__CINEMA PELIGROSA
__ECLIPSE
__PAST LIFE RECORDINGS
__CLOSE YOUR EYES
__FANTASMAS

CINEMA PELIGROSA - 1994

01. THE MISINFORMED VS. THE UNIFORMED
02. 70 X 7
03. THE FINAL DIS
04. DEATH OF THE INSECT QUEEN
05. MUTANT LOVER SPECIAL
06. VICTIM
07. THE FOSSIL
08. MATCHES FOR THE FUSE
09. HAVING THE DEVIL ON YOUR SIDE
10. UNDER THE LID
11. BLUE LIGHTS BECKON
12. POSESSION WEAPON
13. A PLACE TO CRASH
14. CINEMA PLASTIQUE

Cinema Peligrosa was released in the Fall of 1994 on Undone.

PAUL: Listening to this years later, over a decade later is magical. It takes me right back into the studio mentally, into the tiny house that I lived in on East 15th Street next to the Oakwood cemetary, and into our hot practice space in the back of Ern and Jorge's house on East 20th Street.

Tim Kerr produced this at Sweatbox on Fifth Street. The place burned down the last few years. It's a crazy sounding album. There's so much going on here. So many layers. It doesn't sound like anything I listen to these days. We weren't really into predictable song structures and were trying to write stuff that was pushing people's expectations. I was listening to a lot of Tom Waits at the time, and into Diamanda Galas as far as doing unusual things with vocals and recording. Some of that comes through in the multi-layering and whispering tracks. As a group we all paid attention to what was going on in D.C., and to bands like Sonic Youth which we were always getting compared to. Tim Kerr tried hard to get me to sing more melodically like Gang of Four, but at the time I was resistant to go in that direction and was more into a punk approach like Patti Smith, more of a from-the-gut feeling versus a controlled calculated practiced singer. Tim did some backup vocal stuff on Victim and other spots. He was really good about getting us to play more than two takes on stuff and was great to have with us directing things in the studio. We were always kind of a five headed monster recording, with everyone pitching in their ideas, but someone needs to be there to make executive decisions sometimes. I learned a lot from him about where to place sounds within the mix, as far as left, right, centered or whatever.

Sonically we probably had enough ideas and songs for two records, but we used almost all of them here. It's a lot to swallow in one listen, but I think the more you listen to this record the more you hear and discover. We were working everyday on the material for months before we went in to the studio trying to finish the new songs. We had like 20 or so older songs which we could've recorded in there for this, but we were always pushing ourselves to write something new. So some songs like Under the Lid and Place to Crash had never been played live before we recorded them.

The state of the band going into the sessions was tense. Noone was getting along. Juan wasn't speaking to Jorge. Jorge was speaking to noone. Absent a lot. Linus and I were always arguing about lyrics or vocal delivery or art. Ern and Linus were debating song structure. We were practicing like five or six times a week, and at one point Juan told me that he was tired of being married to this band. He said he didn't want any more projects planned after our tour.

I was booking the tour myself, at the same time trying to finish the LP with everyone. It was intense and crazy. I'd spend hours on the phone, and then go to practice, and go to work at my crappy food delivery job. I was also washing dishes at Stars. We were all stretched thin. And I think all of this struggling and tension came out in the lyrics.

I remember Juan telling me that as he listened to the demo he just got more and more depressed , the songs were all really negative.

Right after we finished mixing, we left for tour for like five weeks. It was the worst tour. Not many shows for the time we were out. After that, Juan moved back to San Antonio to go back to art school. I was afraid that might be it for us, and it really could've been if not for the album being released after the tour. Everyone loved it and we were getting all this radio play at KVRX, it was number one there for over a month, beating out Blues Explosion and shit and so this was exciting for us, and all these good shows kept coming our way like Slant 6 and Lungfish.

CINEMA PELIGROSA

Misinformed vs. The Uniformed

PAUL: This is pretty raw. We also recorded another version with vocals more relaxed, but in the end I preferred the more punk feel. It's about a revolution. The uniformed being the cops.

The beginning noise fuck up is from one of our practice tapes. We recorded every session and sometimes a beautiful moment like that was caught on magnetic tape. We were very much into the accidental qualities of the machine eating the tape, and then using that on the final output.

Tim encouraged me to sing this more laid back, and kept making me listen to Gang of Four, Wire, U-Men, and soul stuff like Marvin Gaye, Same Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Lou Rawls, and stuff to get the idea. I tried it, but we went with the crazed version. I told him I wanted a more John Lydon/Patti Smith take. The song is in the mind of a revolutionary, an assassin who's after the President or leader. The media coporations have been taken over by the government and are feeding the population lies about a war.

