Dagger Beach was recorded by Ian Pellicci and JV
At Tiny Telephone A & B
Mixed by Ian Pellicci at Tiny Telephone
Assisted by Shawn Alpay and Kelley Coyne
Mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service

Produced by Ian Pellicci and JV
Thanks to James Riotto for editorial insight

all songs JV, except
“Song for the Landlords of Tiny Telephone” written by Shawn Alpay and “Interlude 2” by Rob Shelton

How The West Was Won Music Video

Raw Wood

one day the paint will be stripped right off
your pretty veneer and you can bet for sure
raw wood never looked so good

day the pain will pass on from me to you
it will then be clear if it’s really true:
I’ve moved on

I set up camp in the woods
where the trail falls off for good
I set up in wildcat camp
just me and the owls and the bats

in the deep dark woods
alone with my fears
under the jackpine
the sky was galvanized

my house is a mess, the kind you keep
when you don’t have guests, once day I’ll fix it right
because raw wood never looked so good

JV: baritone guitars, Ibanez 202 guitars, Moog bass, vocals
Rob Shelton: delayed piano, treated piano
Jason Slota: drums, percussion
Brady Weinstein: CV triggers

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Harlequin Press

at the harlequin press I met a girl in a blue wool dress
her manuscript in hand

confused and unprepared, I offered to help
I know an editor here, I know him well

she gave me her proof and I took it home
it was a promising, total mess

I helped her submit, we cut there and added this
I quickly fell in love

my friend rejected it outright, not enough sex and too much talking
right then she cut me off

a year had passed, she showed up at my door
she rewrote the book and handed it over

she replaced the songbirds with pornographers,
the love scenes with brutal murders

JV: acoustic guitars, synths, piano, square wave acoustics, key-gated xylophone, vocals
Laura Bergmann: flute
Annie Phillips: clarinet
James Riotto: Hammond B3
Rob Shelton: piano
Jason Slota: eventide 949 drums
woodwind arrangement by Minna Choi/Magik*Magik Orchestra

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Song for Dana Lok

the red band stretches out
across the farallones dagger beach
bay windows with victorian glass
and power lines that carried the telegraph

I taste salt on my tongue, I will stay strong
I will not be undone

the sound of the Alemany market
is future sound
and I sighed in relief when bitter greens
dropped to a dollar a pound

and night dropped the floor
and opened up a small wooden door

I taste salt on my tongue
I will not be undone

JV: acoustics, Moogs, Korg Polysix, vocals
Shawn Alpay: cello, Hammond B3
Jason Slota: surdo

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How the West Was Won

the hand that cut this barley, I’d like to know
the pale blue lips that blew the life into this stereo

oh I’d like to know
oh I’d like to know

don’t it feel good
to be understood tonight

you asked me when’s the last time I stared into
your sharp black jeweled eyes,
even then you knew we were through
I didn’t know I didn’t know
then you got up to go

don’t it feel good
don’t it feel right
don’t it feel good
to be understood tonight

do you know how the west was won?
I fixed my speed in the middle lane, turned on the radio

they played that missing take of “jailbreak”
they had to know

don’t it feel good
don’t it feel right
don’t it feel good
to be understood tonight

JV: bogen acoustic, keyboards, harmonized guitars, vocals
James Riotto: bass, piano
Rob Shelton: Rhodes, Yamaha yc-45
Jason Slota: drums, surdo
Brady Weinstein: echolution dubbing, pro-one CV effects

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Interlude #1

JV: rhythm ace, Moog source, GR-300 guitar synth
Rob Shelton: treated piano

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Song for David Berman

they closed the road to laramie
slowly it came rain then snow then ice
I killed my engine and paced outside,
out in the soft gray light

no turning back

I called my doctor on his cell
the call went straight to voicemail

I thought of you

when I was stung by a scorpion
you crushed up some tobacco leaf for me
pulled out from your red man pouch
the sioux had taught you all you knew

I do believe it’s true

they cut you down with a single shell
a Winchester “double l”
your switchblade fell and caught the light
massacres are disguised as battles all the time

I do believe it’s true

JV: acoustic guitars, vocals
Liana Berube: violin
Alex Camphouse: French horn
Michelle Kwon: cello
James Riotto: upright bass
Rob Shelton: Rhodes, upright piano, Yamaha yc-45
Jason Slota: drums
string and horn arrangement by Minna Choi/Magik*Nagik Orchestra

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Damage Control

I remember when we first met
on the great salt lake
who was I to say no?
o let me go

I remember when it first came on
like every other asshole I bought a guitar
o let me go

the snack bar was closed, they left the radio on
the AM band was made for you and me
hold my hand
o let me go

songs of the free meant so much to me
on the Great Salt Lake
the faint light fades and my ears rang out
o let me go

JV: acoustic and electric guitars, crumar strings, Moog subs, vocals
Rob Shelton: Rhodes
Jason Slota: cinema filter drums
Brady Weinstein: envelope phaser

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Song For the Landlords of Tiny Telephone

JV: forwards/backwards piano
Shawn Alpay: cello
Ian Pellicci: tape loops

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Gaslight

I drank deep from the cup
I drank for all of us
turn on the gaslight and strike up the band

I woke tangled up
in razor wired chain-link fence
and it tears the anaheim fairgrounds
from my future tense
turn on the gaslight and strike up the band

JV: vari-speed electric guitars, piano, Moog, vocals
Laura Bergmann: flute
Alex Camphouse: French horn
Annie Phillips: clarinet
James Riotto: sans amp bass
Rob Shelton: Rhodes, Yamaha cp-25 Jason Slota: drums
woodwind and horn arrangement by Minna Choi/Magik*Magik Orchestra

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Sleep It Off

you were gone a long time
I followed you dear all of those years
now that you’re back, it’s complicated
sleep it off, sleep it off

songs from memory I survived
your blue wool skirt, your hooded eyes
I slept in cairns and split and Anaheim
I stripped the gears of your dad’s Mark V
and knelt in the shadows of the RCA building
sleep it off, sleep it off

JV: electric guitar, vocals
andrew maguire: wind chimes, shakers, unknowable percussion
James Riotto: surdo
Rob Shelton : Yamaha yc-45
Jason Slota: marimba

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Sonogram

a heartbeat on a gray screen
on and on and on and on it goes
the blood flows

it’s not my blood
everyone knows
on and on and on and on it goes
the blood flows

JV: Moogs, pitched and gated guitars, vocals
Rob Shelton: reverse piano
Jason Slota: +700 cent drums
Brady Weinstein: ring modulation

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North Coast Rep

in the last known photograph
of you and me sprawled on the grass
you looked off frame
you were through with this stupid play
you looked off frame
I didn’t recognize the boy I once knew

lost Sonoma hills
matched perspective with my silver stills
we followed the old mule trail
to mining camps and dried blood red shale

you should stay
you’re just going to leave this place anyway
you should know by now
you’re going to ruin the show

you’re the last friend I have
among the crew and cast and staff
they’ll replace you with an unknown hack
you’re the last the friend I have

you looked off frame
towards the east
but the traitorous beast will never speak your name
you looked off frame
I saw you harden with ambition

you should stay
you’re just going to blow this place anyway
you should know by now
you’re going to ruin the show

JV: Korg Polysix, sequential circuits pro-one, vocals
Jason Slota: drums, percussion

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interlude #2

Rob Shelton: piano
Ian Pellicci: distressed tape loops

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Dagger Beach was recorded in sloppy hi-fi™ at tiny telephone by Ian Pellicci and JV