__CINEMA PELIGROSA
__ECLIPSE
__PAST LIFE RECORDINGS
__CLOSE YOUR EYES
__FANTASMAS
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FANTASMAS - 2004
01. THE DOUBLE
02. BLACK MARKET HEARTS
03. THE DOOR IS AJAR
04. VACCINE, MERCURY RISES
05. PSYKLOPS
06. BROWNIE HAWKEYE
07. WALKIE-TALKIE
08. MOTHERMACHINE
09. MY WANDERIN MT.
10. FUTURE NEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE
11. GHOST-WRITER
12. RIP-OFF
13. HERE WE COME TO YOUR CITY
14. ELECTRICITY
15. MY DEMOLITION
16. FEARLESS
17. ICED THE SWELLING
18. DIVEBOMB
LYRICS: FANTASMAS
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FANTASMAS
is Glorium's fifth studio album, and also collects the best of Glorium's singles, and session outtakes. Here the five offer an exclusive inside look into the songs. |
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THE DOUBLE
I saw my double in a doorway
he was talking to my friends in my way
I said we got to stop him
They thought I was trying to top him
Me, I'm me not you
Searching Searching
for my shadow
It escaped me I could not follow
Without it I feel hollow like an echo
No in-betweens
I'm me, not you
How could it be? My
shadow got free
I told my friends
to be careful
Told my brothers and sister be careful
Told my parents be careful my boss
Be very very careful
My shadow got free
Got free
I'm not you
How could it be? how could it be?
How could it be? this facsimile
How could it be? how could it be?
How could it be?
Don't counterfeit me
How could it be?
How could it be?
this facsimile?
How could it be? how could it be?
My shadow got free
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THE DOUBLE
PAUL: After Dostoyevsky's nightmarish tale of a man haunted or possessed
by his double. Very poppy and structured for us. Love the western guitar
riff.
JUAN: This song is so straightforward I tried to do something a little
different for the drum part. Consequently, it's exhausting to play live.
ERNEST: Originally I wrote the main guitar parts on a 4-track. I didn't
have drums so I banged on trash cans and boxes with wooden spoons instead.
It was slower and sounded like the Velvet Underground or The Jesus and
Mary Chain, real fuzzy.
JORGE: Open A, A octave on the D-string - with the rhythm - a lot like
Future News. The sound of it when everything comes in is like a bullet
train. Bass does not stray from the guitars, which equals fun to play.
LINUS: As soon as Ernest took it out of his bag, this was an easy song
for us to come up with. the kind of thing we could have done continuously,
if we weren't always so turned on with finding more off-sounding things.
for me, guitar wise it's all bar chords, octaves and big majors.
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BLACK MARKET HEARTS
Across the lot you're smiling with the one you got
You bet, you met, you mot, you got you get you bought
And it feels like I've been eating cigarettes
But I don't choke not yet,
Don't need coconut with chocolate
New Art Girl's exit
trick
Cathedral Boy in black tight jack
How i'm hit, I'm in white
Got to respect that act
Across the lot you're smiling with the one you got
This the secret history of my heart
Meet me on the floor
Maybe on the floor
Meet me in the flow
Refuge
Refute
Refuge
Refute
I'll get away from
you
I remember I knew
them better
What's been missing?
I knew them better
Wouldn't it be awkward?
Why bother? Why brother?
Afterwards Refuge
Refute Rescue Refuge
Refute Refuge I'll get away from you
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BLACK MARKET HEARTS
PAUL: The scene in the story is a club, in particular, John the Red's
place in S.A. where we did a VU cover of European Son. It's hard to talk
to some people even though you've known them for half your life. Nikki
Holiday played keys on this.
JUAN: Most of the music was based on a 7/4 bass line Jorge came up with.
I tried to make it flow with a dancey/groovey feel despite the awkward
time signature. My favorite part is the quiet part after the first verse.
ERNEST: This came from a jam between Juan, George, Paul and I, if I remember
correctly. I love the key of F#. Most of this is in 7/8 time, which most
people don't notice and that's a good thing.
JORGE: 7/4 - I remember asking Juan to follow along - we played the main
phrase for about 10 minutes as the others were getting ready for a practice
at the Bob Harrison house. It opens with C#-B-C#-E-C#-B-C#-F# in seven.
