Satori: Mercury

There are a lot of questions about "Mercury" , like what the title has to do with the song.  As engrossed as I was in mythology, the title has to do with the element, though I can't tell you precisely why. This was a period in my songwriting, where I wrote on the edge of consciousness.  The song sprang-forth fully formed like Athena, and I sang it with conviction, but what does it all add up to?

Bands like Slint and Fugazi had seduced me with their lyrical opacity.  I don't know if it was the goal to bury meaning in obscurity, but that was certainly the effect.  At any rate, I strongly recommend that you try to unravel the meaning of the song, because I feel you would be rewarded for doing so, but I don't think my doing so would be any help...

When the band first started playing the song, it was loud and aggressive.  When we went in to record the song for the record Brian and Andrew gave our arrangement a thumbs down, so the night after we tried a take of it, we sat around with acoustic guitars trying to re-arrange it.  I guess we liked the vibe of the song on acoustics, because that's how we recorded it the next day.  

We began tracking the song by recording a layer of shaker tracks first, which in retrospect was a little crazy.  While the technology existed, we didn't record any of the songs to a click.  Brian may have tried to get us to do it, but we didn't think we needed it, and I think most of the songs were well-rehearsed enough that we didn't need to (and didn't have time to) record tracks one by one anyway.  

At any rate, after we got our shaker tracks, we recorded the guitars and bass, and then added Dan playing just toms on the track.  All the vocals were recorded later (which turned out to be a bad idea, but I'll get to that in another post).  At any rate, a good song can't be tied down to a particular arrangement. 

I sit in my rooms and I plan my riots

I know the walls are coming down soon

I burn a candle, my only diet

I lay my soul to the bludgeoning tune

There is a voice in the empty quiet

Beyond the stars, beyond the moon

There is a pull, and I won't deny it

Pulls off my flesh and opens my wounds.

Here is my hand, it's an invitation

To escape this grip that's dragging us down

Make no mistake: this is no liberation

We won't embrace that risk-free sound

You must abandon that familiar scene

Open your eyes, 'cause there's no going back

Don't imagine the break will be clean

Tonight's the night, we begin the attack.

You say you don't care, but I know that it's there

The lingering beast that cries for release

The answer is clear, your imprisoned by fear,

'Cause it's bigger than you and it's bigger than 

You say you don't care, but I know that it's there

The lingering beast that cries for release

The answer is clear, your imprisoned by fear,

'Cause it's bigger than you and it's bigger than you

Tonight's the night the struggle commences

And tonight's the night, the struggle will die

It's nothing more than an attack on the senses

But don't be afraid, 'cause you understand why

It's all a part of the tension you feel

It's the last time you'll be able to choose

Let it sink in and know that it's real

Give it away, you've got nothing to lose

You say you don't care, but I know that it's there

The lingering beast that cries for release

The answer is clear, your imprisoned by fear,

'Cause it's bigger than you and it's bigger than 

You say you don't care, but I know that it's there

The lingering beast that cries for release

The answer is clear, your imprisoned by fear,

'Cause it's bigger than you and it's bigger than you.

Satori: Awakening

"Awakening" is the last of the early songs recorded for the album Belief.  I can still hear all the influences of this song- The Who, Fugazi, etc. There's even a little bit of Traveling Wilbury's in there.  The song is a bit of a second cousin to "Belief." The story here is mostly about bringing the recording back from the dead, but I did want you to know three things:

1. Becky Kupersmith wanted to call our first album, King of All I see based on a lyric from this song. 

2. Ryan Jones sang on the bridge, and probably should have sung on a lot more songs, because he's a better singer.

3. The breakdown is my favorite in any song. 

This particular recording has an interesting story behind it, because the original master no longer exists. So Andrew McKenna Lee and I had to resurrect the song using a casette as our master. There had been an expectation when we finished the album that we would put out a CD, but then we discovered how much a CD cost, and we opted to put the album out sooner rather than later, so we put it out on casette.  We argued that we could release the CD version later.  Sigh.

The two biggest problems with a casette master are: 1. The speed and 2. The hiss.  The speed meant that the song was not at its original tempo and not quite in the original key.  This was pretty easy to fix.  The second problem was the hiss, which only became noticeable in the quiet parts.  We Eq'd some of the hiss away, but you also lose a bit of high-end sparkle, so I added an acoustic guitar, which doubled the guitar part I played on the electric. This meant that I could eliminate the original intro, and have the acoustic as an intro, which meant I needed to re-record the vocals for the intro and try to blend it into the original once the original recording kicked in. 

Unfortunately, the hiss returns thoughtout the song whenever it got quiet, so I began adding other sounds and overdubs to mask the hiss- the sound of a wave, a ringing bell.  You'll notice these elements whenever the band gets quiet. 

The last spot of hiss was at the very end.  So I just recorded the last note for bass, drums and guitars.  Hopefully you can't tell the difference, but now that I've told you...