It's hard to believe that something as insignificant as 13 pop songs could cause so many raw feelings: love, hate, pride, anger, fear, and, above all, disinterest. I don't doubt that everyone professionally involved with OO OO WA got burned on some level, but separated from the circumstance it's still a great album, and it's the only album I've been a part of that could receive such royal treatment.

A few things prompted this Anniversary Edition.

First, digital mastering technology was in its infancy ten years ago. Blaise Barton did a fine job on the original, but this version is much more satisfying. When a few cuts were re-mastered for my 2001 compilation "Break Fix Anniversary," the difference was astounding.

Second, the original cover art had terrible color separation. It bugged me from the day it came out. The grays, yellows, and reds of the Jim Luning photographs were replaced by a fuzzy brown. If you compare this edition side-by-side with the original, you'll be shocked. I wanted to pull a George Lucas, go back, and take out the blob under the landspeeder.

Third, I had all this extra material in my closet and always felt sad that few people knew, and even fewer respected, the effort that went into making this album. This project was three years, a very intense period of dreaming and strategizing, bribing and not-so-subtle bullying, marketing and manufacturing, not to mention creating and songwriting, all of which culminated in a fantastic pop album. I'd stack the performances of every musician on this record against work that's come after. Every one of us has continued to do good work (I'm personally fond of my own albums "Berlin Record" and "This Is Our ~Music.") Yet "Screen Kiss" is special. Separated from the music business and any ill will, it's a moving statement.

I owe a particular debt to all the contributors, particularly Nick and Danny who were there at the start. Mike and Morgan joined with great enthusiasm and talent. Then Cory, Belinda, and Monica came along for the ride. Also, thanks to Sean Haney, who recorded the whole album for only $3000 when time spent was closer to $300K. Jim Luning was our exclusive photographer and did a wonderful job. And, the story isn't complete without Mike Po, who bet pretty much everything, including his burgeoning reputation, on a pop band, and lost, while the Nirvana / Soundgarden / Pearl Jam "real music" took its momentary spotlight.

Before getting to the long-winded history of the album, here's a quick take on the four discs in this set.

DISC ONE: THE REMASTERED ALBUM
Nuff said about this one.

DISC TWO: THE DEMOS
This is all the surviving original demos. It might give some insight into the writing process. Especially interesting is how lyrics and arrangements mutated. Included as well are many more surviving demos from the period that were a) never worked up, or b) appear later on subsequent releases. I'm particularly fond of "Overnight," which I raided for the TEENAGE BLACKOUT's "Theories of Jet Propulsion" album. The original "Forever & I" is a lot bleaker than the version on "Rock N' Roll Valhalla." "Ocean In The Dark" was fun, and meant to have real horns, so please ignore my stabs. "Smart Girls" is the hit that never happened, probably torpedoed because it made someone mad. "Church Is Out" is the first demo we ever recorded; Nick's roommate played electronic snare. "There's No Cure" caused a fistfight in rehearsal. And "Vertigo Joe" speaks for itself.

DISC THREE: LIVE SEPTEMBER 4, 1992
The first WA concert ever! Full of flaws and only a single microphone recording, but still historic and interesting. I have a dozen other live shows recorded yet I felt this one would be the coolest. Plus, it had the most material from "Screen Kiss."

DISC FOUR: THE RADIO INTERVIEWS
At times, we were a better comedy troupe than a band. Collected on this disc is an hour's worth of the best stuff.

So, without further ado, here are the gripping details about "Screen Kiss." I should remind you that this is completely from my memory. I didn't do any fact checking. This is how I remembered it. Others might remember it differently. Hey, it was ten years ago, cut me slack.

DARREN CALLAHAN's SUBJECTIVE HISTORY OF "SCREEN KISS."

"Screen Kiss" actually began in winter 1989.

