Litost (Feb. 2009)

"Litost is a Czech word with no exact translation into any other language. It designates...a feeling that is the synthesis of many others: grief, sympathy, remorse, and an indefinable longing. The first syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog. Litost is a state of torment caused by a sudden insight into one's own miserable self...It is one of the ornaments of youth...first comes a feeling of torment then the desire for revenge...unthinkable without a kind of passionate hypocrisy." -Milan Kundera
After getting entirely burnt out on playing "nice" music, i chose this as the theme of the next album. I was tired of the woozy acoustic ramblings that are so easy to stay at home in your apartment and record late at night...AKA the easy way out (even though traces remain on this album, namely "unsubst" and "shitty"). Seeing all the Fall, Country Teasers, The Rebel, Pere Ubu, etc. records I couldn't stop listening to at the time (and still), the nice soft acoustic approach seemed repulsive. I was sick of it anyway and made a clean(ish) break.
All i knew is what i didn't want it to sound like. The lyrics took a darker turn, i intended them to have a bit of silliness in the amount of negativity but i only recorded vocals when i was incredibly pissed off or confused by some outside factor, and once when i had diarrhea. The silliness was almost entirely lost (plus the phallic joke on the cover went unnoticed). One reviewer said it sounded like Tom Waits meets the Rollins Band. That reviewer was a fucking idiot.