Even In Blackouts

SIDE ONE INTRO TO ROMANTICO!
IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS PRESENTED TO TOMMY FOR SIDE ONE
2. PISSING POISON
3. DOUBT #7 PART I
4. DOUBT # 2 PART II
5. BLOOD
6. I CAN’T SWIM
7. THE DENOUNCEMENT
8. GROW HOLE
SIDE TWO OUTRO TO ROMANTICO
IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS PRESENTED TO TOMMY FOR SIDE TWO
2. INTERGALACTIC SPACE TRAVEL TAKE -2
3. IT WAS THE GOOD TIMES
4. INTENTION IN TENSION #3 (15 years musically)
5. REASON #2
6. IT’S NOT SO HARD
7. KILLER BEAR
8. THE KINDNESS #37
x

1. SIDE ONE INTRO TO ROMANTICO!: While recording ROMANTICO! Gub and Jughead
spontaneously began to use the song titles as a product. During one of the later sessions
the two of them recorded these spontaneous recreations of the initial joke.
These exchanges are not actually in the order of the record, because the band didn’t think
about that till it was too late. HA!

The following is an assignment Gub and Jughead conceived where they described to our
artist, Tommy, an image that, to them, best represented the songs they had written.
Tommy based the front and back cover of the record on these descriptions, without having
heard the songs.

2. PISSING POISON - A Wizard pissing poison, or something flaming, or also into a jar
marked with a skull and crossbones.

3. DOUBT: Figure standing on the top of a wobbly tall tall ladder reaching over one side
holding up 4 other people.

4. DOUBT 2: Four people huddled together on a bridge holding onto a falling fifth person.

5. BLOOD - A mechanical heart with pieces missing.

6. I CAN’T SWIM- half man half woman on a diving board ready to jump into a giant
paper shredder.

7. THE DENOUNCEMENT: a couple yelling at each other so loud their mouths are
torn open.

8. GROWL HOLE - a sunflower with fists as it’s leaves in a flower pot made of metal.

In Bergamo, Italy.

2. PISSING POISON

by Jughead

I’m pissing Poison Ima long way from home

You take a break and I see that I’m weak.

I can use this to change.

Or I can bring you down to me.

(After my big 50th birthday party in Chicago, an incredible weekend that I don’t think
anybody who attended will soon forget, [This is where EIB reunited after 8 years.]
I returned to my job in Osaka, Japan, as a Wizard in the Harry Potter World.
Something changed in me. I started feeling older and my body was showing signs of
wear and tear. I just wanted to go home and be with my friends, loved ones, and my
bandmates. The band had put aside too much time, and I believe we all began to feel
that our separation was not quite the right thing to do. But life and responsibilities took
ahold of of us. That was the inspiration for the title. The words themselves are about a
more general topic of resisting change and choosing to hurt others instead of improving
oneself.)

3. DOUBT #7 PART I

by Jughead

We write our songs to understand how we feel,

Putting words into each others mouths that get into our heads

I am lonely when you leave me, but I’m alive when you are near.

I’m so alive when you are near.

We keep it together, beat nostalgia into a bloody pulp.

my integrity is tall, without a pedestal your still above us all.

I am lonely when you leave me, My sister my brother, my friends.

My sons and daughters, my muse.

My burly bearded man, hand in hand, with my bedazzled princess in a tiara.

Fuck this doubt that sends me spinning far away… from you. Fuck this doubt
that sends me spinning far away… from you. Spinning far far away from you.
Far away away away away away from you.

(Doubt started out as an exploration of my 17 year working relationship with Liz.
It soon branched out to encompass Gub, and then my thoughts continued on to all the
shit each band member had been dealing with over the years, with family, tragedy, jobs,
location changes, and just trying to get by one day at a time.)

4. DOUBT # 2 PART II

Words: Jughead - Original Music: Gub

I’m like a sibling who is angry at the world because he is more like his parents
than he is willing to admit So I hold my hand out, grab you all, wrap you in a fishing
net, and feed us to the endless engulfing creatures at the edge of the sea.
We cry and smile, laugh as we are chewed up by the tragedies that come from
just being human.

I am lonely when you leave me, but I’m alive when you are near.

I’m so alive when you are near.

The sadness I feel when away from you only turns to fear when the time before
i knew you somehow becomes the time when we forget who we are. Is it punk to
say I love you? Is it wrong to not want to hate? Do we lose our edge when we hold
our hands together? Do we lose our edge when our hands our held?

Fuck this doubt that sends me spinning far away… from you. Fuck this doubt that
sends me spinning far away… from you. Spinning far far away from you.
Far away away away away away from you.

