01. Greetings From the Bell Tower
02. King Baby
03. The Best of John Merrick
04. Plato's Role in the Trial of Socrates
05. Bitter and Alone
06. In A Comfortable Jail
07. How Not to Get There
08. It Doesn't Take Much
09. Beer and Wine
10. If I Was Your Dog
11. Who is Philo T. Farnsworth?
12. Angry Sex (Crazy 4 U)
13. A Silly Retreat
14. Time is the Fire in Which We All Burn
15. The Good Times
16. Holding On
17. Seroquel
℗ 2014 Anthony Brett/Toby Perez
02. King Baby
03. The Best of John Merrick
04. Plato's Role in the Trial of Socrates
05. Bitter and Alone
06. In A Comfortable Jail
07. How Not to Get There
08. It Doesn't Take Much
09. Beer and Wine
10. If I Was Your Dog
11. Who is Philo T. Farnsworth?
12. Angry Sex (Crazy 4 U)
13. A Silly Retreat
14. Time is the Fire in Which We All Burn
15. The Good Times
16. Holding On
17. Seroquel
℗ 2014 Anthony Brett/Toby Perez
(click song names for lyrics)
“GREETINGS!!! – From, the Bell Tower” was the earliest of this group of songs that I wrote (circa 2005) and the last song that I recorded for this album. I had struggled with whether or not to squeeze it onto the already packed album, but it was what I had always envisioned as the opening track and I just figured the more content the merrier, but in hindsight I see that I might have doomed the album from every being listened to by making the first 2 tracks too slow and somber to keep anyone listening further. Because of this, I decided to take it off the digital download and leave it only on the physical copies of the album.
“King Baby” is another such track that will be kept only on the CD version. I had recorded a guitar and drum version of this song in 2006 which opened the .Sightseeer EP. That version is so cool because it has a chorus of awesome accompanying back-up vocals for the last leg of the song, whereas I was not able to get a group of people together to record it this time around. I still love how clean this new version sounds and how well the bass line fits in the song adding new depth to the mood, but for a near 7-minute track, I think that it takes away more than it adds to the overall story of the album.
“The Best of John Merrick” is a cute little ditty that I recorded on 3-track cassette tape in 2009 and had desperately wanted to re-record for some reason or another. I think it works as the new opener for the digital version of the album because its simplistic nature and amature-esque sound seem fitting to open an album that’s about the bitterness of self-producing an album that is about the nothingness of a life consumed by self-producing an album that’s about the bitterness of doing pretty much nothing for pretty much nobody but myself.
“Plato’s Role in the Role of Socrates” is where I think the album really starts. It sums up the discourse of the album and introduces you to the psychotic nature of the guy singing at you for the next hour. Plato’s role in the trail of Socrates was to document and make known the events of and circumstances surrounding the trial and eventual execution of the great philosopher. Sometimes when I am not myself, I feel that another part of my spirit or soul is using me to do the same thing, documenting the minutia of existence from the perspective of a body on another plane of existence or something. I wake up to the craziest things from the craziest dreams and the feelings are so real that it’s hard to say what is and what isn’t. Sometimes it’s hard to argue with a song that wouldn’t have existed any other way, but I’d be lying if said that it doesn’t sometimes get scary.
“Bitter and Alone” I started recording on the first night that I got my v-drum set (circa 2011). I just had a drum part in my head and could finally, for the first time ever, actually record it myself. I’m no drummer, so the toms and prolly some of the cymbals were overlaid over the snare and kick track, but the drum s on the song are the same one I did that night, and I’m happy I didn’t try to redo them or anything. I’m pretty sure I recorded that guitar line on the same night too, as my heart was aching for a girl with whom I was familiar at the time and who was deeply involving herself with me. It just started getting weird when we first started spending so much time together, like we had wanted to, and realizing that a large amount of that time was spent lying awake next to her while she slept. Back then I hardly slept at all, and at that time I had made the choice to stop taking my prescription Seroquel because it just made me sleep all day and I felt like time was just passing by all around me. Some say that it’s worth it to prevent my mind from playing tricks on me, but I think the mind does what it’s supposed to do and I don’t think limiting that with suppressive drugs is the right course of action - for me at least.
“In a Comfortable Jail” was written during the Days of the Weak recording session but recorded right before “Greetings from the Bell Tower” and was almost cut out of the album completely in order to reach the scheduled release date on time, but luckily it came together really quickly and made it on, cause I really like it. The recording features Kevin Canales playing a guitar part he wrote for the song, and he helped me engineer the recording, as he did with many of the tracks on the album. I’d say the lyrics are pretty self-explanatory, but that what I say about all my songs, and I’m probably way off on that assumption.
