Merchandise

When I started this website in 2001, I had a few extra copies of many of these CD's. I made this page a one of many practice pages in learning HTML code. I didn't think anyone would actually send me money, plus, I only had a couple extra CD's. Then I got a bunch of requests that I had to turn away. I really don't know what I was thinking. So, no new orders please. (unless you want a burned copy of Duck Duck at the Safe, or The Toast'em Boyz). If you cannot find some rare gem from Lowell's early '90's music scene, I would burn you a copy if it's out of print. But basically this page is obsolete anyway due to iTunes.  Thanks for writing - sorry for any inconvenience. For now, consider this page an interesting historical museum tour of some great bands I have played with. For more information on Lowell music, click here. Frank Morey's CD's can be found at www.frankmorey.com. All Shods CD's Available on ACME Records at www.acmerecords.net

Poorhouse Records P.O. Box 555 Lowell, MA 01853

Back to Bands

	THE POORHOUSE SESSIONS VOL. I 1994 - Kevin Stevenson and I, obsessed with trying to create a 'Sun Records' style recording studio, brought together all of the new talent that had been coming down to our 1994 open mic night at 'The Safe' in Lowell, MA to record their best songs. With 19 tracks, this album features early recordings by Jen Kearney, Rick Fuller, Nick Orphanedes, The Full Pimps, The Shods, The Invaders, Jenny Riddle, James Gaudette, Frank Morey, The Mad Cap Laughs, D-Tension, Donny McHale, and the great Bill Ralston's 'Cat & Dog' song.. Comes with a 24 page booklet documenting the whole affair. "In Full Living Mono!!"
	THE POORHOUSE SESSIONS VOL. '1 1/2' - Available on CD soon, this 'mini EP' of leftovers that just couldn't fit on the original contains some of the best songs and recordings from the 1994 Poorhouse days. 'Grounded' by Frank Morey; 'I'm Sorry' by Rick Fuller; 'I'm Not Really There' by Kevin Mertens; 'Carlotta' by Bill Ralston; 'Nice Guys get the Zig' by Donny McHale; 'Christina' by The Shods; 'She's my Baby' by The Invaders; 'When You're Alone' by Kevin Stevenson, 'Cranb'ry Sauce' by D-Tension & Boo Finga; 'Tonight, You Belong to Me' by Kevin & Scott, 'Running Away Too Soon' by John Grant; plus many more!! Also includes houseband favorite, 'The Rock' by Rick Fuller and Jen Kearney. -Almost a full album in itself!! These recordings are available on cassette only for the time being. 'Bootleg' CD's coming soon!!	$5.00
	DUCK DUCK - Sticky's Children (1992) Take original members Kevin Stevenson, Peter Bufano, Scott Pittman, Adam Kelley, and Bill Haslam and brew them together with the horn section of Bernie Culliton, Carl Ayotte, Roy Groth, and tuba player Gary Oberlin. Add the 'flavah' of Eric Pestana and Harvey Pooka and you get 11. With that, record 11 songs in 11 days in 11 different directions in a 24 track studio in 1992 and you get 'Sticky's Children'. Crazy math? Listen to this CD and maybe it will make more sense. Only one thousand made. Maybe 3 or 4 left. Order now.
	DUCK DUCK - Four CD 'Boxed Set' by longtime fan, Shaggy. In 1990, Duck Duck played a four hour set from 9:30 - 1:30 for four nights in a row -Wednesday thru Saturday- once a month for a year straight to sold out crowds each time. With the same implausabiliy, Doug 'Shaggy' Lees recorded all of these nights and subsequently mixed them down in recent years to recreate the 'fixed' set list we had then used. Now available in limited quantities, this 4 CD 'Boxed Set' is as impressive as it is embarassing, but always funny. Throw in an extra five bucks and you'll get a CD copy of 'Bill', the original 11 song demo tape featuring 'Garbage Man', 'Get up and Dance', and other classics.	Write me for this!!
	THE TOAST'EM BOYZ - The four song 'trilogy' (???) available here on CD for the first time!! Contains all three Toast'em songs: Toast'em Boy, Toast'em Bride, Toast'ems Revenge, and the bonus song, Toast'em Bus!! Featuring the 11 member team of Kevin Stevenson, Adam Kelley, Bill Haslam, Dan, Frank, and Julie Boucher, Todd and Tony Marino, Scott Pittman, Frank Furtado, and Joe Matolla, the Toast'em songs follow the Twilight Zone-like implied life of the boy on the back of a toaster pastry snack box. Says the Toast'em Boy, "I could be you- and you could be me!!"	Yes.
	THE SHODS - Here Come the Shods (1995) *The debut album featuring Kevin Stevenson, Scott Pittman and original bass player, Roy Costa.* "Wind up with the Shods! Here at last is the Shods' first full-length album to deliver on the promise of the stunning, much-sought after "I'M IN LOWELL, MA!" EP. Listen to the Shods shake, rattle, reel, and shimmy through a weekend long, lo-fi session's worth of songs, old and new. From the antic, headlong start-up of "Este Corazon Solitario" to the blacked out, clamorous shut-down of "Wicked Girl," the Shods blast through a baker's dozen of assorted original twist tunes, flat-out rockers and despondent ballads, replete with the soul, authenticity and verve that characterizes rock and roll. In a word, outfuckingstanding. Look out..." - Chris Ware (from the liner notes).
