@robert said in The Great Big Music Trivia Thread:

You and Me

Written 2000, released 2005

LH’s biggest hit, we likely all know, was written in the same few months as Hanging By A Moment — it began as a track called You, Me, and All of the People, written when Jason proposed to his now partner.

I didn't realize it was written that early on. It's a good thing they held off on releasing it. It definitely wouldn't have fit in with the rest of No Name Face!

Spin
Written 1997, released 2002
Spin began as an early poem of Jason’s, written near the beginning of the Blyss era but lacking a bridge — Ron Aniello helped him write one, turning it into a song and setting it up to be the first track off Stanley Climbfall.

I love, love, love the extended outro on Spin!

Wish

Written 2001, released 2015

I’ve mentioned this in past posts, but Wish was written in 2001 and demoed for Stanley Climbfall, before being shelved for over a decade. Jason began working on the song again in 2012 for Paper Cuts, and finished that version of the song in 2013. The band once again totally overhauled the song for OOTW, and we are blessed with three versions of a fan favourite.

2001: Best. Version. 😆

Storm
Written 1997/1998, released 2007
Storm was initially featured on Diff’s Lucky Day, and wasn’t played in concert until it was requested at the Cleveland House of Blues in May 2005. Jason played the song there, and began to incorporate it into his set once in a while, and the band ultimately tracked the song in 2007 while finishing Who We Are.

The Blyss version of "Storm" is magic. One of the best tracks on Diff's Lucky Day in my opinion. The lead guitar during the intro set up this dreamy, floating-on-the-water feeling that pulled you in and set the tone for what was to come. His vocals at this point were so sincere and raw it felt like you were standing in the midst of what he was going through. I've never been a big fan of the re-recordings for Storm or Wish because I felt they lacked that raw emotion and were over-engineered but I'm glad there are these other versions. Not everyone connects to a song the same way and these songs are too incredible to miss.

Barely survivng has become my purpose / 'Cause I'm so used to living underneath the surface

After spending the past couple of weeks listening to Gresham again, I definitely see this song in a new way.

The songs I can think of are "Exhale" and "Shiny Silver Beast". Both were written around the yellow record (or before?). They were originally shared on the original LHF site sometime between May 2003 and May 2006 (Wayback Machine doesn't have that gap sadly). As we know, "Exhale" was released in 2015 as a bonus track for OOTW and "Shiny Silver Beast" was recorded in 2013 for Paper Cuts but not released until 2017.

I always assumed these were related to the Dear Mr. Tumnus project but I have no reason to believe it was true. The song names "Porcelain Mask", "Dear Mr. Tumnus", "White Witch", "Shiny Silver Beast" and "Exhale" all seemed to fit together at the time.

Does anyone have some high resolution concert photos from the SCF era? Looking to use them on the website and credit will be provided!

@snowfist Good way to put it. The music itself wasn't bad but the lyrics read more like generic filler... similar to a few tracks on S&M.

@robert No worries! I've been checking in from time to time but everyone gets busy. That's the nice part of this community and a large part of why I wanted to preserve it. We don't all get on and post every day but we all do end up coming back when we can.

Did some Googling on "casting pills" to see if that meant anything and stumbled upon this proverb from dictionary.com:

Do not waste good things on people who will not appreciate them. This proverb is adapted from a saying of Jesus from the Gospels, “Cast not pearls before swine.” Jesus appears to be warning his disciples to preach only before receptive audiences.

With that, I'm thinking:

You feel your senses back online
It's not coming from a pill
No casting pearls before the swine
As the suits drown in the swill

It "sounds" like it matches but I'm not sure I understand the context if it's correct.

My attempt at lyrics for a few tracks (in addition to yours @shawn, which I agree with; things I'm feeling more unsure of are italicized :)

Limelight Parade:
All these smiles look afraid
All these miles of masquerade
And all the while we've been played
In a sea, blue and grey (?)
Feel all spotlights (?)
Turning shadows

Welcome to some limelight parade

Young Bloods:
Young bloods, no one feels like letting down (?)
Running for the exit signs,
Tryin' find a new (lost love)
Young bloods,
Tryin' show the world what you're made of
Old kicks tryna make the climb, tryin' find a new (lost love)

A Couple Runaways:
We'll been running down the ghost town
Feelin' like we are close now
The coast is all clear
Watching the world disappear
Yeah, you're my kinda trouble
Yeah, we're both on the level

@robert said in Time Machine lyrics & discussion:

That line is hard for me too... I've resolved to singing "bury them in the sand or just Italy" and move on :grin:

That's hilarious! That's exactly what I heard as well. I'm going to try and figure this one out though!

@snowfist said in Time Machine lyrics & discussion:

On a another note, I would love if Jason could give some comments on this collection of songs like he did with Paper Cuts

I would love this! I think this would be more likely if he were to ever tour ... I can think of a great band he could open for! :grin:

@shawn Yeah, that release was a really special one. They went all-out; Flight came out in November and blew everyone’s minds, then Hurricane and the track list in January, the album art contest, releasing Wish as the third promo single, and then releasing four versions of the album (standard, iTunes deluxe, Target deluxe, and Collector’s + tin) with different songs in each. I too bought all three special versions immediately, and used the picks until they disintegrated.

