This is the final reissue in the series of releases that sees the entire, out-of-print catalog by mrmoth made available for those who missed them the first time around. This is the first album, The Ether from 1999. Warts and all.

The album was recorded track by track, overdubbing each instrument digitally. I had been recording music in this way on 4 and 8 track cassette systems for quite a while before this. I handled the keys and the bulkload of guitars, but was helped along by Bryan Leighty and Shawn McBride, who provided additional bass and guitar bits respectively.

I have been tempted over the years to re-cut certain parts, and indeed may one day do that, but I’m happy to own its faults. It is an ambitious album made by someone naive enough to try something outside his skillset. While I do indeed cringe at some of it, it’s worth noting that everyone starts somewhere and I had to fail a lot to get better. This record is the sound of me trying hard to push through my initial shortcomings. It doesn’t sound like anything anyone’s ever done before or since and in that way, is probably the purest thing I’ve ever made. Its most brilliant moments are still some of my favorite things I’ve done.

While I don’t like most modern remastering, I did do some minor remastering to this record, in that I completely resequenced the album digitally from the original, individual master recordings. Also, it was originally intended to be listened to in a single sitting (like Prince’s Lovesexy), but due to the limitations of the way it was released, It was broken into four chapters instead. Of course, no one would tolerate a single unbroken album anymore – least of all me – so it is broken into individual songs here for the first time. This is also the first time this record has been released in lossless format (for those of you who know what that means).

Week three of the re-release series. Today, the 2001, Everybody Wants to Fuck EP, is re-released in digital format via bandcamp.com. This is the third week in an ongoing series of releases that will see the entire, out-of-print catalog by mrmoth made available for those who missed them the first time around.

The very first song I ever covered as mrmoth was “Dress Rehearsal Rag.” The first public interest I ever received in this band was from Leonard Cohen fans who were seeking out the cover and despite mine being a very unusual style, they were generous and accepting. There’s something about being in the cult of Cohen that unifies people who normally wouldn’t ever find each other. I mean, he was a folk artist and this band is this one. So already it’s unusual to string those disparate elements together. But such was his voice.

There’s remarkably little I can write originally about the legacy of Leonard Cohen but I can tell you that I have a very dog-eared copy of Stranger Music and a thick anthology songbook that have been my compasses as a songwriter. I, like so many musicians, wouldn’t be who I am without him. To say he will be missed is a woefully inadequate expression of the thought.