On Nov. 9th, Fat re-issues Television City Dream, re-mixed, re-mastered, and boasting five additional tracks (from the Four On The Floor comp. and Thank You Very Little) and new art. I've been itching for a second shot at the mix on this since it came out. Justin Perkins did the re-mix and mastering at his Mystery Room studio in Milwaukee and it sounds fantastic. I integrated the extra tracks (all recorded with the same lineup during the same session by Mass Giorgini at Sonic Iguana) into the sequence to approximate how I would've done it back then - although "My Own World" was initially slated to be the third track (I left it off the album because I hated the bridge. It was originally a vocal; I later removed it and had Zac Damon put down a guitar lead in its place, then re-tracked a stronger lead vocal for the rest of the song. Problem solved - but by the time I'd thunk up the fix, the record had already been out for months). Bark Like A Dog had done really well for us in 1996 and I loved that record but I wanted to go in the opposite direction rather than do another mid/slow-tempo pop-based album. The album title was taken from a line in D.O.A.'s classic "The Prisoner" and I tried to incorporate that same attitude into the songwriting and tempos: it was meant to be a fast, aggressive, "fuck you" kind of record. Which it was, but the mix and mastering just didn't deliver the goods. It's bugged me ever since it was released because I knew it was a great record and it was underrated right out of the gate; hearing it done up right it's obvious that it's easily the band's best post-'94 album.
As much as I love the 1998 cover art by Aldo Giorgini (I still have the framed prints) I never thought it quite fit. Nate Fierro (who also did the Riverdales Tarantula LP cover) (and who, by the way, gave me a kick-ass tattoo at High Voltage last weekend) drew up the cover based on a line from the album's last track, "Burn It Down." I'm normally against the cliche of the skeleton in punk art but this one actually makes sense contextually. I love the art and the re-mix and I hope you will too.