With Chooklyn nearly completed, I figured I'd continue to write on stuff about the new album.

The other day I was digging through some scrap paper and I found my first handwritten draft of Dots Make Lines / Lines Make Sound on the back of some ATM slips and receipts. (Listen to the promo mix of the song.)



Dots is about the experience of recording at 6ft. Studios in Chicago. I reference the sounds of the studio: music coming out of the monitors, noises from the space upstairs, our recording mascot Floyd barking and other aural sounds from orifaces that shall remain unmentioned. In the chorus, I make mention of how sound is made visual in comics by using symbols. I also reference how swear words are cleaned up by symbols in cartoons.

But enough about the "meaning" behind my lyrics. What I find interesting about this is to look back at what I started with to see what I ended up with. Lemme just point out some of the more interesting changes for our readers. (Hi Justice. Hi Bram.)

The working title it turns out was Dots Make Lines / Lines Mean Sound. I changed "mean" to "make" because it make the chorus easier for the listener to sing along to.

I started with "And the air is a thick, thick, cloud" and then tried "And the air is a thick, white cloud." White sounded too nice for what I was describing, and so I went with "black" instead. "Black" also sounded closer to "thick," which I thought flowed better. (What am I desrcibing? Three days of drunken recording sessions.)

At one point I tried out, "There's a noise / Oh boy / and an Omnichord," which I changed. But now that I read this, I wish I hadn't.

I added more specific pop culture references to the lyrics, such as "Mickey Mouse" and "Dick Tracy," after originally trying the kinda dull line "cartoon's mouth." I also toyed around with what grammatical symbols to reference for swearing. I started with "an at sign," but when I sang that it sounded like one word, "annatsen." So I went with the clearer "asterix."

I had a little trouble coming up with the last part of the chorus: the "dirty mess" part. I didn't come up with that until we started recording and as you can see I tried "The naughty bits," which didn't really make sense and then "The dirty slips." I think "mess" was the way to go.

It took awhile for me to come up with what beer to reference. I had originally "The low noise / starts to blow air / and I think it smells like Becks in here," but that line was too long for the music that had been written. So I cut of the "air" and then asked the band for a beer that rhymed with "blow" and Bram suggested Michelob. We really only tend to drink gallons of Bud Light while we're recording, but I call poetic license.

Lastly, I had originally written the end sing along part as, "It's the audio / Oh boy / Another noise made by Roy" in reference to one of the "fifth members" of BS, Roy Park. (In fact, Roy plays keyboards on the new album.) And I even recorded the song with that line. But as I was singing, I adlibbed "Floyd," who also appears on Chooklyn. The producer decided that Floyd was the way to go and so he only used only the lines with me singing about Floyd. Good choice I think.

In continuing with my series on The Immoralist I present the song's original hand written lyrics from 1990. It's surprising this still exists, as most of the early written stuff is long gone.



The sheet is kinda worn. If you look there's a little section torn out at the top of the paper. That's because I have a bad habit of not remembering my lyrics. I'd often fix this problem by stuffing the edge of the sheet between the mic clip and mic and then glancing down at the sheet when I needed help.

I credited the song to all of the band members at the time: Bram, Justice, Mike Baker and myself. I think I did that because the song started as a Justice bass riff and grew from there, with all of us adding components.

The lyrics are kinda dumb, but I'll use the fact that I was 19 as my excuse. The premise was that I had just read Gide's The Immoralist for homework and then had discussed the sexual undertones during class. I guess I thought for some reason that'd make for good listening

As the lyric sheet shows the "eff Gide" line was planned and not adlibbed. This will be the first of many angst ridden fbombs dropped in a BS song.

Anyway, I think the lyrics are clear enough from the image. But if someone really wants me to transcribe what's there, I will.

I know this song is under production (as BS is crafting its newest release as I write), but our producer asked me what I am a singing at one point. So I decided to post the lyrics for all our fans, and by fans I mean all three of ya. You know who you are.

The line that I was asked to clarify is " New York's a sick crew," which I stole from Bowie, who sings in The Jean Genie "New York's a go-go and everything tastes right ." I switched out go-go with sick crew, a reference in itself to Pynchon's V.

As for the music behind the lyrics, well you'll just haveta wait, won't ya.

THIS GUY'S A WINO

Got one pair of pants
And merlot on his hands
New York's a sick crew
Who's gotta corkscrew

Slow as Molasses
Got tape on his glasses
Got no lenses
Or so his friend sez

CH

This guy's a wino
Who knows / I KNOW
Strung out on vino
Who Knows / WE KNOW

He's a real SOB
Drinks VSOP
Out of the bag
Ain't that a drag

Like Billy Joel said
Got a bottle of red
a bottle of white
high as a kite

CH

Got him a tattoo
Says R2D2
Around three PM
Gets C3PO too

Usedta be so-so
And real estupido
Waitin in line
To get change for a dime

enjoy the fog is one of my favorite recent bone sauce tunes, but the origins of that song title are a little unsettling. you see, after several nights of consuming many beers and much bad food, a certain member of the band tends to emit an unpleasant 'fog.'

so while the song may be a winner, would you really enjoy the fog? i think not.

listen to enjoy the fog