Markie Mark
by
Stiff Richards
Stiff Richards says:
This is a cover of a song originally performed by a band from Arcata, CA called Durango 95. They opened for us somewhere up in the Humboldt County get-paid-in-beer-and-weed circuit, and this song just knocked us out. Matthew suggested a cover version and so we went in and tracked this - in one take, vocals and all. Our drummer at the time, the remarkable Tuan Titlestad, thought he was just warming up and that tape wasn't rolling. Fooled him :) What an amazing drum track he put down, unawares. And this, ladies and gents, gave rise to a word still popular in our studios today, the verb "to Tuan." Oh, apologies to Mark Wahlberg. He's cool and we're fans. But at the time when this was written, I believe it was his underwear billboard period, he symbolized something dreadful and this is a humorous rant about the vapidity of pop in the era of Clear Channel. So there. ...
This Fog (It's Gonna Lift)
blues, rock, pop
This always was one of my favorite Stiffies tunes. We recorded it days after Paul wrote the words so it's a fresh and straightforward take. The fog here is as beautiful as ever. -Eric
4:20 @ 7 Pools
pop, reggae/ska
One of the stonier instrumental dub bits we did in Stiff Richards. There's a creek up in a park in the Berkeley Hills where many a high schooler has bonged forth into the stratosphere. This piece is an ode to that fine piece of moss covered redwood chaos. - Eric
Yolanda
pop, urban/R&B, rock
Growing up in Berkeley, California and going to public schools in the 1970's and 80's meant you had a very multi-cultural experience. I remember learning some of those funky chants and dances from some far out sources. By high school most of those connections across social bounderies got lost. I guess this song speaks to the cosmopolitan nature of my pre-school. I wrote it with my now wife poet Elizabeth Treadwell. She wrote the really smart lines. Was a blast recording the track with Matthew King Kaufman and Michael Rosen. -Paul
You Don't Know Anything
rock, punk rock, punk rock, post modern angst rock
Oh the anger. Oh the angst. Oh the big distorted guitars. Short and furious.
