Music by Peter H. Cummings- Full Discography

Peter Herrick Cummings • Music • Bio • Writing • Art • Share • Friends

Music by Peter- Cassette, LP, CD, and Digital releases (1984-2004, 2008)

A reverse chronological discography with links to streaming audio clips, downloads, commentary, and more. All album artwork created by David Drew Longey. All content ©2008 the estate of Peter H Cummings Click album covers for track-by-track pages with notes, downloads, and album artwork
OUT-TAKES	click for outtakes	Extras tracks not included on the albums below
	Earth-Bound Boy previously unreleased Songs compiled: DLongey 2008	Unreleased during his life (1962-2004), this collection brings together some of the mostintimate expressions yet into the psyche of my musically gifted friend Peter Cummings, who mined his own experiences both outer and inner for creative fuel. He could be quite ironic and detached in taking this to its lyrical/musical ends, but also unload his heart into the work with sincere emotionalal verve. Some of these songs are straighforwardly literal and speak directly to his life; Some dress it in costumes. These tracks are part confession, part autobiography, part therapy, and every note Peter... These uncovered recordings illuminate ever more sides of this talented, complex, and idiosyncratic artist. -David Longey August 16, 2008 (Peters Birthday- he would have been 46 today)
	VOX OFF previously unreleased Instrumentals compiled: DLongey 2008	Peter recorded many pieces without vocals (hence, VOX OFF) that did not, for whatever reason, fit on his other albums, and so here is a collection of instrumentals. Some are constructed as sculptural pieces, designed to ambiently occupy aural space, some are fully realized mini-opuses, and some are avante-garde improvisations. The range of Peter's musical sensibilities are spoken here- he was comfortable both riding the edge of exploratory music and penning an accessible jingle. His composition skills are matched by his arrangements- the choices he makes with his synthesizer hint at what might have been given a full orchestral treatment.
	Lavender Mindblast previously unreleased Psychedelia compiled by DLongey 2008	Psychedelic music was his first love and the mainstay of Peter's collection. His influences began with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Small Faces, The Kinks, all those British rock bands of the mid-late sixties- and later extended to bands like XTC, The Flaming Lips, Super Furry Animals, etc. Syd Barrett, John Lennon, Peter Hammill, and Bob Dylan are in the top list. A wry, Pythonesque sense of absurdity sometimes rears it's head in Peter's music, but just as often a sincere casting into the waters of amplified bliss is there. The album title is from an extended improv jam Peter recorded one day, in one take. It's quite a little sonic journey.
	Cartoons 2003 CD	Cartoons, like all of his albums after 'Throne of Wax', was recorded in Peter's room on a Tascam four track deck, with a microphone and a full keyboard synthesizer. This album showcases Peter's more orchestral directions- the music ranges from pure pop tunes to aurally vivid 'picture shows'... little audio cartoons, as the title suggests. This was Peter's last official album.
	Mother Bodfish Cape Catastrophe 1995 recordings/2008 release	Mother Bodfish was the name that Peter and Joe Johnston gave their collaboration. They met while Peter was living near the ocean, on Cape Cod, with his then girlfriend. Peter and Joe play the keyboards and guitar respectively and sing original compositions based around poetry and fictitious personas... This is the log of the good ship Mother Bodfish, and the boys that went down with her. Joe Johnston's website, featuring more of his music at Taskboy.com
	Fallopian Tollbooth w/Greg Kammer drums, Chris Duers- guitar 1991 cassette	Fallopian Tollbooth is another classic Peter Cummings collection in the vein of 'Americans'. Here again, there are ballads and oddities, odes to daily life, poems about dead chariots and reaching your horizons. These are eccentric songs and earnestly artistic songs- there is a deft use of artifice in the lyric and the arrangements that turns each piece into a mini-movie of sound.... a musical soundtrack collection to accompany dreams or days in a life.
	Americans 1990 cassette	Americans exemplifies Peter's compelling, intuitive songwriting skills with a generously eclectic batch of songs that poke fun at cultural stereotyping (Americans), turn German instructions for a model kit into hard rock (Plastikinsztruktschen), become a grain of pollen, ecstatically flown away to become part of a hive (Throne of Wax), and make a funeral pyre of life's regrets (Final Lie). This collection also becomes the model for all of Peter's future recordings- a Do It Yourself approach, unpestered by the demands of a studio.
	Throne of Wax 1988 cassette	Throne of Wax was the album where Peter's full studio rock album ambitions were realized. The performances from the band (here titled 'Mango Fontaine') are group-tight, with Guy Wallis, a longtime friend on bass, Chris Duers (pre-Bud Collins Trio) on lead guitar, and Holiday Clocks engineer Greg Kammer on drums and recording equipment.
	Shut The Lid 1986 cassette	Shut The Lid never saw release in any official form, but is a good record of how Holiday Clocks sounded live, when Peter and Gideon were busking and appearing live in coffee houses around Storrs, Connecticut, and then later, briefly, in Boston, and then in the Northampton, Massachusetts area. You might call this one 'Holiday Clocks Unplugged', which is, of course, what they were all the time... comparisons to the Holy Modal Rounders are intentional... this is pure acoustic folk-punk... no amplifiers needed.
	More Batteries 1986 cassette	More Batteries was originally a limited cassette release on the heels of the debut LP. More incidental and strange than their first record, there's a strong hint of the Residents in the one minute song structures that defy easy categorization.
	Holiday Clocks first LP 1984 Hopewell	Holiday Clocks is the name of the duo and the debut LP for Peter Cummings and Gideon Freudmann, who began their collaboration as 'Fern Hill' (after Dylan Thomas) but decided that was too gentle a folk image to describe their sometimes shockingly energetic (yet still acoustic) performances. The songs veer between dark comedy, surrealism, happy toe-tappers,