SONGS: #6 - Midnight Crisis - "Lost & Found"

This is another song (like "(Get Home) Dangerous") in which the lion's share of the lyrics in the first two verses were written a long time ago - in this case, probably 15 years back! The strange but cool thing about that is that they're still extremely relevant to me, after that long - in spite of (and maybe because of) the fact that the meaning of them has changed, or at least the implications of them have become more substantial. Time can do that kind of thing.

I wrote a lot of the first two verses not too long after 9/11, when we were dealing with the aftermath & getting our "sea legs" back in the city.  That's where the the term "New York Post [or post] apocalypse" comes from. For one thing, it really DID feel like the end of the world (and surely life hasn't been the same since)...and also, it was the dawn of the celebutard-focused reality tv "tabloid culture" that infiltrated the popular consciousness around that time & that we're still quite in the midst of today. So, there's a double entendre there, if you like.

Anyway, those initial lyrics floated around in my head for a long time, until I eventually started writing my own shit in order to see what might happen. Again, I figured, if something is STILL on my mind that I wrote in 2001, or whenever, then, maybe I have something at least marginally worthwhile, here.

With that said, what do they MEAN, now? Well...a lot of the New York City that I fell in love with is gone now. I'm not going to turn this into a soapbox sermon about hyper-gentrification, but, let's face it, it's affected a lot of us. It's turned Downtown, NYC, which was once a place full of beautiful, creative, & poor people, into a stomping ground for ugly, rich half-wits. With that said, I still love it here, and when I take a look around, despite what has been lost, I still see a lot of cool people and cool shit happening here. It's all just fewer and further between.

So, I guess when I consider everything, I'd say that the song is about keeping your head straight, your spirit up, and your resilience intact in a world that seems to be perpetually crumbling into a pile of shit, and believing in yourself despite overwhelming evidence that doing so might define insanity. 

You know...all of that shit!

So, with all of that in mind, I rewrote the lyric to inform the song of all the time between the initial lyric idea, and the time when I made something of it, as it were....

...and then I heard this riff, that must have been inspired by the likes of Girls Against Boys, the Wildhearts, and New Model Army (whose socially conscious, rebellious themes might have also provided counsel)...and pretty much wrote the skeleton of the song based on that. I had that "get on down-down-down-down-down" sort of hook on my mind for awhile, and found that it fit over that riff quite nicely. 

Besides pulling the chorus part out of my ass, that's about it.

I made a little demo out of it, and was really on the fence about how I felt about it. I knew that it was coming from a sincere place with me, but...sincerity doesn't always translate. Did it sound hokey? Did it sound like the real deal? Did it ROCK, for Christ's sake?

Fast-forward to when Lase recorded the song for real, and added his explosive guitar magic on top of it, and....the answer, at least for my ears, was a resounding yes. One thing that particularly took me aback was how much Mike Maenza's drum-pummeling really whipped the song into submission. Not bad for something I came up with on the fly from an old-ass idea on a hung-over afternoon in my room, on an acoustic bass!

That's the if, and, & butt-end of it. Thanks for reading, thanks for listening....there are two songs left on the album. Stay tuned for entries on each.

Marty E.

"Flesh and blood, concrete & steel
To dust we all shall fall..."

LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #5 - Midnight Crisis - "Sister Vicodin" 

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"  

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"  

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"

Stream/Download "Lost & Found" on BandCamp

Download "Lost & Found" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD) 

Download "Lost & Found" on Apple iTunes 

Download "Lost & Found" on Amazon

"Lost & Found" on Spotify

SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"

"Sunshine couldn't be so clever, the sidewalk sparkles in the midnight heat..."

I wrote the first two verses of this song about 15-fucking-years ago, when I was living in a bedbug-infested building made of Tinkertoys near the southern border of Hell's Kitchen. I'd been in New York City for a short time, and by all accounts, was struggling in virtually every way possible. 

[I mean, when I went out, I'd often bring a little bottle of Jim Beam in my pocket to "modify & fortify" my Friday nights, out in the East Village/Lower East Side, or when I lacked that kind of fore-site, I'd stop by a deli between bar stops & grab a can of Bud to slam on the rockin' stroll onward.]

But, I didn't care! I was becoming what I always wanted to be, or so I thought. I had a band, & I was going out a lot, getting to know cool & beautiful people, playing shows at Don Hill's, The Continental, & CBGB's,  and making my way, becoming part of the city I fell head-over-heels in love with. By day, I'd put my hair back into a pony-tail, caffeinate my hangovers away, and work as an "office temp" - which, essentially, allowed me to subsist & get reasonably "refreshed" while, in my mind, looking for my Street of Dreams and, ya know...all of that shit.

Also, I met a lot of "tragic types" along the way, who had their own stories to tell, and liked having someone to tell them to, even amidst the borderline squalor I was living in. That's what verse 2 is all about.

It really was a different world, then....anyway.... 

Anyway, all these years since I wrote the gist of the first two verses of this song, they always sort-of haunted me in my head, and I knew that I wanted to use them for something, but wasn't sure what, until Lase & I started writing. One night, it dawned on me (no pun intended) when, at bar time, someone typically said to me, "Get home safe!" 

"Fuck THAT," I thought, "Get home DANGEROUS!" 

I guess the point is, nothing cool or inspiring or interesting ever happened as a result of playing it safe, as far as I know. The frustration & struggling & adversity is worth it, because you do your own thing in your own time, whatever that means to you. I think and hope that I convey that effectively in the third verse and in the choruses. 

