Hello everyone, I'm not sure how many of you still check this board but I think it is of worth to note J$'s untimely departure has had a chilling effect on my participation here. I miss him, a lot of people miss him, and I think it's safe to say this board is not the same without him. Please keep him in your thoughts - he was one of the kindest, most gentle, and funniest kids I've ever met.
In brighter news. I want to keep consistent that I lead on to our new albums on this board before anywhere else. Darkness, Oh Hell is nearing completion and I would love to share some thoughts and details with you all:
Darkness, Oh Hell (tentative track listing) 1. Sauf Moi, Sauf Nous Tous 2. Nausea 3. Darkness 4. Trazodone 5. Sad Stanley 6. Time in Heaven, Forever in Hell
This EP marks the darkest year of my life. The lyrics exploit the surreal occurences between your waking moments and your rational perception of physical information... The Summer of 09 changed me, whether I like it or not, and it seems that I am in some place between a nightmare and reality. There are brief segues of story/fantasy in Darkness, Oh Hell, but they are all very personal to me. People who were craving more of my darkest secrets rather than another Bad Luck will get glimpse in this EP. The Summer of 09 presented me with my biggest existential dilemma of my short life and prompted me to see myself completely from the outside... This was hard to do in an emotional sense without losing my cool (or forcing myself into a schizophrenic episode). The mirror metaphor is all over Darkness, Oh Hell as I approach what it is I've become - maybe more of a monster, but less of a child. I am excited to extend the invitation to all of you. It's terrifying, it's sad, and it's a hell lot of fun.
The music is a subtle departure from the Bad Luck material. It pays a wider tribute to the blues and classic rock n' roll. August, 1980 represents a slight hint of the sadness trapped within Darkness, Oh Hell but also sounds nothing like the new material... In typical Trophy Scars fashion, there are crescendos built to break your heart harder than we have before. The EP is less linear than other efforts but outshines our earlier body of work in temeprance, taste, and talent. To conclude this long-winded, annoying update: Darkness, Oh Hell is Trophy Scars' finest hour of musicianship. I am proud beyond belief with the content and I hope that it also satisfies you, the listener.
My final words are not to harp on the subject matter of our musical evolution but there are things I would like to note. If you did not enjoy Bad Luck, you will most likely not enjoy Darkness, Oh Hell. It's a further leap away from Alphabets. I don't have to defend Bad Luck as being our greatest achievement released thus far, because, as a music lover in the purest sense, it holds three years of growth above Alphabets. We slaved ourselves on that record and it came out as exactly the way I wanted to hear it. Some think this is selfish but, **** em... this isn't our career - this is our outlet (for us, no one else). I don't want to scream anymore - I'm damn near 26... I am no longer filled with teen angst. How many times can the same breakdown be done? It's mindless. I'm sorry to those that hold those same ideals that we had when we were young; to say we've matured would be modest... we've completely ****ing changed as people. It happens. I was 21 when I penned the lyrics for Alphabets. There's no more Liz (not to discredit her, she is still a friend). Our influences now reach further across the spectrum; bringing the idea of a visual context to fruition (see TV show and film: Twin Peaks). My vocals are mine. Sorry to the kids that hate the "new style" but years of smoking, touring, drugs, and alcohol will do that. And I couldn't be happier. With each release, the people that "get us" grow stronger as we shed the dead skin of people who don't care to grow in our direction at all. This excites me most. It's sincerely awkward to pander to kids who think they understand me or anyone in the band as people based solely on lyrical content from 5 years ago. I hope this doesn't insult anybody (I'm sure it will) but we're all grown-up. We write how we want to write and we are still giant music snobs. If for an instance we thought that what we were about to release was crap - then we wouldn't release it. Promise you. There's no record label telling us what to do - or what we can't do.
With that said - enjoy Darkness, Oh Hell. The EP features several instruments: trumpet, french horn, trombone, saxophone, flute, viola, violin, cello, vibra-slap, rainstick, xylophone, congas, castinettes, and more. It is certainly going to entertain the majority of you. I don't know when it will be released but not too long from now... Jason Oda will be reprsing his role as the graphic artist for this project.
Thank you all so very much - I hope you are all well, Jerry
__________________
Metal kettle unsettling treble howl, settler trembling, measureing mellow on the levitate off the mezzanine. Never seen a ton of bricks dressing clean/dapper 'til it's pin stripe and skull chunk 40 stories after.
The lyrical content focuses a lot on the same subject as August, 1980 but the instrumental textures are completely different... Darkness, Oh Hell, in that regard, is way more intense.
__________________
Metal kettle unsettling treble howl, settler trembling, measureing mellow on the levitate off the mezzanine. Never seen a ton of bricks dressing clean/dapper 'til it's pin stripe and skull chunk 40 stories after.