From 87-89, I was a member of the Dayton, Ohio quintet THE LIFE AND TIMES. The band had done fairly well, touring with 10,000 Maniacs, A Flock of Seagulls, The Smithereens, and Trip Shakespeare (later to become Semisonic). Our album had sold out of its run and we had a second record in the can. But I just wanted out. The band wasn't any fun for me. I was a terrible contributor to the music, mostly due to lack of inspiration and conflicting influences. The band had become lazy, in a rut. People missed rehearsals; no one wanted to arrange songs; each member only played to hear their own part as loudly as possible. David Poe and Morgan Taylor, the two main guys in the band, were clearly more improvisational musicians than the rest of us, and going in a pop beatnik direction. The killer for me was playing every Wednesday for 6 months at the same club in Dayton - three sets a night, $30 take home, and smaller and smaller crowds. I loved all the guys in the band, but I had to get out. I gave notice in October '89. I told the guys I didn't want to play music anymore, but secretly, I had a plan for another band.

THE LIFE AND TIMES had played the popular Chicago nightclub The Avalon in autumn of 1989. At the show was Limited Potential Record's founder Mike Potential, who had moved from Dayton to Chicago two years earlier. Mike had recently signed such up-and-comers as Smashing Pumpkins, Poster Children, and Material Issue. I asked Mike if he would ever sign THE LIFE AND TIMES. He said no; I can't really remember his reasons. I confessed I was quitting the band and wanted to start a new one. I didn't know what it would sound like, but gave Mike a brief pitch about pop and girls and synthesizers. Since he knew a few of my songs from THE LIFE AND TIMES, he suggested I send him a demo whenever it was done.

After my last show with THE LIFE AND TIMES (February 1990), I holed-up in my apartment, recording fragments of music from 1 to 6 minutes on my new Fostex 4 track. I actually bought a lot of new equipment: a drum machine, a new synthesizer, the multi-track, and a guitar. New gear can be really inspiring. The sound was influenced by many things: pop, funk, dance, and ambient, an amalgamation of the popular college bands - Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Deee-Lite, Public Enemy, David Bowie, Roxy Music, The Blue Nile, Simply Red, New Order, Jane's Addiction, Love & Rockets, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, The Church, Prefab Sprout and many others.

The plan was to start a polished pop band that collected the sounds of the day, but also the music that was so inspiring to me as a kid. 1978 to 1983 were formative pop years, and British pop classics like ROXY MUSIC "Avalon" and ABC "The Lexicon of Love" blew me away. I wanted to create a really beautiful, meticulously crafted album full of love songs. In my head, the band was a large one. Backing singers, really hard sounding drums, layers of strings and synthesizers, a dash of guitar (as flavor, the reverse environment from THE LIFE AND TIMES), and, most importantly, a really great singer.

Now, let me set this straight: I cannot sing. Period. I can't carry a tune. I learned this in 1990. Yes, I tried. In my own private way, I tried, but Jesus I suck. You don't even want to hear me sing "Happy Birthday." This being said, I love singers, and I know what makes a singer special, and I can write melodies (and a few lyrics.) So, without even a single completed song, just several months of atmospheres, I began to recruit.

Summer of 1990 I met Andy Strickman. He's now a top music journalist. I told him about my new band, and quest for a singer, and out of the blue he said, "Do you know this guy named Nick Eddy?" Funny thing is, I did. I went to high school with Nick. We weren't close friends or anything, but I liked him. Nick's band Your Form Of Government actually opened for THE LIFE AND TIMES. (Mike Potential was also in Your Form Of Government.) I knew Nick attended the same university as me, but I had never seen him. Apparently, Andy had several classes with Nick and knew that Nick wanted to start a band. Aside from the punk flavoring of Your Form Of Government, and a few conversations in high school about The Smiths, ABC, or Frankie Goes To Hollywood, I had no idea what Nick Eddy even liked. Or if he could sing love songs. All of the material I had heard from him had been funny, They Might Be Giants kind of stuff. Andy had Nick's phone number and gave it to me.

I waited a while, debating, but then called Nick. Andy had given him my number. He didn't live too far from me. We hung out and talked music and got drunk. I think he agreed to come over and hear some of my stuff. A few days later, he showed up with his acoustic. He listened to my bits of demos, but I don't think he could really hear any songs in them (I can see why.) I ended up recording four or five of his songs - vocal and guitar - on a single microphone. He came back a few days later with his roommate, who owned electronic "Simmons" drums. That didn't go so well.

