Welcome to the web page for R&R!

Yes, this page looks crappy and home-made. Our music sounds crappy and home-made, so this is fitting. But unlike this page, our music actually has a lot of character.

IMPORTANT LINKS:

Listen to some of our music on AmieStreet.com!

Watch low-quality video of R&R live!
This One's For Laura (2005)
A-Bombs (2008)

Watch low-quality video of R&R rehearsing!
Grinnell, Extremophile (2008)
This One's For Laura, Gimme a Kiss (2008)

A BRIEF HISTORY OF R&R

Rich and I recorded the Triangle Song in early 1992, during our last semester of high school. We had no other songs at that time, and no plans to write any other songs. But we had so much fun recording the Triangle Song that we decided we needed to do more.

We were very inexperienced songwriters (to put it mildly), so we mostly wrote about whatever was on our minds at the time. This makes R&R (1992) very much a document of that time in our lives. Rich wrote a song about his grade point average (3.49 Blues), I wrote a song about my dislike of music written by Bach (Baroque). Together we wrote a song about our high school math team (Math Team Fight Song). It was all very simple, and very primitively recorded. And that, I figured, was that.

Except that wasn't that. Two years later, a local radio station sponsored a contest to write an "official song" for Madison, Wisconsin. Those participating would get free use of a four track recorder to use in producing their song. It was time to get the band back together.

Rather than merely write one measly song, Rich and I wrote about ten songs for The Madison Album (1994) (seven of which ended up on the officially-released version). Obviously, it was very much a concept album. Neither of us had used a four track before, so the sound quality was not a marked improvement over R&R, although the multiple tracks did allow us to do some things we hadn't previously been able to do. Incidentally, we did not win the contest, or even come close to winning. In fact, I suspect to this day that the radio station misplaced our cassette.

Two years later, we had another batch of songs. Fortuitously, I had a college friend who was willing to loan us his four track. I came up with the idea of re-recording every song we'd ever written, and releasing it as a gigantic triple album. We started with six of the seven tracks from The Madison Album, plus Triangle Song, 3.49 Blues, and the Instrumental from R&R. We also recorded nine of the sixteen or so new tracks we had written. But then, most abrubtly, my friend asked for his four track back so he could go record some other band in New York City, Rich took off for graduate school in California, and I was left in Madison with The Unfinished Album (1996). It was largely a disappointment, from the songwriting to the production to the final result, although a few tracks, such as I Wanna Be a Drama Major and The R&R Guide to Proper Date Etiquette, stand out here and there.

At that point I figured R&R was dead and buried, but just one year later, Rich wrote a song, then came out to visit me in Charlotte, North Carolina for three weeks. I had very recently acquired an expensive CD burner and the ability to record music on my computer (very novel at the time), so we found ourselves recording, straight digital all the way, our very first CD. Many of the songs had a new sort of maturity, depth, and occasional bitterness, that really hadn't been seen in our music up to that time. By the time the CD Three Weeks of R&R (1997) was finished, we both knew it was our finest work yet. From the techno mania of Kill Your Parents, to the country balladry of I've Got a Headache the Size of You, from the classical aspirations of Toccata, to the streetwise rap of Sucks 2 B U, from the soaring vocal of All the Crap Bands, to the gothic sadomasochism of I Burn for You, it was truly a treasure trove of tonal triumph.

