The Jet Age

There's no easy way to put this, so here goes: What Did You Do During The War, Daddy? was conceived as the soundtrack to an imaginary musical that asks what is our (my) responsibility, as citizens, when our government is out of control. Bear with me.

Yes, this is the tragic tale of a revolutionary American suicide bomber. It sounds crazy when I write it, and I hope the widow's lament ("Ladies, Don't Cry Tonight") that bookends this record makes it clear that I'm not advocating suicide bombing as a solution for anything, but drama provides a forum for discussing some dark ideas and, frankly, I really DON'T know what else I can do as a voting citizen to rectify the terrifying course our country has been set upon. As a father of two, that's pretty fucking vexing, hence this album.

Despite my efforts to make the plot work, it was important to me that these songs would be able to stand on their own, too. The "musical" concept allowed me to write songs that spoke directly to the concerns I have without having to force myself to move the plot along incrementally; I assumed that dialog, some of which I almost recorded as interstitials, would handle some of the narrative work. So, outside the context of the record, "Maybe Love's a Transmission" is still about losing a loved one, regardless of the cause of death. "Dumb," I fear, is a topical rant; the first act is mostly love songs. In other words, this thing should be iPod friendly, but I want people to listen to the record front to back. Don Quixo-who?

The tunes: Yeah, my usual nods to The Who, Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine, the New Zealand scene, etc. are all here; that's my DNA and I'm proud of it. The range drummer Pete Nuwayser shows on this record is astonishing, from the C&W shuffle of "Ladies, Don't Cry Tonight" to the no-holds-barred chaos of "O, Calendar" to the funky strut of "False Idols"; I don't know of any drummer who covers so much ground in one band. But bass player Greg Bennett is the hero of this record. Apart from writing the music for shoegazer epic "Now We Are Three" (a riff so good we ultimately decided to just play it for three minutes), he drives these songs. Just listen to the climax of "I Said, 'Alright'," the turnarounds in "If I Had You Then..." the insistent throb in "O, Calendar." The concept is mine, but the album's power is the band's. Regardless of whether people embrace the themes discussed herein or not, we hope and believe the appeal of the music itself is incontrovertible. Please, pass it on. - Eric Tischler, 2008.