Reminiscence On Behalf Of The Species (Unmastered work in progress) - Lyrics

In Reminiscence On Behalf Of The Species The Footage offer us a satirical piece of eschatology, a look back at the dying days of the human race encompassing our fumbling attempts to work out a political system that worked (the failure of communism, the debasing effect of Friedman's rampant capitalism), the blindness of religious fundamentalism and our slide towards ecological disaster.

Luckily, considering the density of the subject matter, the Footage were kind enough to wrap it all up in a catchy pop song featuring a profusion of musical ideas including a couple of memorable guitar riffs and an amusing, dissonant piece of punctuation leading into the second verse.

R.O.B.O.T.S. (note the sinister acronym) concludes with the beautifully chilling image of what must be the 9/11 suicide bombers "armed with heaven, armed with death" taking a breath and hurtling "through the screaming sky".

But it looks like that was all a bit of a distraction. What did it for the human race in the end was our inability to do anything about the threat of climate change other than give a resigned shrug and sigh (a Beach Boys parodying) "You're not the little world I once knew".

One Last Chance (Unmastered work in progress) - Lyrics

The Footage have pretty adeptly precluded the possibility of this song ever being played on the radio by peppering it with swearwords and drugs references. But that rawness is integral to the story it tells.

One Last Chance (To Really Fuck This Up) is a song about love lost, a song seeped in painful longing. Far from being morose, the urgent bassline, sparse guitar riff and a melody that never quite seems to resolve keep the tension going throughout and Toby Brack's powerful vocals capture the emotion beautifully.

In typical Footage fashion, behind the compelling music and catchy tune lie lyrics that are dense, poetic and full of literary allusions. There is a nod to William Blake ("You tell me to kiss the joy as it flies, well what the fuck do you think I was trying to do? I was trying to kiss the joy as it flew") and even some Cavafy in the original greek.

Near the end of the song the narrator, who turns to drugs and then, intriguingly, cellophane to protect himself from the pain, seems to concede that he's come to terms with it and even, to some extent, has come to treasure it: "Whence I'm put, years away, I'd take raw those pains as they are".

So have a listen, have a download, read the lyrics and if you feel moved to, leave a comment to let us know what you think.

I have volunteered to write a series of articles over the next few weeks, previewing songs from the forthcoming Footage album, The Summit Of Mount Everest Is Marine Limestone. Each will be accompanied by a clip of the song in question so that you don't have to take my unreliable word for anything.

But first a disclaimer. I cannot claim to be unbiased. I am the nerdy brains behind the Footage website and even the members of the band I am not related to I am friends with. However I'm clearly not involved in the creative process behind these songs and I've discovered them much as an outsider would. And anyway, as mentioned above, there will be a clip of the song accompanying each article so you can judge for yourselves. Also please feel free to have your say by leaving your comments at the end of each article.

To kick things off here is the track listing from The Summit Of Mount Everest Is Marine Limestone:

1. The Blue Handshake
2. Down To Lie
3. Thing Is
4. The Sky That Wasn't God
5. One Last Chance (To Really Fuck This Up)
6. Reminiscence On Behalf Of The Species
7. Everest
8. Night Seriously
9. Late Pastoral
10. The Hampstead Blues
11. China & Africa Meet
12. Shatterments
13. Croc Sobs

The first song I'm going to look at is One Last Chance (To Really Fuck This Up) so look out for the article within the next couple of days.

And a final disclaimer. Everything presented in this series, including the recordings themselves and the design of the sleeve are works in progress and thus are subject to change.

You may be wondering where the hell the Footage have been. No updates to the site for over a year, no gigs since October, nothing on the mailing list... Ok so they've never been the greatest of communicators but this was getting ridiculous.

Luckily they have a decent excuse and I'm pretty sure you'll forgive them once you hear what it is. In fact I suggest you start getting excited, for they have been burrowed away in a dark room in South London working on their debut album and everyone who's heard the work in progress agrees that it sounds pretty special.

