{"id":23100,"date":"2022-06-08T05:30:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T09:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23100"},"modified":"2022-06-05T15:43:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T19:43:14","slug":"everclears-world-of-noise-gets-first-ever-digital-reissue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/08\/everclears-world-of-noise-gets-first-ever-digital-reissue\/","title":{"rendered":"Everclear’s ‘World of Noise’ gets First-ever Digital Reissue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Portland, Oregon based rockers Everclear broke through to the big time in 1995 with \u201cSanta Monica,\u201d a hit track off their major-label debut album, Sparkle and Fade<\/i>. But nearly two years earlier, they crafted a raw, rough and ready musical document, the independently released World of Noise<\/i>. Self-produced by the band led by singer and guitarist Art Alexakis, World of Noise<\/i> fit into the prevailing musical trends without getting overwhelmed by them. As the band embarks upon a 30th<\/sup> Anniversary tour, Everclear\u2019s first musical statement gets a long-overdue reissue.<\/p>\n

Recorded live in a no-frills studio and made with the tiniest of shoestring budgets, World of Noise<\/i> wasn\u2019t originally intended to be an album. Alexakis says that in late 1992 when he put together the band that would become Everclear, he was a 30-year-old with a brand new baby at home. Drawing on welfare benefits to support himself, his girlfriend and baby, he needed the band to succeed. \u201cThis was going to be my last band,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

After a series of false starts, Alexakis found a pair of like-minded Portland musicians. With bassist Craig Montoya and drummer Scott Cuthbert, Everclear got busy. \u201cWe played all year, wrote songs,\u201d Alexakis recalls. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know if this was the band<\/i> or not.\u201d He explains that the only way he could know for sure was to hear what they sounded like on tape.<\/p>\n

One day while digging a ditch for a friend\u2019s garden (and for $200), Alexakis took notice of the activity at a nearby house. \u201cI looked over the fence, and there were all these hipster dudes goin\u2019 in and out of the basement,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cI thought, \u2018That\u2019s a full-on drug deal!\u2019\u201d Alexakis felt he knew a drug deal when he saw one; after years of drugging, he was three years clean and sober.<\/p>\n

But as he soon discovered, he was wrong. The owner of the house in question saw Alexakis watching, and came over to speak to him, asking, \u201cHey, aren\u2019t you in that band \u2013 Ever-something \u2013 that I\u2019ve seen at Belmont\u2019s Tavern?\u201d Alexakis said yes, and the guy responded, \u201cYou should check out my recording studio in my basement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Alexakis realized that even the studio\u2019s rock-bottom rate of $10 an hour was too steep. So he offered some outboard effects pedals in trade. The studio owner valued the gear at $400. \u201cHey,\u201d Alexakis said, \u201cThat\u2019s 40 hours of recording. We\u2019ve got 12 songs!\u201d Everclear spent the next two weeks recording and mixing what they envisioned as a demo tape.<\/p>\n

The songs were furious and compact bursts of stripped-down rock \u2019n\u2019 roll; only one of the dozen tunes lasts past the three-minute mark. \u201cWe were hungry and pissed off\u201d Alexakis recalls with a laugh. The band\u2019s anger came through in the music on songs like \u201cSick and Tired,\u201d \u201cMalevolent\u201d and \u201cLoser Makes Good.\u201d Listening to the album today, some three decades after its creation, Alexakis hears the passion etched into the recording tape. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of energy, a lot of need,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Throughout the sessions, Alexakis\u2019 Fender Super Twin amp \u201cshot blue fire\u201d and emitted squealing feedback; he had to cool down the amp with ice packs. \u201cIn retrospect,\u201d he laughs heartily, \u201cthat was a really stupid idea!\u201d<\/p>\n

But the demo tape got made. While playing an out-of-town gig, Alexakis got word from his girlfriend: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get home,\u201d she told him. \u201cThere are 100 messages on our machine; everybody wants to get you gigs.\u201d Within a year and after a bidding war among labels, Everclear was signed to Capitol. The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

Capitol would reissue World of Noise<\/i> in 1994, but it eventually went out of print. As a result of Alexakis\u2019 canny business sense, ownership of the album stayed with him, so the album didn\u2019t find its way into the world of streaming. But now Alexakis has scheduled a reissue, one sourced from the quarter-inch masters and featuring improved sound. On June 10 \u2013 just in time to coincide with Everclear\u2019s 30th<\/sup> anniversary tour \u2013 World of Noise<\/i> will make its digital debut, with a vinyl release to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost bands got signed for their hit,\u201d Alexakis says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t; we got signed by because [Capitol senior VP] Perry Watts-Russell loved my voice and thought I wrote really good songs.\u201d It was that raw World of Noise<\/i> tape that helped get the band noticed. \u201cIt\u2019s still raw,\u201d Alexakis emphasizes. \u201cIt\u2019s just bigger-sounding now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portland, Oregon based rockers Everclear broke through to the big time in 1995 with \u201cSanta Monica,\u201d a hit track off their major-label debut album, Sparkle and Fade. But nearly two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62,64],"tags":[4854,4853],"class_list":["post-23100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","category-reissue","tag-art-alexakis","tag-everclear","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23104,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23100\/revisions\/23104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}