make her mine.

living a lie.

mistreated.

small.

where the hell is she?

i don’t mean to let you down.

whipping boy.

fool like me.

why can’t i be him?

insincere.

December 26, 2007 2:47 PM

the following collection of songs were written by me between summer 1994/early 1995 (mostly in the amherst house and the infamous garage) and professionally recorded in the summer of 1995. it cost $153,114.64 to record them. they were intended to be released as a record on interscope records (which at that time was the best you could do as a cool, young rock band...nowadays...not so much) under the silly name “shufflepuck” (matt sharp, i’ll never forgive you for that).

in true record business tradition, our A&R guy had a drug-induced meltdown and disappeared. despite our popularity, we became a baby band, lost in the shuffle, competing for our record label’s attention with no doubt (tragic kingdom), nine inch nails (the downward spiral), marilyn manson (antichrist superstar) and the wallflowers (bringing down the horse). as you can see, those records were watershed moments in each of those artists careers. their best known works to date. we had no chance, despite high profile management and attorneys at our side (and in my bank account) we saw 3 1996 record release dates come and go and 1 in 1997 as well.

our inability to get the record released led to frustration and poor business decisions. finally, we put our foot down and legendary record man tom whalley (president of interscope at the time) agreed to let us out of our contract and retain ownership of the record so we could go to any other label and sell it to them for release (along with a very generous addition to our collective bank accounts). problem solved!

of course, nobody else in the industry believed interscope would just let us walk away and we were seen as damaged goods that had been dropped from the coolest label in town. this was very difficult for us as a group because up until that point, we were well-liked and all of our shows were well-attended. we basically had to start over from scratch which is as difficult as it is humiliating, considering we had done nothing wrong and recorded a pretty good record that had a few songs that would have been right at home on the radio at the time (and maybe still even today).

eventually this led to me breaking the group up onstage in front of a packed house filled with our friends and family, much to the protest of my other band-mates...a “rock n’ roll” decision that cost me what could have been lifelong friendships with 2 out of 3 guys who dedicated themselves to my songs and vision.

a tragic rock and roll casualty story or a barely-registered blip on the musical landscape...no one will ever really know and what happened happened. that’s life and we saw great heights and tremendous lows in those amazing few years we were together. i don’t think i’d change anything about it and even though it ended in wreckage, i still have great memories of those times here in los angeles and parts unknown.

every year, more and more people find me via the internet (usually concentrated around a new release by weezer) and request copies of the record, which is very, very cool. to still have interest in these songs all this time later is humbling and awesome. the actual record never was released. i’m glad too. the actual mix of the record is what we wanted at the time (we worked with the great david bianco based on his work on tom petty’s “wildflowers” and frank black’s “teenager of the year”) but hearing it now, it’s clear it wasn’t the right direction. the songs need much bigger production and we went for bare-bones, opting to let the songs speak for themselves. a different mix would have given the songs more life...but the record was destined to never come out, so i guess it doesn’t matter. we had a great time with david in the studio and he’s a great guy. totally worth it, in my opinion.

so, that being said, consider this the official release of the self-titled debut album  from shufflepuck.

play it loud.

original record sequence:

1 - small

2 - where the hell is she?

3 - mistreated

4 - living a lie

5 - i don’t mean to let you down

6 - make her mine

7 - whipping boy

8 - fool like me

9 - why can’t i be him?

10 - insincere

shufflepuck record credits:

ed alexander - bass

keith fallis - drums

justin fisher - guitars, backing vocals

adam orth - vocals, guitars, lead guitars, keyboards

all songs written by adam orth

copyright 2009 mos eisley music

produced by jim wirt and adam orth

recorded at 4th street recording (santa monica), the record plant (hollywood), A&M studios (hollywood)

recorded by jim wirt, david bianco, and c.j. erickson

mixed by david bianco and assisted by james saez at the record plant (hollywood)

mastered by steven marcussen at precision mastering

A&R: bryan huttenhower, tom whalley and steven levy

legal: gene salomon for mitchell, silberberg and knupp

management: doug goldstein

thank you:

ed, justin and keith.

jim wirt.

kim adams, amherst house, taline avedikian, chuck bartlett, anthony bellanger, david bianco, karl brix, david cohen, cole rehearsal, jaron combes (the 1st fan), mike einzinger, ted field, lonn friend, steve graff, dayle gloria, mark gracious, tom hammond, bryan huttenhower, jimmy iovine, angie ketterman, pat magnarella, larry man, jason markey, mary nixon, don robertson, john rosner, mauro rubbi,  james saez, jamie seyberth, dan sgro, the takanaka family, kathleen wirt, lifter, the sugarplastic, campfire gilrs, red 5, the weezer family, hell’s gate, the whisky-a-go-go, the roxy, on the rox, the palladium, all of the various frolic rooms, alligator lounge and everyone who ever bought out 12”, came to our shows and supported us.

finally, none of this would have ever been possible without the belief, support, “business lunches” and tireless efforts of michael badami. the only person who was there for me from day 1 until now. your mission to get this music heard kept me going back in the day. an incredible and treasured friend. this record is for you.

For a cd copy send SASE and Blank CD/Jewel Case to:

Shufflepuck

PO Box 64881

LA, CA 90065