Features

	The Brought Low
	Written by: Arzgarth on 7/19/2006 2:18:53 PM
A shit ton of people having been raving about New York`s The Brought Low. You know why? They`re smart and have excellent taste in music. Singer/guitarist Benjamin Howard Smith and bassist Bob Russell have provided us with a track-by-track breakdown of their latest and greatest, Right on Time. - John Pegoraro
"A Better Life" Bob: Bam bam bam bam bam. Bam bam bam bam bam. A-shunk shunk shunk shunk shunk shunkashunka. A stompfest played out on your floorboards, and on your face. Ben: Like a lot of Brought Low songs, this was written on acoustic guitar and then brought to the band, who blew it out and turned it into the rock opus it is. Knew pretty early on I wanted to open the album with this even though Bob wanted to open with "Vernon Jackson." A pretty personal song, I guess. There`s a lot of shit in there that would be redundant for me to spell out. I`ll just say it was written after September 11, and yes, my father`s dead. "Hail Mary" Ben: This song started with the chorus which I ripped off of Humble Pie and I thought "Hail Mary" would make a great vocal hook. Some of the characters in the song are real and others are composites. The guy who played piano on the new record is an Irish guy, like from Ireland, whom Bob met at a bar and he did a great job. Speaking of Micks, a lot of my songs take place in this mythical Irish New York, which is quickly disappearing, and the irony of me writing this song is I ain`t even Catholic. Bob: As all good Irish-American Catholic boys know, since we wrote a rock `n` roll song about Mary she is sending us straight to hell. Except for Nick, who is a Jew, and thus is already in hell. "This Ain`t No Game" Bob: No, it isn`t. And if you listen to the lyrics, I think that you will see this is clearly not a "game." So take your fucking playing cards, dice, and dominoes and get the fuck out of here before I break your face with Bon Scott`s ballsack. Ben: Originally I wanted this song to have a MC5-meets-Motown vibe but somewhere along the way it turned into an AC/DC song. Lyrics are just your basic "I`ve got a big dick and I`m bad" blues rant but also using catch phrases which is a very Smokey Robinson thing to do. Both Bob and I did really terrible tambourine tracks before our engineer Josh did just a remotely bad one. "Tell Me" Ben: Along with "Shakedown," this is one of the oldest songs on the new record, written in fact back when (original bassist) Dean was still in the band. Sort of a tome of spiritual quandary, I guess. I used a Telecaster for a lot of my rhythm guitar tracks on this record, though this is the only song where I used it for the guitar solo. It sounds so good I wish I used it more. Bob: Somewhere in this song we stole something from Led Zeppelin. I don`t know what it is, but it`s probably got LoJack up its ass. Bonham`s the only one who would have kicked our ass over it, John Paul Jones wouldn`t care `cause he`s cool, and the other guys are fairies. "Dear Ohio" Ben: One of the centerpieces of the record for me and very much a band composition. Lyrically inspired by all the good times I`ve had, great shows I`ve played, and long drives I`ve done out to the Buckeye state and back. Ohio`s been very good to me. Finished writing it sometime after the 2004 Presidential election when Ohio had a different connotation. When I wrote the main lick, I was very consciously trying to write a "stoner rock" riff, but then we recorded it and I wanted it to sound like Steve Miller, which it doesn`t. Also, love Bob`s bass playing on this song. He`s really laying down some shit. Bob: Shum bowdy bee dah lum bow, bee dow, skee dow, skum bee dah lum bo. Means "I tripped my balls off in a Columbus basement and thought I was going to die" in scat. "Throne" Bob: We definitely ripped off Motorhead, Fastway, or both. At least we changed the chorus to "take my throne" from "Jailbait." Ben: Kevin wrote a lot of this one. He brought in the intro and the basic chorus idea, I wrote the verses and then we all arranged it. Kevin also does the guitar solo, a real face melter, which is very indicative of his style. I basically only write lyrics about four subjects: New York City, religion, death, and hating work. This is the "I hate my job" song on the new album, just like "Hot `n` Cold" was on the first album. "Vernon Jackson" Ben: Your typical Brought Low song about New York City. Vernon Jackson is a subway stop in Queens and my buddy, who works for the MTA, once said he wanted to do a stand-up routine at the MTA Christmas Talent Show under the name "Vernon Jackson." At the end, I sing a line from the New York Dolls song "Subway Train," which is a tribute of sorts to Johnny Thunders. I almost had dinner with him and his mother once but didn`t go because I had to write a term paper. How fucking lame is that? Good Keith Moon impression by Nick as well. Bob: This song rules. It is a great rock and roll jam that should rule the FM airwaves. Why is it so good, you ask? Because I didn`t have a god damn thing to do with it. "Shakedown" Bob: "Shakedown" forcibly enters your house uninvited reeking of whiskey, knocking over expensive furniture and things. "Shakedown" then punches your wife in the thigh as hard as he can and bites your forehead, drawing blood. When the police arrive, "Shakedown" is killed in the ensuing gun battle, finally ending one crazy night. Ben: Another really old one that has gradually slowed down over the years to it`s current slug-like crawl. Basically a re-write of "Ventilator Blues" by The Stones with a "Mean Streets" lyrical motif. Kevin always wanted me to change the first line, "Old man Murphy runs the corner bar" `cause his grandfather`s last name was Murphy and he owned a bar in The Bronx. I didn`t. "Blues for Cubby" Bob: This song sometimes makes my fingers hurt. Ben: The funny thing is this started life as a Bad Wizard song. Steve Tanner of Harvey Milk fame wrote the main riff and they played a very different version of it back when he was playing with them. Then when he was playing with us, from fall 2002 to fall 2003, I re-wrote it to fit vocals, added the turnaround and choruses, and Kevin wrote the ascending guitar solo thing. When we were working out the bridge, Tanner said, "Let`s just go into a ten-minute guitar solo and show all these motherfuckers what the fuck is up." My friend was saying the other night how the lyrics sucked because they`re not about anything. I then explained that it`s actually an anti-protest song, protesting protest songs while still in some way being a protest song about the War in Iraq. Having said that, perhaps he was right. "There`s a Light" Ben: My attempt at writing a gospel song. Had the chorus for a while and couldn`t figure out what to do with it, and then my friend Melanie Moser said, "Just make it one big chorus," which is basically what I did. Unlike most of the songs on the record, this was mostly created in the studio and I was still writing the lyrics up until the day before I cut the vocals. I always like records that end with a ballad or something elegiac and I thought this was a good way to go out.
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