Count Zee - Orgy Of Seven

This release is the extended version of the Idylife flexi. It contains the songs that couldn't fit on the small record. The title track has always been one of my favorite songs of John's. He held it in high regard himself. He resurrected some of the riffs from the song for one of his last releases, Dethskull. I got this on a plain white cassette from John in the mail. One side was the Base Apes Extended Orgy Of Hatred, with the Count Zee material on the B side. I added the label myself, with some green paint that I had left over from a model kit. Bring Me The Head Of Sam Senovich, seems to be a fun take on sibling rivalry. The video game clip that he put in at the end has always caught my ear as well. I don't know which game it came from though.

A fun memory I have of John is when we would call one another's home phones and get the answering machine of the other. Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny is a favorite album of mine, as it was his. We would do our best Halford impersonations on one another's answering machines. I can still hear a telephoned John voice, singing the high note and bit of verse before the guitar solo in Dreamer/Deceiver. It still makes me smile.

Enjoy 

Fart Kings - Wimpy Hickster

There is about an hours worth of material on this collection. Fart kings and Wimpy Hickster are project names that John used for these solo recordings. I never had a song list for this compilation, so most of the song titles are guessed or just labelled as "instrumental" or "experiments". Cat In My Pants is a Base Apes song. You should check out Sam Senovich's Apes page for everything BA related.

I first heard some of these songs, when John made a video that showcased his friend Bill Spicer's artwork. The video showed a lot of different drawings by the young artist, with music from this collection in the background. I asked John about the music from that video and he kindly made this compilation for me. Damned In Ignorance, Who Killed Roger Rabbit and Return Of The Killer Zit are some favorites of mine. 

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Count Zee - Happy Halloween (1994)

This was recorded on October 8th and 9th in 1994. John had copies of it for sale at the Mad Platter, shortly after recording it. This is mostly soundscapes created with different looped effects and samples from other recordings. He seemed to be doing a lot of experimenting with a harmonizer effect he had. This can be heard in the guitar throughout most of the recording.

I have never known what the repeated phrase is in the track, Alien Metaphor. The harmonized line, with the mountain of droning noise behind it has always sounded very unsettling to me. It really does create a spooky vibe. Happy Halloween indeed.

On a side note, John turned the graphic on the front of this recording into a T-shirt. I had one of them and wore it to school. The school principal made me turn the shirt inside out, after stopping me in the hallway. Apparently the bulge on the character offended the school staff.

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Vampire Circus (1995)

This is one of the few releases that John stood behind. It was professionally produced in Florida. Kim Sharp provided vocals on the bulk of the tracks, with Scott Sheppard providing vocals and lead guitar on "Something You Should Know". John himself, handled the rest of the vocal duties on this album. This was the first release of John's in which I heard his voice, without an army of effects behind it. He was very unsure of his vocal abilities, but I think this album proves that he was more than a capable vocalist and a fine musician.

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Wor - Folk Lore (1992)

This is one of John's more experimental releases. During the time he recorded this, he had a couple of other demos under different project names. I didn't learn until later years that he was the sole creator and mastermind behind them.

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Count Zee - Idylife (1991)

This was the first release of John's that I discovered. Springfield used to have a record store called the Mad Platter. They sold new and used music for a reasonable price and were extra kind to the local music community, putting demos on a separate display that made them stand out. On one of my frequent trips to the store, I spotted a stack of blue flexi records. There was a sign in front of them that read "Thrash Metal 50 cents". It was an offer that I could not refuse. I think this contains some of John's best guitar work.

Enjoy

Welcome

Welcome friends

I am putting up this site to host the music of my friend, John Senovich. I had a friendship with him that lasted for twenty years. I am not unique in that regard. John made several lasting friendships in his lifetime and left an impression on anyone he met. I came to know him through his demos that he sold at a local record store, in the mid 1990's. I wrote a letter to the address on the back of one of the demos and we started trading letters for a couple of years. Eventually we would work together in a band called Dark Covenant, before he devoted his creative impulses to visual media. I was honored to help him compose the scores for his two movies, Redneck Carnage and Dystopia 2013.

 I am in the process of transferring a lot of John's older recordings to mp3 format. I will post links to download them here. Listen to them, share them and enjoy them. If any of the links are broken, send me a message and I will get a new one posted. If you have photos of John or memories you would like to share, don't hesitate. I would love to include your stories and photos. Bookmark this site and tell anyone who would be interested about it.

Willie