__CINEMA PELIGROSA
__ECLIPSE
__PAST LIFE RECORDINGS
__CLOSE YOUR EYES
__FANTASMAS

ECLIPSE - 1997

01. DESERTER
02. SPEAKING IN TONGUES
03. ESPIONAGE RADIO
04. COPILOT, KEEP ME AWAKE
05. DRAGON-TIGER FIGHT
06. H.C. B-DAY CAKE FOR PSYCHIC NEWBORN FREAKS
07. WITH IT
08. BLEMISH PARTY
09. ROOM ON THE FLOOR

Eclipse was released on Golden Hour in May of 1997 at the concert at Cabeza de Piedra in San Antonio.

PAUL: When we went in Pyramid studios we didn't know what was going to make it onto a record. We didn't even know how it would be released as everyone was broke. We were just taking the opportunity to record all the songs that hadn't yet been recorded properly. Kurtis D. invited us in. I think the chance came up for him to work there, and he approached us about recording something so we went in with all guns blazing. We started in the summer of 95, and finished mixing that fall. At this point Jorge had moved back to San Antonio to finish school. We tracked 22 songs I think. Some of it was put on Fantasmas.

The studio was in the basement of someone's house. Mona from Ten Inch Maria owned it. She told us that she would like people of the homo family to work at the studio and then kept her eye on us, trying to figure out if we were homophobic. Her and her lover Fawn kept coming down while we were recording to tell us how badass it sounded. They were making out on the bar stools. They both wore these tight leather pants with cowboy boots and fringed jackets.

We began by recording Psyklops. Mona kept telling Ernest that he was too loud and could he turn it down. This was really annoying Ern. It was hard to relax in there with her. Juan was in an isolation booth and it was hard to hear him. Everyone else were in this very large pink room. We recorded Blemish Party next and we had some trouble getting the intro right. Lino couldn't hear the kick drum. It was sort of frustrating. That same day we did Logan's Ruin, Brownie Hawkeye, and Future News. Then we did the mellow songs like Speaking In Tongues, Espionage Radio, and HC BDay Cake, which we were calling "Sullen Ernest" at the time. Mona and Fawn kept coming down to check it out, kept complimenting us. She said I looked like Iggy Pop and would I want to date the guitar player in her band. They hadn't heard of Tim Kerr, but they said they were at Raul's all the time back in the day. They were definately not punk. Mona said there's a ghost of a twelve year old Navajo girl that hangs out there and they like to give her cookies. How she knew the ghost's age and background is a mystery. But, the cookies always disappear. It was a weird scene.

Anyways so the songs we chose for the record were the mellower songs that had lots of space in them. We wanted to put out a record that was more spacious and less dense than Cinema Peligrosa. Ernest and I had been listening to lots of Can, Neu, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, Suicide, and old 60s garage-punk stuff that year. Stuff that was more stretched out and groovy as opposed to fast and furious. Mixing took some time as we had to remix everything twice after we discovered that we had the sound compression switched on the first time around. We finished mixing in October. I thought it was the best stuff I'd ever heard. We had a heavy hand on the mixing and Kurtis D. sort of let us do what we wanted for better or worse. For some reason the extra loud room sound really turned us on so we pushed it up and embraced the hiss. Thought it made it sound very cavish and underground radio transmissiony. Eclipse didn't get released until 1997. By then Ryan Richardson was releasing Past Life Recordings as well.

ECLIPSE

Just a thrown stone away from the big, big drop
Living in a shack with a pop named Bob
He don't like that, he don't like that
His light's 100 watts true to read the words
of the saviour late at night
I don't need that clue to figure out the answers
to pass the exam
I've got them written on the back of my hand
on the bottom of my shoe

so long, so long,
I withdrew

I deserted the ranks of the zombie clones
and the bone-lead leaders sucking hard on the
cone-headed government
no thanks, no thanks, it's in my memory banks
tucked away in my piles in my secret files
of the who's who on the list up next
gonna try to shackle my wrist
plug my ears, jump my sex
make me crawl and cover for them
make me find a lover for them
I refuse to even pick up the pen

Enemy aint got nothin on me

DESERTER

PAUL: Deserter: A man wakes up and sees himself in bed but it isn't himself. He runs off to cause riots and destruction, declaring himself unfit for society. He feels like a robot in an automated life surrounded by opposing forces. Maybe he should go live in the forest. This is probably the only time the music sparked the words in my head. I began writing these lyrics specifically for what they were jamming on. At this time Ern and George were living on the south side with Clyde and Mark who knew Ernest from Brown. They let us practice there and we stank up the house. Juan was living back in San Antonio and going to art school.

