path: root/txt/music/ALIENCD46/insert.md

mollasses

...à l'hôtel jinx...

thierry amar; flüffy erskine; norsola johnson; kate lawrence; jennifer
ménard; mike moya; sam shalabi; scott lregrande chernoff...
chris brokaw; bruce cawdron; david michael curry; lisa gamble; efrim
menuck; michel meunier; js truchy; thalia zedek... à l'hôtel jinx.

lucky 13: siren's song. la la la, amerika. Saint Christopher's blues.
sign of judgment. Lynn Canyon wedding song. coda. You Can't Win. trouble
in mind. las niñas. Miss Peach's Pawnshop. buffaloed at Wounded Knee/the
weeping winds. no love lost. songs from the basement.

trouble at jinx hotel. these cursed recordings began in late winter 2003
at the hotel2tango in montréal. it was a bitter sunday in march. the
world was on the brink of war in old mesopotamia, and we were all of us
sick with the influenza. headaches. fevers. wrecked guts and water on
the lungs. coughing like crazy. everyone with a base case of the shakes.
the hotel wass cold and its ghosts were unhappy. electricity was being
weird. lights flickered and all the microphones crackled with live
current. little blue sparks dancing through the studio rooms. amplifiers
were picking up strange radio frequencies and the piano, which couldn't
hold a tune to save its own life, was behaving like a cantankerous old
man. our cats and dogs were nervous and excited, a-jitter the way
animals get whenever catastrope looms. we started with a 16-track tape
machine, three spools of 1/4" analog audio tape, and a lucky thirteen
little songs hanging in our heads. but when the 16-track busted and
broke down a few days later, we moved to 2" tape on a 24-track machine
and began anew with our fingers crossed. then the 24-track showed the
first symptoms of its own terrible illness. so we did what we could with
digital audio tape while our trusty friend and technician, garfield
lamb, nursed the equipment back to some semblance of health. then we
transfered the digital recordings to 2" tape and went to work again...
waiting to see what the gods would do next. they toyed with us for
a while before unleashing their full fury: the 24-track, seizing
mid-song one evening, ate a reel of tape and sent it spewing around the
studio in little pieces, a scene as cruel as confetti at a funeral.
garfield somehow managed to splice the tape together again. but our
nerves were now in tatters too, scattered all over the hotel floor. when
we finally finished tracking this music in the summer of 2003, the cats
and dogs didn't look any less worried than when we'd begun. of course,
they sensed the disaster we would soon see for ourselves: as we started
mixing the very next night, a faulty lamp at the studio short-circuited
and the tape machine caught on fire. a freak electrical accident. there
was an asterisk of light; then a dragon-tail of smoke coiling across the
room; then there was a darkness; and then the 24-track quietly died. the
animals, cowering in corners, whined, *why didn't you fucking fools jump
ship at the first sign of the storm*? that's when we drifted away from
the jinxed hotel... floating until we found safe harbour in a studio we
could borrow for a few days - one whose own resident dogs, zoro and
ciska, greeted us with idiot grins and the contented looks of drunken
sailors on calm seas. mixing was finished in a kind of delirious
distress at MixArt in notre-dame-de-grace, montréal, autumn 2003. these
lucky thirteen. dieu merci. slgc. *new year's eve* 2003.

siren's song. instrumental.

la la la, amerika. amerika is crawling with cops tonight as we put our
fists through the windows of the world i know you're broken and you're
down at the mouth but you're pouting like a punished little girl when
darkness calls night falls oh mother where are the children you've
orphaned all over the Earth we're frightened and sickened and
poverty-stricken and waiting for you to send word when darkness calls
the sky falls we're tired mother and we're poor we're wretched at your
teeming shore we're homeless and tossed by the storm looking for the
light at your golden door when darkness calls night falls.

flüffy: marching drum, percussion & choir; norsola: cello & voice; kate:
violin; jennifer: voice; moya: Crumar organ; dmc: viola & choir; gamble:
choir; efrim: choir; js: upright bass; thalia: voice; scott: acoustic
guitars & vocals; scott recorded the air-raid siren and bombs on the
nightly news when baghdad was attacked by the united states and great
britain in march 2003; words & music by scott chernoff, as stolen from
the inscription on the statue of liberty: *give me your tired your poor
your huddled masses yearning to breathe the wretched refuse of your
teeming shore send these the homeless tempest-tossed to me i lift my
lamp beside the golden door*.

