path: root/txt/trouble-at-jinx-hotel.txt

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...