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Members of the band were
Scapedog was a campus band at Carleton College from 1990 to 1993. We played at a lot of campus events and in the Cave fairly regularly. People didn't seem to mind us all that much, despite the fact that we wrote most of the songs we played in the first six months of our existence and then just kept playing them until we graduated. If we were ever to put out an album, it should have been entitled "Junkyard Goat."
For our first semester as a band, we were called Happy and the Rabbithead, but the lineup was slightly different then as well (in particular, Peter Solomon was playing guitar instead of Jack, who was in France). The songs Homey in Your Skull, Letter Home, and Into the V date back to those days.
The pictures above show Scapedog playing at a Carleton band event (Maifete) back in 1993. From left to right (both pictures), that's Stuart, Paul, Jack, and Dave. The weather wasn't all that good that year, but as you can see from the lower photo, the excitement in the air was palpable.
We never played much outside of Northfield, though we did get a song on a compilation tape of college bands produced by a local record store (Red Pets Records). The tape was unwisely titled Northfield, A Special Tape, which was supposed to be a play on an obsolete "Welcome to Northfield" sign that used to read "Northfield: A Special Place." Fortunately, good sense prevailed in this small Minnesota town, and this welcome sign was soon replaced by the original sign that used to be there, which reads "Northfield: Cows, Colleges, and Contentment."
Well, you're in for a treat. At some point, years ago, Paul cut & pasted & mixed & equalized and come up with what he considered the best versions of these songs there can be (taking into consideration limitations of the source). Commence rocking.
Perhaps the quintessential Scapedog song, at least in the eyes of the band. The lyrics are Stuart's, the vocals are Paul's (except for Stuart's introduction). This is the song that was on Northfield: A Special Tape.
This combination started out as two songs, but it wasn't very long before they became permanently fused. The lyrics to Paper Face are mostly Stuart's, though the second verse was a Jack/Dave creation. The vocals are Paul's. Letter Home had lyrics once, but they are long since forgotten. Something about thunder clapping its hands, a Scud missle, and mustard in the back seat of daddy's car, I think... Probably just as well that it became an instrumental.
This song is an old one from our Happy and the Rabbithead days. The lyrics are Stuart's, the vocals are Paul's. At a rehearsal one day, we did a little mock "Irish" version (2.5MB) on which Stuart vocalized.
This song really is about a hat that Jack lost. (You can even hear him explain it. Amazingly, soon after we played this song in public the first time, he got his hat back. It really is long, knit with yarn, and multicolored. Everything attributable about this song is attributed to Jack.
Another old Happy and the Rabbithead song, and Not sure who wrote those words -- either Dave or Stuart. Paul did the vocals on this recording, what there are of them. For the raunchier horns version (5.1MB, Final Cave show 6/2/93) we had the help of a drunk trumpet player from the audience. Jack helped out on the vocals to that version too. Too bad his guitar wasn't entirely in tune..
This is a song Jack wrote about a fish. He sings the vocals for it, though they're somewhat inaudible.
It's all Jack. Lyrics, music, vocals, everything.
An instrumental. Perhaps the only time we played it in public was at the last Cave show. Not much to say about it. Jack "composed" the guitar part when he was a wee lad, and Stuart is probably responsible for the "lyrics" to the extent that there are lyrics.
An instrumental whose name could probably have been better thought out. Paul more or less wrote this one, however much of an accomplishment that can be considered. Jack plays the funky slide guitar.
A song written and sung by Carrie Bancroft, "arranged" by Scapedog. The original recordings from these sessions were seriously botched in various ways, mainly by the mixing guy, but creative surgery brought these songs back. They're all kind of more "mainstream" sounding than anything else we've done, but that's ok.
Another song written and sung by Carrie Bancroft, "arranged" by Scapedog.
Yet another song written and sung by Carrie Bancroft, "arranged" by Scapedog. I'm sure it wasn't really named "Beer", but I don't know what it was called.
Just screwing around at a practice.
For some reason, Stu was feeling cantankerous and didn't want to start fIREARMS n' Hoses. Somehow, this is what came out.
That was Jack singing, to whom the lyrical embellishments can also be attributed. Us hip music-types attribute covers of this sort to "Traditional" whatever that means.
That's Jack singing, the original song of course by the Go-Go's. The little thing at the end is stolen from an Eddie Murphy skit of long ago, in which a reggae band is invited to play at an Elks club or something of the sort.
Dave and Paul split the vocal duties on this one, mainly because Paul could not bring himself to sing even a part of a Guns 'n' Roses song, so Dave stepped in to be Axl. The songs involved are "Riddle of the 80's" by fIREHOSE, "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns 'n' Roses, and "I'm Drunk" by Oui Suk. We in fact were playing this even back when we were Happy and the Rabbithead.
It's an L7 song. Jack's doing the voice-related noises.
Not great, but hey. Anyway, it's Jack singing a Blondie song. Unfortunately the vocals are almost entirely inaudible. However, Paul's little guitar solo came through pretty well.
(It's a Duran Duran cover) Wouldn't you know it, someone forgot to start the tape, so you only get the last half of this little gem, but be thankful for what you got, man. Actually, if you're really clever, you'll realize we got even less than it sounds like, but that's the magic of cut & paste.
Another fIREHOSE cover. Very pleasing.
This is actually Jack all by himself playing a song he wrote. But he did play it at a Scapedog show..
The lyrics and posters are contained on a subpage, which you can get to by clicking yonder -->
Dave, Stuart, and Paul also had a radio show on KRLX at Carleton for a while, called FM in the AM that ran Friday mornings 1:30-3:30AM. Amazingly, we played almost no Scapedog on the air.