(This album is now also available on CD from Kool Kat Musik: tinyurl.com/2mxyd3vz )

REVIEWS: Here’s what they said about our last album “Pack of Lies”:

“One of the year’s greatest power pop surprises. Lush power pop sound, jangly guitars flow beautifully over a wash of harmony vocals. This is a really good one and truly one of the year’s finest.” -JAM Records

“A really solid mix of mood and texture, and one of the most engaging records I've heard in a long time...seriously! Songs like ‘All The Little Things’ and ‘Lorraine’ are power pop gold, too. A truly awesome record!” - Jeff Shelton / KCSU’s The Power Pop Show

“One of the best things about Pseudonym is you don’t have to think about whether you like the material or not, you immediately know it is awesome.” -IndieNation.fm

#1 album of 2017 - Escafandrista Musical (Spain)
#2 album of 2017 - KCSU’s The Power Pop Show (Santa Clara, CA)
#6 album of 2017 - MiC (Greece)

ALBUM NOTES: Greetings! Gil here. Yes, at long last, after each one of my illiterate troglodyte bandmates were allowed to write album notes ahead of me, I have now been granted the honor. Gosh... to what do I owe this stupendous yet humbling good fortune! Was Paul’s dog unavailable? At any rate I’d better proceed, lest someone change their mind.

“Before the Monsters Came” is Pseudonym’s pandemic project. For those of you reading this in the distant future, “pandemic” was a thing that happened during the years 2020 and 2021 during which no person on Earth was permitted to venture from their home without a full hazmat suit and a special ID card issued by their local police or tribal elders. Naturally, this situation led to many folks having a surplus of time on their hands at home.

All of the songs on this album were written during this period, which was also known as the Trump/Covid era. For those of you reading this in the distant future, “Trump” was a botched lab experiment, half lizard and half man -- a tragic story, really -- and a failed encyclopedia salesman who had somehow, despite his numerous disadvantages, ascended to the role of Emperor of America. “Covid” was the name of Emperor Trump's re-election campaign. It was also the name of a terrible virus that, sadly, killed many people.

During this period, all the Pseudonym members conveniently resided in close proximity to one another, and in September of 2020 we began congregating at Paul’s house to work on recording the album. To get to Paul’s house we would normally wait until after dark and elude the roving squadrons of Covid police commandos by wearing black clothing and quiet shoes and making our way stealthily on foot via back alleyways. In the eventuality that one of us was spotted and detained -- which did occur more than once -- each of us was equipped with a forged ID card indicating our status as an “essential worker” (the sole exception of course being our drummer, Dr. Rhythm, who, as a medical doctor, was already in possession of a genuine essential worker ID card).

My own card identified me as a grocery employee. I obtained it from an acquaintance (whose name shall remain secret for obvious reasons) who had (and still has) quite high-level connections at Safeway. One night, just around the corner from Paul’s house, after clumsily stepping on and snapping a rather loud twig, I was stopped by police and asked for my papers. My hands shaking, I actually dropped my wallet looking for the darn thing, but finally produced my Safeway employee ID. I announced with all the confidence I could muster that there was a major toilet paper restocking scheduled for that night, and I could NOT be late. Well, my ruse satisfied the officers -- they even thanked me for my service -- but unfortunately they also insisted on escorting me to the nearest Safeway. So I was late for our recording session on that particular night.

The recording sessions themselves also presented unique challenges. Because of the surreptitious late-night nature of the work, we could not make any loud noises! The drums had to be recorded one at a time, and be stricken softly, under a blanket, inside a closet. You’ll notice too that there’s no loud singing on the album either.

Also, I can confirm that singing with masks on is no simple feat! For those of you reading this in the distant future, a “mask” was a muzzling device imposed by the US government during 2020 and 2021 to subjugate and control the masses by the use of tiny microchips, nerve agents, and advanced psychological techniques. Because we were forced to wear these damn masks, all our vocal tracks were coming out hopelessly muddy! Or at least they WERE muddy until Waylan managed to locate on Amazon a machine called a “Demaskifier” -- a digital processing device which, through some electronic magic, nullifies the effects of singing through masks -- it’s really a miraculous gadget!

SO, all said and done, what was the end result of these arduous pandemic circumstances on our little musical project? Well, what came out the other end was a bunch of fun, bouncy pop songs about disillusionment, disorientation, disappointment, corruption, lies, and loss! Weird. Anyway, we hope you like it.

- Gil Gullible, August 2021