HOW I SPENT MY TWENTIES - A COMPLETE HISTORY

This album is a compilation of every official release by Random Heroes and Corrigan. Putting them all together gives a pretty cool overview of all of the music that I put out during my twenties.

Random Heroes was formed in 2002, and was seriously fast. Influenced by Screeching Weasel and the Queers, we took some pop hook and played them at a hundred miles an hour. With a combined total of 7 different members in 5 years, we toured in the UK, mainland Europe and Japan before splitting up in 2007.

Corrigan began when the three original members of Random Heroes began working on some new material in 2008. Joined by Lubby on drums, we took the pop hooks, added a synth and slowed things down a touch. We were listening to a lot of Weezer at the time. Corrigan released one album, "'94 and Before" and a two splits before fizzling out in 2012.

Mark Random.

Notes:

Tracks 1-4 - 2004 - "Bigger Than Jeebus" EP - Killer Records.

Our first proper release. Before "Bigger Than Jeebus" we had put out two self recorded demos that aren't in this collection for quality reasons. Jeebus was recorded by a friend in an afternoon and is a little rough around the edges, but shows off the original lineup of Random Heroes at it's best. Fast, fun and full of teenage angst.


Tracks 5-9 - 2004 - Previous unreleased demo.

By mid-2004, Ben had taken over on guitar and we had completed a 14 day tour of the UK supporting Slow Gherkin. This demo captures Phil at the peak of his drumming powers, and even though I think these songs are pretty weak, I could listen to these drums all day.


Tracks 10-21 - 2005 - "Maximum Scene Points" - Killer Records.

The Random Heroes album. Phil Number 2 had was drafted in to take over drum duties. This feels like a compilation of all of the best songs we had written since the start of the band. Fun fact, Deaddeaddead was written the week before we recorded it and it has never been played live.


Track 22 - 2006 - "The Punk Rock Don't Stop" - Sonic Rendezvous

After touring with the Apers in November 2004, we had started to get invited to support a lot of European punk bands, and played at the Rotterdam Rumble festival in 2005. This cover was part of the Apers tribute album that featured loads of these Euro bands. Dan C takes charge of the drums on this.


Tracks 23-25 - 2006 - "Accelerators split" - Squash/Killer

Recorded in the same session as the Apers cover, these three tracks formed our half of a split CD with Rotterdams' Accelerators. We recorded these in a couple of hours in a practice rooms, with Peter Miles at the controls. This is Randoms at it's fastest. No messing around.


Tracks 26-29 - "Break Your Miles" - Amsterdam Music

In January 2007, the Leif Ericsson invited us to join them for 7 shows in Tokyo. The last of these shows was recorded by the guys in Four Tomorrow for the "Break Your Miles" live DVD. The sound here is pretty rough, but I thought it was worth including for the two previously unreleased songs. This gig is also significant because was the last before the band broke up.

Tracks 30+31 - 2009 - "Corrigan/Mike TV Split" - Dear Diane

After Random Heroes was over, I played in a couple of bands and dragged my heels a bit. I was trying to re-capture the energy of the early Randoms stuff, but could never get anything to gel. So, in 2008 I reconnected with Tim, the original Randoms guitarist, and we started to work on some material. Once again, we hooked up with Phil, who would play guitar on these first recordings, and poached Lubby to wield the sticks. These two tracks were recorded by Peter Miles and released on a split 7" with Mike TV.


Tracks 32-34 - 2009 - Previously Unreleased

A few more tracks from the session with Peter Miles. These are much more Randoms-y versions of songs that would later appear on the Corrigan album.


Track 35 - 2009 - "Floppy" (Floppy Disk) - Dear Diane

Being total nerds, Tim and I had an idea that we wanted to release some music on floppy disk. To achieve this, we had to write a song that was less than a minute long and compress it down to a super low-res MP3. I think this brought out the best in my songwriting, and I love how this songs tells a story in a short verse and barely a chorus. We made up little Amiga style boxes and sold 25 copies.


Tracks 36-46 - 2011 - "'94 And Before" - Dear Diane

The Corrigan album. By this point, Phil had switched over to playing keyboards exclusively. Tim and I were listening to a boatload of Weezer, and we tried to bring those nerd-rock tendencies to the forefront. Recorded by Neil Kennedy, the album has got some awesome tunes on it, and it's a fun departure from the faster, straight forward punk of Randoms.


Tracks 47-49 - 2011 - "Cynics/Corrigan Split" CD - Pornography For Cowards

For the last Corrigan release, we were asked to record two original songs and a cover for a split with (Great) Cynics. Tim, Phil and I holed up in Tim's parents' house and rattled through these three tunes. I played a gnarly old spanish guitar and sang properly for the first time ever on Ocean Song. I still think the Hayley Williams cover is rad.