NEW TALES FOR THE BROKEN RADIO
Written,
Produced, Engineered and Mixed By: Benjy Johnson
Recorded at: Earthtones Recording, Greensboro, NC
Photography: Allen Williams
Graphic Layout: Clay Howard for Howpro Design
Release Date: January 11th, 2005
Track Listing
1. Devil in the Vinyl
2. Brains by the Bucketful
3. Wine
4. Five Dollars
5. Fade
6. Superhuman
7. The Kisses
8. Jody's Dead
9. Just that time
10. Washington and Hollywood
The exclusive Story behind the songs
1. Devil in the Vinyl - This song was initially spurred
by a simple line drawing done by my good buddy, former bandmate
and graphic designer extrordinaire Clay Howard. It was an
old 45rpm record player like the old small plastic one's from
back in the 70's, crudely drawn with a simple computer program.
I thought it looked cool and said I should use it for the
cover art on my next CD, but I jokingly suggested drawing some
devil horns on the surface of the record and calling the CD "Devil
in the Vinyl". Well, we all had a good laugh and went
home. The idea lingered a few days and I came up with
a musical idea accidentally while soundchecking a drum kit and
singing in my best Tom Waits impersonation at the same time. Well
little did I know the rtecord button was on and that's the actual
beat that kicks off the whole record. The lyrics were inspired
by my next door neighbors from my childhood. They were hardcore
evangelical-Christian-types and thought all rock music was of
the Devil and had no problem letting me know that every time they
could. They wanted to save my soul so bad they gave
me this cassette of a preacher talking about devil music and playing
backwards masking samples from popular recordings like Zeppelin
etc. Needless to say, I loved it!! It made me want
to listen to Zeppelin more and more!! I actually see my
old neighbor every now and then and we laugh about old times,
growing up and that tape. The preacher rant at the end was
the crowning jewel in this song. It was pulled from a book
by another Christian author slamming rock music and all it stands
for. Read by none other than The Electric Reverend
himself Mr. Scotty Irving, the preacher rant is read with such
conviction that it scares me!!
Benjy - Drums, guitars, vocals
John Harrisaon - Bass guitar
Scotty Irving - Preacher rant
2. Brains by the Bucketful - My first CD had a song
called "Plastic Francis". Let's jusr say
Francis is a bit more grown-up nowadays, but still just as clueless
as ever.
Benjy - Guitars, Vocals
Scotty - Drums
John - Bass guitar
Clay Howard - harmony bridge vocals
Stephanie Johnson - "drive around please"
3. Wine - I believe there is a big guy in the sky looking
down on all of us. I also believe freedom of speech sometimes
gets used more like freedom of ignorance, or freedom of idiocy.
People tend too talk now and think later a little too much
just to be in with the "now" people of the world. I
remember what it was like to be like that and I do my best
to not forget it. I tend to speak now like God is watching
over my shoulder....
Benjy- Guitars, Vocals
John- Bass guitar
Scotty- Drums
4. Five Dollars - I played a singer/songwriter night a
while back and was booked with a guy that had been getting alot
of local press. I didn't know him and thought I might get
a bit farmiliar with his tunes, so I went to his website, which
was listed everywhere in all this press he had been getting. Well,
turns out I wasn't too moved. As a matter of fact, I thought
after seeing all that press, if I would've spent the money to
go see him I would've wanted my five dollaers back. The
best part was playing the song for the first time at the songwriter
night while he sat beside me on the same stage. Pretty funny.
Hope God wasn't watching over my shoulder on that one. Heck
at least I got a good song out of it.
Benjy - guitar, lap steel, vocals
Scotty - Drums
John - Bass guitar
5. Fade - One of the last tunes written for the record.
A good tune to kick-off the set with. Written about
getting off our ass and doing something besides just existing
and whining...
Benjy - guitars, vocals
Scotty - Drums
John - Bass guiatrs
6. Superhuman - My Beatles meets Dinosaur Jr opus. It's
really more about a superhero, but the word superhero just didn't
fit quite right in the chorus, so all the verses are about being
a superhero, but the chorus' are about being superhuman.........confused
yet? Seriously, I really like this song and it's probably
the most adventurous benj-o-matic song yet. Hope y'all dig
it too.
Benjy- guitars, vocals
Scotty - Drums
John - Bass guitars
7. The Kisses - I like the blues. Not commercialized,
white-cracker-get-me-on-the-radio blues, but real blues. Robert
Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Son House, Elmore James...just to name
a few. Nasty sounding recordings made with every bit of
oomph they could pull out of what they had. This is
my "tip of the hat" to the orginal bluesmen. Vocals
were sing through a Shure "green bullet" harp mic plugged
into a guitar amp. Harp was played throough same mic. Pretty
gritty....i like it. The best lyrics are inspired by truth...this
is no exception. Kisses from the Mrs....indeed!
Benjy - guitar, vocals, harp
Scotty - drums
John- Bass guitar
8. Jody's Dead - A mid-tempo story song about an old friend
that got killed while we were still virtually kids. True
story from start to finish. I hate that Scotty and John
don't play on this song, but it started as demo and when I got
towards the end I didn't want to change the vibe, so I kept all
my original tracks. On the last chorus, I actually have four electric
guitars, two lapsteels and an extra distorted bass guitar come
in for a huge finish!!
Benjy- guiatrs, vocal, drums, bass, lapsteel and everything else...
9. Just that time - I wrote this one in about 30minutes
after hearing of the passing of Joe Strummer of The Clash. I
wasn't a huge Clash fan. I had Combat Rock, just like
every other kid in 7th grade, but not much else. It just
hit me at a time when about three or four different rock stars
I had listened to growing up all died within two weeks of each
other. Life is short. Make every day worthwhile
in your own way. Death is just the last step in the cycle
of life. This song was my way of dealing with a tremendous
amount of reality in a short amount of time. The whole song
can be summed-up by saying, "we're all going to die someday".
Knowing that helps me live a better life.
The first guitar solo was one of the one's I had to replace towards
the end of the record and quite possibly my favorite one on the
whole thing!!
Benjy- guitars, vocals
Scotty - drums
John - Bass guitar
10. Washington and Hollywood - This started out as my two
minute punk song. Punk lyrics should always be about puking
or politics. I chose politics since my stomach felt
pretty good that day. Well, I realized I had alot to say
about politics so my two minute punk song turned into my 4 minute
punk song. True Punk songs can't be more than two minutes,
so it then became my four minute fast song. The lyrics are
about everything I hate about politics. I hate Hollywood
politicians. Aren't they supposed to be making movies
anyway? I hate most politicains in general, but as I get
older, I'm really stuck somewhere between the views I had a snot-nosed
teenager and the views I have as a father beginning to raise the
youth of tomorrow. I agree with some of the lkeft and
agree with some of the right. Truly "Stuck somewhere
between Washington and Hollywood"!!!!
Benjy- guitars, vocals
Scotty- drums
John-bass guitar
We truly hope y'all enjoy tis CD as much as we enjoyed making
it!!!