Hello -
My name is Jed Davis... I live in Brooklyn, I play in three bands and I love to make records. I rarely get around to putting them out, but I sure can make 'em.
I have this album, The Cutting Room Floor. It's 11 songs. I began working on it in 1999 in a basement studio in Albany, NY. I slaved over the record for six years. It grew a scintillating backstory - which is too long for this space, but I'll spoil the ending for ya: just when I had run out of money and hope, the production team of Dave Fridmann and Tony Doogan swooped in and renovated my little mudhut of an album into a gleaming sonic skyscraper! Even after all this time, I can't completely wrap my head around how cool and generous those guys were.
But when The Cutting Room Floor was mastered and done, I let it sit. I had no idea what to do with the record. Vinyl was "making a comeback". There were all sorts of new digital possibilities. Or should I bite the bullet and shill myself to labels? I pondered, and while I pondered I started another record, wrote a musical, got a full-time job, finished the other record, got a second job, moved, made another record, joined a band and made a record with them, moved again, got laid off, watched the music business implode (like the rest of the economy but worse) and now I've started another record and I feel the weight of all this unreleased material pushing me down, down, down... to The Cutting Room Floor.
Sometimes there is no best way to do something. Sometimes you just have to say fuck it, charge in, and hope that the way you're doing it turns out to be the right one.
So I present to you The Cutting Room Floor, one album, 11 MP3s. They are free from me to you, one per month on the first of the month. Starting June 1.
You can download them here - via the banner at the top of the page - or from my Facebook page (I've set up http://facebook.jeddavis.com to forward there for your convenience). I will also put up lyrics and notes on each as they appear.
I see this as a sort of "song exhibit" that will run for 11 months. This webpage is the gallery in which I'll display The Cutting Room Floor. When it's over, maybe I will collect the whole thing and immortalize it in vinyl. And maybe I'll slide right into the next album - the next "exhibit". God knows it's ready!
In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy - and spread the word about - The Cutting Room Floor.
Jed.
