with Peter Walsh was when we really sat to “play” the songs together.
It’s hard to believe that ten years have passed—we put together a band with Tim Harris, Chris O’Rourke, and Peter Walsh to play the songs live in Chicago, New York, and All Tomorrow’s Parties in England, and that was it, but the songs still pop up here and there as soundtrack snippets—the dark edson tiger still darting just beneath the surface catching a flash of sun every once in a while.
