ds150

iTunes Single: The Hottest Day

Disaster Fantasies
Independent 2010

Now available on VINYL which comes with a full length CD inside. in Toronto at Criminal Records 493 Queen St W 416-364-5380 and in Montreal at Sonik 4050 rue Berri 514-288-2113, Aux 33 Tours1379 avenue Du Mont-Royal Est 514-524-7397, Cheap Thrills2044 Metcalfe 514-844-8988, and anywhere else if you order it. You can buy it online at Outside and at ZUNIOR

Available on iTunes

Here's a link to a single on iTunes: The Hottest Day

Order from Outside Distribution

1. Public Safety Management
2. Always on My Mind
3. No Form - listen!
4. Rape During Wartime
5. Breathe In
6. The Hottest Day
7. The Spirit of Radio
8. News of Her Death
9. I Know Dullness - listen!
10. Throw Me In The Water
11. Spider
12. Watershed

credits

© 2010 Selina Martin. All rights reserved.

All songs by Selina Martin © 2010 SOCAN
except The Spirit of Radio (Geddy Lee/Alex Lifeson/Neil Peart), and Throw Me in the Water (Selina Martin/Rusty Martin).

Produced by Chris Stringer
Mixed by Chris Stringer.
Mastered by Joao at Joao Carvalho Mastering.
Vinyl mastering by Stan Ricker.

Layout: Chris Peters
Cover illustration: Martin Tielli
Photo:  Ivan Otis
Thank you to Chris Stringer, Annelise Noronha, Michael Phillip Wojewoda, Linda Martin, David Brown, Chris Peters, David Celia, Wayne Ward, Dave Bidini, Dale Morningstar, Martin Tielli, Mendelson Joe, Caitlin Veitch, Shauna de Cartier, Talking Heads, Instant Klazzix.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the
Ontario Arts Council
an agency of the Government of Ontario

smbw

oac

Players & Lyrics

1. Public Safety Management
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals
Annelise Noronha – guitars
Doug Friesen – bass
Josh Van Tassel – drums
Chris Stringer – guitars, synth, tambourine
Martin Tielli – guitars

Blind man with frozen features
Sing high your flowered speeches.
Stand tall and they will follow
Hungry, ready to swallow.
Brace yourself for a subtle
Shift from private to public.
They come with altered landscapes,
dead eyes & wooden handshakes.

I feel it right to my toes, oh.  It sits right under your nose, oh. I've got the impulse to go, oh.
I've missed the last train.  I'll make my own way home.  oh-oh.

Think tanks of shifting justice.
Face masks, gunpoint discussions.
Safeguard your smokes & chocolate
In trap doors & hidden pockets.

I feel it coming for miles, I.  It's just a new sense of style, I. You've got a reason to hide, I.
Including but not limited to everything inside.
oh-oh.

Blind man, blind man, can't see, can't see my escape plan. We've gotta get out of here.  We've gotta get out of here.  We've gotta get out of here. But the only road I see is cold & long, and built on bones of those who've gone ...

Slide down, down the embankment.
Wait there while I untangle it.
Lead line from hidden branches.
Shed tears, but don't think twice about it.

I feel it right to my toes, oh.  It sits right under your nose, oh. I've got the impulse to go, oh.
I missed the last train.  I'll make my own way home.  oh-oh


.Always On My Mind
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals, saw
Annelise Noronha – accordion
Chris Stringer – guitars, synth
Josh Van Tassel – drums
Doug Friesen – bass, trombone
Brodie West - saxophone
Julia Hambleton – bass clarinet, ‘A’ clarinet
Jack Breakfast – piano
Martin Tielli – guitar

Say a little word to me and make me want to follow you.
You could tell me what to do and I won’t think twice.
Look at me just once and I’m filled with so many colours. You’re always on my mind, always on my mind, that’s all.

I dance like a mascot, you cough like emphysema, and it feels like heaven when you’re around.
You say, “Hey, sweet thing, why you working so hard?  You won’t get much for your trouble”.
But you’re always on my mind, always on my mind, that’s all. You’re always on my mind, always on my mind, that’s all.

