SIDE A
Track 1: Precautions (Intro)
We’re at the end. Winter chaps all their skin, migrating up through the slush and towards muffled hysterics. She barely hears what he’s saying past the breezy wood of the cabin, all residents unable to attentively listen anymore. She felt it kick today for the first time, impossible to ignore what her suspicions have been all along. No answers in his book, or in the sky, which at the moment, is catching on fire.

SEE ALSO:
Losing Sensation, Surveying Revelations, A Flash of Light, A Flash of Dark

Track 2: The Upstanding Sons and Daughters of East Heights Country Club
The same crowd, year-in, year-out. Tall men wearing their best novelty ties spin around elaborate arrangements of seasonal indulgences, paying more attention to year-end reports then their wives. These former beauty queens look the same, even the younger models caking their faces with similar brands of haunting chemicals. Their teenage children make duel mistakes amongst the tangling light and mistletoe arrangements in the finished basement. Drinks are stolen, glances rearranged; mouths exhale frost outside while everybody in is much too warm, even after singing out.

SEE ALSO:
The Annexation of the Living Room (Chapter 9), Stay Young and Numb (Chapter 30) The East Heights Blackout of 1999, A Christmas Gift from L. Mansfield, The Death of a Former Easton High School Student, Popular Invitations, December’s Chill (w/Chill)

Track 3: Trilogy: Preview
A new structure is paved into existence. It blocks the sun for half of the day, before members of this highly Christian community decide to drive around it, taking what most can no longer call a shortcut considering the insurgence of new traffic patterns. In the midst of all these fresh calamities, she rides by on her bike, pedaling a thin frame and diamond smile around the block. He thinks of her even later on in life. Other addictions take hold; fascinatingly stale mantras of a recycled quality becoming lightly mixed with anecdotes and lowered expectations. Meanwhile, the neighbors have all started talking about how he never seems to leave his bedroom.

SEE ALSO:
Shelf Life, Letter to Mary, Emmett and Casey, Trilogy Feature, Trilogy Sequel

Track 4: Trilogy: Feature
The street is either blurring or cracking depending on the temperature. Roots grow from underneath the pavement while the shade overhead has become highly selective. The branches can only shield so many harvested bodies from these April showers, before feeling overwhelmed with pressure. God willingly brought these watchful eyes on the backyard along with red and blue flashing sirens and finally the view from atop the soaked roof. All dream of how reactions parallel across the sea.

SEE ALSO:
Letter to Emmett, Trilogy Preview, Trilogy Sequel, Fanatical Hunting Club, Back Issues (Waddle Around)

Track 5: Trilogy: Sequel
Lost or abandoned, wreaking havoc, and taking some variation of blame, they’ve all somehow arrived, and yet introductions are closer to farewells. No one knows how long they’ll be staying, if they’ll be aware. Even the ones on the outside, the ones who aren’t so sure, can’t help but talk about transfixed locations somewhere in the middle. There are objects they once held onto with such high regard, now cluttering a specific corner as a man with no shirt and one fraction of his remaining good looks, prices everything higher than the original. But at last, there’s the collective to think about.

SEE ALSO:
The Off Season, Any and All Odd Ends, Trilogy Preview, Trilogy Feature, Fanatical Hunting Club, Square Tenses, The Ballad of Emmett and Mary (This Love So Tragic), Me and the Blue Birds (Low-Fi) Me and the Bumble Bees (Hi-Fi)

Track 6: Fanatical Hunting Club
It starts singular. The drive to the festivities, all the bridesmaid dresses. They become relics, reminiscent of latter day blurs. There are her teeth, their whiteness, how they seem to reflect every surface with just the right tint. The box underneath the bed, another underneath the counter, and finally in the top desk drawer. Signatures clutter, the ink sometimes splotching onto already dirty skin. It’s not just the roots, or the words, or even the red stains from the tall tipped-over wineglasses. There’s something manic in the wind.

SEE ALSO:
Wine, Halos and Youth, A Clay in the Life, Letter to Ken, Static Drag, Personal Static, Grow Up in the Dark, A Bridge to the End of the World, Clay’s Lament, Blink Twice, Paris France

Track 7: The Summer’s Pull
Anxiety gets the best of us. The lines of wet lawns and the individual smoke clouds are all but fading, even though the sun suspiciously rises in the background. The air is cooler underground, stale but reinforced by concrete walls and forgotten heirlooms. Repetitive questions remain. What’s everyone else doing? Should any of them bother with one another? What will it mean for the couch cushions? How will they manage without us?

