The songs on "Black Out the Stars" have traveled quite a ways to get to you. They were birthed in student apartments and rental home attics, recorded in home studios and the studio home of Slim Shady, then sent across a Great Lake to be mastered. Along the way, they were shepherded by Doug Smith, Fabian Halabou and Brian Berryman, three musicians who found a sound but had greater difficulty finding a name; eventually they settled on Sea of Japan. Many more were invited by Halabou to collect under this name, as he had heard parts in his head that only these others could play. They accepted, even if they already had a name (like Blanche, Rescue, The Silent Years, Judah Johnson, Canada, Child Bite, The Word Play or Zoos of Berlin) for which they were better known.
In its final version, the record sounds as if it's come to us not from Detroit, but from Los Angeles. "Black Out the Stars" is the sound of an über-producer trotting out a weekly genre stew showcase at the Largo (while holding a stellar and criminally under-heard solo disc in his back pocket), a melancholy ghost haunting Echo Park and the last staticy gasps of an old-timey dance broadcast from a certain Yankee Hotel somewhere east of the Mississippi. Smith's breezily accessible songwriting makes wiggle room for the Berryman-Halabou Kitchen Sink Orchestra, highlighting some killer arangements as well as those aforementioned guest spots; dig Halabou and the Clancy brothers crunching into "Enchanted" over psychotic horns and B3 runs, or Dave Feeny laying down some weepy pedal steel on the more understated "Misery." Sea of Japan really knows how to bring a song home, as you'll find when you're swooning to the vocable harmonies during the codas of "Maxine" and "Left of Center." It's an ingenious device: grab the listener at the end and make 'em start over just so they can get back there again.
-Erik Adams
Doug - acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
Fabian - electric guitar, noises, tambourine
Brian - glockenspiel, celeste, organ, noises, mellotron, piano
Sean Clancy (Child Bite, Rescue) - bass
Ryan Clancy (The Silent Years, Rescue) - drums
Kevin Bayson (Zoos of Berlin) - trumpet
Ray Thompson (The Oscillating Fan Club) - baritone and tenor sax
Cassie Verras (The Silent Years, Joiya, Rescue) - violin
Kaylan Mitchell (Canada, Joiya) - cello
Recorded at 332
Mixed by Brian Berryman and Darrin Fendley
Well you can trace those lonesome feelings darling
Back to where the whole thing started
Now our foolish ways
Have parted
I'm
Enchanted
By all I see yeah
I'm all lined up
You've had enough
Push me and see how it ends up
And how it's gonna be
Gonna Be
For you and me
Doug - electric guitar, vocals
Fabian - electric guitar, tambourine
Brian - fender rhodes, organ, synths
Michael Majewski (The Silent Years, Rescue) - bass
Ryan Clancy (The Silent Years, Rescue) - drums
Recorded and mixed at Roshambo Studios by Brian Berryman and Darrin Fendley
Cold Medicine
Let your body soak it in
Black out the stars
Cause you know they're way too far
For us to hold
You know that all you need is
You know that all we need is
Cold Medicine
This fear is over -
Rated and boring
But you know you're on a roll
Cars move us 'round
Through the streets of empty towns
Roll all the windows down
But you still can't hear a sound
Cut holes in the sky
So maybe they can see us
You know that they can see us
Cold Medicine
This fear is over -
Rated and boring
But you know you're on a roll
Doug - acoustic guitar, organ, percussion, dobro, vocals
Fabian - electric guitar, percussion
Brian - wurlitzer, bass, percussion, drum programming
Brandon Sczomak (The Word Play) - drums
Recorded at FBT Studios
Mixed by Brian Berryman
If all you ever need is something
Different than me
Something different than me
Please leave, leave
Leave me
I'm up on the ceiling
I could feel it coming
You never believe me
But you know that's what I
Need from a friend
You're not listening again
Through the color stream you whisper
Quietly to me
Painting pictures of retreat
And release, sweet
Sweet release
I'm up on the ceiling
I could feel it coming
You never believe me
But you know that's what I
Need from a friend
You're not listening again
Doug - electric guitar, vocals
Fabian - electric guitar, handclaps
Brian - synths, handclaps
Brandon Sczomak (The Word Play) - drums
Brent Mosser (The Word Play) - bass
Shawn Knight (Child Bite) - circuit bending
Recorded at FBT Studios
Mixed by Brian Berryman
Additional mixing: Collin Dupuis
And it's not hard to believe baby, I can
Still hear the needles raking out the
Grooves round and round
I let them roll, I let them
Roll through my head now baby, like a
Clock always keeps on spinning, let it
Spin me around ‘til I unfold
‘til I unfold
You ran
Ran your mouth way too long
Made everything here seem wrong
You're sad
And calling shots off the cuff
Can nothing make you feel love
Is there nothing that can make you
Change
You know we all fall in love with
The Games
But you bleed it all out for
The Fame
And they can sell me the same shit baby, pretty
Words in a fever, making nothing
We'd ever need
But we all want
They all sing me the same songs baby, singing
