The Last Step is the closing chapter in the story of the characters first introduced in Evil Demon Weed, as told by City Council member, Tone Deaf.

Bob (the Pusher), Candy (the Evil Temptress), and Johnny (the Good Kid on the Path to Ruin) have been a big part of the growing Kicksville "mythology": they're featured on the cover on Enter the Flavor Hut, they're the thread that sews our live show together, and they're regulars in Tone Deaf's poetry.

When we last saw them, Johnny was taking his first puff of the Demon Weed, led on by Bob and his femme fatale, Candy. Now, as we catch up with them in The Last Step, Johnny has become a hopeless junkie, Candy has taken the Vows, and Bob has fallen into the depths of a drug-induced psychotic break. Fun for the whole family!

The Music
To paraphrase Frank Zappa, music without dissonance or tension is like eating cottage cheese. If that's the case, then The Last Step is the spiciest Pad Thai you ever had! Musically, this song owes a lot to Zappa's work with Captain Beefheart: check out the song Sam with the Showing Scalp Flat-top, and you'll see what we mean....

Citizens
cover art: "Monkey's Memento" by Tone Deaf
Conrad St. Clair: keys, programming
Mike Stehr: keys
Lou Caldarola: drum kit, percussion
Chris Huntington: guitar
Beaker: guitar
Tone Deaf: spoken word

This track marks the first appearance in Season 2 of City Council member, Aya Peard. According to Aya, Touch the Ground is about "...keeping your head down and wits about you.... It's a no-worries song: move forward, follow through, commit, and don't get trapped!"

We started working on Touch the Ground during production rehearsals for last summer's tour, which makes it one of the first songs we were able to write with the City Council all in one place at one time. We brought in Tim Gruber and Amir Alam to overdub some tasty extra bits, but the majority of the recording is pretty much the City Council, giving the track a very "live" feel.

The Music
The song is really built around the bass line - I started playing the progression, and everything else just fell in place on top. The bass on the final mix was actually recorded live (first take, too) as a scratch track for the initial sketch of the song. There might be a few minor clams, but overall the part had such a good feel it didn't make sense to re-track it. And although we've mentioned this before in Season 1, it certainly bears repeating: guitar + E-bow + Filter Factory = seriously hot aural action!

Citizens
cover art: "Pity the Foo" by Tone Deaf
Conrad St. Clair: bass, guitar, percussion, programming
Mike Stehr: percussion
Lou Caldarola: drum kit, percussion
Chris Huntington: guitar
Beaker: guitar
Aya Peard: vocals
Amir Alam: guitar
Tim Gruber: percussion

Fair warning: If you're easily offended, you probably shouldn't listen too closely to this song! Started as an homage to Ministry (one of The Mayor's biggest influences), Krankypants is crude and filthy, but seriously tongue-in-cheek. Krankypants, the song, features the secretly-taped mutterings of Krankypants, the man. Ironically, despite his gruff demeanor, Kranky is an amazingly sensitve, award-winning jazz pianist, arranger, and accordionist. He's easily one of the best improvisers I've ever worked with...or even seen for that matter. And on some level, that talent translates when he's telling his very un-PC stories - you might get a little disturbed, but they're funny as hell and told with a certain.....shall we say, "flair"

The Music
Here's a good drummer joke (and it's funny because it's true): We had recorded most of this song around a programmed drum part, but it just wasn't clicking. During one tracking session with Lou Caldarola, we played him the song and asked if he wanted to replace the programmed drums with a live part. Lou goofed around a bit, and ended up recording a few measures each of the four or so "standard" Ministry beats. We edited the tracks he cut, fit them into the song, and a few weeks later sent Lou a rough mix of the result. His response was: "I love this song - who played the drums? They're awesome!" He still doesn't remember tracking this song....

Citizens
cover art: "Mmm...yuck" by Tone Deaf
Conrad St. Clair: keys, programming
Mike Stehr: bass
Lou Caldarola: drum kit
Chris Huntington: guitar
Beaker: guitar
Tone Deaf: wow
Krankypants: voice samples