1. "Cruel"
This song was one of those started in Bisbee. Wanted to find a song to incorporate the trumpets in more of a pop sense. I called out to JD, hey what key do you want this one in... he pauses and replies... E flat. So I put the capo on the guitar at the third fret and started playing some chords thinking about Belle and Sebastian, Dylan and Richard Thompson not to mention our version of "Alone Again Or". Went to Tucson and cut this long ass version. It needed some work and lots of help. Jelle Kuiper our soundman from Utrecht Holland, came up with this interesting edit in a rough mix and for me sparked the fire and flow to the song. Lyrically it started out as a song about cruel and careless love. Going in to sing the song however, I started to veer away from this topic and turned it more towards man's cruel hand in the nature of things and all the Earthly environmental catastrophes as of late with global warming, overtapping resources, cutting into rainforests and nature preserves for the sake of finding more oil.

2. "Yours And Mine"
Here's an old journal entry that was lingering on a demo cassette. Once I brought into the studio with just John Convertino at the drums, The whole song just opened up right there in the moment of rehearsing/recording. There is this connection that both he and I share with the music that makes all of this possible. We both allow for phrases to breathe, dynamics to flow and build, and enjoy the element of surprise and spontaneous diverging. The song is a very minimal version harkening to the two-piece days à la the first Calexico release, "Spoke". The horse motif I suppose is inspired by the "In the Reins" EP we recorded with Sam Beam of Iron and Wine. It feels very Dylan-esque to me from John Wesley Harding era, one of my favourite albums. The track has some simple cello overdubbed, JD thought it would be much more effective than a double bass. Contrast is key. With an album that some full moments with guitars buzzing and drums crashing, we thought it would be good to give the dynamics somewhere to build from.

How does one get louder was one of the questions our orchestra conductor Zelman Bokser used to ask us in rehearsals. Answer: start quiter.

3. "Bisbee Blue"
The title comes from a name of a certain kind of Turquoise found only in...Bisbee. It sort of involves lost love, memories of times and ways forgotten. There's a little bit of the suburban sprawl critique woven throughout as well. I like the instrumentation, melodies, mellowed out pop aesthetic. Banjo and electric guitar crunch. Cello section arranged by Dan Coleman. Banjo ukele and mando bird guitars. Thunk thunk of the acoustic steel guitar. Trumpets again in more of a pop sense than a southwestern flavor of our previous albums. In fact they are played with bucket mutes to allude to the sound of French Horns.

4. "Panic Open String"
Daydream song inspired by another journal entry. Kind of a weird spaced out Big Star pop song about Nature, electricity, global changes and the place where we all go when it's over....or do we continue on in some dimension o frequencies and open string theories instead. Casio synth flute is the glue on this track. One of my all time favourite synthesizer sounds. Lots of guitars. Glockenspiel? That's right... Glock-Rock. John's drums are very solid yet have a sprawling massive feel. Wonderfully felt and performed. He is the maestro indeed. No wonder that after every show I always get the compliment that the band has the most amazing drummer. I concur.
This song was recorded during one of the latter recording sessions with just John and myself as a two piece and JD Foster who added electric bass afterwards. 

5. "Letter To Bowie Knife"
Another song started in Bisbee during rehearsals, fun with power chords and bashing about with drums and whole band thumping. Was this the influence of Wes Anderson's "A Life Aquatic" soundtrack? I dunno. But playing the song on tour, it took shape and form quickly, while playing in beautiful European theaters and outdoor festivals full of green fields overlooking snow capped alps with massive sound systems. Post card rock?
We went back to Tucson after touring Europe in the summer of 2005 and John and I recut it adding Naim Amor on electric guitar. Lyrically I took cu from the story of John Convertino's letter he wrote as a kid to the Bowie Knife company. He was sent a response about their fundamental Christian beliefs and we all thought that was a bit odd, and in some ways sparked the theme of the lyrics of this song. I think they definitely were twisted and tweaked beyond the initial input. But some sort of image remains bearing the influence of fundamental extremist beliefs with the shining blade of steel in one hand and a conscience split in two. 

