The Special Goodness (album)

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The Special Goodness
The Special Goodness cover
Studio album by Patrick Wilson
Released November 21, 1998 (Japan)
Recorded March–April 1996
Tom Ackerman's house
White Horse studios
Genre Alternative rock
Length 37:04
Label Rock Records
Producer(s) Tony Lash
Patrick Wilson chronology
The Special Goodness
(1998)
At Some Point, Birds and Flowers Became Interesting
(2001)

The Special Goodness is the debut album by Patrick Wilson, generally considered to be the debut album by his side-project of the same name.

Overview

The album, which is affectionately known as The Bunny Record due to its original cover art, was recorded in March and April of 1996, before the completion of Pinkerton. The album was recorded digitally, at Wilson's preference.[1] While it is credited on its art as a Patrick Wilson solo release, it is typically considered the first release under his side project The Special Goodness.

All songs were written and primarily performed by Wilson. "Pay No Mind" and "Pardon Me" would be later revisited for the 2003 album Land Air Sea. Though unconfirmed, some fans speculate that the album's lyrics reflect Wilson's experiences during Weezer's initial rise to stardom, and the personal dynamics within the band, specifically disillusionment with rock stardom, and the behavior of Rivers Cuomo from this period.

Release

Jon: So let's talk briefly about your side project. The band's called Special Goodness?

Pat: Yes, The Special Goodness. That will probably be the name of the album and it will be out on Geffen Records.

Jon: And how did the recording go?

Pat: I recorded all the instruments myself, but I had help in producing it from my friend Tony Lash and he's a very thorough engineer. We took a lot of time in order to assure a really smooth sound.

Jon: How did the writing go?

Pat: I did the writing myself, but a lot of the songs were only half done arrangement wise, and he [Tony] helped me a lot with the arrangements, because at that time the whole thing was getting really incestuous with myself. I was just too close and I couldn't see what needed to be done.

Jon: Why did you opt for the single chemistry as opposed to a band chemistry?

Pat: Because dealing with people can be a big nightmare. Not only that, but I just felt like I had these personalities on the drums and guitar and bass, why not see if they made a nice band?

Game Informer interview with Pat Wilson, February 1997

The album was originally set to be released by Geffen Records, and at least two different promo CD-rs for the album were printed and released by the label in late 1996.[2] However, for unknown reasons, the label decided against signing the band, and the album was not released through DGC. The album would ultimately be released exclusively in Japan in 1998, by the indie label Rock Records.

Numerous other attempts to have the album released in America were made by the band, though none were successful. In late 1999, Wilson was in talks with label Loosegroove Records, who would print a handful of prototype CD-r singles containing the song "I'm with You Sister" (alongside two other Bunny Album tracks). Similarly to Geffen, however, this deal fell through. Again in 1999, the label Vast Records (who previously released the tribute compilation Hear You Me! A Tribute To Mykel And Carli, featuring Weezer and related bands) attempted to have the album released in the US through Universal.[3] However, by late 2000, it became clear this, too, would not be possible. With a new Special Goodness album on the horizon (At Some Point, Birds and Flowers Became Interesting) and after multiple failed attempts, a US release of the album was abandoned.

Handmade copies

While the album was released officially in Japan utilizing the standard bunny artwork, there were also numerous (possibly one-of-a-kind) handmade versions sold while the band toured throughout 1999 and 2000. These handmade CD-rss are mostly parodies of popular artwork or other album covers, usually with cut-and-paste images of the members of the hip-hop group Handsome Boy Modeling School placed over faces. The artwork for most, if not all, of these cover variants were done by Karl Koch, working with inspiration from Mikey Welsh, who loved the idea and was an avid collage artist in his spare time on the road. Koch found a large stack of Handsome Boy Modeling School promotional stickers and some discarded promotional CDs at one of the clubs on the Special Goodness 1999 tour, and decided that these elements would be the basis for all CDs sold for the rest of the tour. The very first versions were sold, and then color photocopies were made of some of the favored designs to keep up with the demand as the tour went on. Koch saved a few examples of each, but several were one-of-a-kind and their survival rate is unknown. Some of these alternate releases have been cataloged online. However, as a result of the band's lack of popularity in addition to the album's lack of official release, they are generally sparsely known and rare.

Documented copies

Personnel

Track Listing

All songs written by Patrick Wilson.

No. Title Length
1. "Congratulations"   3:43
2. "Fatigue"   2:32
3. "Pay No Mind"   3:11
4. "I'd Like To Know"   3:54
5. "Conquistadors Of Nothing"   3:59
6. "A Hundred Times As Good"   2:56
7. "Pardon Me"   2:52
8. "A Fortunate Mistake"   6:50
9. "I'm Not Too Proud"   2:28
10. "It's All Here In This Book"   4:42
Total length:
37:04

Gallery

See also

References

  1. Watkin, Paul, & Wilson, Patrick. (January 11, 1997). Rivers Runs Through It - Drummer Patrick Wilson of Weezer. Drop-D Magazine. Retrieved from https://dropd.com/issue/38/Weezer/.
  2. Koch, Karl. appendix B: Solo, Side and Other band releases + related. Collectors Discography. Archived from the original on Weezerpedia at Collectors Discography - Appendix B.
  3. Vast Records. (October 11, 2000). News. vastrecords.com. Archived from the original at https://web.archive.org/web/20020207181330/http://www.vastrecords.com/indexnew.shtml.