Cadillacs & Tarantulas Archive

10-song CD released in 2002 (the CD actually includes a bonus track). The songs on this collection are stripped down, in an Americana and Folk-Blues style. Dark, character-based songs and a funky bonus track. The recording is available on CD only, and Amazon won’t carry it due to the non-standard packaging. Once the original run is gone, that’s it.

When I returned to writing and recording after the release of MANDALA, two sets of songs began to develop. One set was a natural extension of the MANDALA material, featuring multiple instruments, sequencing and rather ambitious production techniques. Those complex songs soon got out of hand as my computer struggled to keep up with the sequencing requirements, and I struggled to find hard drive space for all the parts. It was obvious to me that those songs were going to take more time to develop.

The other set of songs was more acoustic, and spoke from a slightly different place in my psyche. In the wake of MANDALA, I knew I wanted something gritty. Something simple. Something more real, and less flashy. Thus began Cadillacs & Tarantulas. Cadillacs & Tarantulas (C&T for short) represents a departure from my ultra-produced recording methods, and marks a return to the more acoustic format that I have been known for since the early 90s. The songs are more intimate, and more closely reflect my live shows. When recording the songs, more emphasis was placed on the energy and tone of the performance than technical proficiency. I wanted to highlight the vocals and the lyrics.

The decision to keep things simple was just as much a practical consideration as it was creative. Given enough time, I knew could have recorded all of these songs with full arrangements. The question was, how much time did I have, and how crazy did I want to get? MANDALA was two years of recording and mixing, and I knew I wasn’t up for that again. As usual, my yearly winter sinus problems would contribute to significant time away from the project. Towards the end of the project I reached the height of my illness, with almost all of March 2002 spent with severe sinus problems and that NyQuil numbness I hate so much. The decision to strip down the production turned out to be wise, for there was no way I would have had the time or energy to do otherwise.

Most of the CD features more honest songs. These darker songs include a couple lost gems from my archives, but most of the songs were written between 2000 and 2002. It felt good to have fewer songs about me, and more songs about ideas and strange characters.Even though I may make them occasionally, comparisons with MANDALA really aren’t fair, since that album was written and recorded under completely different circumstances. I don’t think you can really call it a follow-up to MANDALA either. C&T is more a Jeremy dePrisco record than anything I’ve released thus far. I purposely wanted to work on this project alone, from writing to mastering.

Original Art by Jeremy dePrisco

Diatribe - When I lived in Harrisburg, there was a Chinese restaurant near my apartment. One day I decided to go there for lunch by myself. A family was sitting at the table next to me, and I overheard some of their conversation. They had obviously come from church, and they were reflecting on the sermon that day. I don’t know what bothered me so much about their talk, but from an outsider’s perspective, they just seemed to be going through the motions.

Jack Smack - This song originally appeared on my MINDSPEAK VII collection back in 1993. It was written during a period when I was going out on my own more, enjoying the freedoms of a driver’s license. At the time it was written, I admittedly identified with Jack’s character, and some of what I wrote reflected how I felt about relationships at the time. These days, I appreciate the song more from a third-person perspective, and when I was looking for songs for this CD, Jack Smack seemed to fit in with the other characters. Ironically, while driving home from practice one night, I saw those red and blue lights again and got a speeding ticket.

Original Art by Jeremy dePrisco

She’s Done Enough - This song is a good example of my delayed writing habits. I’m finding that I tend to writing about things as much as two years after they’ve happened. For many reasons, “She’s Done Enough” was difficult to write. Finding a way to be compassionate toward an ex-lover without pissing off your wife isn’t easy. I liked the emotional impact of the chorus, and the mood set by the music, but it took me a long time to find the right combination of words for the verses.

8-track Underground came quickly and became an easy way to lighten up some of the darker aspects of “Cadillacs & Tarantulas.” I really do have a small collection of 8-track tapes, and two 8-track players.

Put The Face On - With PTFO I was seeking to compare and contrast the life of a prostitute and a teen pop diva. I drew from my readings of Janis Ian and my viewing of Britney Spears. I saw a link between the type of posturing and prostituting that goes on in the music business and it’s even more violent sexual equivalent. In my own travels I had watched as local female sing-songwriters were gobbled up and spit out. The majority of them lacked vision, and they were simply the puppets of other people who were trying to cash in on the recent craze.

Original Art by Jeremy dePrisco

Dream Girl - The character in “Dream Girl” is related to the character in “Put that Face On”, but more from a die-hard fan’s perspective.

Arjuna Blues was inspired by both the Mahabarata and the Bhagavad Gita. After reading the Bhagavad Gita, I was struck by the power of Krishna’s message. During the same time period, I was listening to a lot of acoustic blues music. I wondered what it would be like if Krishna had a guitar instead of a flute. I wanted to put some of his message into the blues idiom, contrasting nicely with the bold Hindu concepts. This type of songwriting approach can be attributed to my love of shows like “Iron Chef”, where cuisines from many countries are combined.