Another two years passed, and we decided it was time for another album. This time we wrote more songs than for any previous album (more than 50). At the same time, we were rounding up like-minded musicians to perform for an R&R tribute album. Eventually we decided to fold the two projects into one, and after four years of recording, the result was the bursting-at-the-seams concept album The Life, Death, and Rebirth of R&R (2002). Contained on two CDs of 21 tracks each, it was an album that took its obvious parent, the Clash's three-LP Sandinista!, and one-upped it by adding a track to each "side". The concept was equally grandiose: Over the course of the album, Rich and I live, die, then are reborn (as the title would imply). Of course, as with all the best concept albums, most of the songs really had nothing to do with the concept. And what a collection of songs it was. The spy theme Golgo 13. The Ramones knockoff Someday You'll Come to Accept It. The Madness-esque ska of Falling for Love Again. The self-flagellating misery of I Wish I Were Sexy. The USA For Africa parody R&R Will Never Die Again. The sultry jazz of Love Song. The revved up punk of Tom Clancy Novel. Even songs which sounded like we were ripping ourselves off, such as Legal Brief and My Boring Trip to Mars. There's a ton here to digest, and it's all over the map. This may not be an album to be taken seriously, but it is an album that could take even the deep-thinkingest philosopher years to figure out.

Coupled with that effort was Four Years of R&R an album of alternate takes and unreleased songs from 1999-2002. We gave copies of it out for free at the release party for The Life, Death, and Rebirth of R&R. Today's financial conditions being what they are, it now has to be paid for.

That brings us to the list of R&R CD-Rs available for purchase, shown here with their track listings. The ridiculously low price is $5 per CD, plus actual shipping expenses.

Temporary note: As of August 2009, I am in the midst of remastering the R&R catalogue. This is a fairly painstaking process so this effort may continue into 2010 or even beyond depending on how busy work and my other creative projects keep me. Currently, only two albums, R&R and An R&R Christmas, have been completed. All CDs will remain available in their current versions until the remasters are ready. So, if anyone should someday want to actually buy one or more of these CDs, they may want to keep that in mind.

R&R (1992/Remastered 2008)
1 R&R
2 Triangle Song
3 Baroque
4 Math Team Fight Song
5 Susan
6 Instrumental
7 3.49 Blues
8 R&R (reprise) / Triangle Song (reprise)

The Madison Album - Is There an Echo in Here Edition (1994/1996)
Original 1994 Version:
1 I’m a Madison Type
2 Madison March I
3 Madison Man
4 Madison March II
5 There’s a Place
6 Madison March III
7 M-A-D-I-S-O-N
8 Instrumental
Re-recorded 1996 Version:
9 I’m a Madison Type
10 Madison March I
11 Madison Man
12 Madison March II
13 There’s a Place
14 Madison March III
15 M-A-D-I-S-O-N

The Unfinished Album - Addition by Subtraction Edition (1996/1997)
1 Obsolete Technology
2 Stupid
3 Instrumental
4 Hot Hot Summer
5 Gimme a Kiss
6 Alternative
7 Sad Pop Song Writer
8 Lovesick
9 The R&R Guide to Proper Date Etiquette
10 Money
11 I Wanna Be a Drama Major
12 You Only Live Once

An R&R Christmas - Feel Your Life Slipping Away While You Listen to This CD Edition (1996/Remastered 2009)
1 Christmas Time (merciful version)
2 Jolly Old St. Nicholas
3 Hawaii
4 Frosty The Snowman
5 I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
6 3.24 Blues
7 Here Comes Santa Claus
8 Blue Suede Shoes
9 Up On The Housetop
10 O Tannenbaum
11 Jingle Bells
12 I’ll Be Home For Christmas
13 Randy Weaver
14 Over The River And Through The Woods
15 Nuttin' For Christmas

Three Weeks of R&R - Streamlined Edition (1997)
1 Intro
2 Kill Your Parents
3 Easier to Miss
4 I Hate You Too
5 Bridal Arrow
6 Sucks 2 B U
7 I Wanna Hold Your Hand
8 All the Crap Bands
9 She Just Can’t Look
10 Toccata
11 I’ve Got a Headache the Size of You
12 Stupidity Avarice Corruption Etc.
13 You’re Going to Die Someday
14 Slave
15 Wonderful Gravity
16 Seven Hours
17 I Burn For You
18 Christmas Time
19 Outro

