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WESTERN EYES

by Western Eyes

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1.
2.
All Too Real 02:18
Advice I've been getting: give the whole thing up You'd better find better odds And play with a plot So I stare out the window day and night see the dirty milk crates A broken traffic light It's all too real My heart pounds with the pressure the drums bang in my head then a knife cuts through the Look what happened to Rita Hayworth Look what happened to the Lincoln Brigade This was never meant to be Masterpiece Theatre I know this isn't really what you want it to be It's all too real Tonight we'll call a truce The war goes on but I wake up with you It's a waste of my time to wait for the end It's not a scene I've rehearsed but I bleed real blood Give us one long look It may be your last Because propaganda for youth is a thing of the past I'm sick It's getting late While you're sleeping it off we're unloading the stuff Go
3.
4.
5.
Sacrifice 05:04
6.
7.
The other day when I got home There were strangers in my room They make me want what I don't want They make me wish I had it all Television rules And look what they have Feature stories of celebrity romance Is that what I want The fantasies that follow me everywhere I go Is based on another artificial world Another true-to-life show Television rules Feature stories of celebrity romance Is that what I want And when I start thinking that it's not so bad You remind me The promises I made in outer space All parachuted down behind me And look what they have Feature stories of celebrity romance Is that what I want Don't make me live by your television rules Now I don’t look at your picture When ‘m talking on the phone Now I don't really mean what I say When I say I'd rather be alone Television rules
8.
9.
No Less 03:30
NO LESS Today I paid someone to tell my fortune I'd pay them by the hour to bribe a few more years of hope My timing was off I quess I watched you cross the street You said I can't help you no more Let me make my mind up Don't slow me down You've forgotten how to laugh Don't go through this again Can't decide to pass i t by or try to go around I know it doesn't hurt you any less to know more Walking through Times Square ignoring ali my accosters Stuff this handbill in your pants and convince me they're imposters Minding my own business with my hands in my pockets Paper bullets don't scare me But what's this sad scene on the sidewalk Sorry lady You're too late We just sold your furniture It's not that important We just wanted to remind you state machinery's gearing up We're worried about the future's health I know it doesn't hurt you any less to know more Standing in line at the edge of a burea keep the guard dogs at a distance Police on every corer I'm still afraid of them I'm still afraid without them If that's the way you feel you're neversafe No need to worry What's all this fuss, it's just a validation I'm worried I'll confess to some unsolved crime Sorry mister You're too late Did you read the news today They caught the culprit living on the run-down West Side Last time I hurt myself This time I just can't win If compassion is a crime Persistence is a sin Pull yourself together Don't fight this war alone Somebody wake me up and I 'll know what side I'm on Landing on the beach Just a headline to ignore Paralysis has set in Systematic hate won't let up But where did I get off I don't know this neighborhood I know it doesn't hurt me any less to know more No less No more
10.
Your pieces of paper won't make them care You sing to a crowd who doesn't know how to hear My friends claim they're followed by electric eyes The ones we suspect are the ones we despise Convince me that it's not so bad Convince me that it doesn't mean a thing Convince me that all you ever need is twenty-four hour protection Saw a Bowery man lying on his side Pressed between the scandal sheets It's in your paper tonight Too many to deny There's ten-thousand men on the street So you close the bamboo curtain Spend another dollar on your self-destruction when you can't drink anymore you swim back to shore So what's all this talk about techno-precision What's all this talk about romanticism Models look good no matter what the fashion If the rich take an interest the rest can fake the passion Do you have a special pass I really have to ask Do vou wear vour credentials on a chain Are you on top of the trends or a security risk
11.

about

From the ashes of Tot Rocket and the Twins, Western Eyes was born. The name Western Eyes came from the title of a Joseph Conrad book. I worked a location sound job for German televison a while back, and Martin Amis was the subject. Under Western Eyes came up in conversation and I told him that I had used the name for my rock band. He seemed perplexed by this. After the demise of Tot Rocket we asked electronic music composer Nicolas Collins to help us make a record that utilized his home-made channel-gating and primitive digital delay looping setup and offered him a chance to radically deconstruct and re-assemble some of our songs. He did just that. There is an interview about this process included in the bonus material.

credits

released January 11, 2023

Bass – Ron Spitzer
Drums – Ed Steinberg, James Lo (tracks: A1 & B3), Michael Goglia (tracks: B6)
Guitar – Andrew Halbreich, Robert Poss
Harmonica – Andrew Halbreich
Lead Vocals – Robert Poss, Ron Spitzer
Vocals – Andrew Halbreich
Producer – Nicolas Collins
Engineer – Brian Unger, Julian Herzfeld, Miko Nelson
Design – Amy Bernstein
Mastered By – Alan Moy
Cultural Attaché – Susan Tallman
Photography By – Bill Jacobson, Mark Stern

Remix – Nicolas Collins


LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO RITA HAYWORTH
LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LINCOLN BRIGADE
THIS WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE MASTERPIECE THEATRE
I KNOW THIS ISN'T REALLY WHAT YOU WANT IT TO BE
IT'S ALL TOO REAL
MY HEART POUNDS WITH THE PRESSURE
THE DRUMS BANG IN MY HEAD
THEN A KNIFE CUTS THROUGH THE FILM

Recorded and mixed at Studio 37, Power Play Studios and Paris Studios

Remixed at Airshaft Studios by Nicolas Collins
Mastered at Masterdisc by Alan Moy

Front cover adapted from "Have You A Good Idea?" (1927) by Frank Beatty courtesy of Marvin Heiferman and Barbara Gladstone

Special thanks: Mark Stern, Douglas Simon (Studio Consultants, Inc.), Gerald Lindahl, Mimi Johnson (Lovely Records) and Ellen Poss

(P) & (C) 1984 Trace Elements Music (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved

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about

Robert Poss New York, New York

Composer and guitarist Robert Poss was a founding member of Band Of Susans,
 which Rolling Stone Magazine described as "adamantly arty, brainy,
 visceral and bracing." Tape Op
 Magazine described him as a “guitar genius, drone meister …the master
 of treated and manipulated guitars.” ... more

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