HELLO GANG
thanks for having this and listening to this and reading this...

Sluggo! was the first album I did where I didn't have the luxury of setting my own timetable for the recording and mixing; I was constantly returning to the road, having just joined Steve Vai's band, and I needed to schedule Sluggo! in and around my various obligations to Steve. Nowadays, this approach has become second nature to me, as l'm frequently tucking recording/mixing sessions into the spaces between Satriani and Dethklok jaunts, and having constant access to our own studio means that booking time is no longer an issue - but, back then, I found it difficult to achieve a working rhythm and the whole process felt fragmented to me. And, at the time, I had great difficulty achieving a final mix I was happy with.

When I started conceptualizing Sluggo! it was going to be called Milk Blood Tuna, for some reason. I thought those words sounded good together, and I think I was waiting for some significance to reveal itself which would give the title a real reason to be attached to an album - but ultimately the character of Sluggo from Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy comic strip (he was Nancy's punk friend) reared his pugnacious head in an unexpected way, and I decided the album could do with a little of his headstrong mojo.

These songs came together during the very end of my time in Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa's band, during the brief following period while I was not in anyone's band but my own, and then for the first year or so that I was in Steve Vai's employ. (I remember writing "I'm Afraid" in a dressing room during a Vai tour, and working on the opening riff to "Own" in the control room of The Mothership, Steve's studio. Sitting in an airport, writing the words to "Chatfield Manor." Etcetera.) I was on some kind of a roll writing-wise, and managed to come up with possibly my strongest set of "song" songs yet.

The recording process started with grand piano tracks, recorded with Mike Harris at Signature Sound (without a click track - a special brand of madness I was afflicted with at the time). Overdubs commenced at Double Time with Jeff Forrest engineer- ins, except for "Looking For Nina" which was made in Frank Briggs' garage. Getting basic tracks was a swift and fun process, and everyone played like maniacs. So tracking wasn't a problem - mixing the thing was.

Jeff Forrest and I got the idea that we should mix the album onto analog tape, rather than onto DAT as my first albums had been done. So the whole album was mixed down to 2-track analog, and mastered by John Golden from that format - but only AFTER listening to that finished master did I realize that the stereo spectrum and high end were suffering compared to my previous releases, possibly resulting from issues with the analog machine that we mixed down to. So all the songs were quickly remixed to DAT in, like, three days or something I( was just about to leave on tour with Vai again and didn't have much time), and mastered yet again. Expensive mistake, and the final mix has always sounded a little crude, somewhere between half and three-quarters baked, to me as a result.

So I am hugely grateful to have had the opportunity to do new mixes for this long-overdue reissue. The new stereo mix finally fills out the low end and mid range of the sound without sacrificing the highs that the original always had. The result to my ears is a much rounder sound, with a lot more clarity and power than before.

(While working on the remix, I took the opportunity to go back and check out that rejected analog mix one more time. At this remove, I did find that there was some value to it - some of that vaunted analog "warmth" was undeniably there. So, in the new mix, for the songs "Sluggo" and "Looking For Nina" [for "Nina" the multi-tracks were no longer available], we actually used the originally rejected analog mixes.

This was the first album I did which was conceived as discrete tracks rather than as an unbroken suite of songs (a conscious attempt to be less overtly beholden to Zappaesque ways of organizing things), and the first album where I had the song list broken into quarters on the back cover on the CD, to suggest the four sides of a double vinvl album. I still found it impossible to make an album less than 70 minutes long, but at a mere sixteen songs it was (for me, at that point in my career) pretty concise. It hit people pretty strongly and seems to be a favorite album for a lot of fans. The best print review came from the late great Buddy Blue: "this album pisses me off. I give it an A+." Many of the songs are still staples of my live shows.

In many ways, various energies converged at the right time for Sluggo!, but the original mix always stuck in my craw, so this reissue is, for me, a chance to get this one 100% to my satisfaction - I wouldn't say "finally get it right," because what is "right"? In a lot of ways the original album was totally right. But in my own mind, speaking as the guy who made the thing, I honestly do feel like, sixteen years after its initial release, l've finally finished Sluggo!

-Mike Keneally October 2013

(This essay is an edited and revised version of the Sluggo! discography entry at my website. It contains detailed song-by-song commentary, as well as a little story about TRANQUILLADO the dog. You can read it at www.keneally.com/music/discography-mike-keneally/sluggo/ .)

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ORIGINAL 1997 LINER NOTES/THANKS. URLS AND MAILING ADDRESSES CONTAINED HEREIN ARE OBSOLETE IN THE PRESENT DAY (AND BEYOND).

