the History of Angie Fights Crime

angie fights crime came about in the summer of 1997 during a hiatus of the black water, the band I was in at the time. I had always written songs outside of the band, going all the way back to jr high, and thought it might be fun to play a show or 2 of my own original material. the name came from a term for having sex with her boyfriend that my friend angie told me about. “where have you guys been?” “fighting crime” “oh” There was to be 3 shows, with three different styles of music, representing the 3 stages of my musical life. stage 1, punk rock, I got together with Chris Wagner and and we learned 4 or 5 songs and did an open mic at the bottleneck. it was fun. stage 2, was simply called anger, I got together with Tyson Schroeder and Mason Fann and we learned a few tunes to also do an open mic at the bottleneck. we liked playing together so much, we formed a band called Kill.Pop. and played together for a while. Stage 3, which was to be a cure-ish/shoe-gaze sorta thing never really happened, though as I was demoing ideas for this part, I actually got the members of American Catastrophe, who I was playing with at the time, to run through some of the songs, and they said they would be up for doing the show some day, though we did play at my wedding party, and that was fine. The actual show never happened, so I decided to just record all the songs I wrote, and put them out for free on the internet and whatever I needed to do to get the music heard. these are the albums so far…

A is for Apathy - old songs written in Jr High/High School/college, originally recorded with Tyson Schroeder from Kill.Pop./Methods of Man/Medicine Theory on drums at a studio in Smithville MO. I did a remix of some of this later, but really this wasn’t a great project to start out with. It was done at a point in my life when I had all these songs sitting around and I didn’t want to die without getting them recorded somehow. what followed was a whole lot of the same. there were 4 other songs demoed for this that didn't make it. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/a-is-for-apathy
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/a-is-for-apathy-remix

B is for Burnt - the summer of 2005 an old friend came into town and I wrote these songs based on that brief meeting. the first use of garageband and the acoustic guitar that my wife bought me when we got married. this would be the same guitar I would go on to write most of the songs on for the rest of AFC’s short life. it’s an amazing instrument.
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/b-is-for-burnt

C is for Cunt - a throw away, mood music with poetry behind it. few people have even heard this obscure thing. most of the music came from pieces that already existed somewhere in one form or another. the poetry came from a book of poetry I did called “Belinda”. I actually used to write poetry and gave readings. that ended when the music took over.

D is for Destiny - RPM 2007. While listening to NPR, I heard about the RPM challenge, which was started in Portsmouth NH as a musical version of the Write a Novel in a Month challenge, that someone else was doing. Record an album in a month, just because you can, and I thought, that sounds like a great idea. It was February 1, 2007 when I heard about, and I hit the ground running. It was at that point that I thought I would give it a try, and thus in earnest began my song writing adventure as Angie Fights Crime. I tried to write some songs, though most of these were pre-written. Using Garageband, cheap mics, accoustic guitar with effects on it, a four channel mixer with a stereo lineout on it, and using exclusively drum loops from Garageband. thematically some serious stuff as it was a very tragic winter. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/d-is-for-destiny

E is for Everything - RPM 2008, this time I came at it with a plan, 12 songs in all 12 keys, starting at 60 BPM going to 120 bpm and back to 70. the songs were all written about stuff going on around me, this was really the first time i wrote an albums worth of music. the concept helped, i found that having a set something to help me with the process made it much easier. First try at live drum recording, using the Army kit set up at the Reserve Unit.
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/e-is-for-everything

G=Gone 2008 – wrote a song, then another, and got my hands on an electronic drumset, thought I’d go ahead and record them. includes a version of “sorry” which was completely unlike the demo done for “A is for Apathy” also includes words for a song that I wrote a while ago about the Knut Hamson novel “hunger” http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/ggone

N=Noel 2008-2012 – wrote the first of what would become an annual tradition of new takes on Christmas songs, starting with, the Christmas song, with the electronic drumset. I may keep adding to this album until all the AFC albums are done.
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/noel

