St. Sebastian of the Short Stage (EP)

by Franz Nicolay

St. Sebastian of the Short Stage (EP) cover art
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about

This is a 10" EP release on Team Science Records.

credits

released 13 October 2009
All songs by Franz Nicolay (Eggshell Armor Music, ASCAP) except #1 by Jonathan Richman (Modern Love Songs/Rockin' Leprechaun Music, ASCAP). #2 is inspired, obviously, by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen". I wrote as part of the "Watchmen" episode of the Bushwick Book Club (myspace.com/bushwickbookclub), a songwriter group based out of the Goodbye Blue Monday club in Bushwick, which picks a book every month and writes songs about it. You should come!

NEW ENGLAND
Franz Nicolay: accordion, vocals
Amanda Palmer: piano, vocals
Brian Viglione: drums, vocals
Recorded & engineered by Joel Hamburger at GödelString Studios in Brooklyn, NY; 2008.

THE BALLAD OF HOLLIS WADSWORTH MASON, JR.
Lloyd DeBonis: trumpet
Brad Kemp: bass
James Frazee: marching drum
Franz Nicolay: accordion, keyboards, percussion, vocals
Brian Viglione: drums
Produced by James Frazee & Franz Nicolay at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ; 2009.
Assistant engineer: John DeLorme

WHEN THE WAR CAME
Franz Nicolay: guitar, piano, organ, tambourine, vocals.
Produced by James Frazee & Franz Nicolay at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ; 2009.
Assistant engineer: John DeLorme

I JUST WANT TO LOVE (2001)
Franz Nicolay: guitar, vocal.
Recorded by Franz Nicolay, in a pit of despair! Way back in January 2001, after-hours at my old dot-com job. What do you want, I was 23 and not sleeping much.

Mastered by Alan Douches at West Westside.

tags

tags: acoustic experimental melodramatic popular song punk sentimental dresden dolls indie rock jonathan richman melodramatic popular song punk cabaret watchmen Brooklyn

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Track Name: The Ballad of Hollis Wadsworth Mason, Jr.
Start off with the saddest thing you know
And then you’ve got the audience
Then it’s all your show
A man’s wife leaves him
Someone’s robbed
Someone swallows cyanide
Someone’s strung up by a howling mob

My name is Hollis Wadsworth Mason Junior
Defender of what’s right
And I’ve got a way with cars
And I only work at night
My name is Hollis Wadsworth Mason Junior
Defender of what’s good
I believe that there’s a simple answer
When I get under the hood

My grandpa was a moral man
He worked the soil and the wood
He said the city’s evil
And the world is irredeemable
We'd better get back to Montana while we could

I looked for heroes
They’re the only things that last
To back absolute values
With nothing but a good heart and a mask

It could be that I sound naïve about the true nature of sin
But if the choice is cynicism, rage, or giving in
Which world would you rather live in?

In May of ’62, I’m 42 years old
The game has changed, I’m obsolete -
It’s a strange world for heroes
Worm’s in the apple
Eating us from inside
Maybe good & justice are old-fashioned values
But even owls have pride

A man must work with his hands
The only skill that lasts
Even when you’ve been replaced
Even when you put away the mask

Start off with the saddest thing you know
And then you’ve got the audience
Then it’s all your show
Start off with the saddest thing you know.
Track Name: When The War Came
I was a sculptor
I worked in marble, stone, and clay
And I've crafted some treasures in my day
I was a painter
Oils was my trade
And oil fueled lifetime's worth of flames

When the war came
Everyone's eyes all looked the same
Hot with fear, regret and shame
Among them, not a name

I built the bridges
And I the trains
Between us, put a tap on mother nature's veins
And he, the logger
He, the chief of police
And he, the sole, acknowledged master of the feast

When the war came
Everyone's eyes all looked the same
Hot with fear, revenge and tears
Among them, not a name

I sang of battle
I was its balladeer
I sang of more blood and bone than I can bear to hear

And we were brothers
That time is past
But I will spare your life until the last
When the war comes, we all deny where we were from
Hot with loneliness and rum
Suddenly ripe with age

When the war came
Everyone's eyes all looked the same
Hot with fear, regret and tears
Among them, not a name
Track Name: I Just Want To Love (2001)
I just want to love
Is that so much to ask?
I just want to tear up at the movies
Lie out in the grass

And this song is dumb, I know
Sensitive singer-songwriter trash
But so am I, what can I say
I'll believe it all to the bitter last
I can hide behind names, clever words
The usual crap
But this is me talking
I'm sick of giving
And getting nothing back

I just want to love
Is that not enough?
I've got a big heart, a true heart
I really do believe this stuff

I just want a body to hold me
At the end of the day
I don't want to grow old alone
When I die, I want someone to say

"He was loved, and he was a lover"
And be buried in the woods
And lie alone, together

I just want a body to hold
At the end of the day
I don't need to kiss all the girls
Just as long as one of them stays

I know I missed the age of romance
Maybe there never was an age of romance
Maybe the likes of me just can't conceive
Of the world as it is, oh, so naive
But so free to dream
I believe in love, I do, I do
In what do you believe?

And I do joke, I know, but this isn't a joke
I'm a lonely man at the end of my rope
It's a cry for help, a cry for hope
I just need a little hope

That though I'm a fool, that there's another
Fool who's trapped outside of time
Looking for a lover

I just want to love
Is that so much to ask?
I just want to tear up at the movies
Lie out in the grass.