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.
Written in the fall of 2007, most likely in Studio City, California. I remember having the idea for a big carnival-esque song after seeing a local band called Cat Hair Ensemble play at one of my favorite venues – Bordello in Downtown L.A. This song was built from the ground up in rehearsals by the Dead Messengers and quickly became a staple at the live shows. It was first demoed at Dangerland in early 2008 with Matt Cooker playing cello and Giulio playing drums, bass, and organ. This is also the recording where Steve McDonald originated his signature guitar line that in my opinion makes the song. The album version, recorded with the rest of Beneath a Balcony in the fall of 2008 at Radar! features Emmy Rossum singing the lilting, twangy backing vocals. She’s credited on the album as the Mouse Sisters, because she was signed to Interscope at the time and we didn’t have official permission.
This too falls under the idea of “fable.” While at a party at Rob Leifer’s (of The Neon Calm) house in Hollywood, I was outside smoking a cigarette with Andrew Aherne, the artist who designed the Neon Calm’s album covers, when he pointed out a giant stuffed Teddy Bear that he’d seen thrown out of an apartment across the way, off the balcony and down into the shrubs below. We joked about what could have provoked such an action, and after the party I picked up the bear and took him home. The idea from the song came soon after.
lyrics
The big teddy bear flies through air, three stories down to the street, something so sweet, soon a moth-eaten memory. And I’m trying my best, as you throw down the rest, to not just give up and run. But I may duck for cover whenever the TV comes.
I have to admit that I failed you occasionally, and I never did dance, but I always could sing you to sleep. And sometimes when my voice would hit just the right notes, you’d crawl over and silence me, and we had thin walls, so the neighbors heard everything.
But that’s in the past, I know the luster’s faded. And that couldn’t last, but maybe there’s something worth saving. So if you’re not the cure and I’m not the cure, then instead of just letting it fall, let’s just admit that there ain’t no cure at all.
I’m still standing my ground with our things all around on the street, trying to sing a waltz beneath a balcony, so I’ll tell you a joke, and it’s a little baroque, but at the risk of being ignored: it’s the one where I knock and then you unlock the door.
credits
from Beneath a Balcony,
released August 4, 2009
Marc M Cogman - acoustic guitar, vocals & percussion
Frogs - electric bass
Giulio Carmassi - B3 Hammond organ
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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