Light at the End
Encyclopedia
Light at the End is a 2007 studio album
by the Portland, Maine
, band Rustic Overtones
, the first album by the band since its break-up in 2002. The album was recorded in spring 2007 and released on July 24, 2007. It has become the fastest-selling local disc ever in the state of Maine. Songs on the album include the title track "Light at the End," as well as new song "Troublesome" and the previously unreleased fan favorite "Rock Like War", both of which were premiered on WCYY the day that the band announced their first patio show since their breakup. With only eleven tracks and clocking in at just over 40 minutes, the album is the band's shortest to date.
, Dave Gutter and Jon Roods' band Paranoid Social Club
and Tony Mcnaboe's solo album Destination, members of the band spontaneously came into Portland's
WCYY
studio one day in May 2007 to announce that the band was going to reunite for the summer and play some shows at local Portland club "The Asylum". According to an article in the Portland Press Herald
, drummer Tony Mcnaboe called each of the band members separately that spring and told each member that the others had already agreed to a reunion, thus tricking the members of the band into reuniting. A few weeks after, the band announced that they planned to release a new album, the first since 2001's ¡Viva Nueva!, of old material that had been left off previous releases and new material that the band was working on. The band recorded the album all through May and June at The Halo Studios in Westbrook, Maine
. They then came back to WCYY to announce that they were to play at a WCYY Patio Show in July and premiered newly written song "Troublesome" and newly recorded fan favorite "Rock Like War". In late June, the band released a sampler of 12 songs from their new album Light at the End, one of them being the later omitted "Last Night's Band". In early July, the final track list (minus the bonus track "Happy") was posted on Bull Moose Music's website along with the cover art and a link to pre-order the album. The band released the album on July 24, 2007, to all ten Bull Moose Music stores across the state the day of a special in-store acoustic performance.
" features a mainly hard rock first half, although the song later abruptly siwtches into a lighter, more upbeat second section that is made possible by the band's addition of a two-part string section. The guest strings are also featured heavily in the album's other hard rocker, "Oxygen". The band's third version of "Hardest Way Possible", a song that appeared in different versions on Rooms by the Hour
and Viva Nueva! appears on the album in the form that the band reports they always wanted to record it, beginning with a Mellotron
playing the string harmony that appears later in the song. The horns are playing a new arrangement, having a sound reminiscent of 1960s' Stax/Volt. In all, the album has a much more toned down, less overly produced feel to it than the band's final pre-breakup release, Viva Nueva!.
Lyrically, the album is mainly similar to other Rustic Overtones releases, with many songs, such as "Black Leather Bag" and "Carnival", telling the cryptic and often nonsensical stories of romantic situations. The song "Letter to the President", played with only bass, guitar, xylophone and ukulele, is very much a departure from most of the band's other songs, as it features the most overtly political lyrics on the entire album and perhaps anything they have ever released before. The song "Light at the End" features mainly inspirational lyrics, saying that "all things they turn around", perhaps symbolizing the band's hopes that they will succeed now that they are back together. "Happy", a fan favorite that was left off Viva Nueva, also implies the band's happiness with reuniting with its optimistic lyrics describing the band's friendship.
. The design is in black pencil, unlike the color artwork for Rooms by the Hour. The cover is of a cockroach with a frowning mask of Melpomene
, the Muse
of Tragedy
, on its back inside a glass jar with its cover removed. The same cockroach appears on the back of the cover outside of its jar, and the track list of the album is written along its antennae
. The inside art mostly consists of a gigantic scene scanned from Corrigan's sketchbook (apparent from the visible binding rings on the left of the scene) of what appears to be a man dressed as a rabbit dragging another man dressed as a rabbit in a surreal forest scene. The two men dressed as rabbits have been made into a tour T-shirt, as has the cockroach.
history, according to Bull Moose Music, breaking the record previously held by the band's 2001 release, Viva Nueva!. The CD was at the top of the store's sales charts for weeks, beating other summer hits from bands such as White Stripes, Smashing Pumpkins,and T.I.
. The song "Rock Like War" received large amounts of airtime from WCYY, and was consistently featured on the station's "Top 5 at 5" contest (in which fans vote online for their favorite songs) for weeks after the song's initial release, usually at number one or two. Samples from the song "Light at the End" have been featured as buffer music for The Laura Ingraham Show
and WRKO
's Red Sox coverage.
that was first included on Viva Nueva!, between the tracks "Light at the End" and "Happy".
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by the Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
, band Rustic Overtones
Rustic Overtones
Rustic Overtones is a rock/jazz/funk band from Maine active from 1993–2002 and 2007–present. They were the first group to perform live on XM Satellite Radio, and their 2007 album Light At The End was the fastest-selling local disc ever in the state of Maine....
, the first album by the band since its break-up in 2002. The album was recorded in spring 2007 and released on July 24, 2007. It has become the fastest-selling local disc ever in the state of Maine. Songs on the album include the title track "Light at the End," as well as new song "Troublesome" and the previously unreleased fan favorite "Rock Like War", both of which were premiered on WCYY the day that the band announced their first patio show since their breakup. With only eleven tracks and clocking in at just over 40 minutes, the album is the band's shortest to date.
