Album Notes

In 1998 we almost finished making a record called "The Velvet Insides." The guy who was my friend who was recording it, Richard Kreyebich, his house burned down. We only had one more song left to record, which was Robot Escort. The tapes were inside of his DA-88s and all of our hearts just sank, like a little brother had just died, or a dog. Me and Panda didn't even know if the band should even continue, and it almost broke us up. Richard was driven like the snow though, and he insisted that we start again, with the insurance money from the house burning. We both spent time in jail for that fire, even though we didn't start it. We just couldn't remember where we really were that night, which seemed weird to the TPD. That's in the past though, and some day we'll find out who really started the fire.

Even though we know it was A Fight With Sticks, some shitty band from Manteca. Luckily though, we did finish the record after all, before jail. We kept Robot Escort and also the remix of Down With the Animals. Those were the most important songs from the The Velvet Insides I thought. And in the end, I guess we're lucky his house burned down because if the first record didn't die in a fire, I don't think The Ham and Its Lily would exist.

THE HAM AND ITS LILY

It seems like it took forever, and I guess that it really did. We got done with this record in the Spring of 1999. It took so long for it to come out, and for a long time we lost faith that it even would. Labels in California and some other countries even thought they wanted to put it out. It always wound up screwy and shit though, like no one even wants to understand what it looks like to put out a good record nowadays.

Some pureness has been lost from the days like when the first Suicidal Tendencies or REM records first got put out. Thanks to Sweat of the Alps and all the dudes in Grandaddy for finally letting us have our small chance for other people to hear it though.

First of all, most people who have heard this record (The Ham and Its Lily) who don't know us that well think it's a weird one. I don't know about that. It's more all-encompassing to me, like a rock version of world-music or some shit. You know, just telling little stories that everybody thinks about, but doesn't want to put into words. A song like "One Time They Called and Asked For Freddy" is all about the mundanity that life sometimes brings. We just used a simple thought, or sentence, and repeated it. Or on a song like "Down With the Animals" we just wanted to capture how much beauty animals really have with a pretty melody, and how we should all respect that beauty. And a song like "The Pussy Song" just uses simplicity itself to make a real point, which is that lots of people think about it all over the world, all the time.

You know, sometimes a Playboy Bunny might wake up on the morning of her centerfold shoot with a wart outbreak, neck to netherland. With us though, I didn't want to break out the airbrusher. Like they might say, warts and all.

Our friend, the sonic loyalist Richard Kreyebich is so good at talking about music that he should maybe write for Rolling Stone, or like be a guest DJ for MTV, and tell everyone about the music that's the best. He told me that we combine every all-best element in our music in the most perfect way, like a big beautiful zoo with free coke machines and pretty girls walking around, or even riding around on the wild animals. Not that we're perfect , but I like the sound of that. And we did try hard.

I just hope that whether you have two or three arms, yellow or purple skin, like boys or girls, run with the ocelots or fly with the Turkey Vultures, that this record sounds nice to you.

Sincerely,
Timmy Branca