In one week it will be 3/7. We must be prepared. You must be present. Theories will be explored. Answers will be revealed.
3/7 in "Little" California, PA @ Jozart Studios:
PUNCHLINE (Modern Short Stories) Useless ID (from freaking Israel!) Nightbeast (for President in 2012) Experiment 116 (your gracious hosts) The Catastrophe (tough guys) The Spiffies (Belle Vernon rock)
I noticed a similarity between these two pictures. The picture on the left is of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning and was the background of my iPhone. The picture on the right is the mysterious statue from Lost, which was Chris Fafalios's background on his iPhone. I kept looking at my phone and seeing the statue in the Cathedral, so I decided to share this with you.
What lies in the statue of the Cathedral?
Thanks for viewing.
x steve
Six FREE songs from Punchline's N I G H T L I G H T S here: www.punchkids.com
1) I hate it when the pope borrows my gap hoodie. (by Eric from New York City)
2) The rhinoceros plays a guitar solo like no other. (by Jimi from Pittsburgh) 3) Let's make a pact to never leave this shrimp bonanza. (by Me from My house) 4) Tomorrow I had a wonderful beef-heart soup. (by Pencil from Pencil Box) 5) Robert Henry Bison decided that enough was enough, and that today he was finally going to shave that "area" on grandma. (by Dustin from Sandy Lake, PA) 6) My father finally has finally taught me how to drive a tree with my pancreas. (by yeah me again from it's my blog I can do what I want) 7) I'm gonna take my shoes off and fly to Jupiter. (by Mark Haney from New Castle, PA) 8) I wish korn could fly, too. (by Dylan from Dallas, TX)
9) Fireballs can be basketballs for people who wear fire retardant gloves. (by John Oliva from Bombers, NY)
9) Man, The cinematography in that Carrottop movie, Chairman of the Board is breathtaking. (by Nightbeast from probably somewhere tropical) 10) That grandma in the Seahawks jersey is giving me the willies. (by Tony Hartman from Whistle Pig, OH)
Jonorable Mentiones
I wanna go to Mississippi for a vacation. (by Braxton from "Little California") I had food daydreams at preschool about my Lair of Minotaur. (by Andie from Chicago, IL)
Please enjoy your complimentary tickets to John stossel's new theme park, Walter Kronkite land. (by Kirk from Rochester, NY)
Dijon mustard makes for a terrible lubricant. (by Alex from Portland, OR)
Steve soboslai has friends. (by Mike from Pittsburgh, PA)
Whilst attempting this jump, I shall not depend on the theory of the hypothetical megastructure that could solve the energy problem for all 37 solar structures! (by Mike from Santa Rosa, CA)
THANKS FOR WRITING.
SEE THE NIGHT LIGHTS.
My next mlog will be called "my shortest friends."
When I am ninety years old, I will use my iPad to log into my Blogger account and reflect on January, 2010. Education, earthquakes. mushrooms, and more. Here was my month!
Señor
I am finishing my senior year at Pitt. After three tours in the back half of 2009, I figured I'd have some time to finish my education whilst writing/recording our new album. I am a college student for the first time in a long while. My classmates are nice, but timid. Some of them are like Super Mario Bros, minus the "Mario". I was invited to a frat party last week. I haven't decided yet if I'll be attending. I would guess probably not.
Quake!
There was a devastating earthquake in Haiti, leaving my brother's girlfriend's brother in law's two sisters stranded without food/shelter/water/orphans. Ashley and I followed the CNN and the grapevine closely. The grapevine consisted of the blog ThatsChurch.com and my brother's text updates. It was mostly Anderson Cooper and Mike Soboslai. Luckily, Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell stepped in to help with the rescue of the girls/orphans. They rescued around 50 of the little and not so little tykes and brought them back to Pittsburgh. I donated some clothes to a Haitian friend of theirs, who returned home also on that mission. He now has a plethora of Bayside and Less Than Jake shirts to wear. I hope he likes ska-punk.
I stayed at Ed Rendell's house once, because his son was in a band we used to tour with (Don't Look Down was the band). I just remember the picture in the living room of Ed Rendell and Bill Cosby. I like to think that his lifelong dream was to have his picture taken with Bill Cosby; becoming mayor was only a piece of the puzzle... a puzzle of Bill Cosby riding a unicorn with Rudy dancing soulfully next to it.
I'm glad that Jamie and Ali are safe. I am also glad that they appeared on Ellen. I really like Ellen. I want to go. Let's go. Let us go.
The Great Divide
Late night television fans were split between Cone and Jay, with most of my generation favoring Cone. After a long debacle, Conan O'Brien stepped down as the short lived host of The Tonight Show. Mr. O'Brien delivered a very moving farewell speech.