Over the summer, I decided to really hunker down and finish some songs. The first one was "The Edge of Autumn." I had been listening to some record by Nick Heywood and it had a song on it that was very similar. You can really tell the Haircut 100 influence in the saxophone part. The song even started with a "swoosh", which I tried to recreate and is why the song starts with that strange sound. I forget the name of the Heywood song, though. "The Edge of Autumn" was just a simple three-chord fluffy song, but I was happy at least something was done. Then I did "Climbing" and, if I remember correctly, "What Women Wanted." Nick came over again in the fall when school started and sang over all three songs. He didn't have any lyrics, so just picked up a magazine that was in my apartment and sang prose. It gave us a lot of ideas actually. Some of those magazine demos are on the box set. They make me laugh. Great melodies, though, and I immediately knew Nick was perfect for the band. I was really high on "Climbing." I thought that was the best of the three. I remember telling Nick at a party later that week that I thought it was beautiful and could be a big hit. Foolish me.

The day Nick recorded his vocals he also played a new song for me called "More Than Friends," which later became "Angels." I took his acoustic demo and arranged it to match the sound of the other three songs - lush, orchestrated, saturated, saccharine. Nick had one more session with me where he recorded vocals on "More Than Friends," which I suggested he called "More Than Them" (meaning, we have more chemistry than all those other couples.) There were several songs called "More Than Friends" at the time, and I thought his title was a little cliché. He obliged, but wasn't happy with my suggestion. Finally, on I think the day we recorded the vocals for "Screen Kiss," we substituted, "We can be angels, too" for no good reason. Lastly, I had written a new song that became "Mr. Variable." Come to think of it, "Mr. Variable" might have been before "Climbing." I can't remember.

Anyway, now we had 5 songs, two we really loved - "Angels" and "Climbing." We needed another band member. I wanted to keep the group very small and build on a foundation. That way I could control things better. I wasn't attempting to be dictatorial, just exact. I hate too many cooks in the kitchen. OO OO WA made incremental steps to becoming a large studio band, then eventually a live touring band.

Starting with just Nick and I, we carved out a sound almost immediately, with little debate. Turns out we had completely synchronized our influences. Nick knew Brit crooner stuff very well and was comfortable doing it. The only downside was that this stuff was so pop his roommates gave him shit. "We're not writing songs for frat boys," I said (although none of his roommates were in fraternities, and had great taste, so I have to admit to being unfair.) I did have to lobby a bit for the "soft" sound, the romantic stuff, mostly baiting Nick with "chick appeal." However, Nick fell into romanticism very easily (as he still does today, even when the guitars are the main instrument.) I'll always admire him for that.

Danny O'Connor was a friend of my girlfriend. I knew him, too, but not as well. He had just returned from living in England, working at Harrods, dating a rich British gal. Danny was, quite simply, the best bass player I had ever seen. He had been in a Dayton supergroup called Rhino 39 (with drummer Mike Norgren.) I admired that band and his playing so much. Also, I knew Danny would understand our sound. I passed him our 5-song tape. He loved it and immediately set to writing bass lines. He was a little constricted, having to work around preset drum machine patterns and my "suggested" bass lines, but he did very well in taking things up a notch (or several notches.)

With five songs and three members, now we set to recording our project. I contacted Sean Haney, former guitarist for THE LIFE AND TIMES. He owned his own 8-track studio in Cincinnati called "Sane Vine." He had also recorded all of THE LIFE AND TIMES material. I knew he would say yes and not cost too much.

Although I didn't want to add any more "permanent" members to the band, Nick, Danny, and I weren't good enough guitarists to make my temporary guitar licks work on tape. I called Timmy Taylor, later the front man for Brainiac, to play as a session guitarist. Timmy and I had been in a band in 1988 called Amen Corner with the singer from Rhino 39, the drummer from THE LIFE AND TIMES, and a backup singer named Mala Vasan. It was a fantastic band and was my first taste at arranging material. Great experience, but we never played a show. Some recordings survive, though. (Side note: Timmy was killed in a car crash in 1997, the saddest event of the 90s.) Timmy played on two OO OO WA songs and another friend of mine, Brad Morris (later on several of my records), on the three others songs. Timmy was touring during that time with Tool Shed, so Brad pinch-hit when Timmy couldn't make the last day of the sessions.

One month and a thousand dollars later, we had our first demo.

