One of my oldest and best friends from early on, Keith Gladysz, suggested that we make art together at some point in the early 2000s. We had always been close and performing/generating something together through the years (AFTERSHOCK shows, WWBP Body Electric, various design projects, figuring out how to track down Martin Gore from Depeche Mode at WDRE during high school, etc.) but nothing super formal or directed in that special way. It would be a band called Diet Kong and it would be weird and art/garage/pop/alternative/electronic/whatever rock and he and old-school connect/production wizard Fred Sargolini (FS) would write a bunch of it, and I'd play guitar and contribute some chords here and there. The first incarnation included a full ensemble (with Vin Scialla on board recording and playing drums on live sets) and eventually, when I pulled away and the project paired down, it was Keith and Jenn making and performing it exclusively with Fred still at the helm for the most part. More recently, DK and Keith, specifically, are seeing new manifestations and wildly imaginative solo blasts into the internet world. The work has gotten even more spiritual for him in the best way, which makes sense as we were hunting to express something pure and idiosyncratic in these early recordings. Over the years, I've kept up with Fred here and there too, carving up a few interesting and inventive tracks (spaghetti westerns, ambient stuff, remixes of my solo stuff, etc.) that I really cherish. Some of that early Diet Kong stuff with me on it and some FS/A Merge tracks that are actual songs live here.

Looking back on it now, it feels like Diet Kong is a mischief-charged spirited rock that is stylized but not haughtily (i.e. aggressive but not angry, that kind of thing). The FS tracks feel big and bombastic but not in a pretentious way. There is this idea of eschewing musical conventions and templates but it's in honor of finding something that aligns with our instinctual sensibilities, despite whatever shortcomings and limitations we have. It sort of sounds good enough so that you'll take the ride anyway. Fred said something to me years ago that stuck. He said, "Al, you don't need to try to make your art weird to be different or alternative or anything like that. If you try to be normal, you'll still be weird enough to stay in all the conversations." I'm paraphrasing, but I appreciated that.

What I remember most during my years working with Keith and Fred is the way the work was really organic and not too adored or precious. I'd park the car in the garage in Brooklyn and bring the guitar up to Fred's place and make a song in an hour and record it in the next hour and come down before the rate changed. Same with Keith. It was about the guttural inclinations...the faster it came to us (no matter the freakiness of it), the faster it might get delivered to listeners (again, no matter the freakiness). The skeletal structures were basic/timeless sorts of arrangements and the push was to be ourselves, which is no small task because how many of us know ourselves? Like really know ourselves? And isn't art about that after all? Yes and no. There is the delivering of that thought, which is what impresses me so much about Fred. There is an efficacy to that kind of articulation, and I'm grateful for my time in it. And there is also the thought itself, which was and will still be the subject of many conversations between Keith and myself. I'm grateful for those as well.