The story so far:

After getting into Twitter in 2009, things began to accelerate. One of the first folks I met was solo bassist & author Steve Lawson, who taught me the true nature of Twitter and Web 2.0, among a host of other things. He's an excellent musician, and I took the first opportunity I could to work with him, when a house concert tour he did with his lovely wife Lobelia, also a stellar muso, brought them through my area. I organized an event called "Waves Across the Pond" (I wrote about it in my blog here).

Though poorly attended, one guest was Allen Wentz, a bassist, producer, and...neighbor! Connected through a love of synthesizers, musicians and classic tunes, we struck up a sincere freindship punctuated by occasional satruday morning coffees at Two Alices Coffee Lounge in Cornwall NY. Then Allen revealed he had started working on something - something rather interesting - with some of the other musos we'd been connecting with on twitter, namely bassist Trip Wamsley & guitarist Rob Michael. In fact, Allen had been much more in touch with them than I was - and had started collecting performances from them in the form of audio files. I finally made the trip to Allen's small Cornwall NY studio, where I laid down quite a lot of keyboards tracks. The project's title is "Legoland Empire". (I'll let you see if you can work out where that comes from.)

I can't imagine the editing process he went through, but the end result is, in my humble opinion, truly excellent! There are 4 songs, each with it's own style & sonic language, showing great variety in style and texture. There are amazing performances by all involved (There are too many highlights to mention here; I may go tune by tune on a future post), and an audio mix & production worthy of major recogniton. The story doesn't end here, though. During this process Allen and I did 2 performances at the aforementiond 2 Alices Coffee Lounge, And we're talking doing about more....

So? Take a listen for yourself. Listen for free, or download all 4 songs from Bandcamp for a measly ONE DOLLAR. C'mon, really. :)

FYI, you can follow all of us on twitter:

Rob Michael:   @atmostrio

Trip Wamsley: @tripwamsleybass

Me:                  @nailmusic

Allen Wentz:    @allenwentz

So it is with great joy, wonder and ultimately a sense of relief that I place on audio "display" this record from my back catalog - "Overhaul", by my now defunct and ancient group "A. Animal".

My longest running musical group before NAIL, "A. Animal" was my seminal Punk Jazz/Prog Rock group. We were together from 1978 - 1982, and again from 1986 - 1994. We played all manner of musics: Crimson and Mahavishnu Covers, obscure ELP tunes, Weather Report, Jeff Beck/Jan Hammer classics, John Abercrombie stuff - what a list. And then there were the originals...! I wrote quite a lot for this group, and in a Duke Ellington sort of way it was tailored to this band, these musicians, that moment in time. None of tis material has ever sounded the same since, and I don't play any of it any more - with the exception of "17 Seconds/Infinity", which I have resurrected for the Mahavishnu Trio Project.
"Overhaul" was originally recorded in 1990. Produced by Robert Muso & myself; we never did see eye to eye, and therefore the record doesn't really reflect either of our visions. It sure as hell sounds great tho, as Robert is a fantastic engineer! We spent a long time on the "guitar" sounds, using multiple amps, tracking sometimes up to 4 versions of the same part. It was mixed on an SSL console; I think it was the first time I'd ever seen mix automation.

Though slated for European & Japanese release on Robert's "MuWorks Records" label in the fall of 1990, its release was cancelled because of the original "Gulf War". Of course, 6 months later it was considered out of date, and was shelved. I was heartbroken. I had also spent close to $20,000 on the production. ARGH!!!! Chalk it up to lessons learned.We continued to perform, even though the drummer's other commitments (he was and still is a letter carrier for the USPS) made it impossible to tour, until finally breaking up in 1994. At that point I began work on "Alone at Last"....
It wasn't until 2003, with new digital audio tools, that I was able to "reconstruct" the CD and re-release it on our label Pdog Records. The sequence of songs has been changed, bringing it at least a tiny bit closer to my vision. And now, through the magic of Bandcamp, I can finally present to you "A. Animal: Overhaul" in all it's glory. As usual, pay what you wish - even zero.
Thanks for listening!!!!

- Neil

In keeping in line with the new music business model - or one of the new business models, for the seem to be an endless procession of them, most of which I don't understand (or haven't taken the time to understand - deep breath now) - I offer for you, the last official release from my band Neil Alexander & NAIL; "Tugging At The Infinite" on the most wonderful Bandcamp website. For a limited time, you can get this excellent (wink wink) CD for whatever price you want - including $0.00! As of now, or until I take some time (between managing websites/data, booking gigs, raising a family and any of the other seemingly endless things one does in life) to actually learn the new business models, the $0.00 pricing is in effect till January 30th. So get it while ya can!

C'mon, it don't cost ya a cent. Besides, I'm betting you're gonna like it. :)

- Neil