timbyrnes

Debut CD Review

Like Taking Candy From a Cobra
Tim Byrnes- Debut CD
(Gizmo Records)
Part One: The Explainata
At first I was gonna give myself 5 stars and sign the review �Theresa Stern', the pseudonym used by the young Tom Miller and Richard Myers on a book of poetry called "Wanna Go Out?' back in the 20th century, before they changed their surnames to Verlaine and Hell, respectively. Before forming Television and changing history by igniting the spark of what was to become codified as punk rock, but what was, in it's mid-to-late 70's heyday, a renaissance of wide-open rock and roll. The last golden age. We all get one. Just wait, you'll see. 30 years from now some of you will be putting forth similar arguments regarding 50 Cent and Christina Aguilera. I feel sorry for y'all, you're going to have to work harder.
As a drunken young guitar player living some 45 minutes away from NYC at the time, I saw some great shows at CBGB and Max's Kansas City and Hurrah's and Irving Plaza etc. Alex Chilton, Patti Smith. Ramones. Television. Hold overs from the Mercer Arts Center glam scene: New York Dolls, Wayne County, Suicide (not �glam' by any stretch of the imagination, but of this scene nonetheless). Later it was Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, Mink DeVille, Blondie, Dead Boys. A great time for music. I even heckled Lester Bangs when he played CBGB with Birdland.All these bands were bending and breaking rules, redefining what a rock and roll band could be; widening parameters, stretching envelopes to the breaking point. The message of this music, to me, was that there were no rules, vision was all and, most important, anyone could do it.
So I formed a band. Who wouldn't?
Tension Envelopes were a beautiful mess. I wrote Bowie-esque songs that ranged from poetry to gibberish, power ballads to Chuck Berry rockers. All sung in a voice like a rusty hinge. A drunk, rusty hinge. But me and my buddies Rick Neblung on guitar, Carl Simmons on bass and Mike Hegger on drums (earlier members were Allison Ruta, guitar/vocals and Tom Fraunberger, drums.) had fun and played CBGB in both configurations. It was the earlier version of the band where Rick played bass, Tom drummed and Allison and I played guitar, sang and wrote that auditioned on a Monday night and opened for noise-king Von Lmo the following Saturday. We were pretty good, but couldn't get it together due mainly to my drinking.
I stopped drinking but never stopped writing songs. Bands became a problem as I had become quite the hermit in the last drunken days, as well as the first sober days. Technology came to the rescue in the form of the 4-track cassette recorder, which became available in the mid 80's. I worked, at the time, in a music store (Hi, Harvey!) and bought one immediately. Taught myself bass, a little piano, a little drums and drum programming. Bought a cheap bass, keyboard and drum machine. A digital delay rack unit and a microphone. Now I WAS a rock and roll band. Punk lives.
Over the ensuing 20-odd years (and, believe me, most of them have been pretty odd) I've recorded over 300 songs on probably 50 plus tapes that maybe 3 people have ever heard. Some suck, some are really good. All are poorly recorded and sloppy as hell, but were made with the best intentions. Psychic notebooks and therapy that rocks and a lot of really good guitar playing. What? Would you rather have a publicist or Theresa Stern tell you I'm a really good guitar player? Would that make it more believable? I've been playing for 30-some years, I ought to be good by now. I am a lousy singer, though, I will cop to that. I can be somewhat objective and my only defense is that I really can't see someone else singing my words. They wouldn't make the same sense to another, real singer. Besides, they were only for myself and a small circle, at least until now.
Now, approaching my golden years, I find that these songs may be all I have left to give. In all senses of the word, these songs are my legacy because what, at the time of their separate creations, had been scattered bursts of drunken creativity of wildly varying quality of content and �production' has, 20 years later, started to look suspiciously like a body of work. A career's worth of �lost tapes', the makings of an underground legend ala Daniel Johnston or R. Stevie Moore. What to do? What to do? The advent of cheap, home-based digital recording has made it possible for EVERYONE to have their own CD, and if that's not punk rock, then I don't know what is. And I don't. But, you know.
Besides, you know how people keep saying �they don't make music like they used to? Well, I do! I got boxes of it!!
So, if EVERYONE can have their own CD, why shouldn't I? At first I transferred a bunch of songs from the original cassette masters to CD. You could hear the hiss REAL good now! I salvaged what I could and made a �greatest hits' CD called �Before We Drown'. Which maybe 12 people have heard. I used it mainly to teach the guys in Flashback, the bar band I've been playing in the last 3 years, a couple of songs that, honestly, we've never gotten right. But we can play the hell out of �Born on the Bayou', man, sometimes we sound like Television. Some times we sail right past them. But we've never gotten the hang of my songs. At one point, maybe a year and a half ago, we got a Fostex Digital 4 track and used it to record practices and make demo CDs for local clubs.
One day I was home alone with the recorder, my guitar, ( a Danelectro Guitarlin. Shaped like a pitchfork with 31 frets. Silver sparkle, too cool!) my microphone, pedal board and about 32 pages of lyrics I had written at my telemarketing job in the days and weeks following 9/11. 9 hours later I had recorded what was to become Debut CD. There are no more than 2 vocals and 2 guitars on any song. My friend Rob ran my master CD through some recording software in his computer which resulted in the manic compression on the guitar solos. All that reverb was mine. People look well in the dark. Still trying to force myself to DO something with my music I take the brave step of throwing Debut CD into a drawer and forgetting about it, concentrating instead on Flashback with vague plans to �release' 1900.
1900 is a �full band' CD, featuring a briefly owned Roland guitar synthesizer on 4 tracks. More classic rock than Debut CD, I'll probably post it to lulu.com after I get it re-mastered. But that's later, this is now. After a comedy of errors I finally got Debut CD posted at http://www.lulu.com/timbyrnes last month. I celebrated this breakthrough by nearly having a nervous breakdown. Went a little crazy, but I'm back now and want you to check out my CD, which (I promise) I'm going to review in Part 2 of this piece.
Tim Byrnes
3/21/04

I am very grateful and honored to have Tim on my site. I have been a fan of his since the first day I heard him play and that was actually just warm up. I have gone to almost every concert since and I swear he tops himself every time.
Now he has broken the world wide ice and is stepping out on a global scale. (ALRIGHT TIM!!)
He truly is a phenominal guitar player!

Read Tim's other posts:
*Mo'time

Hear "When The Brick Comes Through The Window" or "Unit E"

PART 2