Chemicals (band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Chemicals


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Origin = New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Genre = Progressive rock, Alternative
Years_active = 1997 - Present
Label = Madbank Records
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Current_members = Paul W. Duet
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Chemicals is a progressive rock artist from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Chemicals is the solo vehicle for the work of Paul W Duet. He writes, performs, and produces all of the material alone.

Although Paul has never performed live as Chemicals, selected songs have been performed live by his bands The Sparklers (1996-1999) and The Eyes (2000-2001), and Paul has performed many of the songs live with an acoustic guitar.

Artist History

"Toward The Sun" and "The Midnight EP"

"Toward The Sun" was released in 1997. The double album is filled with experimental tracks that were rejected by Duet's band The Sparklers. The recording was done on practically no budget, using a cassette-based 4 track analog recorder. Duet drew influence from his love for 70's progressive rock acts such as Rush for the album's 6 part, 28 minute title suite. The experimental nature of tracks such as "Dark Time" and "You Are The Sun" show the influence of Stephen Berger, whom Duet has repeatedly cited as a great influence throughout his career (especially in the late 90's).

Many of the songs on Toward The Sun were recorded by Duet and his band The Sparklers. Why these songs were not released under The Sparklers namesake is unknown. The Sparklers also performed many of the songs live on numerous occasions. Duet's propensity for going against the grain led to The Sparklers performing entire sets of mostly material that never appeared on any of their albums.

Released in conjunction with the Toward The Sun double album, "The Midnight EP" was a collection of six acoustic tracks that chronicle a sequence of events in Duet's personal life. Apparently he and his then girlfriend were having relationship problems, and the songs on the EP were written about these events.

When the Toward The Sun album was re-released in 1998 as a 2 CD set, most of the songs were completely re-recorded and the entire Midnight EP was included at the end of the first disc. 3 of the songs from the original cassette release were completely dropped from the CD, and are therefore near impossible to obtain.

"Chemicals" and "The Silver Experience EP"

Released in 1999, shortly after the demise of Duet's band The Sparklers, the self titled "Chemicals" is a shorter album filled with simple songs. Gone are the experiments and multi part suites of Toward The Sun, and in their place are catchier, almost pop songs. The only slightly prog song here is the album opener "Reunion".

The album is uneven and mostly regarded as self-indulgent by those who were fans of Toward The Sun. The lyrics are very literal throughout. There are songs that Duet wrote about himself: "Chemicals", "Quick To Feel", and "My Name Is Chemicals", songs about World War II: "Drunk With $" (which retardedly paints the Nazi movement as a money-making scheme) and "RAF", and even songs about bicycles: "Don't Sell My Bike". Duet has even been quoted as saying that the self-titled Chemicals album is full of unfinished ideas and that it is his least favorite work.

None of the songs were ever performed live with a full band, but most of them have been performed by Duet alone with an acoustic guitar on numerous occasions.

Released in 1999 - only a month after the self titled album, The Silver Experience EP is basically a CD single for the non-album track "Mystery". The 3 other songs on the EP are a cover of Thin Lizzy's "Angel From The Coast", a short non-album track called "The Doctor Song" and an acoustic version of "Drunk With $". The 6 min+ "Mystery" is a complex, progressive rock song that Duet felt had no place on the streamlined self-titled album.

Interim. Sparklers reunion rumors.

Late in 1999, The Sparklers were rumored to be getting back together to work on a new album. The truth is that drummer Willie Brunet (who had been living in San Diego, CA since the break up of the band) had expressed interest in moving back to the New Orleans area to record a new album with the band. Duet got to work on material for a new Sparklers album, to be titled "Zoso". When the album was nearly completely written, Brunet broke the news that he was not moving back to Louisiana after all, and the entire album was shelved.

"Code Orange" and "FASD"

Duet had been feverishly writing material for both the 4th Sparklers album and his next Chemicals album. With the Sparklers suddenly gone for good, there were 30+ new songs without a home. Instead of taking the Toward The Sun approach of releasing a big, fat double album - Duet opted to record two completely separate albums at the same time. One would be the radio-friendly, pop-filled "Code Orange" and the other would be the very heavy, experimental "FASD".

Shared themes between both albums are sex and death. Sequels to old songs also appear: such as "Hello" (sequel to "Wasting Time"), "Disco Rich Girls" (sequel to "Television Seeds"), and "Back To The Sun" (part 7 of the ongoing "Toward The Sun" song suite).

Upon its release in 2001, "Code Orange" was pushed hard to radio and media. The album is filled with mostly pop songs, and is quite possibly the easiest Chemicals album to swallow. Duet even did a few college radio appearances to promote the album, and headlined a music festival at a local university with an acoustic set that heavily favored both albums.