	THE SHODS - Bamboozled Jilted, Hornswoggled + Hoodwinked (1998) What should have been the Shods third album, 'Bamboozled' was recorded lo-fi in a friends basement the year after the big budgeted/big disastered 'Stop Crying' was recorded for the ill-fated Fort Apache label. Losing their funding and their distribution from parent company, MCA (and keeping under wraps from us), Fort Apache shevled 'Stop Crying' for five long years. In the meantime, Kevin Stevenson led the Shods, with new guitar player, Dave Aaronoff, and bassist #3, Craig Silverman, into battle with this rock and roll manifesto!!
	THE SHODS - Thanks for Nuthin' (1999) Adding keyboardist, Jay Buckley, and yet another new bassplayer, (#4) Dave 'Manimal' Livingston, The Shods hit the studio fresh off their tours with The Mighty Mighty Bosstons. With Boston 'rock legend', David Minehan, producing the album at his Woolly Mammouth studio; a hit on Boston's WFNX with the song 'Eddie Cross': and with a cool cover of '70's Boston rockers, The Real Kids' 'All Kindsa Girls', Thanks for Nuthin' triumphantly hurl The Shods way past their Fort Apache slump.
	THE SHODS - Stop Crying (1996/2001) Finally. Five years later, The Shods get their album back!! Stop Crying with all the Shods favorites: Shot Himself Up (ripped off in the interum by Rivers Cuomo of Weezer), 18 Miles Down, Mill City, Building Up, Problems and more!! Complete with the quintessential recording of Kevin's epic, Jessebelle; complete with a string section and more echo than the Grand Canyon!! If you own one Shods album, this is it. Recorded and mixed in the entire month of September, 1996 at Fort Apache studios in Cambridge, MA. Produced by another Lowell native, Tim O'Heir, this has it all. With Kevin, Scott, Dave, and bass #2, F.J. Ventre. Ultimately released on ACME records in Dracut.
	THE SHODS - Tippy (2003) Each Shods album contained songs that either didn't make the cut or just were not recorded at the time because of time restraints or simply because the songs were too new to make the album. In 2002, The Shods went back into the recording studio to finally capture some long lost faves to disc. Some, like "Black Cloud" and "A Drink to Forget", went back as far as 1995 and were almost totally forgotten. "Telephone" and "So Low" were live favorites that weren't available yet. "Here Comes the Night" was originally recorded for the Bamboozled CD but only made it to a Shods split 7" with The Ducky Boys. Also added to this CD to round it out are a great batch of Kevin's newest Shods songs including "Let Me Go Now" and "Big Lie". There are 15 songs recorded for 'Tippy' -which incidentally is named after Kevin's Grandfather's *alias* and who's picture sports the albums cover.
	FRANK MOREY - Cold in Hand (2002) Before recording 'Father John's Medicine', Frank Morey was over my house and saw this incredible drum set I had collected that was set up with all the parts and pieces from the 1920's vaudeville/dixieland era. A beautiful contraption, indeed; but he wanted me to take this 'traps kit' all apart and bring it to the studio to record his next CD. "There's no way in the world I'm going to take that thing out of the house!!" I said. Apparently there IS a way in the world: there's Chicago in the world and there's Italy in the world... because after he recorded FJM (without me), he offered me a chance to come with him on those two tours WITH THAT TRAPS KIT!! But I think 'Cold In Hand' is less about Frank finally getting me to play 'the traps' with him and more about our eventual aquisition of Joe 'Tubb' Faria, who was playing for (many) Heineken's performing on the washtub bass after he 'gave up' music that year. His 'comeback' on the upright bass was day two of a three day start to finish recording blitz that became this album. 14 brilliant Frank songs including: 'Barflies', 'Slick and Mary Lou', 'Dark Side of the Road', 'China Doll', and the eerie 'speghetti western' 'Ghosts and Guns'. Produced by Frank and I with the great Peter Linnane who also engineered the CD. This CD can be purchased online from Frank's website -Or I have a limited amount if you are purchasing other CD's from this page.
