I didn’t tell the rest of my band this, but when we started writing for this record I was already planning on moving to a different city. We were maybe 4-5 songs into writing when I finally settled on a decision. But that move was probably 9-10 months away. So I was fairly determined to do some big things with the band before leaving town. It wasn’t really until the record was out that I broke the news that I’d be moving and so we played a bunch of shows all over the place because I wanted to squeeze out as much time playing with these guys as I could before the notion of doing that became a big question mark.
So in a lot of ways this record is very personal to
me. I had a great deal of input in
regards to the music, themes, direction, and artwork; definitely more than I’d
had in any other band I’d been in.
I’m really proud of how it came together and how we presented it. I tried a lot of new things with this,
as a band we tried a bunch of new stuff and it was a lot of fun writing it and
playing these songs out.
The recording was supposed to take place in Buffalo
with Doug White at Watchmen Studios in January of 2017 but right before we were
supposed to go up there John caught the flu and it knocked him out for a solid
week. I had already put the record
on track to be out by late Spring so we could tour around it, so we had to find
a recording alternative and quick.
Within a week or two John’s brother Eric came to the rescue and secured
a couple days for us at a very familiar spot- Moresound Studios. Eric is a solid recording engineer in
his own right and has recorded all of us in different bands in the past. So we got in, nailed the thing in two
days, mixed on a third day, and then it was ready.
In regards to the art, I have easily never been more impressed
with a record cover that I was involved with. It is my favorite piece of art for any record I’ve been on
and that’s all due to Ryan Besch, AKA Your Cinema. I’d seen his work online and began following him
obsessively. When I got in contact
about doing some Dialysis art and sent him some rough concepts he was on
board. As it turns out he’s a
Buffalo, NY native, was probably hanging around punk shows the same time as I
was when I lived there, and even played in a band that I more than likely booked
on at least one occasion. Needless
to say, it was a good fit and he did an amazing job. The rest of the art I took care of and was pleased with how
things turned out. Our friend
Chris Reilly took some very staged pictures that may not resonate as well these
days what with mass shootings and all, but honestly I was going for some weird
spy sort of thing. I think it’s
really unique and amusing.
So since this is a very personal record for me I
decided to do a song-by-song breakdown of the record rather than any sort of
interview thing. Dialysis, “Pretty
Men” is a very satisfying listen for me, which is rather tough for any person
involved in music to say. We’re
all our own worst critics. But I
enjoy this one. Oh, and since
moving in October 2017 Dialysis has played at least 10 shows. Sure, most of them have been in the
Northeast when I go back to visit.
But I got the guys to come out the Northwest for 4 shows in May 2019 and
it was pretty much the best trip ever.
So, yeah, we’re still a band because it’s fun. Here’s the self-involved thing about the record:
PRETTY
MEN: I pretty much wrote this
one. John and Matt came up with
the ending by just bullshitting around and I gave them the framework for the
arrangement, citing “Arctic” by 108 as the basis. The hang-up signal sample is lifted from Cherubs doing the
same thing on “Stag Party”. The
opening noise bit we wanted to aim for the same opening as “100%” by Sonic
Youth, but far more wild. The
saxophone part I wanted to shoot for Morphine, “Honey White” by just hammering
on that one key. The meat of the song
I wrote with that guitar riff and the pick slide in the chorus. Just going for a ripping hardcore song
with a ton of random reference points.
My favorite opener we have and a diatribe that just because men may run
the world look at all the horrible shit that has resulted because of that. “There’s no pretty men.” Matt’s joke of an album title once again
becomes fodder for my weird brain.
HARD
SHAPES: Another bullshitting thing
that Matt and John did that I encouraged them to roll with. Matt’s drumming in the opening sounds
like “Burster” from All Else Failed, but I’m pretty sure Matt has never heard
that band. The rest is total
Gravity Records/Sonny Kay/VSS/Angelhair worship. I even did the vocal effect for it based on Sonny Kay’s
vocal style and wrote lyrics in the vein of something that could be on one of
his records. A good second track,
1-2 punch of the weirder stuff we do.
I love how it works out.
THAT’S
WHEN I REACH FOR MY EVOLVER: I’d
had this song title in my back pocket for a year or two before it had lyrics
and music. I just love Mission Of
Burma. The rest is just standard
Dialysis fare though. This was
written fairly early in the process of creating the record. I think I helped arrange the simplicity
of the main riff, encouraging John to keep it just these short bursts of guitar
while Matt just blasted away.