Ice Castles, Ice Castles – RPM 2009 – the commonality being all the song titles start with the letter I. Tried to get a little heavier at times with this one, harkening back to my Kill.Pop. days, there are some really nice songs on this one. Recorded drums at the Army Reserve Unit.
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/ice-castles-ice-castles

June – 2009 – I had some songs laying around that I was trying to put together a band with, but the band never happened, so I recorded them myself. Using a jaguar with a tremolo, I was going for a My Bloody Valentine sound on this one, and a wall of sound. Also my first collab, with my wife singing a duet on “shutup”.
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/june

the Lake – 2009 – wrote these acoustic songs while on vacation at Lake Michigan. the first three are quiet meditations on the setting, while the last two are about my sister, and my opposition to evangelists. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/the-lake

Murakami – 2009 – while working on “the Lake”, I began to think about a thematic album based on the books of my favorite author. I had started re-reading them all during the summer and eventually came up with a song for all 9 of his major novels. enlisted army reserve singing phenom Ashley Reynolds to handle all the vocals and my sister Melissa to back him up. Sax by army reserve phenom Matt Crandall, live drums n bass with Wayne Buckley, trumpet Nick Proctor, Trombone Chris Reynolds. Easily my favorite album, mostly because I think these are some really fine songs. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/murakami

(un) KIND – 2010 – RPM 2010 – after considerable thought and discussion, I asked my wife to sing this one, she agreed, and also wrote the words. using the electronic drumset I was going for a triphop/massive attack sound with this one, which may or may not have failed depending on your point of view. also my wife who had never done anything like this before was not in the best of shape as she gruelingly belted out the tunes while at a high level of stress. the only album I’ve done to date which I’d love to re-do at some time. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/un-kind

faiths – 2010 – after RPM 2010 I got infatuated with a girl who goes by the name “the Missed Connections” who writes these short little songs full of querky angsty words. I had originally done an all casio keyboard version of an “F” album, with the same titles and words that never actually materialized, so I came up with the plan of doing a collab with my favorite Canadian band, AM/FM Dreams. the idea was that I would write 5 songs and they would write 5 songs and we’d each record covers of the other persons songs. I have to say, their versions blew mine away, both the original songs and the covers. A neat idea I think, and one I returned to later on. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/faiths

Orange – 2010 – I had so many songs laying around at this time, I decided to try 2 albums at the same time. one I would sing and it would be called Orange. a bunch of indy rock songs, trying to write simple, almost popish songs. my first try at 4 mic drum technique in the basement studio known as “the Cave”. they came out ok. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/orange

the Hardest Blow – 2010 – the companion album to “Orange”, written and recorded at the same time, this one would be a bit heavier at times, but instead of me singing it, I enlisted the help of all of my musical friends, and actually got 90% of them to agree. I did have some last minute change-ups as far as who was singing what, but in the end, it was marvelous. special props to KC musical legend Gregg Todt for not only killing it on his track, but also playing some mean ass slide guitar.
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/the-hardest-blow

PENANCE – 2011 – RPM 2011 – the idea for 2011 was that I would write 15 super easy to record punk rock songs, get it done very quickly and then offer my services to other RPMers to help them with their album. Probaby the most personal of all songs that I ever wrote, simply because in punk rock there is no allusion to what you’re saying, it’s right there in black and white. written and recorded in 3 days, and probably needs a re-mix somewhere along the line. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/penance

respite – 2011 – RPM 2011 – so nobody wanted my help, I was stuck with the rest of the month and nothing to do. My plan was a simple keyboard/drums/bass album, written quickly and with 10 lines of words for each song. whereas PENANCE was 1 minute songs, these were mostly 2 minute songs. Some of the most concise writing I ever did and I really love the way this thing sounds. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/respite

Sunny, sorta… - 2011 – after RPM was over I took a little break and didn’t do much until the summer when I started reading my favorite Stephen King book again, The Talisman. Of course it didn’t take long for me to realize that was going to be the next project. I wrote 12 songs based on parts of the book and demoed the ideas. Then I thought about “the Hardest Blow” from the previous year and went a step further. Calling all musicians, who wants to record these songs themselves. needless to say, I was blown away when all 12 songs were picked up by people from all over the world, and what came out was this amazing album, which every artist added their own personal touch to what were already some pretty awesome songs. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/sunny-sorta

