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Superfecta was unofficially released on December 15, 2007 when I received the CDs in the mail and started handing them out at the grand opening of the Topanga Roadhouse. It was recorded entirely at Small Studio (which doubles as small apartment) in Topanga, CA from 2006-2007.

The songs were written at various times. “Santa Cruz” was written around eight years ago when I was still living in San Francisco. Tim Lyons and I stayed down in Santa Cruz for a weekend with some old friends of his. The girl we stayed with lived in a little place outside of town that apparently used to be living quarters for the migrant workers who farmed the coastal fields. About 100 yards behind the house was a train track and about a half mile beyond that on the other side of an artichoke field was the Pacific. I wrote the song with Tim on bass on the back deck after a mid-day skinny dip in the chilly pacific. I probably still have that mini-disc recording somehwere. I’ll try to find it. We met some nice hobos on that trip. Real life train hoppers. Had a zine and everything. Who knew?

“The Parting” was written shortly after my grandmother Helen died. The last time I saw her we were visiting her at the nursing home in Mt. Zion. She and I were alone on her bed talking about her life. She had dementia at the end, so the conversation was strange and abstracted. Some of it is included word for word in the lyrics to the song.

“Big Storm Coming” was written when I was in New Zealand for the 2000 election. I wasn’t there because of the election (it was just a coincidence) but looking back, I probably should have stayed down there. Anyhow, I lived on a farm on the Banks penninsula for a week or so with about 6 other people. We swam with Hector’s dolphins and drank and bottled home brew. Sheep roamed everywhere. There was talk of a big storm coming for about four days. We were consumed by it. And it was a hell of a storm when it came. I saw a guy throw a dead sheep off a 200 foot cliff into the ocean during that visit. Very impressive.

A large part of the recording inspiration for the record came during the Nights of Monday sessions in the fall/winter of 2006/2007. Brendan and I set out to record a song every week and to release those songs as an album. We got together on Monday nights and drank Tecate and recorded. “Shiny Gold Boxes” was recorded in this spirit, fast and free. I wrote the song driving around Topanga after sifting through the contents of my po box one afternoon.

“Membrane Universe” was written when I was trying to write another song. At some point I decided to bring in Riley Martin for the spoken word track. For those of you not familiar with Friend Riley, he has a radio show on Howard 101 (Sirius) on Tuesday nights. It’s a call in show where he answers questions about his multiple alien abductions. I spent countless hours trying to situate his part in the song just right. I knew I was obsessing, but I couldn’t help myself. I almost gave up on this one several times, but I’m glad I didn’t.

“Chicken Car” was written when Darby, Nate, and I were playing as Fellow Travelers. I don’t remember writing it at all, but I must have been nostalgic for home because the Kreckle’s Chicken Car found its way in somehow. You could rent that thing and take it to prom (if you were cool), but I never did (because I wasn’t). I remember playing this on Darby’s front deck with Mike playing a pretty mandolin break in the middle. We all miss you, Mike. This was the last song I recorded, and I practiced the guitar and vocals a lot since I couldn’t hide anything with weird sonic textures.

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