Shock Rockets Music
From 1998 to 2002 I played drums with some friends of mine in what could be considered a rock ‘n’ roll band. Wayne Kirley and Kevin Hickey played guitar and Rob Sinnott played bass guitar. We all took our turns singing. Our band was called Shock Rockets and due to the accessibility of recording technology, we were able to capture a few of our songs for our friends, family, and future generations to enjoy.
Here, then, is an all-too-short list of songs we recorded. They’re not the greatest quality recordings. But considering a lot of the stuff that gets released these days, I think you can do a lot worse than have to sit through a Shock Rockets song.
Look Out & Shout
This song was a direct result of Rob, Kevin, and me trying to sound as balls-out rock ‘n’ roll as we possibly could. It was just the three of us on the first recording of “Look out and Shout.” Many of the songs we recorded without the full band present. I lifted the drumbeat directly from Tricky Woo’s “Fly the Orient.” Tricky Woo is one of the greatest rock bands ever.
KH: guitar, screams; RS: bass; SH: drums, screams
Version one remastered by Jorge Figueiredo
Metronome
Again, this song was us trying to sound as rockin’ as humanly possible. Rob and I wrote it one Friday afternoon when no one else was around. We recorded it not long after that. It’s just the two of us on the recording. Originally this song had crappy lyrics, courtesy of me, but we never got around to recording them because I just couldn’t scream well enough to pull it off. Listen for me screwing up the drumming around 0:59.
RS: bass, guitar; SH: drums, vocals
C’mon Angela
This is a song Wayne wrote about a girl named Angela. Wayne had had a bad history of falling for girls who already had boyfriends and/or were brown. He is also a great songwriter. He would, for the most part, set up songs to have a solid and pre-defined structure. Wayne was definitely way too good to be playing music with the rest of us, and it shows. The original version was multi-tracked and the alternate version is a live take. I can’t choose which one I like more. But I do know by the time we did the live track, I was way better at drumming.
First version - WK: guitar, vocals; RS: bass; SH: drums, back-up vocals
Alternate version - WK: guitar, vocals; KH: guitar, back-up vocals; RS: bass; SH: drums
Expansion Man
Rob and I wrote this song in five minutes while drinking slurpies and driving from his house to mine in my dad’s ‘89 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. It’s a song about our friend, Adam. Adding in the muffled talking near the end was Wayne’s idea.
RS: bass, guitar SH: drums, vocals
Mr. Noon
Yet another song about a friend. Wayne, Rob and I were jamming one evening and the phone kept ringing. Rob was expecting his girlfriend, Tina, to call to tell him whether she would need a ride home from work or not. But it was never her on the phone. It was always Nuno. Wayne started playing this song, complete with full lyrics and we joined in. “Mr. Noon” was what an old co-worker called Nuno because he couldn’t pronounce “Nuno.” If you listen closely you’ll make out the lyrics. They always make me laugh.
WK: guitar, vocals; KH: guitar, back-up vocals; RS: bass; SH: drums
Love Makes the World Go ‘Round
I had borrowed a four-track from a girl I knew and Kevin and I were dying to use it. The only trouble was that no one else was around, so we couldn’t play any of our songs. One song the two of us could pull off was “Love Makes the World Go ‘Round,” which was, to the best of our knowledge, a song written just for the cartoon Powerpuff Girls. In one episode (Mime For a Change, I think) a clown turns into an evil mime and turns everything he touches into black and white. This causes the town folk to become very sad and lethargic. Enter the Powerpuff Girls, onstage in a park, to rock everyone back to colour. This was our take on the song.
KH: guitar, back-up vocals (falsetto); SH: drums, vocals, back-up vocals