the gifted children - summer homes, volume 01
Release date: August 6, 2020
the gifted children began at an informal recording session/living room party on August 6, 1995; that session formed our first-ever release, the August EP. exactly 25 years later, on August 6, 2020, we bring you the summer homes EP.
these 6 songs were written and partially recorded in 2005, shelved for a few years, picked up again in 2012 for more tracking, shelved and dusted off a few more times in the intervening years, until we finally decided to complete them for our 25th anniversary.
the summer homes EP features founding members alongside old friends, playing and singing songs of heartbreak, loss, aging, and the loneliness/exhilaration that often accompanies travels meant to escape those things.
throughout, there are acoustic guitars and melodic vocal lines melded with distorted keyboards and other instruments; it embodies our ethos of 'damaged beauty' perhaps more than any of our many releases, and we are excited to share this music on the 25th anniversary of our existence.
Credits:
brett dreyer – tenor saxophones on 5
tim grimaldi – drumset on 2, 4, 5
isabel hernandez-cata - voices on 6
katherine jacobs - voices on 6
tim rizzo – electric guitar on 2
jim sahr – voice on 3, 6; percussion on 4; feedback guitar on 4; electric guitars on 3, 5, 6
justin sheehan – percussion on 4; piano on 4, 6
jeff suszczynski – keyboards on 1-6; voices on 1-6; drum machine on 1; guitars on 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; percussion on 4; loop on 5; drums and cymbals on 6
bill trautman – bass(es) on 2, 4, 5
songs and lyrics by jeff suszczynski.
recorded 2003-2020, on MD8 and PC.
cover collage: 'summer homes, part 1' by jeff suszczynski [2020]
Lyrics and individual track credits:
01 wicker park (suszczynski)
almost got to wicker park
but the blue line stumbles
we’re the outsider panthers
with lives of near misses and pregnant potentials
so close to reliving those movie scenes
but here comes the outbound train...
waiting for the elusive sweet sleep of strange beds
in darkness everything is skylines and nightlights
hovering over all of us like warm blankets
in the morning shower and shave like (corpse party) wakes -
it’s time to leave again
jeff suszczynski - keyboards, drum machine, voices
02 a new song for an old gun (suszczynski)
you paint a pretty picture, but what more?
inviting everyone into your storefront luxury apartment
the fancy gas chambers looking like dressing rooms
the thrift store barricade of complete non-essentials
begin to worry that i may never make it out
and here we stumble...
close eyes, hold breath and plunge out
wash hands, leaving you to invade weaker continents
while i drive on past nightlights in valleys, with a.m. radio
good-night and perhaps i’ll see you again
there’s a new song for an old gun...
tim grimaldi - drumset
tim rizzo - electric guitar
jeff suszczynski - guitars, keyboards, voices
bill trautman - basses
03 summer homes (suszczynski)
i recall my empty kingdom
how you tried to get inside
the older ghosts receded for you
and your island country prize
i built summer homes for you
but you never made it to the island
strange things came with the telegram:
all the leaves exploded
the plaster crumbled, the sky grew dimbulb
and ivy choked the trees
i built summer homes for you
but you never made it to the island
the gilded age keeps calling you
but you’re never coming home...
jim sahr - guitars, harmony voice
jeff suszczynski - keyboards, voices, guitars
04 all the slow dances (suszczynski)
now it’s on and we might get misty
somewhere an old radio
plays songs of old
losing ground to white noise static
so sad if we lost them.
all the slow dances
suspended in back-lit glass cabinets
about to fall through rotted floorboards
so sad if we lost them...
tim grimaldi - drumset
jim sahr - shakers, feedback guitar
justin sheehan - shakers, piano
jeff suszczynski - keyboards, guitars, voices, shakers
bill trautman - bass
05 legends of the district (suszczynski)
plugging in for a little while
wine in the twilight gardens
conversations with the patio girls
names dropped and forgotten
legends of the district -
the doctors of arlington have arrived
the hotflash backroom gauntlet
glad-handing viruses
writing the break-up diaries
the birds are in the fan
legends of the district -
the doctors of arlington have arrived
brett dreyer - tenor saxophones
tim grimaldi - drumset
jim sahr - guitars
jeff suszczynski - keyboards, loop, voices, guitars
bill trautman - bass
06 the drafthouse (suszczynski)
[no lyrics]
isabel hernandez-cata - voices
katherine jacobs - voices
jim sahr - voices
justin sheehan - piano
jeff suszczynski - keyboards, guitars, drumsets, cymbals, voices