Spider - Every few years, I feel the need to write a pseudo-fairy-tale song. The crop out of my mind late at night, and I can’t always claim responsibility for their meaning. They usually start with free-verse brainstorming, but this one required a bit of research. The obvious tie-in with the album title was unintentional. As part of my lyric writing process, I researched tarantulas, consulted my J.R.R.Tolkien books, and observed some real life spiders over the course of the summer. Soon before Halloween 2001, I found The Book of the Spider by Paul Hillyard at the local library. Paul’s book was just what I needed to round out my research and develop the rest of the song.As all the pieces came together, the song turned into a full-blown sci-fi/horror story that required characterization and dialog. As the story unfolded, I found myself noticing spiders everywhere. When I moved into a house built in the late 1800s, I noticed even more spiders. Soon I had begun to identify with the character in the song even more.The guitar part, in DADGAD tuning, was not interesting enough for an extended version. In the future I’d like to do a larger production.

Original Art by Jeremy dePrisco

The Gravedigger was a direct result of a character exercise derived from two books: Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field and The Writer’s Guide to Character Traits by Linda N. Edelstein. The character of Jacob Corby came to life quickly and vividly, but his story took a little longer to unfold. I didn’t want to make him just another dumb guy with hard times. I also wanted to subtly reflect some Buddhist ideas of suffering.Toward the end of the writing process, my friend Jim asked me to supply a song for a Dungeons & Dragons module he was playing. His description of the characters in the game brought to mind Jacob Corby, so we modified the words to “Gravedigger”, and came up with a totally new story. The new song would be used in the game to provide hints for the characters about the adventure they were on.

I’m Goin’ Down was written on my dad’s cheap hand-made electric guitar during a visit to Hazleton. The guitar was unplugged and had poor intonation. The original version of the guitar riff was much more funky, but when I got back home and played the riff on a good instrument, the vibe wasn’t the same because my guitars were in tune. Not having a tuning reference, all I could come up with was an approximation of the first moment. The lyrics, except for the bridge, came all at once. The bridge lyrics came later when I was driving home from practice. The rather dark humor of this song coming after Gravedigger may be missed my some.The bass drum sound is actually a stomp box that I made out of a cardboard box.

Original Art by Jeremy dePrisco

1947 Cadillac - www.webtec2000.com used with permission.

Most of the songs were recorded live with two CAD M177 condenser mikes (one on vocals, one on guitar) with minimal overdubs and effects on the Roland VS-1680. On some guitar tracks, I used a combination of mike and pickup.

“Gravedigger” was prodcued differently to add variety, and I felt the song needed drums to push it along. Sonic Foundry Acid Pro 3.0 and Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0 were used to synchronize the drum samples to the rest of the audio on the Roland 1680. Compression was not used anywhere in the recording process, only in the mastering. The volume of the tracks was maintained at the input stage, and carried through in the mixing. I feel this gives a more direct impression of the music, even when occasional saturation occurs.

Mastering was done with Sound Forge 5.0. I used the Wave Hammer plug-in on the soft compression setting, and then normalized each song to -1.0 db to avoid clipping while still maintaining the maximum volume of the recording. CDs were burned with Easy CD Creator 4.0. Note: The decision to self-produce (instead of using a duplication house like Oasis) was purely a matter of logistics and finances. Oasis did a great job on my first CD, Mandala, but C&T was a much smaller project with a much smaller budget. Main instruments:

Ovation Custom Balladeer super shallow bowl, Lark acoustic, Alvarez 6-string acoustic, American Standard Strat, Washburn Axxess Bass, Musician’s Friend Stomp Box.

Original Art by Jeremy dePrisco

When I was coming up with the title concept, I knew that artwork would be a challenge. Inspired by how cool effects were pulled off with models in the Star Wars movies, I chose to use miniatures. I knew I would not have the opportunity to photograph a real tarantula, and I knew it would be hard to spot a Cadillac with a camera in my hand.

Here’s how it was done:

Using some toy tarantulas I bought at Klyde Peeling’s Reptile land (see my travel page), and a 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz replica by Yat Ming from KayBee Toys (1:18 gauge) , I used my brother’s Fuji Finepix 2600 Zoom digital camera to capture the raw images. After a number of tries, I found that foam board (from Walmart) made the best backdrop and natural light was best at bringing out details. I used the highest resolution possible. The original images were then archived on my laptop for editing (my laptop has better resolution than my desktop PC).

As I went through the images using Paint Shop Pro, some lent themselves to being turned into lo-fi images like the ones used for the web site and CD cover, while others could be made into wild full-color graphics for the other promotional items and areas of the site. In all, I created over 300 images.

Using Word 2000, I came up with some basic templates and the rest was just trial and error until a functional design was achieved. The fonts are Algerian (title), Alaska Bold, and Arial (lyrics).

The decision to self-produce (instead of using a duplication house like Oasis) was purely a matter of logistics and finances. Oasis did a great job on my first CD, Mandala, but C&T was a much smaller project with a much smaller budget.

