Mega Blade Records

MB-002

March 8, 2005

500 copies, black vinyl in picture sleeves, b-side of the vinyl is etched.

We've known Mike Troubleman for a while, and when he found out we'd started a band he was very supportive from the start. He had us play his night AEROSAL BURNS at Boogaloo a couple times in the early days of Battletorn. In the summer, when we were playing the Vice Party "Downtown for Democracy" thing, he and Dennis were there, and right after our set they asked us if we'd want to do a single on their new vanity label, Mega Blade. I think Mike's exact words were "Yeah, like a 2 song thing that's like 2 minutes long- sort of like the DWARVES "She's Dead" 45 on Sub Pop. It sounded like a good idea, so we said yeah- of course!

We ended up recording the two songs for it ourselves, well, William did it on his 4-track tape machine in our rehearsal space in the Music Building on 8th Ave. It was laid down in few hours, with I think two takes of the guitar/drums tracks, and Beverly did her vocals in one shot. We tried to have a couple people master it, but weren't happy with the way anything came out- so we just took it to the vinyl mastering place and had them master it straight from the mix we had done ourselves. The place that mastered it was Frankford Wayne, they're awesome and this guy Duncan did a great job. It's raw and true, like we wanted it.

The cover was done by my friend Juan Fierro, who I've known for about 20 years... we met in elementary school and bonded over the fact we liked KISS and both wore KISS iron-on shirts to school. I went down to Viriginia for his brother's wedding in October, and he pulled out a KISS tourbook to show me from when we saw them together in the 80's. Out of it fell the drawing that became the front cover of our single, he had done it back in like '89 or something. It's incredible, and we felt itwas a perfect match for what we'd done musically.

Lino did the killer etching for the b-side, went with me into Frankford Wayne and etched the laquer on the spot. Unfortunately, the pressing plant put labels on the b-side, so the etching didn't show up that well where the label is.... but they said they couldn't press it without a label so we had to do it.

As far as the two tunes on the single, well here's stories behind those too. "Villians" is the only song so far that Beverly and I shared any writing ideas with each other about. What happened is that one day last spring I was talking to Lino (who is one of my best friends) about problems with a lady... and he was like "Man, fuck that bro!!! That shit sounds weak, and I gotta tell you man, get yourself out of that situation. No love for villians." And I said to him, "wow.. that rules, what a saying- can I use that for something? It sounds great!!" He said sure, so I called Beverly immediately and told her the story and quote.

The next week at practice we wrote that song, she had come up with lyrics for it. It's pretty much about exactly what he and I were discussing... sick and unhappy people who infect others and spread their disease... and how it's not worth fighting for. Just have to cut it loose. Funny thing is, Lino ended up calling his new band VILLIANS too (and they're sick by the way!), which is a cool twist!! The lyrics to this song are great, hopefully they may surface on a lyric sheet sometime.

"Reversed"... well that song is about images...vulnerability... pictures and such. Beverly wrote the lyrics and it wasn't until recently that after a year of being a band that I actually saw the lyrics to most of our songs! It's a more midpaced rocker, definitely influenced by the UK metalcore bands of the 80's. I was listening to ENGLISH DOGS non-stop for a while when this one was written.

"No use for villians, this time means war"