sleeping dogs lie
Sleeping Dogs Lie is indie lo-fi home recorded art rock from Eric Guenette based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Twenty plus years of independent songwriting and recording has led to 100+ original songs on eight Sleeping Dogs Lie albums since 1997. 100% of Sleeping Dogs Lie cds, downloads and stream proceeds go to charity...Here is the story:
This is a retrospective of 20+ years of the music of Sleeping Dogs Lie. Every picture below is linked to a particular Sleeping Dogs Lie song, so feel free to click on the pics while reading.
Sleeping Dogs Lie was born as a recording project in West Palm Beach, Florida in the mid '90s. After recording over 100+ original songs between 1995-1996 on a Tascam 4-track, Guenette put his favorite dozen songs together on an self-titled cassette released in 1996 and thus, the birth of "Sleeping Dogs Lie."
The songs were imaginative and quirky, but the recording quality was lacking. The cassette was passed out to friends and family. Interestingly, working in a graphic pre-press company during this time, started Guenette down the road of designing art for the music and eventually leading to his career as a graphic designer.
This is one of the art fliers that were posted at Soundsplash Record store in West Palm Beach, Florida in the mid 90s.
Above is artwork for a cassette cover that never saw the light of day. "Magic ear box" was one of the possible names of the untitled cassette.
Sleeping Dogs Lie - "Joy" 1997After the release of the cassette, Sleeping Dogs Lie had their first official release in 1997, "Joy." The 12-song cd was a remastered collection of the best of the 4-track songs from previous recordings. Guenette's recording space took the name of "Shitvision Studios." Joy was a hit with friends and South Florida LINKS magazine music writer Jake Cline proclaimed "David Geffen is missing out..." As Guenette was selling cds here and there, he would also be guerrilla marketing by placing cds in random places; parking lots, on drive-thru restaurant speakers, on urinals, etc... Any place that might bring new ears to the music. You can click on the cd to listen on Bandcamp.
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Above is a typical lyric sheet from Guenette. Part of the song writing process would involve doodling. A few years later, The second self-released CD "Slightly confusing to a stranger" was released in 2000. Below is another cassette cover mock up with a picture of Guenette's wife, Holly, as a little girl and son, Sean, among other pictures. One song penned by Guenette and his wife, Holly, was "Fun government cheese." The song was written on the back deck of the break area of the National Enquirer prepress company. Click on the pic below to take a listen.
Sleeping dogs lie - "Slightly confusing to a stranger" 2000
"Slightly confusing to a stranger" was another 12-song album that was more experimental than Joy. Guenette appears in The Bats shirt, while drummer Jerry Jordan, is is covered in words. He is affectionately known as the "orange skunk ape." So, when Guenette had slightly confusing to a stranger pressed, money was tight, so he created 1,000 handmade covers from photocopies copies and folded them into CD sleeves. The album has a lot of eclectic songs with wide ranging sounds. Click on the cover here to listen to it on Bandcamp as well.
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Above is the old Tascam 424 that all of initial Sleeping Dogs Lie recordings were recorded on. The lofi recording process would catch odd little family interruption in the recordings, as you can hear for yourselves on the track (above) "Phone home" on the Swirl CD (to come). For the first few CDs, Guenette did not have a live drummer and the doctor was call in. "Dr. Uma Chine." is credited as the first official drummer on the CDs (Hint: Take a good look at the words).
"Tragic Monk Sat" is one of the songs on the Joy CD. This song was written about the family cat, "Monkey" that escaped from it's leash in Orlando, Florida while visiting the grandparents in the 70s. After visiting the next year, a large man in a suit was seen walking a cat on a leash that looked just like Monkey...which lead to a song inspiration.
Sleeping dogs lie - "Nude" 20022002 lead to the release of the third Sleeping Dogs Lie CD, "Nude." This is a more instrospective and mellow recording. Strangely, the album cover is the opposite. Guenette's painting "Mother-in-Law" became the cover art after hearing about a friend who had taken a walk with her mother-in-law on Juno Beach in the late afternoon. Apparently, they were talking and walking on the sand and without missing a beat, the looked around and then pulled her pants down and defecated on the beach. She pulled her pants up and continued the conversation. This was a shocking moment for our friend and it needed to be captured for posterity. You can click on the cover to listen.
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One of the long time SDL contributors and supporters is Todd Zimmerman, to the left. He was the voice on the song "Bang!" on the Head first down the stairs CD. He was there in the beginning in the pre-press graphics house and collaborator on many an odd artistic tangents whenever the bosses were not looking. It's odd that Todd was the inspiration for the song "Todd" on the Joy CD. He's not like Satan, but he did offer up a packet of Sea Monkeys. You will also see Todd in many of the Sleeping Dogs Lie videos on Youtube. Today, Todd is a master-chocolatier with his wife, Michelle, in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit his shop by clicking here: Charm City Chocolate. |
More random pictures and lyrics. "Mr. Corn" is off of the Slightly confusing to a stranger CD. The drawing above is from the song "Boy on a bike," which was one of my 100+ songs that never saw the light of day...So, the linked the song "Jerry the hair" to the picture instead...Why? Because I like the boy's haircut... I don't know...
