Provisions, Fiction and Gear is the third album and major label debut by the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band MOTH

Moth (band)

Moth is a U.S. alternative rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio formed in 1989. The band has released five albums including a major label release on Virgin Records. They have done live performances on The Late Late Show, AOL, and Mancow's Morning Madhouse, numerous national tours and a UK tour...

.

Track listing

1. I See Sound – 3:10
2. Thinkin' Please – 3:36
3. Hearing Things – 3:17
4. Burning Down My Sanity – 4:08
5. Last Night's Dream – 3:31
6. Leftovers – 3:17
7. Lovers' Quarrel – 4:03
8. Cocaine Star – 2:39
9. Plastics Campaign – 3:18
10. Sleepy – 3:48
11. Straight Line – 4:42
12. Not Really – 3:20

Recording process

"We had recorded an album, it just wasn't released. Some of the material was from that record and that was interesting, because we knew what we had done wrong in the past and how we could make the songs better. About half of the record was like that, the other half were very new songs, written about six months prior to going into the studio. That was really exciting as well."

“The biggest part of it was the money but that in turn allowed us to take more time. We never did this thing called pre-production before [and] we did that this time around. Pre-production basically entails getting together with the rhythm section and running through the songs. Sean Beavan

Sean Beavan

Sean Beavan is a musician, record producer, and audio engineer best known for his work with Guns N Roses, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer...

 - our producer - and I trimmed the fat off some of the tunes so they were new for me too. We all rehearsed as a group and played the newer, leaner arrangements to see how everything worked out.”

Writing and composition

“I keep the music and the lyrics separate for a long time. I just collect and collect for both sides and then, when it comes time, they kind of just naturally come together. Lyrically, I get a lot of inspiration about what happens to me in my day-to-day life. And also Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski

Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...

 and David Lynch

David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...

 are very inspirational to me.”

• The hit single "I See Sound," had been around in one form or another since 1997. “I wrote that at a time in my life when I was losing focus about what the band and myself were about. I had to sit down and reevaluate the situation. Once I did that, the answer seemed really clear to me. The answer boiled down to the music. That is what I am about. As far as what I see, that is my vision. Sound is another word for the music.”

• “In “Burning Down My Sanity” the girl combusts, as in flammable. She combusts all over me. It is more of a positive kind of statement--you meet that person and before you know it, they are infiltrating every single aspect of your life. They blow you away so much that everything else is falling apart.” That song is about meeting that specific person that you didn't plan on meeting.”

• "It is a cyclical thing," says Stenz of the back-from-the-dead theme of "Last Night's Dream." "This couple are dead, but they are dreaming about the last night they were alive. That was a dream that I had. It was the last night I was alive in the dream; the next day, I thought about it and tried to put it into lyrics: 'In my dream last night I dreamt that you and I were both alive.” "I am not sure how the couple died," he continues. "I never got that far in the dream. It was just a bizarre circumstance. Who knows why they are there, but they are there for a reason."

• "It is nothing I can get sued for," says Stenz, "but on "Cocaine Star, "I tried to come as close to the MTV
  MTV
  MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
  
   [theme song] guitar riff without actually stealing it. My riff is cooler. The song pokes fun at all those '80s rock stars that probably snorted more coke than they could produce. They were cocaine stars, not rock stars."

• In "Plastics Campaign," Stenz sings about his utter discontent with people who perform and people who receive plastic surgery. "I am completely against it. Unless it is some reconstructive surgery as the result of a horrible crash or accident. I can understand that."

• Stenz wrote "Not Really" one day while sitting on his couch. "That song took about fifteen minutes. I don't know where it came from. Lyrically it was about how I felt that day which was totally out of touch with reality."

Reception

The album received enthusiastic reviews from music magazines including Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, and CMJ.

Credits

• Brad Stenz – vocals, guitar
• Bob Gayol – guitar
• Tommy Stinson
  Tommy Stinson
  Thomas "Tommy" Eugene Stinson is an American musician best known for his work as the bassist for The Replacements and Guns N' Roses as well as the post-Replacements groups Bash & Pop, where he performed guitar duties, and Perfect...
  
   – bass
• Josh Freese
  Josh Freese
  Josh Freese is an American session drummer and songwriter. He is a permanent member of A Perfect Circle, The Vandals, and Devo, having formerly played drums for Nine Inch Nails from late 2005 until late 2008, and for Guns N' Roses from mid-1998 to 2001. Freese has appeared on close to 300 records....
  
  – drums