the gifted children - the autumn parade

Release date: October 29, 2010

just a couple months after the release of their 5-CD boxed set, 'building your lo-fi shelter', the gifted children are back with some great new material for your fall soundtracks. 'autumn ghosts', over the course of just 5 songs and 10 minutes, once again showcases the gifted children's ability to create a single cohesive arc of out many disparate elements... 

the opener, 'come on, november', features piano and bass reminiscent of 1950s pop, with only some latter-half static entering the mix to let you know this EP isn't going to remain as straightforward as it starts. 'second hearth' and 'abstinence heroes' sound more like 'typical' gifted children songs: short, atmospheric, quirky, and filled with hooks. then ‘autumn ghost’, an instrumental, slowly builds in grand fashion from a simple, repeated acoustic motif into full-blown electronic noise. the EP ends with 'calamity vessels', a spare and pretty song with just acoustic guitar, piano and voice.

Credits:
tim grimaldi - drumset on 2 & 3
jim sahr - electric guitars on 2
jeff suszczynski - keyboards on 1 & 3-5; piano on 1, 4 & 5; voices on 1-5; guitars on 2-5; ebows on 4; drum machines on 4
bill trautman - bass on 1-3

recorded october 2009-october 2010 on pc and mac at bad wallpaper (rochester, ny), the homestead (grand island, ny) and ugly couch (gastonia, nc).

mixed and mastered by jeff suszczynski at bad wallpaper (october 2010)

front cover collage: second hearth [jeff suszczynski]

Lyrics and individual track credits:

01        come on, november

out by the roadside where no angels walk
we're in aimless agony
joyless tubers plucked from the ground,
huddled round nearly invisible skeleton trees
sitting in fallow fields

so come on, november
come on, unbroken skies
bring leaves in the hallway
bring me some cold sunlight
through open autumn windows

the sun always sets around here...

jeff suszczynski – keyboards, piano, voice
bill trautman - bass

02        second hearth

throw hills behind us,
we're off to the autumn parade
a brisk apple bicep
a struggle to run away
nothing is new or in season
but we've got thousands of leeches
to carry the sickly away
to carry me away
to carry the sickly away
to carry me away

tim grimaldi – drumset, cymbals
jim sahr – electric guitars
jeff suszczynski – guitars, voices
bill trautman - bass

03        abstinence heroes

this is the taint, the compromise
the world is a chest factory
we’ve delved into peat beds
gold chains and affectations
the always complaints and the maladies

we speak in tongues on featherbed lane
engrave our lawns with secret symbols
a hazy hillside dash and we're gone|
become standard bearers of the new language

tim grimaldi – drumset
jeff suszczynski – guitars, keyboards, voices
bill trautman - bass

04        autumn ghost

instrumental

jeff suszczynski – pianos, guitars, ebows, drum machines, voices, keyboards

05        calamity vessels

the derelict castle, the growing moat
the circle shrinks as the gravity grows
death, love and history -
haunted by the same old things
and we can no longer see land
from our calamity vessels
soon we'll explode our inflatable arks...
(good-bye!)

jeff suszczynski - acoustic guitar, voices, piano