6. "Roka"
Name of the cafe where we rehearsed in Bisbee. So it is sort of a nod to them for letting us stay there and work, eat and hang out for free. Since this album was beginning to be a big departure in musical styles, we were looking for a cumbia to call our own and add to the mix. It began as a motif built on a horn line I came up with and not till later did the song star taking shape once we started adding more of the dreamy elements like vibes, drums and nylon strung guitars. The song deals with the issue of immigrants crossing the border between two vastly different worlds to make a better way for their families and themselves and risk their lives in order to do so.
I wrote the first draft of lyrics based on a John Fahey song, "Dance of Death" we covered for a tribute album on Vanguard. At one point I was going to sing these made up lyrics over his tune but decided to keep it sparse and remain instrumental. So they wound up on Roka instead and it all made sense especially when Amparanoia sang the translation in Spanish.

7. "Lucky Dime"
Pop song inspired by a story John Convertino's father told his children before passing away. If you ever see a spare dime, you'll know my spirit is somewhere nearby. After writing the song I asked friend and composer, Dan Coleman to add some of his ideas. Instead of finding string arrangements, he suggested adding a chorus and changing some of the lyrics. So, we recorded a second version, which can be heard on the B-Sides, but it helped me open up the flow and content of the song. I wound up applying some of the lyrical ideas to the original version which made it to the album. More background vocals were added to this song and we used a leslie speaker effect on the elctric guitar to give it a warble. When in Brooklyn, JD Foster brought out his bass melodica to give that almost bassy reed sound.

8. "Smash"
A song from our first 1995 cassette recording "Superstition Highway". A friend was asking about this song, and so I dusted it off, changed some of the lyrics and cut a version with the band. Recording basic tracks took a while at first and we kept hitting road blocks with finding the right feel until JD came up with some creative and minimal ideas with the arrangement and instrumentation. We wound up channeling the feel on Nico's "Chelsea Girls" album. The song also deals with roadblocks on the emotional path. Expectations set and never found.

9. "Deep Down"
This is an older song originally written as a ballad in 6/8 time. Paul Niehaus recommend we record the song, and so with some thought, we started trying different variations of the meter and tempo. The straight four/four seemed to fit and was fun to have Martin Wenk, Paul and myself plug in electric guitars with John's drums holding down the fort. While in the studio we listened to some Grandaddy and Arcade Fire for inspiration. Later on I started adding some acoustic guitars to give the song's dynamics somewhere to go, start quiet and build into an electric guitar frenzy. Lyrical content touches on the feeling your instincts have when they watch your whole world take a turn for the worse kind of like a bad wound that has the scab ripped off and left bleeding unexpectedly. Really?
Sounds a bit extreme.

10. "Nom De Plume"
This song was started by Paul Niehaus with a repeating guitar melody line over some minor blues after he heard news that his childhood friend Scott Zaehner had died. Paul was caught off guard and started playing this melody over and over. It wound up being fleshed out in a very minimal arrangement by JD Foster once the band tried a few passes with normal instrumentation. I guess that was one of the best things having JD to act as sound board and offer hope when we hit the wall and were close to giving up. He kept us going. Challenged us, inspired us. Paul played his electric guitar part, Martin Wenk on Banjo which was new for him, Volker on Hofner Bass, Jelle Kuiper on big bass drum, John on Shakers and Hi Hat. Instantly we fell in love with the ambience and groove. At JD's suggestion I had the lyrics translated to French with the help of Marianne Dissard, Naim Amor and their friend Samuel Kirzenbaum over an afternoon of wine and song.

11. "All Systems Red"
Psuedo acoustic build to some sort of chaotic noise fest. There was once a time when the trumpets were our own form of distortion pedal when we wanted to take songs over the edge. So we thought,well hell, why not let the trumpet section play some loud guitars. Branch out and plug in. Maybe the song's sentiment will help open doors at home stuck in conservative clamp mode. That feeling of dreams turning sour and pouring down the drain reside inside this song.