Also, we really wanted to use a George Carlin sample somewhere and this
fit pretty well.
MESSAGE
TO MYSELF, MYSELF: The whole time
we were writing we were trying to think of a running theme of interludes, or
skits, for the record. I wanted
something as good as both De La Soul’s “3 Feet high and Rising” and “…Is Dead”,
mixed with some of the more absurd, genre-crossing insanity found on Spazz
records. Plus, we needed to
somehow exploit Matt’s endless stream of weird voices and characters he
does. So it became answering machine
messages that don’t tie together necessarily, aside from being messages. I think it was a Gangstarr track that
was all answering machine messages that finally sealed it for me as the thing
to do. So this one, which I
neglected to list in the proper track order, has Matt’s weirdo ‘Myself’ persona
doing whatever it is that makes us laugh for no good reason.
ISHKABIBBLE: I just really like that word. So I had to build lyrics around it somehow. I think I first came across the word in an Al Columbia comic maybe? Messed around with the sax bit written for it after John came up with the main riff. To me it sounded like an Every Time I Die bit but John pointed out that it was basically Tom Petty, “Runnin’ Down a Dream”.
QUEST
FOR INFINITY: We brought this back
from our first demo. It’s very
progg-y to me, but that’s all Matt’s insane drumming. He owns this one.
MASS
DIE OFF ENGAGE: I wanted to have
one of those songs where almost every other line is the chorus, but “Mass die
off engage” is the best I could come up with. Still, it’s a decent Dialysis standard. Short, easy, mean. Another early one in the writing
process.
MAYBE
HIS NAME IS A KILLING WORD: The
title is a Venture Brothers quote that is referencing “Dune”. It’s a reference within a reference. Feel free to hate me at any point, but
I love doing shit like that. We
finished this right before we went to record and have never played it live. I recall John came in with this
punk/melodic thing, which I’m usually lukewarm to. But it works and I dig it. Plus, it’s another title I was itching to use. Matt knows how to work in a good punk
beat and he added these awesome cymbal catches at the end, which solidified my
opinion that it was a keeper. I
always wanted to add one of those Ramones-esque “Hey! Hey! Hey!” things and I
found an opening for that here and went for it.
COLONY
COLLAPSE: This was written while I
was out of town somewhere. I come
back and they have this Quicksand sort of clunky post-hardcore thing written
that is totally out of line for Dialysis stuff. I couldn’t think of lyrics for it so I thought it would make
a good side A closer as an instrumental, as well as a good dumping ground for
saxophone stuff (which John claims sounds like the Inspector Gadget theme) and
a ton of samples I wanted to use.
The saxophone is questionably OK in my opinion. When we mixed this John was zooted on
flu medication and completely lost his shit when the samples of bees were
incredibly loud and dominating the mix.
We reined it in and added a couple little bits from “Raising Arizona”,
one of my favorite movies ever.
XOXOUXO: We needed a monster to open up the B-side. I wrote a total Iron Lung rip off to do this. It’s total Iron Lung worship. I borrowed a Clutch lyric too. Thankfully, Matt added some insane drumming to keep it from being complete copyright infringement and makes it a bit more our thing. In the studio they altered the ending to add a very Sepultura, “Territory” mosh part that worked out great. Matt threw in an Ed Gein drum part during the first break. I lifted a line from Coalesce, “Simulcast” at the end.
ANDREW
WEIGHS IN: A few years back I went
to a very metal-leaning Big Day In Fest in Ithaca. John wanted to go but he bailed. While there Andrew from Tombs/Bleak/Twin Lords approached me
and wondered why John wasn’t present.
He pretty much got mad because he didn’t show so he wanted me to record
a video of him chewing John out and send it to him. We thought it was so funny we felt we needed to use it on
the record and not tell him.
HEADLINES
IN RED: John came in with this
ripping thrash riff. I came up
with the simple chorus riff. The
guys added the black metal style thing at the end. Usually I’d put the kibosh on that, but in this case the
song was so fast, thrashy, and violent it worked to just up the ante for the
finish. The lyrics were written
right after I’d read “Trust Me I’m Lying” about media influence and
sensationalized news. Then, a few
months later, ‘fake news’ enters the lexicon in a way meant to discredit
legitimate news. However, the
lyrics I wrote are meant to attack sensationalized news that uses ‘might’,
‘possibly’, and ‘maybe’ to hype up headlines where the actual story is just
hyperbole. Vocal/lyrical
lifts: Rob Fish’s vocal inflection
from 108 “Opposition” on the line, “Common sense cannibalism”. The chorus is a direct quote/lift from
Drive Like Jehu’s “Super Unison”.