	FRANK MOREY - The Delmark Sessions (2002) No one will ever beleive the story of how this CD came to be. During a two month tour of Route 66 directly after New York getting 'planed', the country was a ghost town. Everything was closed and no one was going out. Canceled tours by other bands gave us an endless stay at The Hotel Monte Vista in Flagstaff in return for a free room. On one night, the only other people traveling the country were Mr. and Mrs. Bob Koester. Bob, being the owner of Delmark records -the oldest independent Jazz/Blues label in the country- AND Jazz Record Mart -the world largest jazz/blues record store- thought he'd better check out a song or two after seeing the vintage 'traps kit' set up before we played (so as to see whether or not we 'deserved' to play with an instrument like that). In his words, we were too young to know about music that was being played when that instrument was made. One song turned into a whole night, and that night turned into an invite to the 'House of Delmark' in Chicago. The rest just somehow flowed together and now we are label mates with Big Joe Williams, Sleep John Estes, Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, and MANY other of our heroes. AND we have this 20 song CD complete with all of Frank's current 'hits', including: 'I Know (the Woman's Gonna Break My Heart)', 'New Orleans', Murder Bound', Saturday Night', 'Blame It On the Devil', Baby, Don't Leave the Light On', and 'Let It Roll', which is going to appear on Delmark's 50th anniversary comppilation CD!! This CD also includes our ever evolving encore, the traditional 'Stack-o-lee'. Featuring Frank and Scott with the now roadworthy Joe Faria; AND Chicago's own Rick 'Cookin' Sherry on a number of tracks, this album was a blast to make. Order direct from Delmark. Or, once again, if with multiple purchases, I may have one or two on file.
	THE ROLLIE FINGERS - Above Her Mouth (2001) Johnny Morris, Matt Petros, Bob Sevigny, and Van Lawton came to me at the end of 2000 after playing together for only 6 months (some members had only played their INSTRUMENTS for 6 months) and asked me, "Hey, how do you make a CD?" After I went into some long spiel about tracking vs. live recording, click tracks vs. feel, pre-production, mixing, mastering, and album artwork, Johnny stopped me in my tracks and pitched, "Hey, can YOU just make it?" So after I repeated my speach on tracking, clicking, producting, montering, and arting, he just walked away and said, "Hey, let's start it in a couple months, ok?" but before totally leaving the subject added in, "And couldya make us sound like The Shods!!!???" I produced this album for them in one month FLAT -start to finish, starting on April fools day, 2001. The band learned the in's and out's of recording at Bob Nash's WONKA Sound in Lowell. They released it one month later. This is the first album that I independently produced and I am proud of what I heard these guys to do in such a short time. So does it sound anything 'like the Shods..."? I think it sounds like The Rollie Fingers, but you will have to check it out!!
	THE INVADERS -1994 was the year. The Poorhouse reel to reels just started turning, The Shods were in their infancy rehearsing in a coffee shop stockroom, and The Invaders were playing Lowell pizza joints. Kevin Stevenson and Scott Pittman joined with (later to be Shods bassist) F.J. Ventre to play diners, alleys, and rooftops every day until F.J.'s bloodied fingers mastered the 'click-clack' technique on the upright bass. Always denying having any recordings, these dozen Invaders songs were just discovered on a reel of Poorhouse 'soundcheck' tape, apparently recorded every week or so to test out a new piece of equiptment or recording technique. Though disregarded at the time (???), these recordings have all the drive, raw energy and spirit of an ol' Johnny's Pizza Thursday night or a hungover Sugar Shack cafe' rooftop Friday morning. All the favorites by all the greats; including: 'Rip it Up', 'Tennessee Rock and Roll', 'Flying Saucer Rock and Roll', 'I Gotta Get a Cadillac', 'Bucket's Got a Hole in It', 'Come Back Baby', 'Blue Moon of Kentucky', 'She's My Baby' (one of only two Invaders originals), and the Johnny Burnette covers of 'Sweet Love on My Mind', 'Lonesome Train', 'Oh Baby Babe (Come Back Baby)', and 'Lonesome Tears in My Eyes (Blues and Sorrow)'. Available now on cassette, or for the extremely patient on (eventually) CD.
	SCOTT MATTHEW PITTMAN DITTIES - (1986-1993) Although there was college, six or seven bands, a theater group, some orchestras, and over a hundred musical friends, almost everything I learned about music was done at three in the morning at home on my Tascam 4-track recording device. How to write a song, how to arrange a song, how to record a song, how to play all the instruments, how to attempt to sing, how to mix it all together and then mix it all down: The wonderful 4-Track Machine. I recorded over 50 songs during this period although only 25 or 30 that I would ever show anybody. I mixed them all down to the digital format for posterity sake recently and thought, maybe someone would get a kick out of these. This collection is a 'double CD' and includes many extra's. Aquire this if you want to insure I never become president. SCOTT MATTHEW PITTMAN DITTIES - (1996-present) Although I skipped a few years of writing; new projects, tours, living life, and reflection brought me to realize that I write really stupid lyrics and really dumb songs. A new outlook and an honest grab of the pen brought me to write my first 'real' song. From there they have been slowly coming. On my birthday in 2001, I gave myself the challenge of putting a band together with the tall order of learning a stack of my more recents ditties with me up front and center armed with a microphone and a guitar. These recordings will eventually make a CD that I am starting this summer, but if you want a sneak peek, send me a cassette.	$10.00
	THE CARL, KEVIN, AND SCOTT ANNUAL CHRISTMAS RECORDINGS - Three years of Christmas albums recorded in Carl Ayottes 'Middle Class' basement studio on a mixture of rum, Coke & egg nog and severe lack of sleep. These are hilarious spoofs and self penned holiday songs. All available on one CD. Over 25 songs!! COMING SOON!! Email for more info.