“How Not to Get There” is a song I wrote after spending some time in a mental ward (or as they prefer to be called, a “behavioral center”) and is one of the few songs on the album that can be played well at a solo acoustic performance. I didn't record it to a click track, so I missed one of my cues when I was supposed to say, “There is so much of my life I can’t remember,” but I liked the rest of the take and didn't want to record it all over again, so I left it in (as I do with many of the mistakes I make in all my recordings) and I hope it adds some sort of value to the song.
“It Doesn't Take Much” is a song I wrote and recorded at the same time on the same tape as “The Best of John Merrick” and I knew I wanted to re-record for this album so that I could properly showcase the accompanying vocals and bass-line. I like it, aside from a really shaky, high-pitched vocal toward the end.
“Beer and Wine” was recorded during the Days of the Weak recording session and I thought it was good enough to keep as is without re-doing the guitar track that had quite a few errors. At one point in the song, you can even hear me make a mistake on the guitar and saying, “oh I messed up.” I told myself at the time that I would fix it later, but whatever. It is what it is.
“If I Was Your Dog” shouldn't need much of an explanation. Dogs who are loved, are loved unconditionally, and I just want that same feeling of security in my own life. People hold grudges against people way longer than they do toward a loved pet. What’s up with that?
“Who is Philo T. Farnsworth?” was an improvised guitar lick i came up with one Saturday morning while watching Teen Titans. I just hit record while jamming out to the TV images, and thought it sounded so simple and cheezy, i figured to just lay down drums and bass right then and there. That was the same Saturday that i sing about in the song "Saturday" on Days of the Weak, so this song must have been recorded in around August of 2012.
“Angry Sex (Crazy 4 U)” is another track recorded during the Days of the Weak sessions, but the vocals didn't get added till much closer to the release date, so if they sound rushed and sloppy, it’s cause they very much are. This song has a heavy At the Drive-In influence to it and seems like it’d be a lot of fun to play live, but I’ll prolly have a hard time singing it while playing guitar, because hitting some of those high notes can be pretty gut-wrenching. I think the harder part will be finding a good drummer to play shows with (anyone out there who would be up to the task should e-mail me, and quick!). Like many of the songs on this album, I recorded the drum part in 2 different takes – one focused on snare and kick, and the other on cymbals and toms. It’s cheating, and I hope with time and practice it won’t always be that way, but for right now there was no other way to do it. I figure having these versions of these songs could make it easier for a potential future drummer to learn the song inside-and-out before practicing and perfecting the part and being able to play along as part of the band.
“A Silly Retreat” was recorded in the control room area of the old The Child Forgives and Creates practice space back in 2011 when I was practicing with them to replace Niko for a show that he couldn't play due to a broken hand. The space was actually the second floor of an Antique Shoppe in the Jackson Street area of Harlingen and made for some really cool ambiance in the musical creative landscape. It was cool being downtown after hours when the streets were empty and the buildings are all vacant, hauling amps to-and-from a loading elevator in the ally and jamming out hecka' loud... good times... I was planning on adding bass and drums to the song and give it kind of a mid-tempo Sparklehorse feel to it with a steady beat and falling bass line, but I never got around to it and darned if it’s not a great sounding live take anyways, so I just added a vocal accompaniment and figured I’d spend the time on other songs that just needed it more. If I ever do a live version of this song, I’ll do it that way.
“Time is the Fire in Which We All Burn” sounded way better before the crappy post production reverb effect that gives the song a gross, low-fi, hissy feel to it. It’s such a short and easy song that I think I’ll just keep recording it in the future with different set-ups and settings and use them as a personal reference of my own recording techniques for different albums. I think I wrote this song in 2008, and there’s a half decent 4-track recording of it somewhere in my collection. This song gives me a chance to exercise my vocal range across 3 octaves, singing the same vocal line three times – one deep and low, one pretty flat in the middle, and one high and whispery. That’s kind of how I recorded most of Days of the Weak too. I think I’m expecting to like one vocal range over the others and stick with it, but it hasn't happened yet, and I've just gotten really used to hearing my own voice doubled or tripled, so without it I feel like there’s something missing… John Lennon had it.
“The Good Times” is a mighty fun song to play on bass... too bad i wouldn't be able to play some of those bass lines live while singing without getting the timing all twisted in my head, so i'll be stuck playing guitar while someone else gets to enjoy the cool satisfaction of playing a fun, rolling bass-line. I recorded the vocals standing in my shower tub - for quite a few of these songs actually - cause i thought it would add some natural reverb and echo, but in the end, i don't think it even comes close to the sweet sounds you can get using computer programs and post-production effects these days. Hopefully someday soon i'll have the tools to do it right.