Tell me, they can tell me that your kisses will erode me,
That it’s poison just to hold your hand.
Well I like the taste of bitter, and when your lips touch my lips I shiver and You’re always on my mind, always on my mind, that’s all. You’re always on my mind, always on my mind…

I’ll stick with you until I become lonely and cruel as the ones you love. Lonely and cruel until I get mine.  I’ll be your fool ‘til the end of time.

Oh, you’re so cold.  Don’t make my heart old.  Don’t leave me alone here. Stay with me, my hands are warm, I’ll melt you down like butter.

Cuz you’re always on my mind, always on my mind, that’s all. You’re always on my mind, always on my mind, that’s all. You’re always on my mind, always on my mind, that’s all.

I will grow a woman’s thighs around you while you’re unaware. I will hold you tight with them ‘til you’re no longer there.

Recording
Disaster Fantasies

I love recording.   It’s the final pinnacle of years (for me) of distilling ideas: melodic & lyric & rhythmical. I get to invite people who I trust & who’s talent I believe in to bring their expertise & personality to my songs. Inevitably I fall in love a little bit with everyone who plays on my recordings.
Sessions for Disaster Fantasies began mid October 2009 with Josh Van Tassel (aka Josh Fan Tastic) laying down the drum beds.  Doug Friesen, who’s been playing with me for the past 3 years or so, added electric bass to Public Safety Management, Always On My Mind, Rape During Wartime, & The Hottest Day.  Doug’s such an imaginative player.  I am amazed at some of the stuff he brings to the tunes.  Chris Stringer played bass on the rest of the songs, except for Watershed.  Stringer is a very gifted musician as well as an outstanding producer/engineer/mixer. 

And of course long time collaborator & friend Annelise Noronha played accordion & added some superlative guitar licks.  Then it was time for a bunch of excellent & exceptional friends to add touches of brilliance: Jack Breakfast on piano, Martin Tielli on guitars, Julia Hambleton on clarinets, Laura Barrett on kalimbas, Brodie West on saxophone, and Doug Friesen came back in to add trombone.  Throughout the recording process I played a bunch of guitars, keys, musical saw & wine glasses.  Stringer also played a big pile of guitars & keys & percussion.

Some of the songs include tracking from the original demos I made on a digital 8-track recorder working at home and also with sometime collaborator Martin Tielli.  There were some really exciting moments & oddball drum loops on these demos that I didn’t want to lose.

Michael Phillip Wojewoda, who is a good friend & brilliant music producer, was kind enough to set me up in his studio for a couple of weeks around Christmas time so I could experiment with vocals: mostly harmonies & counterpoint vocals, but I practiced & recorded some leads also in the privacy of MPW’s coach house studio.   Also it was there that I recorded the organ for Breathe In & The Hottest Day

Annelise, a tremendous friend/collaborator/player/producer/engineer, recorded my lead vox for The Hottest Day and Spider, as well as recording Jack Breakfast on piano and her own accordion tracks.

Watershed was a last minute addition to the album.   I wrote it as a segue but it ended up being a better ending.  News of Her Death, which is a song about the loss of my longtime best friend, was initially axed from the record for compatibility reasons, but I didn’t want to let it go so I rewrote & reworked it in time to record it from top to bottom in the last week.  Otherwise that last week in the studio was mostly devoted to Stringer making me sing leads till I almost puked.

I ended up removing two tunes from the vinyl version of this recording so that there would be enough room per side to make it a really good sounding piece of vinyl.  Vinyl comes with a disc anyway, so LP purchasers get the missing tracks on the cd.

     I think collaborating with Chris Stringer was perfect for this collection of songs.  He seemed to know exactly how to realize my ideas, and the ideas he brought to the table were somehow intuitively perfect. This album is my most hard rocking & most accessible to date.


MPW said something like “it feels a bit like Liz Phair, but with better production”.


Dave Bidini emailed this: " yr disc … is very deep and great-sounding and holy rockingoutability. Lots of sad, angry, beautiful moments, like trashcan Joni Mitchell, and sometimes even like the Eurythmics, in a really good way. The 'Breathe In' song is something else, and I love 'Rape During Wartime,' of course. Really, I think it's a classic record, one that you seem somehow born to have made."

