the gifted children - the ice palace
Release date: February, 1996
The second release by the gifted children, recorded over college break, December 1995/January 1996. Only a few cassette copies of this were ever made, and possibly only ever distributed to band members and a few friends. It's sad ('fulcrum', 'midas'), it's goofy ('grand moff tarkin', 'protest song'), it has a cover of a classic car crash song ('Last Kiss'), and it has our first of many one minute songs ('crowned'), a bit of a taste of the shape of things to come.
Lyrics and individual track credits:
01 fulcrum (suszczynski)
the curtain is rising
the second guess is starting again
your fulgurant show
your protean face
the flashing and fading that keep me in place
you said you'd changed again
i caved in
and you clothed me and fed me then left me for dead
the cable was snapped
it gave in
the tension builds quickly with fulcrum displaced
which words move to truth
and which to mazes
you have to choose between the mortar and the magic
choose well...
good-bye to your thoughts and your falling grace
to wishes for
your forever which ended that day
all the trees gave up
faded like the sun that you called your own
you could snuff it out or raise it up
if you felt alone
here you are now
waiting for something to come
but you have to choose your soul
choose your self
choose your day or choose your fall
no waiting
engage in ending or letting it begin
choose well...
dave amato – egg shaker
nick hall – drumset
justin sheehan – acoustic guitar
jeff suszczynski – acoustic guitar, piano, voice
bill trautman – bass
written: october 1995
recorded: 4 january 1996
(colonial drive living room, grand island, ny)
02 midas (suszczynski)
the midas of some new kingdom
everything you touched is broken
if i could make you feel this pain
and rip away a blameless piece of flesh from you
and let it hurt...
if i could last forever in this state
i just might get used to queenly rape
and i could serve you, maybe even breathe your air
maybe touch you, maybe make you what i am
and make you hurt...
let you feel the way that i feel under you
and let it hurt...
nick hall - drumset
justin sheehan - acoustic guitar
jeff suszczynski - acoustic guitar, piano, voice
bill trautman - bass
written: november 1995
recorded: 16 january 1996
(colonial drive living room, grand island, ny)
03 last kiss (wayne cochran)
nick hall – drumset
justin sheehan – acoustic guitar, voice
jeff suszczynski – acoustic guitar, piano, voice
bill trautman – bass
recorded: 11 january 1996
(colonial drive living room, grand island, ny)
additional recording: january 1996
(wallace drive living room, grand island, ny)
04 short story (sheehan)
the stores were closed, the weekend shows were over
autumn came to city streets
we walked through museum rooms of paintings
i knew we'd never want to leave
we went home by the lakeshore roads
i fell asleep along the way
wondered just what she was to me
was this worth anything today
i am the angel
apart from everything she knows
i am the anchor
and no one has to show me
there was so much left to question
our impressions often wrong
or is this all imagination –
we belong all alone now, after all
i am the angel
if you might run away right now
i am the anchor
let me fall...
nick hall – drumset
justin sheehan – acoustic guitar, voice
jeff suszczynski – piano
bill trautman – bass
written: autumn, 1995
recorded: 4 january 1996
(colonial drive living room, grand island, ny)
05 grand moff tarkin (suszczynski)
everyone make way (make haste)
the grand moff tarkin is in boxers again
awaiting your sweet-scented arrival (is that hyssop)
have you worn the right thing?
tiny little shirts
with tiny alligators
the freshness of their faces
as the grand moff touches bases
brushing past you with the smoothness of a fine comb
i want to show you my collection of rarities
you know i keep them on my person
my pride, like fire in a promethean hand
the grand moff tarkin loves you all
(have you worn the right thing?)
tim grimaldi – congas
nick hall – drumset
justin sheehan – acoustic guitar, voice
jeff suszczynski – acoustic guitar, slide guitar, keyboard, voice
bill trautman – bass
written: november 1995
recorded: 29 december 1995
(wallace drive living room, grand island, ny)
additional recording: january 1996
(wallace drive living room, grand island, ny)
06 crowned (suszczynski)
hello and good-night
to all that i have saved
the road no longer curves my way
alone, with services rendered
with no payment rendered
the choice was theirs to make
and after all, maybe it was good
maybe the thankless are better for it
maybe the thankless are better for it
are better for it
nick hall – rain stick
justin sheehan – voice
jeff suszczynski – acoustic guitar, piano, voices
bill trautman – bass
written: 13 january 1996
recorded: 16 january 1995
(colonial drive living room, grand island, ny)
07 the ice palace (suszczynski/sheehan)
there is no season in this place
there are no smiles, there are no tears
in spending our dull hours, listless
with nothing else here for us to do
thrown against the stone breakwall
in winter gales amidst the snowfall
all of our patrons left to find
their artificial cold sunlight
and the snow, i bet, will cover us yet...
justin sheehan – voice, ride cymbal, snare drum
jeff suszczynski – acoustic guitar, piano, voice
written and recorded: 19 january 1996
(wallace drive basement and living room, grand island, ny)
bonus songs on original cassette release:
08 this is a protest song (generation gap) (sheehan/suszczynski)
tim grimaldi – congas
justin sheehan – acoustic guitar, voice, tambourine
jeff suszczynski – acoustic guitar, voice
bill trautman – bass
written: 14 january 1995
recorded: 30 december 1995
(wallace drive living room, grand island, ny)
09 coda (suszczynski/sheehan/trautman)
justin sheehan – acoustic guitar
jeff suszczynski – electric guitar, drum machine
bill trautman – bass
written and recorded: 30 december 1996
(wallace drive living room, grand island, ny)