Pink Toads

In 1998 Margaret and Doug Sharp painted a room purple and yellow, trimmed it in glow-in-the-dark grey and hung a sign on its door: Zilch Spacecasting Network Studio. They stocked their studio with a Mackie 1202-VLZ mixer, Alesis QS8 synth, CAD Equitek E-100 mike, Cakewalk software, peculiar specimens of “art”, a terrarium of Firebelly Toads, and various sonic gewgaws which they proceeded to abuse unmercifully late into the wee hours of the afternoon.

Margaret repressed years of piano training and forced their poor Alesis to howl and gibber like a regiment of tortured clowns plummeting into a doomed dimension. Doug learned just enough Cakewalk to distil their arrhythmic yowlings into digital format. ZSN drafted various unlucky friends into collaborating in their assault on fine music, mutilated precious sound samples filched from the top sacredest pinnacles of musical genius.

Pink Toad tracks are variously the unfortunate results of:

• Improvisation.
• Woefully misguided experiments with immature and poorly understood sonic software
• Inept MIDI track editor doodling.
• Unabashed celebrations of frank and utter loathing of all aesthetic proprieties
• Aggravating sonic amalgams of misplaced talent amplified by pigheaded orneriness.

Some statements concerning Pink Toads and possible risk to the listener:

1. Listen at your own risk.
2. Pink Toads is a registered Work of Art™, ZSN are NOT legally responsible for [adverse health consequences] to uninsured listeners.
3. Pink Toads has NOT been tested extensively on conscious vertebrates.

ZSN sincerely hopes you survive endure their music.

Zilch Spacecasting Network Studio was destroyed by fire soon after the making of Pink Toads. Sheer coincidence or attempt by fate to right musical wrongs?

*How to play the game Pink Toads (for 2 or more players):

Players take turns asking a question, any question, the more ridiculous the sweller. The player being questioned must answer “Pink Toads” without laughing, the player who doesn’t laugh wins.

Sample round of Pink Toads:

Player 1: What do you see when you look in a mirror?

Player2 (admirably deadpan): Pink Toads.

Player2: Who is your favorite American president?

Player1(barely smiling): Pink Toads.

Player1: What is your favorite toothpaste?

Player2 (struggling to keep a straight face): P…P…P…Pink Toads.

Player2: What is your favorite Work of Art™?

Player1: Pink…  SNORT! GUFFAW!  <- LOSER!

Try it! Jolly good fun for transcontinental car trips or extended sieges.