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.
Abby pop, rock, emo, goth, post punk Glam-esque brat rock inna reverse goth heap of undressed inhibitions! Or something. I just love the line "Mommy's got a date with the shrink tonight, Abby's sitting under the bathroom light" - so much there I can see it my minds eye - I've been on Abby's floor, drunk and waiting. Why, why? - Eric
Hate Parade rock Another track from the session we did with Michael Urbano on drums, Michael Rosen and Matthew King Kaufman producing, live in the studio. Paul Jackson and I played guitar, and the ever solid Bennie Wood played bass. A little ditty about the cycle of violence, from the Stiff Richards CD that came out in '96. Hope you enjoy. - Eric
Julian's Jealous pop, rock, other My girlfriend at the time was being courted by a much more established older man right in front of my nose. It was my strongest taste of jealously to date. Matthew had always encouraged us to write a jealousy song so I made use of my real feelings plus some soapy drama. -Paul
Rude Boy rock, reggae/ska Here's an amped up cover we did of The Uptones party anthem. More punk than ska, this version is all adrenaline and bounce. Tracking it was a lot of fun, I remember hitting that intro and when the band crushed in on the one my mind sorta went blank. They picked me up off the floor and told me to.. GO HOOOOME!! So I figured we were done =) -Eric
Baggagemaster rock, reggae/ska, other I read a passage once in a book by John Cage called "M" in which he quotes a friend whose luggage had been lost at LAX. It went something like - "United States of Los Angeles Airport gentleman dear Sir, I damn seldom where my suitcase are. She no fly! You no more fit to baggagemaster than for crysake that's all, I hope!" Broken English was just the sort of random thing Mr. Cage was known to appreciate. Art is where you find it. This stayed with me. I told Paul the concept and he wrote some music. Ben and Matthew looked at us like we had cheese on our heads, and we recorded it. - Eric
Laws And Sausage rock, reggae/ska, pop, ska, dub, punky ska Legend has it that Winston Churchill once said "Those who like laws and sausage should never watch either being made." ..or words to that effect. He would know. I wrote this song in tribute to lawmakers and their sausagemaking kin the world over. Now then, do you want the goose spleen pate with bacon bits, or the splattered lamb in head cheese bowl? We'll give you a minute to decide.
Fell In And Out Of Art rock I was experimenting with different possibilities of perception. I was hanging around this girl Artemis from Latvia; she was a total trip. Maybe it was just a broken heart, but I think I decided I had gotten my head in too deep and wanted to go back home. -Paul
Markie Mark pop, rock 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.
Josh is a J.E.R.K. pop, rock Apologies to the Joshes of the world, but you know, you guys have a poor batting average, almost as bad as guys named Biff. Always stealing some kid's bike or knocking up a 13 year old. Basically Joshes are one of god's little mistakes. Change your name, save yourself. Josh. Rhymes with biotsh. Haha. Just kidding. This song is utterly stupid and pointless. But the guitars sound big, so who cares.
Not From Here reggae/ska, rock, pop This is one of our all time greatest collaborations. The song really speaks to me; the lyrics are profound and yet very approachable, pertinent, a classic nomadic alienation everybody can relate to. It might be my all time favorite song I have been involved in. thanks to those who were involved in its realization. -Paul
Halibut pop, rock, reggae/ska Does anybody remember "In Search of" with Leonard Nimoy as the host? I was kicking back in a local found paradise, chilling my head in a fresh water pool here in Northern California when this visual of the famous, now debunked by source, 8mm film footage of Sasquatch, aka "Big Foot," came into my head. It occurred to me that Sasquatch was like E.T., just trying to avoid detection while he worked out how to call the mother ship, so advanced that he could enjoy halibut in the deeps of the forest! -Paul
Sound Pressure pop, reggae/ska This song was a long time set closer for the live show; the sing along chrous tends stick in for head, just nutty, nutty, nutty. Tho I walk though the valley of darkness my path is lit by ska. Yes indeed, the sweet gospel of soul music. -Paul
Bested By Pelicans pop, reggae/ska, pre-historic avian dub It was a dark and cloudy afternoon, the classic urban seaside moment: human, feeling sorry for himself, wanting, searching, finds the ultimate tragedy-comedy, the sweetness of humble pie. Then his revelation, he is stumped: pelicans. The man understands his absolute desperation was his salvation. How can monkey complain when just a glimpse of perfection might occur in a lifetime? Birds are cooler than monkeys, but its OK.
Alpha Doggie rock I was oberserving a small pack of dogs enjoying their own culture at a garden party. One dog seem to set the agenda for the others; they seemed to have some larger plan as they worked the yard oblivious to humans. I started to imagine what they were up to. -Paul
