The First Two Tapes (May 2004 & Dec. 2004)

When I made these recordings I never intended for anyone else to ever hear them. Even though all of the tracks are instrumental, they seemed far too personal to share. But later i kind of did want to have it heard anonymously. So I left tapes at the local record store (when there was one), some coffee shops, etc. (I never did get around to taping them to boxes of macaroni and cheese at the grocery store like I'd planned...too ambitious an idea, I guess) with an e-mail address. I got two replies, two more than I'd expected, and both were positive.
I was very into feel good, droney, noisey, folky, nostalgic, etc. stuff at the time but was worried about not being able to sing and couldn't write decent lyrics, so everything stayed instrumental by default.
Leaving these tapes around also helped me make friends I'm still making music with and was the beginning of many years of obsessive home recording. That added to the mood of the music does make me a bit nostalgic. The feel good hit of the KD discography.

...Odyssey in Confusion and Contemplation (Jan. 2007)

This is one of my albums that I'm a little indifferent towards, or one that my opinion of it often changes, for better or worse. Depends on my mood going into it, I guess. Then why bother posting it? Why not? Several friends have said that they didn't like it much at first, but in time grew to like it. Besides, it's not like you're BUYING it. I could really care less about your precious hard drive space.
ANYWAY
This was an earlier, somewhat subtler, step away from "nice" music. Niceness still exists in the music, but the lyrics took a drearier turn (the title of the album makes it sound like a romp, I know). However, there aren't too many cringe worthy moments for me, despite some not so hot mixing at times. Oh well.
This album does kind of follow a story line, but it's not worth trying to figure out. I guess i knew it at the time by obscuring the lyrics under a swirling mass of lo-fi noise folk.
ahh, fuck it.
Get Schlitzed...it can't hurt.

Litost (Feb. 2009)

"Litost is a Czech word with no exact translation into any other language. It designates...a feeling that is the synthesis of many others: grief, sympathy, remorse, and an indefinable longing. The first syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog. Litost is a state of torment caused by a sudden insight into one's own miserable self...It is one of the ornaments of youth...first comes a feeling of torment then the desire for revenge...unthinkable without a kind of passionate hypocrisy." -Milan Kundera
After getting entirely burnt out on playing "nice" music, i chose this as the theme of the next album. I was tired of the woozy acoustic ramblings that are so easy to stay at home in your apartment and record late at night...AKA the easy way out (even though traces remain on this album, namely "unsubst" and "shitty"). Seeing all the Fall, Country Teasers, The Rebel, Pere Ubu, etc. records I couldn't stop listening to at the time (and still), the nice soft acoustic approach seemed repulsive. I was sick of it anyway and made a clean(ish) break.
All i knew is what i didn't want it to sound like. The lyrics took a darker turn, i intended them to have a bit of silliness in the amount of negativity but i only recorded vocals when i was incredibly pissed off or confused by some outside factor, and once when i had diarrhea. The silliness was almost entirely lost (plus the phallic joke on the cover went unnoticed). One reviewer said it sounded like Tom Waits meets the Rollins Band. That reviewer was a fucking idiot.