Bass is sometimes played in a lower octave for effect. Middle part in
four is C#-E-C#-E-F#-E-F#-E (with F# mix in some B - all the same notes
from the main phrase). I love the vocal coming out of that middle section.
LINUS: Musically this song was an attempt for something slinky. At the
time we wrote this piece, we, the primadonnas, and others in our set of
musicians were trying a less agro, more danceable approach. The primadonnas
were retrogressing ahead using camp and synths -- we were trying to lend
this authenticy to the approach and keep this large scale rock thing going.
1997 black market hearts represents probably our best effort at this kind
of danceable thing.
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THE DOOR IS AJAR
(Instrumental) |
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THE DOOR IS AJAR
PAUL: We recorded lots of instrumental takes at Ben Blank studio with
Adam Wiltzie, playing with the sounds, piano, horns, effects. This sounded
like a great prelude to Vaccine.
JUAN: I have no recollection of recording this whatsoever. I vaguely remember
where Ben Blank was and Adam and that's about it.
ERNEST: One of our own remixes. Adam Wiltzie tried recording us but nothing
really came of those sessions, though I remember he really liked this
song.
JORGE: The sound of that piano rings a bell. But its like when someone
is trying to wake you up because you're going to miss the bus (or you
have to go to work at the video game arcade) and you just can NOT get
up. The piano almost reminds me of where we recorded (i.e. where I must
have been having a drink in the other room.
LINUS: We slowed down the tape a little bit and as we heard it, thought
we would take out the vocals and do some piano - Ernest and I went into
the piano room and started banging to a playback -- we had Adam, who had
gotten us into the studio, make a note to capture it as a snipet with
a really long fade out. He did just that.
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VACCINE, MERCURY RISES
Between
my teeth, painkiller pills
Deadens my fear so I can get my fill
Door is ajar, warns me of danger
High pitch howl, who goes there?
Vaccine, I see Vaccine,
Vaccine
Alabaster plaster disaster natural
Quarantined mean and unclean
Sanity unsanitized
Mean streak freak out left out vomit mouth
Vaccine
Mercury rises, Mercury
rises
I took a number,
held my breath
Horrible slumber It felt like death
My form is a line between liquid and stone
I am a thin line scratched into skin and bone
Mercury rises
LIke a fog she come to smother the heat
Like a blanket of fog she comes
Look inside of that black bag for me
What you brought along for me baby
What you got in there? Gimme something
Gimme something I
got a fever
Uh-oh
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VACCINE, MERCURY RISES
PAUL: The subject is illness, and the nurse named Vaccine who brings you
back to health. Really crazy sounding, in the red and wild.
JUAN: I think this song is mostly in 6/4 if there is such a thing. The
phrases are six counts long instead of four or eight in other words. And
then there's the proggy freak-out part that's in 5/4. The western sounding
guitar transition is 16 counts of regular 4/4. I'm not sure how this
song ends up making any sense at all. It's Greg Goodman's favorite Glorium song.
ERNEST: This is a weird one. I came up with the verse (inspired by The
Inhalants) and ascending guitar part, whose idea was influenced by Gustav
Holst's "The Planets" suite, specifically "Mars, the Bringer
of War", which Linus gave me a cassette of in high school. Its fun
to rock out in odd time signatures.
JORGE: So these are the notes in the minor chord. I always thought the
song had too many parts, a few of which are impossible to remember now.
There is a part in Sea Chanty, where I would stare at Ernest's fingers
and follow along. With Vaccine Ernest will have to use something like
an octave pedal and I'll just sit out. Love the ending...
LINUS:I also never liked this song in rehearsal. It was one that the group
wrote while i was off on sabatical in Mexico... and they had written almost
a whole album's worth! Eventually I had to come up with a part to layer
over the top of it all. It seemed impossible, because it was already too
full sounding, and there seemed no room for me. For awhile I faced the
issue of, what if there was a song that I didn't have a part to? Too scary
a thought at the time. I decided to play something sharp and jagged--
to cut through, and somehow Istarted to get hooked into it.
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PSYKLOPS
I've got one very good eye for you
I've got one big red blood shot eye staring at you
One love to find behind tired lids
Do you think it can work?
I think my eye needs two to look into
Do you think it can work?
