In 2007, Oakland’s Spencer Owen had a Christmas holiday with nothing but an empty house to record whenever he wanted. To pass the time, he decided to record a cover version of Brian Eno‘s Another Green World that he calls Denotation. Owen explains his recording process:
I think ‘Another Green World’ is flawless and Eno’s finest work, but in keeping with the Eno spirit, I feel that part of its excellence is in its openness of practice and interpret-ability, just as one finds in his Oblique Strategies (which I used a bit to help make ‘Denotation’). I covered every track in its original key and kept them in their original sequence, medley-ized a number of them together, and distilled most of them down to their chords and what I perceived to be their signature melodic motifs (in the case of those tracks that are not full-blown pop songs). I called it ‘Denotation’ as a bad pun which also happens to be meaningful. I also watched the original ‘Alien’ trilogy, which I had never seen, during the few days it took to record, so I like to think there is some of that spirit in there.
As Owen says, it’s not exactly a faithful reproduction – Owen adds a bit of sunny-ness to the recording, because, well, he’s a sunny guy. Fast forward to this year, (which happens to be the 40th anniversary of Another Green World), and Owen’s old bandmate, Sean Smith, decides to release it on his Stimulus Progression label and make it an official Cassette Day release. Owen mentions that one of his tracks is on “Burger’s CSD overview Soundcloud playlist, as well, which I believe marks the first and hopefully not final occasion I will share promotional space with Green Day.”
Listen to a couple tracks below, and pre-order via Stimulus Progression. Owen performs with The Spencer Owen Timeshare on Cassette Store Day at Econo Jam Records in Oakland, followed by a Halloween warmup at Santo Recording.
Saturday 10/17 – The Spencer Owen Timeshare play a set as a Cassette Store Day release show
Econo Jam Record
October 17, 2015
4:30pm, FREE
The Spencer Owen Timeshare, LFZ, Black Spirituals, Offing
Santo Recording (2565 West, Oakland)
October 29, 2015
8pm, $8
