Dash Kizer, acoustic guitar, bass, vocals, songwriting
Mark Passell, electric guitar, vocals
Luke Piro, drums, vocals, percussion
Produced by Mark Passell and Deb Letner
Engineered by Rob Preston, Secret Studios
Cover Art by Brad Basel
Moral Support by Tank Reeves
For our fourth release in five years, we've decided to face a troubled world on its own bloody terms. Lilacs and posies will hardly suffice when we know that people face "Christmas in Jail" (which opens the record) and so often we feel we're just "Goin' Thru the Motions" of our lives.
We call our new record Blood on the Highway because it's such a useful, all-purpose phrase. It's not exactly cynical. Blood is a part of every highway, sure, yet still we make our way from place to place, driven by something like hope, something like love, even if we're sometimes too afraid to call it that.
For the past few years we've rambled from Austin to San Francisco, then to Fayetteville, Arkansas, stopping briefly in Denver, only to return to Austin, with a guitar and a little white dog named Tank Reeves. The songs have become edgier, darker, more rock than country, looking adversity straight in the eye while managing to smile and to persevere. We accept those things we cannot change, but we will not allow those things to change the better part of us.
"At the bottom of despair, I'm diggin' in" (from track 2, "Fallen").
These songs were written and recorded in San Francisco during 2006, and the record was co-produced by Mark Passell and Deb Letner. Passell plays guitar and sings backup; Luke Piro played drums and sang; Dash played acoustic guitar and bass. Rob Preston of Secret Studios engineered the sessions, and kept us more or less focused for the duration. Brad Basler created some appropriately brooding imagery to help us convey the occasionally bitter, always sardonic tone we were striving for.
To buy the full-length record, visit
cdbaby.com/cd/dashkizermusic.
Here's some thoughts on the songs we've sampled here:
Goin Thru the Motions
You know that feeling, like you're just stumbling through your days and tumbling all night into the abyss? You start remembering you've got that old shotgun in your closet and feel it calling you? That's why I don't buy ammo. Keep the gun, but keep it empty. Really. Feel the pain. Then try to love again.
Y.O.U.
This is our Toby Keith song. I just thought it'd be a good line to try in a bar. "Hey Honey, I've been out of school for a while, but I'd love to enroll in Y.O.U." So far, most women have been amused, but no one's signed me up. Maybe I'm just not college material.
Love Can Handle the Pain
I wrote this one to answer for myself the age-old conundrum, "What's the difference between Love and Lust?" And I think it's that Love will put up with people's shit, while Lust, though excellent, can only survive the evening. Lust is a butterfly, come and gone in a brilliant flash. Love is a Phoenix, the legendary Bird of Paradise.
Fallen
Credit for this one must be shared with our co-producer, Deb Letner, and her partner, Howard. Deb left me a voice mail one afternoon with the killer line that opens the chorus, "This is way more Karma than I bargained for." It took me weeks to figure out where to go with that, but gradually I started hearing this Fallen Angel, who found out his teachers and handlers were lying when they said what's most important in life is to "be yourself," be an original and surprising individual. Horseshit. Step off the beaten path and you're gonna be beaten. Nevertheless, what's there left to do at the Bottom of Despair but to dig in and see what's underneath? Join me, ye Fallen Ones, in celebrating Satanic glee.
cdbaby.com/cd/dashkizermusic
***You can hear tunes from our 2006 release, Gospel Songs for the Apocalypse, at myspace.com/dashkizer. But we've lost the password there, so send us messages through this new space.
Peace, yall.
DK
Dash Kizer & The Expressions's Friend Space (Top 6)
HEy....well i decided to stop by and leave you a comment...SO how was your day as a teacher today...well my day was ok i guess..just a lot of work...well thats ok..well see ya ..bye...
have a nice day 2morrow...
ps..its drinking time...ya ya..