 

Globe & Mail Review

Globe & Mail article re: Rush

 

Exclaim Magazine
By Eric Hill

The flurry of pop punches that introduces Miss Martin's third album jellies up the knees, so when the suggestion to "Breathe In" comes around on track five, that's basically all you can do. Her "Can rock" guitar attack is backed by a fine storytelling ear for detail and savvy avoidance of the traffic merge that strands other female artists in the carpool lane. Time spent working with Dave Bidini and Martin Tielli on the Five Hole Band's Tales of Hockey Erotica transfers over in the form of brave studio experimentation. Vocal layering, singing saws and wine glasses, plus guest kalimba by Laura Barrett, take many tracks into a nice twilight zone of sound. The little wink to the Talking Heads on "Rape During Wartime" is a masterful dissimulation of the political into the party, another of her skill sets. And for pure Canadiana, what could be cooler than a fragile, jazzy take on "Spirit of the Radio"? Insert boho finger-snapping sounds here.

 

http://www.lithiummagazine.com/selina-martin-–-disaster-fantasies-cd-review

 

 


No Form
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals
Chris Stringer – guitars, bass, synth
Josh Van Tassel – drums, cowbell

I've got nothing up my sleeve, I've got nothing.
Sling-shot, switchblade comb, rubber band gun, nothing.
Check my pocket there’s an empty locket with a dead inscription to the queen of no subject.
Give a little notion, I've got no form.

Take my pulse if you can clock it keeps me cold, it's slow but constant.
I just need a store to shop in fill my bucket light my rocket.
A dormant seed, like a leafless tree,
Give a little notion, I've got no form.

I am stone cold but I will not fold.

Lie in state in endless wait for something.
Nothing sexy crossed my mind this morning.
Pass a little brush ‘cross toothless teeth.
Don’t look in the mirror ‘cuz there’s nothing there to see.
Give a little notion, I've got no form.

Take this much it ain’t much all I’ve got is nothing no form, no form.

Bobby, he’s an ordinary man.
He opened a bistro down in the Bahamas, now he don’t bother me anymore.
He’s an ordinary man…

 


Rape During Wartime
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals
Annelise Noronha, - guitars
Doug Friesen – bass
Chris Stringer – guitars, Mini Moog
Josh Van Tassel – drums
Martin Tielli – guitars

I'm going out for some fun, with my loaded gun
Me in my bloody shoes kicking the blame on you.
I'm like a man on the town, I know what trickles down
I've got a quiet place to take my absent heart and your female face.

This ain't no party, oh no.  This ain't no party, oh no. This ain't no party, oh no. This ain't no party, oh no.

Oh invisible one you never have any fun.
Put your dress shoes on, we'll dance all night long.
And you can give us a smile and you can show us some leg
And you can get off your throne and you can get on my face.
And I was born with a gun, concealed with my pants on
There'll be redemption for none, I'll take you all down one by one.

This ain't no party, oh no.  This ain't no party, oh no. This ain't no party, oh no.  This ain't no party, no foolin' around.

I fall down, I'm still awake.  I fall down, I'm still awake.  I fall down, I'm still awake.

I'm going out for some fun with my loaded gun 'cuz they took my mind & they took my stake and they fed me lines and they fed me cake & I cross the line & I make you pay & they close their eyes & they look away.

I fall down, I'm still awake.  I fall down, I'm still awake.   I fall down, I'm still awake. 
This ain’t no party, oh, no.
Oh no.  Oh no.  Oh no.
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.


Breathe In
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals, Wurlitzer, Lowrey organ
Annelise Noronha – accordion
Chris Stringer – guitars, bass, Wurlitzer, Mini Moog, tambourine
Josh Van Tassel – drums
Julia Hambleton – bass clarinet

You fall into my arms like a landslide,
like a mile-wide crumble.
Take my humble advice, be a mountain.

Streamlined willow arms can hold a heavy load:
a wheelbarrow, a tractor pull, a semi full of shame.

