Artist:
Ron Thal
track listing: |
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The Adventures Of
Bumblefoot
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The concept started in a small room in North Carolina in 1993 - I was helping my
girlfriend study veterinary medicine when I came across a bird disease called
Bumblefoot. One of the treatments for this ailment was hemorrhoid creme and a ball
bandage. I found this inspiring. Every song on the CD is named after an animal
disease, and there are characters scattered throughout the cover art that represent each
disease/song.
She would then draw scenarios with charicatures of me as a giant ass that met a skinny neck and head with a giant nose and one eyebrow. Many of these ideas found their way onto the cover. The artwork was created with CorelDraw4 - I spent many weeks sitting by the computer staring at my foot. In Europe and Japan, the cover art is clear, but in the USA there was a printing error that left the cover blurry - it was frustrating to be constantly asked why it said "and other tales of wog" at the bottom of the CD (it unclearly read "and other tales of woe...") |
I didn't have a recording studio at the time - there were 2 ADATs, a Mackie board, 2
compressors and 2 effects processors set up along the wall in my parents' basement.
The big air-conditioner/heating unit for the house was 5 feet away and it was summer time,
so I would have to stop and wait every time the AC went on... I did all the
punch-ins with a footswitch while I was playing. And I didn't have any speakers,
and recorded and mixed the entire record using a 10-year old pair of $20 headphones. |
| Previously recorded songs were Bumblefoot, Blue Tongue (originally called The Shuck Duffle - both songs released on Legato Records' Guitar On the Edge CDs) and Malignant Carbuncle (solo from Shrapnel University instructional tape on 2-handed guitar technique - never released) - there was a second half to the song that didn't make it onto the CD. The others were recorded during the summer of 1994. The first song I recorded was Strawberry Footrot - I had sinusitis and laid down a track of moans of discomfort - I built the solo around it later. The original name of Strangles was Bastard Strangles. The high-pitched squeak at the end of the solo in Orf was from the side of my hand accidentally touching the high E-string while I was sliding a 9-volt battery down the neck. At the last minute, 2 songs were pulled off the CD and I quickly wrote Ick, Rinderpest, and Q Fever. I borrowed an $85 beginners' nylon-string guitar from a music store I gave guitar lessons at to record Ick. There was a flat fret that farted out on the 4th string (9th fret) - you can hear it if you listen for it (at 0:29 seconds.) |
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- Ron Thal
Interesting story behind that too...
upon using the accompanying bathroom to that room in North Carolina for any necessarily
extended period of time, she would draw pictures of dogs vomiting and birds rendered
unconscious from the smell of what I was doing in there (or so it was implied) and slip
them under the door to make me laugh - this didn't help me any.