Album Notes

About the record:

Parade: This song won a Grammy. Seriously. OK, it was the "Grammy Awards Demo Contest," and this song was a finalist, but still. I wrote it after listening to Elliott Smith's "Either/Or" for about 69 hours straight in the posh GB apartment I used to share with my esteemed brother. I was drinking really good coffee out of a big, black soup bowl-type mug. It was a Saturday morning and the holiday parade was going on outside of the window. Heady stuff. Not really.

Exodus: This is the song everyone seems to gravitate toward, especially live. This full-on version is the only song on the record that was done in a proper studio. I like it because I got to play drums. I miss drums. If you're listening to the clips, give this song a few seconds. After the solo voice/acoustic guitar intro, it heads in an unexpected direction. Hear the song in full and read the glowing reviews at my garageband site (http://www.garageband.com/artist/jokesaboutdying).

Zero Refill: I've got a whole bunch of songs that I think of as "little songs." They're short and have weird, static structures. This is one of those. It was inspired by "Death in Venice" and some really, really weird dreams.

Fate of the Arachnid: Written in about three minutes and titled by my brother. The song makes me laugh. Of course, I'm sick.

D: This one actually deserves the "dark" descriptor that I get so often. Yes, it's dark. So is life sometimes. I think it's a really good sounding recording. Still one of my favorite songs. Brother Cha appears again, this time on shaker.

What Can I Bring: This would be the first track on Side 2 if this were an album. It's a drastic change in direction from the first five songs. That sick drum sound is a cardboard box with a bunch of distortion and a noise gate. I think I was listening to a lot of Guided By Voices at the time: you know, short, oblique songs with a twisted pop sensibility.

Titanic/Titanium: I wasn't going to put this on the record until the mastering engineer heard it and demanded I do so. Now I'm happy it's on there. In a lot of ways, this song is the centerpiece of the record. It covers so much ground, all the way from throwing in the towel and just admitting that life is a sad, downhill slide, to actually looking up and seeing a bit of sunlight at the end. You may find that hopelessly corny, and you're probably right. But there's truth in it and I stand by it. This song was the Garageband.com "Track of the Day" in Alternative Rock on December 19, 2004. It got great reviews, which, to be honest, surprised me a bit. Read them and hear the song in full at my garageband site (http://www.garageband.com/artist/jokesaboutdying).

Soul Talks Ugly: It's really a song about having a cold. No joke. I feel like I should apologize to Tom Waits for this song, for some reason (listen to the clip and you'll probably understand). However, it has the line, "The devil would tremble at the site of me," which I think is some great trash talking.

Evil Within: A lovely, simple song of self-loathing. Good times for all, and a fitting way to end the record. And again with the cardboard box/distortion/gate drum sound.

Credits: All playing, singing, writing, recording, mixing, etc. by A. Brawner. Except "Exodus," recorded at Axis Milwaukee with Vinny on bass and exceptions noted above.