Dwight (Do) Peterson and Steve Espinola--"Stuck"
Steve Espinola-- "Shards of Love"
(written in 1988, recorded 1988-93)

"Stuck": 1. Hurry Hurry (Espinola) 2. Something Better (Peterson) 3. I Was Happier (Barth/Espinola/Wolf) 4. Stillwater (Espinola) 5. Watching Clouds Roll By (Espinola) 6. Full of It (Peterson) 7. You Were Ridiculous, You Were Sublime (Espinola) 8. Stuck (Peterson) 9. You Make Me Feel Good (Espinola/Peterson) 10. Big Bass String (Peterson/Wolf) "Shards of Love" (all songs by Steve Espinola): 11. Lovesick Puppydog 12-13. Fall For You [live] 14. Don't Sneeze at Love 15. Hell Freezes Over 16. Just Can't Get Over You 17. Toucan Man 18. Won't Someone Sweep Me Off My Feet? 19. Angela Angela 20. Watching Clouds Roll By (extra verse version) 21. What Are You Thinking? [live] 22. Requiem For Vinyl Total Running time: Approximately 77 minutes.

If I do say so, some of my prettiest, most delicate, most emotional and best songs are here. "Watching Clouds Roll By", "Stillwater," "Fall For You," and "You Were Ridiculous" are still requested frequently when I play live. Bagpipe-and-dog-bark-laden funk stomp "Lovesick Puppydog" was later covered by Madison, Wisconsin band The Merkins. (They also did Angelfish's "You Are A Slime.") Alex Wolf, of the Lookalikes, makes some of his earliest recorded appearances (in fact, "I Was Happier" is the first Lookalikes song and performance). And Dwight Peterson's "Something Better" and "Big Bass String" (with Alex) are folk-pop classics waiting to be rediscovered. There are also half a dozen goofy experiments in 50's doo wop and New Orleans r&b, and an unrepeated, uncomfortable venture into ex-girlfriend-directed hardcore punk rage ("Full of It.")

This CD covers a chaotic period for both Dwight (some) and me (a lot). Overall, I think the songs here are much better and more mature than on Angelfish, but the recordings and performances are a bit more erratic (especially on the random demos of "Shards of Love"). I was in a prolific but emotionally disorganized mode. As a result, this is the first time this material, conceived as a conceptual whole, has been assembled in one place. While Angelfish is moody but generally light and entertaining, this tends more towards the truly depressed ("Stuck") and truly manic ("Shards of Love"). The recordings also veer between super-sparse and epic, densely multitracked lo-fi....some of which sounds really magic and good. Dwight's productions on "Stuck" are particularly inspired. But it took the recent success of the Moldy Peaches album for me to feel at all comfortable with selling stuff that --magic as it is-- was pretty clearly mixed on cheap cassettes. (These recordings originally appeared on three cassette albums: "Stuck," "Mostly Live," and "Give Me Your Money." Details here.)

"Stuck" is probably best listened to when you are feeling desperately lonely and want some music that will make you feel like you are at least being lonely with another person who feels the same way.

In summary, this is my roughest-hewn CD, but adventurous and moody people tend to like it. You probably will, too. Mr. Peterson says "This stuff is deep, so watch out."

After recording this, by the way, Dwight changed his name to Do, recorded two great out-of-print acoustic funk albums ("Soul Stretch" and "Ancestors"), quit music while he got a degree in biostatistics, and now has a fabulous dance band in Seattle that does music about biostatistics called Science Groove. Of course it sounds crazy. It IS crazy. But it's really good. His best music yet.

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