On Tuesday, September 21, I get to do something for which I’ve waited 11 years: put The Cutting Room Floor in my rearview mirror.

I started working on this record in 1999. I finished mixing it in 2006, but it still took another four years to get ‘er the rest of the way. Musically and visually, the vinyl record is the best thing I ever made. It comes out on Tuesday, as does the compact disc version of the album. I’ve made them available a couple days early right here. If you’re gonna buy this record – which I hope you are – and you’re generous enough to wanna help me make back some of the money I’ve spent producing it, buy from that link. Here it is again.

Here’s a player that will stream the whole record:

You can embed this on your Facebook wall if you like; just cut and paste the following link to share:

http://music.jeddavis.com/album/the-cutting-room-floor

The resulting player will actually stream the album right from your Facebook wall, with a link to buy it. I would appreciate if you passed that along! And say something nice about it, would ya?

In exchange for your kind support, I give you…
10 THINGS YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR (one per song):

1. The title track was recorded entirely on cassette using a Portastudio. Organ, electric piano, accordion, vocal.

2. The piano at the beginning of “Before I Was Born” was originally at the end. There is a downward walk at the end of the last chorus, which was meant to flow right into the cliched chords of “Lean On Me” as the song faded out. But Dave wanted more of the bridge, so he copied and flew it to the end of the song, after the last chorus. That left the piano part without a home, so he moved it to the top.

3. The arcade I mention in “Enough” was a place called XS in Times Square. It’s no longer there; I can’t even find a photo of their giant TOO MUCH IS NOT ENOUGH sign on the Internet. Weird. I did a show there with Collider back in 1999.

4. The instrument at the beginning of “Let Go” is an electric zither, played by Brian Dewan. Brian designed and built it himself.
4a. I played drums on the track but Tony decided against mixing them in… definitely the right choice.

5. I wrote “Blood” right after getting out of a bad contract with some music biz old-schoolers in 2000. They kept telling me I could be the next Graham Gouldman if I would just lock myself in a room and “write million-sellers!” Then they tried to trick me into signing over publishing rights to four songs.
5a. The drums on “Blood” are a combination of loops and live kit, which I played – the same drum set Steve Drozd used on The Soft Bulletin.

6. The vocal in the verses of “Denny’s 3am” is from the original demo of the song, recorded in Sean’s grandmother’s attic in 1997. There was an innocence about that take which I really liked, so I flew it into the finished track right before we mixed, replacing my studio vocal.
6a. The Denny’s on Western Avenue in Albany, where we recorded the group vocal for “Denny’s 3am”, is now a Five Guys. Great burgers, but what a bummer. By the way, yes – I did pay royalties to the folks who wrote the “Three’s Company” theme for its use during the conversation in the hidden track.

7. The piano on “Interesting Times” was recorded after hours in a Latham, NY piano store. The piano we used was gorgeous but it hadn’t been tuned; Tony had fits trying to mix it.

8. “Native Son” was recorded live to tape in one take.
8a. At the time I recorded “Native Son”, Sean was hanging out with a singer named Aimee Allen who had just signed with Atlantic. Aimee got way into the track and played it for her A&R guy, who said: “Good song. You should totally rip that off.”

9. The “I Have A Rose” rose was my most prized possession. I don’t have it anymore… somebody threw it out when I wasn’t looking.

10. I recorded the vocal at the top of “Queens Is Where You Go When You’re Dead” on the J train at 4:00 in the morning. A week later, I was again on the J at 4am, riding home from work, when three dudes dragged a guy into my subway car, stabbed him right in front of me, and then ran off as the train doors opened. The victim, gushing blood, staggered out onto the same platform; the doors closed behind him. I have no idea what became of that dude; the incident did not make the news.

Okay, that’s too grim a note to end on. How about one more for the hidden track:

11. We almost got kicked out of Denny’s for pounding on the table for the “Denny’s 3am” recording. This brings to mind the Denny’s Appreciation Society, a UAlbany student organization formed for the express purpose of getting the school to pay for their fourthmeal. They did in fact receive enough funding for one trip to Denny’s, during which they kicked up so much noise they were all banned from the establishment!

Enjoy my record, friends.

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