Que Vive! – 2011 – and of course while waiting for the Sunny, sorta… album to be finished by the various performers, I thought I’d do a heavy album in the vein of my previous band Kill.Pop. in fact, this is what another Kill.Pop. album might have sounded like if we’d ever stayed together. The theme was the war in Iraq, and also some bits from a few war movies, Jarhead especially about being a trained sniper, but not being allowed to kill someone and getting bent out of shape about it. the title is a French expression during the French revolution meaning “(long) live who?” which basically challenged your allegence to whichever side you may have been on in the war. I love the way this thing sounds, some very good songs on this thing. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/que-vive

Uniform – 2012 – RPM 2012 – and of course, through the process of writing songs, in bands, etc. I realized that there is more than one way to sing the words to a song, and that led me to the concept of Uniform, I wrote 10 lines of poetry and wrote 10 songs and used the same words for all 10 songs. There are some hits of misses on this one, but being a conceptual thing, I think that’s just gonna happen. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/uniform

Trials & Tribulations – 2012 – almost immediately after RPM 2012, I went back to an idea I’d had the year before of doing a theater piece or something with an orchestra. I found a free musical notation software called MuseScore, which also had MIDI playback. what then happened I can only call cosmic inspiration, I plotted out a classical symphony, then took some guitar riffs I had laying around and scored out this behemoth of a piece. scored with a slightly smaller symphony orchestra and limited by the software I was using, this thing was completely scored and done in less than a month. then to add to the rock-n-roll aspect, I took the themes from the orchestra parts and turned them into rock-band outros for most of the songs. Movement IV was later added as a stand-alone rock song. chiming in at 54 minutes long, this thing is monstrous and beautiful and without a doubt the best thing I’ve ever written ever. I enlisted vocal talents from the previous projects, including 5 vocalists from the UK, all of whom sang their hearts out and made this project live and breathe and soar. http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/trials-tribulations

the Vulnerary Songs – 2012 – while T&T was written in March, it took until November to get all the piece together, so of course I had plenty of time to write new songs before then. What was originally going to be RPM 2013, turned into this album after asking an old college buddy, Rob Medcalf if he was interested in coming in to play the drums, and he agreed. since February was so long away, I thought, why not just do it now. Rob was fantastic in his cooperation and we got some amazing sounds out of the old Yamaha Kit. guest vocalist Nikki Goodson came in to do a song I could quite sing right, and the rest is history. The first album that will have a proper full band release in February 2013.
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/the-vulnerary-songs

Witch, Twins, Cat, Ax - RPM 2013 - i had started a new band the year before and there was so much drama involved with members that i started another band in January.  The idea was to take the singer from one band and write songs for her in the new band.  It took up a lot of my previous free time, not to mention the fact that i was taking 9 hours of college courses and had some serious tests around this time.  which left me with RPM 2013.  I had an idea to do a children's musical sort of thing, some thing short, and easy to play live.  I sat down with a guitar and busted out a 20 minute version of themes to use and then promptly wrote the entire thing.  with words and text taken from the russian fairy tale "Baba Yaga", and recorded one afternoon with old friend Tyson Schroeder on drums.  It's live and raw and pretty damn good.
http://alonetone.com/artwhore/playlists/witch-twins-cat-ax
So now what's next, the answer is 3 more letter albums, x, y & z and maybe a restrospective, a cover album, or maybe nothing.  The new band is taking off, and i'm using a lot of my previous free time to work on music for that.  which doesn't mean that I don't still have more ideas in my head than i need.  The plan for the X album will be a collab with all the familuar faces called X-Change, where 10 people write a song and i write 10 songs and we each do covers of them in the vein of "Faiths"  The key would be to get that many people to agree to do it.  i have all year basically, so it's not a huge rush.  then y & z, man, at this point I just don't know.  Y maybe be RPM 2014 and Z may be RPM 2015 with nothing in between.  That's my story anyways, and I'm sticking with it.