Here is Guenette laying in front of 1,000 Slightly confusing to a stranger CDs in their hand packaging glory. Guenette is not a streaming music fan. Some people are into vinyl, but Guenette is still a "CD head" to this day.
Below is a picture from Shitvision Studios in 2005 with Ron Macapayag on the drums, Jim Sarmiento on Bass, and Guenette's son, Sean, doing whatever was needed. This was during the recording the songs for the Head first down the stairs album. |
sleeping dogs lie - "Head first down the stairs" 2006The fourth CD released in 2006, was called "Head first down the stairs." This album had 22 songs, when the focus was really on songwriting. This album was full of indie rock songs that are hooky and lo-fi at the same time. This CD was the most popular of all of the Sleeping Dogs Lie cds, and for good reason. Lots of friends and family appear on this record. Even the family cat Bowie makes an appearance on this album. Click on the cover to take a listen on bandcamp.
Below is the lyrics to "Brainiac," which is dedicated to Guenette's wife, Holly. "Iranian Space Monkey is an energetic ditty that soooo needs a felt-claymation video. |
"Another drunken Santa Claus Christmas," is the only Sleeping Dogs Lie Christmas song. Guenette was suddenly awakened in the middle of the night and these lyrics were just waiting to hit the paper...The problem was that there wasn't any paper around, So, Guenette went to the bathroom at two in the morning and starting scribbling the lyrics to the song down on toilet paper. There were very few changes, if any. This almost never happened to me a songwriter. It would be great if this song was recorded by Dean Martin, with a professional orchestra, it would end up as a holiday staple.
Sleeping dogs lie - "Swirl" 2007The swirly graphics from this cover are from the original untitled cassette put out in 1996, but, this time, the songs were professionally remastered. "Swirl" was created with the 12 re-released and remastered songs from the cassette and 10 extra new songs together and put on one CD. This was 2007, and Guenette wanted to make sure that those first songs were not buried and dead from the cassette era as well as having a home for ten new songs that needed a home. Take a listen by clicking on the cd cover.
Below, is a photo of Guenette playing at Respectable Street Cafe, in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2000 as part of the band Milkfed. |
Sleeping dogs lie - "Trieste" 2008By 2008, Guenette was looking for a creative musical challenge. Trieste was recorded with only found objects and homemade instruments. Guenette spent a month gathering objects and making instruments. Every piece of every instrument is not from a real instrument, but fishing line, twine, picture hanging wire, plywood, nuts, bolts, plastic shower curtain material, etc. Below, are some pictures of the some of the instruments were created from scratch. It concept really influenced the songwriting process for the CD. They weren't just songs with me banging on pots and pans, but melodic songs written on these instruments.
Click on the cover to listen on Bandcamp. |
Above, is the song chart for the album. Below, is Jerry "Orange skunk ape" Jordan, beating the hell out of the homemade drum kit on the song "Somebody get that orange skunk ape off my drums." Below that, are friends jamming out on my homemade instruments.
sleeping dogs lie - "La luz" 2010After Trieste had been release, Guenette was looking for a new direction. As a fan of Brian Eno, Guenette was inspired to create an all-ambient electronic album. "La Luz" was release in 2010, La Luz is a space-y electronic chill out record with no voice or beats inspired by the landscapes of New Mexico. La Luz is yet another whiplash direction change that Guenette loved to spring on his listeners. This is a shot of the top of a pinion tree with the brilliant blue New Mexico sky.
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sleeping dogs lie - "Mud & Sky" 2014The eighth album release from Sleeping Dogs Lie, was "Mud & Sky" (2014) which was recorded in Garageband and then professionally mastered. The sound quality is superior to all of the other albums, thanks to "Merlin" Howard Wulkan. Mud & Sky was nominated by the New Mexico Music Awards as one of the top-5 CD releases for Best Album in New Mexico in 2014. There are 12 songs on this album that are solidly back into the indie rock genre. Take a listen by clicking on the cover.
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Thanks for taking the time to read and listen the 20-year music adventure of Sleeping Dogs Lie. Currently, Guenette is writing songs acoustically and will make the next Sleeping Dogs Lie record when the time is right. And remember, 100% of all Sleeping Dogs Lie CDs, downloads & streams proceeds go to various charities. You can read more about that here. If you would like to listen to or purchase Sleeping Dogs Lie music, click here. Finally, Guenette wanted to post a picture of his grandfather, Marcel Guenette, who is pictured in an ad for Footjoy golf shoes. The creative legacy carries on... |