JUAN: Part of the feel of this song, as far as the rhythm section is concerned, always reminds me of Bill Wyman/Charlie Watts except that my timekeeping is kinda fucked up on this track. It's very rock-n-rolley and some of Jorge's licks are very Wymanish. Cinema was more angular and aggro. Eclipse is more organic in general. The outro of this song has a bass line that supposedly the same as The Church's Under the Milky Way. 

ERNEST: We started exploring our more bluesy and funky side after working with Tim Kerr so closely on Cinema. I remember thinking this riff was very Jon Spencer-esque. And we openly embraced Juan’s cowbell, another first.

And you, we've met so many times
But yet, we're still not there
Vibrations in air
Maybe the right words haven't come out yet

Smoke from your lungs
My nerves are speaking in tongues

I bet it's not too late
It's the quiet eyes that I hate
Contact but nothing said

On the way to your place
I can imagine the sound of the air
You're there,
but the lights don't know my name

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

PAUL: Things that never get said between people riding on the bus together, or who see each other in a crowd. They make eye contact, and maybe have a breif fantasy about the other, but then never see that person ever again. The moon is calling him, drawing him like a moth. He's communicating with a higher existence. We wrote this and Espionage after seeing Yo La Tengo at Tacoland. We were really into sparseness and a quiet tone.

The first time we recorded it, it was six minutes, and so we redid it to make it shorter. I wish we had kept the longer version as well. Ern used his new K guitar for the show songs. It was a hollowbody with a whammy bar. He bought it especially for this session for $80. George went straight into the board for his sound.

ERNEST: My K guitar was really out-of-tune! And it feedbacked like crazy! I also used it on The Deserter.

PAUL: When I did takes for this one, and Espionage, and HC Birthday Cake, I was totally stoned. We had met these girls on Lamar heading North, and they invited us over to smoke out at a stoplight. We were all crammed into Denver Smith's bug. So we were like what the hell let's go. Sorry Kurtis. That's really why we were so late that day.

JUAN: Rhythmically I've always thought the climax of this song was really awkward sounding (like it's supposed to go somewhere but doesn't quite) but the chords in that change are so weird that I guess it's somewhat appropriate. It's like an unresolved feeling and then there's an outro.

ERNEST: This song (like so many of our other ones) pretty much wrote itself. In the studio I felt pretty relaxed about adding that western guitar part in between verses – I remember we hadn’t really discussed that. I remember playing this in Louisiana on the Fugazi tour and feeling oddly uncomfortable.

ESPIONAGE RADIO

Now you know the truth
It crashed right through your roof
Coming up from behind on your blind side
Watch out or you'll give away your position

You found it at the store
It's what you're living for
the shake you gave to the stranger on the corner
I know many but yet, I don't know any really

Up at the bar, your tongue it get loose
wrap it around your neck like a noose

I hit rewind with one blink of an eye
and just like that it's gone, but kept in place
Instructions classified
Secret passageways in the operator's heads

I never knew I was so contagious

ESPIONAGE RADIO

PAUL: The music was from Ern's pipe. Very Gary Numan.

ERNEST: It started off very loud and repetitive, until we stripped it down a bit, just a simple riff over and over again. I’ve always loved Paul’s lyrics on this, and everyone’s courageousness really to just lay low and let the ambience take over.

PAUL: It's funny that at the very beginning of the track you can here me tell Denver not to look at that page. He was looking at a porno magazine or something. I got distracted.

JUAN: We performed a newer version of this song this year[2004]- faster and with more straight beats on the bass drum. It was more 80s underground synth-band sounding. I thought it worked really well. This song has a part before the end that we used to call the Gut part. 

ERNEST: Yeah I thought it worked pretty well too. We brought it back to sound more like a Tubeway Army song.

