This song is available on WiMP and Spotify.
I once was in a band called Softcocks. No one else thought much of the name. We were quite happy with it ourselves, but then again, up until we came up with that name, we were called Lazy Sperms. 'Softcocks' was a contraction of the names of two of our mutual favorite bands, Soft Boys and Buzzcocks. I guess we would have made things easier for ourselves had we named our band Buzzboys instead.
Anyway, Softcocks was the first proper band I played in. When we started up, in november 1989, I still only knew how to play two barre chords; the 'E' and the 'A' variant (and I hardly ever got the 'A' right, still can't). We started out with a mix of originals and cover songs (of such rock notabilities as Painters and Dockers, for instance).
Our first months were drumless. Not drummERless, mind you, we had a drummer, Håvard Oppøyen, but he had no drums. The rest of us, Håvard Kløften - bass, Per Fikse - guitar, and Per Terje Smiseth - vocal, weren't that much better equipped either (no pun intended, considering our name). The first rehearsals went along with only two amplifiers: vocals and guitar through one and guitar and bass through the other. Formidablè. Unfortunately, no recordings exists from that period. Actually, we did record our first rehearsals, but cassettes were so expensive back then (you'd get one 60-minute tape for the price of 20-30 CD-Rs today!) that we taped over these recordings once Håvard O half a year later got himself a drumkit and joined us for rehearsals. What a shame!
Over the next couple of years, we steadily got more and better equipment and finally, in the autumn of 1992, we bought an used 8-track tape recorder and a mixing unit (actually, we bought them from Mikkel Eriksen from Grammy-winning songwriting/production team Stargate). Before we broke up the summer afterwards, we had managed to record a handful of songs. In my mind, these songs should have fared better than they did - probably less than 10 people have heard these songs. Well, time to rectify that.
Not To See is a personal favorite from those recordings. It is not written by me, but by Per F. Somehow I think it points forward to Per Fs and my band Fastened Bulbous rather than backwards to Softcocks' admittedly eclectic 10", Popped Out. It was certainly one of those songs that, when I was playing it, made me realize that my pop-days was nearing an end. I wanted heavier and noisier guitars and more non-pop arrangements than what seemed natural to fit into the Softcocks catalogue.
Don't be surprised if more songs from these 8-track sessions turn up later.
what's wrong with a little pop music? :-)
SvarSletti'm assuming that's you doing all the noisy guitars then.
No, no. nothing wrong with a little pop music, I just grew impatient with playing it myself. It probably had a lot to do with my limited technique. I felt more comfortable doing other things. But mostly I wanted to make other kinds of music. I had started listening to post-hardcore bands like Slint, which was a very decisive moment for me, in terms of what I wanted to play.
SvarSlettAnd no, that's not me doing all the noisy bits. I assumed my usual role as the rhythm guitarist on this song as well.