Do you think I'm a jerk?
Iced beverage goes down cold
Slick story untrue the one that you told
No matter no matter to me I've got some of my own
Thick slice cut one off the whole
She got the hands of a mole
She digs into my skin
Creates a little warm place to get comfy
Eating little bites of goodies taste nice
Let's get some din din din
I've got one very
good eye staring straight at you
I've got one big red blood shot eye looking for you
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PSYKLOPS
PAUL: Inspired by a birthday cake and intimate mescalin party at which I
transformed into a tape recorder. The structure came straight from a jam
at practice. It was such a cool loose feel that we decided to keep it and
not overwork it. The working title was Sea Chanty.
JUAN: This song is basically in 6/8 which I've always felt can be a really
cheesey time signature to play in- like Sting trying to play jazz or some
crap like that. I intentionally tried to go against that typical 6/8 feel
as much as possible.
ERNEST: Ah yes matey, the sea chanty. This one pretty much wrote itself.
We improvised this and luckily Paul had recorded it on his little cassette
recorder. Another song in C#, my second favorite key. I remember playing
it at Lauren Robertson's house on Pearl St. in Austin. The original title
was "Psyklops & Thick Slice".
JORGE: Ah, yes. I always wanted Juan to go to straight ride -- just like
Steely Dan. I really enjoy playing this song. The rhythm is a nice change.
It is the Sea Chanty. I like what the backing vocals contribute to the feel.
LINUS: My guitar riffs were based on the jbs guitar stereo left -- I always
wanted to develop a style like that -- something jangly between loose and
precise, and not so thick. I started playing the riff, Ernest & Juan
joined in and we recorded it as an improv at Lauren's. By the time we put
the song together recreating the improv from a practice tape, it was something
else altogether, but still had that swing aspect -- known as "Sea Chanty"
.
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BROWNIE HAWKEYE
I found my true love in the view finder
If you wanna know I blew my wish away
I couldn't stand to be without my true love
We lost our memories, we found each other
True love, view finder
The past is smashed on film to remind her
That she's my true love, that he's my true love
Technology unwind it. True love: i've got to find it
The past is smashed on film
We lost our valuables,
our marbles
Our whole damn memories
Her name is Amnesia
Where are you? I miss you
I've got you in my
sights now
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BROWNIE HAWKEYE
PAUL: My ex had a super cool camera called a Brownie Hawkeye. the intro
was inspired by New Girl Art Trend Band, repeating a line over and over
to a naked beat.
JUAN: I always thought this was a fun song to play live.
ERNEST: I like Linus's last ringing note at the end of the song. Another
song that speaks of amnesia, love, memories, and sight.
JORGE: Again, sometimes its fun to let the bassist do what the guitars
are doing. What's wrong with that? - especially if the band wants to practice
at precisely the same time as you've been planning all day to go to bed...so,
you just lie down on the floor, and play and dream and wonder what the
song is about and, and -- chase after Glenda...[extended static...fade
to black...silence...]
LINUS: I wasn't in on the writing of this song, really, and when faced
with it in rehearsals, I hated it, I thought the song was too long, and
should be cut. Eventually I relaxed and came up with a pretty neat sounding
middle eight part to play.
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WALKIE-TALKIE
I'm walkin in my sheet
I'm talkin in the sleep
Head on my shoulders shoes on my sheep
Astronaut material
Unknown objects coming towards me
Are you attracted or repelled?
North South East West
East North South
Feet on my legs, Teeth in my mouth
Astronaut tears
Space needle, space needle
Circle of friends saves me from irradiate danger
Which clue is your mnemonic me?
Circle of friends it goes on forever
Secret film roles on nocturnal screens
The mountain is so steep
We crawl to you
I'll cry to you
I'm waking in my sheet
Talking in the sleep
Astronaut material
Got to find a way
to sleep somehow
I'm astronaut material
Space needle, space needle
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WALKIE-TALKIE
PAUL: Somber. Feeling like my life was in auto pilot. Like an alien...the
mountain is so steep...unobtainable goals, forever drifting.
JUAN: Another weirdo time signature song. Jorge's fault again. I really
like this song a lot, especially the middle part. Playing it live though,
it felt like a 'go get a beer' song.