"FASD" (released 4 months later, still in 2001) is a heavier, more experimental album. Most of the Zoso material shows up here. Songs such as "Bombs and Mirrors" and "Akeldama" are some of the heaviest to ever appear on a Chemicals album. Duet, in the past, has referred to "FASD" as "the suicide album" as it chronicles a time in his life when he began struggling with depression and anxiety. Although "FASD" was not as widely available (nor as heavily promoted) as "Code Orange", many fans consider it the superior of the two albums.

Both albums were well received by fans, and new fans were gained through the media push surrounding "Code Orange". Most of the songs on both albums were performed live... either by Duet acoustically or with his band "The Eyes". "Code Orange" had a few tracks that were strong enough to be carried over to Duet's band "Game Theory" for their 2003 album "Heavy Glow" (which had a much wider release due to the album being offered for free over the Internet).

Interim. Game Theory & The New Children.

After working exhaustively for 2 years on the albums that would become Code Orange and FASD, Duet put together a new studio in his home and started working with other artists. Long time acquaintances Jerry Martin, Robert Acosta, and others became partners and co-writers in the studio. This time spawned two notable projects... The New Children and Game Theory.

"Manifesto!"

While completing the Game Theory album with friend Jerry Martin, Duet accumulated a large number of new songs... about half of which were very dark and progressive. The rest of the songs were his usual pop/rock flavor. Jerry Martin was asked to co-produce the album... and the first thing he did upon accepting the job was request that all the pop songs be dropped from the track list. Duet agreed and Manifesto! was born. The album is dark and dreary, and has many reoccurring musical themes. The songs themselves are mostly about death.

Manifesto! was the last album recorded at Duet's home studio in Galliano, Louisiana. Similar to the Game Theory sessions, engineering duties were shared by Duet, Jerry Martin, and Jason Trosclair. Upon release, the 10-song album was generally hailed as a concentrated blast of clever prog rock.

"With Eyes Wide Open... I Sleep"

Following the release of Manifesto! were difficult times in Duet's personal life. He went through a divorce, became a father, and fought through some very difficult decisions. Throughout these personal struggles, he never stopped writing and working on new material... "With Eyes Wide Open... I Sleep" is the culmination of that phase of his life. Duet pulled heavily from his own experiences to create an album that is angry and personal.

The end product is a lengthy 16 song album that many lauded as Duet's best work to date. Since the release of With Eyes, Duet has expressed regret in releasing such a long album, and has suggested that in the future the songs may be reordered and released as two albums.

2007. The Future of Music Distribution. No More Albums?

"With Eyes" will probably never be properly released in the CD format. With the availability of music over the Internet, the days of the album (as a collection of music) are numbered. Now, artists can release their music in whatever format and sequence they desire. The industry standard of the 60 to 80 minute longform CD is no longer needed.

From this point on, Duet plans to release new Chemicals material more frequently and in much smaller servings.

2007. Duet builds a new studio and dives into 3 new projects

With the new studio up and running, there are now 3 new Chemicals releases on the horizon. The first will be called "Train Wreck" and will consist of the brand new song (also titled) "Train Wreck", along with a really heavy leftover from the "With Eyes" sessions called "Embrace The Material World" and a few cover tunes.

Second of the 3 projects is "Mellifera", a four-song concept EP.

The final of the 3 planned projects is the long awaited album "A Stunning Turn".

live covers

"Angels" by "Robbie Williams"
"Slate" by "Uncle Tupelo"
"New Madrid" by "Uncle Tupelo"
"Criminal" by "Fiona Apple"
"Mrs Jackson" by The Marvelous 3
"Cherub Rock" by The Smashing Pumpkins
"Passenger Side" by "Wilco"
"Ten Second News" by "Son Volt"
"Fifteen Keys" by "Uncle Tupelo"
"How's It Going To Be" by "Third Eye Blind"
"Morning Glory" by "Oasis"
"Another Day" by "Paul McCartney"
"Here's To The Rest Of The World" by "Whiskeytown"

Discography

Other Misc Recordings

Whatever The Day Brings (Dream Junkies cover)
Alibi (Tait cover)
Alarm Clock Song (Sparklers cover)
Passenger Side (Wilco cover)
Out The Box (unreleased original)
Ordinary Girl (unreleased original)
Poppin Trunks (original from the 2002 Madbank Sampler)
Shine (Sparklers cover from the 2002 Madbank Sampler)
Best Regards (Voivod cover from the 2002 Madbank Sampler)
Tie One On (Rusty Duet Band cover from the 2002 Madbank Sampler)
The End Of The World (Sparklers cover from the 2003 Madbank Sampler)

External links

* [http://www.madbank.org Official site]
* [http://www.myspace.com/madbankchemicals Official MySpace Page]
* [http://www.download.com/chemicals Chemicals on Download.com]