“Holding On” was recorded on a digital camera in 2009. I don’t remember why I didn't do a polished up, newer version of it, but I really like the feel of intimacy the recording gives, and it’s not a bad take so it works for right now. Some of the better lyrics I can actually remember writing.
“Seroquel” was recorded around the same time as “Bitter and Alone” and remained untouched since 2011. I think it could have used some proper mixing and an extra line of vocals that i didn't record back then. Actually, i think every song on this album deserves to be re-recorded in a professional recording studio with expert mixing and proper effects and EQ, but i'll never be able to afford something like that without some sort of funding or label support, so back i go in front of my broken-down old recording console to start working on the next collection of songs to record. Wish me luck, and i'll see you on the other side (of the recording of the next album, i mean)...
“King Baby” is another such track that will be kept only on the CD version. I had recorded a guitar and drum version of this song in 2006 which opened the .Sightseeer EP. That version is so cool because it has a chorus of awesome accompanying back-up vocals for the last leg of the song, whereas I was not able to get a group of people together to record it this time around. I still love how clean this new version sounds and how well the bass line fits in the song adding new depth to the mood, but for a near 7-minute track, I think that it takes away more than it adds to the overall story of the album.
“The Best of John Merrick” is a cute little ditty that I recorded on 3-track cassette tape in 2009 and had desperately wanted to re-record for some reason or another. I think it works as the new opener for the digital version of the album because its simplistic nature and amature-esque sound seem fitting to open an album that’s about the bitterness of self-producing an album that is about the nothingness of a life consumed by self-producing an album that’s about the bitterness of doing pretty much nothing for pretty much nobody but myself.
“Plato’s Role in the Role of Socrates” is where I think the album really starts. It sums up the discourse of the album and introduces you to the psychotic nature of the guy singing at you for the next hour. Plato’s role in the trail of Socrates was to document and make known the events of and circumstances surrounding the trial and eventual execution of the great philosopher. Sometimes when I am not myself, I feel that another part of my spirit or soul is using me to do the same thing, documenting the minutia of existence from the perspective of a body on another plane of existence or something. I wake up to the craziest things from the craziest dreams and the feelings are so real that it’s hard to say what is and what isn’t. Sometimes it’s hard to argue with a song that wouldn’t have existed any other way, but I’d be lying if said that it doesn’t sometimes get scary.
“Bitter and Alone” I started recording on the first night that I got my v-drum set (circa 2011). I just had a drum part in my head and could finally, for the first time ever, actually record it myself. I’m no drummer, so the toms and prolly some of the cymbals were overlaid over the snare and kick track, but the drum s on the song are the same one I did that night, and I’m happy I didn’t try to redo them or anything. I’m pretty sure I recorded that guitar line on the same night too, as my heart was aching for a girl with whom I was familiar at the time and who was deeply involving herself with me. It just started getting weird when we first started spending so much time together, like we had wanted to, and realizing that a large amount of that time was spent lying awake next to her while she slept. Back then I hardly slept at all, and at that time I had made the choice to stop taking my prescription Seroquel because it just made me sleep all day and I felt like time was just passing by all around me. Some say that it’s worth it to prevent my mind from playing tricks on me, but I think the mind does what it’s supposed to do and I don’t think limiting that with suppressive drugs is the right course of action - for me at least.
“In a Comfortable Jail” was written during the Days of the Weak recording session but recorded right before “Greetings from the Bell Tower” and was almost cut out of the album completely in order to reach the scheduled release date on time, but luckily it came together really quickly and made it on, cause I really like it. The recording features Kevin Canales playing a guitar part he wrote for the song, and he helped me engineer the recording, as he did with many of the tracks on the album. I’d say the lyrics are pretty self-explanatory, but that what I say about all my songs, and I’m probably way off on that assumption.
“How Not to Get There” is a song I wrote after spending some time in a mental ward (or as they prefer to be called, a “behavioral center”) and is one of the few songs on the album that can be played well at a solo acoustic performance. I didn't record it to a click track, so I missed one of my cues when I was supposed to say, “There is so much of my life I can’t remember,” but I liked the rest of the take and didn't want to record it all over again, so I left it in (as I do with many of the mistakes I make in all my recordings) and I hope it adds some sort of value to the song.
“It Doesn't Take Much” is a song I wrote and recorded at the same time on the same tape as “The Best of John Merrick” and I knew I wanted to re-record for this album so that I could properly showcase the accompanying vocals and bass-line. I like it, aside from a really shaky, high-pitched vocal toward the end.