Saint Christopher's blues. the locusts are in the jimson Shit Creek is
on the rise and you're out wrecking eternity this town looks like a
prison in September's crimson sky when i should be loving you perfectly
you're such a pretty little mess with your Saint Christopher blues and
that doomed little look in your eye the weight of the world rests all
upon your tiny shoes but June why are you so terrified give me the
locust and the flood i'm a Fool for Love but i'm kneeling in Shit Creek
tonight.

thierry: upright & electric bass; flüffy: marching drum; kate: violin;
jennifer: voice; moya: piano & Crumar organ; bruce: drums; gramble:
scrap metal; scott: electric guitar & vocals. words & music by scott
chernoff.

sign of judgment. yes sign of judgment yes sign of judgment yes sign of
judgment time ain't long i don't like old Satan none of his tempting
charms cheats you at your Jesus now and roll you in his arms yes sign of
judgment yes sign of judgment yes sign of judgment time ain't long i
don't like old Satan nothing he say or do tell one lie to hurt us all
and two to make it true yes sign of judgment yes sign of judgment yes
sign of judgment time ain't long.

norsola: cello; jennifer: voice; efrim: electric guitar & harmonium; js:
upright bass; thalia: voice; scott: acoustic guitar & vocals. words &
music by kid prince moore (traditional).

Lynn Canyon wedding song. well i never cared very much for the west
except for you there who i loved the best now please take me back east i
wrote your name in silver and green where Love and Hate Play with Fate
and History now please take me back east oh please take me back east we
came to the Canyon across the calm and the wild from Mountain to
Mountain and Island to aisle i came for Abel you came for Cain and we
danced on the tables between the cradle and the grave and i never cared
very much for the west but i will be there in my Sunday best if you will
wear your red wedding dress then please take me back east oh please take
me back east.

flüffy: saw; jennifer: voice; moya: piano & Crumar organ; dmc: viola &
saw; js: upright bass & voice; scott: acoustic guitar & vocals. words &
music by scott chernoff.

coda. instrumental.

flüffy: metal heating duct; michel: banjo; dog & voice drone recorded by
julian evans on video tape at Lynn Canyon 2002; mixed by scott & harris
newman in montréal 2003.

You Can't Win. you with your railroad bones and you with your
golden-spiked skin you with the wind in your clothes and your hat like a
house caving in oh man You Can't Win oh man You Can't Win oh man You
Can't Win when the Angel of Light is at the window with the
Sanctimonious Kid when you're down and out from Sacramento on the New
York City skids oh man You Can't Win oh man You Can't Win oh man You
Can't Win when the East River is groaning all below the Williamsburg
Bridge when airplanes are exploding in the skyline's falling limbs oh
man You Can't Win oh man You Can't Win oh man You Can't Win when the
Swans are at your throat with their busted burning wings when they
squeal and scream and moan at every last ship that comes in oh man You
Can't Win oh man You Can't Win oh man You Can't Win.

flüffy: chor; norsola: choir; jennifer: voice; moya: electric guitars &
Crumar organ; sam: oud; bruce: drums & marimba; dmc: choir; gramble:
scrap metal & choir; efrim: electric guitar & choir; js: choir; thalia:
choir; scott: electric & acoustic guitars, vocals. words & music by
scott chernoff, on the road from sacramento to nyc. september 11 2001,
while reading jack black's 1926 hobo memoir *You Can't Win* and
listening to the music of michael gira..

trouble in mind. trouble in mind i'm blue but i won't be blue all the
way you know that sun is gonna shine on me someday i'm gonna lay my head
on some lonesome railroad line and let that big motherfucking engine
nullify my mind trouble in mind i'm blue but i won't be blue all the way
you know that sun is gonna shine on me someday.

jennifer: voice; sam: electric guitars; chris: electric guitar; scott:
acoustic guitar & vocals. words & music traditional, as learned from a
1960s  recording by sam lightnin' hopkins.

las niñas. instrumental.

andrew mayrs recorded his baby daughter illimani crying while banging on
a piano in kitsilano, vancouver 2003; screaming children recorded by
scott at rue roy, montréal 2003. mixed by scott & harris newman in
montréal 2003.