ERNEST: Musically this song had a bit of a Police influence. Lyrically these words still seem relevant to me. But I can’t remember much about this since we worked so hard on every bit of Cinema, this one was just another song in that period.

70 x 7

PAUL: This is themelodic theme to Victim repeated with single guitar. Linus recorded this in the graveyard next to our house. Funny that. Nice sound of sirens in the background. The east side of Austin is full of sirens every night. To clarify, the background is from the cemetary, and the guitar was overdubbed in the studio, if my memory doesn't fail me. It usually does.

ERNEST: 70x7 is also a biblical reference. Christ was asked how many times one should forgive and that was his response, 70x7. So is the Victimizer asking for forgiveness and is remorseful?

PAUL: Nothing like that was thought of. We needed a title, and since Victim was about revenge, Linus said well let's call it this, so it speaks of forgiveness. But we definitely had reservations about the title, because we didn't want anyone to think we were a Christian band. In the end we went with it because we liked the numbers.

The FInal Dis

PAUL: I've got to give props to Sons of Hercules, who I ripped a lyric from. Not sure if it was original for them or a cover though. Never return to the scene of the crime. This song is about feeling burned by someone, and wanting to get revenge. The version on the record was recorded on 4-track at sweatbox. We also recorded a version with 24 tracks that sounds more studio. This is like the most Stoogesish song we could do at the time. All the songs on the record have these layers within the lyrics. It isn't just about revenge. It also mentions getting sick. "Now I got it I'm fucked, Now you got it so what? Give me a kiss." It presents the song as a slice of life from the character, not just a specific idea about a specific event, but of multiple events happening on the same day.

ERNEST: Paul, how about the Leper reference? I love this song personally. There are some very strange guitar chords. Its very hyper and difficult but fun to play live.

Death of the Insect Queen

PAUL: We were always really excited by this song and thought of it as one of the best on the records. We're stretching out musically and structurally. There's some nice background vocals from Ernest in here. In the middle section, which is like a minute long, we added the sound of kittens which were living on our back porch. At the end there's some nice sounds of crickets and a bird.

Vocally, it's out there. Very much Diamanda Galas influenced I have to say. I was treating my voice as an instrument which could make whatever sounds it could as opposed to singing pretty melodies. The layering of vocal tracks in the different channels I think gives it a feeling from the point of view of someone with mutliple personalities. I've always been turned on by that vocally. To use the technology that's available in the studio instead of going for this live sound.

I wrote this when I was living alone in this tiny house. It was falling apart and was like built in the first part of the century. It's about being alone I think. It's hard to say, the songs change their meaning for me over time.

ERNEST: Tim had a great idea of adding some 808 bass on this, to bring out the low end. This was our first epic song. The middle noise part was just crazy to play live, so much fun. I remember at one point we all grabbed a guitar and Tim and Paul Stautinger recorded us making a bunch of noise. The kittens and crickets are buried deep within. I love the Austin references (anyone who has lived in Austin knows about the blue lights in the city). Cinema is full of Austin references come to think of it. This is one of my all-time favorite recorded songs.

PAUL: The blue lights are speaking about the old runway lights at the old airport. The line is about a plane coming in to land which was such a part of old 90s Austin before they moved the airport way south. Planes would come in right over Tamale House on Airport and 51st, and right over our first house actually on 51st street.

Mutant Lover Special

PAUL: This song sounds like it should be really happy, but then the words are all about two people sucking the life out of each other. Linus wrote these words, and I'm not sure if it was about me and someone, Ernest and someone, or him and someone, or maybe all three, or maybe just relationships in general. Again the idea of poisoning someone or making them sick comes up. It's dark but still humorous.

ERNEST: I played this on my Fender Jazzmaster which didn’t last long. I think we were all living this kind of dysfunctional lovelife. My guitar uses an open tuning on this, so we hardly ever played it live consequently. This is our version of a messed-up love song on the album (Eclipse has Copilot, CYE has Us + The Bad Past).

The Fossil

PAUL: This is something that Linus and I wrote together. For me it's partly about our father, from his point of view, maybe feeling regret. Hopefully the listeners can pull what they want and have their own interpretation.

There's a really cool theramin in the end which may have been Tim's idea. He brought that into the studio and all of his old hollow-body guitars for us to use for overdubs. It's one of my favorite tracks on the record.

