Ah yes, song 5. Well, song 5 is CITY LIFE, which was on the DEMOS UNDER CONSTRUCTION CD, if you may recall. Well, this is the album version. And what’s funny to me, always, is that I originally wrote most of these lyrics over 3 days when I was in 3 separate parts of the City. And i finished the lyrics at the 101 cafe (on Franklin ave.), which sits below the Hollywood sign, near Beechwood. Jim Laspesa plays great drums on this and Scott does amazing bass the whole record through – any bass guitar fans will really enjoy his basslines. gotta have bass, as Bootsy would say. song 6 is GLAD YOU’RE GONE and i don’t know if that was on DEMOS but that tune speaks for itself, you know. But Scott plays drums and also a Sparklett’s water bottle. I don’t know if i’ve played that one live. think i flubbed it at the 12 bar last november. dang. I used, what we guitarist called a CAPO on the 3rd fret for this one. it makes the guitar sound a bit more compressed. (compression is the audio equivelent of ironing a shirt, according to Mr. R. Davies) Yes, you rained on my parades. good riddens. how mean, huh? tune 7 is called BLUE BONNET DRIVE (formerly Angy) and it’s actually a song about an old friend who i haven’t heard from in years but i lost all her info. i really should try to get back in touch. her name’s Rhonda and she plays a mean Ukelele and she writes wonderful songs and we were just great friends but once i started a family there wasn’t much time for our friendship. and she lived (lives?) in texas. Seabrook, Texas. I am going to try to find her, as i am curious to what her songs are like now, considering how amazing they were in 1999. song 8 is called COCTAILS and it features my good friend, Lisa Jenio (of CANDYPANTS and formerly of New Yorks’ PUSSYWILLOWS), singing co-lead with me. A nice wholesome tune about getting drunk at the bar, complimenting each other and then the inevitable (and hard to recall the details) shag. that is, if you don’t crash the car first. play only after the kids are sedated. up after that, at song 9 is HANA SUSHI THEME. this is a little ditty about my fave Sushi resteraunt and one of Rusty’s faves. Most of the lyrics are true, if not all. but i can’t say all so i’ll say ‘most.’ Used to come here all the time with my old girlfriend, melissa. So the place holds sweet memories for me. and the food is spot on. Sake and Sapparo and Sunonomo and i’m all set to dine. also, Lisa sings quiet echoey stuff in the background as well… number 10 is a tune called WATERSIGNS, which is about several situations and several persons but is mainly about a Scorpio i dated. our b/days were 8 days apart. the question i ask myself is, what lyrics are supposed to be me and which ones are supposed to be her? seems like i write something and think i am thinking of someone else and then realise i am actually thinking of myself. who’s song is it anyways? Should Love come with a rebate? good question. maybe congress should take that one up as well. ORLAND PARK rounds out this album at track 11 and the song clocks in at a whopping 9:25! but that’s because Morley does an emotional piano solo at the end that goes 3 minutes long…and John Would plays great lap steel (as he does in COCTAILS) too. Jim and Scott have the drums and bass runnign alongside my acoustic guitar and Wurlitzer electric piano. While we were recording, i’d actually forgotten the bridge to this song, as i was on tour for so long! Luckily, Scott had written the music out! the entire record clocks in at exactly 50 minutes and 3 seconds. So there you have it. i hope it was worth waiting for! enjoy…

Mike Randle