Uncle Dan - Wasted Time (2009)

I believe it was DiVinci that said that "a work of art is never finished until it is abandoned". Well the time has come to let this go. Not that I'm comparing this to any great work of art, it's just time to release this into the ether and move on the the next project.

In the course of recording these songs many songs were recorded multiple times and many others were dropped along the way. This is the stuff that didn't suck.

1. Wasted Time
2. The River Runs Deep
3. Escape
4. Is This Love?
5. What Am I Gonna Do
6. This Crazy Love
7. I Don't Cry
8. Just You And Me
9. As I Fall

All lyrics and music written and copyright by Daniel Brooks

All vocals and instrumentation performed by Daniel Brooks except:
Lead guitar on Is This Love by Zak Hanson
Lead Guitar on What Am I Gonna Do by Pat Brooks

Artwork by Daniel Brooks

Baby Strange - Borders Are Patroled (1987)

The mighty Baby Strange. Hailing from Waukesha Wisconsin, Baby Strange's brief existence only lasted two years. But from 1986 through 1988 this band was a beast refusing to be tamed. Made up of two sets of brothers, Scott (drums) and Jerry (vocals) Halverson and Pat (guitar) and Dan (bass) Brooks, Baby Strange struggled to find its place within the local music scene.

This band gave me some of my highest and lowest points in my music career, sometimes both within the span of fifteen minutes. No matter how much we rehearsed, each performance was like starting over. Sometimes we nailed it, other times we crashed and burned.

This is a collection of songs gathered from the few existing rehearsal tapes. It contains covers and originals, some of which Pat would record later with Tony Bear and even later with Heavy Nova. But many of these songs died with the band. Songwriting was a collective collaboration with lyrics coming from Pat, Dan and Jerry and music mostly from Pat then finally arranged by the band as a whole.

Due to the loss of the original files and the lack of enthusiasm to remaster these tapes. these are presented in a lowly bitrate of 128, but with the low quality of the source tapes you're not missing anything anyway.

Jerry Halverson - Vocals
Pat Brooks - Guitars/Backing Vocals
Scott Halverson - Drums
Dan Brooks - Bass

1. Solid Steel
2. Fight Back
3. Train Kept-A-Rollin'
4. Warrior
5. Years Ago
6. Borders Are Patroled (PGJ)
7. Pain Maker
8. Frustrated
9. Cry No More
10. Sad Sadie
11. Running From Myself
12. Captain Midnight
13. Green Manalishi
14. How Many More Days
15. Radar Love
16. Wild Thing

Blind Prophet (1979-83?)

Four Guys, Four cases of beer, three and a half songs and no documented proof.

Kevin - Guitar (All other chords and melodic solos)
Dan - Random bass (Low E goes plbplbplbplb)
Pat - Guitar (Chords I-IV-V and noise solos)
Clint - Drums (No cymbals) Band transport and beer runs

Blind Prophet was our first band (sort of). We had a lot of fun but we never really got anything done. Like most first bands, we played more at each other than with each other. Rehearsals were more social events than practice sessions. We would camp out at Clint's house for the weekend where we would play for a couple hours then break for a couple hours then play some more then another break and so on. Some of us were more serious than others. Kevin is a dedicated guitarist, Pat is in a working band, I was more a music tease (sometimes I enjoyed it, sometimes I didn't care), Clint has disappeared. In all the time we spent jamming we only ever played three songs completely through and none of them more than once or more than one during the same session. All in all though they were good times and I would do it all again if I had to.

The picture above is the only documentation that the band actually existed and that actually dates from a "reunion" in the early 80s. There are no tapes of any kind that we know of so there is nothing to download, just a lot of memories and too many stories than space allows.

Heavy Nova - Alternate Routes (2009)

Heavy Nova is Pat's current gig. They play around the Milwaukee area when the mood strikes them but put on a great show and is always a good time. This is a collection of alternate takes, mixes and live tracks. Tracks 1,3 and 6 are alternate mixes of tracks found on their debut CD Miles of Cock. Track 4 is an alternate take from the sessions for that album. Track 9 was created from unused tracks from the solo section of Dangerous Tonight, also from that album. Tracks 2 and 7 are demos recorded prior to sessions for the album. Tracks 5 and 8 are live recordings of two songs never recorded in the studio and are no longer being performed or at this time being considered for their next CD.

Heavy Nova is:

Brian Johnston - Guitar
Brett Burrow - Bass
Pat Brooks - Vocals/Guitar
Mike Hoke - Drums

1. Dangerous Tonight (Big STT Mix)
2. Reflected (Attic Demo)
3. Fade Away (Wood Mix)
4. Government (Early Take)
5. Going Nowhere Fast (Live Shank Hall 8.18.06)
6. Take My Heart (DeePer Mix)
7. Broken Glass (Attic Demo)
8. Running From Myself (Live Shank Hall 11.18.06)
9. Dangerous Reprise

For more Heavy Nova visit their website at heavynovarocks.com. There you can find info on their album Miles of Cock and how to get it, bios of the band members, pictures and video clips and the latest info on upcoming gigs.