ERNEST: I like the ending, when the song picks up and we switch to a more
"walking" version of the verse, when Paul sings "I'm walking
in my sleep...I'm talking in the sheets". This song is pieced together
like a dream. Linus's feedback is so musical on this...at times it sounds
like a flute. I had to strum my guitar parts with my thumb because a pick
was too loud.
JORGE: Warning: Bias ahead. This is my favorite Glorium song. The opening
phrase is one where we didn't care about the time signature. Again, Juan
never turned me down, or let me down. We just played it. Vocals: A+ Guitars:
A++ Lino's sounds coming out of the middle section (which changed a few
times before it was finished) are magical and the part Ernest wrote for
the ending completed the second half of the song which very literally
feels like walking - like taking steps at a decent pace. I remember this
song being the only one that ever made me feel like an artist.
LINUS: My lyric contribution was the line "secret film roles on nocturnal
screens" which could very easily have stayed in my david bowie mind
at the time, oh but it didn't. So there it is.
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MOTHERMACHINE
We bought
this dead machine
Hoping it would make us come clean away
From our city of home and dust
It's made of chrome and rust
And we've already kissed ass
So now we're on our way
Got a couple of checks to pass
Before we make our getaway
Got our bags in hand
Got a map of the land
Got a gas tank full of sand
And a tin can with wheels for motion
We're loaded we'll travel the ocean
Play our noisey noise for scaly girls and boys of the sea
Use the eels for our electricity
Good god got to get away
Mothermachine, make me seem my clothes clean
Dream yourself a beautfil dream
Where all your friends they is machines
The toaster the radio the tele-V
Take them to bed and plug into electricity
I'm thinking about cutting loose
A runaway caboose
I'll do just what I choose
You've given me nothin I care to lose
I've taken nothin that I can lose
Except for my machine
Don't wanna lose it, Don't want to lose it
My machine
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MOTHERMACHINE
PAUL: I bought this piece of crap van that had an ant hill in the front
seat, for our first tour. It broke down as soon as we got it off the lot.
That hole in the muffler sound? That's a "racing cam", Mr. Hooks
told us. Sounded like a reasonable explanation. My arm caught on fire pouring
gasoine into the carborateur from a glass bottle. That's how we had to start
it. I can still hear Linus whipering in my ear, " Go on man, don't
be pussy, pour that shit in there!" This song is about touring, and
using machines to play our music. We left that van at home and took Mr.
Ramos' instead. Pop sold it for a small fee.
JUAN: This song was more improvisational when we first came up with it.
It's kinda hard to keep that feel the more times you play it live.
ERNEST: We toured 3 months out of a year in a van with no windows, with
many days off, hanging out all day, boiling water, eating ramen or cold
beans from a can. I'm glad we put this on the Live at Emo's comp. because
at the time all these heavy bands like The Cows and The Cherubs were really
popular, and we wanted to put out our version of heavy, which was more chaotic
and emotional, and less macho. Linus's feedback on this is amazing. He plays
slide with a ceramic bowl. Live we went into "I Cut My Hair" which
you can hear on the recording.
JORGE: I love the feedback as well. There are some very subtle intricacies
being woven with the upbeats and the vocals, but then...BONG BONG BONG BONG
BONG I've said it before - its like when early man was walking along and
found a long dry bone, picked it up, sniffed at it, and started banging
it on a rock. It is the most simple form of music ever made in the history
of...
LINUS:That story is a pretty good one. now imagine what the screaming at
the end is really about. Do you buy that it's the sound of a band, wanting
to be so bad and for real, but faced with the fact that they've been taken
in by naivete? It produced incredible anguish to think you might not go
someplace, because you bought a piece of shit van. But really it all comes
down to this primal scream, and what do you scream for in that moment? Its
a mother. Musically, this song originated from jams that sounded like the
way a show by the band "course of empire" was said to have looked. |
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MY WANDERIN MOUNTAIN
Stop sign where traffic never ends
Come sliding by my shadow want to make friends
But I got
No warm heart for your noisey chokin
Smokey place that defines your race
From home to work
Office desk phone counter clerk
Got line one, line two on hold
Hands delt fast this one I fold
Invitation not handed down to the game after five
End of the day card punched in a clock
Movin on past the cars in line
Lookin at the lights and streets and sign
No time for your doors and windows of tint
No sweet minted taste of the great outdoors in sight
In this off ramp on are you gonna buy one
with your money given for your time at their place
Your tv hours, mid-day naps
Television oven microwave counts them down
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Here comes the bus
Put your feet on the line
Look straight ahead
Black ink please / Sign in red
Carry on your person at all times
Surrender you have nine days
There are one million ways to break the law
The stop sign the warning that you never saw
Get back in line / Get back on time
Don't be the last one speeding ahead
But follow the leader / Look straight ahead
When were you born? How much do you weigh?