M.K.THANKS This just in: I love my wife. I love my daughter. I love Mom, Marty, Bobbi, Fran and Joe. I love and miss my Dad. For equipment loanership I am thanking Scott Chatfield, Robb Vallier, Rich Lewis, Bob Tedde, Steve Vai and Michael Harrison. Thanks Chris Henry for the magical mystery guitar. Thanks to Rich Lewis for the black SG. Thanks to all at Rivera, EMG, Doc's Pro-Plugs, Dunlop USA, 2-Tek, Gore, Sobbat, Taylor, Dean Markley, Fernandes, Tech-21, Cakewalk, Hamer, Peavey, and Fender and to Thomas Nordegg and Roger Bell for valuable, psychotic tuning-peg modifications. Thank you Steve Vai for determining the contours of the year which dictated the peculiar schedule to which the construction of "Sluggo!" was forced to adhere, and for dragging me around the world a few times. Yo to the Vai band'n'crew. All hail the Sepetys Entertainment Group. Thanks Robert Fripp for making more dreams come true. Thanks, bordering on arm-flailing delirium, to all the musicians on "Sluggo!" Ultrathanks to Bryan and Toss for undertaking HellTour'96. A medal to Ed Lucas for assistance under wartime conditions. Thank you, A LOT, all Keneally enthusiasts. Fate has wreaked havoc upon my letter answering time, for which I apologize, but l'm forever grateful to you. Resonant howdy to all MK Page readers... if you're not one yet go here now please: www.moosenet.com/keneally.html Uhh, what else. Suzanne and Jeff, thank you hugely. Thanks to Scott and Karen AGAIN (yawn). Hooray in extremis for Charlie and Margie. Word to your mother, Ernie Bushmiller. Voopee Dai Deau for John Golden. Yay to they who sanctioned the release of the "Fargo/Barton Fink" scores on one CD. Deep thanks to Judith and Geoff Wills - I KNOW there was something in the room. Thanks again to Bryan Beller. Understand, folks: he is my right hand man with a capital RHM. He saved this album's life. I love and I miss Frank Zappa.

I, BRYAN BELLER, being of sound body and mind, do hereby thank: Scott and Karen Chatfield, Jeff and Suzanne Forrest; Kelly Castro, Darryl Jamison and everyone at SWR; John D'Agostino/Taylor Guitars; Mark Kendrick/Fender; Jon Finn, Rich Appleman, Larry Baione and Peter Gordon/Berklee College of Music; Jim Roberts and Karl Coryat/Bass Player Magazine; Peter Murray/Canadian Musician Magazine; Tech 21/SansAmp; Cakewalk; Peavey; The management, band, crew, and person of Steve Vai; Joanne Bigbee, Frank Briggs, Melissa Carty, Sue Collister, Brad and Shelley Dahl, JoAnn Ekblad, Kim Falcone, Jaye Foucher, Robert Fulton (computer virus-killer extraordinaire), John Hargrave/Zug, Michael Harrison, Loren Kirshenbaum, Rich Lewis, Fuckin' Ed Lucas, Rachael "Alex" Nadel, Uncle Al Natanagara/Fire Pig, Thomas Nordegg, Cindee Pazuros, Stephanie Petersen, Janet Robin, Kim Salt, Blues Saraceno, the stunning Miss Lisa Valentine, Wes Wehmiller, Inga Wohlgemuth, Mike Yee, The Zappa family, Cindy Zeuli, Tracy Zuber, and the readers of LOB. Special Thanks: Mom, Dad and my entire family, Steve W. Rabe (finally, a good deed gone unpunished), Cami Slotkin, Toss Panos, Joe Travers, Mike Keneally (for writing music that makes me sound like I actually know what I'm doing, truth be damned), and my dearest love...M.

TOSS PANOS says thanks to Derek Wiseman at Pearl, Bobby Boos at Sabian, Attack Heads, Regal Tip Sticks and Joe Porcaro Drum Covers.....and thanks to everyone who's letting me sound like myself.
JOE TRAVERS says thanks to DW Drums, Vic Firth Sticks, REMO Heads, Zildjian Cymbals, my family in Erie, PA (including Vinnie) and all my friends in LA. FRANK BRIGGS says thanks to Mary Ellen Briggs, Toss Panos, Paiste Cymbals, Diane Gershuny at Mackie Designs, Ryan Smith at Shure Mics, Tascam, Attack Heads and Noble & Cooley. MIKE MANGINI uses DW Pedals, Gibraltar Hardware, REMO Drums and Heads, Zildjian Cymbals and Sticks, and RHYTHM KNOWLEDGE. Many thanks to these companies and to Mr. Keneally for unselfishly letting me express myself so purely. TOM "TOM" FREEMAN thanx the Coens * Rubens * Python (Monty) * Pryor * Lynch * Fripp * Altman * Magritte * Fellini * Mr. Walt Disney * Miles * Kurosawa * Dali * Tarkovsky * Bunuel * FZ * My distinguished colleagues in the drum chair * Meg/Kai * Viv/Jesse/MK = till the wheels come off!! MARK DECERBO says thanks to my wife, Sandy and to the kids for giving up their time with me to let me do this and to the incomparable Mike K. for choosing my voice to sing of "sex, spuds and hoppin' toads." BOB TEDDE would like to thank Celia Marie Tedde for being perfect in every way. Thanks for the new perspective. And thanks to atticus wolrab for not making me Bun E. Carlos.

This is Keneally again...you might be interested to know that I recorded another song during the "Sluggo!" sessions. It's called "Craney" and it's available on the CD "Mark Craney & Friends-Something With A Pulse". Mark's a brilliant drummer who's played with Jethro Tull, Tower of Power, Eric Burdon and Gino Vannelli, among many others. The proceeds from the CD (which features the above-named artists plus James Taylor, Fairport Convention, Terry Bozzio, Bil Champlin, David Garibaldi, Jimmy Haslip, Alex Ligertwood, Mike Miller, Doane Perry and more) help to defray Mark's massive medical costs - he's been unwell, sadly. Nine of the fourteen tracks on the CD, including two Tull songs, are previously unreleased. Please contact: Laughing Gull Records P.O. Box 5603, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413-5603.

There's a spider on the ceiling. It shall live. MK/BFD out. It's now safe to turn off your stereo.