Chris Reed and the Anime Raiders

THE LONG GOODBYE

159 minutes 17 seconds of music over 2 discs and 33 songs

The Long Goodbye is an album divided into six thematic parts. Part One, consisting of 7 songs, is called Some Pop Tunes About Stuff (imaginative, we know). Part Two is 6 songs selected from a musical that Chris wrote for the stage called San Francisco by Night. Part 3 is a Piano Sonata called Whimsical Triangles,  inspired by a Japanese comic book series. These three parts make up disc one, which clocks in at 79 Minutes 21 Seconds.

Disc two, the longer disc, also has three sections. Part 4 is called Songs I Wish I Had Written and features material originally performed by Andrew Gold, The Posies, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Anzen Chidai, Kevin Gilbert, and the great unsigned band ASK. Part 5 is simply More Pop Tumes About Stuff (that solid imagination of ours ringing through again. Part 6 is that rock & roll standard, Songs About Women.

The entire album was recorded at Crash Pad V in San Francisco, with only the five of us working on it (with a couple of notable exceptions - Jim's Brother A.J. played guitar on Reunion and Chris' son Mike engineered a couple of tracks - not bad for a 10-year-old). Explore around!

Oh, and in case you were thinking about the cover artwork, "a group of first graders could have done that!", well a group of first graders DID do it! We make no apologies for hiring the best!

Credits:

DISC ONE

Some Pop Tunes About Stuff

1. Orchestral Tune Up

2. Baby Goes Boom

3. Little Black Book

4. Success Story

5. ASK

6. Reunion

San Francisco by Night

1. Marilyn Monroe and the April Fool

2. Sunset Beach

3. Discount Ties

4. Before Tomorrow Comes

5. Finger Play

6. Dance of Death/SOMA

7. Haunted

Whimsical Triangles

1. まどか - Madoka

2. 恭介 - Kyosuke

3. ひかる - Hikaru

DISC TWO

All Songs Copyright 2004 Chris Reed except as noted. Recorded at Crash Pad V, San Francisco CA. Mixed at Crash Pad V and at the Ambassador Hotel in Honolulu, HI.. Extra Guitars on Reunion by A.J. Christopher. Mixed, Engineered and Produced by Chris Reed (with a little help from Michael Reed). Performed on Fender Guitars and Basses, Yahama and Fender Keyboards, Cohn woodwinds, Tama and Alesis percussion, using Cakewalk.

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But first.....

Notes from our fearless leader:

First, an apology. This is my first album of the new century, and it’s been 4 years since the last one, “Fiction”. I certainly didn’t intend for it to take this long. I built my home studio at the end of 2000 and had planned for this to be ready in early 2002. I know how I work, and knew that it would take a while to record everything because I now didn’t have to worry about the budget of the album and could do re-takes and expand upon the production. I could finally refine my “garage pop” sound, which has been in my head for years now but I could never reproduce before now.

 What I didn’t anticipate was that my engineering skills were hopelessly out of date. I had worked as a musician and producer consistently during all those years, but I hadn’t engineered in over a decade. On top of that, I hadn’t worked in digital audio in 14 years and it had changed a lot since the mid 1980s. I basically had to relearn everything I thought I already knew, and that took time.

 Now add one more factor – this is the first band I’ve worked in since ASK, by band in Los Angeles in the 1980s. I had resisted the band format for a long time because I couldn’t imagine working with people as much as I enjoyed working with Kevin Donville and Ed Lee, my co-conspirators in ASK. The three of us jelled like family and that was a difficult obstacle to overcome for me. Anyone who saw an ASK show knows how on fire we were, the large crowds we were drawing towards the end of our run, and how tight our performances were - even when they weren’t. Every song we did, regardless of who wrote it, had touches only the three of us working together could do. It was a sum greater than the parts and I thought I could never duplicate that.