(John: I wrote the lyrics to both Doubts as one “song.” But I ran out of music and didn’t
want to repeat any part of the song again. I sent the rest of the lyrics to Gub and asked
him to write music for a Part II.)

(Gub: I was excited for John and I to make a song from scratch together. The best part was that it was done 5000+ miles away from each other and it is one of my favorite songs.)

5. BLOOD

by Jughead

(Fit something about breathe in here.)

What is bloody red and jealous

hiding in a chest of malice

Beating out it’s last chance, my heart my heart.

my heart my heart my heart.

I could take it all for granted

get a mechanical organ implanted.

keep silent that murmur in my heart my heart.

my heart my heart my heart.

Solo?

Your words stabbed at me until I was impaled

Your kisses were like a mouth to mouth that never failed

But now you’ve hit the road and beaten my heart.

my heart my heart my heart.

Can’t you see that I'm bleeding, I’m weeping, I’m failing at life’s test

I’m pounding at the pavement, I’m beating on my chest.

But this rhythm only rhymes of shallow thoughts at best.

My heart has gone numb

no pulse rate

My heart has gone numb

No pulse rate

My heart has gone numb

No pulse rate

My heart has gone numb

(I think these are my best lyrics. Not the most meaningful, but definitely the way
they flow and the continuing of a metaphor is the best I have done. My heart while
writing this song was literally hurting. I didn’t know if I was having a panic attack or a
heart attack or both or neither. I still don’t know. And I do have a heart murmur.
I was born with it.)

6. I CAN’T SWIM

by Gub

YOU MIGHT GET UPSET THAT I AM SAYING THIS

BUT YOU CAN NEVER HELP ME AND I CAN NEVER HEAR IT

WE GET TRAPPED IN THINGS THAT WE CAN NEVER SEE

BUT THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME

I AM WAITING FOR YOU I AM WAITING FOR YOU

I AM WAITING FOR YOU TO SEE ME

I GET UPSET WHEN YOU TRY TO MAKE ME SELL IT.

BECAUSE I COME FROM A DIFFERENT PLANET

I WALK DIFFERENTLY

NOTHING MORE THAN FREE

YOU NEVER WANTED ME

I NEVER WANTED YOU TO

I CAN'T ACCEPT

NO SYMPATHY, NO EMPATHY, NO SYMPATHY

I CAN'T ACCEPT

INVISIBILITY

THIS FEELING OF ENDLESS MISERY

I SWEAR I CAN'T

I CAN'T SWIM

(This song was written in a bathroom on top of a bathtub while really being intoxicated. Thinking about how hard the pressures of life can be. Conclusion is you better learn how to swim.)

7. THE DENOUNCEMENT

by Jughead

I’m Not For It

I’m Against It

Up against the wall

Wall

Up Against the wall.

I can’t fight what’s in my head

I can’t take back wants’ already been said

And I know you’ll think I’ve planned this all along

But I’m not that smart I’m dumb

I’m a dumby dumby dumby dumb.

I’m Not for it

i’m against it

(repeat)

(up against the) Wall

Up against the Wall.

(Occasionally I try to write a pop punk song. I usually fail. It is just not my
talent as a songwriter. And I feel if I can’t write one as good as Ben Weasel or
Dan Vapid, then it is best to put my talents elsewhere. But I tried once again with this.
I attempted to tackle it more from an older school punk rather than a Weasel/Vapid
approach. (ala DOA/Stiff Little Fingers) So it doesn’t make me cringe as much.)

8. GROW HOLE

by Gub

WRAPPED UP IN ROMANCE

LIVE LIKE THERES NO PAIN

GIVE ME ONE MORE REASON

TO PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE

DO YOU WANT TO LOVE MY GROW HOLE

WHEN DO YOU WANT TO FEEL LIKE A MEMORY

SO I CAN SLOWLY WIPE ME FROM YOUR FUCKING DREAMS

DO YOU WANT TO LOVE MY GROW HOLE

WE LIKE THE WILD RIDE WHEN WE CLIMB BACK OUT OF

THE DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT OF LIFE WITH THE LIVING

WE ALL REALLY WANT TO DANCE TANGOED UP TWISTED

ENLISTED YOU INSISTED I WILL SURVIVE

PUT OURSELVES ON A SHELVE QUIETLY STEP AWAY FOR REALITY THE
FATALITIES AND ALL THE THINGS TO STAY AWAY FROM WITHIN
THE DARKNESS…….

(I wanted to write a song where Liz would sing out of her element. The feeling of some early Detroit garage with a twist of strangeness. All in the arms of empowerment….)

