Notice: Persons attempting to find a "text" in this [story] will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a "subtext" in it will be banished; persons attempting to explain, interpret, explicate, analyze, deconstruct, or otherwise "understand" it will be exiled to a desert island in the company only of other explainers. †

Factor 8

One of my high-school bands was named Factor 8 (think proverbial Eight Ball) and I played bass. My brother Brian was kind enough to dig up a little ear candy from “the early years.” If you’ve ever been interested in knowing how a couple of pimply-faced teenagers interpret “alternative funkadelic hillbilly folk”, by all means have a listen.

Before you download the song, you should know that Factor 8 was inextricably inspired by the following musical grandfathers: Clapton, Hendrix, The 5th Dimension, Green Day, Nirvana, Filter, and most importantly Cotton-Eyed Joe. See if you you can pick up the following subtleties (extra points if you can spot the theme):

0:00 - Amazingly bad bass solo in the wrong time signature
0:07 - Bass slide
0:11 - Bass slide
0:38 - Percussive bass slap!
0:52 - Bass slide
1:33 - Bass slide
1:39 - Bass slide
1:54 - Bass slide
2:10 - Bass slide

Factor 8 - Cotton-Eyed Joe

9 April 2007