Eyes hair sex address and race
Swear it's the truth - the lie that you told
Finger prints flat, not rolled
I run I run I run
Here comes the bus
My mountain's wandering |
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MY WANDERIN MT.
PAUL: After being arrested one long night in 94, I had this to say. it's
a bitter venting against the legal system. the idea for this song was
to repeat a riff over and over, groove on it forever, and have one change
that come back every few minutes. we only played this song once live,
at a benefit for Bikes Not Bombs.
JUAN: Some songs we came up with were intentionally a little groovey in
parts. This song had a full on dance beat. I really wish we had sprinkled
some 808 bass beats into it for the cd version.
ERNEST: I think we were really into Can and James Brown when we did this,
trying to get the most music out of a part by adding and subtracting guitars.
We were inspired by keeping things simple and repetitive, so that live
we could shape the song by vocal cues, the way James Brown did, though
we only played this once live I think.
JORGE: Don't remember it. The title didn't ring any bells. I don't know
where it came from.
PAUL: We originally called it 808, because we envisioned it with the electronic
beats on it, but I think the beats are there but just down in the mix.
So we never moved beyond the working title since we never released it
until now, and I titled it on my own.
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FUTURE NEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE
This won't hurt one bit
Bite your lips black and blue
Relax your muscles, relax your mind
To cast a spell on you all I need is my two hands
And teeth and tongue for talking and brain and eyes
TRANSMIT
Don't get me wrong
I may be young but I have a very long long tongue
Does it tell a truth or does it tell a lie?
One that entraps and surround
A single sound is all it takes
Flood fire famine earth-quake
Casts a shadow as it unwinds
Coming back with news from a future time
Future news from the front line
Alright now it is night
It's time to fly
Unfold our wings
from under the protective shell
TRANSMIT
Don't get me wrong
I may be young but I have a very long long tongue
Does it tell a truth or does it tell a lie?
One that entraps and surround
Casts a shadow as it unwinds
Coming back with news from a future time
The last great war was fought with the mind
I navigate right through like it was nothin
This is all the proof that you need
No written document or finger print paper on file
Nothing to ride nothing to write
The Insect Lord came down from the sky
He had ten legs but one big eye
Let's trade our places in line It's time
TRANSMIT
One land-lover went straight through
The heart of the eye of the hurricane
Heading towards you in a straight straight line
I got our tickets punched ahead of time
Ins and outs all access pass
First and the last and the overcome
I am the only one to make it back
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FUTURE NEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE
PAUL: This is one of my favs. It's about a time traveler who is warning
us of the future, and impending alien invasion. Ten legs but one big eye
- that refers to the band. Really cool guitar riff. Very electric.
JUAN: This is more of a guitar song than a rhythm section song. I
think I came up with one of the drum parts after seeing Jason Reece play
(just hitting the cymbals and bass drum over and over again).
ERNEST: The words "I may be young but I have a very long, long tongue"
always makes me think of a sex-starved insect, and that thought creeps
me out.
JORGE: As with the Double, guitars and bass pulsate. Very, very nice riffs.
Future News is an example of the rhythm section just trying to stay together
in a hurricane. We had to hide in a centrally located bathroom until the
storm of guitars and voices had passed - and we lived.
Linus: Yeah, there's probably about two of each in there.
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GHOST-WRITER
Ghost-writer, leave me a sign
I can walk through a wall
Huh, hey yeah I'm six foot tall tonight
Astral projector
Sweet Specter
I wrote you a note but that's not all that I wrote
Leave me a sign, ghost-writer
Tonight is the deadline
Deep in the crack, are you there in the shade?
Cold spot like an inkblot
You hover and fade
Divine inspiration or telecommunicating
Did we know each other in a past life?
