THE 3-DIMENSIONAL IN POPCYCLE DREAM

PROVERUS 2003

3D Montage/Neo Mega Quasi Ultra Super Groovy/One Simple Pleasure Trip/If You Can't Remain/Wait A Minute/Heather (Whatever)/Friend For The Day/Saturday Morning Cartoons/Girl On A Laser Beam/Feet First/Liberty Town Of Love/Liquid Bob/3D Theme/The Kind Of Problem I Want/May/Bright Green Nature Machine Does/Charlie Blue Car/The Cat Who Dropped The Bomb/Red Light Summer/Up And Down On Your Merry-Go-Round/Will Love Ever Find Chastity Rose/Larry In The Sea With Daffodils/Popcycle Island


Mark Mikel "3D was originally a 34 song CD. That would have been more tracks than the first disc. It was a decent collection of songs but with that kind of volume we were prone to overstaying our welcome. The fact that many of the songs were afterthoughts made it seem unfocused. 11 songs were pulled to give it more of a feel. Girl On A Laser Beam actually was supposed to be THE single from 3D. Proverus was planning an CD single with Girl On A Laser Beam as the A track and I think If You Can't Remain or Charlie Blue Car as the B track. It was also supposed to contain 2 songs that were cut from the line-up.A 4 song CD representing the first double disc was being planned too. Comburda was going to be the single. The first 1000 discs sold out within 2 months. That's not a lot for a band like XTC- but for us it was a huge leap."


Mark Mikel "The recording of Red Light Summer was an after thought- immediately after Chalmers and I laid down the basic tracks for another song. I'm pretty sure it was The Cat Who Dropped the Bomb. We don't usually lay down two songs in one night but there are those exceptions. It was a one take and Dan just followed my Rhodes playing and taking cues- most likely thinking "what the fuck is this song going to be?" because it had no real lyrics at that point.The original lyric went "How's it ever happen?" instead of "Red light summer" which is slightly different in rhythm. The song comes from an array of childhood images of people that I knew and getting into mischief. Doing things you shouldn't do but enjoying it all the same- like running red lights for example. And in youth, you tend to (at least philosophically) run all of them you can get away with. The other bugs (Kelley, Tabner and Murnen) added their bits as overdubs. Mark did two bass tracks- one clean and one with a horribly distorted fuzz tone. That gave it it's balls. Tabner's solo in the ending reminds me of Pete Townshend.It wasn't planned but Tabner, Murnen and myself all coincidentally wrote lyrically "summer themed" songs and gave it a color. Scott had "Bright Green Nature Machine" and Davey had "Charlie Blue Car."

Mark Mikel. "Larry In The Sea With Daffodils is mostly a Dan Chalmers song. He had the musical parts and riffs. I came up with the vocal melody and Davey wrote the words based on my joke title suggestion. I threw in a line here and there like "everyone have a ball."I've always loved that one too. It's so fucking badd ass. That's why it's in climax position on 3D. Still it has strangely been somewhat of a sleeper. Very cool choice for a thread, Mr. Roland.It's one of the few Chalmers songs that Dan drums himself. Normally he has to play another instrument to guide us through his ideas. In this case, it had to be Chalmy. No one else was capable of that groove. "

Mark Mikel "I think The Kick Around Boy is my mom's favorite song. She knew how much I was bullied as a child. She sees it as a great psychological purge of the inner turmoil (better word?) by an imaginary justice put to heavy music.I wrote another song that dealt with the same subject called The Meanest Kid in Town (1981). But that was sung from the scared child's point of view."

see also
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