This is why I remember their birthdays...

Kyle & Raegan celebrating my 30th birthday in May 2007.

My favorite married couple are Kyle & Raegan Sonnenberg, and this is their birthdays.  It's easy to remember because they were born on September 25th and September 26th in the same year (I'll withhold their birthyear, in case they care to keep that information somewhat classified).  For many of the past several years, I have sent one email to both of them as the clock turned to midnight between the two dates.

This year I consider to be an extra special birthday though, because Kyle has a gig tonight at Sail Inn.  Actually, it's less the gig that makes it special and more the fact that (A) I will get to see him to celebrate his birthday ON his actual birthday, and (B) I have a very unique birthday present for him.

Back on February 8, 2012, I wrote a blog entitled "This is not an emergency" about the Caterwauls.  Towards the end, I noted my latest endeavor of making a Caterwauls Live CD of that title, having recently discovered how to extract a single song into MP3 format from a video.  I had a handful of live performances from 2005 and 2006 from which to choose, and after several months of attention and several months of neglect, I completed the project and "This Is Not An Emergency" is ready for release!  For the most part, I am using "completed" in the Tom Petty sense of the word when he said, "you never finish an album, you just abandon it."  And I am using "release" completely incorrectly as distribution of the album will be limited to a handful of people.

Initially, I had the Audacity to hope I could eliminate the drone of chatter on almost every recording, but unfortunately, that program could do a lot of things (mostly beyond my scope) but it would take a far greater piece of technology than Audacity to pull off that trick, so I stayed with what was within my $0 budget.  Honestly, I think that chatter adds an element of liveliness to the album as a whole now.  Additionally, I was hoping to be able to get all of the recordings to sound mostly identical, but again, it was impossible without the patience of a saint (or, at least, the knowledge of a music producer), so I have grown to appreciate the album as a collection of live tracks.  It comes off better than trying to make the album sound congruent.

Finally, there was the selection of tracks to be considered.  This was where I am most pleased.  Many of the songs never appeared on a Caterwauls album, and some others have never been released by Kyle Sonnenberg on any album.

Final version of my cover for the Caterwauls live CD.

1. Emergency. Title track, and one of my favorite songs when I first started following the band in 2004.  Kyle played this song (much to my surprise) at the First Friday event at the Paper Heart in May 2006.  I had organized the evening myself, and (having nothing to do with the Caterwauls) it was nearly disastrous.  Regardless, I was thrilled to learn that I had this track recorded and that thrill inspired this entire project.  This song was never recorded for any (other) album.

2. Happy. Easily my favorite of Kyle's songs, and sometimes, I even list this track as my favorite song period (although Great White's "Psychedelic Hurricane" may have it beat, in all honesty).  I figured if this album were my project, then my favorite song was required.  Plus, if I were to listen to any Caterwauls CD, then I would want to hear this song, so I made sure that happened here.

3. Sweet Honey.  This track also came from the Paper Heart show, and Kyle gave it a humorous introduction.  Including some of those random introductions was important to me because it captured the *fun* of attending Caterwauls live shows.  Most times, I would laugh almost as much as I would dance (and the Caterwauls remain the only live band to get me out on the dance floor).  Kyle recorded this song for one of his miscellaneous solo albums, but it never appeared on a Caterwauls CD.

4. Claustrophobic/Punk Song.  This song was the first song on the first studio album "Prescription Pill," a point that is documented at the outset of this track where Sam Conrad surprised Kyle and Tony with the CDs.  Kyle humorously quips that "this is our CD release party, HOW HUGE CAN THIS GET!"  Which was especially funny to a room of less than a dozen people.  That interaction justified its inclusion, although the performance of these songs was phenomenal.  I didn't use performance as a factor on whether or not to include a song.  If I had, then the track listing would probably look a lot different.

5. Someday. Another song that the Caterwauls played at so many shows, but it slipped through the cracks when it came time to record an album.  More often than not, this song was performed on acoustic guitar, and it captured the uniqueness of the Caterwauls almost perfectly (punk, funk, & melodic junk).

6. Stonehead Guru. This song was a gem with Tony Juarez on drums, and they even recorded for their first studio album, but for whatever reason (i.e. Kyle wasn't satisfied with it), it was nixed from the finished product.  Lucky for me, it was included on their official website but I could not download those tracks.  Kyle recorded this track with DSFA in Canada and recently brought it into SFA sets, but this is only recording I have of the Caterwauls performing it.

7. Song In Progress. This song was never quite finished, but Kyle played it a few times live.  Unfortunately, this particular show was a sketchy performance and one that I'm sure Kyle would not endorse its inclusion, but I did not have the heart to remove it based on how catchy the rhythm of the song is and my pure amusement in the opening and ending interaction between Kyle and Sam.

8. Interplanetary Picture Show. This performance was only done because I requested it, and I requested it because I wanted to have a recording of the song.  Quite perceptive of me, eh?  This song had great potential, and the lyrics were so far out there that it truly felt he made an interplanetary connection with another galaxy.  This song was not released on any other album.

9. Blissful Kisses. These last three songs are fittingly together because they were the last three songs I tacked onto the album before I considered it finished.  This song was filmed in May 2006 at a sports bar that was playing the Edmonton Oilers bid for the 2006 Stanley Cup, a point worth noting since Kyle called a goal at one point in the song.  This song was always a personal favorite, but it was mainly included on this album because (A) of the Oilers goal, and (B) I liked how Kyle ended the song live more than how he recorded it on "Rozepedals" (the second studio album).  The performance itself was a little sloppy in parts, but the song itself can make up for any of those shortcomings.

Back cover  (track listing) of the live Caterwauls CD.

10. Judgment Day. This song was another favorite, but I only had one recording of it and, initially, I did not think it was good enough to be included on the album.  But when I returned to the project after shelving it for several months, I could not find out why I ever objected to it.  It was written in 2004 with the Presidential Election looming closer and closer.  Religion was often overpowering more relevant issues on its own merit, so (although Kyle and I are miles away in our religious views) I respect every word in this song!

11. Setting Son. This song is never one of my favorites, but it was one of few recordings I had where Kyle signed off, so I decided to include it.  This performance was from August 2005 when Caterwauls competed in a Battle of the Bands after performing a full set at Rio Salado Brewery a couple hours earlier.

Overall, there is no way Kyle will appreciate this album as much as I will.  But I know he will appreciate the effort behind it.  After all, not many local musicians have fans who would make their own album of a band as a labour of love.