Jim Pupplo: Guitar, Vox, Writing
Ed Lucas: Drums, lyrics to Pull My String
Josh Rogers: Bass

Slaves By Trade were a San Diego band in 1993-94. Mostly comprised of Navy buddies who worked in the same shop, I joined from the outside world and played drums with them initially on a fill-in basis that became ‘a few shows’ and then for the remainder of the band's existence through October that year. Jim himself had only recently stepped up to perform the vocals a month before after letting the original vocalist go and being unhappy with the prospects we'd tried.

This was only my second foray into studio recording and it was very quick—maybe two takes and then on to the next song, and then guitar solo and vocal overdubs. A couple of songs were new and still a bit rough around the edges. Because it was one of the few times we played the songs with no vocals or solos (due to studio separation), there were a few sloppy cues. 

While we all paid our share of the recording cost, it ended up being that I carried home the DAT and reel-to-reel tapes and housed them for years. Because neither are suitable for duplication if you don't have the gear, a few weeks after the sessions I paid a seemingly exorbitant amount to transfer the DAT to a CD from which I could make cassette copies. Not sure why we did all this; in just about two months the band was put on hiatus and Jim was soon with Typhoid Mary (later named Pincushion) as vocalist. It was in this period when he showed me a few things on guitar just as I was beginning to show some interest in that instrument. 

The dissolution of SBT turned out to be a bigger-than-life thing. I lost touch with Jim in 1998 or thereabouts. While the material we recorded arose from his writing and playing (I presume along with Josh on bass making contributions), he never once asked me about having the SBT tapes, effectively abandoning them to me as quickly as they were mixed, so I’ve made efforts to keep them out and about just in case there is anyone looking for the material. As my digital audio toolset and skills grow, I make the periodic effort to firm up the sound a bit. The originals were a bit harsh. While they were recorded on Andy Tolley’s pride-and-joy analog gear, the fact is, the guitar tone was solid state and very edgy, and we didn’t make the recording a studio project per se, just a document. The current mixes were run through Izotope Ozone tools to take some of the brittleness down and fatten up the low end.

Jim Pupplo was an enlistedman when I was in the band but he later became an officer and aviator. He and fellow crew died in a crash in Iwo Jima in 2004. The pilot had been the same as who flew President Bush onto the carrier to proclaim "Mission Accomplished" in 2003. By 2004 I rarely watched TV at all and so it was strange timing when I happened to have the news on and heard of the crash when it made the news. I heard Jim's name and had a feeling it was him (even though I did not know he'd become an aviator). There are only so many James Pupplos out there, right?

Recorded by Andy Tolley at 9th Ring Studio, La Mesa, CA, August 24-25, 1994.
Initial digital editing and DAT transfer to fantastically expensive CD-R done by Joe Statt at ANZA Digital, San Diego, September 9, 1994.
Current mastering refinements done November 2021, from original 16-bit DAT mixes from 9th Ring.

01 Pull My String

The header should read:

"The Artist Presently Known As Ed, 1994-1998"

These are my recording projects that achieved completed status mostly in the second half of the 1990s, a period when I used cassettes in various dubbing+mic input configurations, or later, a 4 track Tascam portastudio, or later still, certain work done on a Roland VS-880. These were my formative years in recording, and as far as that goes, good fun in turning out new stuff every several months. Hell times in life, and lots to sort out, but hey...

Slaves By Trade was a band I played drums in during 1994 and with the space available on the SC account, I decided to put the 9 song demo here. 

01 Pull My String

TAPKAE/1994-1998