Leave me sign, ghost-writer
Ghost-writer, I can read it all in my mind
Dreams, late night TV and my memories
It's all the same to me
Dreams, late-night TV and my secret machines
It's one in the same to me
It's one in the same to me
You got me so in love with invisibility
I just can't see how you do this to me?
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GHOST-WRITER
PAUL: Influenced by writings of Lafcadio Hearn, and my own interest in
ghosts. The idea is that what I write, or the music we come up with is
not really our own ideas, but basically we are mediums for which these
creative energies flow out of. Perhaps they are the ideas of some other
creature which is long gone, or exists on another plane.
JUAN: The most rhythmically complex 4/4 song we ever came up with- not
so much as far as syncopation but more so in the number
of different parts and how they supposedly work together.
ERNEST: Sometimes the music and words just came out of nowhere...
JORGE: To me, this song is a lot like Deserter. I really like what the
guitars do all the way through.
LINUS: This was our kind of "Can't Get Next To You" song. I
thought I would grow some dredlochs to toss around while playing this
JBs inspired riff, written in the same session as Psyklops. But then we
found a great dred-cancelling intro. In my mind, it was like the Pretenders
meets The Meters.
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RIP-OFF
Didn't mean what they told you
No guarantee what they sold you
Must've needed it bad
You gave them all your money
Didn't want to feel left out
Thought you'd be wealthy and happy
Now you're crappy and unhealthy
That's what it's all about
Rip-off
Got busted by the county
For sleepin in the alley
Community servce hours
Over one thousand dollars
Court appointed lawyer
Who is your employer?
Do they treat you rightly?
or kill you day and nightly?
Heard it sung in a movie
You sold our soul you can screw me
Sold your shit and put it in a window
Let's see what sells to the trendo
Got a line of people at the door
Underage — you charge more
Hardcore poser opens up a chain store
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RIP-OFF
PAUL: Has a James Brown feeling to it, but the vocals are bluesy like Jack
O-Fire. Comments on commercialism within music industry and greed.
JUAN: Yet another groovey 7/4 riff by Jorge.
ERNEST: It sucks having to deal with legal issues if you are a low-income
artist. And it sucks even more to see your art being sold at the mall by
some rich kid with a tattoo and green hair. Makes you feel like everything
is a fucking rip-off.
JORGE: They say the white blazer that OJ was in only reached speeds of 30-35
miles an hour. James Brown? Only if he was driving the OJ blazer 130 mph
(not 30). That's the James Brown that would tip his velvet hat to this tune.
LINUS:
We wrote this one out at a practice space that had a chess-patterned floor
tiles. "Soul Power" was the song in my mind. Except "Rip-Off"
was the line.
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HERE WE COME TO YOUR CITY
We drive all night just to get here
Now we're here for you, are you here for us?
It feels so good to get outside of the bus
Now come outside now come alive
Reach inside of yourself
Pull out your shadow and out it on
I set my distant foot on your alien soil
My blood did not boil no no no no no no no
I found some oxygen - it's my best friend
Don't look right through me like I'm a ghost
Here I am for you can you hear me?
Here we come to your
city
Is this how you spend your days?
Your face is so pretty
But my eyes can not penetrate
So don't take back the welcome mat that you stuck out
Don't take back what you wrote when
You wrote "I'm yours"
I'm yours so come on
Here I am for you can you hear me?
Here we come to your
city
Excuse me if I'm in a daze
Your face is so pretty
But my eyes can not penetrate
This song is just a come-on
So come on, here we come
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HERE WE COME TO YOUR CITY
PAUL: About traveling, and meeting new folks on the road, and trying so
hard to blow them away on stage after driving for twelve hours and feeling
like an astronaut. It's asking the audience to get loose, dance and connect.
I wrote this thinking of a postcard I received from someone far away.
ERNEST: Yeah, its an alien feeling to arrive at a club in some town, and
then play your heart out to a crowd of locals who just stand there, then
get offered pizza as your payment, to only get stuck with the bill.
JUAN: As a drummer the idea was to start with a rhythm pattern
(1,2,3-and 4) and have it go throughout the entire song non-stop.
At first it's used a little unconventionally through different changes and
then it climaxes at the end with a full-on rock beat that uses essentially the
same pattern.
