* Few copies available, in process of being stocked * Special bundle taht includes all three 2023 reissues of 75 Dollar Bill first three cassette tapes

75 Dollar Bill – Cassette

As far as I can tell, our first cassette, originally released in 2013, was assembled from live recordings from the Manhattan Inn, the Greenpoint restaurant bar (part owned by my childhood friend Rolyn Hu) where we had our first show, and practice recordings from Rick and Sue’s old studio in the Pencil Factory Building. Listening to this album 10 years later, it’s apparent how important our first year as a band was in laying the ground work for what has come since (we repeat ourselves!). Our basic concept of playing variations within a pretty limited set of rhythmic and modal materials is already in place on the early, duo versions of “Every Last Coffee or Tea” (later to appear with expanded ensemble on _I Was Real_) and “Beni Said, Pt.2”. “Part 1” got an overhaul before the whole tune was given a similar ensemble arrangement on _W/M/P/P/R/R_ (as it happens, Rolyn turns up on a track on that record too). The other two tunes are ones that have never been “properly” recorded. “Water in the Lock”, at under four minutes, may have been our first attempt at a concise tune, and represents another tendency that’s stuck with us, which is tunes that have almost no variation or improvisation at all. My guitar riff repeats without variation pretty much the entire tune while Rick alternates between a driving 5/4 beat and its halftime foundation. When my guitar part finally breaks form it’s just to signal the end. As for the long track that takes up the whole first side of this tape, it was named in homage to Najeeb, a young Tunisian man with Down Syndrome I’d met a few years earlier while traveling in Kairouan, Islam’s 4th holiest city. Najeeb would hang out at the cafe all day and the other guys would buy him sodas while he’d crack them up with fantastical and occasionally lewd bits about physical love, flying airplanes and tourists. Never missing an opportunity for a send up of the local religious piety, he’d attempt to order a drink you couldn’t get at this cafe, or anywhere as far as I know, وسكي بالحبرورش or “Whiskey with Hail”. - CC August 2023 

75 Dollar Bill – Olives In The Ears

On our second cassette, released in 2014, Rick and I are already bringing friends into the mix. Sue Garner, Andrew Lafkas and Karen Waltuch join us on two tracks here, both recorded live at Troost, the Greenpoint watering hole that was so crucial to us as we were getting our thing together those first few years (see _Social Music at Troost, Vols 1-3_). Sue and Rick have been in bands together since the mid-80s, so it was just a matter of time before her multiple talents as singer and bass/rhythm player came into the fold. It’s always a treat when we can work some singing into our sets and, despite the low-fi nature of this recording, Sue’s vocal and maraca playing really shine on the Allen Toussaint/Pointer Sisters classic, “Yes We Can Can”. I had seen Karen and Andrew playing around town and admired their playing, and finally got to meet them while playing amplified strings in a Tony Conrad ensemble circa 2012, right around when Rick and I were starting to play together. They were probably the first people to come rehearse with us and appear here on what has become our most often played (and recorded song) “WZN#3”. The title of this album refers to another pal (and excellent slide guitar player), Zeke Healy who, when seated right next to Rick’s stack of broken cymbals at a gig at Troost, put olives in his ears in lieu of earplugs. The influence of my visit to Mauritania the previous year is starting to show here too, with the various “WZN” titles referencing wezin, the instrumental dance numbers played at Mauritanian weddings, where the guitar/tidinitt players get to show off and work the crowd while the singers rest their voices. I seriously doubt that any of our tunes would fly at a Mauritanian wedding, but it was a way of at least paying homage to the incredible music I got to experience there, in situ, and my crash course in Moorish modes and rhythms with the great Jeiche ould Chigaly. The remainder of the songs in this collection are “studio” tracks, recorded by Rick during our practice sessions in our old practice space in the Pencil Factory building, and then adulterated with close mic’d cardboard tubes, feedback effects and the occasional looped figure… - CC August 2023 

75 Dollar Bill - Southeaster b/w Like Like Laundry

Reissue of our 3rd cassette, originally released in 2015. Clocking in at nearly 70 minutes of music, this album features a selection of in-the-rough gems from our ever expanding archive. Track/Side one, "Southeaster" features a collage of phased out guitar & drum jams, spectral fiddle music and percussion/horn blowouts originally assembled for our 2015 South East tour CD-r. Beginning and ending sections feature some great guitar work by old friend and collaborator, Steve Maing. Track/Side two features a side-length performance of "Like Like Laundry". Often a part of our live set whenever we can get Andrew or Cheryl to sit in with us, this is the first recording of "Like Like Laundry" (not to be confused with "Like Laundry") we've made available. Andrew (upright bass) and Cheryl (bari sax) are both in top form here, fusing with Rick's box to create shifting rhythmic pockets in the lower registers to great effect. A half hour of variations on a single rhythmic vamp. 

Original liner notes:

"STRINGS, HORNS, PERCUSSIONS, ULULATIONS: PLEASE CONSIDER 75 DOLLAR BILL FOR YOUR: WEDDINGS-DANCES-PROCESSIONS-FUNERALS-PROTESTS-PLEASUREMENTS. TENT MUSIC FOR TENT PEOPLE"