Shrooms
I picked up Infected Mushroom from the airport and took them to their show in Pittsburgh. My good buddy Nick said he was in a jam, so I grabbed our van from home and went to the airport! They are an Israeli psycho-trans sensation! They were very nice and happy that Heinz ketchup comes from Pittsburgh. I took them to Primanti Brothers where we applied this principle.
We also played some sick shows in Cleveland, Edinboro, Buffalo, and Morgantown! Maybe I'll update this with pictures and video once I find some.
PS It's official. Punchline are recording a new record in the merry month of May.
PSS I once wrote a song about January, (not this January, but last January). We almost went into the studio to record it, but the project fell through. Hopefully you will hear this song next January. It has a sweet time signature change and parodies Auld Lang Syne. I wonder if that song is public domain?
I have a Vintage 1977 40 Watt Fender 2x10 Vibrolux Reverb Amp for sale. It has all of it's knobs and reverb pedal included, plus the original speakers. There is one small snag in the silver face and minimal scratches. Condition is good. Contact me at stevepunchline@gmail.com if you are interested.
Tracklisting: 01. Heart of Gold 02. Changing Lanes 03. Pretty Petty 04. Over You 05. She Always Leaves 06. Castaway (punk version) 07. I Live A Lie 08. Behind The Scenes 09. Downtown 10. Let A Lion 11. Battlescars (acoustic) 12. Coldest of Calendars (piano version) 13. Getting There Is Getting By (acoustic) 14. A Trip To The Other Side 15. Icicles 16. All Hopped Up On Jingle Bells 17. Don't Try This At Home (acoustic) 18. Greenlight (acoustic) 19. Pretty Petty (2005) 20. Punish Or PJ
Below you can read a track by track synopsis of our release Night Lights: A Collection of Previously Unreleased Songs!
1. The music and basic melody for "Heart Of Gold" was written while I was in Texas working with Barely Blind on songs that would later become their EP, My Life With A Giant. I was in the hall of their practice space with my trusty little voice recorder, which was sitting on a pile of boxes. Within two minutes of the original idea, I had written the melodies for the verse and pre-chorus. I wrote most of the lyrics while making my way from Texas to New York City, hence the references to Brookyln, the L Train, and the Roosevelt stop. "Heart Of Gold" was recorded the following spring at the Hazlett Theater on the North side of Pittsburgh. We also filmed a concert of ours in the same venue with the plan to release it on DVD. That along with footage from the past few years is in production, we're hoping to have something ready to release for the Spring.
Us performing "Heart Of Gold" at the Hazlett Theater.
2. "Changing Lanes," like most of these B-sides, was recorded at Innovation Studios in Steubenville, OH under mastermind Mike Ofca. I wrote the basic ideas for this song and "Green Light" both in the same night, which must have been a joyous day in my life for both songs are incredibly upbeat. This was the only new song recorded after Action with Paul. To this day, "Changing Lanes" is one of my favorite songs of ours. We recorded this song for Geppetto's Secret, which was a sort of prequel to Pinocchio that never quite made it.
3. Maybe someday "Pretty Petty" will make it onto one of our albums. I'm not sure why it didn't make the cut on either 37 Everywhere or Just Say Yes. Is it too late to change my vote? I'm pretty happy about the 2Pac reference.
4. "Over You" was recorded in the same session as "Pretty Petty" and a demo version of "The Hit," which was the only song to actually make it onto Just Say Yes. There is nothing I would change about the first three tracks of this album, but in my opinion, "Over You" is a true B-side. I would love to hear what YOU think!
5. Now I gotta find your ass. "She Always Leaves" might be the most pop-punk song of all-time. Recorded by Vince Ratti of Zolof The Rock and Roll Destroyer at The Skylight Studio in Fairless Hills, PA, "She Always Leaves" sings about wet paper sticking together. My favorite thing about this song is the mid-song 2 BPM tempo change... can you find it?
6. We also recorded this punk version of "Castaway" with Vince in the same session as "She Always Leaves." This was after the recording of Just Say Yes - some have asked if we changed the song to ballad form after originally formulating it in punk rock fashion - no, we did not.
7. Now we get into the Salad Days sessions. In 2005, thanks to some wonderful string pullin', we spent two weeks at Salad Days Studio in (I believe) Beltsville, MD. Engineer Oliver Chapoy's internship was at it's end. Studio owner Brian McTernan let him have the studio for a few weeks to test out his skills. We became the guinea pigs. Guinea pigs that threw 13 songs together and hauled crass on down to Maryland. Most of the songs from this session ended up on 37 Everywhere. I'm glad that "I Live A Lie" finally gets to see the (night) light of day. That's your boy Greg Wood singing the second verse.
8. I regret that "Behind The Scenes," also recorded at Salad Days, never made it onto an album outside of demo fashion. Don't mind the Lord Of The Rings reference, I was going through a phase.
9. Chris wrote the lyrics to "Downtown" and I think they are pretty intense. This is our first song that sings about monkeys. This song is so Bad Religion. It was also part of the Salad Days session.
