Marc M. Cogman

Typewriter

In 2007, I received an antique typewriter for my 26^th birthday.  I immediately decided I’d try to write a song that referenced the gift and the girl who gave it to me, and I quickly completed a first verse all about the happiness I was feeling in the budding relationship.  But after just one verse I stalled.  A few months later, on the morning the relationship came to an end, I finally had my second verse.  This has become one of the favorite songs (mine, as well as others) that I’ve ever written, and has been a fixture in the full-band sets since that spring of 2007.

I first demoed it at home in Venice the day I wrote it in June of 2007, and the first full-band demo was completed in July at the Fun-N-Only Room with Brian Moskin on drums, Giulio Carmassi on bass and piano, and Kelli Noftle singing backing vocals.  The final version was done at Radar! with the addition of Steve McDonald on guitar, Frogs on bass, and Justin Siegel on drums.

The Rest of My Life

Another break-up song written in the late spring/early summer of 2007, this tune never made it into the band’s live repertoire.  While a full band demo was done in 2007 and an album version was tracked at Radar! in 2008, this song never came fully into its own until the fall of 2009, when I went down to Sound of Music Studios in Richmond, Virginia and the house-band there turned it into what it became. 

Dave Lowery of Cracker produced the track and played bass, Miguel Urbizanto played drums, Craig Harmon played organ, and the excellent, spaced-out guitar work was courtesy of Alan Weatherhead and Hugo Haggie.  John Morand produced the session, which was almost entirely tracked live in one big room.  My favorite part is Alan’s e-bow track, riding along throughout the song. 

Snowflake

Falling in love can be a terrifying experience, especially when you’ve fallen for someone who’s proven them-self to be so volatile.  This song spoke of my true-to-life experience, going off the deep-end for a girl, with all that mix of elation, terrifying vulnerability, and the feeling of impending disaster. 

Written in the fall of 2007, this song utilized the same open C#5 tuning I used for “Passenger Seat” on Beneath a Balcony.  The fretless bass track Giulio Carmassi recorded during an early 2008 demo was so effective that when it came time to track the album version, Frogs suggested Giulio play the bass there as well.  The drum beat also originated with Giulio on that demo, though Justin Siegel played it on the album version. Steve McDonald added his guitar and e-bow tracks as well.

Understudy

Still maybe the meanest song I’d ever written, I wrote this in June/July of 2007 about the woman who would two years later become my first wife.  Here’s to first impressions.  The first demo was done at the Fun-N-Only Room with Giulio Carmassi on Wurlitzer and bass and Brian Moskin on drums.  I remember Kelli Noftle being around during the sessions, but actually refusing to add any backing vocals because she thought the song was so mean. 

The album version brought on the talents of the other Dead Messengers including Frogs and Justin Siegel, and while I played most all the guitars, Steve McDonald added a feedback track, and Rob Leifer added weird sounds as well.  This remains the only song on any of my albums that does not have an acoustic guitar track.

Song For E

Written at Dangerland in Studio City in September of 2007, this song took shape extremely quickly.  I taught it to the band in rehearsal, they came up with their parts on the fly, and just a few days later we debuted it at a show at the Mint on September 9^th 2007.  It quickly became a live show favorite for full-band shows.

A demo was done at Dangerland in January of 2008 with Steve McDonald on guitar, Matt Cooker on cello, and Giulio Carmassi playing drums, bass and keys.  The album version was finally committed to tape in the fall of 2008, with Kelli Noftle’s backing vocals being added later, in the winter of 2010.  My second foray into writing about someone else’s heartbreak, E stands for Ezna, a good buddy of mine at the time.

Oh Lily

The other song recorded with the Sound of Music gang in Richmond, VA in 2009.  This was one of the first songs I wrote post Danger Show, back in February of 2007.  Lily was the assistant to the filmmakers who cast me in a movie that winter, and from the first time I saw her I thought she was so beautiful I wanted to write a song about her. 

Oddly enough, we would become friends and years later she became the long-term girlfriend of my manager.  Nevertheless, he was good sport about the fact that I’d written a song about his girl.

Baby I'm OK

This version of the song, recorded alongside the one that appeared on Beneath a Balcony, is actually the style in which the Dead Messengers always performed it live.  I’ve always preferred this indie-rock treatment, and it’s different enough that I felt okay including it on Anthems.  The story is the same, though there is one slight lyric change from the first version.  See if you can catch it.

Safe

The lyrics to this song were written around the same time as a song with a similar theme – “Passenger Seat” from Beneath a Balcony, and about the same relationship.  Just like that tune, the subject was that ever-challenging notion of breaking down the emotional walls of the objects of one’s desire.  I still love the image of the smashed guitars as firewood. 

Giulio and I started a demo of this in January of 2008, but abandoned it midway to focus on what seemed like more promising tracks at the time, and the demo was never finished.  I always had mixed feelings about this tune, up until the very last sessions for Anthems in early 2010, when the combination of Steve McDonald adding his larger-than-life guitar solo and Kelli Noftle laying down yet another killer backing-vocal melody perfected the outro section.  Once I heard the final product, I couldn’t leave the song off the album.

Need a Hero

I wrote this song way back in the summer of 2003, while living in Boston and still in the Neon Calm.  The first demo ever featured Daniel Damico on keys, Frogs on bass, Justin Siegel on drums, and Tom Jensen on lead guitar.  While the song never stuck as a Neon Calm track (it was occasionally performed, but never recorded for One More Rocket Summer), I pulled it back out during the last few sessions recording Anthems in early 2010. I had a lot of fun turning the guitars up all the way to play the noisy leads at the end, but the key component for me is Steve McDonald’s beautiful  verse lead. Lyrically, I always thought of this tune as inspired by Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe”.

God Forbid

This song was improvised live with the tape rolling at Radar!, sometime in the fall of 2008.   While not as complete a song as any other that appears on one of my records, I think there’s something dark and powerful about the narrative and the off-the-cuff delivery.  The noises at the end are me taking off the guitar, walking down the hallway, and slamming the studio door.