JARVIS - 1st Demo - Tape - 1999

   JARVIS got together in 1999 in Huntsville, AL to write some excellent punk/pop-punk/Region Rock that continues to inspire me. Recording studios and options were slim during these days of punk in Alabama (and I'm sure they still are), so, if memory serves me correctly, JARVIS recorded this first batch of their songs with some goth/industrial dude at his house. When they got there, he told them to set up and then informed them that they would have to record each track separately because he either didn't have enough mics or he had obviously never recorded a punk band before. They were thrown into an utterly confusing recording session where the drums were recorded first, then the bass, then the guitar and then the vocals, rather than recording it all together like most punk bands do. I'm surprised that it came out as good as it did. (I'm not gonna lie...the sound quality on this is atrocious, but I still love a bunch of these songs. If you're reading about this band for the first time, I would suggest starting here).
  Quite a few of these songs never appeared on their other tapes or their 7". "Maids N Butlers" was one of the first songs I ever heard by them and I knew when it got to the first breakdown that I had a new favorite band. "I'm Gone Man" is also excellent and hints at the rock that Ryan (bass/vox) would be bringing with later bands like TRUE STEREO. "Sequence" was recorded at a practice and it's hard to tell what is happening in the song but still manages to have a completely badass breakdown. "The Dick Van Dykes" was the name of a sort-of hardcore band that I was in that shared a drummer (Bob) with JARVIS. We took on a challenge with JARVIS to see who could write a better song in the shortest amount of time. I think the time limit for writing the song was one minute. We won. Then, JARVIS stole our song. The song "...Reed" was one of the last songs RICE HARVESTER ever wrote (Harry's old band...the guitarist/vocalist), but it had completely different words. It's about Jarvis Reed (yes, the band's namesake), this kid that Harry's mom sort-of-non-legally adopted when he was younger. Jarvis was staying with them because his mom was addicted to crack and a mess. Harry and Jarvis hung out every day when they were kids, but as they got older, Jarvis went to a different school and they hung out less. Harry was never sure if Jarvis ashamed of him or if he thought vice versa...and he never found out because Jarvis died. I don't remember the circumstances, but it's a sad story.

   JARVIS Tape