Breathe in, breathe in, feels like dreaming, feel it.

A nocturnal animal, those sharp claws
climb the walls. 
Domesticated feral raccoon in the city.
Oh you’re sweet as alcohol spilled on the bar
from last night's party celebrating and berating those who feed you.

All this shy and lone behaviour waiting for the walls to cave in in suspended animation.
Breathe in, breathe in, feels like dreaming, feel it.

If you need a spine, I don't use mine.
It's made of homemade wine, it's see-through
and it bends with time & pressure.
I don't need it, I don't need it.
Tap it with your teeth and bleed it.
Drain me like a sangria.

Breathe in, breathe in, feels like dreaming, feel it.
Breathe in, breathe in, sink my teeth in, feel it.
Breathe in, breathe in, feeling seamless, feel it.
Breathe in, breathe in, feel my weakness, squeeze it.


The Hottest Day
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals, Lowrey organ
Doug Friesen – bass
Annelise Noronha – guitar
Chris Stringer – guitars
Josh Van Tassel – drums

On the hottest day in the world I said to you a little word.
I didn't mean to get so lonely that you could see inside my bones.
It always goes high then low.  You're my friend and then my foe.

It's a curse, it's the curse, and I did it on purpose.
It was bad but you made it worse.
You're so mean, you're so mean so I did it on purpose,
just to see if you could be lonely too.

So hot so hot so hot so hot so hot …

I whispered it but I said it clear.  It lives in air inside your ear
If you listen now you can hear the pressure ticking out from inside my lungs.
You always go so fast then slow.  I can't keep up or I just keep going.

It's a curse, it's the curse, and I did it on purpose.
It was bad but you made it worse.
You're so mean, you're so mean so I did it on purpose,
just to see if you could be lonely too.

Waiting for the storm.  I'm waiting for loneliness to pour
on the hottest day I know.  This is the hottest day I know.

So hot so hot so hot so hot so hot ...

I wasn't bad, but it wasn't good.  You didn't cry, but I wish you would.
I'm afraid of you as you ought to be of me, with my sticks and stones.
Time has pushed as far as it can go, and the sun's still high.

It's a curse, it's the curse, and I did it on purpose.
It was bad but you made it worse.
You're so mean, you're so mean so I did it on purpose,
just to see if you could be lonely too.


The Spirit of Radio
Selina Martin – guitar, vocals
Chris Stringer – guitar, bass
Jack Breakfast – piano
Laura Barrett – kalimba
Josh Van Tassel – drums

 


News of Her Death
Selina Martin – guitar, vocals, wine glasses, saw
Laura Barrett - kalimba
Chris Stringer – vibraphone keys, bass, tambourine

Silent & white as the moon is the world, as the world is in wintertime, oh.
Far in the distance, I’d hear your voice, if not for all of this snow.
Oooooooooh.

Silence is stronger than loudness but broken more easily.  Easily.
Whiteness is all of the colours together apparently, surrounding me. 
As far as the eye can see.

Nothing comes but something leaves me hanging there.
Me & echoes of departure in the air.   

And time goes by without blinking, ‘cuz it doesn’t know.
And past tense feels so sickening and hollow.
And the landscape’s changed but I’m not afraid, just alone.
It comes down down down, like it’s dreaming.

And I didn’t think you were leaving.  As far as you’ll ever go. 
As far as you’ll ever go.
And it’s cold, like a blanket, like a blanket, it’s cold like a blanket of snow.


I Know Dullness
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals
Josh Van Tassel – drums
Martin Tielli – guitars
Jack Breakfast - piano
Chris Stringer – bass

And I know Dullness, he's a man.
He's got a quiet voice, he's got a soft hand.
He's been following me home.
I will not let him in.
I am hiding from him.

And I can see him, the plain-clothed enemy.
I just met him but he's one of many.
Secret handshakes they've got 'please & thank yous',
and they're sipping tea along with writing mandates.

And I know Dullness.  And I know Dullness.  Oooh.

