Music for the Holidaze

Hey Kids. Sid here. It's "The Holidays". Nearly.

I don't know what you think of when you think of Christmas, but here's what I think of: Disappointment. Tension. Yeah, I have a few memories of opening some toy I wanted, but those are fading just like the photographs of the days my parents probably can't find anymore.

I do remember my aunt and uncle gave me some of my first music - "Tattoo You" by the Rolling Stones. "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac.

Christmas, 1983. The band is still in the studio, working on "Life, Style..." On Christmas Day. Hoping to finish so we can go home for dinner. I'm in the vocal booth, having just finished the lyrics and vocals for "Last Song", which was also the last song we were working on.

The album was ready for mixing, and we already had a rough up. The phone rings. It's the label guy. We were being dropped. The album was never going to come out. He was claiming we cost too much money and weren't going to recoup. There were other reasons, too, but I'm not going into them here.

Over a year of hard work, and our whole teenage lives, gone. The band leaves the control room to go smoke or drink or cry or whatever. They don't notice me still in the vocal booth, in the dark. I slip out the back, my Schott leather jacket barely keeping the chill off. I walk nearly a mile before I can hail a cab and just tell him to drive...and I disappear for a long, long time.

There are other Christmases I could write about with similar stories, but instead, I'll focus on the positive.

In July of 1983 back when The Pants were still The Next Big Thing, we were asked to participate in some network Christmas special. I think Carl Sagan was hosting or involved or something. I remember Ewoks or Muppets or Gremlins or Goonies. It's all a little vague. The band couldn't make it, but the agent insisted that I did. So I turned up and did a nice little rendition of "Winter Wonderland".

Of course, after the band was dropped, they cut the segment from the special and it never aired (if anyone ever finds a YouTube video, please let me know!). But I managed to dig up a copy. We were going to put it on a flexi and send it out to the fan club.

Hope you like it, and Merry Holidays.

Pantemonium! in progress: Older Woman

This track has a heavy Michael Jackson influence. Thought I would tip my shiny hat to the one-gloved master. I hope he's far from pressure and Post-It notes now.

I wanted to try to write something with a little more soul while simultaneously paying tribute to some of our hardest-core fans. Make no mistake - I love the older women. Look at Farrah Fawcett. Smokin' until the end. There are too many to name.

Still on track to have the new album finished before summer's over. Dante's going to paint up a nice cover.

Tell us what you think.

Older Woman (mix 09) MP3

The Best Song I've Ever Written

Pantemonium! is coming. Work is proceeding slowly, but it is proceeding. Drummer Dante is headed back in for more hand surgery today (we're all wishing him luck) and T What!? is still in China touring with acrobats or whatever his solo project entails.

Me? I've been in the studio mixing.

I'd like to present what I believe is The Best Song I've Ever Written. It's called Summer's Promise. This is the current rough mix. I wrote this song back in 2005. It's based on a true story, as are many of my songs.

The lyrics may be a little corny, but I love the feeling. The melody, the keyboard line, the guitar parts - I don't know how it turned out so good, but I'll take it.

Let me know what you think. Snare drum is too loud or something. But it's very close to done.

It was June and July, it was her and me
It was meant to be
When the heat of the day became the heat of the night
We held each other tight
And we danced
All summer long
And we sang
All summer long

But vacations end and it was time to go
Returning home
On my own
All that year I carried the mark of Summer's promise
On my heart
I would wait for Summer to come
Counting days
Until they all were gone

But Summer's promise never meant to last
She gave her heart and then she took it back
People change and the world spins so fast
Summer's promise never meant to last

Next June arrived
And so did I
With a flower and a smile for her
But the look on her face told me everything had changed
We never talked about it
But there was no doubt

And to this day, I have a scar
Where her promise broke
and cut my heart
and I cried
All summer long

Summer's promise never meant to last
She gave her heart and then she took it back
Feelings change and shatter like glass
Summer's promise never meant to last

(C) 2005 Erich Zahn Music

Free MP3s available!

You may have noticed the site's template has changed - PantCo has requested we put AdWords on the site, which required we upgrade some things which blew up our template. We'll be cleaning this up over the next few days.

Also, look over there to the left - as part of our ongoing attempts to prevent ourselves from earning any money, we've added some links to free MP3s and have included the new Yahoo Media Player to let you play them all right here. You can also download them and keep them forever.

First up, two new songs and one old one:
"Drives" - Been working on this one for a while. This isn't mastered but is probably the final mix.
"Older Woman" - Maybe six months old, written after listening to a lot of soul music and some pre-insanity Michael Jackson.

Finally, digging through the old tape library we came across the rare, much-bootlegged 12 inch "night version" of "Lifestyle Magazine Lifestyle".

Oh, and "Life, Style" can now be purchased as MP3s through the Rhapsody PC client!

Enjoy!