Album Notes

These are the final recordings of the four-piece version of the Austin band that recorded 1999's "We'll Be Right Back!" (see listing on this site). Continuing on as a duo, Snipe Hunt (w/ Ehresman and Ramirez) went on to record "I Saw the Future (But the Damn Train Hit Me Just the Same)" in '02 (see listing this site), and plans more sedition in the years to come.



The album opens with the "romantic medley", with the first two songs being originals that didn't fit on the first CD, capped off with an old 50s chestnut of a drinking song. In the first part of this trilogy, our fictional protagonist loudly protests his fierce independence to his girl, alternated with pathetic wallowings in the language of co-dependence. The lyrics say it all:



"I don't need your approval/and don't say that I do/just 'cause I do just what you say/don't mean that I have to". And:



"My aura is so beautiful/nirvana is routine/my center is so centered that Mahatma's face is green/my chakra ain't infected and my bowels are just serene/and I don't need your permission to be heard and not be seen."



By the second act of the trilogy, our now fully-masochistic protagonist is well into his 30s and just trying to keep in one piece (like an aging wide receiver):



"Well the action is fast/but the motion is slow/you gotta turn me 'round and point me so I'll know which way to go/Oh no!, don't want no further injury/I'm tryin' to play it like a veteran, baby/you knock the stuffing outta me."



By the third act, he just drinks. Alone.



All these songs were features of the Snipe Hunt live sets of that time, and several continue to this day.



There are quite a few bonus tracks here:



Tracks 11-15 are sung and performed entirely by Walter Ehresman, the leader and multi-instrumentalist of the band, and reveal some of the range of his musical influences and taste.



Track 16 is an oddity by the four-piece unit. Walt had written and recorded a song called "The Alien Nematode", released on his '96 solo album "The Blue Shoat Special!". Snipe bassist Scott Brannock had always liked this weird song, and came up with the idea of doing it using only Rush cliches. It should be noted that the vocals would have been more Geddy Lee-like had there not been about 20 minutes of sound-checks to get the levels, etc. right in the studio. There's only so long one can sing like that (what with the Vise-Grips on the scrotum and all.....). For this song, the instrumentation is: Devaney--kit drums; Brannock--bass; Ehresman--Canadian vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar, mandolin, MIDI guitar, keyboards, electronic drum pads; Ramirez--electric guitar.



The album was digitally recorded, and has been digitally remastered in 2003 by Bad Kurtis D at Million Dollar Sound in Austin, Texas.