SocietyFringePodcast's podcast

1.  Sinkin' 2.  Hey Dad 3.  The Agreement Song 4.  Springsong 5.  Takin Cover 6.  Say You Love Me Too 7.  Chips & Dip 8.  Sinkinn Deep 9.  Dog 10. Sunk

I wrote this when I was 16.

My Mom's favorite song.

whiskey and crack cocaine

PURRING CAT BY THE FIREPLACE!

purring cats

Love brings love, my friend.

Love brings love, my friend.

Love brings love, my friend.

Here's "Black Coffee" from the TUDE movie.

Here's the Society Fringe Podcast denouement for 2021. This line won't leave my head. "The open road might call your name / The sky might burn a crimson hue of lust." 

Everything I wrote before this led up to it and everything since is coming to terms with it. I'll include the lyrics this time. The vocals are odd in spots because I was choking back tears. I never thought this would get done. Your world ain't my world But my sun is your sun And I guess that it always was Cry, forgotten ones Love and hate Congregate Celebrate Love and Hate Dawn don't feel so good 'Cause nothing's understood And she's been wasting time And she's been forced to find a new time Barely holding on Tracking footsteps in the rain Of a darkness spawned Never going home again She's insane She's insane She's insane She's insane Midnight's broken The highway's spoken "I don't have a soul" Thought Remote Control Heaven's cruelest joke Crossroads sign is broke Dawn breathes reprieves Remote just leaves Dawn burns best at night When she feels it's right From her flows a glory Hellkind's meanest story Dawn wakes up beneath Remote Control Knows that she's there just to play her role Naked oozing love she becomes light Leaves her drooling walks out through the night To the show To the show To the show To the show Remote Control never will wake up Dawn's spent ashes combust and erupt Become one with everything and sing Desperate for the hope tomorrow brings To the show To the show To the show To the show She's reading Dharma Bums Preaching with a gun Haiku in the sun oh my sweet Jesus Flower petal burns Crash a sharp right turn Nothing's what you earn when you're in pieces Maybe she met you Made you join her crew Poetry for you that's nothing special Crack the whip and dash Where the sorrows clash Happiness is what she did embezzle Naked on the TV screen Dawn hit the mainstream I saw her on the magazine Freak in the mainstream Everybody's angst Is all but a prank Payed by you on you in times of vigor Dogma by the ton Everyone got one Shouting it about al full of rigor So be a Dharma Bum Suck your goddamn thumb Curl into a ball that's like a fetus Where's her zen cash crew? They don't know what to do Baby, we just need someone to lead us Give me fish I'm on my knees Freaks in the mainstream I saw her on the magazine What does it all mean? And when the lights go down We're lying naked on the ground And when the lights come up We mean to interrupt And when the light does bend Then we're you're only friends And when the light does fade We sing our serenade In my fantasy dance billions Chilling in a skinless ville Come forth and feel the beating of the drums When orgasmic screams of passion Happen and the waves crash at A distant forest fire that's just the sun Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup In an ancient land a man stood motionless He called forth all the powers of the devil To his hand In a modern time cry people Looking for a savior Find the strength to live You got it Form a band Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup War torn like a tenement It's all a big experiment There ain't no wrong or right when you hate god Evil seeps like rotting corpses Lectured on in college courses Piling up as if it were not odd Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Underneath the circus tent There sits a man his back is bent And in his hand his only son he holds a knife He says "hey, son, go on and do the job it's just begun and slice the trapeze rope it's all, yeah, just a life" Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Inside a cab a slab of meat Drives aimless through the city streets He works for nothing Gunfight all the time Then one fine day he snaps and wraps His hand around a nine and zaps A gas and go quadruple murder crime Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Walls of water feed corruption Deconstructed interruptions Naked timeless tunnels of the soul Bang and pop and cry the sky Shines on newborn forgotten son To teenage momma born from rock and roll Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup sinkittup Your world ain't my world But my sun is your sun And I guess that it always was Cry Forgotten ones Welcome to the vacuum Welcome to the vacuum A song for all the hearts that are departed A song for all the hearts that are departed A song for all the hearts that are departed A song for all the