Recorded in 1995-1996 by Jay Bozich and Mark Sten at Concert Sound
Mixed by Drew Canulette and Mark Sten at MusicCraft
Released in December 1996 as Reptilicus #004

   Basics for Necromancer were recorded under a cloud of doom.  Vicious psychic waves had been rolling like a bad undertow through Band 
Version  #5 since I fired a guy at the end of 1994.  I've only fired two Oblivion Seekers in history, unless we're counting the black 
drag queen who sang back-up at one show in 1993, and she sounded pretty good, too, considering she'd been up on crack for 3 days and 
wanted to do the show sitting down.  ("No.")  But she wasn't looking much like a permanent band member in the first place. Anyway, 
Rob Landoll announced around March of 1995 that he was leaving town in 8 or 10 months, and everyone went, hey, shit, why wait?  We 
stopped booking shows and moved up our recording calendar so we could get it over with.  Then Rob slashed his hand on a cracked 
ceramic faucet handle,  slicing through muscle and nerves and putting himself out of action for our last two shows and all the 
full-band recording sessions.  We cut the basics as a trio, or with just me and a drummer.  The album still needed Rob's guitar 
parts, so we waited it out until his hand healed and some of the feeling came back into his fingers.  He did leave town, but first 
he came in and overdubbed all his parts without a hitch.
 T/K decided not to press or distribute Necromancer, so I did it myself.  I didn't ship out a lot of records, but at least I own the ones that didn't sell.

STAND UP - I wanted to treat this one special - dress it up nice, take it out for a sophisticated evening on the town, then bring it home and 
spend a long time producing it like it was a real single.  The basic was decent but I stripped her down to the drum channels anyway, and 
spent a week re-doing all her rhythm tracks until the beat was impregnable.  (There was one momentary rhythmic flutter on the drum tracks, 
and I got to know it by heart.)  I added the vocals and then combed through the song looking for holes, which I methodically filled with 
catchy hooks, including a burst of Rob's guitar that I flew in from I Love a Killer. Then I made Drew remix it a few times until it was perfect. 
Then Creole Moon got all the airplay.

SOUND OFF - When I sent the band home to learn this one in 2009, Louie came back and said "That's Roger on bass, right?"  And I said 
"Yeah, it's in the credits."  And he said "No, the credits say he's on song #6, not song #4."  And I said "Shit!  Let me see that!!"  
I stand corrected.

JUMP SAUCE / NECROMANCER - Brian Berg loaned me a Roland synthesizer he'd bought for pennies on the dollar because every 
pre-set sounds like an obsolete Power Pop cliche‚ from the 80's.  I used it anyway, imitating bugs on Necromancer and an accordion 
on Jump Sauce.

FUNERAL TRAIN - I liked this session, playing with two drummers for extra military power. But a few of their matching tom-tom hits didn't match, 
and I had to rent the computer studio for an hour so we could isolate the off-tempo hits, snip them loose like bad DNA, and move them 
back and forth till they lined up perfectly on a TV screen.  It was kind of depressing to watch the engineer sliding audio signals into 
visual alignment with such effortless precision. They came out perfect. It felt vaguely dishonest.

SAVE ME - This is the 3rd song on this album with a 2-word title that starts with an S and forms a command.  For what that's worth.

CREOLE MOON - This was the only basic on Necromancer where I played guitar instead of Rhodes piano.  It was actually two separate basics, 
each with its own drummer.  I wanted a vaguely Caribbean beat and I wasn't getting it from either Moen or Roby, so I went down to 
Satyricon (the popular but now-defunct punk club) and started soliciting drummers until someone pointed me toward Alex Russell.  
He moved his drums over to the warehouse and set up while I explained the rhythm that I wanted by rattling my knuckles on a table.  
He listened briefly and nailed it immediately, and suddenly I had a flawless drum track.  A week later Roby and I cut the coda on 
a separate tape.  Then I sat down with both tapes and figured out how to combine them into one continuous set of tracks.  I fed one 
deck into the other so I could record the coda onto Alex's tape as his take ended, blending both takes into a single basic on a single 
multi-track tape.  Nothing to it.  Analog tricks from the 50's - simple Ozzie and Harriet stuff. As for the coda's lyrics; I told a 
girl once that the moon used to be twice as close to the Earth as it is today, and she said "Oh Goddess!  That means there's less magic 
in the world every year!!"  And I said "Yeah, but at least the moon's gravity isn't pulling the Earth's crust 20 feet into the air each 
time it passes overhead."  Or, you know, words to that effect.

Mark Sten, Roby Williams, Jim Talstra. Rob Landoll, Tina Purdy, Rebecca Kimball, Wendy Pate, Monica Nelson, 
Karen Searcy, Montaigne Benoit, John Moen, Brian Berg, Alex Russell, Roger Conley, John Koonce,
Mary Sue Tobin and Dave Hite

BASIC TRACKS

*       Drums - Roby / Bass - Jim / Rhodes piano -Sten
#       Drums - Roby / Rhodes piano - Sten
K       Drums - John / Bass - Jim / Rhodes piano - Sten
D       Drums - Roby + Alex / Bass - Jim / Rhodes piano - Sten
G       Drums - Alex / Gtr - Sten   (+)   Drums - Roby / Gtr - Sten
        
Rob's rhythm guitar parts were integral to the arrangements of all songs but #s 2, 4, 6, and 12.  
They were recorded later, but are not listed as overdubs.

OVERDUBS

All Keys - Sten
*  1.   GOOD THING = BGVox - Tina + Rebecca / Gtr Fills - Rob, Sten + Koonce
*  2.   STAND UP = BGVox - Tina + Karen /Gtr Fills - Sten / Gtr Solo - Rob / 
                         Bss - Sten / Sax - Mary Sue
*  3.   ALL NIGHT LONG = Lead Vox - Tina + Rebecca / Gtr Solos + Fills - Rob + Sten
#  4.   SOUND OFF = Lead Vox - Wendy / Gtr Fills - Koonce + Sten / Bss - Roger /
                        Sax - Mary Sue
*   5.  FIRST KISS = Lead Vox - Rebecca / BGVox - Tina, Rebecca + Sten / 
              Gtr Solo + Fills - Rob / Extra Cymbals - Sten
K  6.   JUMP SAUCE = Fem Vox - Montaigne / BGVox - Tina, Karen, Stella + Madeline /
                        Gtr Solos + Fills - Sten + Berg / Bss - Sten
*  7.   NECROMANCER = Lead + BGVox - Tina / Gtr Fills - Rob
*   8.  MARCELINE = BGVox - Tina + Rebecca / Gtr Fills - Rob
D   9.  FUNERAL TRAIN = BGVox - Tina, Rebecca + Wendy / Gtr Fills - Rob + Sten /
                        Sax - Mary Sue
# 10.   I LOVE A KILLER = Lead Vox - Monica / BGVox - Tina + Karen / Gtr Fills - Rob /
                        Bss - Sten
*  11.  SAVE ME = BGVox - Tina, Rebecca + Karen / Gtr Fills - Rob + Berg
G  12.  CREOLE MOON = BGVox - Tina + Wendy / Gtr Fills -Rob + Sten / Bss - Sten / 
                        Sax - Dave