01/01/2026
Tautologic’s debut album, _West Is North, East Is South_, turned 25 in June. We are working on a new album, so we’re a little short on time for retrospective projects - but I (Ethan) did want to share a few thoughts on each track. This month’s track feature is “You Know It.”
Pat Buzby composed this one, and played the piano part. My keyboard chops were still evolving, so - at that time - it was easier for him to play it than wait for me to master it. My keyboard chops have evolved considerably in the 25+ years since those recording sessions, I’m happy to report.
I like the vibe and Pat’s instrumental string writing in particular. One doesn’t normally associate the Rickenbacker bass with slapping, but Dan Veidlinger makes it work. Mick Hirsch’s acoustic guitar is used more or less exclusively as a percussion instrument - kind of like DJ record scratching.
Pat wrote a bunch of really hard-to-sing vocals after hearing me do an impression of Miss Piggy from the Muppets - which turned out to help the track. If my fuzzy recollection serves, an account of Prince’s creation of the song “1999” served as the inspiration for the harmonies and octave switching. If I recall correctly, the whole of “1999” was written with the whole band singing harmonies throughout. At mixdown, Prince muted his various bandmates so that their parts - which may have been sung as harmonies - then became a lead vocal that was passed around the various members. In any event… whether that was really how the recording of “1999” went down or not… I sang all of the parts on “You Know It,” including a bunch of soprano high Es and Gs.
In the run-up to Tautologic’s only (to date) gig at the Empty Bottle, WXRT Local Anesthetic host Richard Milne called me up on the rotary-dial land-line at our rental house. (That’s how you know it was a gazillion years ago.). Richard asked me some questions and told me that he was going to play the song “with the female singer” on the radio show. I was happy for the band, but a bit personally crestfallen, since “The House Song” - which had Jennifer Justice on vocals - didn’t have any performance from me, at all. My fragile ego was dashed. We tuned in to the live radio broadcast (recording it to cassette, I believe) and it turned out that he was talking about “You Know It,” and *I* was the “female singer.”
My life is not so rough, and I know it.
Ethan
from the album West Is North, East Is South
