Recorded in my bedroom on a shitty broken Tascam 4-track recorder between August and November of 1998, "Constructing The Perfect Pop Star" was the first album by The Bassturd to be released on compact disc.

At the time I lived in a tiny room, (10 x 16 feet roughly), with no air conditioning, infestations of insects and rodents, and only a worn out futon mattress to sleep on. The Yamaha keyboard that I had used for years was dying. The keys no longer functioned, but the drum machine still worked. My only other keyboard was tragically destroyed at a gig after I accidentally spilled root beer all over it.

Fortunately I had some great friends that offered to let me borrow some gear in order to make this album. My friend Adam, (Captain Cold), lent me his Tascam 4-track recorder. It was in pretty bad shape and broke twice while I was working on this record. I had to keep taking it in to get it repaired, which in the end may have cost more than just buying a new one. My friend Garth Cave had a Korg M-1 synthesizer that he loaned me, and my pal Ron, (The Nazz), lent me a guitar effects box that I used mostly for vocals.

I was still learning the nuances of multi-track recording, thus a lot of trial and error went into creating these songs. I mastered the art of lightly letting up on the pause button to avoid getting loud pops when doing punch-ins, (which I did a lot of due to being limited to only four tracks).

Once all of the material was recorded I asked by friend Rob if he would help me mix them. He agreed and we spent several days mixing the tracks live from the Tascam onto his computer. Once we had the mixes on his machine we recorded a few overdubs, added some effects, and then labored over the track ordering and transitions from track to track, (something I really wanted to do).

My upstairs neighbor was a photographer, and another friend of mine was pretty adept at digital artwork. They helped me create the album cover, (basically imposing my face onto Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album cover).

I then begged a couple of friends that had CD burners, (not all that common in late 1998), to help me rip 100 copies of the album.

The first pressing of this album sold out fairly quickly, and people seemed to like it. It received a lot of local press, and even got a glowing review from Chuck Eddy at The Village Voice.

In hindsight there are some moments on this record that I deeply regret. Including the crude cover of Barnes & Barnes "I Hope She Dies" was not a great move, nor was including a secret bonus track at the end of the disc about robots, but whatever.

It has been out of print for many years, and my master copy has long since been lost, (though I did recently unearth a draft mix that was incomplete and not yet mastered). In 2011 I made back-up copies of all of my digital releases, and this upload was taken from that back-up copy.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this one. It's a very weird ride.

- The Bassturd