COPILOT, KEEP ME AWAKE

I'm sorry that you're sick copilot,
DOn't be sad because you came copilot
Sit back leave the driving to me
We won't make too many stops along the way
Copilot don't slam on the brakes

Seatbelt's too tight
It might save your life
That guy won't turn off his brights
Sometimes it gets dark at night
There's no streetlights, no stations, no signs
But this aint no time for resign
Copilot I'm yours you're mine

I'm yours, You're mine
So let's get back on time

If you're along on this ride
You've got to decide which way to take
Can't keep it hidden inside
Not satisfied with what we make
But when you're at the wheel it feels right to me
Oh we love trading off in the passenger seat

Sit back and relax, I'm you're, you're mine
Sit back and relax, Don't slam on the brakes, Keep me awake

Just stay between the lines, we'll get back on time

COPILOT, KEEP ME AWAKE

PAUL: I wrote this on tour in 1994 and was thinking about travelling with friends across the country in silence, trying desperately to stay awake with the radio blasting. It's about cooperation in a close knit group like us. I think Lino came in with this one. Sarah Carlson sang the other part in the studio. Sometimes we've played it live with Linus singing that part. She was great.

JUAN: I think this song could've really grooved a lot better if my timekeeping was better. There's something not 'in the pocket' about it, especially during the verses. I really love that Sarah's on the track. I'm so used to it, that thinking of Linus and Paul singing it instead of Sarah and Paul is kinda weird.

ERNEST: Linus and I spent a lot of time writing the chords out on this on acoustic guitar. The part at the end of the song mirrors the relationship between two people. I like the sentiment of the lyrics a lot. I like George’s sparse bass on this. He always knows how to make even simple bass lines really tasteful.  

DRAGON-TIGER FIGHT

A mighty beast prowl the jungle floor
He's looking for another to settle a score
The two had a bargain that on this final night
They would see which one would win the dragon-tiger fight

The cat sharpened his claws, the serpent flexed his scales
And they encircled each other

Monkeys in the court were eating fleas from off their tails as they watched
The sky grew dark and cold and the clouds converged on earth, the land was ripped by lightning from the maker of the dirt
The seas were overflowing / The rain poured from the sky
The fire from the mountain flowed down and the human beings cried
Beasts were howling murder, the insects blocked the sun
When the fight was over there was no winning one
The tiger's neck was broken, the dragon had no head
The jungle lost its leaders and the ground was stained blood-red.

DRAGON-TIGER FIGHT

PAUL: In Kenpo karate, the dragon stands for spiritual strength, and the tiger represents earthly physical power. They contend with each other in a circular continual pattern. The circle means the cycle of life, and the bond of friendship. In Korea the tiger guards the west, and the dragon the east. All of that give me the idea for these lyrics. Linus doesn't play on this. It's one of those songs that we didn't work on much outside of the studio, and so he didn't record a part for it. I think he meant to but we never got around to it. Sort of the story of the group.

JUAN: I always thought this song should have been an outtake. We recorded so many songs during the Eclipse/Pyramid sessions that one of the songs that was left out out could've easily replaced this one. Some of those songs ended up on Fantasmas.

ERNEST: This was really an outtake. We were doing a test run for Curtis D. Juan, George and I had a loose song idea but I just freestyled on guitar and we all tried landing on the same page. This song would be nothing without the flanger effect and cool Pop Bob treatment by Paul. I like it.  

HC BD CAKE FOR PSYCHIC NEWBORN FREAKS

In the dream it was your birthday
I just came to your party to get out of the house
My horoscope said that I'd feel this way all week
But it didn't say why I feel like a freak

I'll do anything you tell me to
I'm telling you that I love you

Hardcore birthday cake for psychic newborn freaks

Summer sun will melt the ice
You and I will have nine lives
I used to be a loner
Then I became one of you

Everybody in this room
Is making plans for the day of doom
We formed a team, we had a future dream
You want to know what it means
Exploding candles and pyschic genes

HC BD CAKE FOR PSYCHIC NEWBORN FREAKS

PAUL: This is about an occult's influence over impressionable young people. Inspired by the sarin gas attacks of 1995, by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in the Tokyo subways. Ern brought this to the table, from his 4 track projects.

ERNEST: Its an eerie one for sure. We tuned the low E down to A on this one, to get an ominous drone. Hail Satan.

JUAN: I remember playing this song on the Fugazi tour and Brendan Canty said it reminded him of a Prince song. It's one of my faves.

ERNEST: Again, really great lyrics that only Paul could write.  You had a birthday that year that I didn’t go to, but I heard it was a psychedelic one.   

