Afterwords
Following hot on the heels Short Wave was another band, Green Bean, and after that another, and another and another, and by 2015, I was deeply involved with with my latest project, Pixels. For the first time in 10 years I found myself in a porfessional recording studio preparing to make an album on 2" tape. The problem - we were a little short on funds, and so, the Short Wave tape was erased and re-used.
Of course I digitized it first, but the vocal track didn't make it over - only the instrumental sections of "Bore," "Deflowered," "Live Anonymous," and "Oh Dear." And then the files got lost, leaving us only with the 2005 rough mixes from our 'lost' album.
Re-evaluation
In the early 2020's something funny happened - I started to appreciate that material again, for what it was. Maybe I just needed the perspective. Maybe it was just nostalgia. Whatever it is, or was, I saw my failed project for what it was - a young person trying to figure it out - music, the world - and a bunch of friends who were willing to go along with it with a crazy idea.
While the more 'expensive' tapes had been re-used for studio projects, other ephemeral items stayed - concert flyers, photographs, notebooks, videos, rehearsal recordings, demos, bits of banter - much more than anyone besides me (or those who were there) would ever care to dive into, but enough to paint a picture of a time and a place - Short Wave - a grunge band 15 years too late, on the wrong coast, cos-playing the music 1980s music scene in a world dominated by MySpace and iPods.
I wouldn't have done it any differently.