happiness is a warm cd

the pleasantry lane cd
has finally seen the light of day
looking good
like i knew it could
this cd was so easy to record
yet so difficult to get mixed
and released
it was recorded
june 22 24 and 30
way back in 2004
about 6 months after
i'd first started playing
with le polaroids
how could something so simple
have taken so long?

this was intended all along
to be for fans all over the world
(the few and the brave!!)
who would most likely never get to see me
perform with my band
maybe they'd imagined what our racket might sound like?
maybe they didn't?
i wanted to press a small number
only made available at shows
and online
the band had come up with several exciting re-workings
of songs that were recorded before i'd had the musical pleasure
of performing with steve meri john and jason (aka: the polaroids)
"missing funerals" is one good example
of how the polaroids' versions differ from the original recordings
the PL version bears almost no resemblance
to the acoustic guitar dominated version
found on my solo debut
dufilho and garner work a pumping drum and bass groove
while the last verse features one of my favorite guitar parts ever
with steve finger picking his italia ala: georgie harrison/guy chadwick
"model brothers" is also radically transformed
more like belle and sebastian
less like one nourallah with a casio
and beatbox
"she'd walk a mile" the accidental co-write from nourallah brothers
when my melody stuck in f's head
after i'd played him "1967"
and s.w.a.m. came to him the next day with same melody
different words
a better song than '67
i'd always wanted to sing this one
so now i do

PL's "a way to your heart" is loosely inspired by n. finn's live
"i got you"
did you ever hear that?
better than the enz version i think
with thumping drums and more atmosphere
speaking of mr. finn
my friend scott mcpherson
who played with neil around one nil
and also with elliott smith
happened to be passing through dallas with blue eyed son
when we were making these recordings
i'd always wanted to play at least one of my songs with scott
so i eagerly asked him to jam "missing you" with us
steve and i knew it
but no one else did
we learned it on the spot
and recorded it
all in about half an hour
i think i prefer this version to the original
scotty p's drumming is just what it needed
"constellation" had been unreleased until now
it was supposed to be a nourallah brothers song
problem is
there was/is no nourallah brothers to record it
so i played it with the polaroids anyway
its title is the name of the street where i grew up
in el paso
most of my pre-adult life was spent there
i like this song but all atempts at recording it
have been aborted by me
including a recent one for snowing in my heart
i now kind of regret including it on the PL disc
my only second guess
oh well
i hope you enjoy my regret!
the live version of "a family disease" rocks
another example of how radically different a great band
can make a song sound
the polaroids' impromptu jam at the end
franz ferdinand style
still makes me smile
the snippets of sound
in between songs
is my favorite part of the record
i also love the photo on the back
taken of us at art con 1
texas theatre
last december

i miss the polaroids
i think we've sadly played our last show together
as jason g. is now in san antone
so this cd is a document of something
that no longer exists
and for those of you who never got to hear us play together
all the better that this cd made it out!
it's a nice aural snapshot of songs played
by a group of people at one point in time
the noise is going to inherit some of these tunes soon
a couple will even be dusted off this friday night
at the granada
but there will never be another group like the polaroids!!!

a footnote
for those of you who haven't been to my studio
the album cover is a painting that hangs
over my piano (which faris wrote his first 3 records on)
and dominates the main recording room
it was made by an old friend of mine
j. hawkins
after i told him
"happiness is a warm gun" was my favorite song
on the beatles' white album