And everyone who's on my street.  Ba bad a ba ba bad a.
Thinks they work for the police.
It's like a cold war.  It's hard to keep score.
Careful mittened fists keep pounding my door.

And I know Dullness.  And I know Dullness.  Oooh.

He seems like such a nice man, a secret little sick plan hidden in his eyes and victory in his smile.  Thinks he’s gonna celebrate a little more grey.
I can see the brush you paint with oh yeah.
Well I know Dullness, and I know Dullness, and I know Dullness, yeah I know Dullness.
Don't let him paint a little more grey, a little more grey, a little more grey...

 


Throw Me In The Water
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals
Annelise Noronha – accordion
Chris Stringer – guitars, synth bass
Josh Van Tassel – drums
Julia Hambleton – bass clarinet, ‘A’ clarinet

The day before the day I knew your name
I knew that we were both the same
I knew my heart was stolen.

And underneath the moon & stars
Ignoring all my battle scars
You held my hand until the morning.

If you throw me in the water I can swim.
If you throw me to the wind I can fly.
Build a little fire under my skin
And I’ll keep it alight.

Nights are like oceans, there’s room in my bed.
Climb on aboard and we’ll drift until dawn.
And you’ll always be mine and you won’t let it end.

If you throw me in the water I can swim.
If you throw me to the wind I can fly.
Build a little fire under my skin
And I’ll keep it alight.

Trace a line and plot a course
While empties pile up on the porch
Like memories in bottles.

We’ll master all the elements
When after what I give is spent
And I’ve got nothing to expect.

If you throw me in the water I can swim.
If you throw me to the wind I can fly.
Build a little fire under my skin
And I’ll keep it alight.  I’ll keep it alight.  I’ll keep it alight.

 


Spider
Selina Martin – guitars, vocals
Annelise Noronha – guitars
Chris Stringer – guitars, bass
Josh Van Tassel – drums

I used to have the patience of a spider.
Long skinny legs, spinnerets spinning webs
for a song a little bird with a sweet melody
now it's all gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone.

Was it you who made the earth spin faster?
Stars go bright, then supernova after.
Or they spin right down where I can't see
Till they're all gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone
gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone.

Make another coffee thick with sugar packed with leaving white with cream.
And take the car and drive to where the sky is wide and leave it all behind, this scene.

I don't mind the life out here.
Talking to the country store supermarket cashier
where everyone's in line for high alcohol beer
Till it's all gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone.
gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone.

Slow down.  Slow down.  Slow down


Watershed
Selina Martin – guitars, bass, vocals
Chris Stringer – guitars

Enter the hero.  Enter the hero.
Wearing his diamond soles.
He built a bridge over the watershed, built a bridge but made of glass,
left me with nothing but one’s & oh’s.

 


Selina Martin – vocals, guitars, bass, musical saw, wine glasses, Wurlitzer, Lowrey organ Chris Stringer – guitars, bass, synth, Wurlitzer, Mini Moog, percussion Annelise Noronha – guitars, accordion Doug Friesen – bass, trombone Josh Van Tassel – drums, cowbell Guest Musicians: Martin Tielli – guitars (tracks 1,2,4,9) Jack Breakfast – piano (tracks 2,7,9) Julia Hambleton – bass clarinet (tracks 2,5,10),  “A” clarinet (tracks 2,10) Laura Barrett – kalimba (tracks 7, 8) Brodie West – saxophone (track 2)


Produced & engineered by Chris Stringer at The Lincoln County Social Club (Toronto, Canada) with the following exceptions:
• piano & accordion recorded at Grayson Matthews by Annelise Noronha.
• lead vocals on Spider, The Hottest Day & the outro to Always on My Mind
produced and recorded by Annelise Noronha at Grayson Matthews.
• lead vocals for The Spirit of Radio, Throw Me In the Water and most backing vocals
recorded by Michael Phillip Wojewoda & Selina Martin at Box Office Poison.
• some tracking for I Know Dullness, Rape During Wartime & Watershed
recorded by Selina Martin & Martin Tielli at their apartments.
• organ on Breathe In & The Hottest Day recorded by Selina Martin at Box Office Poison.