ERNEST: I love playing this song. The buildup is really tense. I remember thinking this song is what it feels like to grow up with the weight of history pressed upon you, and how our voices as artists would never be heard because of the way music was (is?) presented on MTV, so in a way, our music would always be frozen in time like a fossil. Hopefully one day people can here it and make sense of it. But I also thought about your Dad.

Oh yeah, that’s not theremin. Tim brought in his Vox amp, and he cranked up the vibrato, and plugged a really hot mic into it. Paul was using his hands to summon feedback. That was awesome.

PAUL: I kind of remember Linus doing the feedback thing but I often get us mixed up.

Having the Devil On Your Side

PAUL: Inspired by Evel Kneivel, Harry Houdini and other circus and side show acts. It sounds very swampy to me.I take the opportunity to cut down the President, calling him an old white piece of shit. This remark seems to hold for all the Presidents after the song was written.

The harp is by Walter Daniels who was playing with Tim Kerr in Jack O'Fire at the time. We were thrilled that he said he'd do it in the studio for us.

Adelita is the name a mythical Mexican woman who fought in the Mexican Revolution. Noone is sure if she existed or not, but the name was handed down to all Soldaderas. There's more language in here about a struggle. "It's us against them, bullet-proof, buried alive." At the end, Adelita is parted from the hero. Was she killed fighting? Did she dump him? He screams in anguish. Never said I was a professional singer.

ERNEST: Total rhythm showcase here. The guitars are mostly accents. We rocked hard in 7/4. Paul’s vocals at the end are not human.

Walter did an amazing job with the harmonica. All he wanted for payment was a 6-pack of beer, which we probably drank. He was amazing live when we did our record release together.

Under the Lid

PAUL: From the point of view of a scientist who wants to build a rocket and leave Earth. The music sprang from a bass and drums jam that Jorge and Juan would rock on at practice. The guitar solution was to be floaty and noisey.

I think this is influenced by reading comics like Swamp Thing. Alan Moore's stint on that series was amazing. Anyways it's basically a venting of a general disgust for politics, government, and society. It's very anti-social. The desire to leave it all behind, and live alone in the woods or in outer space.

The scientist is a misanthropic outsider, looking for a way out. In the end the fish are telling him they feel the same thing. They want out of the water. This is the second fish image in the album. The first being in Victim. Not sure what to make of that myself really. Besides being a part of my childhood.

ERNEST: Kind of a weird experimental song. Another tone poem piece I always took it as a very personal song for Paul and Linus. George double-tracked his bass on this, you can hear it in the beginning. So many of our songs start off with an awesome bass part.

Instrumental

Blue Lights Beckon

PAUL: The theme to Insect Queen is revisited instrumentally. We were recording bits like this in the studio with the intention that they'd be small vignettes, like soundtrack music to a scene in a film. We were approaching this record as if it was a part of something much bigger than itself. Like years later we'd write the screenplay or stage play. After this is a sample from the pinball machine at Conan's Pizza on Guadalupe.

ERNEST: Yeah, this was one take. We didn’t rehearse this version at all.

Possession Weapon

PAUL: This was recorded on 4-track at Sweatbox. There's also a recording of it on the big board. It's a rant against materialism and stems from a trip to Las Vegas where I was getting so depressed at seeing all the tired waitresses in their uniforms dumping their paychecks into the slots. Really ugly and sad. This person is so addicted to wealth and material goods that they'll do anything to keep it. It's greed at the worst. The other person in here is dirt poor, and angry about it.

ERNEST: Looking back, this song comes off as overly noisy to me. Probably my least fave on this album.

A Place To Crash

PAUL: Love this one. This may have been one of the hardest songs for us to complete. It's very jammy. Linus wrote the words and the main guitar part. That's him singing at the end. He has a very sweet voice. I like it that it says There's much more here than a place to crash, there's much more here for you" at the end. It ends on a positive note. I wasn't sure what I was going to do on that until we wrote the lyrics that morning.

ERNEST: Juan really keeps this one together. The instruments just glide over the rhythm. The words also references Emo’s. It’s a bit hard to reproduce live but we did a few times and it worked out pretty well. I remember Tim just telling Paul to just read from your book of words, and this is what came out.

Cinema Plastique

PAUL: The Misinformed theme returns, this time recorded on 4-track. We loved the juxtoposition of sound qualities next to each other in the program. If you listen long enough to this track on the CD a breif recording of some radio transmissions comes through Lino's guitar amp. What doth it all meaneth?

I