I don't know what the fuck I have to show for this line of thinking, but...I have this song, in any case.

Lase and I wrote this song on a very productive night (we wrote "Sister Vicodin" that night too - more on that next week). I came in with most of the lyrics & a rhythmic idea that became part of the main riff (dadada....duh-daaaaaaaaah)....we had a drink & worked on it for about an hour, and....shit, we came up with those cool "question and answer" vocal lines in the choruses. We made a demo recording of it right away, a little bit of which remains on the final recording.

When we were recording the vocals, I took a couple of opportunities to do some Monster Magnet-style screams on here. That was a lot of fun.

Lase is particularly stoked on this track, and I believe it's his favorite track on the album. As for me, it's too difficult for me to pick & I don't feel like I've got to choose!

Until next week......Thanks for reading/listening!

- Marty E.

"You haven't done it all
But you've done your part...."

LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps" 
 
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"  

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control" 

Stream/Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on BandCamp

Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)

Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on Apple iTunes 

Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on Amazon

"(Get Home) Dangerous" on Spotify 

 


 

SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"

First of all, this song is definitely the most optimistic one on the entire album, and probably the closest thing to "radio friendly" - whatever THAT means, these days.

Not to sound cliche', but, I swear that this wasn't intentional.

All I know is that the night we wrote it, I knew on the train ride over to LASE's house that I wanted to write a song called "Midnight Somewhere", but I had no lyrics, no riffs, and no particular ideas in mind at all. I just thought that it was a cool title, not just in relation to the band's name, but also...regardless of that, it seemed to me like a title that implies a what my idea of what the spirit of Rock n' Roll is all about, which is, essentially, that anything might be possible if you make it happen...and that life presents awesome opportunities, both large and small, at every turn, if your mind and your heart are in the right place and your eyes are willing to see them. PLUS, every night's true beginning, in MY mind, has always been at MIDNIGHT, but....it's always midnight SOMEWHERE, isn't it?

Anyway, we had a little drink of this and maybe some of that, and then Lase picked up a guitar and hit what became that opening riff, & I, in my Rock n' Roll Seinfeldian way, said something like, "That's fucking good! Keep playing THAT!" Then he started singing that little "Ah-uh-ah" hook that we do in the intro sections. This was beginning to sound like something resembling a SONG, already.

I started scrawling lyrics down about whatever came to mind. I was remembering what was typical & magical in its way, not too long ago....wandering down Ludlow Street, maybe a little after 10pm in the late September chill (at least at the time) with no particular destination in mind (ok, full disclosure: Motor City would have likely been the first stop), and not knowing what the night might bring, but knowing full well that the plan was to have as much fun as humanly possible (and maybe write a song about it later - no shit). There's something about that feeling of not knowing what's going to be happening four hours from now, but knowing that you surely as all hell want to find out. If you're reading this, you are likely to know the feeling that I'm talking about, but whether you do or not: "So hot, so bright, Out in the cool breeze tonight, You don't know where you'll go but you're damn sure where you might..." It's not a feeling or a state of mind that's easy to recreate, & trying too hard might ruin it, like a night like that, itself.  But...we were in the zone, and I think we might have gotten it as close to in that first verse as we possibly could. Every time I sing it, it still takes me down that street, heading South.

The second verse seems like it might be a little bit of a downer - you woke up after partying & celebrating your very existence.  Lord knows where you are & with whom, & you're discombobulated, and not just a little bit hung over. But, at the same time, "You're lucky you woke up today..." It's not all bad. It used to always be my assertion that a bad hangover is a reminder of the good times you had the night before. That's not my point of view nearly as often these days, but....I can certainly still write about it. "The Sun is passing through the hourglass, It's your shining moment make it last.....HEY!!!" The optimism continues, huh? I guess...

That was a way of life for a long time....

That's about it, really....oh, except the bridge....

That just came from this idea I had about...sort of turning chicken shit into chicken salad, as they say. "Obliterate. Deviate. Alleviate. Elevate. CREATE." Again, it comes from the same line of thinking that, to be honest, has probably killed a lot of those of the "creative ilk" - the old stand-by about taking life to the limits in order to fuel your creativity. There's a certain amount of truth to that, but I think that creativity depends a lot more on having experiences, the ability to channel them into whatever your talents dictate, and above all, having something passionate to say about them, and perhaps something to communicate regarding learning from them. 

Jesus H. Christ....I digress....

I had delusions of bringing signs onstage with the words from the bridge hand-written on them like Bob Dylan and INXS, but.....that idea got shot down, HAHAHAHAHAHA....

It's kind-of funny - one of the first times we played this song live, I sort-of paraphrased Social Distortion (after a fashion) when introducing this song, by saying, "If you like 'happy songs', enjoy this one, because this is the only one in the set!" (This, if course, isn't entirely true, but...whatever). After the show, my homeboy Chris Santos came up to me and said, "Yo, that 'happy song' was my favorite song in the set!" Hahahahahaha. That's cooler than hell. The way I see it, is...if you like ANY of these songs enough to pick a favorite, then we are definitely getting somewhere. And...hell, maybe THAT's what the song is about.

I don't fucking know. To paraphrase Keith fucking Richards, we just happen to be there when the songs arrive. 

Anyway, thanks for reading, thanks for listening, and there will be another entry next week, and ever week until we have one for each song on the album. 

Cheers.

Marty E.

"Outshine the brightest star!"

LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"

Stream/Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Bandcamp

Download "Midnight Somewhere" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)

Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Apple iTunes

Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Amazon


"Midnight Somewhere" on Spotify