Like fine wine aging in barrels hidden away in underground caves out in Napa Valley, California, the archived recordings of Karma Canon exist online, on hard drives and some even on tape. Eight years of improvisational sessions beginning in 2002 have been documented by Jay Caddle among many of his projects. The original unveiling of these Karma Canon sessions can be seen on freakoftheweek.com.
This Karma Canon Collection is my personal selection with 11 of my favorite, stand-out tracks from sessions taking place in 2002 and 2003 when Jay’s studio was located in the Astracade, Philadelphia on Ridge Avenue. More tracks from these sessions can be found at karmacanon.com or nightcapchronicles.com/karmacanon. Excellent background music for plugging in, zoning out and/or working away. Jay Caddle (bass, keys), Adrian Rosario (guitar), Michael Miller (guitar), Peter Schroeck (guitar) and Myself (drums).
This recording from 2001 was done at Moonpatrol Outpost #c305 – a storage locker on the West Side of Santa Cruz. Conceived, recorded and mixed by Wayne Fidler. Mastered at MARS studios, Santa Cruz, CA. Hog illustration by JJJ.
Wayne Fidler – Guitars, Bass, Sitar, Rythms and Vocals, David Wilson – Vocals on “Don’t Come Around Here No More”, Mason Ching – Bass on “Nexus 6″ and Myself – Drums…
The idea behind this recording session was to emulate the great King Tubby, whose style it was to let musicians run wild in the studio then engineer the mix in post-production. The musicians never knew what the final outcome would sound like. However, to take this a step further, King Rubby took the live, effected mixes and ran them back into the musicians’ headphones so that they could not only play off each other, but also the King Rubby effected mix.
Jay Caddle – Keyboards, Wayne Fidler – Guitar, Chris Davis-Slade – Bass (and album artwork), King Rubby – Mix, and Myself – Drums…
“I am playing 6-string guitar, and a lot of the lead lines, while Adrian is writing the rhythm with my 12-string, pushing the rhythm forward with Lee on the drums. I think Adrian trudged through this entire session with a busted up fingernail that was falling off his finger – a result of slamming it shut in the Astrocade WonkaVator.” – Jay Caddle
“It Only Rains is the sad tale of what happened to so many hair metal rockers when the grunge scene took over.”
This tragedy-parody was directed by Zach Pergament in 2004. Written by Zach and Jay Tartaglia, the song features Jay Tartaglia on vocals and guitar, Pat Wescott on guitar shredding and bass, myself on drums with many other friends in the video and behind the scenes…
The song was written and recorded acoustically. Drum tracks were then recorded and added to that song while several states away the guitar solos and bass lines were recorded all to come back later and be assembled into the final song.
This goes back 1996 and was recorded on a boom box in the basement and features good friend Mantis Pirate on guitar and myself on drums. This is before I ever knew about the internet let alone knowing I would have a blog where one day I would archive this.
Originally, Scotchberg was a drink invented by Scotchberg Himself – later becoming the name for the musical project. The original lineup was myself on drums, Adrian Rosario on guitar and JayCaddle (AKA: Scotchberg Himself) on guitar and vocals. Eventually, Scotchbergs consumed the lives of several band members andthe project is currently shelved. I am enjoying a Scotchberg as I write this post. Reminisce… Good times.
Scotchberg has played throughout Philadelphia at venues including The Fire, The Almighty Trocadero during the Bing Bong Spring Cup in 2006 (featuring Antone Mahe on Bass) and The Weblinc Holiday Party in 2004 (featuring Francis Gilbert on Bass) but primarily at the MOJUNK Studio in Overbrook.
