NIGHTLIFE:

NIGHTLIFE! is a radio-drama inspired pop-opera that comes in weekly installments, available by subscription. Each installment contains at least one new song resonating with real, collected social exchanges and bookended by site-recorded commentary. Installments of NIGHTLIFE! are designed to attach to the previous installment in the subscriber's iPod® or like device, creating a seamless, meandering mosaic of local nightlife.

This project continues my long-time collaboration with writer John Navarro, whose libretto is set in my first opera, BUCK JONES. John is writing the libretto and sculpting the general narrative for NIGHTLIFE! from his hometown of Boston, through a networked file-sharing of raw field-recordings, musical ideas, text settings and other materials. I am the sole performer of this project, which is conceived to be very mobile; it can easily be continued anywhere with an extraordinarily small number of resources.

I am currently in the process of publishing songs from the first season of NIGHTLIFE! at iTunes® and it is my desire to secure some form of sponsorship for this project, such as by a public radio station or record label, to ensure maximum exposure, fostered by the timeliness, freshness and conviviality of the concept. Please check back here for more news and updates on when the NIGHTLIFE! Will be complete and how it can be downloaded.

Here are a few sample scenes:

Julie iz Metal (scene contains 2 tracks)

"...Some Horrible Goth Lyrics To Some Chic..." (1:49)
with Manuel Delgado
listen: ...Some Horrible Goth Lyrics To Some Chic..._.mp3

Julie iz Metal (4:10)
lyrics: Julie iz metal/The Devil agreed/ Starfire realms, rainbow fingers Emerge from the whitest cloud/ Leopard moonbeam Walpurgis night strobe light darkling/ Monsters of steel wrought on the wheel that burns into the sky/ Worlds in collision her murderous vision/ apocalyptic eye/ Supernova animus to bind the immortal crown in a blossomed sunset/ To race at light speed/ To dream and find the book of secret names/ Black storms break on mountain landscape/ Satan silver guitars reflect red dawn upon the metal Julie emanates/ Julie iz metal/ The Devil agreed/ To take the hand of a flaming mummy death god/ Lost among yet hither suns/ Aligned to phantom android sounds/ Monsters of steel wrought on the wheel that burns into the sky/ Worlds in collision her murderous vision/ apocalyptic eye
listen: Julie Iz Metal.mp3

Life is Taking For Fucking Ever (scene contains 3 tracks)

"...You Can't Get Your Cup-Holder To Work..." (1:36)
with Joey Love, Kenneth Stuart, Diana Mino, Steve Snowden and Zack Wilson
listen: 08 _...You Can't Get Your Cup-Holder To Work...__.mp3

Life is Taking for Fucking Ever (2:49)
lyrics: Nothing diverts this evocation amassed by wake up call and star divination/ Assembled in the shower, no instructions require missed the morning taco/ Might as well retire/ Something about the rim of her hairline just cresting the partition/ Briefcase combinations whir and steam/ her name becomes my screensaver in a dream/ Something I hear from the cesarean section in the orchestrated attempt to get her attention/ Detuned to perfection in alarming proportion/ I pass on a cell phone call from some debt-collector/ Life is taking for fucking ever/ Tomorrow enfolded in an unopened hand/ A package of crackers in a break room coffee can/ Percentage sign revolving in an honor system jar/ deflate an ardent premise with a candy bar/ I saw her ankle for a second today/ Just a hint of a wrinkle when she bent down to get the pencil that she accidentally dropped/ For that second time and sound and my poor heart stopped
listen: 09 Life Is Taking For Fucking Ever.mp3

"Chunks" (1:12)
Joke told by Kenneth David Stewart, with Joey Love, Kenneth Stuart, Diana Mino, Steve Snowden and Zack Wilson
listen: 10 _Chunks_.mp3

Controller of a Game(one scene, one track)
lyrics: cast off your meat, human animal/ experimental living is only a way to fill the page/ a program designed by a controller of a game/ with no goal except perpetuating the game for the amusement of the true players/ the streets change gradually into a glamorous hell/ what’s the new story? simplicity/ is it worth it to try and join the seams together or should I just smash out the whole fucking window and replace it?
listen: controller of a game.mp3

Cold Square(Trigger at Rest)(song only)
lyrics: I'm in a cold square/ hand in a solar well/ Reaching for the leaves to divine a malicious inner dialogue/ The drinker at war with himself/ Uncoiled on a bar shelf/ Staring into space, the narrative moving at light speed/ Behind an expressionless face looking nowhere/ Halogen presence sitting in a reflection/ Behind mad dogs and magic words/ [A] heroic silhouette slumped to perfection/ The violence in mind amplified to the high-pitched line that divides the trigger at rest from the nigga in a dirt vest/ Speaking now to the odyssey star stream flicker/ Oscillating through a highball/ Rolling through a cul-de-sac/ Backed up in a snake fisted rat trap/ Hadron multivalent Gilead skull sack/ Pulling off a cigarette/ Standing back from a convalescent bomb garden/ Sazerac encased in a cool grip/ Nighthawk essence in a gold-swaddled reservoir/ Dredging up memories of a thousand years/ Telling me I've been here before/ Inside a monastic brew names slip away/ Trouble enough to wash off the remains of a lifelong day/ Coping with trying to copy a series of querulous rhymes/ Lined up to take their place as a case of mankind's decline/ I'm in a cold square; tumbling through the night with my weapons engaged/ Flying off an airstrip shaped like a Quetzalcoatl/ Heading for the mountain top where they got a Shangri La/ Red curtains on a brick wall/ Pulsating maze in the desert of a lunar squad/ Particles deflect off the crowd/ Sounds like Nuremberg when I make the base/ A residue of emollient motion in gelatin space/ The clutch of a night terror half awake
listen: 01 Cold Square (Trigger At Rest).mp3