Words that are dead now to me, like a
Skin that I've shed, that I've out grown
That I've outgrown
Doug - acoustic guitar
Brian - sampling, optigan, mellotron, drums
Recorded at 332
Mixed by Brian Berryman
Doug - acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
Fabian - electric guitar, percussion
Brian - bass, piano, mellotron, theremin, drums (ending)
Brandon Sczomak (The Word Play) - drums
Daniel Johnson (Judah Johnson) - additional vocals
Recorded at FBT Studios
Mixed by Brian Berryman
There's nothing to
Part with here
Nothing left to save
Or hold on to
Pulled apart me but for one true
Moment there I thought it all could change
Or rearrange
Maxine Maxine
Blessed youth
Hold on to me
Don't leave me where I am
No room to stand
On my own feet no need for the hand
Held out to me I know it's from a friend
But I can't lend
Anything to
Maxine Maxine
Doug - acoustic and electric guitars
Fabian - percussion, electric guitar
Brian - bass, drum programming, synths, percussion
Miko Mader - drums
Recorded at 332
Drums recorded and mixed at RMS by Miko Mader
Mixed by Brian Berryman
If I didn't know
More I might guess
That you tried to ruin me
I must confess
That much more of this
I'm sure would've killed me
But inside I know
I needed you to be there
But now I'm estranged
I need some change
I need some repair
The sleep I don't get
Won't help me a bit
And I still wake up angry
But outside this mess
I'm even less
Likely to fit right
But inside I know
That only time reveals me
Now I'm rearranged
But not free of pain
How could that be fair
Don't want to escape memories
Just want to be able to live with them
Alone in a brilliant tragedy
I guess I'll just ride it out to the end
Doug - acoustic guitar, vocals, organ
Fabian - electric guitar
Brian - celeste, mellotron
Cassie Verras (The Silent Years, Joiya, Rescue) - violin
Kaylan Mitchell (Canada, Joiya) - cello
Recorded at 332
Mixed by Brian Berryman
Never belonged
To me but
I thought it was strong
Oh our bond
We carried
A long way with us
How many wrong ways we've crossed
Doug - acoustic and electric guitars, vocals, stomps
Fabian - electric guitars, stomps
Brian- bass, background vox, stomps, "creative editing"
Collin Dupuis (Zoos of Berlin) - drums
Dave Feeny (Blanche, American Mars) - pedal steel
Recorded at FBT Studios
additional recording done at Tempermill Studios
Mixed by Brian Berryman
You're left of center
But you're on the map
You're ‘bout to enter
Your final lap
Not everything is easy
It might be better
If I don't come back
Paint you the picture
But I can't keep track
Not everything is easy
When you arrived
And filled the space
Where I used to reside
It was hard for me to see
It was exactly what I needed
What I need, need
Exactly what I needed
Doug - acoustic guitar, vocals
Fabian - electric guitar
Brian - drums, bass, wurlitzer
Will Yates (The Pop Project, Zoos of Berlin) - organ
Recorded at FBT Studios
Mixed by Brian Berryman
Pull the blankets up tight, baby
Cause this house is so cold, baby
No words will be spoke
The silence is haunting me, haunting me
Misery begat
Misery begat
Misery
Tell me who needs a friend, baby
When you're a means to their ends, baby
The façade and the smoke
So thick I can hardly see, hardly see that
Misery begat
Misery begat
Misery
No time for no one
That don't got no time for me
Oh anyone that don't got no time
Misery begat
Misery begat
Misery
Doug - electric guitars
Fabian - electric guitars, tambourine
Brian - bass, wurlitzer, piano, mellotron
Collin Dupuis (Zoos of Berlin) - drums
Recorded at FBT Studios
additional recording done at Tempermill Studios
Mixed by Brian Berryman
It's the end of the day
And I am left without a trace
Of anything that I need
Cause there's too much here
That nobody should fear but
Everybody does
I am looking at an
Undead Ghost
A quiet gathering
A final toast
To pretty images I need the most
No more pain left for me
There's only different shades of green
The jealousy that won't leave
But if you were here
Maybe you could make it clear but
I know you'll never show
I am looking at an
Undead Ghost
A quiet gathering
A final toast
To pretty images I need the most
Father to son
Passing it on down
Get up and get gone
Oh now from this curse
My senses are refined
But I have lost all time
And it's the end of the day
Doug - electric guitar, harmonica, vocals
Fabian - electric and acoustic guitars, bass, percussion
Brian - drums, percussion, piano
Brandon Sczomak (The Word Play) - percussion
Matt Rossana - percussion
Joe Shields - percussion
Will Yates (The Pop Project, Zoos of Berlin) - percussion, organ
Cassie Verras (The Silent Years, Joiya, Rescue) - violin
Kaylan Mitchell (Canada, Joiya) - cello
Ray Thompson (The Oscillating Fan Club) - baritone sax
Kevin Bayson (Zoos of Berlin) - trumpet
Recorded at 332
Mixed by Brian Berryman and Collin Dupuis
If you repeat these words
I once let you down
But I'll hold you up now
I want you
I called in the dogs of war
At the drop of a hat
I was ready for that
No more
The bitter remains that decay
Of our anger and fear
We'll at last leave them here
They're no loss
If we just gave way to the same
Petty old games that we
Both hate to play
It'd be easy
Believe me
But I won't have that