GREASING THE WHEELS OF SALVATION: There were some songs leftover from my old band No Idols that we never recorded. Some of the lyrics and titles were good so I finally gave them a home. The music is completely different. John wrote the track, which is slow for Dialysis. Big Turmoil influence here, at least we thought so. It’s slow, moshy, and chaotic. I gave him some direction for the pause in the middle and at the end for just the vocals and feedback.
MESSAGE
FROM THE BEATBOX: We are also
obsessed with using samples from “Police Academy” (see the opening of “Mass Die
Off Engage”) and hip-hop (see Spazz’s use of grimey hip-hop samples for chaotic
effect). I took the bit from
Jonesy and turned it into an answering machine message.
BACTERIAL
MIND: Another unused No Idols
title/lyrics, influenced by the Deadguy school of fuck work, kill your boss
kind of stuff. I’m pretty sure
this song went through a bunch of alterations before we settled on a very
Slayer-esque thrash thing that fit pretty well into our normal schtick.
CANCELLATION
PRIZE: I had a super suicidal
moment before writing this. That’s
tough to say. I wouldn’t say I
have depression issues, however, living in a place that totally comes with
Seasonal Affect Disorder, plummeting Vitamin D levels, and an almost constant
dark cloud in the sky it’s tough to dodge that bullet. Anyway, I thought I should document it
so I know to keep myself in check if need be. So I wrote the song and thought, ‘this ought to be played on
bass.’ With Matt’s contribution it
had a sort of Neurosis, “Eye”- meets- Today Is the Day, “Hermaphrodite” slow
burner feel, mixed with some Rollins Band ‘lonely guy’ kind of lyrics. I’m pretty sure I’d be totally OK if we
never played this live. I think it
just needed to be made and documented.
Plus, it’s funny that people give us shit for not having a bass player
so we wrote a song that was all overwhelming bass and no guitar. Also, Matt totally wanted to use that
Ren and Stimpy ‘history eraser button’ sample somewhere and what better place
than a completely morbid song like this?
No matter how serious we can get we have to add levity to things in this
band.
MATT
SAYS YO: I had another beat box
sample I wanted to use and Matt made this other ridiculous vocal sample so we
combined the two into another answering machine message.
LAUGH
TRACK FACTORY: During our
recording session for the Bleak split the guys wrote a song on the fly that I
had to come up with lyrics for on the spot and we called it “Cat Magnet.” We did nothing with it. It was more total Slayer worship. And early in the writing process for
this record we came up with a song I called “Laugh Track Factory” that went
through a bunch of revisions before we totally forgot it and abandoned it. So we brought back “Cat Magnet” and I
used the lyrics for “Laugh Track Factory” instead, and that was that. The opening line is lifted from
Sweetbelly Freakdown’s “Pleas To the Action Figure”. The line, “Cops are out to lunch” is an ode to KARP’s “Bacon
Industry”.
SPIT
TAKE: Another Ren and Stimpy
sample. Great stuff. This is the first song we wrote for the
album, basically right after “Abastab” was done. There was a great collaboration effort on making the chorus
an ode to Helmet. Riffy.
UGLY
PEOPLE: John came up with this
ripper. I feel like it’s a
well-crafted simple burner. This
was, lyrically, an all-out vicious attack on the hysteria right after the 2016
election, and written right before we hit the studio. I kind of thought about how immediate the lyrics were and
reconsidered using them. But then
I thought that it’s good to document what’s happening in the here and now. So years later I can look back and
remember that this is the frame of mind that the state of the world put me
into, regardless of whether the names and references within the lyrics are
completely irrelevant or not.
Lyrically, there is inspiration from Sonic Youth, “Youth Against
Fascism”. It’s also a tie-in to
the opening track with the title, and sort of wrapping up that idea/theme of
idiots ruining things. John found
a great Bobcat Goldthwait sample (he’s a Syracuse native ya know!) to close
things out. It worked
perfectly. Of course, we had to
add the “Firestorm” bit at the end, because, ya know, Syracuse. It’s now a tradition to do so.
Hopefully that kept your attention long enough to make it down here to this week's deal. You know the drill- $4 CDs/downloads, and $5 LPs. You can score that HERE. But also, there's this deal for all of Dialysis' material- that's 2 7"s, one split 7" and the LP for $22. So try that on for size! Get that one HERE.
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