JORGE: Here the vocals make the song. Some people say that certain songs
remind them of certain places or people. Well, all I know is
that City reminds me of a smell, which in turn reminds me of a place,
and only THEN am I reminded of a person. Good marching music...
LINUS: The backup vocal part I wanted to sound like the Monks, who Brendan
Canty had turned us onto while on tour with Fugazi. We were interested
in sampling and re-appropriating different sounds. I always thought of
this song as a kind of response to the experience of backing an amazing
band like Fugazi, to whos fans no-one could compare to. All you can do
is be yourself, of course.
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ELECTRICIDAD
I'm doing time floating at sea
Counting the heads in front of me
Electricity
Something's gonna shock the fuck out of me
You're off of work again
And I'm doing this dizzy walk
I followed you until it gets dark
I threw up in the park
I've got a plug
and you're the socket
I'm so still you're in motion
What's got into your body?
Watching the currents swell in the ocean
Kiss me quick, electricity
Something's gonna shock the fuck outta me
I've got a plug and you're the socket
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ELECTRICIDAD
PAUL: I love this song. Desire, a lighting storm and the ocean. The music
sounded so sad I chose the lyrics from the collection of stuff I was working
on to go with that feeling. The guitars sound like a rainstorm.
ERNEST: The guitars weave together like sex. Has a sad romance about it.
JUAN: This song was significantly altered by Tim Kerr in the studio. It
used to have a completely different intro. I don't remember the old intro.
JORGE: I clearly remember sitting down with Lino once and he was showing
me the chords to Electricity on an acoustic guitar and one of them was
strummed casually bottom-up. And I thought, "Man, that is some nice
sound."
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MY DEMOLITION
After they laid down the corner stone
As I lay in the street alone
I said hello
Then I buried it deep below
Then I blew it into light
The big bang in the middle of the night
That makes the city moan
I wanted to save every man woman and child
From the walls and nails all bricked up in the stack
Who said I bled when the whole forty fell?
An explosion like a liberty bell
Plate glass makes a deafening crack
Who calls this red stuff blood?
It's just worries running down my back
I can't even sleep, The task is heavy
I'm so damn hot for destruction
When they're in bed I find a construction
There's no reservation, I bust that erection
Land mines are salvation in my demoltion
Say a prayer on this day of destruction
The angel of death has risen to the surface
A dark thick loch entombed her cold and silent
But see she's smiling she's wearing gold
and she holds a trident above her head
Cities will explode like dandelions
Blossom and melt before our eyes
Before our eyes melt |
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MY DEMOLITION
PAUL: I think Linus wrote these lyrics after the Unabomber attacks. Inside
the mind of a confused, demented terrorist. This is crazy and noisey.
It now makes me think of the Oklahoma bombings, and the 9/11 attacks.
ERNEST: Our most epic song. I always felt this was more of a sci-fi sound
poem, with the main character getting a sexual thrill from blowing things
up. I also think its very dark and foreboding. I think of the ending to
"Fight Club" with all the explosions and falling skyscrapers,
and current issues of terrorism and the World Trade Center. Eerily this
was recorded on September 11th, 1993.
JUAN: The verses in the first half of the song are my all-time favorite
rhythm-section parts. I could barely play it when we last performed.
JORGE: Lord Jesus. Up in heaven lookin' down. Help us. Help us all. Please
Lord. I love it. The perfect song for our post-9/11 world. Remember what Ram
says, "How you gonna act?"
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FEARLESS
This is the bottom line
Fearless showed his ugly face
Beautiful, it's beautifu
Yeah I've seen that before uncountable times
Uncountable times
I've seen it
This is the hour to rebuild the jaws of resistance
I'm devoted to another cause
Break down the laws of power
Resistance
Power
Resist
These are violent days
Rage of youth, I want change
But I can't be afraid of the violence |
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FEARLESS
PAUL: I wrote the lyrics before the riot in Portland where we were chased
by police, uh, i mean i was...but it's always reminds me of that day.
It's about resisting violence but wanting cultural change so bad that
you want to throw bricks.
ERNEST: Back in Austin in the early '90s it felt like the underground
was on the verge of a cultural revolution. We were inspired by Fugazi
and the DIY movement to book our own shows, make our own clubs, and to
not sell out to the big record labels. This was like a call to arms. Then
we got jaded from shitty tours and sleeping on floors.
