free e.p. download: THE STAR OFF MACHINE - Red Curtain Sunlight e.p. - 2006 KR024

This is NOT the similar release by The Gregg Yeti with (almost) the same cover!!! Long story, read on! This is a never been released session available for the first time ever!

free e.p. download: THE STAR OFF MACHINE - Red Curtain Sunlight e.p. - 2006 KR024 - click right here!!!

This little recording appeared within the era of 4 eps by The Gregg Yeti (compiled in the ep collection Wonderbuckets (The 4 eps 2004-2007). If Wonderbuckets included The Star Off Machine project, GoGoSushi and Leper Pony, it would've been "The 7 eps" 2004-2007"!!! It was a busy period...)

After "The Ender's Mind" ep came out in 2005 I met up with Andrea Lee Higgins at one of Ashley Cox's open mic nights here in Syracuse. Soon we two were trying to get a few songs together, and we played Cox's open mic once, and recorded this ep in my apartment and at Watchmen Studios. Andrea liked the name, which came from Dr Seuss via the 2nd album by The Flashing Astonishers; we couldn't agree on anything better at the time. We spent hours spray-painting the covers with star stencils and glitter, and she drew what became the hand stamp that adorns each one. Mostly due to our shared Taurus stubbornness mixed with severe levels of late night intoxication, we split up the duo just before we could release this ep, and start playing any shows. I'll take the blame, I was a drunken mess. Not helping was that a truly horrible California band came out right then with the same band name. I didn't want to waste the work we put into the covers so later that year I made my own ep with my name stamped on it, and it debuted that song "Laughter Be Your Slave" that everyone seems to like. You can hear that version on Wonderbuckets.

Track listing:
1. Red Curtain Sunlight
2. Release
3. My Narcotic Sara
4. Half On The Way

"Red Curtain Sunlight" with Andrea's lead vocal was remixed and appeared on Gregg Yeti's 2011 album "The Harvest Brass Echo". Bob Kane (of Flashing Astonishers/Mandate of Heaven/Monkey Knife Fight/Electric Chick Magnets/Everyone & Your Mom's Band) plays drums. His performance was lifted directly from one of the pre-breakup Flashing Astonishers sessions; the music for this song was basically a reworking of an unreleased Astonishers song I wrote the music for. It took a song that previously sounded kinda like GBV and turning it into a 80's Cure kinda thing.

This version of Andrea Lee's song "Release" has never been released, though she did re-record the song for one of her own releases, and then released it. "My Narcotic Sara" was remixed and redone with Jessica Rudy on background vocals for the subsequent Gregg Yeti version of the Star Off Machine ep. "Half On The Way" was remixed and appeared on "Heart Palpitations Of The Rich & Famous" album in 2008, with Jessica Rudy taking over the lead vocals this time.

Andrea is now making music in Brooklyn now after living in North Carolina after this ep was recorded. Gregg Yeti is stuck in Syracuse until he dies.

These two pix of Gregg and Andrea are from 2005 and were taken by Elizabeth Case Carter.

free e.p. download: THE STAR OFF MACHINE - Red Curtain Sunlight e.p. - 2006 KR024 - click right here!!! Spread the word! Share this with your friends! And, as always, Koala Syndicate mp3 downloads are all encoded at 320 kbps for the best quality! Be sure to check out all the other releases! Cheers!

free full album download: The Flashing Astonishers – Everything Is Gonna Stop (1998 KR002)

click right here for the free full album download: The Flashing Astonishers – Everything Is Gonna Stop (1998 KR002)

This is the debut album by The Flashing Astonishers. We were so excited, we were going to take over the world. Ha. The sound created drew from the popular flavors of the day, from Pixies & Nirvana punk to Pavement-ish indie with shades of the heavier shoegazer bands thrown in. Influences were worn like a denim jacket covered with patches. It is the most start-to-finish "album" of sorts by the band, as there was only one line-up during the recording sessions, unlike the later two albums with their rotating door of friends joining in...

Track listing:
1. Broken Stained Glass
2. Lipbomb
3. Alien
4. La De Dey
5. King Of Cans
6. Anillo
7. I Come Up, I Go Down
8. I'm Not One

The Flashing Astonishers line up for "Everything Is Gonna Stop" was songwriters Dan Musclow and Gregg Yeti plus the super solid rhythm section Jay Fabbri and Bob Kane. It was recorded and mixed by Doug White at Watchmen Studio, and was mastered by Dave St. Onge. World famous comic artist David Woodson did the graphic design. Jody Kidney drew the yellow and green panel, she used to do tons of drawings like that in her old zines. (Jody's now singing with Dexter Romweber And The New Romans in North Carolina and growing things with cats and drinking like a champ). The cover girl is Jody's younger sister, Jennifer Lee Kidney, who sadly took her own life that year; we put her on the cover as a tribute. We all miss you Jaylee! Emily Martian contributed the ducky back cover photo, and I remember taking the abstract photo when I used to work at the local tex-mex place Alto Cinco... a new pan came in to steam the burrito shells, and after the first night of use it got covered with carbon from the fire. Looked neat.

1000 cds were professionally pressed. Used copies are cheap on Amazon Dot Com, so go get one if ya haven't already. Here's a video for the song "Alien" aka "How The Aliens Built The Pyramids" from a VHS camcorder live show taped just before the album came out.

click right here for the free full album download: The Flashing Astonishers – Everything Is Gonna Stop (1998 KR002)