But no name. We were stumped on a band name. I know: OO OO WA is cumbersome. It was an albatross throughout the band's career. However, there were only two names that ever were spoken aloud: Failed Actors and OO OO WA. I like Failed Actors, but all nixed it because it had "Failure" associated with it. OO OO WA was just a stupid phrase I kept hearing or seeing around that time. It was in songs by Hex, Thomas Dolby, Donald Fagen, Happy Mondays, David Bowie, the book "Misery" by Stephen King -everywhere. I thought it was a sign from above. Obviously, a sign that we'll have a stupid name. It was good for two things, though, as it wasn't associated with anything other than us and looked good in print.

The demo went for duplication. We named the band OO OO WA in a big rush. Nick Eddy picked the EP's title "Map of the Moon" because he had a poster on his wall that was, you guessed it, a map of the moon. My friend Ray West Jr., who designed THE LIFE AND TIMES album cover, did artwork.

And finally I sent the tape to Mike Potential.

Around Christmas 1990, I ran into Timmy Taylor at a club. He said Mike Potential had been trying to reach me but didn't have my new phone number. Nick's college number was on the cassette, but he was home for Christmas break. I called Mike and asked if he got the tape. He loved it and wanted to release an album.

I'd say the rest is history, but it was really a long road ending in little success. Nick, Danny, and I went back to demos and wrote another batch of songs. This time, both Timmy and Brad were on tour, so we selected Morgan Taylor from THE LIFE AND TIMES to play guitar. This batch included "History Lesson," "Screen Kiss," "Godliness," "Stars In The Daytime," "See Paris," and "Ancient Chinese Secret." The process was pretty collaborative, but basically the first three were my initiation, the last three Nick's. "Godliness" was my attempt to make a better "Angels," which I thought was a little long at five minutes plus. "See Paris" was just brilliant. Danny's brother Doug played congas on the track and, for a time, we considered having him as our drummer. Danny and Doug were in a cool hard country band called Bomb Pop at the time. I think I recorded a Bomb Pop demo around 1991.

More songs in hand and a record deal in pocket, we returned to Sean Haney's and spent another month. When we emerged, we had what we thought was our finished album of 11 songs. We called the record "Screen Kiss" after one of the songs. This time, Nick Eddy did the demo's art and we duplicated a bunch of cassettes (yes, cassettes; this was before CDRs) to hand out to industry people. The later half of 1991 was spent with Mike Potential shopping the demo around. He hoped to sell us off to a major label before even having to release our record himself. Smashing Pumpkins, Material Issue, and Poster Children all went off to sell many, many records for major labels. Mike thought we'd be next. After us, he also signed The Satanics and Timmy Taylor's band Brainiac.

Mike suggested we put together a live band to promote the album once released. The release date was set on Limited Potential Records for Valentine's Day 1992.

For the band, we had the core group: Nick, Danny, and myself. We also added Morgan Taylor, who was the best and most available of the session guitarists. It took some convincing, but we finally got Mike Norgren back into rock with the appeal of a record deal and playing with Danny again. The five of us rehearsed from December 1991 to March 1992.

Limited Potential released a compilation album of Chicago bands and we snuck on with "Godliness." Smashing Pumpkins were on the compilation, too.

Limited Potential pushed back the release date for "Screen Kiss" from Valentine's Day to June 1992. They were strapped for cash and our live show wasn't ready. No one had signed us yet. Because of the brewing storm of Grunge, pop became more and more risky. Brainiac and The Satanics came out to great sales and reviews. Limited Potential sunk more money into them and basically waited on the return on investment to fund us.

In the meantime, we did lots of industry stuff. We did an "interview cassette," which was us farting around for twenty minutes. We did a TV special called "Looking Ahead." We shot a low budget video for "Stars in the Daytime." And we wrote a ton of songs. Slowly, the five of us worked them up in the basement of my mom's house (she's gone most of the year anyway.)

It suddenly struck us that the album we'd finished wasn't as good as the five of us playing in our basement. We had written several new songs and wanted to add them to the album before the April mastering date.

