Thrice - Daytrotter Session

Thrice
Daytrotter Session

Album US 2010 on Daytrotter label
Rock (Alternative Rock, Indie Rock)

Track 1: Original version appears on Beggars - "In his book 'Heretics,' G.K. Chesterton says this of H.G Wells, which I feel ties in with this song on multiple levels: 'He is still slightly affected with the great scientific fallacy; I mean the habit of beginning not with the human soul, which is the first thing a man learns about, but with some such thing as protoplasm, which is about the last. The one defect in his splendid mental equipment is that he does not sufficiently allow for the stuff or material of men. In his new Utopia he says, for instance, that a chief point of the Utopia will be a disbelief in original sin. If he had begun with the human soul--that is, if he had begun on himself--he would have found original sin almost the first thing to be believed in. He would have found, to put the matter shortly, that a permanent possibility of selfishness arises from the mere fact of having a self, and not from any accidents of education or ill-treatment. And the weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones.' Some have already criticized this song, thinking it a defeatist's manifesto of sorts; anyone who is familiar with my lyrics or outlook on life would seek a better explanation for why I'm digging into this dark place. As Chesterton implies, this topic is not a terminus, but examining it is foundational for building a coherent and holistic worldview. Those then that agree that 'something has gone terribly wrong,' must find out why, and what, if anything, can be done about it." - Dustin Kensrue Track 2: Unreleased - Tom Waits cover. Track 3: Original version appears on Beggars - "Riley always has the most demo parts to sort through. I put three of his parts together and out came this song. He little added bar at the end of the second measure in the verse was weirding me out at first, but ever since I starting singing over it, I wouldn't want it any other way. Lyrically, the song deals with our fascination with 'progress' which we seem to loosely identify with change. But true progress requires a set destination, something I feel most of us rarely have in mind when we use the term. I have to reference Chesterton again as the last line of the song is a paraphrase of this quote: 'Progress should mean we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.'" - Dustin Kensrue. Track 4: Original version appears on Beggars - "I wrote the chords and melody to this song on my mandolin, with the idea that it would build on each verse. But the dynamics and feel of the end product definitely was the result of experimentation with the band, and I like the jazzy guitar foundation much better than what I had originally envisioned. Teppei and I kept tripping out on how awesome the feedback squeal is before my guitar comes in on the third verse. So perfect and unplanned. One of the things that you miss when everything is chopped on modern records. Martin Luther's last written words, written on a scrap of paper, were 'We are beggars: This is true.' I used those words as a springboard for the lyrics of this song, exploring the idea that we all take credit for far more than we should, and therefore should be grateful for far more than we are." - Dustin Kensrue