 And I haven’t tried to do that here, but I must admit that the 5 of us together have produced something beyond my initial concept. These guys are all musicians I’ve met over the years who also had no interest in being in a band again. Jim has been a solo artist for years now. Jason and Lee were both members of the cult band Blue Shift. Kyousuke’s past is so checkered you could play wizard’s chess on it. These guys don’t tour, but they still dig playing, so I assembled them on odd days and nights, often one without the others but just as often together, and began putting this whole thing together acting as a sort of warped movie producer whose film stock is only recorded sound. We loved working this way and will do it again. If you’ve ever heard Christopher Lee’s comments about how George Lucas works you’ll understand that I work the same way (but without the budget or Jar Jar Binks).

 For the record, this has always been planned as a double CD, in six thematic parts. There are shorter Operas. Many bands and musicians tend to blow it on their third album, and if I’m going to do that I might as well go for broke! ^_^ I’ve also arranged this album more densely than other projects I’ve done in the past.

 A few songs have changed or have been rearranged. A couple of remakes got dropped (I do regret dropping Taxxi’s “Maybe Someday” and Cheap Trick’s “Surrender”, and we never got Diesel’s “Sausalito Summer Nights” to work) for space issues and the ending has been in constant evolution. The last piece of new music was written in May 2003 and principal recording finished in June. We had started in January 2001 (although the opening was done in December 2000). So recording the album took 2 ½ years!

 We kept trying new ideas and playing with concepts and stretching ourselves in terms of our capabilities. The a capella number got dropped, and an improvised keyboard song got added. A weird bit of synchronicity occurred and Kevin Gilbert’s song got added. We added three (!) hidden tracks – you’ll have to find them yourselves. The computer crashed at one point and we lost all of the guitar solos on the War Suite, the drums and guitars on Fly, plus the fabulous percussion in Kakkyuusei, all of which had to be redone. It crashed a second time but we had everything backed up and it only took a few days to recover.

 Excuses, excuses. Thus, the apology. Tonikaku, the album is here, now, in your hands. Hope you enjoy it!

 Special thanks: First and always, my wife, my heart, my love and inspiration Cathy, my children Michael and Isobel, Mom, Alex and his extended family, plus the Storys and Rubins and Veales out in the world. Shout outs also to Kevin Donville and Ed Lee for their contributions in writing (if we still lived in the same part of the world they’d be on the album too). Dave and Nica (that song will be on the next one, promise) Angie, Kat, Karl, Max, Becky, Microfiche (sorry, went retro on ya) and everyone else from the dufuslist. All my friends on the SAClist and at animempeg who kept the anime flowing. Dave Hill for being one brave DJ and my good friend. Guy for legal. Kojima Hirofume for helping make my stay in Japan and its aftermath a memorable one, despite the collapse of the deal. Our friends at Clarendon, Nihon Machi Little Friends and Soko Gakuen. All the musicians and writers I’ve borrowed from. KFOG for showing that formatted radio doesn’t have to suck (there’s one…). Guitar Center San Francisco. Bronstein’s Music. Cakewalk. Guitar Solo on Clement in San Francisco. The Writer’s Group. Everyone who clicked at the now defunct mp3.com and sent our songs to the top of the local chart. Cartoonists BJ Hoirns (Jackie’s Fridge), Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse), Aaron McGruder (Boondocks), Pat Brady (Rose is Rose), Darby Conley (Get Fuzzy), Mimi & Jet Wolf (As If), Hyung Sun Kim (Kung Fool, Crazykimchee), Iliad (Userfriendly), Aido (Fallen), Bill Griffiths (Zippy – are we having fun yet? The original), Keith Knight (The K Chronicles), Carol Lay (Story Minute), Walt Kelly (Pogo – Even dead for over 30 years that strip is better than 90% of those out there), Berkeley Breathed (Bloom County, back online in all its original glory) and others I can’t remember at the moment for keeping the comics entertaining and challenging to the eye and mind. Ted Rall for ranting where many fear to rant, and ranting back to me more than once. Wil Wheaton for his sensational weblog (and the e-mails we’ve traded over the months). 24 for being supremely over the top and yet not sucking. M*A*S*H for finally being available on DVD. Nextgen too. Detox Gel. And of course, Corwin and Sasha.

 This album is dedicated to the memory of my Grandfather, Stanley Otis Story. I think he would have liked the musician I’ve grown into.

Practice Safe Sex

Fight The Good Fight

Never Be Afraid To Sweat

Peace – Try Something New

So There