For those of you who want the genuine article. This the disc sold off the stage at Marc's shows - 11 songs with a beautiful digipak full of photos, lyrics and credits. With purchase comes an automatic digital download of the album.
Includes unlimited streaming of Beneath a Balcony
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
One of the first songs written post-Danger Show, this was completed in February, 2007, in time to be performed as a kind of prologue to open the Danger Show CD-release party. That early performance featured just myself on guitar/vocals and Giulio Carmassi on melodica. The first band demo was done with Giulio and Brian Moskin at the Fun-N-Only Room in June/July of 2007, and the song entered the Dead Messengers’ live-show repertoire soon after. Two versions were recorded at Radar! in the fall of 2008 – a “rock” version meant for Anthems, similar to the way the band played it live – and a “country” version that ended up on Beneath a Balcony with banjo, Emmy Rossum’s country backing vocals, and other roots music elements.
Lyrically, the song acts as a sort of coda to Welcome to the Danger Show, with references to that album and its cover art, and is an example of the type of Ars Poetica song I like to write from time to time. As opposed to many of the stories being told on Beneath a Balcony, this one is absolutely true-to-life, describing a conversation I had while on a romantic getaway to Ojai, California in January of 2007. I still think of Ojai when I sing this song. I’m currently mulling over whether to include the second version of it, (which I prefer out of the two) on Anthems.
lyrics
We were sitting on the couch, watching the fire burn down, while on the stereo: six months of the saddest stories I have ever told. And when it all was over, you turned and stared at me with the sweetest sympathy. But I have learned: there is beauty in this sorrow, and the girl who doesn’t love me is a song I’ll write tomorrow. And it may take me half a year for these things to come clear, but I can say, “Baby, I’m okay.”
Then we walked outside the house to watch the stars come out and you couldn’t help but ask if all the pain had past, or was it just as bad as it was back then. Now that we’re just friends, how does the story end? And I said, “There’s this method I have mastered: if I quit while I’m ahead I just might avert disaster.” And if she’s a friend instead of lover, she’ll design my record cover and I can say, “Baby, I’m okay.”
And if I make her understand, she might even join my band, and I can say, “I promise it’s okay.” Then I can say, “Baby, I’m okay.”
credits
from Beneath a Balcony,
released August 4, 2009
Marc M Cogman - acoustic guitar, banjo, vocals & percussion
Frogs - electric bass
Giulio Carmassi - piano
Steve McDonald - electric guitar
Justin Siegel - drums
Emmy Rossum - backing vocals
Produced by Justin Siegel and Marc M Cogman
Recorded at Radar! (Los Angeles, CA) by Justin Siegel and Eddie Jackson and Black Truffle Studio (Los Angeles, CA) by Giulio Carmassi
Mixed at Radar! (Los Angeles, CA) by Eddie Jackson
Mastered at Archon (Sherman Oaks, CA) by Aris Archontis
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