Category: Discography

signs.comets

comets
1.Wait, You’re Where…?!
2.Major & Minor.
3.Yes Song
4.Thanks For Visiting Me On The Radio
5.The Bridge (a cosmic consequence)
6.Things We Know Now
7.Midnights and Tape Delays
8.What Sounds Are Real
9.Blues or Astroblue?
10.After the Countdown

signs
1.I Would
2.Roxanne
3.E. Morning (ressurection)
4.Tired Chords
5.Houston
6.Stop Walking
7.E. Afternoon (will)
8.New Title (berlin)
9.Choose To
10.Easter III

After a flurry of early recorded material, howie&scott spent nearly two years (April 02 – January 04) bringing forth a new project. “signs.comets” includes two albums. “Comets” is the follow-up to “near and far,” and introduces a fuller sound and continues the band’s trend towards both memorable lyrical/musical phrases, and adventures into uncharted territories of songwriting. h&s’s fourth effort, “Signs,” becomes stark, with more than a little desperation reaching out through the songs. Notes and words are stripped of all things extraneous, and seem to exist simply in themselves.

It could be said that “Comets” is the record h&s always implicitly promised their friends, their fans, and themselves. Having fulfilled that purpose, “Signs” stretches beyond, and finds… well, maybe each of us will decide what “Signs” is pointing to.

b.sides EP

1.Hymn for our TMD
2.Say Something
3.After Hrs. War
4.Snow in the East
5.Lullaby
6.Was I In Bon Jovi For A Second?

Not only did h&s’s summer/fall 2004 sessions yield two records, but six more songs as well. These are b.sides in the sense that they lay outside the songs of “signs.comets,” representing something different from those projects. Composition of the six spans the writing periods for both “Comets” and “Signs” – “After-Hours War belongs to ‘Signs,’ while the others are from the time of ‘Comets,’ and the writing of Bon Jovi spread out, bridging the two periods,” says howie. The signs.comets sessions yielded material that seemed to naturally coalesce into two albums and one companion volume – “b.sides” is that companion, offering a glimpse into what h&s has become and is becoming, and a chance to enjoy some of the band’s most freely imaginative work.

Blades of Vengeance

Arturo Got The Shaft

Side A – Numbers Stations
1.Pants and Backpacks
2.Still a Princess
3.Only Way She Knows
4.Statement of Purpose
5.Thunderheads and Regrets
6.Geek Reggae Beat
7.Take Me Away
8.Why Don’t You
9.Dude, Did We Go To Canada?
10.Like A Dreamer
11.Hey, Gordon Shumway

howie&scott

Side B – a light burning [live 12.OCT.02]
12.4B
13.JATC
14.nexus
15.under
16.constellations
17.astroblue
18.my friends
19.broken anger
20.wouldyoulookatthat
21.so in love
22.place
23.alight
—bonus tracks—
24.answer [live 18.OCT.02]
25.yes song [h. live 26.OCT.02]
26.long train [h. live 26.OCT.02]
27.S.O.S. [h. live 26.OCT.02]

“Blades…” is a double-live release between Arturo Got The Shaft (Side 1 – Numbers Stations) and howie&scott (Side 2 – a light burning [live 12.OCT.02] ). The two bands teamed up for a massive tour through Nebraska and Kansas in October 2002, known as the (r)ocktober tour. The shows were taped, and the result exclusively released online as an album in mp3-format. The Shaft’s tunes were pulled from many different shows, while the h&s side contains a full set from October 12th at the 13th Street Coffeehouse in Omaha. Side 2.1 includes 4 tunes from other shows too good to leave off the album, including new howie&scott songs “Yes Song” and “S.O.S.”

Near and Far

1.Staircase
2.Cornerstone
3.Well
4.Fourbee
5.You Have The Go-Ahead
6.Nexus
7.The Broken Anger
8.Place Where Something Fell
9.Outside The Crater
10.You Already Know The Answer and I’m Not Joking
11.I’m So In Love (And Never Thought That It Would Be You)
12.Constellations
13.Under My Protection

8 months might not seem like a long turnaround between records, but h&s were in Columbus NE for four days recording with Fred Ritter over New Years’ 2001-02, less than a year after beginning to write music and releasing “Bigger Sounds From Fewer Folks.” The songs written immediately after the first record and over the summer were generally passed over in favor of newer material and a fuller sound. “near and far” outpaces the pleasant meanderings of the band’s previous effort with a confident stride and a broader palette of sound, including more voices and drums, hints of pop-style verse/chorus/verse songs, a sprinkle of strange effects, and an Armstrong-esque jazz scat. This music is not for the faint of heart, mind, soul, or sound.

Bigger Sounds from Fewer Folks

1.Spectrum
2.Dispassionate One
3.Nebula
4.Just Around The Corner
5.Mightier Than The Sword
6.Long Train Runnin’
7.Cloud 9
–tracks 8 & 9: mp3-only bonus tracks–
8.Nebula (Hard Vacuum Mix)
9. Dispassionate One (Conga Mix)

“Bigger Sounds…” was made in howie’s college dorm room in the spring of 2001. The band had only begun writing and playing original material a few months earlier, but there was already a feeling that a record would be good to put out for people. 150 copies of the master were burned onto CD-Rs, packaged with home-printed labels (thanks Allen Gilbert) and sold in about 8 weeks. The album captures the earliest aural picture of howie&scott – entirely acoustic, ranging from a bit folky to a bit progressive, elements of earth and space united in a different way of rocking.

-h, 2011