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.

09 Back Door Man

08 Trust

07 Somebody

06 Keeper Of The Door

05 Incarnation

04 For Me

03 As The Years Go By

02 Mark The Stone

01 Pull My String

Ed: Drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, percussion, voices

Ever wonder about the name TAPKAE? This is the start of it all, folks! Actually, TAPKAE is an unfortunate nickname for my real moniker, The Artist Presently Known As Ed. But rare are the times when all that is permitted to be entered, nor is is convenient!

At the time, I only intended that name to be the name of the released product. Prince had recently ditched his name and become notorious for that, and yet, I retained my own name and so went by "presently" instead of the pretentious sounding "formerly." Otherwise, I was just some dude named Ed Lucas.

This was the first project that happened squarely in the 4 track portastudio era. One before it, Aural Sects, had been done on that machine but used a considerable amount of material that was already done on regular cassette. This was also the first appearance of a new Mackie 1202 mixer, an Alesis 3630 compressor, and a Digitech Studio Quad processor--all of which took my recorded sound to a whole new place. Unfortunately, to finance some of that, I sold a piano my grandmother gave me, and wish I hadn't. But at the time, this was exciting stuff.

I was extremely under the influence of Mike Keneally in the winter-summer of 1996 when this took shape. I'd also been knocked flat by the newest version of King Crimson the year before. A mix of Keneally's Hat and Dust Speck- era goofiness and collage, and the edgy guitar and soundscapes of KC was part of what I felt I could emulate in my own way. A few things are rehashes of other earlier ideas but all told this was the first thing I did that was recorded in a way that sounded almost listenable.

I originally mixed the project in stereo, but because of economics and having no established backup practices, the very tape I mixed tracks to was used to archive the digitally composited project done at an editor's place. Unfortunately, neither of us noted that on input of the DAT, or somewhere in the workflow, the thing was turned to mono, and was archived back to my DAT mixdown tape as mono. So since that August 1996 day I have never heard it in stereo :-(

This cassette was given out or sold to a number of folks during the Mike Keneally tour I worked on while he himself did double duty in his own band opening for Steve Vai's band where he was a sideman. Mike's own copy I have once again, in a plastic bag. See, it was sitting on the table in the Steve Vai bus when it caught on fire on that tour. The bus and a lot of their personal property was destroyed. The tape somehow was not, but the five sides that were exposed were smoke damaged with pitting. It was remarkable.

07 Sailing The Seven Cs

STREAM

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. 

soundcloud:tracks:247472294

07 Sailing The Seven Cs

TAPKAE/1994-1998

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