The direction, the rationale, the concept. Coincidentally, my girlfriend and I just finished watching all of Twin Peaks (inspired by a Mount Eerie song). Timing.
I began listening to your music when I was 14; now six years later, I'm 20 and it should be known that you guys have done nothing wrong.
-- Edited by ever on Wednesday 10th of March 2010 02:34:10 PM
thanks all of you! @ever- timing for sure. that's awesome, look for some twin peaks samples mixed into the new record. some reeeeeal gems in there.
we just finished the mixing and it came out sonically ridiculous. chris badami did a wonderful job and "darkness" is certainly our dankest sounding recording yet. no one in the band realized how scary it really was until we heard all the songs fully conceptualized and strung together. the final running time is about 28 minutes. it gets mastered by scott hull (bruce springsteen, elvis costello, meatloaf **** yeah!) on April 14. jason oda is beginning the first stages of artwork for the disc and i'm super excited about that.
before we begin writing for the full length we are going to record an acoustic EP of songs off of each one of our records... if you had to choose one song off of each record, what would it be? let us know! we're open to ideas...
Darts:
Hospital Music:
Goodnight:
Alphabets:
Bad Luck:
and this ****ing guy...
__________________
Metal kettle unsettling treble howl, settler trembling, measureing mellow on the levitate off the mezzanine. Never seen a ton of bricks dressing clean/dapper 'til it's pin stripe and skull chunk 40 stories after.
oh damn i cant wait for the new EP. im gonna have to think about which acoustic songs i'd like, there are too many gems to choose from right away. keep it up guys, come out West sometime!
Darts to the Sea: A Beauty Hospital Music: Flamenco or And That's Goodnight Alchemy: Lesson 3 Alphabet. Alphabets.: Apple. Apples. Bad Luck: Botanicas or Geneva
These updates are grand. Cheers from the Pacific Northwest.
-- Edited by ever on Tuesday 30th of March 2010 06:18:04 AM
Darts: Baby Eskimo Kisses Hospital Music: Lindsay And The Endless Wall Of Alarm Clocks Goodnight: Cats As The Measurement Of Time Alphabets: Assassin. Assassins. Bad Luck: Geneva
This will be amazing.
__________________
"Have You Ever Heard Sounds You've Never Heard Before? Have You! I Think Not, Check This Shit Out Fucker!" - Dave Trautz
Darts: Baby eskimo kisses hospital music: Lindsay and the endless wall of alarm clocks Goodnight: Jerrys the name Alphabets: Apples or Assassins Bad Luck: Good Luck
Hey i'm new here but I was syked to see that fans can communicate directly with Jerry and possibly other members!
I wanna say off the bat that i've really enjoyed Bad Luck for a good year now and when it came out was excited about the band's growth. I respect that you all need to grow as musicians and you change as time goes on and of course don't expect you to cater to stagnant breakdown junkie people. I think the fact that Trophy Scars is your outlet and not careers is really kind of an unprecedented and amazing thing and it really adds a lot to the music and the shows.
with that said however, i encourage you (as i've seen you do before, so i guess this statement is really precautionary for the future) to always play your old material with just as much fervor as you ever would. What wrong with inhabiting the mindset of your past self for a while? Or including some nostalgia in shows? I think those two things can be wonderful and we can all connect in some ways with all of the band's past material regardless of our evolving philosophies, maturity, age, ect.
I know for a fact that you already do this tho since i was at the Trophy/Jacobi show in danbury and it was epic. You threw yourself into Assistant. Assistants. at the end just like the videos from when you were younger.
Just wanted to use this thread to introduce myself and express my excitement for Darkness, Oh Hell. !!
oh and i'll post my picks for the acoustic EP. So excited about that too.
Darts: Baby Eskimo Kisses (lol) Hospital Music: Designed Like Dice (group screaming in the beginning might be sick, not to impose arrangements on you or anything haha) Goodnight: Jerry's the Name Alphabets: Artist. Artists. (please, god. i love this song so much.) Bad Luck: Cowboy Rojo. so underrated.
darkness sounds great so far, cant wait to hear it. i like the maturing sound, and stuff
Darts: this is a plant i dont want to eat Hospital Music: sleep little nemo! Goodnight: traps and tricks and such/ designed like dice Alphabets: assistants Bad Luck: good luck
i could see bad dreams being really good as an acoustic song though. i know this is a plant.. isnt on darts, it should go acoustic anyways.
Darts- Eyes Baptized, or as I'm sure most people would want, Baby Eskimo Hosptial- Lindsay Goodnight- LESSON THREE! Alphabets- Alchemists, Artists Bad Luck- Bad Dreams, Bad Winter, Years So Much.
__________________
I'm a man who fucks with fire. I'm a man who sleeps with liars, but I don't come from Hell, no. I wasn't raised in Hell.
