Album Notes

Notes on album:

All words and music composed by Abel Ashes except:
"Amtrak Out of Orange County" : Words by Abel Ashes / Music by Fayd
"Lemming Sunset" : Words by Abel Ashes / Music by Abel Ashes, Eric Hensel, & Meyer Hirsch
All songs copyright 1993-2006 Abel Ashes, All Rights Reserved

Album produced by Abel Ashes, except "The CEO" produced by Abel Ashes & Marcos Fernandes

Abel Ashes
>Guitar: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 >Bass: 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12 >Vocal: 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 >Piano: 10 >Sampling: 11, 12
Fayd
>Marimba: 3, 7, 12 >Piano: 5 > Three-Part Vocal Arrangement: 5 >Keyboard: 2, 8, 9 >Percussion: 2 >Sequencer: 9 >Organ: 6
Marcos Fernandes
>Drums: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 >Additional percussion: 2, 3, 4
Eric Hensel
>Guitar: 10
Hirsch the machine Hirsch (Meyer Hirsch)
>Guitar: 10
Clare Vazin
>Vocal: 5 >Piano: 8
Max Vazin
>Bass: 5, 6

Tracks 1, , 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 recorded at Hit Single, El Cajon, CA by Randy Fuelle 2000 - 2001
Tracks 2, 3, 4, 9 recorded at Blitz, San Diego, CA by Richard Livoni 2000 - 2001
Track 5 recorded at Hit Single in 1997, re-edited by Abel Ashes at home in San Diego, CA in 2001
Track 1 recorded at Hit Single in 1997, edited from a longer track at home in San Diego, CA by Abel Ashes / drums overdubs recorded at Hit Single, El Cajon, CA by Randy Fuelle in 2001
Tracks 11 & 12 remixed by Abel Ashes at home in Louisville, Kentucky 2004 - 2006

Original mastering and post production work by Hans Fjellestad, San Diego, CA 2002
Additional post production work by Abel Ashes, Louisville, KY 2006

Reviews:

John Bookman writing for Music For America in 2006:

The album cover consists of an illustration of a man holding up two children (or two very small men) by the neck. This is the slightly-demented, slightly-sane world of Abel Ashes & The Runs, and Eat Plastic is an album that you'll either get or not. Fortunately, it's good (and original) enough to merit a number of listens.
When I listened to it for the first time, I was not sure what I was getting myself into. There are hints of Frank Zappa in there, in the guitar playing and the deep low voice that Abel Ashes uses in some of the songs, along with the humor. You can take the humor with a grain of salt, for the music on this CD (recorded between 1993 and 2006) is what will keep fans there and wanting to hear more. Or in a track like "The CEO", the guy is almost a dead ringer for Calvin Johnson (of Beat Happening fame), and that alone is funny too, for here is Abel Ashes singing lyrics that make you want to laugh and yet does it in a deadpan voice.
What also makes these songs interesting is that he's a good storyteller, even if those stories seem to go anywhere and everywhere, not unlike Primus. It's a cartoon-like musical world, with the music just as animated, moving from weird guitar feedback and distortion to jazzy lounge. The album closes with two serious tracks which look into some of the 9/11 conspiracy theories that have been discussed, done with various sound bites from different sources. They are separated from the rest of the album but could have easily flowed well with the other material.
The songs can be open to interpretation, yet there's nothing left to the imagination with lyrics such as 'Here's some commercial advertisements/here's some commercials you stupid ass.' It's oddball when it wants to be (which is most of the time) and yet carries a bit of a smirk which leads me to believe they know exactly what they're doing. Impressive work.

Xavier Vasquez writing on behalf of Accretions Records in 1998:

"Instead of being a musician before being a composer, I was writing shit in my head before I knew how to play." explains Abel Ashes.
And yes, he’s figured out how to bring it off, appearing regularly around San Diego for the better part of the 90s in clubs and coffeehouses, accompanying himself on acoustic or electric guitar (with or without minimal speaker power) with or without anybody else. Among the various events have been the Accretion label’s ongoing Trummerflora series at key S.D. club The Casbah; Ashes has served a dual role as host-M.C./between acts second-stage performer on a number of the experimental music nights. (Another memorable gig was at the protest stage across from the downtown Convention Center when San Diego endured the official Republican national confab back in ’96.)
Backed by friends and family assembled as the Runs, the singer-guitarist also contributed his ominous “The C.E.O.” (Crucial line: “I am The C.E.O. and I will kick your ass”) to Accretions’ second Trummerflora comp (likewise appearing on Hirsch the machine Hirsch’s track on same CD). Other tracks in Ashes’ repertoire bear such curious titles as “Picture Perfect Pod People” and Man-Made Humans and Hybrid Potatoes,” putting in play acknowledged influences like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.