WITH-IT

I'm asking you this question are you in it or not?
I'm asking you this question are you in it or not?
I'm asking you this question are you in it or not?
Telling me a story it aint got a plot
Coloring by numbers and connecting the dots
Draw your own plan and you won't be taught
I'm asking you this question are you in it or not?
See you all the time in the parking lot
Just hanging out begging for cash
Nickels and dimes add up fast
You look so out, what's it about?
I'm asking you this question are you in it or not?
Hands inside my pocket, what do I got?
Whenver I'm cold you're always hot
I'm asking you this question are you in it or not?
I'm asking you this question are you in it or not?
What is the meaning of this thing that I bought?
Threw it out the window in the parking lot
quarter after quarter into the slot
I'd take the whole thing but I might get shot
Cornered, outnumbered, I ran but you fought
Look over your shoulder, when will I stop?

WITH-IT

PAUL: Betrayal, poverty, unemployment, homelessness. Are people playing an active role in society? Or living outside of it? Are people active within their own lives? I think Lino came to practice with this riff, and he came up with the lyric "I'm asking you this question..."

JUAN: This the third variation of basically the same drum beat I use on parts of Speaking in Tongues and Blemish Party. I do something similar in parts of Mother Machine and Having the Devil on Your side. With so many 4/4 rock beats you wanna try to do something at least a little different but then you start ripping yourself off. The chorus of this song is not counted. We just followed whatever Linus did.

ERNEST: Yeah it really makes it more interesting doesn’t it (one of the bars has one extra beat in it). I did some prepared guitar on this by rubbing the mic on a very loud open-tuned guitar with lots of reverb. I always took the lyrics to mean “Are you still committed to the band or what?”   

BLEMISH PARTY

PAUL: The lyrics are inspired by Logan's Run. Ernest was calling it that and so I wrote a piece to go with his title.

ERNEST: No way Paul – Logan’s Run was a different song, remember? Also, again we find the oft-repeated theme of Identity and this twin, alter-ego concept in the lyrics.

PAUL: Oh yeah. But these lyrics also sprang from Logan's Run. It was a pretty heavy movie for me.

JUAN: This is a nice rocker when we can play it the right way. It's not even right on the cd. The verses are all different lengths and one of them is messed up on the recording.

ERNEST: I never liked this song! Just felt like a generic Glorium song, haha. I DO remember going to some (now defunct) record store in Austin to drop off a few CD’s with this song on it, and the girl behind the counter heard the intro and said “What is this, the Shaft theme song?” Yeah…Shaft meets Fugazi. Tim would be proud.

ROOM ON THE FLOOR

Poison syphon
Lips teeth and tongue
Sucking down a bottle that you bought special
For your downfall
First night of the year
Filled with forgotten fights
You said, "How did I get here?"

Stumble in and out your life
Where's it gonna take you?
Lead you on by the ear
To an unexplained bump, bruise or cut or what?
So surprised to hear the news
Of what you said last night
While you were out like a light
I'm not surprised

How did I get here?
Bottle rocket

Come on in there's room on the floor
You already found it when you fell through the door
First big night of the year
But there's nothing new happening here
What happened to the one that I knew?

ROOM ON THE FLOOR

PAUL: A song about a drunken New Year's and feeling like your life hasn't changed at all. It's sort of a sad song. That's me on trombone. I love the looseness of the ending. It came off really well on tour. We'd stretch the hell out of it. I wish we could re-record some of this. But that's what happens when you try to finish 22 songs on a limited budget.

JUAN: Most of this song is really great but there's one chorus that's way outta key. It tarnishes the track for me. I'm not sure why no one caught that in the studio.

ERNEST: I agree, we tried fixing it by mixing it but we should have nixed it instead. We could have redone it then, I think by this time Ten Inch Maria was casting spells on us and her dogs were freaking us out. Remember Curtis quit showing up after awhile? We were ready to be done with this 22 song beast.

JUAN: Manny Castillo really liked the 5/4 parts of this song. The way Linus and Ernest play off of each other and how it's layered on top of Jorge's part is what makes this song so good, especially during the long ending. I remember playing this song in Lauren's livingroom and for some reason Patrick Holmes thought it was really funny. I think that was the first time we played with Trail of Dead.

ERNEST: I thought this song was about someone we all know who had a bit too much fun on New Years…

PAUL: Okay it was inspired by George falling through a glass table.

JUAN: Overall, although it has it's moments, I had more problems with this album than with with any other Glorium album. In hindsight, I wish this record could have been a better document of what the band was doing at that time. 

ERNEST: It was the first time we ever attempted to record ourselves, and we had no idea what we were doing. So in retrospect, its kind of a neat experiment that sometimes misses but overall I’m glad this is out ‘cause there are some cool moments on this.