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Bees - The Bedroom Tapes, Vol. 2

by Bill Ludwig

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1.
Bees 07:27
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2.
This, My Cave 03:50
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3.
Envy (spoken) 00:29
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4.
Envy 02:45
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5.
Another F**king Bee 05:31
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6.
They're Scared (spoken) 00:28
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7.
They're Scared 04:58
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8.
Blood On My Hands 03:50
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9.
Defeated 00:13
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10.
Eyes (spoken) 00:29
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11.
My Eyes 04:06
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12.
Damn These Eyes 03:45
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13.
These Trained Eyes 00:28
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14.
Puzzleman 06:57
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15.
The Tree And The Sky (spoken) 00:19
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16.
Leaping Forth To Pass The Time 05:11
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17.
My Ending Moment 06:05
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about

In 1991, Bill was still writing primarily for his high school punk band, "Chemical Persuasion". He knew of the idea of a concept album, though he hadn't heard much of Pink Floyd or The Who beyond what was on the radio. Intrigued with the idea, Bill decided to write a hardcore punk concept album - full of anti-social imagery and crass expletive filled rantings. A 9-song album of lyrics and spoken-word breaks were written and presented to the band who started working on it.

At the front of the album was a sprawling acoustic epic (the first Bill had written) called simply "Bees". This 7+ minute song was attempted a few times by the group and a few other tunes were cobbled together, but it never fully came to fruition as the band fell apart (as most high school bands do).

Around the time the band was breaking up, Bill had started writing and recording the songs on "Self", volume 1 of this series. With a newfound acoustic songwriting confidence, Bill thought it would be funny to take his punk concept album and set it to heartfelt acoustic melodies. The first 9 tracks here are those recorded songs.

Once side one of the cassette was filled, of course side two needed to be filled. So Bill set out to write a sequel to "Bees". Somewhat inspired by the events of the Los Angeles riots of 1992, the "Puzzleman" song set finds our hero released from the asylum and wandering the streets babbling his mad poetry to passersby as a race riot brews and eventually erupts around him. This is a far more mature set of lyrics and concepts than the "Bees" side of the cassette, and to this day, Bill cites these as some of the best songs he's written.

Here, in all their lo-fi cassette sounding glory are the second in this series of bedroom recordings (there will be four volumes in all). These tapes have been personally digitized, cleaned up and mastered by Bill Ludwig himself.

A note from Bill:

"As I said on the first volume, this was a very dark period of my life that ultimately produced some rather profound art. Listening now, I am overcome with so many memories of that time - really the last hurrah of my angry youth on the "Bees" side (words written at the age of 18), and some of the first more serious and deliberate music I had written to that point (at the age of nearly 20). Painful at times, but I'm really very proud of some of these songs. i sincerely hope you enjoy listening.

- Bill Ludwig, March 8th, 2018"

credits

released March 13, 2018

Recorded on Bill's Panasonic RX-5500 between August and October, 1993 in Bill's bedroom in Manchester, CT.

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Bill Ludwig image

Bill Ludwig Manchester, Connecticut

The founding member of MARMO (marmoband.bandcamp.com)

But mostly just a guy who writes and records songs... mostly so I have stuff to listen to in my car on the way to and from work.

Sometimes I sing to my chickens. ... more

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