JUAN: One of the parts of this song was called the Geddy Lee part.
JORGE: Once, my uncle and I had a talk about the relationship between
A and E-flat. The BING--BING-BING is supposed to be a blinking red
light - a warning. I really like the drums that signal the second half
of the song. And I love to crunch.
LINUS: I can remember the exact moment the sound & ryhthm was building
up in the practice space-- I had no choice but to play the descending
and ascending line I came up with, calculated by a higher logic, I could
barely hear myself.
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ICED THE SWELLING
I've got a gut feeling about this one
I've got some gut feelings about this
There's something missing
And it's getting old
Cut me to pieces if you need to feel whole
Breaking that boundary
Now I'm growing
Breaking that boundary so you're cutting me down
It starts here how about now?
Iced the swelling
but it's not going down
Outside is the sun
How high is the sun?
I was as high as the sun
You're not the only one
I'm so sick of the sun
So tired of the sun
Do you think it's well lit?
It's not the only one
Am I willing to kill? Would I kill this one?
Would I kill for this? Am I willing to kill this one?
No
I'm in the middle stuck hard
The thick of the tar
It's time to pull out please don't stand in my way
What you gave me pulling me under
Let me glow like a sun or lock me away
It's a big enough crack, a thick enough space
Some light may seep in on my face
You keep me beneath the line of visibility
Did I kill this time wastefully?
We treat each other so tastefully
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ICED THE SWELLING
PAUL: This is like the song we can't ever get away with not playing. Jason
McNeely told me it inspired him to start Windsor For the Derby, because
the two guitars sounded like three. it's about trying not to feel pain,
love.
JUAN: I used to tease Jorge by telling him that the bass line
for the verses of this song sound like the bass line for the verses of
Crazy Train by Ozzy.
ERNEST: We had a lot of anger back then. This was the soundtrack to our
lives. Most bands during the Cavity days were real heavy and macho so
we had to represent, S. A. style, but in our own way. George pretty much
wrote the music and it's brilliant. The guitars sound like spiky crabs.
JORGE: Brought to you by the 50th St. house and all the spirits of
the people beaten and killed there before we got there. Because you know
that the combination of orange juice and cigarette ash is not supposed
to yield asphalt. But it did. And I don't know what we ever did about
the stain. If Mother Machine is Kindergarten, Iced is first grade.
LINUS: I was reading "soul on ice" by Eldridge Cleaver.
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DIVEBOMB
I thought about the past, I thought about control
I was coming in last, Now I can't move slow
Never was wrong I said yes not no
Going so fast to go so goddamn low
Picked up momentum picked up speed
Losing everything by gaining the lead
A one way ride down a slippery slide
All of my memories crash and collide
Divebomb I'm alive
I'm on
I was just a bullet shot down from the sky
Not sure why I ever thought to try
Not sure how I'm gonna live this through
Look out of my window
At the bottom it's you
North is at the top
Feeling force of drop
The bottom is the stop
Stop
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DIVEBOMB
PAUL: this is the first song we wrote together. I wrote the lyrics when
I was 19. it's about feeling most alive when everything in your life is
falling apart, like you're on a falling plane, the rush of adrenalin before
you crash.
ERNEST: I remember sitting on my bed in Providence, RI, writing the guitar
riffs and wishing I could drop out of college to be in a rock band with
my friends. I was really depressed, and music was the only thing to make
me feel alive. The guitars during the solo sound like duelling planes, firing
at each other while they plummet the sky. Its the feeling of being most
alive when you are so close to death, I suppose. The guy who recorded this
mixed it onto cassette when we were 18 and 19. He had long yellow toenails
and kept stopping the machine when Paul sang "Stop! Stop!".
JUAN: I remember performing this song for our friends in a garage and it
was the only song we had.
JORGE: Classic. An Ernest creation for the ages...My brother loves it. I
remember meeting Vodas in a classical guitar class, and when he asked me
if I owned any electric instruments I was JUST about to say, "No."
But I didn't. So, I showed up at practice and Ern whips out Divebomb, and
I thought, "Oh shit. What the f**k did I get myself into?"
LINUS: In a way, it's about not being afraid to feel. |
