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Bean Monster Rituals

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Studio album featuring new, polished recordings of recent hits. Re-released on Sugar Hill Sessions CD.

Release Info
Album Review
Cover Art
Band Memoirs

Release Info

Tracks

I Am a Fireman
Phuong Nam's
FCA
Marta's in the Navy
Marta Rules
Five Long Days
Hibbert Party
Byron's Song (Tribute to Insanity Plea · Part II)

Kar – vocals and synthesizer
Mr. Ed – guitar, bass, and drums
Ran – keyboard, guitar, and percussion
Spike – drums and keyboard

Recorded and mixed on 8/8/88 at Sugar Hill Studios, Houston, TX. Engineered by J.R. Griffith. Produced by The Blanks.
©1988 The Blanks.

1988: First issue, cassette, Blanks Enterprises
1998: All tracks re-released on the Sugar Hill Sessions compact disc.
2008: All tracks remastered and reissued on the Sugar Hill Sessions compact disc, Blanks Enterprises.

Album review

“The Blanks: Nonsensical garage rock, the way it was meant to be”
Daily Texan, March 6, 1989, by Trevor Wallace

Cover Art

Click for larger image:

Bean Monster Rituals digital art

Bean Monster Rituals original tape cover

Sugar Hill Sessions 2008 CD

Sugar Hill Sessions 2008 CD liner notes

Sugar Hill Sessions 2008 CD label

Sugar Hill Sessions 1998 CD

Band Memoirs

Now I was more comfortable. I had done the Live to the Spirit World concert and felt confident that I was meshing in a special way. Now, for the most part I felt that Bean Monster Rituals was a way of giving a deserved polished quality to some of the songs I had played in Live to the Spirit World. I guess the big breakthrough for me, in this session was “Byron's Song,” which incorporated a guitar part. This was the first step toward a shift that took place in the line-up. Me playing guitar parts and Ran playing either bass or keyboard on BRAND NEW songs which I helped to write. I think it was during this time that the tri-plug theory (which states that Ran, Spike and Kar must be present for a legitimate Blanks song to be created) was expanded to allow for the tri-plug plus grounding wire theory. I must admit that, at first, I was a little saddened by this metaphor, because the grounding wire is connected to the outlet and not to the actual plug thingie. There is a metal loop that you screw onto the actual grounding wire. Therefore, I was, in a way, separate from the creative force of the tri-plug. I decided, however, that they might have actually been talking about that little metal loop thing in the first place.

– Mr. Ed

As part of our busting out, we had booked some expensive studio time in a really high tech recording facility. We didn't know how many more opportunities we would have in that kind of studio, so we decided to take the songs that we really wanted to preserve from our past and those that we felt would most benefit from the technology and production of a studio.

We also included the new tunes we had written that were on Live to the Spirit World. I think the day before we went into the studio, if not the same day we went in, we wrote “Byron's Song (Tribute to Insanity Plea II).” Byron who had appeared on the A World Full of Friends album was going to Spain, and it was our going away gift to him.

This was our most popular album at that point. Our marketing included all kinds of t-shirts and merchandising. I think all of it helped, as well as the fact that our songs were all of a really high quality and were short, sweet 100% pop songs.

I remember we also got more press on this album then we had before. Ran and I went on the radio in California, there was written press and reviews as well. I remember Mr. Ed, Kar, and I called one of the reviewers to thank him for his review. The writer had written a mostly favorable review but not without voicing his opinion on some things about the album he didn't like. I think when we gave him the call he was pretty scared. It seemed like he thought we were going to really chew him out or something.

While we were flying high and feeling good about our new found popularity, this time was not without its controversy. After Live to the Spirit World we had hired Big Andy as our manager. Around the release of Bean Monster Rituals we were preparing the paper work to copyright our material, when Big Andy told us that he had already sent the stuff in for us. Kar asked him how he had sent the paper work in when none of us had signed it. That was when Big Andy informed us that he had registered the music in his name. Needless to say he was fired on the spot.

Aside from this things were looking bright. Our popularity was at an all-time high, and while there were some bandwagon fans, it seemed that the legions of Eggheads were growing daily. I think around this time we started drinking more than normal as well. We continued to use bubbles, though maybe not quite as much. I went through various attempts to quite cold turkey.

We were also making plans and writing music for our next project.

I remember when Kar was coming up with names for the album, I thought his suggestion was Mean Monster Rituals, as opposed to Bean Monster. I thought Mean Monster was a fine name as well, but I am glad that we ended up with Bean Monster Rituals.

– Spike

Bean Monster Rituals was a landmark album for us. Ed had officially joined the band a few months earlier for our Live to the Spirit World concert. But this was our first studio album with him in the line-up. And even though we had a shaky track record of members coming, going, getting kicked out, etc., I think we all knew this was The Blanks. Ed, Ran, Spike, and Kar – this was what The Blanks was always supposed to be.

The album offers recreations of our biggest hits up to 1988 with a couple of new songs. We recorded mostly live to tape in the studio, and JR, the recording engineer, was surprised by our brisk pace. He was used to bands spending hours and days on one song. We recorded and mixed eight songs in one session. I believe the whole thing took about four hours. I remember playing my Moog Prodigy for “FCA.” I had set the sound exactly how I wanted it. JR stopped the recording and said, "Whoa. That synthesizer is way out of key for the rest of the music." We told him that's how we wanted it. He smiled and said he was starting to understand.

This was by far our most popular release to date. We promoted it more than any other album. There were newspaper reviews and radio interviews. Austin record stores were running sales contests to encourage clerks to push the album. I remember going into a record store once and hearing the album playing. Another time, I was walking through the halls of a University of Texas dormitory and heard a stranger singing along with the album in his room.

This was the start of The Blanks glory years.

– Kar