SEE ALSO:
The View from Across Linden Street, You’re So Beautiful (Interlude), The Persistence of Double Vision, Conversation by Appointment (Spin, Go Round), Engaging Identities, Double 40’s and a Smile

SIDE B
Track 8: You’re So Beautiful (Interlude)
The freshness of a foreign bed and significantly misguided hotel room walls. The other guests seem equally lost, and yet it’s in their aloofness that they’re able to separate one from the other. Traces of who else has occupied these dark spaces are ever present; ghosts of forgotten escapists and minor divers folding over before simply letting each minor nuance flow directly through their bodies. She talks about her fears, and it sounds so sweet.

SEE ALSO:
Systems and Symptoms, The Opposite of Blinking (Prologue), 10/29/1985, Letter to Raymond, Conversations by Appointment (Spin, Go Round), Midnight at the Vaughn Hotel

Track 9: To Absent Strangers
A scene they’ve all seen before. The outrageous colors of faded television screens and T-shirts, piles of thick hardbacks caked in manic habits. Large and seemingly unnecessary pieces of headwear are worn with grace by a new dye job. Choppy body art and piercings reflect cold surfaces. This mantra and its counter philosophy sound beyond similar. This plastic bag of goodies, and their mediocre acquaintances, making this side of things calm while the other loses itself. The unrecognizable patches of hot and cold, light and dark, in-between the general appeal that comes from looking across the room and seeing somebody familiar enough. A relic of the previous night’s festivities.

SEE ALSO:
The Deflated Generation, The Annexation of the Living Room (Chapter 2: Era/Era, Chapter 4: Of Depression and Goth Girl Obsession), Systems and Symptoms (Chapter 4 and 8) Engaging Identities

Track 10: The Book of Idols
Little light from the screen, surrounding computer-generated insanity trumped by her smile. Outside the large glass doors and windows shake. The musician sinks into his creaky bed frame, staring up at the ceiling and swearing that he sees God, followed by the first and only angel worth a second glance. The dust has only started to rise; up towards the best view of a town we all try to forget about on every excuse for a night. When the dirt finally settles, there’s only the graffitied street sign, and the realization that she didn’t take one word seriously.

SEE ALSO:
Any and All Odd Ends, Some Things About Mary Lugar (Secondary Homes), Trilogy: Sequel, The Scheduled Details (Replacement Parts), The Midnight Show 11/18/08, The Aftermath 11/19/08

Track 11: Hell on Echo Avenue
The night seems ridden with the scent of expectations, while the morning is anything but exciting. Some smells are brand new while others mix with preconceived notions and general feelings of disembodiment. It’s some kind of a blur for awhile, some minor aspect of this influenced, media-driven self that makes everything feel so goddamn similar. Even the pains and long lines are no different, location not necessarily being everything. By the end, but one thought has withstood and she’s far from knowing of anyone’s particular existence. The wind blows colder through the rattled branches. School is officially in session.

SEE ALSO:
The Annexation of the Living Room (Chapter 3), Shelf Life, The Dwelling, Birch and Linden, Early Dismissal (Teenage Queen)

Track 12: There are no Groupies in Heaven

Past paranoia and conversations on mortality linger in the stale space. She fixes herself a hiding place, similar while utterly different from previous shrines built on the ashes of family addictions to Americana. Shouts from below the floorboards all blend together, while each and every inherited son and daughter ignores legendary lessons. They think they know better, singing songs already sung and making light of certain situations repeating everywhere in-between. Loners in the midst of limbo park their cars suspiciously outside of the lines, after running flickering traffic lights above the speed limit.

SEE ALSO:
Stay Young and Numb, Henry Vaughn’s Big Score, Letter to Raymond, Groupies Redux, Far Too Well For Far Too Long, The Process of Unpacking Lightly, Heavy Hearts Breaking Bread, An Eclipsed Space, Early Dismissal (Teenage Queen), Loose Grave, Of Parades and Processions, Actual Airplane, Broadcast Fireworks Display, Corruptible Minds

Track 13: Surveying Revelations

Avoiding all messes while still collecting the bare essentials, some are more conscious than others. Certain neighbors only know that a storm has been brewing beneath their feet, before reassuring themselves that it’s the same endangered weather pattern discussed centuries earlier in caves and shacks. The dangerous freethinkers are disappointed by their complete lack of preparation, and yet a few can’t help but smile. Something broke through; something made the anticipation worth the shattered remains of an ultimate reward. Indulgences are a jagged way to live in this new kind of world; thoughts on the way things used to be once: suddenly unclassifiable.