hearts that are departed Welcome to the vacuum Welcome to the vacuum Welcome to the vacuum Welcome to the vacuum Walking through Ancient Rome Everything's the same So I turn my back To the riverbed And children and their games Hello, friends I'm here to please To break the wickid ways Life's a myth a And so is this And so is judgement day I seen too soon Another swoon Running from a gun I felt the world Shrivel up Hell I'm only having fun Interviewing Dawn on judgement day Interviewing Dawn on judgement day Subadai Took Europe's sons And put them in the grave Built a world On top of them Vanished in the haze The Khan he sighed 'Cause he was bored And turned his mind to east Crushed their souls Drank from bowls Took pleasure in the feast Interviewing Dawn on judgement day Interviewing Dawn on judgement day "What you done?" Said Caesar's son And plunged the knife in deep The Gallic ones Were slaughtered by The Roman Nobilise Nobody lived To tell the tale History turned her back IRL For you and me It started in Iraq Interviewing Dawn come judgement day Interviewing Dawn come judgement day A song for al the hearts that are departed A prayer for those who never got it started A valentine for all the broken hearted A joke for all the bitterness departed A blindman's leap into a void suggestion A glimpse of hope for all thoise in depression No answer to the everlasting question Bask, become a target, no regression Welcome to the vacuum Welcome to the vacuum Welcome to the vacuum Welcome to the vacuum If the world were perfect the dodo would live Brotherhood and sisterhood woud be the words to give Laughter would float endlessly up through a tearless sky Giant trees would shade a peace that never says "goodbye" In a world levitation Don't stand in line to find regeneration in all human kind You need no explanation Feel free to see reality And be for what you want to be Although I know the show won't start Take aim and touch my bleeding heart If the world were perfect I wouldn't lose my keys War would be a rhyme for door and there would be no need for peace A skinless man and woman would be all that we would need Money would be funny and we'd all say "what is greed?" But all the time my optimism fades And I get too hung up to struggle for the shade The world seems so unkind Build the nerve to climb out of this hole If the world were perfect I wouldn't sing this song If the world were perfect we'd be one big dancing throng In a world levitation Don't stand in line to find regeneration in all human kind You need no explanation Feel free to see reality And be for what you want to be Although I know the show won't start Take aim and touch my bleeding heart Packed in the slave ship side by side The slave ship captain enjoy the ride They bought and sold him flesh on leash From his home on the African beach And they trade his heart for gold What the white man sold The war was fought bondage gone 1860s protest song General Lee to MLK Elvis Presley in the USA And the time she rumbles on Hatred not long gone And she knows what she knows At he dawn of our millennium Bottled water and titanium Packed in the ghetto side by side His father owned his father they're side by side Neither one can make the rent Hatred raging action spent Cry forgotten ones I can walk away disgusted It ain't us against them It's us against us It's friend against friend So you know everything So you have got it done So your world will live on Cry forgotten son Your world is so mapped out From what your father planned Smile at the face of sickness It bites the other hand 'Cause your world ain't my world But my sun is your sun And I guess that it always was Cry forgotten ones Your world ain't my world Killing for your god Written in the scriptures Your word is a lie People work and people play People sing and people dance People love and people hate People live and people die Your world ain't my world Your world ain't my world Your world ain't my world Your world ain't my world

This was written and released during prohibition. It sounds strange to say these days but in the old days you would get locked in a cage for having this plant in your pocket! We all know the intentions of the war on drugs by now. More like the war on blacks, hippies, and AIDS patients. Anyway, I like mainstream country every once in a while and I always imagined that Toby Keith might take a liking to this and sing it on one of his albums he released while the Afghanistan War was still popular.

To me this is the ultimate Circle 9 recording. From Joe's string quartet guitar solo via ebow, to the folk rock explosion after the last verse, to the George Harrison style back up vocals at the end, to the woeful tale of an out of control young-in searchin' for...he doesn't even know what! Something is empty. Something somewhere is off. I love this recording.