Background and recording
After five years of pursuing separate projects such as Spencer Albee's band As Fast AsAs Fast As
As Fast As is an alternative rock band from Portland, Maine, which includes former Rustic Overtones keyboardist Spencer Albee, who along with Haché Horchatta and Zach Jones were members of the power pop group Rocktopus. Their debut album, Open Letter to the Damned was released on Octone Records in...
, Dave Gutter and Jon Roods' band Paranoid Social Club
Paranoid Social Club
Paranoid Social Club is a Rock/Psychedelic/indie band from Portland, Maine, United States which formed in 2002. In 2006, the band's song Wasted was included on the soundtrack of the movie Beerfest...
and Tony Mcnaboe's solo album Destination, members of the band spontaneously came into Portland's
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
WCYY
WCYY
WCYY is a commercial radio station located in Portland, Maine. It broadcasts to the Portland, Maine area on 94.3 FM and formerly on 93.9 FM from Lewiston, Maine. Its target audience are people from ages 18–44. The station airs a modern rock music format and is under ownership of Cumulus Media....
studio one day in May 2007 to announce that the band was going to reunite for the summer and play some shows at local Portland club "The Asylum". According to an article in the Portland Press Herald
Portland Press Herald
The Portland Press Herald publish daily newspapers in Portland, Maine, USA...
, drummer Tony Mcnaboe called each of the band members separately that spring and told each member that the others had already agreed to a reunion, thus tricking the members of the band into reuniting. A few weeks after, the band announced that they planned to release a new album, the first since 2001's ¡Viva Nueva!, of old material that had been left off previous releases and new material that the band was working on. The band recorded the album all through May and June at The Halo Studios in Westbrook, Maine
Westbrook, Maine
Westbrook is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States and a suburb of Portland. The population was 17,494 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
. They then came back to WCYY to announce that they were to play at a WCYY Patio Show in July and premiered newly written song "Troublesome" and newly recorded fan favorite "Rock Like War". In late June, the band released a sampler of 12 songs from their new album Light at the End, one of them being the later omitted "Last Night's Band". In early July, the final track list (minus the bonus track "Happy") was posted on Bull Moose Music's website along with the cover art and a link to pre-order the album. The band released the album on July 24, 2007, to all ten Bull Moose Music stores across the state the day of a special in-store acoustic performance.
Musical style and lyrics
Consisting mainly of songs that the band had written in various eras of their pre-breakup career, Light at the End features one of the band's broadest and most diverse collections of musical styles and influences. The album's opening song "Rock Like WarRock Like War
Rock Like War is a song by Rustic Overtones that appears on the band's 2007 studio album Light at the End.-History:"Rock Like War" was first premiered by the band on July 26, 1998 at a performance at the State Theater in Portland, Maine, along with a half-dozen other new songs...
" features a mainly hard rock first half, although the song later abruptly siwtches into a lighter, more upbeat second section that is made possible by the band's addition of a two-part string section. The guest strings are also featured heavily in the album's other hard rocker, "Oxygen". The band's third version of "Hardest Way Possible", a song that appeared in different versions on Rooms by the Hour
Rooms by the Hour
Rooms by the Hour is an album released in 1998 by Rustic Overtones. The band's third full length offering, it is credited with earning major label interest in the band and leading to their subsequent contract with the Warner Music Group.-Track listing:...
and Viva Nueva! appears on the album in the form that the band reports they always wanted to record it, beginning with a Mellotron
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
playing the string harmony that appears later in the song. The horns are playing a new arrangement, having a sound reminiscent of 1960s' Stax/Volt. In all, the album has a much more toned down, less overly produced feel to it than the band's final pre-breakup release, Viva Nueva!.
Lyrically, the album is mainly similar to other Rustic Overtones releases, with many songs, such as "Black Leather Bag" and "Carnival", telling the cryptic and often nonsensical stories of romantic situations. The song "Letter to the President", played with only bass, guitar, xylophone and ukulele, is very much a departure from most of the band's other songs, as it features the most overtly political lyrics on the entire album and perhaps anything they have ever released before. The song "Light at the End" features mainly inspirational lyrics, saying that "all things they turn around", perhaps symbolizing the band's hopes that they will succeed now that they are back together. "Happy", a fan favorite that was left off Viva Nueva, also implies the band's happiness with reuniting with its optimistic lyrics describing the band's friendship.
Album art
The art for Light At The End is by popular Portland artist Patrick Corrigan, the artist behind the band's artwork for their 1998 release Rooms by the HourRooms by the Hour
Rooms by the Hour is an album released in 1998 by Rustic Overtones. The band's third full length offering, it is credited with earning major label interest in the band and leading to their subsequent contract with the Warner Music Group.-Track listing:...
