On Nov. 9th, Fat re-issues Television City Dream, re-mixed, re-mastered, and boasting five additional tracks (from the Four On The Floor comp. and Thank You Very Little) and new art. I've been itching for a second shot at the mix on this since it came out. Justin Perkins did the re-mix and mastering at his Mystery Room studio in Milwaukee and it sounds fantastic. I integrated the extra tracks (all recorded with the same lineup during the same session by Mass Giorgini at Sonic Iguana) into the sequence to approximate how I would've done it back then - although "My Own World" was initially slated to be the third track (I left it off the album because I hated the bridge. It was originally a vocal; I later removed it and had Zac Damon put down a guitar lead in its place, then re-tracked a stronger lead vocal for the rest of the song. Problem solved - but by the time I'd thunk up the fix, the record had already been out for months). Bark Like A Dog had done really well for us in 1996 and I loved that record but I wanted to go in the opposite direction rather than do another mid/slow-tempo pop-based album. The album title was taken from a line in D.O.A.'s classic "The Prisoner" and I tried to incorporate that same attitude into the songwriting and tempos: it was meant to be a fast, aggressive, "fuck you" kind of record. Which it was, but the mix and mastering just didn't deliver the goods. It's bugged me ever since it was released because I knew it was a great record and it was underrated right out of the gate; hearing it done up right it's obvious that it's easily the band's best post-'94 album.
As much as I love the 1998 cover art by Aldo Giorgini (I still have the framed prints) I never thought it quite fit. Nate Fierro (who also did the Riverdales Tarantula LP cover) (and who, by the way, gave me a kick-ass tattoo at High Voltage last weekend) drew up the cover based on a line from the album's last track, "Burn It Down." I'm normally against the cliche of the skeleton in punk art but this one actually makes sense contextually. I love the art and the re-mix and I hope you will too.
Huh.
So. When people get upset because an Imam wants to build a mosque at Ground Zero, the president has nothing at all to say about the appropriateness of it; he merely notes that the Imam has a legal right to build it.
When people get upset because a Christian preacher wants to burn a Quran, the president has nothing to say about the legality of doing so; he only comments on the inappropriateness of it.
Again: huh.
I think the Quran-burning stunt is silly and stupid. But I'm much more concerned that our President not only can't be bothered to defend his fellow citizens' first amendment rights, but that he actually discourages this symbolic (if asinine) speech on the grounds that it will make violent wackos more violent. As if they needed a reason.
I guess this is the sort of thing that's bound to happen when you elect as President the guy with the most liberal voting record in the Senate.