It's called The Summit Of Mount Everest Is Marine Limestone and it's made up of 13 songs some of which you may recognise from their live performances over the past year and a half and some of which have never been played live or recorded before.

I'll get a track-listing up within the next couple of days and I'll even try and get my hands on a clip or two to post up here to whet your appetites.

LONDON (APB)

by WOLF S. JENKINS (You can't keep this wolf from the door…of the newsroom!)
& EMMA BROCKES (If it ain't Brockes, don’t fax it…to the newsroom!)

It looks like the answer to the US and its allies’ difficulties in Iraq can be summarised in just one word: “Do It Again!”
When Condoleezza Rice, Jack Straw, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Tony Blair flew out of the Middle East on Wednesday after a tour of the region to mobilise support for the White House’s controversial new Iraq strategy, Arab diplomats were left terrified.
Two of the US’s most important Sunni allies in the region – Egypt and Saudi Arabia – gave bemused backing to the initiative whilst covering their ears with their hands and wailing, while a third, Jordan, reiterated the need for Iraq’s Sunnis to be given a greater role in their country’s political processes, whilst covering their ears with their hands.
Although precise details of the new strategy are unconfirmed, what is clear is that it would involve immediate withdrawal of all allied forces and then, within a month, full redeployment, following a massive onslaught from the air. The re-bombing strategy has the working title “Operation Aw Shucks” but it is thought that the Democrat-controlled senate, while not opposing the general thrust of the plan, prefers “Operation Crazed Genocide” and that the two parties will eventually agree on something like “Operation Provoked Bear”.
One of the necessary consequences of US withdrawal will be the re-imposition of the strict sanctions regime that was in place from as long ago as 1990 until as recent ago as the liberation of 2003 and was only unhelpful in a life sense to a mere 1.5 million Iraqis.

"The mosquito of fashion carries the malaria of conformity."
Witnesses said it was almost as if it had been written down on, like, eyelid cuecards or something. "She just came out with it" said one. We asked this witness if she could say the same thing in the present tense for a headline quote. "No problem," she gasped. "She just comes out with it." "Perfect. Do it again for the second edition."

- "What with the spectacular scenery,
the butterflies, birds and the greenery,
Joan, it's been a really-"
- "We must return yearly."
- "Yes, I'd have to agree, Joan, it's been a re-"

Everyone who is not a total log will remember where they were and what colour the toilet paper was when they read the following headline in these pages: “Band Members, Poets, Limerickicists Or Whatever ARRESTED”. It exploded like a man into our mouths on 16th December, 2006. The story, if memory is still a brow-mopping, cap-tipping, oh-yes-massering slave to this writer’s will, ran like this, exactly like this:
‘"A crime of the heart and a cardiac arrest", quipped Brewster Pensen of The Footage to the press as he was dragged into a police van or Pig Wagon or Janet Reno Espace or Fuzz Truck or Panopticon Pantechnicon in the early hours of this morning in Whitehall. Also among those arrested after a limerick-themed party that, it is alleged, spilled into the Cabinet Room of the War Rooms, were poet and hallucinatrix Joy Stein, elegist R.X. Leaf, Susie Grossman, several members of the band Left With Pictures and another apparently innocent, though a shade lycanthropic, man who shouted "I'm Napalm Toast! I'm Napalm Toast! I'm Not Fucking Spartacus! I'm Napalm Toast!" until police decided to arrest him too. Band hubsman Edward Bearnaise has been unavailable for comment. FULL STORY TO FOLLOW WHEN MORE DETAILS ARE KNOWN...’
It is the last sentence that I would now ask you to slobber upon with your syrupy eyes and pultaceous brain. All done? OK.
Although the police have waxed decidedly ponderous in their investigations (a superintendent has now apologised to Edward Bearnaise, explaining that he was under the mistaken impression that “Brewster Pensen was black and had therefore been questioned to death while in custody and thus we’d need stalling-time in which to erect the necessary fabrications.” Thank you, Superintendent.), the facts are, and the truth is, in, and out, respectively. Here are a few of the best – and I forewarn you, some of these are just totally fucking classic facts: