A Blessed Explanation Liner Notes Appendix I compiled by Karl Your at-home guide to more deeply experiencing the first-ever Cubby CD, The Blessed Invention. 01 invocation of The Cubby Weaver plucked this from a Satyajit Ray film, astounded to discover that even in India, there are crowds chanting for The Cubby. 02 squeaking for satan This tune was originally written in the kitchen at Cubby Control; I think the squeaking was part of it from the start. This was shortly after the death of noted San Francisco Satanist Anton LaVey, and during a time when The Black Virgin held the inhabitants of Cubby Control most firmly under her spell (see Missalette #4). Not everyone has been completely comfortable with the presence of Satan amidst the Cubby revolution. We once sent a demo tape to a music festival organizer, and she sent it back to us with the message, "I never got past Squeaking for Satan. This is a family event!" 03 Up Song This happy ditty began in Dolores Park as Joel recorded his impressions of an Indian Summer evening. It soon evolved into a sort of tonic for end-of-the-world Y2K hype. On New Year's Eve, just minutes before the turn of the Millennium, Joel announced that we would never again play this song. However, we've already reneged on that promise, and no doubt will continue to play it. One lyric has been changed, however: "When Y2K comes, you'll lose all your cash," is now, "Well, Y2K came, and we still have no cash." 04 Amorphous Love song This song began in the kitchen the same day as Squeaking for Satan, though there's no demonic connection here. In my notebook, I have written that this song was originally called "Amorphous Mind Fuck," though no one else seems to remember that. Emily ran the board for the final mix. If you listen closely you'll hear a sitar in the very last section. 05 Message to John John Bill brought us up to Davis, CA, to the home of John Gustin, for a weekend recording retreat in July of '99. We arrived on a Friday night and recorded all day Saturday. On Saturday night we piled into our rented minivan and met John Vlahides at the Hyatt in Sacramento. (Johnny was still a Hyatt employee at the time and had secured a big suite for us to hang out in. We were tempted to wreck the room to prove our rock star status, but instead we drank free beer and, under Johnny V.'s guidance, caught up on a week's worth of The Bold and The Beautiful on the VCR.) Even though we'd only been away from home for a day, it seemed much longer, and so it was a big shock to turn on CNN and discover the media frenzy surrounding the disappearance of John Kennedy Jr.'s plane. The next day, back in Davis, we started jamming, and I took the microphone and warbled this off-key plea to the heavens. Alas, the Kennedy plane, with three corpses inside of it, was dragged up from the bottom of the sea a couple of days later. John-John is gone, but the Cubby message lives on. 06 sexual buddha We annexed the chord progression Joel came up with in Message to John John for the B part of this song, with a key change provided by Bill. The phrase "sexual buddha" came from Arianna Vasquez. It seemed right for the song. (PS - To correctly pronounce the title, listen to Joseph Campbell. It should sound something like "Sexual Bürr-dah") 07 Kathy had a Vision On Gay Day '99 in SF, Joel rode down the middle of Market St. as part of the Mikes on Bikes contingent, holding a microcassette recorder in the air to capture the cheering crowds. Weaver then took that recording and laid it behind a forgotten Cubby rehearsal jam and some samples from his voluminous vinyl collection. This is the result. 08 Mister Mister Mister It's hard to believe that the first-ever Cubby Rock Opera, The World of Tina, was staged almost two years ago. Mister Mister Mister was written for that show. It's sung by a chorus of naked baby doll people, as they implore a depressed guy named Astro, who has just crash-landed on their planet, to lead them to Tina, the mysterious ruler of their World. (In the show, Astro was played by Bill, who was not yet the Cubby keyboard player; Tina was played by Tristy Taylor, who, in the years since, has been ordained as The Rev. Myrtle Motivation, and might be found standing outside a BART station preaching The Word of The Cubby.) 09 Boys 'n' Barry Jam A Cubby rehearsal jam, resurrected especially for The Blessed Invention. If you're diligent, you'll find more of it hidden elsewhere. 10 Scratched By an Alien This probably deserves the distinction of being the very first Cubby Creatures song. It originally appeared on the Satanic Embryo 4-Track Adventure in the summer of 1997. At the time, the song had a different title: the name of the mothers of one of the four original Cubby Creatures. In the interest of domestic harmony, it has since been changed. This version was recorded in November '99. 11 Until The Quake Comes Another recording from our weekend at John Gustin's home in Davis. During those two days, we occasionally got a little worn-out by the long hours. Any time one of us got a wee bit testy, we'd take a break and head for The Green Belt, a park that bordered the back yard. There was tree climbing, cartwheeling and lots of running and jumping, often startling the Davis natives, who are, by and large, not a cartwheeling bunch. After we burned off the tension, we'd return to our makeshift recording studio refreshed and ready to go on. This "rock ballad" owes itself to The Green Belt. Recorded by Rico Dominguez, late of Dolores Haze, who has since packed up and followed his bliss to Austin, Texas, from where he occasionally transmits enigmatic electronic poetry. 12 (Everyone Be Nice To) Suzie I'm not sure anyone remembers where this song first started, though I remember that we first played it live at a gig in Adam Hervey's living room in Rohnert Park, CA. The last time we played it live was October '98, in the parking lot at the Motel Lanai on Lombard Street, as part of an art and music event called SAP. It was to have been the climax of The Telethon for the Benefit of Suzie, which we were supposed to have unveiled that day. For a variety of reasons too boring to regurgitate, the Telethon never happened. The original Telethon was epic in scale, involving a cast of dozens, film and video cues and a plot that hinged on fat-free potato chips and anal leakage. Some of us still get a terrible shudder when we think of the torturous Telethon rehearsals that dragged on through the summer and early fall of '98. Perhaps it was all a blessing in disguise, though, because here we are today, in the hopeful, harmonious '00s, when all history is ancient and every possibility lies ahead of us. The Telethon has been reborn in streamlined form, and Suzie, who has been lingering in her depressed state for a year and a half, will finally have her day. KMS, 2/29/00 close window