1. SIDE TWO OUTRO TO ROMANTICO!: While Gub was living in Louisville with his family
before John began working as a Wizard in Osaka, the two of them decided to write a few
songs to get the band back together after 8 years, just for a short time, before Jughead
had to leave. The experience went so well that Gub and Jughead continued writing and
sharing songs while they were separated. The pain of being apart over many years is
apparent in the writing of these songs.

The song titles on this lyric sheet reflect the number of takes it took to get the songs to
the place Gub and Jughead wanted in order to present them to the rest of the band.
They decided to keep track of those different incarnations and to indicate the process
within the title of the song. We have left those here for the lyric sheet but not on the visible
title presented to the audience at large.

At Punk Rock Raduno, in Bergamo Italy. Stefano Iannone from Kill Time is singing.

2. REASON: a stack of opened books sprouting weeds and limbs.

3. IT WAS THE GOOD TIMES- a mermaid giving an x-ray and other medical devices like
theme park attractions.

4. INTERGALACTIC SPACE TRAVEL - a faucet with one drip coming out into a swirling
bowl of soup like galaxy.

5. INTENTION IN TENSION: A weasel looking woman with sun in her hair holding a baby
made out of tears.

6. IT’S NOT SO HARD - a homeless man giving food to a businessman laying in
a cardboard
home.

7. KILLER BEAR- A bear dressed like he’s in road warrior on a surfboard on a wave with
his hand doing the Shaka.

8. THE KINDNESS: An old mother and grown son hugging, but mother is fading away.

EIB touring with full band plus former guitarist, Dan Lipman.

2. INTERGALACTIC SPACE TRAVEL TAKE -2

by Gub

IT WAS ONLY MOVIES AND WORDS THAT MOVED ME TO

OUR SIGNIFICANCE

SPOKEN SOFTLY

LOUDER THAN SIMPLE THOUGHTS CONNECTED TO

MY INNOCENCE

EACH TIME WE TRIED

WE TIED OUR TANGLES INTO KNIVES

WHERE IS THE LIGHT

AT THE BEGINNING OF EXISTENCE

HOW MUCH DISTANCE MUST WE ENDURE

(This song wasn’t originally picked to be on the album. Liz loved the song and requested it. I am so glad she did.)

3. IT WAS THE GOOD TIMES

by Gub

WOKE UP THIS MORNING MISSING YOUR SMILE

IT’S REALLY BEEN A LONG TIME

TRYING TO REMEMBER THE LAST TIME

WE WERE LAUGHING AND THINKING ABOUT

THE GOOD TIMES

TAKE ME TO THE X-RAY CENTER

TO GET RID OF ALL MY MERMAIDS SO

I CAN PRESS PLAY ON THE PLAYGROUND

YOU KNOW SHE’S NOT WASTING

YOU KNOW I’M NOT WASTING OUR TIME

OH NO IT’S NOT OUR TIME

DOWN THE ROAD WE WENT

DIFFERENT WAYS

LIFE IS ALWAYS CHANGING AND REARRANGING OUR MINDS

YOU REMIND ME OF LIFE

YOU REMIND ME OF , GOOD TIMES

YOU HOLD A PLACE IN MY HEART, THOSE MEMORIES IN MY HEART

TAKE ME TO THE X-RAY CENTER TO GET RID OF ALL MY

MERMAIDS SO I CAN PRESS PLAY ON THE PLAYGROUND

YOU KNOW SHE’S NOT WASTING, YOU KNOW I’M NOT

WASTING OUR TIME OH NO IT’S NOT OUR TIME

THE MEMORIES MIGHT FADE , BUT THE FEELINGS WILL

ALWAYS STAY

THEY KEEP MAKING ME A BETTER PERSON

AND MAYBE IT’S A GOOD TIME RIGHT NOW TO SLOW DOWN

OH NO I CAN'T SLOW DOWN

(Part of the lyrics to this song my daughter wrote when she was going off about
something. This concept of this song was written with EIB in mind. Of how we
need to keep playing together and do more. Also dedicated to a friend i lost a
long time ago …Miss ya Lucky Dog!)

4. INTENTION IN TENSION #3 (15 years musically)

by Jughead

Sunshine was a mother so young.

A gutter punk living in muskegon.

She made me laugh at our show.

oh Sunshine

I wanted to know her more.

Sunshine sent me a letter.

I took a train that very same day.

to Sunshine

instrumental voice short

Sunshine asked me to sleep in her bed,

With her baby by our side.

She kissed me with unbridled

passion

instrumental voice long

You can make me turn around and go right home.

I can sit right down and write a song for you.