Darts: Dreams of New Orleans Hospital Music: ...And That's Where They Found My Body Goodnight: Jerry's The Name Alphabets: Apples or Artists Bad Luck: Good Luck
I'm new here but not a new fan. I've been that for years. I just wanna say that i totally understand what you mean about gettin older an the progession of your music. When you did the tour with fear before recently i was heartbroken i couldn't make it to Canada. You guys are two of my favorite bands (La Dispute being the third) because of how your music changes from cd to cd. I think when you truly pour your heart into your music it's not gonna be what you wrote a few years back. And people who hear a bands new cd and say **** like "it's not as good" or "they got soft", truly don't get or appreciate the music. I cannot wait for the new stuff and hope to see you guys make it to Cleveland in the future.
Darts: Dreams of New Orleans, I Play Piano
Hospital Music: ...And That's Where, The Hair-Trigger Flamenco
Darts: Dreams of New Orleans Hospital Music: Designed Like Dice, Nemo Goodnight: Traps and Tricks and Such probably without the moaning if it's acoustic haha.
Alphabets: Intro + Artists the intro is so incredible and i love the way it goes into artists. Bad Luck: Good Luck, Botanicas
hanging out for darkness. hopefully you dudes will make it out to australia one day.
Thank you everyone! It's great to see you all have such an eclectic taste of Scars songs. Darkness gets mastered tomorrow!!! I'm thrilled. The more I listen to it, the more I realize how fuc ked up it is... really scary stuff.
I might post the intro to the record for a few hours sometime this week on the Myspace - just for ****s and giggles. You all know how we like the element of surprise.
I think my picks for the acoustic (this is just MY view - not what we will actually do) would be:
Darts: I Play Piano / Eyes Baptized Hospital: Hair Trigger Goodnight: Traps / Lesson 3 Alphabets: a decked out version of Absolutes / Apples Bad Luck: Good Luck / Anna
I'm envisioning these songs to NOT just be acoustic - but completely rearranged versions... more tripped out/epic/sad/weird/etc. I still gotta speak to John (Ferrara) and see what he thinks. We'll come up with some sort of blueprint and then we'll get everyone's take on their favorite songs. You can be sure that the recording sessions will include plenty of Sam Adams and Chem Dog. I'm so excited I can barely type.
Roll 'em up - Everybody Loves Hugo tonight... #8
__________________
Metal kettle unsettling treble howl, settler trembling, measureing mellow on the levitate off the mezzanine. Never seen a ton of bricks dressing clean/dapper 'til it's pin stripe and skull chunk 40 stories after.
Trophy Scars was in my top 5 bands a few years ago and within the last 6 months they just beat ass and conquered all and took 1st place. I was driving at night blasting A. As and Bad Luck and something about that just made both record blossom into something more beautiful than I had originally thought they were. I thought they were amazing and somehow they got more amazing.
Now that that is out of the way, I cannot fricken wait to hear Darkness, Oh Hell! Sounds spectacular! Release the preview or a song on Itunes which I will most definitely buy! I love the evolving sound in each record and it makes them better knowing that it's from the band members hearts and not some wannabe mainstream record that tries too hard to pump out singles.
I wish you guys would get bigger so you can come down to El Paso, Tx! Maybe one day though.
Darkness, Oh Hell reminds me of being miles away from a city that has had almost 5,000 if not more people killed and a country where the death toll from the drug cartels has reached 22,000.
Talk about living in hell huh?
-- Edited by SaviorSelf on Tuesday 13th of April 2010 11:50:11 PM
@SaviorSelf - thank you! and the album is very much about an exuberant death toll and the imagery will certainly evoke visions of desserts outside of cities. there's a mystical dream-like quality to it but it all seems to revel in how evil the undertone is. i would like to say more but i don't want to give too much away just yet.
__________________
Metal kettle unsettling treble howl, settler trembling, measureing mellow on the levitate off the mezzanine. Never seen a ton of bricks dressing clean/dapper 'til it's pin stripe and skull chunk 40 stories after.
yeah jer, i hate when bands make acoustic records that sound just like the full band version only it's a different guitar. stripped down and sad and redid and maybe also built up is the way to go. prettify is the word for it. prettify.
__________________
I'm a man who fucks with fire. I'm a man who sleeps with liars, but I don't come from Hell, no. I wasn't raised in Hell.
I would very much be excited to hear a re-imagining of Bad Winter. that is killer and I really enjoyed it context of the album because it seemed, perhaps, to be both the most distant from your past material.
Also, I should thank you guys for piquing my interest in Tom Waits, as that has worked out really well because Mr. Waits is an amazing song writer.
That being said, and maybe this is grasping for straws, but a Tom Waits cover? Blow, Wind, Blow? On the acoustic E.P. I mean.
I'd love to hear it.
-- Edited by Silent-As-I-Am on Monday 19th of April 2010 11:06:27 PM
__________________
"I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes." - Hunter S. Thompson
and this ****ing guy...