Miss Peach's Pawnshop. i bought this cross on the island of St. Thomas
because i wanted jesus on my chest i got this tattoo in New Orleans and
this one in the Orient for my honeymoon and i got this scar somewhere
far far away i was drunk as hell and i tried to walk home and my hands
were broken and i found this prayer in the back of a magazine i know
it's ripped but it came like this it came like this i bought this song
at Miss Peach's Pawn with this old overcoat and a gold-plated wristwatch
and i found this prayer in the back of a magazine i know it's ripped but
it came like this it came like this it came like this it came like this.

norsola: cello; kate: violin; jennifer: voice; moya: electric guitar,
piano & Crumar organ; dmc: viola; js: upright bass; scott: acoustic
guitar & vocals. words by hilary peach & scott chernoff; music by scott
chernoff. this is a bastard adaptation of peach's poem *Tattoo* from her
album, *Poems Only Dogs Can Hear*.

buffaloed at Wounded Knee/the weeping winds. instrumental. (for l.p. &
a.i.m. and a pox on mean-spirited sons of bitches everywhere).

flüffy: saws; dmc: saws.

no love lost. good-bye old friend it's time to go this is the end of all
that we know when you worship in the house of burden i worship in the
house of blame as you learn to let your spirit burn i yearn to be a
flame to be a flame and there's no love no love lost as there is the
righteous there is the wrong and there is the night which is betrayed
by the dawn and there's no love no love lost as there is the sinner
there is the god and there is the singer profaned by the song and
there's no love no love lost there's no love no love lost.

thierry: electric bass; flüffy: bowed piano & saws; jennifer: voice;
moya: piano; michel: banjo; thalia: voice; scott: acoustic guitar, bowed
piano & vocals. words & music by scott chernoff.

songs from the basement. there's a song for hatred and a song for love a
song for betrayal and a song for trust there's a song for what's fated a
song for dumb luck a song for what's sacred and one for what's fucked
there's a song which is prayed a song which is cussed these songs from
the basement which play unto us.

norsola: cello; kate: violin; jennifer: voice; sam: electric guitars;
bruce: marimba & cymbals; dmc: viola; efrim: harmonium; garfield lamb:
knife; scott: acoustic guitar & vocals. words & music by scott chernoff.
mixed by howard bilerman at the hotel... ...after the storm had all
blown by...

recorded by howard bilerman, efrim & scott at mom & pop sounds in the
hotel2tango, mile end, montréal 2003. except where noted, everything was
mixed by howard bilerman & molasses at MixArt in notre-dame-de-grace,
montréal 2003. mastered by harris newman in little italy, montréal 2003
& 2004. all songs c&p SOCAN 2004, except *sign of judgment* & *trouble
in mind* which are in the public domain. hilary peach's poem *Tattoo*,
which inspired *Miss Peach's Pawnshop*, is c&p hilary peach 2003. all
music arranged by molasses, design and hand-lettering by slgc ink. in
tokyo. photography by dmc & norsola. layout by slgc ink. with assistance
by sean o'hara. all love to those who helped: sohara & gary at alien8
recordings; howard bilerman; cada del popolo; don & ian at
constellation; eric craven; julian evans; michael feuerstack; aidan
girt; lea grahovac; taras grescoe; garfield lamb; tim mahony; andrew
mayrs, vally mendoza & illimani mendoza-mayrs; boris & nicolas at
MixArt; harris newman, *who is never wrong*; hilary peach; sugar &
smokey; and all the cars and dogs... xoxo...