PAS/CAL EP No. 2 - 'Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous'
Le Grand Magistery Records, HRH-034
Released March, 2004

Track Listing:
1. What Happened To The Sands ♫
2. Poor Maude
3. The Handbag Memoirs
4. Bem, Please Come Home
5. What Do The American Girls Have On Jennifer JoJo

Purchase this CD

Notes on the recording:

'Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous' is an effort that was built, quite literally, from the ground up. Prior to recording, Casimer Pascal, with the help of his PAS/CAL crew, converted his garage into the group's very own recording studio. Much work and care was expended into the layout and make-up of this new creation dubbed Recordings West; blood was shed, sweat was poured and tears were cried. Time would reveal this effort to be an appropriate preface to the recording of 'Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous', for both would prove to be labor-intensive works that required the most careful attention to the tiniest of details: tiny details that would yield enormous results.

The record begins with the latest entry into the Canon of Catchy Compositions, 'What Happened to the Sands', a lyrically pensive and musically rollicking number sure to win over the hearts of all romantics and minds of all intellectuals. References range from the music of the Smiths to the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky while the song bounces and charges amidst shimmering guitar solos, crunchy distortion and some of the wildest drum work heard since the passing of Keith Moon - courtesy of Little Tommy Daniels. The NME would plainly say, 'It rocks'. We say, 'It rolls'. Either way, you've never heard boys & girls with such sensitivity get so raucous, yet remain so refined.

'Poor Maude' then follows, opening with a chiming acoustic guitar leading into what the group refers to as its first 'POPERA'. It's the heartbreaking tale of the oldest woman in the world set over the most meticulous and still charming chamber pop the Left Banke wish they'd come up with. This work is a pastiche of many dynamic movements steered by Caz's arrangement of heart-warming strings, layers of carefully crafted piano, and Nathaniel Burgundy's trademark slithering bass lines, traversing such disparate territories as baroque pop, spacey rock and Rolling Stones-esque jams. Listen carefully to the intricate textures of the music and even more carefully to the moving story the lyrics tell.

The scope is narrowed a bit for the next track, the sure-fire hit track, 'The Handbag Memoirs'. One of the more 'pop' and 'catchy' numbers of the release, the song is also just as pensive and contemplative as the others. 'All the notes that you wrote without me in mind - it's alright', our narrator tells his lover over an engaging bossanova beat, as he explores and comes to terms with her accumulated past that she has come to 'carry on [her] shoulder for far too long'.

'Bem, Please Come Home', the release's instrumental, would surely make an excellent moment for any Wes Anderson film. Featuring the masterful and touching guitar work of lead guitarist, Gene Corduroy, it is also supported by enchanting chimes, sleigh bells, vintage synthesizers and crystalline vocals by the titular character, Bem.

The record then closes with the show stopping 'What Do the American Girls Have on Jennifer Jo Jo?' Modeled after the archetypical Great American Song, it is epic in its sweep, complete with Caz's expert whip-cracks, a whistle solo, folk and 50s doo wop flourishes and the most beautiful and shocking guitar solos this band has produced thus far. The song alternately lulls with reverberated atmosphere and hushed vocals and screams with crunch, crash and intense organ work by Richard Panic. The array of guitar sounds was laboriously handcrafted in the studio by Gene and Caz, utilizing vintage equipment, ingenuity and old-fashioned knob-twiddling. And Casimer's honey-throated vocals, expertly and intricately arranged, must not be overlooked in the way they wash over the song with melancholy and pathos. The result is an epic masterpiece that will have you alternately weeping and cheering.