Some albums take longer than others to gestate. Then there’s Lampshade Earthquake Microphone (Having Fun/We Are Busy Bodies), which began taking shape 20 years ago and is finally seeing the light of day as the Deathray Davies’ seventh album. Its dozen tracks amount to a wonderfully strange assemblage of garage rock, psychedelic pop and studio fiddling.
The Deathray Davies began as a pre-millennial solo project for Dallas-based musician John Dufilho, who’d played alongside Jason Garner in Thirteen and the fuzz-pop trio Bedwetter. The two would continue their musical partnership in the Deathray Davies, which became a fixture on the Texas indie scene, releasing a string of albums and touring with the Breeders, Old 97’s, Superdrag and others.
In 2006, Dufilho joined Elephant 6 psych-pop stalwarts the Apples In Stereo as their drummer, replacing founding member Hilarie Sidney. That connection would lure Robert Schneider and other Apples members into the sessions for Lampshade Earthquake Microphone. There are also contributions from the late Bill Doss of Olivia Tremor Control.
“Inky (Garner) and I recorded 90 percent of this record, just the two of us trading off on instruments,” says Dufilho. “He’s a much better singer than I am, so he’s doing most of the heavy lifting.”
Here’s more from Dufilho on each rack.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “The Ballad Of Lousy Robot”
“Some friends of mine were in a band from Albuquerque named Lousy Robot. I produced three albums for them and decided one day that they needed a theme song. I ended up writing four of them and smashed them all together like “Mean Mr. Mustard”/“Polythene Pam.” It’s an analogy about a visitor coming to Earth and trying to fit in. But like Dr. Seuss says, ‘Why fit in when you were born to stand out?’”
2) “Go Scare The Ghosts”
“I have a big family—seven in all. My dad used to tell us there were three more: Marshall, Charles and Casandra. They lived in the attic and would come around at night. He thought it was funny, but he didn’t realize it scared the hell out of us when we were young. I’m doing my best Keith Moon impersonation on the drums here.”
3) “Factory”
“I’m super happy with the way this one came out. It represents most everything I want the Deathray Davies to be: ’60s influences, found sounds, pop hooks, plus lyrics about reinvention. Somehow, it doesn’t sound like anyone else to my ears. Maybe I’m wrong.”
4) “Red Lights”
“We started recording this song around the time I first joined the Apples. I played it for Bill Doss, and he said, ‘I know what to do with this.’ He recorded some friends he called the Athens horn players at his home studio in Georgia. When he sent me what they’d added, I couldn’t believe how great it sounded. Nick (Earl), our guitar player, says he wishes all our songs had ‘trash-can drums’ like this one does. A long time ago, when I was very, very dumb, a friend of mine bet I wouldn’t run a red light. I proceeded to run the next 14. Not my greatest moment—but why not put it in a song?”
5) “They Stuck Me In A Box In The Ground Pt. 8”
“One of an ongoing series of songs—10 total, scattered throughout our records—using death to explain feeling misunderstood or left out. This one is a New Orleans-style funeral. ‘A black cape landscape with tambourine.’ Processing death is a very strange thing. I like the idea of singing and celebrating the unknown.”
6) “They Stuck Me In A Box In The Ground Pt. 9”
“I don’t really play piano well, but I had fun banging on one to get this solo. I wanted this song to sound like someone trying to outrun fear. It’s about questioning choices and our very existence. Vultures are circling above. ‘I try not to look, try not to show that I’m afraid … They already know.’”
7) “Cold Hearted Friend”
“We’ve all got one.”
8) “Boy Takes Grandpa To Slayer Show”
“Every generation thinks the next is far worse—and maybe it is. Or maybe we’re all the same. I made this up one day thinking about this. Heroin and jazz or Slayer?”
9) “Marbles”
“I’ve had six surgeries on my eyes in the past year. Retinal detachment has left me mostly blind in one eye and compromised in the other. I’m not trying to look cool—I need these glasses now. So it’s funny that I’d written a surrealist story about crying so hard that my eyes came out and rolled under the oven. I try to replace them with marbles. This obviously doesn’t work, so I laugh at how I’d taken my sight for granted. Ah, universe … ”
10) “Monkey”
“It’s easy to wish you were someone else, somewhere else, doing something else. It’s far more rewarding to be in the moment. This is me reminding myself of this.”
11) “Helicopters”
“I’ll be honest—I have no idea what this song is about. Maybe someone can explain me to me? ‘This microphone’s not only for display.’”
12) “When Will You Come Home?”
“I love lo-fi sonic experiments just as much as I love big, giant hooks. This is me trying to combine the two. Rich Martin on the electric piano solo makes me unbelievably happy. That’s all the Apples singing the ‘oooh’s and the backing vocals, along with Inky. There’s a song I love by Voxtrot (‘The Start Of Something’) that has this great feel to it. I was going for that.”