“Beer and Wine” was recorded during the Days of the Weak recording session and I thought it was good enough to keep as is without re-doing the guitar track that had quite a few errors. At one point in the song, you can even hear me make a mistake on the guitar and saying, “oh I messed up.” I told myself at the time that I would fix it later, but whatever. It is what it is.
“If I Was Your Dog” shouldn't need much of an explanation. Dogs who are loved, are loved unconditionally, and I just want that same feeling of security in my own life. People hold grudges against people way longer than they do toward a loved pet. What’s up with that?
“Who is Philo T. Farnsworth?” was an improvised guitar lick i came up with one Saturday morning while watching Teen Titans. I just hit record while jamming out to the TV images, and thought it sounded so simple and cheezy, i figured to just lay down drums and bass right then and there. That was the same Saturday that i sing about in the song "Saturday" on Days of the Weak, so this song must have been recorded in around August of 2012.
“Angry Sex (Crazy 4 U)” is another track recorded during the Days of the Weak sessions, but the vocals didn't get added till much closer to the release date, so if they sound rushed and sloppy, it’s cause they very much are. This song has a heavy At the Drive-In influence to it and seems like it’d be a lot of fun to play live, but I’ll prolly have a hard time singing it while playing guitar, because hitting some of those high notes can be pretty gut-wrenching. I think the harder part will be finding a good drummer to play shows with (anyone out there who would be up to the task should e-mail me, and quick!). Like many of the songs on this album, I recorded the drum part in 2 different takes – one focused on snare and kick, and the other on cymbals and toms. It’s cheating, and I hope with time and practice it won’t always be that way, but for right now there was no other way to do it. I figure having these versions of these songs could make it easier for a potential future drummer to learn the song inside-and-out before practicing and perfecting the part and being able to play along as part of the band.
“A Silly Retreat” was recorded in the control room area of the old The Child Forgives and Creates practice space back in 2011 when I was practicing with them to replace Niko for a show that he couldn't play due to a broken hand. The space was actually the second floor of an Antique Shoppe in the Jackson Street area of Harlingen and made for some really cool ambiance in the musical creative landscape. It was cool being downtown after hours when the streets were empty and the buildings are all vacant, hauling amps to-and-from a loading elevator in the ally and jamming out hecka' loud... good times... I was planning on adding bass and drums to the song and give it kind of a mid-tempo Sparklehorse feel to it with a steady beat and falling bass line, but I never got around to it and darned if it’s not a great sounding live take anyways, so I just added a vocal accompaniment and figured I’d spend the time on other songs that just needed it more. If I ever do a live version of this song, I’ll do it that way.
“Time is the Fire in Which We All Burn” sounded way better before the crappy post production reverb effect that gives the song a gross, low-fi, hissy feel to it. It’s such a short and easy song that I think I’ll just keep recording it in the future with different set-ups and settings and use them as a personal reference of my own recording techniques for different albums. I think I wrote this song in 2008, and there’s a half decent 4-track recording of it somewhere in my collection. This song gives me a chance to exercise my vocal range across 3 octaves, singing the same vocal line three times – one deep and low, one pretty flat in the middle, and one high and whispery. That’s kind of how I recorded most of Days of the Weak too. I think I’m expecting to like one vocal range over the others and stick with it, but it hasn't happened yet, and I've just gotten really used to hearing my own voice doubled or tripled, so without it I feel like there’s something missing… John Lennon had it.
“The Good Times” is a mighty fun song to play on bass... too bad i wouldn't be able to play some of those bass lines live while singing without getting the timing all twisted in my head, so i'll be stuck playing guitar while someone else gets to enjoy the cool satisfaction of playing a fun, rolling bass-line. I recorded the vocals standing in my shower tub - for quite a few of these songs actually - cause i thought it would add some natural reverb and echo, but in the end, i don't think it even comes close to the sweet sounds you can get using computer programs and post-production effects these days. Hopefully someday soon i'll have the tools to do it right.
“Holding On” was recorded on a digital camera in 2009. I don’t remember why I didn't do a polished up, newer version of it, but I really like the feel of intimacy the recording gives, and it’s not a bad take so it works for right now. Some of the better lyrics I can actually remember writing.
“Seroquel” was recorded around the same time as “Bitter and Alone” and remained untouched since 2011. I think it could have used some proper mixing and an extra line of vocals that i didn't record back then. Actually, i think every song on this album deserves to be re-recorded in a professional recording studio with expert mixing and proper effects and EQ, but i'll never be able to afford something like that without some sort of funding or label support, so back i go in front of my broken-down old recording console to start working on the next collection of songs to record. Wish me luck, and i'll see you on the other side (of the recording of the next album, i mean)...