starfire - loosely based on the life of our friend, scott, who is a paramedic and pirate radio station owner. he's done more for the music scene in duluth than anyone. tried the strings on the recording on a whim. la la section at end is popular with children.

two-step - we had been working on this song off and on for 3 years. i had my own lyrics at one time and mim had some others at another time. finally we put both separate ideas together (she's singing hers and i'm singing mine.)

weight of water - mim won't talk about her lyrics, but i think this is about water. another fun string arranging experience.

missouri - written days before we went in to record. we were delighted when we found the wobbly guitar sound because it sounds like "if" by bread. albini laughed at us - fool. he'll come around some day.

don't understand - he stayed with us one summer, growing up on the farm.

soon - this song went through many versions before settling on this. very exciting hearing the strings for the first time after only hearing them in your head. some lines lifted from isaiah. has become one of our favorite songs to play live.

immune - song about being in this band (see "takin' care of business" by BTO or "don't ask me 'bout my business" by skynard.) wanted it to sound like "she said, she said" by the beatles. always is hard to play live.

lion/lamb - originally a guitarbassdrums song but thought we'd try something else. more biblical plagiarism.

days of. . . - originally called "watermark" but my lyrics stunk so mim took over.

will the night (2nd version) - thought we should do a coherent version of this song (see original version on ". . . pilot" e.p.). all strings was a challenge. maybe barbara streisand will cover it some day.

home - written (obviously) in just a few minutes. perhaps a little homage to the swans.

old man song - snare stabs from listening to the beach boys too much. forward and backwards guitar.

last breath - struggled with arrangement on this one. still don't know if it's all there. vocally challenging. some of my favorite lyrics.

unnamed instrumental (on vinyl secret name) - at the end of "lion/lamb" i was still mumbling and poking at the piano. we cut it off on mix-down, but thought it could fill a place somewhere. . .

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