I really really really like this recording. Joe's using the vocoder. We rarely ever played this live. It barely registered when we worked it up for recording. It was a "meh" song. Of course, as me and Bri learned through out the course of THE BIG OPERA, you just can't predict which recordings are going to stick. This'n sure did.

This is gorgeous. I love the interplay between Joe's and my guitars. We had an electric and an acoustic version. We mashed them up. This is the prettiest shit with which I've ever been associated.

Look. It was absolutely insane and unexpected when the Raves won their first Super Bowl. I had been traumatized by the Colts leaving in 1984. My brother and I had season tickets. That we (WE!) came out of nowhere and rode off into the sunset as World Champs, in a way, it made me believe that anything was possible. Little stupid Baltimore, nothing since the O's won the World Series in 1983. We didn't even have an NFL team for over a decade! No hoops. No NHL. This was a transformative moment for me. It's odd to be so invested in something over which I have absolutely no control. But, f'real, that's the essence of being a fan.

Another song for and about my wife. It's pretty catchy I think. These songs have a carefree spirit that is unusual for one of my records.

Kass and I went to New Orleans together when we were dating. It was achingly romantic and magical. We stayed at The Frenchman right on the southeast tip of The French Quarter. We befriended a bartender at a place called The Abbey on Decatur Street who had recovered from a stroke brought on by alcoholism. We called him "Strokey." That feels like a very New Orleansy thing. I had proposed to her soon enough after this. The band passed on this song for EUTAW STREET too! Harrumph. So this is "micro" in the parlance of the album SOCIETY FRINGE PLAYER.

Frustrated with Circle 9 and in response to Steve Earle's COPPERHEAD ROAD I wrote SOCIETY FRINGE PLAYER. This is an answer song to "Johnny Come Lately." Yo dig I fuck up the geography pretty badly. I only have a rudimentary understanding of America's involvement in World War II. Mainly it's from Hollywood. It's very very unlikely that Freddie fought at Guadalcanal AND Normandy Beach. I'll worry about the narrative holes never. This shit's done been digitized! The main story, though, is about young men shipped off to war barely having ever even touched a woman. It's the Samwise Gamgee story set in the 1940s. I don't want the gender roles to be rigid, however. It's more about a soldier lucky enough to return home and find love. Musically, as well as Steve Earle, it's a Pogues rip off natch.

I recorded a whole record while Circle 9 recorded EUTAW STREET because I was so frustrated. Eventually I talked them into doing operas. Tell you what. We passed over this song for EUTAW STREET and it pissed me off. So, being as I'm a Steve Earle acolyte, I figured it out on mandolin and did my own version of his masterpiece COPPERHEAD ROAD. First half macro second half micro. I named the album SOCIETY FRINGE PLAYER. Nowadays this is in the live version of TRAVELOGUE AMERICA PART TWO. It opens it up after intermission which for me means Twizzlers and Coke from the concession stand. These are some of the finest lyrics I've ever written.

Here I'm name dropping my wife in a song title AGAIN! ;-) This is Hamer supplementing the mighty 9 on trumpet and Marge from Duku singing the back ups. This also has stayed in the live set forever. It's as true a declaration of love as I've ever gotten. Unapologetic love songs are tough. I don't know how the Beatles did it without ever sounding like a bunch of drips. I reflexively want to sabotage lovely little odes with profanity. I still am pretty much a 14 year old boy at heart. Also, the vocal/guitar line is inspired by "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" by the Beatles off of Abbey Road. It's a C-major so I expect to be weeping at some point.

I love my country so much I oft get emotional when thinking about the undoubtedly excellent shit that we have established. We're also Robespierre levels of dangerous bonkers. Our two main freedoms collided together with the Branch Dividians, the freedoms to arm and worship. In this nation they go in that order.  Distrust of governmental forces is engrained in certain strains of Americana. Of course it is. This is a nation built on people fleeing other nations. I remember reading an in depth article about Koresh in either Spin or Rolling Stone (pretty much indistinguishable to a hipster Gen Xer) and it boiled down to him being an American version of Mike Meyer's Wayne Campbell and WAYNES WORLD. At least that's what I took from it. Party on! 

