Henry Rollins / 2.13.61 • CDs • Rollins Band - Do It

Life Time is the first studio record by the Rollins Band. We did our first practice on 04-07-87 and went out on a long tour of America and Europe. On the road we wrote songs and put them into the set. By late October we finished the shows in London, UK. We went up to Leeds where Chris had a place to live and booked studio time at the same place that he and I did the Hot Animal Machine recordings a year before. I had no producer for this record and feared that since everyone in the band had strong opinions on how it all should be done that if we tried to do it ourselves we would do more harm than good. I called Ian MacKaye and asked for help. He got on a plane and came right out. That's Ian. We got straight to work as we had little time or money. All twelve songs were cut and mixed in a few days. We would do a take and Ian would tell us that it was good and we were moving on. When someone would say that they wanted to do it over again, he listened patiently and then asked again which song we wanted to do next. We got it all done and dragged it back to America for about 3,200 dollars. My, how things have changed. The album cover was drawn on the back of a diner place mat by Stephen Myers as a gift for my then roommate Laura. Only the offset reproduction of the piece remains as the original went with her when she gave up her room. She shot herself a few years ago. Special thanks to Ian for coming to the rescue on such short notice. Thanks to you for checking this out. -- Henry Track Listing: 1. Burned Beyond Recognition 2. What Am I Doing Here? 3. One Thousand Times Blind 4. Lonely 5. Wreck-Age 6. Gun In Mouth Blues 7. You Look At You 8. If You're Alive 9. Turned Out Live Tracks 10. What Am I Doing Here? 11. Burned Beyond Recognition 12. Move Right In 13. Hot Animal Machine II

The tracks that make up A Nicer Shade Of Red are songs from the thirty-song session that Nice was taken from. These are fully mixed and mastered tracks. Some of them we are playing live night to night. The extended version of Your Number is One is a completely different take with a longer middle section that allowed Jason, together with percussion jamblaster supreme Kerim Imes, to go long with some cool instruments and really let you see what good playing is all about. Clifs mix is insane. Its a damn cool track and I am very happy to get a chance for you all to hear it as I think youll dig it big time. -- Henry

When we recorded songs for what became our album Weight, we were set up in the meeting room of a ski-lodge and played at all hours. We ended up with quite a bit of music. Fall Guy, I See Through and Right Here Too Much were songs that ended up as movie soundtrack cuts and b-sides. We asked New York sax heavyweight Charles Gayle to fly out and join us for some jams. He did and we rolled tape for a couple of nights. What a great time, what a great guy. The results have not been released until now. I included some live tracks from the Weight tour to finish. Hope you dig it. We thank you. -- Henry Rollins

It was 1998, I was bandless and producing a local Los Angeles band called Mother Superior. Great guys, great band. They get it done and move onto the next thing. My kind of people. I had some song ideas but no band to work on them with so I asked them if they would help and they generously offered their services. We got together and wrote some songs the first night. A few days later, we had more songs. Eventually, over two sessions we ended up with a lot of songs. In 1999 we went out and played a bunch of shows all over the world and had a blast. In 2000 we released some of these songs as the Get Some Go Again album. This is all the songs we recorded in this period plus two live tracks from a show in Los Angeles at the Troubadour that were on a promo CD. Having Brother Wayne Kramer and Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham guest on our record was huge and we thank them. Jim, Marcus, Jason and I worked hard, played hard and had a good time rockin’ out. It was so great to work with people who had such enthusiasm and a will to get it on and not just get on with it. There’s a big difference. Thanks. –- Henry Rollins (2-CD Set includes the "Get Some Go Again" video and Electronic Press Kit)

These demos were recorded in early 1991. If you are a fan of the 'End of Silence' record, you might want to check this out. Track Listing: 1. Low Self Opinion 2. Grip 3. Tearing 4. You Didn’t Need 5. Almost Real 6. Obscene 7. What Do You Do 8. Blues Jam 9. Another Life 10. Just Like You 11. Human

Track Listing: 1. Low Self Opinion 2. Grip 3. Tearing 4. You Didn't Need 5. Almost Real 6. Obscene 7. What Do You Do 8. Blues Jam 9. Another Life 10. Just Like You

Track Listing: 1. Disconnect 2. Fool 3. Icon 4. Civilized 5. Divine 6. Liar 7. Step Back 8. Wrong Man 9. Volume 4 10. Tired 11. Alien Blueprint 12. Shine

It was a great night to be onstage in the DC area. The next day was the presidential election and the entire world was watching America to see what would happen. The audience was in a great mood that night. I remember thinking to myself after the show was over that perhaps it would be a good talking record. Several months later, in Ryan’s small but sturdy home studio, we turned on the machines and listened to the show. A few edits for time constraints and we were done. Thanks for listening -- Henry

Sweatbox was a low budget, high ambition project. Originally it was a three LP set that I lugged by the box load on early talking tours. Eventually it hit CD on Quarter Stick where it resided happily for many years. Now, we're remastering and re-releasing all the early material on 213, upgrading sonically with ace engineer Phil Klum at the helm and adding tracks when we can. The previous Sweatbox is missing one track off the original LP. It was recorded in Budapest, Hungary where I was asked to read for some students before the Rollins Band show that night. Anyway, we added it on this version as an extra track at the end of disc 2. If it's too awful for you, you can always just hit stop! At least the set will be slightly more definitive. Also, it's great to have Phil Klum go over these tapes and do all that can be done to clean them up and even out the levels. Definitely what a re-release should be all about. I hope you like these ancient recordings. -- Henry Rollins

Welcome to the re-issue of my first attempts at a talking record release. For the re-release of Big Ugly Mouth, I figured I would embarrass myself totally and include my first ever talking release Short Walk On a Long Pier. It was initially a cassette only release and it took all the money I had. Later, a short run was made on LP in Canada and then it went out of print. So here it is again, first time on CD. It’s just awful. I figured if I put it in for free you couldn’t get too mad about how wretched it is. As for Big Ugly Mouth, we sent it to engineer supreme Phil Klum to even out the levels of the tracks and clear it up some so it should sound better this time around. Enjoy . . . or something. Thanks -- Henry