The Target edition is my favourite, since that version of Clarity is probably my most-listened-to song from the whole album. Yesterday’s Son, Hourglass, Flight, and Firing Squad were probably my other favourites in that order, along with Wish (though it’s almost a different song than the demo, much cheerier vibe which is good in its own right but not as moving as the demo for sure) and Après La Vie (a song I have a hunch J wrote after the finale of How I Met Your Mother - he posted about the show at the time and Cristin Milioti’s performance of La Vie En Rose in the last episode was very similar).

Angeline and Exhale are both solid, and Exhale feels like it was written in the Blyss days; he follows the nearly unrhymed lyrical structure of early tracks like Joshua, May, and Simon. I preferred the acoustic version of Angeline he debuted in 2011 though; the ukulele he added to the Paper Cuts/Wasteland version was a touch bright for my liking. I found Alien to be a bit bright too, preferring the bouncier Guitar Centre Sessions version.

A real sleeper song for me was Hurt This Way, which I think he wrote with a country artist and really introduced something brand new for the band and his writing; it was the first real storytelling song I can remember him writing, maybe besides Angeline. Far more specific details of things than in his earlier, broader writing style (keys buried in the grass / Springsteen references / old man tying one up tight etc, and down the road from Annehein, it’s my birthday, middle of our hometown) and I think these songs served as early inklings of a shift towards his ØZWALD lyrical style of singing about the details of things, not just these large thoughts about life that defined Lifehouse until 2010.

The iTunes version had Hindsight and You Are Not Alone, the latter of which he played in a lot of medleys. Hindsight sounded like a Smoke & Mirrors outtake to me, as it had a bit of the bitterness found in those co-written songs from that era (Had Enough, Wrecking Ball, HTGT, Nerve Damage). H2O isn’t a track I listen to very often, but I think fits content-wise with Gresham and a lot of the more recent work he’s done. Still a great stand-alone track in a similar vein as Storm, All That I’m Asking For, and Aftermath.

If there’s one thing I know for sure, my least favourite track is Hurricane, and One for the Pain is probably second. I just never quite bought either of them as overly genuine lyrically, though I still love the instrumentation and melody of OFTP.

That’s pretty crazy! I was just thinking about this last night in fact. They’ve got 6 records done so far which in a traditional release cycle is ~12 years worth of music.

Artificial Odyssey is easily my favorite ØZWALD record to date, though I’m not a huge fan of most of the others (Sweet Delirium was the only other I really enjoyed). I’m interested to see how Garden of the Sun stacks up with the rest of their discography.

@snowfist I'm not a fan of the original of WatC either so it didn't do much for me. Still holding out for physical copies of Artificial Odyssey. I see Steve's vinyl came in so I'm hoping AO and OtS isn't far behind.

@snowfist I totally agree. Haven't discovered an artist like that since the early days of Lifehouse. London is Lonely is phenomenal! She really has serious talent and since she won the BRITs Rising Star award I feel like her career is really going to take off quick.

@robert Oh that makes more sense (last verse) but yeah I’m still puzzled on the chorus. I hear something like “take two with the easin’”. Doesn’t make any sense though lol

@snowfist I’ve listened to it a few times so far. It feels a little faster than his original cover. I do like the stripped down of the original cover but this one does have a high quality sound to it. You Belong to Me was/is probably my favorite cover that he’s done.

@shawn aww, i used to listen to augustana! i’ll have to check this track out. i first saw them open for switchfoot in 2005, and again on their own in 2011. (had to consult my concert list for that, haha)

@katoi hey, you can find it here - https://lifehousefans.net/discog/jason-wade/ode-to-silence/windows/

Thanks to Shawn and Robert for transcribing the lyrics

I've listened to it twice so far and I'll be honest, I'm not a huge ØZWALD fan overall but I do like several of the songs on AO and Fall, Fall, Fall is my favorite ØZWALD track right now.

As far as this particular record goes (in no particular order), Arthur Ingram, More of the Same, Lab Rats and Fall, Fall, Fall are all excellent tracks IMO. I'm sure with more listens that this record will grow on me quickly and might become my favorite of theirs.

The instrumentation on Lab Rats is really fun and that guitar is sweet...

Arthur Ingram is a good musically and lyrically. I'm curious to the reference of Arthur Ingram, which from what I can tell was an investor/financial person back in the late 1500s. I can't make out all the lyrics but perhaps once the band post them it'll connect the dots.

More of the Same is a great song, especially lyrically. I'm kind of in that position with work now so it feels good to listen to someone else and the freedom of breaking that cycle in the last verse.

Fall, Fall, Fall reminds me a bit lyrically of Polaroid and musically of From Where You Are and as a whole, a bit of "Windows" too. It's really a superb song.