It's been almost ten years since Don McCoy and I recorded Sometimes You Feel Like a... Since then, we've always enjoyed getting together, flipping open the laptop, and hitting the record button(or opening FL Studio). Although we haven't always been in close proximity of each other, we find a way to continue this journey down the neverending road of musical discovery.

While peers among us were on the hunt for big shows, fans, and record deals, we were content to record our little songs and covers in whatever hole we were in at the time and post them online for free without much, if any, fanfare.

We weren't going into a studio and planning our days methodically, but in the course of hanging out and getting high just saying,"Let's record." Often I would open my computer and hit record without even saying anything. We were from the beginning an "experimental" project. The idea of recording any sound and tweaking it, mixing it with other sounds, or just leaving it be was always a good time. You'll probably never hear it, but during "We're not building a house, we live inside a boot" two pieces of bread were struck together in front of the microphone. It's there, perhaps not audible or adding to the piece, but by gum it's there.

Doors creaking, cats meowing, distorted electric razors, keys slowed down to sound like chains, coughs, sniffs, farts...if it's audible, it's worth recording. There's always been a sense of, "Let's have fun. Let's not be bothered by trying to make everything perfect. Let's capture what's there in that moment. Let's show our flaws and be who we are."

If there's anything that stands out about Perfectly Normal Beast in comparison to our other recordings, it's the fact that during the week we recorded it we were completely and utterly SOBER. This cannot be said about any of our other releases. This was the only time we said, "Let's do a blues album." There was an idea, there was a list of songs we might do, there were a couple original songs with lyrics...the title is a misnomer, as for us, this was the weirdest thing we'd ever done as the Unamerican Red Cross.

Although releasing it "officially" now, these songs have been sitting around for about 5 years. Don and I were both working at a plastic bottle factory and every bit of miserable you could expect from working in a factory packaging futuretrash. We had something to get out of our systems and this is it.

A record is just that. A record. Those particular moments in time arranged together into one that serves as a virtual aural time machine. Watch your step as you enter our time machine and remember to enjoy yourself and the world around you.

-Roy Arnott