I was trying to write a version of Crazy Horse's "Cortez the Killer" for Circle 9. I STILL want to work up a live version of this with Bri and Ochster. I have an acoustic arrangement too. I want it to be SFP's "out of the blue and into the black." The fellas never wanted to play this one. We were doing mostly 45 minute sets around this time so we would only have 1 longish song. Bidnizz, jack! This is my favorite Circle 9 performance. Also, I didn't realize it at the time but Joe Gallagher introduced the SFPeeniverse with "Moai," "Gateway Of the Sun," and "Pyramids Of the Moon." I'm forever in his debt! You can hear the "Moai" riff during the calm down part. Obviously the SFPeeniverse begins with Circle 9's THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.

I'm old enough to appreciate westerns. Yo dig. I was struck by something that conservative commentator David Brooks said during the upheaval of 2020. While discussing the protests sparked by the execution of George Floyd on PBS he said "(F)or many decades, the pioneer experience was the defining American experience. And then the immigrant experience was the defining American experience.  Now the struggle for racial justice is the defining American experience." He's absolutely right. This here song is a romanticisation of the initial American Experience at the tale end of the European Conquest of the Americas. As a nation we need to talk about this shit. Millions died. Also this is an obvious nod to the "pioneer" of Outlaw Country, the legend known as Hank III.

Being a rock and roll kid I didn't realize until much later that you could write songs based in historical times. Fantasy is well represented but actual history is almost nonexistent. Being a big Steve Earle fan and having been introduced to the Pogues by the woman I would eventually marry it was like a whole new world of possibility exploded upon my essential existence as a songwriter. The further back I went the more and more it felt absolutely right to base songs in a time period that decidedly ain't America from the 1950s on. It's such a miniscule sample size! This is my first stab at writing about a different century. They're all just cowboy songs anyway.

This song was originally called "Life's a Beach" and I wrote it in 1987 whilst living at Ocean City, MD for the summer. I remember people crying when I would play it. I just RECENTLY realized that these piano middle C power ballads are very effective in bringing forth emotion. I repurposed it for THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. I used my wife's name. This is absolutely inspired by Ken Burns The Civil War which I watched over and over again. Growing up in Maryland we're there. 

This is inspired by Clint Eastwood's THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by the Band. In today's polarized world it's a challenge to attempt to see each others' perspectives. Philosophically it's eminently frustrating. Here's a different approach. I used to be a construction worker. Every cliche is pretty much rooted in reality. Everybody is racist or homophobic until they're working with a person of another race or sexual proclivity. Once it's proven that a worker works they transcend the stereotype. It always bugged me that this enlightenment stayed on the job site. At least that's how things appeared. 

The US is completely insane. The threat of violence is always present. That's what the Axis didn't understand during World War II. We are ahead of the curve always in terms of a willingness to inflict harm on other human beings. I also find the image of Europe looking on in concerned fascination while we butchered each other with iron clad war ships amusing. One day we'll come to terms with our vicious soul but I ain't holding my breath.

Here's the big shift from bar band to rock opera band. We opened with this for years, especially in showcase environments. I loved opening with it because there's awesome head bang breaks where I made my hair look crazy.  I shit you not. We were in denial for YEARS about boastfully being willfully ignorant of the way we presented ourselves but that was total horse shit. We absolutely played up the working class apocalyptic drunken mountain men on speed look for years.

This was one of the first songs I had to go back and change the lyrics because I got the geography fucked up! I was mimicking "Answering Machine" by the Replacements off of LET IT BE. I played this live until Ochster solidified himself as the SFP drummer. I was also trying to tell a sorrowful tale along the lines of another Replacements song, "Little Mascara" off of TIM. The open B minor would hurt my lil fingies when I played this acoustically. 