We can run away and escape this day.

Ah Ah intention

Ah Ah in tension (earlier note part)

I’m no rock n roll loving and leaving type.

It felt so wrong I couldn’t sleep

I never dreamed of being such a thing.

Oh my

Sunshine never hated herself

She was strong but fragile.

Beautiful as the song goes.

my Sunshine

instrumental voice short

I left the very next day.

We smiled and said goodbye

But I was too young and too immature

to read the signs

behind her eyes.

to feel the sadness

I left behind.

You can make me turn around and go right home.

I can sit right down and write a song for you.

We can run away and escape this day.

Ah Ah intention

Ah Ah in tension (earlier note part)

instrumental voice long

(While in Japan, thinking about EIB, and its revitalisation, this led me to contemplate
Screeching Weasel, like I so often do. I listened to Boogada Boogada Boogada.
Sunshine was one of my favorite songs from that record. The song, more than likely,
is an amalgam of different people, but one of the main people was a girl Ben and I met
in Michigan. I visited her after the tour and told Ben about it. He then wrote Sunshine
based on a few different thoughts on his mind at the time. After listening to it, I found
myself writing down these words in response.)

5. REASON #2

by Jughead

It’s not the reason

There is no reason why.

Oh Oh Oh.

Who needs a reason

to watch it all pass by

to never have a reason

Why.

(Repeat)

(This was the first song I wrote when Gub and I decided to start writing again
for EIB. It came out fast and short. It was about the band, it was about philosophy,
it was about frustration, it was about fear, it was about the fear of attempting to conquer
fear. I wanted everyone in musically and vocally from the first note to the last.
That was the idea. All of us together from beginning to end.)

6. IT’S NOT SO HARD

by Gub

YOU MIGHT THINK THERE’S NOTHING LEFT IN THIS WORLD

ABANDONED, ABANDONED

NOTHING LEFT BUT YOUR DIRTY SHIRT

ALL THE TIMES

YOU TRIED TO GET HURT

NOW IT’S TIME TO GO

ALL THE TIMES

YOU TRIED TO GET HURT

NOW IT’S TIME TO GO WHERE

I CAN’T THINK ABOUT ME

CAN’T THINK ABOUT YOU

CAN’T THINK ABOUT ALL THE LONELY FACES THAT LOOK LIKE THERE

SMILING IN THE SUN

AND IT GOES ON AND ON

(This was one of the first songs I wrote when John and I were discussing possibly writing a new album. I like that people seem to be smiling at each other even though there thoughts might be full of self destructive behavior. Life is so complicated so stop trying to figure out what everyone’s doing.)

7. KILLER BEAR

by Gub

YOU’RE WITH ME

YOUR MY KILLER BEAR

I’D LIKE TO TAKE YOU TO THE PARK

AND LET YOU RUN AROUND FREE

BUT IF I LET YOU OUT OF THIS CAGE

YOU WILL PROBABLY TRY TO EAT ME,

EAT MEAT, EAT MEAT

YOU’RE WITH ME

YOUR MY KILLER BEAR

YOU USED TO WORK AT THE CIRCUS

YOU DANCED AND BOUNCED ON A BALL

BUT ONE DAY YOU WENT CRAZY

YOU TRIED TO MALL THEM ALL

(Why would a young child get a killer bear for a pet? The world may never know….)

8. THE KINDNESS #37

by Jughead

And soon all of this will be done

the sight, the scent, the touch

And soon all of this will be gone

the memory, the kindness, the sound

I’m a witness

to visions so sad

the passing of a saint

and soon all of this will be done

Oh mother night

with the darkest wit

You will be missed

the memory, the kindness, the sound

and soon all of this will be gone

The wink of an eye

The taste of a tongue

The storm of a cloudy mind

Dark voices:

the numbness of a touch

the holding of a cold cold hand

the smirking of a face

the sting of fucked up thought

the crumbling of the stone of a bridge over a sinking ship

the putrefied bones of a little kitten forgotten and never fed.

And soon all of this will be done

the sight, the scent, the touch

And soon all of this will be gone

the memory, the kindness, the sound

(This is about my mom. About watching something, or imagining yourself especially
somebody you love.)

Even In Blackouts

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Long gone show at Bottom Lounge in Chicago, 2004

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

New uncovered concert of EIB in London Feb 2005

Monday, March 30, 2020

Thursday, April 11, 2019

ROMANTICO PRE-ORDER-CO!

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Kiyomizu-dera - Temizuya (Liz & Bice performing the Japanese Water Ritual)

Sunday, March 03, 2019

LYRICO TO ROMANTICO!

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