The Farm Tapes Series features demos, finished recordings and sonic experiments recorded between 1985 and 2001 by Todd Parker (and whoever else was participating) with the only requirement being that the recordings were produced on a cassette 4-track machine. A Fostex X-15 was used until 1989 and from then on a Yamaha MT3X was the primary recorder.

Volume 9 - The Final Rehearsals (1998-2000)

While we didn't know it at the time, the Tadpoles' time was coming to a close following the 1998 rehearsals leading up to the recording of our final album, "Whirlaway" Our rehearsal studio was in the old Levolor Blinds factory building in Hoboken, NJ which had converted into artists' spaces and lofts and this is where most of the songs that became the Whirlaway album were written and recorded. A few of those initial rehearsals in July of 1998 are included here. Following the release of Whirlaway, we closed down our space in the Levolor building and rehearsed and performed only sporadically, leading up to our final show at Maxwell's in Hoboken NJ in February of 2000. Many of these recordings were made during the summer of 1999 during a particularly active time prior to a gig at CBGB's where we rehearsed the bulk of the songs we had been performing for the prior decade. Not sure if we sensed we were closing the book, but these rehearsals at the Backstage Rehearsal Studios in Clifton, NJ in the summer of 1999 were particularly inspired . Most of the recordings in this edition of the Farm Tape series comes from those rehearsals. And finally, a few weeks before the final show at Maxwell's, there are a few selections from the final rehearsal in January 2000 before Tadpoles went on an indefinite hiatus.