. The design is in black pencil, unlike the color artwork for Rooms by the Hour. The cover is of a cockroach with a frowning mask of Melpomene
Melpomene
Melpomene , initially the Muse of Singing, she then became the Muse of Tragedy, for which she is best known now. Her name was derived from the Greek verb melpô or melpomai meaning "to celebrate with dance and song." She is often represented with a tragic mask and wearing the cothurnus, boots...
, the Muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
of Tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
, on its back inside a glass jar with its cover removed. The same cockroach appears on the back of the cover outside of its jar, and the track list of the album is written along its antennae
Antenna (biology)
Antennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in most cell types of eukaryotes....
. The inside art mostly consists of a gigantic scene scanned from Corrigan's sketchbook (apparent from the visible binding rings on the left of the scene) of what appears to be a man dressed as a rabbit dragging another man dressed as a rabbit in a surreal forest scene. The two men dressed as rabbits have been made into a tour T-shirt, as has the cockroach.
Reception
Light at the End became the fastest selling local album in MaineMaine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
history, according to Bull Moose Music, breaking the record previously held by the band's 2001 release, Viva Nueva!. The CD was at the top of the store's sales charts for weeks, beating other summer hits from bands such as White Stripes, Smashing Pumpkins,and T.I.
T.I.
Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. , better known by his stage name T.I., is an American rap artist, film and music producer, actor and author. He is also the founder and co-chief executive officer of Grand Hustle Records....
. The song "Rock Like War" received large amounts of airtime from WCYY, and was consistently featured on the station's "Top 5 at 5" contest (in which fans vote online for their favorite songs) for weeks after the song's initial release, usually at number one or two. Samples from the song "Light at the End" have been featured as buffer music for The Laura Ingraham Show
The Laura Ingraham Show
The Laura Ingraham Show is a three-hour American radio show hosted by conservative commentator Laura Ingraham on Talk Radio Network. , the show is broadcast live on Channel 2, from 9 a.m...
and WRKO
WRKO
WRKO is a radio station based in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Entercom. Its transmitter is located in Burlington, Massachusetts, next to the Burlington Mall.-1920-1940:...
's Red Sox coverage.
Track listing
- "The Calm" - 0:17
- "Rock Like WarRock Like WarRock Like War is a song by Rustic Overtones that appears on the band's 2007 studio album Light at the End.-History:"Rock Like War" was first premiered by the band on July 26, 1998 at a performance at the State Theater in Portland, Maine, along with a half-dozen other new songs...
" - 4:46 - "Letter to the President" - 4:29
- "Troublesome" - 2:59
- "Hardest Way Possible" - 4:32
- "Black Leather Bag" - 4:08
- "Oxygen" - 4:12
- "Carsick" - 3:24
- "Carnival" - 3:58
- "Light at the End" - 5:06
- "Happy" - 3:12 (Bonus Track, not mentioned on CD cover)
Out-takes
- "Last Night's Band" - An older song that the band performed live during the Viva Nueva! days, the song made it onto the original sampler on their Myspace page but was omitted from the album by the band. By request of Jon Roods, the song was released as a free download to fans.
Velour Music re-release
On November 24, 2007, the band announced to the crowd at a show at Portland club The Asylum that Light at the End was to be re-released on the band's new record label, and would contain bonus tracks not included on the original release. On November 26, 2007, the band announced in a new bio on their myspace that the album was to be released on Velour Music for the band's wide release, and also hinted that the band's entire back catalog would soon be available through independent re-release. The national release came on March 19, 2008, coinciding with the re-release of Long Division. The new version features new cover artwork by Patrick Corrigan of two rabbits navigating a large open body of water, although the inside artwork remains the same as the original July release. The new version also features a new track listing, omitting the track "Black Leather Bag" and adding in "Valentines Day Massacre", the same version featuring Imogen HeapImogen Heap
Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap is a Grammy Award-winning English singer, composer and songwriter from Havering, Essex. She is known for her work as part of the musical duo Frou Frou and her solo albums, which she writes, produces, and mixes...
that was first included on Viva Nueva!, between the tracks "Light at the End" and "Happy".
Release history
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalogue number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maine (Bull Moose Record Stores) | 27 July 2007 | Self-release | CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... |
| Worldwide (iTunes ITunes iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.... ) |
August 2007 | Self-release | Digital download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment... |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
19 March 2008 | Velour Music | CD |
Personnel
- Dave Gutter - lead vocals and guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Spencer Albee - backing vocals, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s and percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
on "Letter to the President" - Tony McNaboe - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Jon Roods - bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Jason Ward - baritone saxophoneBaritone saxophoneThe baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
- Ryan Zoidis - tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
and alto saxophoneAlto saxophoneThe alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions... - Dave Noyes - tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
and ukuleleUkuleleThe ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
on "Letter to the President" - Tony Visconti - producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
(previously unreleased tracks from Viva Nueva!) - Jonathan Wyman - producer/engineer (new material)
- Patrick Corrigan - art workAlbum coverAn album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
External links
- Condalmo - Portland-based book/music site; track listing for new album
- Music from the album can be found on the band's MySpace.