SEE ALSO:
Surveying Revelations (Short Story), The Deflated Generations, Day’s Like This, Losing Sensation, An Eclipsed Space, The Rising Tension of Impending Houseguests, Modern Day Distractions, Systems and Symptoms (Chapter 28) A Flash of Light, A Flash of Dark; Seeds Soil, Milk Water (Aftershock), The Scheduled Details (Replacement Parts), Ballad of U.S. Senator Pt.2, Broadcast Fireworks Display, Corruptible Minds, A Bridge to the End of the World, Josephine (Outro), Precautions (Intro)

The Cast:
Brandon Locher (Emmett Karson): Story, Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Drums, Hammond B-3, Omnichord, Micro Korg Synthesizer, Harmonica, Percussion, Piano, Field-Recordings, Sequencing and Sampling, Digital Editing and Audio Manipulation
Christopher S. Bell (Linus Mansfield): Story, Vocals, Sequencing and Sampling
Rod Fisher (Lee Fisher): Vocals
Amanda Ross (Josephine March): Vocals
PK Harmon (Ken Lugar): Vocals
Laura McAllister (Mary Lugar): Vocals
Mike Miller (The Ghost of Henry Vaghn): Accordion, Vocals
Matt Miller (Zeke Morgan): Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, Mandolin, Percussion, Banjo, Screams
Dane Adelman (Peter Watts): Vocals, Trumpet, Timpani, Upright Bass
Cory Savit (Andrew Strayer): Vocals, Vibraphone, Suzuki Melodion M-36, Timpani, Upright Bass, and Banjo
Olivia Locher (Annette Karson): Vocals
Kathleen Boyle (Casey Whipkey): Vocals
Sean Jackson (Mitchell Graft): Vocals
Chris Kupchella (Greg Hood): Sitar, Electric Guitar, Ebow, Glockenspiel, Vocals
Casey Hawk (The Ghost of Joan Foster): Vocals
Ryan Brisini (Leonard Kenny): Gang Vocals
Renee Saylor (Leila Bennett): Vocals
Kate Davis (Paige Hughes): Clarinet, Vocals
Joe Messina (Jack Vargas):: Boss. Dr. Groove DR-202 Drum Machine
Bethany Goch (Veronica Connel): Vocals
Dan Oatman (Patrick Showalter): Vocals
Adia G. Dobbins (Naomi Gordon): Vocals

The Band:
John Livingston (Chas Weller): Piano
John Thorell (DJ Gordon): Cello and Viola
Dave DeStifano (Dalton Applebee): Congas and Bongos
Huckleberry Sawyer (Doyle Finely): Spaghetti Western Guitar, Drums, and Synthesizers
Eli Gantos (Kevin Mansfield): Congas
Bud Jackson (Lucas Mills): Congas and Bongos
Matt Wagner (Benji Tate): Trumpet
Annie Rummel (Leann Kenny): Flute
Ben Sackmar (Jim Fisher): Drums
Berry Bonds (Clay): Doo-Wop Vocals, Trumpet
Rachel Adams (Tara Mansfield): Glockenspiel
Cody Wallat (Charlie Nolan): Drums

The Upstanding Sons and Daughters:
Jacob Koestler, Dallas Zimmerman, Carla O`Connor, Nathan Pearson, Rachel Teeter and Laci Hess.

Cult Members:
Rachel Adams, Bryan Bowman, Cecilia Cairns, Michael D`Angelo III, Evan DiFlauro, Samantha Gorsuch, Robert Hogue Jr., Shawn Horvath, Benjamin Houck, Christopher Kibler, Aram Kolesar, Allison Lanzendorfer, Brady Lanzendorfer, Cara Lanzendorfer, Kelly Lanzendorfer, Jaren Love, Michael McDermit, Lacie McDonald, Heather McNeil, Stephaney Mosley, Jacob Pellatiro, Jon Remick, Ian Rummel, Joshua Russo, Conor Shoff, Cory Shoff, Kendra Sledzinski, Joseph Stavish, Emma Stonecypher, Lilian Stonecypher, Robert Sulosky, Adam Thomas, Scott Vinosky, Emmy Volkar, Brandon Volkman, and John Skip Volscko.

Production Credits:
All songs written by Brandon Locher and Christopher S. Bell except "To Absent Strangers" by Bell, Locher, Jackson
Photography by Brandon Locher and Olivia Locher
Art Layout by Brandon Locher
Produced by Emmett and Mary
Assisted by Christopher S. Bell, Matt Miller, Siamese Dream, and Cory Savit
Engineered by Brandon Locher
Preproduction by Brandon Locher and Christopher S. Bell in THE SHRINE
Recorded in Brandon's bedroom using several corrupted PC's, Cool Edit Pro Cracked and Licensed to Peter Quistgard, and one single Sound Professional Binaural Microphone.
Mastered by TJ Lipple.

Thanks for this, and thanks for that.
Dedicated to Henry Vaughn (1976-2003)

© 2010 My Idea of Fun | MIF064 | www.myideaoffun.org