THE REIGNING SOUND, 'Pill-popping Mom Only Taking What She Needs To Get By' [imagined LP]

The Reigning Sound

PILL-POPPING MOM ONLY TAKING WHAT SHE NEEDS TO GET BY    (2003)

Find Me Now*

If You Can't Give Me Everything*

Medication Blues #1*

Carol*

What Could I Do?*

Funny Thing*

Drowning

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When You Touch Me

Let Yourself Go

Medication

I'll Cry

You Got Me Hummin'

Get It!

Uptight, Tonight

In my continued mission to both find new projects of interest and promote bands I think you should hear...I present to you the lost original 3rd Reigning Sound LP. Now first off, the reason for an 'alternate view' is simply to find a new way to listen some albums I have played out many times. The Reigning Sound is a band I haven't heard do a bad song. Seriously. 

In 2003, the Memphis based quartet had recorded their follow-up to 2002's highly praised Time Bomb High School. Lead singer-songwriter Greg Cartwright had toyed with calling the album 'PILL-POPPING MOM ONLY TAKING WHAT SHE NEEDS TO GET BY' from an article in the medical advice column of the local Memphis paper The Commercial Appeal. Apparently, the writing direction changed and it ended up becoming a much louder record with the appropriate title, Too Much Guitar! This also tied in with the departure of keyboardist Alex Greene. The remaining trio (Cartwright, bassist Jeremy Scott and drummer Greg Roberson) picked up recording at Cartwright's own Legba Records (now Goner Records) store with help from local musicians Jay Reatard (R.I.P.) and Alicia Trout (then both of The Lost Sounds). 

Basically the first half of this was recorded with Greene (including versions of "Funny Thing" and "If You Can't Give Me Everything") but was left off (except "Drowning" and the rest on side 2) in favor of new recordings. Now that the band would be a trio, a new batch of songs was laid down alongside the previous batch (with Greene in the mix) and released in 2004 as the excellent Too Much Guitar! LP. These first songs were later released on the 2005 compilation album Home For Orphans. The transition of "If You Can't Give Me Everything" from the two sessions is something else!  For the compilation CD i just mentioned--I basically switched out songs and adjusted the tracklist for that reconstruction. I won't bother trying to re-construct the cover when the original is fine. Here's the 45 sleeve of their X-Mas single:

The Reigning Sound

HOME FOR ORPHANS   (alt.)

Your Love is a Fine Thing   

We Repel Each Other      

So Easy

If You Can't Give Me Everything*    

Funny Thing*                    

Excedrine Headache #265

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Black Sheep*     [Live at Goner Records]
Do Something*     [Live at Goner Records]

I Walk By Your House**      [Time Bomb High School  *CD only]

If Christmas Can't Bring You Home

Pretty Girl

Here Without You

Don't Send Me No Flowers, I Ain't Dead Yet


The first side is from the original Too Much Guitar! LP recorded as a trio. The first couple songs on side 2 were cut from a live show in 2005 at the same Goner Records store (previously Legba Records) they recorded in previously. "I Walk By Your House" I include because of its exclusion from the LP version of Time Bomb High School. I also listen to that album in its LP format (ballads on one side; rockers on the others). You can drop that one for "Do Something", if you please. The other songs made their LP debut on the original Home For Orphans in 2005.