Dancing With Skeletons

Speaking of cleaning out "the closet"...this is a really old demo, Dancing With Skeletons.

Clearing out the closet

Here's a bunch of songs for your listening pleasure/horror (whichever is more appropriate):

• Belexes - cover version of a very old Kansas song
• Gather 'Round - cool proggy song
• Jealous Woman - another cool semi-proggy song
• Oops...I Did It Again - the infamous Britney Spears cover, done much better than the original, most would agree. You can almost taste the Max Martin lawsuit.
• Photographs - interesting song about a visit to an old abondoned house, and seeing the photographs, belongings, ghosts, etc. of the previous inhabitants.
• Scared Alive '06 - the full 6 part epic. Unfortunately for you, it means you have to suffer through the weaker first part before it gets good, at about the 3:10 mark.
• Surrounded - an acoustic version of part of the Dream Theater song.
• Dorian Gray - 7th Century - prog metal featuring at least 3 different vocalists.
• Dorian Gray - Art School - neo-prog ala Marillion
• Dorian Gray - Beautiful Lies - quirky prog
• Dorian Gray - Walk Out on the Rain - mellow song featuring real viola.

Parallels

Enjoy a new mix of the Yes song "Parallels" that I first recorded about 10 years ago for a Yes tribute that never materialized. This is one of my favorite Yessongs, and one that few people are familiar with. Plus it was a way to connect with a really gifted vocalist that I later recorded a few other songs with.

The Facade Discography

The Facade catalog began in 1987 with the recording of "Hell's Kitchen", a cute story about a high profile politician who gets involved with a call girl. The great American Spitzer story, and one which I no longer remember how it ended. Maybe the politician kills her off, I don't know... "Hell's Kitchen" was a terribly produced, poor sounding demo, with a few decent songs buried within. Don't expect to ever hear it; I think 6 copies exist in the world, and I'd sooner burn my own single copy then risk having anyone hear it. It's that good!

The next 8 or so years were spent working on song-writing, production techniques and recording demos. In 1996, it seemed like a good time to compile a collection of selected songs as the first "official" release. "Fade" was another poorly produced collection of hit-and-miss songs.

A few years later, I began work on my most ambitous endeavor yet; "Dorian Gray" - an updated remake of the Oscar Wilde classic. I recruited gifted musicians and vocalists from around the world - ala Ayreon (before I knew who Ayreon was). The production came out pretty good, but it ran too long, had lyrics that were difficult to follow, and contained a few weak songs.

Around 2003 came "Scared Alive", a compilation of songs containing the 20+ minute 6-part epic, "Scared Alive" plus a few other of my favorites, such as "Jealous Woman" and "Gather 'Round". Plus many more!

By 2006, the results of Dorian Gray were bugging me enough that I felt the need to re-do it. Well not entirely, but I dropped the weaker songs, re-recorded a few parts, and re-mixed everything. The end result was a leaner, better sounding version I called "Dorian Gray - Director's Cut". Sure, with cutting a few songs, the story probably doesn't make any sense anymore, but no one could follow the full-length story anyway. What's a little more confusion? Featured songs from Dorian Gray include: "Beautiful Lies" (featuring female vocals), "7th Century" (metal, featuring 3 different vocalists), "Art School" (neo-prog), and "Walk out on the Rain" (acoustic, featuring viola).

Stayed tuned for what's been in the works since then...

Compilations and Tributes

In the early days of DREG Records, we sought out opportunities to disperse Facade material, plus expand the DREG catalog. DREG produced two compilations: "DREGs of the Internet" (featuring Facade's "Light Years"), and "People of the Southwind - A Tribute to Kansas" (featuring "Lonely Wind" and an instrumental medley of Kansas songs).

At the same time, I submitted songs to several other compilations being produced by other indie labels. One was "E-Progeny" - some sort of collection of electronic-prog artists (whatever that is). I think that one featured a song called "Dancing with Skeletons." There were several other compilations that included various Facade songs, but to name them, I'd have to dig through storage to find the CDs. They're all classics, I'm sure...

Meanwhile, I then got involved in tribute compilations, mostly because I started working with new vocalists, and this was an easy way to get to know each other. Also, UseNet and email discussion groups were in full bloom, and many tried to put out fan tributes to their favorite bands. I headed up the Kansas tribute, even sending a copy to Robbie Steinhard's manager upon his request. (No, I never heard any feedback. And before you ask, this is long out of print and will not be re-issued, due to licensing issues.) More recently in 2005, I covered a version of Kansas' "Belexes", just for kicks.

After the success of the Kansas tribute, I recorded songs for other tributes between 1998 and 2000 which never saw the light of day, as far as I know. This included Dream Theater (an unfinished version of "Surrounded"), Yes ("Parallels"), and Rush ("A Farewell to Kings/Analog Kid" and "Chemistry"). There may have been others I don't remember.

What is "DREG"?

DREG is a clever acronym for "Domestic Recording & Entertainment Group", which is a clever way of saying "It's a record label, but could be anything else related to entertainment that we feel like delving into." Back in 1995 or so, I had a collection of songs that I wanted to release, and also to test the viability of the inter-web as a new means of mass-marketing. DREG was created as an indie record label, to give my release some credibility and marketing muscle. With some investing by friends and collaborators, DREG released Facade's "fade" to inter-stellar rave reviews in 1996. And by "rave," I mean "mediocre."

It wasn't long before I realized that one release does not make a record label, and that additional artists/releases would be needed to help cross-promote my own endeavors. DREG produced and released a compilation of other progressive-rock artists found on the web, called "DREGs of the Internet." This was followed by a few other compilations, submitting songs to other company's compilations, as well as adding some other indie bands to the roster and marketing their self-produced CDs. By 1998, DREG had about a dozen prog-related releases available.

The net effect of all of this was modest sales. It reached the point where to grow DREG, I would need to invest more time and money. I quickly realized that the time I had been puting into DREG was taking away from precious time I needed to do the thing that I originally set out to do - create new music. So by 2000, DREG was shelved; it existed by name only, the remaining inventory was sold off, and my time was once again returned to music. This web-site (and a few business cards) is pretty much all that remains of DREG. But Facade lives on...