The band known as Sea Water Bliss
Recorded Oct 2004 - Mar 2006
Uploaded July 2006
Yes, it's our long-delayed self-titled debut, featuring the hit-like single The band known as Sea Water Bliss! (...And ten other songs of varying quality.)
Purchase this CD on CD Baby (for US$8)
View gallery of album art
Troy Mamer did terrific artwork for both manifestations of our rock opera. He was the obvious choice to illustrate and design our album cover.
The 2x, 2x, 1/2 rule
Read about the recording of The band known as Sea Water Bliss
CLOWNS
Big top looming by the barricade
Tentpole gleaming like a long switchblade...
read lyrics & view video
THE PALACE OF JUSTICE IS BURNING DOWN
And now the first barrage of stones
Sends half the firemen rushing home...
read lyrics | listen (high-quality mp3)
THE GROWL HOLE
It was a growl hole - GRRROWL!
And it nearly scared her out of her skin...
read lyrics & view video
listen (high-quality mp3)
JESUS LOVES YOU (JESUS HATES ME)
Jesus loves you like a submarine
Jesus loves you like a time machine
But I don't think he cares for me at all...
read lyrics & view video
THEME FROM TEEN WOLF TOO
All my actor friends are cracking wise
But I can see the envy in their eyes...
read lyrics & view "unfinished" video
listen (high-quality mp3)
THE BAND KNOWN AS SEA WATER BLISS
The first thunderbolt split the captain in two
The second one finished the rest of the crew...
read lyrics & view video
ADELAIDE (PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME NOW)
Adelaide
It's been thirteen weeks since I got paid
But I believe we'll make it through somehow...
read lyrics | listen (high-quality mp3)
THE ICE AGE
read lyrics & view video
YOU'RE NOT THE ONE
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MY EVIL CHILD
read lyrics | listen (lo-fi sample)
CURL UP AND DIE
read lyrics | listen (lo-fi sample)
Demos, unfinished songs, and songs from future albums
HALF MY AGE (DEMO)
Also, please check out the music video, directed by Jay Arnold.
recorded Jan 2006 | uploaded Nov 2006
SONG OF THE SEVERED HEADS (DEMO)
This song was gonna go on our debut album, but we set it aside. The recording features me singing, playing guitar, and tootling rather clumsily into a harmonica. It all sounds much better with bass and drumbeat and vocal harmonies, but who knows when or if we'll ever record a proper version. Someday I'd like to write a whole collection of songs about classical history and release them together under the title (borrowed from Dryden's translation of Plutarch) Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.
recorded Dec 2005 | uploaded Nov 2006
THE PROTEST SINGER (UNFINISHED DEMO)
We never got around to recording a guitar solo for this song. It's also missing some vocal harmonies and the electric guitar is a bit out of tune. Still, it's a pretty fair representation of what our most famous hippie-mocking song is supposed to sound like.
recorded Oct 2004 - May 2006 | uploaded Jan 2009
BRIAN ZERFF & BRIAN GASH (UNFINISHED DEMO)
I found this unused track while going through the backup files from our album sessions. I'll be blunt: it sounds like shit. That's Dean playing the banjo. My singing might charitably be described as "lackadaisical". I think we recorded this around five in the morning on the day of Dean's final departure for Scotland. We were in a rush to record drums for as many songs as possible before he left, and a lot of stuff never got used.
recorded Feb 2005 | uploaded Jan 2009
You're looking at me sideways
Like I'm an unwelcome surprise...
read lyrics & view videos | listen to mp3
I recorded this song in a hurry as a gift for my dad's sixtieth birthday. All voices and instrumentation are by me - even the bass, which is just my acoustic guitar digitally pitch-shifted down one octave. (I think Andrew was busy that day.) But I must credit Darcy Beck with assembling a pretty catchy rhythm track from the sound of me snapping my fingers and tapping random objects with a stick.
Sometime before this time of ours
When Rome and Carthage were the powers
They went to war, as powers do...
read lyrics | listen to mp3
What about the waterfowl?
What about the spotted owl?
What about the humpback whale?
And the friendly darter snail?
read lyrics | listen to mp3
Brian Zerff is twenty-one
He swears he never fired that gun...
read lyrics | listen to mp3