The Life, Death, and Rebirth of R&R (2CD)(2002)
Disc 1:
Live at Camp Randall
1 Tom Clancy Novel
2
3.49 Blues
4 Music Man
5 Fine Luck to You
6 War!
7 R&R Inc.
Love Suite I
8 I Must Be Doing Something Wrong
9 Hotties
10 Sex-Obsessed
11 I've Given Up
12 Of Course I'm Bitter
13 Someday You'll Come to Accept It
14 I Wish I Were Sexy
The Death of R&R
15 The Hanging
16 Grow Old and Die
17 Poor Dead Fool
18 Rich's Death
19 Ryan's Death
20 R&R Will Never Die Again
21 You Only Live Once
Disc 2:
The Rebirth of R&R
1 Tricking You Back to Life
2 The Got No Song (A Simple Life)
3 Madison Man
4 Legal Brief
5 Object Oriented
6 My Boring Trip to Mars
7 In an Hour
Love Suite II
8 Falling for Love Again
9 Love Song
10 It's So Easy
11 I've Given Up
12 Metaphor Man
13 I Love You
14 With Our Love
Grab Bag
15 Act I Scene 1: A Restaurant
16 Clash Melee Points Up Danger of Overselling
17 Golgo 13
18 This One's for Laura
19 Shopping List
20 Turn it Up (New Music Experience)
21 I94

Four Years of R&R (2002)
1 Music Man (demo)
2 Metaphor Man (demo)
3 Tori Amos (demo)
4 In an Hour (demo)
5 Tom Clancy Novel (take 4)
6 Of Course I'm Bitter (take 1)
7 Object Oriented (instrumental version)
8 Golgo 13 (extended version)
9 Blues Jam 1
10 Beatle Medley
11 Blues Jam 2
12 I've Given Up (alternate mix)
13 Introduction to Falling
14 Call Waiting
15 Lifestyles of the Vile and Famous
16 Chanson de Buverie
17 I Wish I Were Sexy (take 6)
18 With Our Love (take 3)
19 Grow Old and Die (take 10)
20 Sex-Obsessed (take 3)
21 "I Know What You Must Be Thinking..." (take 2)
22 Marketing Misery
23 Whatever, Nevermind (sanitized version)
24 "I Know What You Must Be Thinking..." (take 3)
25 Soap Commercial (take 5)
26 Metaphor Man (take 1)
27 Turn it Up (New Music Experience) (original version)
28 Silent Night (take 2)

R&R Live (2008)
1 Kill Your Parents
2 R&R / Sucks 2BU
3 Rich's Death
4 I Wish I Were Sexy
5 Hotties / Music Man
6 3.49 Blues (introduction)
7 3.49 Blues
8 All the Crap Bands (introduction)
9 All the Crap Bands
10 M-A-D-I-S-O-N / R&R (reprise)
11 This One's For Laura
12 Math Team Fight Song / Madison March I
13 A-Bombs
14 Baby I'm a Destroyer
15 Hot Hot Summer
16 Happy Birthday and Anniversaries
17 Let's Dance
18 I've Given Up
19 Gimme a Kiss
20 Grinnell
21 Extremeophile
22 Triangle Song

R&R's Greatest Hits (2008 edition)

Ad Nauseum (2008 edition)

Note that such CD's as An R&R Christmas and Ad Nauseum are recommended for diehard fans only. I really, really mean that.

Sorry, professionally-duplicated silver CDs are not available, as we don't have enough fans yet. Contact me by e-mail to purchase - my address is my first name (Ryan) followed by a dot (.) followed by my last name (Conners) followed by "@gmail.com". Please note the correct spelling of my last name in the previous sentence (-ers, not -ors), or you'll be e-mailing the wrong person. You have the chance to be the first person in your city, state, or possibly even country to own an actual R&R CD, so order now, order often. If you're too poor to afford a CD, send me an e-mail anyway and I'll write and send you our fan club newsletter, if we ever get any fans. How do you know if you're a fan? You're a fan if you actually read this far.

That's it for now. Thanks for visiting!

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