10. I don't even remember writing "Let A Lion," but I remember recently recording a poem from Whistle Pig over top of the music. Let a lion defuse what the prey gets confused. Yep, another Salad Days guy.
11. Back to Innovation Studios for the acoustic version of "Battlescars" I'm not exactly sure when we did these Action jams. I remember it being cold. I remember how good the drums sounded for two microphones. This song was once part of our 7" TDR Records release, which was a split acoustic 7" record with Over It. Good band!
12. We need to do more piano songs like this version of "Coldest of Calendars." I added the line "It just takes a little time" after the first chorus. I wish it had been like this on the album recording.
13. The acoustic version of "Getting There Is Getting By" was done in the same session as tracks 12 and 13. We slightly changed the lyrics to this one. That's always fun.
14. We debated adding this one to the Night Lights collection. It is the only song that wasn't recorded in a studio. It was put down on my Boss 8-track inside the apartment we lived in while recording 37EV in New York City. The song is about our friend John "Beatz" Holohan, who died in a tragic van accident on Halloween 2005. He was the drummer of Bayside and a great friend to everyone who knew him. I fell asleep the previous night, which was my 25th birthday, to Bayside "Blame It On Bad Luck" on repeat. I'll never forget Nightbeast calling me at 7 AM to tell me the horrible news. Chris and I got together and wrote this song later that week.
15. We hear "Play Icicles!" shouted out at every other show we play. Our response, "It's a Christmas song!" I remember finding out on a Thursday that we were picked to be part of the "A Santa Cause" punk rock Christmas compilation. We played that Friday and Saturday, I'm not sure where but I think Saturday was in Allentown with Ritter (PJ put a staple through his finger that night for fun). We rushed home Sunday to write a Christmas song that we would then record on Monday. "Icicles" was written in about 3 hours. We had zero ideas going into the practice space that day, which at the time was in McKees Rocks (we shared with A Week In July). Chris and Paul took the reins on "Icicles." I sat back and watched it come together, although I did contribute the confusing line, "I'm working on another list." People always ask me what I'm saying there, because it sounds like "I'm working on a nautilus." Aside from the "Carol of the Bells" riff, this song isn't very Christmasy sounding. I can't believe that Christmasy is a real word, at least according to my trusty spell check. Maybe it isn't that trusty. Anyhow, "Icicles" was also done at Innovation Studios.
I found this on YouTube. Someone made it with their own two hands.
16. When we had the chance again to write a Christmas song, we tried our hardest to make music that actually had elements of Christmas music. I think we did just that with "All Hopped Up On Jingle Bells." Twas recorded in November of 2007 at The Playhouse in Pittsburgh by Mike D. It took writing this paragraph to get him to finally decide on a name for his studio. I think Belan had written the basic idea for this song back when he was in his old, old, old band Chimney Sweepin' Jack. We wrote the lyrics together. I remember being happy about working in the thought of stealing fake reindeer. I've always wanted to steal all the fake deer from my town and put them on my back deck as a Christmas present for my mom. I would return them. I promise.
17. Once more we return to Innovation Studios for some 37 Everywhere acoustic songs. I've always been really happy with how "Don't Try This At Home" came out. It features John Lopez on the harmonica. He's clearly the man.
18. We never posted this version of "Green Light" until now. I'm not exactly sure why. I haven't even listened to it in years, but I know the gist of it. It's supposed to sound like we're at a party with our friends and everyone is singing along. Do we say something about a Sidekick phone in there? Probably a reference to Chris's longtime Sidekick 1. He finally got rid of it and got an iPhone for all of you who stalk Chris. We also did a piano version of "For The Second" time in this session, but I don't think it will ever see the light of day.
19. The 2005 version of "Pretty Petty" is much shorter and much more confusing! We always felt like the song needed more of a chorus, which is why it was revamped and re-recorded in 2007. This version, however, features Greg Wood on the lead guitar, opposed to the latter which has Belan (aka Snarl). We love having different guitarists. Yep, also recorded at Innovation Studios.
20. And finally, "Punish or PJ." We originally demoed this one during the Salad Days session (I love that there are two versions of this song) and used it as the soundtrack to our short film "Mr Shrimpley's Sandwich." I didn't have lyrics or melodies for the second verse, so I scribbled down the first thing I could think of (on a napkin I believe) and handed it to PJ and told him to go sing it. The lyrics came out like this...
She's got some sexy moves (yeah), that'll really get me in the mood (alright), she's got some killer curves, and I'd like to give her my ring.
I enjoy the implication that, to become engaged, a man must give a woman a ring from his own collection. This is the Just Say Yes album version of "Punish or Privilege," but we brought PJ in to track this now sweet alternate version. Versions, I love 'em.
My name is Steve Soboslai. I play guitar and sing in the band Punchline and run a record label, Modern Short Stories, along with a few good men. I love to make the music.
