Songs Of The Cows, a seven tune, 35 minute EP, was released by Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings on February 20, 1996. As stated elsewhere in this august website, the band were in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time. We sent Marky (our lovable guitar tech) upstairs at this swank hotel the label execs were staying at to get a couple of boxes of 'em so we could sell 'em at shows. It was cool of the label to allow us to do this. They didn't have to so they get points there.

(However don't hesitate to bug 'em by phone about re-releasing the back catalog! They promised to and we're waiting and waiting and lots of people want to get their hands on one or more of those three CD's so: call Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings at (310) 205-7445 and hit the # key to skip the long outgoing msg and tell 'em: "Release the Mermen back catalog!" They don't seem to beleive me when I remind them of a promise they made and a demonstrable demand!!!)

OK. I'm through now. On with the story:

Anyway, when Marky came back downstairs we were waiting in the van for him. It was two o'clock in the morning and the hotel was jumping because a radio convention happened to be taking place on that weekend and all the radio kids were whooping it up. It was a field trip sleep over for the up and coming radioheads. Bless 'em. ANYWAY, we sat in the aforementioned van and ripped the plastic stuff off and looked at our new CD EP. We were so excited. We checked every image, every line of text and we looked at the disc itself. Finally the doorman yelled at us to get our thirty-five foot van and trailer road warrior out of the damn way.

We're still excited now but in a different way.

This EP was recorded in a BIG hurry at a 24 track analog studio in Richmond, California. It was made in three days, in late November, 1995, or was it early December? I can't remember.

Whatever.

What was doubly cool was when we received the vinyl pressing of this EP. We were in Cleveland, Ohio, and I distinctly remember ripping the plastic off and pulling out the record and gazing up at the streetlights through its' deep, translucent blue. Some analog vinylheads complemented us on the sound quality of this record. They said that because the music on either side is about sixteen minutes long the grooves get to have enough comfortable space to resonate in a pleasing fashion. People who love analog in general and vinyl records in particular really understand this stuff. For us, it was the first vinyl that any of the band had ever been on. We were ecstatic. The CD has more cover art then the record but what the heck...

The reason Jim named the album: "Songs Of The Cows" is because he had this dream and when he woke up that morning he was driving somewhere and he saw something and then he was talking to this girl later and she said..... Ahh...you should ask him. He tells the story better.

Come to a show!

Curve (Complete Song)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
Curve (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
Slipping The Glimpse (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
Varykino Snow (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
A Heart With Paper Walls (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
Meandher (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
Brain Wash - What Am I Always Waiting For? (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
Brain Wash - A Kiss (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
Brain Wash - Rumination (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU
Brain Wash - I Of The Moo (Excerpt)	Stereo MPEG	Mono MPEG	Mono AU