Rushing back into Sean's studio, we spent another grand and recorded "Say It's A Deal," "Rocketship," "Across The Street," and "An End To This." The first two were clearly singles. "Across The Street" wasn't this amazing track or anything, but it was better (and shorter) than "Mr. Variable" and "What Women Wanted." We decided to cut those two and add "Across The Street" to speed up the pacing of the record. Lastly, I felt the album didn't end well. I think the original closer was "Stars In The Daytime." Fine track, that, but what an anticlimax for a romantic album! I adored the bridge of "Godliness," so decided to cull a new arrangement of loops together and record a coda for the record. The four other guys were hesitant, but when the final mix was done, I think they got it. It really is a very beautiful way to end a record. (Side note: Probably coincidence, but fellow Dayton rockers Guided By Voices ended up doing a very similar album thing with "Alien Lanes." The first song of that record, "A Salty Salute", is the same chords as the closing instrumental "Allright." I know Bob Pollard heard WA records at that time because Sean Haney's brother Barry ended up touring as a tech with The Breeders (also from Dayton) for Lollapalooza 94, with GBV on the bill. Bob mentioned having a copy of "Screen Kiss" and digging it, but he may have been blowing smoke. Another side note: Tobin Sprout's wife called us around this time and asked if GBV might open for WA at a gig sometime because she heard Danny and I considered GBV the best band in Dayton. This was before all the GBV hype and she figured we would draw a good crowd when we debuted. Little did the world know that GBV would kick all of our asses over the next 2 years. Anyway… sorry, got distracted by a tangent.)

When the band was ready, we added three more members: Belinda Monnin, Monica Goffena, and Cory Osenbaugh.

The ladies both sang on "Screen Kiss." A third singer Keliegh L (aka Kelly Loudermilk) was great, but we decided to go for two brunettes (I know: shitty.) I met Belinda when I judged a battle of the bands. She was the highlight of a lame band that lost. Monica is Belinda's cousin. Cory worked with Morgan and me at an ice cream parlor; he had a decent cover band called World One. The three of them were wonderful to do all that work for no pay. They weren't even "official" band members, or received any stake in the publishing. We were honest with them, but they decided to come along and the band was much, much better for their contributions. Cory was later made an official member during the Valhalla sessions, as he had put in years unpaid. Sadly, this basically just made him responsible for 1/6 of our debt in 1995, which was enormous. Poor guy.

We added the four new tracks, mastered the album, finished the artwork, and got ready for our June release date. And the record never came out. Limited Potential told us they pushed it to September 1992 awaiting return on investment for Brainiac. Brainiac later backed out of their full-album deal with Limited Potential and went with Grass in NYC. That pretty much sunk the label financially. They had helped build an audience for Brainiac, but couldn't cash in on the full-length record. We didn't know this for another year.

In September, as scheduled, OO OO WA made its live debut at Gilly's in Dayton, Ohio, a 300 seater with great sound and a high stage. That show is included in the box set. As first shows go, it was pretty darn successful. Gilly's was sold out. Selling out our first show ever blew my mind. I had been used to building an audience over time. I expected 100, maybe 150. We did many things that "local" bands never did before in Dayton: we played one set, not three, a straight hour-fifteen; we played all originals (minus one Bowie and one Lennon cover); we had a cover story in the Dayton music paper even though no one had seen us before; and, most importantly, we had a huge group of musicians that sounded like they had played together for years. There was no "development stage." The tunes, the stage show, the energy, everything was already there. I attribute this to hours in the studio, and many nights of practice. The live disc might not show it, since the recording is so poor, but that night the band took people's heads off. And we all wore suits! We were a bunch of polished kids, early twenties, with, you have to admit, amazing guts. That show was an extension of the album, a separate work of art, but integrated to the vision. I certainly don't take all the credit 'cos, man, I could never have done it without those fantastic musicians, but it was, quite literally, exactly as I imagined it in 1990 when I quit THE LIFE AND TIMES. All of us were high as kites after that first show.

But, we had no record to sell. I'm firmly convinced that we would have had a better career if the record came out in 1992. With that show, and that record, no record company could deny our appeal. Yet we waited another year, until September 1993, to release the record at the absolute apex of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, and every other million-seller that year. No one would sign a pop band in suits in 1993. NO ONE.