My decision to provide lyrics for Cadillacs & Tarantulas CD packaging was prompted by a sense that they deserved to be published, unlike the lyrics to MANDALA, which anyone could figure out. These songs are a little more open to interpretation, and I felt my lyric writing had improved.

Cadillacs
French explorer and colonial administrator who founded Detroit, Michigan (1701), and was governor of Louisiana (1711-1716).

A large pear, shaped like a flattened top, used chiefly for cooking. –Johnson.

cadillac, MI (city, FIPS 12320)
Location: 44.24827 N, 85.41610 W
Population (1990): 10104 (4298 housing units)
Area: 17.3 sq km (land), 4.6 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 49601

Type of automobile.

Tarantulas are a family of spiders that can actually be divided into over 700 different species. They can be found in Central and South America, portions of the United States and parts of the Middle East. Tarantulas have hairy bodies from 1-4 inches in length, eight eyes and two fangs that curve downward. The hair on the spider’s body serves as a sensor of any slight movement and alerts it to any prey nearby. Tarantulas make their homes in burrows in the ground, tree holes and rotting logs. The web of a tarantula can be used to capture prey, but it is also used to hold and protect her eggs. Most smaller tarantulas eat insects while larger species can capture frogs, snakes, baby birds and small rodents.

Original Art by Jeremy dePrisco

Thanks to the following people…

My teachers
Rev. Patricia Dai-En Bennage, Gen Kelsang Norden, Anthony Stultz, Rev. Eko Little, Buddha

Friends & relatives, but especially…
Mom & Dad, My wife Audra, Justin & Ashley dePrisco, Dave Blackledge, Tom Dennehy, Mike Maguire, Steve Schrum & Dianna Bourke, Mike Kattner, Bill King (again the ONLY lighting man you need), Amethyst (Dave Avillion, Matt Mariano, & John Enama), Roger Schoch, The Isenbergs, John Hearity, Jim & Mary Rose Hearity, Pete Longo, Jason Palmer, David Booth, Jason Ramsland, Thom Greco, The Rainbow’s End, Karen Wisotzkey, Maria Wilson, Donna Gildner, Liz Hametz,. Danny Demelfi, Matt Homiak, Jim Nowak. Ed Debes, George Graham, Ian Anderson & Jethro Tull, and Tom Waits.

Companies & Organizations
Roland, Fender, Alesis, Microsoft, Avery, Cakewalk, Folk Alliance, CAD, ART, Sure, Wray’s, C&C Music & Ray Carb, Johnny Moratto, Journal Newspapers, School House Music and General Motors.Thanks to all the teachers & professors, musical & otherwise, co-workers past & present, and everyone who has encouraged me over the years.

About the title…
The title “Cadillacs & Tarantulas” came about long before the album was even in production. My friends and I play a little game where we try to come up with strange combinations of words that often lend themselves to band names or album titles. It doesn’t take much to get us going, and sometimes the results are rather off-color. We tend to automatically associate words that don’t necessarily go together.Rewind to 2000 when I was working at HealthAmerica in Harrisburg. One of the projects I was working on required assistance from a database programmer from Pittsburgh, Bob Shay. Bob came to Harrisburg for a few days to help me, and I got to know him a little bit during lunch breaks and drives to the office. Bob told me when he rented a car for the trip, he was looking for something small and practical. The car rental place was out of almost everything, and all they had was a big red 1999 Cadillac.Bob was married, had kids, and looked like your everyday computer programmer (whatever that is), but under the surface, Bob was quite interesting. He liked rock music and exotic animals. He told me about his menagerie of pets which included reptiles, birds and… you guessed it, tarantulas. The whole office was surprised on casual day when Bob rolled up his sleeves to reveal an arm-load of tattoos.So that’s the intellectual explanation, but what does it really mean? Well, I guess if I wanted to be metaphorical, I’d say that as an artist I’m trying to shed light on the things that are both practical and impractical. I’m also fascinated by the struggle between what we see every day and what lay beneath the exteriors of people’s lives. The characters in “Cadillacs & Tarantulas” aren’t perfect, and they aren’t always what they seem. Even my own perception of them has changed while making this recording. And I know that I have changed.Bob is probably still with the company, while I’ve moved on to other things. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to thank him for the inspiration.

The Cadillac Trademark is used with the required express written permission of General Motors.

10-song CD released in 2002. Features all new material in a stripped down Americana and Folk-Blues style. Dark, character-based songs and a funky bonus track. The recording is available on CD only.

1. Diatribe 2:25
2. Jack Smack 3:07
3. She’s Done Enough 4:27
4. 8-track Underground 1:58
5. Put That Face On 4:07
6. Dream Girl 4:22
7. Arjuna Blues 5:15
8. Spider 4:43
9. The Gravedigger 6:29
10. I’m Goin’ Down 2:35

The Official Cadillacs & Tarantulas Web Site