EXCLUSIVE! RAY TELLS ALL
ABOUT HIS RACING BRAIN!
by RAY BRAZEN
the racing brain of RAY BRAZEN is an album largely inspired by my adventures in New York
City in general, and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York in particular, during the better part of the late,
great decade known as the 1990s. But the ideas and emotions expressed on it are stated in a general enough way as to
convey meanings which those who never lived there can relate to their own experiences. I saw, heard, and did things I
never imagined during my years of hanging out and living in Williamsburg, and which would change me forever. Some were
good, some bad, some funny, and some truly horrific, but all of these adventures have contributed to the majority of
these songs.
1. INTRO -- I always wanted to do an album that had a little 20-second theme riff that
gets repeated at the end as well. So here 'tis.
2. DIRGE FOR JUSTICE -- This one was written after the OJ Simpson trial, which happened
in the time I lived in Williamsburg. But I didn't want to do anything preachy so I made it an instrumental. Let the
guitars have their say instead.
3. THE ELEPHANT -- This is the only cover version on the CD. Originally recorded in 1968
by a band called the Philly Four, on the Cobblestone label. I've had the record since I was five. Some things are always
great.
4. JOEY DEE ROCK & ROLL RETIREMENT HOME -- Even when I wrote this song back in 1988 I h
ad two arrangements in mind, and of course I went for the uptempo, fuzz-drenched version when I performed this song with
the Living Guitars way back when. Now, fifteen years later, I finally present the slower, stripped-down acoustic a
rrangement.
5. APATHY PARK -- Written during a slow period when the Right Bank was closed
for awhile and the owner was first thinking of selling the place. It's about coming from a place
where nothing is happening, discovering something going on in another place, and moving to this new
place only to see things start to die down there as soon as you move. It was also inspired by my disastrous
first year of living in New York.
6. SHOOT DOWN THE HARVEST MOON -- This one is about trying, by any means
necessary, to ward off evil spirits. The imagery was inspired by the fact that just before I was evicted
from the last apartment I rented in Williamsburg, there was a harvest moon and a lunar eclipse.
7. GET BACK RADIAC -- This song is about the
Radiac Research
Corporation, a radioactive waste transporting facility on the Williamsburg waterfront. But it could
easily apply to any toxic dump near you. Destined to become the next environmental battle cry, and a highly
contagious garage-rock riff to boot.
8. MARTIAN PINBALL GAME OF LOVE -- This song is about the pinball machine at
the Right Bank. If you've never played it yourself, you can get a better understanding of some of the lyrics by
reading about the machine at this link here.
9. CHUCHI CHUCHI COO -- This song's about something there's just too much of in Williamsburg. Enough said.
10. BLEECKER STREET BLUES -- The words to this song say all I care to say about it.
Some songs should simply be allowed to speak for themselves.
11. RACIN' BRAIN -- It's about me, myself, and I, in a nutshell. A relentlessly speeding
mind moving rapidly from one idea to the next. My own best friend and worst enemy at the same time.
12. MONGOLOID TECHNORAVE -- This one was partially inspired by all the illegal warehouse
happenings of the early '90s in Billburg, the kind you could never get away with now, like Keep Refrigerated and
Radioactive Bodega. The name came from a party invitation that a former roommate of mine received in the mail once:
"Come lose your mind at the mongoloid technorave!" Devo got away with using the word so why can't we?
the racing brain of RAY BRAZEN was produced almost entirely using a Tascam 4-track
cassette recorder, a Mexican Fender Stratocaster, two different distortion pedals (most prominently an Electro Harmonix
Big Muff Pi), a Yamaha bass, a Yamaha drum machine which I manipulated manually (my typing ability came in handy here),
and a hundred-dollar acoustic guitar. It was recorded in several different locations in New York and New Jersey. I never
wrote down any dates so I can't tell you what was recorded when and where, but it's all fairly recent. Only one of these
songs was actually recorded digitally. You figure out which one. (Even that one just involved your basic Goldwave setup,
no ProTools involved.) Except for that one, all tracks were mixed down to cassette and then transferred to CD at home on
my computer. Therefore, the quality is sometimes crude, and the drums sometimes sloppy, but it's all real and human.
It's the racing brain of RAY BRAZEN,
after all. Take it for a spin.
|
Records!