The show was ready, even if the record wasn't. We didn't want to tour and lose a ton of money without a record to support. So we played in Dayton again and again. November, Gilly's. December, Gilly's. Both times selling out. In early 1993, we wrote 5 more songs, including "The Kiss Off," "Forever & I," "Somewhere With You," "Wheels Within Wheels," "Brave," and others. For a laugh, we played June 1993 at an outdoor amphitheater. Brainiac opened. It was a great day. A film crew was there and an unedited version of the concert still exists. Considered it for the box set, but ran out of cash.

Summer of 1993 was very depressing. We played no shows. Finally, we got the financial bad news from Limited Potential Records, just inches from closing shop. Our funds dried up. Basically, the next two years I shoved my workaholic nature down everyone's throat. Personally, it was a very black period. Here we had this great band, this great record, and no one really wanted to see or hear it. It was one of those "get busy living or get busy dying" moments.

We made Mike and Morgan official band members to stabilize the line up. Everyone got credit cards. We paid for the manufacturing and marketing of the record ourselves. Mike Potential allowed us to use his label imprint and offices as a base of operations. He still really liked the record, just had no means to make it happen. We shot a video for "Rocketship" (which I still adore) and recorded the "Train Robber" EP as a new, rougher demo to compete with grunge (although it really still sounds like "Screen Kiss" stuff.) We booked a series of shows, including a record release in Chicago at a club where the air conditioning wasn't working.

OO OO WA got a ton of press, but mostly talking about the suits. No one really focused on the record, which is a shame. As you can tell from the PRESS page on this site, we were never critical darlings. Subsequent albums by TRAVEL, TEENAGE BLACKOUT, and other bands of mine have gotten much higher ratings. People just didn't get it. Everyone compared us to bands we never listened to. For example, none of us even liked SPANDAU BALLET. The only three writers who gave us a fair shake were Dave Larsen (Dayton Daily), Tim Steil (Showcase Chicago), and Mo Ryan (Chicago Reader.)

OO OO WA went on to play 50+ shows in support of "Screen Kiss" and "Train Robber." We recorded another record with Sean that wasn't released. We recorded more sessions for Limited Potential Records, who had a brief resuscitation. We almost signed with a few management companies, but the deals always looked shady. We recorded a ton more songs with lots of guitars and most of those were eventually released as 1995s "Rock & Roll Valhalla." In 2001, I released on my website 17 unreleased tracks under the title "Party Favor." And now, 10 years after "Screen Kiss," you have a ridiculous box set.

No one really wanted this. It's a crazy thing to put out four discs from a band only a few thousand people heard of. However, I still have a soft spot for this record and want it to get its due. Three years in the making and, despite the traumas, one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was music boot camp. I couldn't have made 15 more records without what I learned on this one.

As for the other band members, here're their whereabouts…

Nick, Danny, Morgan, Cory and drummer Matt Espy (who played on 2 of Telegraph records) formed a band called MINK and released two albums. They later disbanded in 1998.

Nick, Danny, Cory, and Matt continued with a fresh batch of songs in a band called SUNDROP through 2001. I don't think they ever released anything officially.

Nick, Danny, Cory plus Nick Kizirnis (who also played on Telegraph 'Martian Chronicles') and ex-Breeders / ex-GBV drummer Jim McPherson formed a new group called THE JET AGE, who still play together as of this writing. I think they have an album coming out, so check it out.

Morgan Taylor moved to NYC in 1999 and had great success as a solo artist. He released several indie albums and a box set of demos to much acclaim. He also wrote the title song for some show on Animal Planet.

Mike Norgren played in a couple Dayton bands with some other friends. Not sure what he's up to now.

Belinda lives in Dayton. After OO OO WA, she toured as a backing vocalist with Scream Bloody Murder and has done a lot of theater.

Monica lives in Sydney, Oh. She, too, toured with Scream Bloody Murder.

I'm not sure what's up with Doug O'Connor.

Sean Haney toured the world as technician for many big rock stars. He still produces records.

Mike Potential (ne Mike Po) designs many brilliant web sites, including ones for Cheap Trick and The Ramones. He's won a lot of kudos from the industry for being so damn good at it. He's designed darrencallahan.com and many of my album covers. As well, he produced the 2000 release "This Is Our ~Music" for TRAVEL. And, he's mastered several of my records. Jesus, that guy's good at everything!

And the OO OO WA fans have dispersed amongst the land bringing joy and happiness wherever they go… THE END.