This was recorded during the same session as "Agenda." I was very proud of this. Honestly? Joe Gallagher is the only other guitar player I'll play chords behind. I was glad to hear him rock out here. I remember when we released this as a 45 we got feedback that Staten Island's college station played it muchly. This is me realizing that youthful rebellion turns into simply acting like an asshole at some point.

I wrote this between the Baltimore Colts and the Baltimore Ravens. It's my first, and almost only recorded, rapping. Even so, I write a lot of raps but they come out like singing. Everything always comes out a little differently (or even a lot!) than what is intended. This is the Dennis Barth Circle 9. Joey Joe Joe playing his old GEE-tar with the Egyptian symbols, and Pork on drums. This was the 9's first time in the studio. It was the first thing I recorded that turned up an a CD.

05  This is the distinct link between TRAVELOGUE and SPACESHIPS GUNS AND BOOBIES 10  Makes sense. 15  We'll see what happens 20  BOW BOW 25  It's a banjo. 30  Is this a good idea? 35  They think the harmonica's a bagpipe. 40  It's not quite Lynyrd Skynryd. 45  It depends on what your experience is. 50  Everything happens for a reason.

05  R-600s ride on them to go to war. 10  Gandalf is in Hurricane Island. 15  Andy's not going to be here for the music festival. 20  Now, understand it. 25  I don't even remember how it...uh. 30  Do do doo doo doo doo. 35  "A Woman's Work," maybe that's her. 40  Rear view mirror? 45  I felt really weird for a week afterwards.

05  They all played and sang at the same time. 10  Looks like a Reaver. 15  Do you know what happened in the second season? 20  ...And they're playing to the Queen of England and shit? 25  I betcha it happened all over the place at the same time. 30  Blond guy. Blond guy? 35  In the middle of the street? 40  Just like it usually was. 45  It's called "they're turned." 50  Have a fastback on it? 55  Nice!

05  ...that always feels good to... 10  I just started seeing musicians out on the street 15  It's like an undefined thing 20  I like cool new stuff 25  It ends with the epilogue 30  It's a good TMD record 35  We drove and talked about it 40  F sharp was never really in it 45  ...amp out in the kitchen... 50  It's just a guideline for dumb people

05  The computer talked to LOGIC 10  Maybe I was overreaching 15  ...weekly or monthly... 20  I love you, Paul 25  Turn the dryer off because we're doing tracks 30  This is like a brand new fucking thing 35  That's a bummer 40  I haven't even looked at my notebooks 45  Strictly because I don't have a CD player anymore 50  Just barely get a mark on it 55  Dark chocolate, that's the way to go.

I love this fucking song.

Written by Brian Lutz.

It's a piano song.

I'm a Baltimore guy.

As close as we come to the Clash.

...At Brian's insistence.

Nothing's important.

It's not neglect!

Trying to be bullocks.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, folks

You never know quite what to do You shut up when I'm in the room You lead me around by the tongue I see it all clear as the sun You love me when I play guitar Then throw me away in the yard You lead me around like a dog So lead me around like a dog Do do do do do do do do do do do do do All right yeah You lead me around like a dog So cook me some breakfast tonight I'll hold you if you got to puke I'll hold you 'til you feel alright Puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke Alright yeah

I don't even remember recording this motherfucker.

Lost on North Avenue my job took me there everyday A different world a new country I found out today It's like I'm a foreigner born in the u s of a Tension so thick you can cut it I'm here anyway Driving on back to my home where the radio's free Crank up the Velvets and Ice Cube and vintage PE Pop in the Replacements and drift to a van on the road Every once in a while I just want to explode The magic of music's a cascading ballet of junk Stuck in the middle of metal and country and funk Sometimes I feel lost when I'm writing I want to be Neil Every musician I know they just want to be real Yeah All of these labels for music mean jack shit to me Subconsciously divide and conquer the will to be free I don't want no purists around me it's forrest or trees Give me a forrest and watch me sink into the leaves Sinkin deep Yeah, sinkin deep Ah-oo lord Ah-oo lord sinkin deep Yeah sinkin Sinkin deep