The Oblivion Particle (2015)

Release Date: August 21, 2015

Track List

Tides of Time (7:45)
Minion (6:53)
Hell’s Not Enough (6:23)
Bennett Built a Time Machine (6:52)
Get Out While You Can (4:55)
A Better Way To Fly (8:57)
The Center Line (7:25)
To Be Free Again (10:24)
Disappear (6:14)
Iron Man (special edition bonus track)

Recording Information

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Rich Mouser at The Mouse House, Alta Dena, CA.

Additional tracks and overdubs were recorded by Ryo, Dave, Ted and Alan at their home studios. Engineers at Alan’s studio were Jeff Silverman and John Morse. Jimmy’s percussion tracks were recorded at Jimmy Branly’s studio, Burbank, CA, engineered by Jimmy Branly. Second engineer at The Mouse House was Jeff Fox.

Graphic design by Thomas Ewerhard Band photography by Alex Solca “The Oblivion Particle” story by John Boegehold

Band Members

Alan Morse - guitars, mandolin, electric sitar, banjolele, autoharp, vocals
Dave Meros - bass, synth bass, vocals
Jimmy Keegan - drums & percussion, vocals
Ryo Okumoto - organ, piano, mellotron, synthesizers
Ted Leonard - vocals, guitar

Guest Musician:

David Ragsdale - violin (Disappear)

Lyrics

01. Tides of Time

Stan Ausmus

Tell me how to begin To pay you back for all your sins Blindsided by the truth You cannot hide, I cannot win Accept your settled fate To you, I’m an outcast… a renegade But it’s far, far down the well to fall And you haven’t seen the worst of it yet You did it once and that’s enough I couldn’t see to call your bluff And your plans have all unraveled now I guess that’s how it goes As the darkness creeps into the light It gets much harder to tell wrong from right I can’t see anymore…

Another slave to circumstance You sail the tides of time No longer in your grasp You’re tethered to the line You thought you’d know by now But know it you do not That it’s a hardcore cross to bear When pain is all you’ve got

And when I finally looked inside of me I didn’t find the man I thought I’d be Now there’s nowhere to hide From the truth of it all Another charge into the great unknown And I hope I can find my way home…

I alone have borne the sacrifice Set upon to pay the highest price For a life of misery and pain Lay it out for everyone to see Couldn’t be worse than what you did to me There’s no one at the wheel And now we’re off the tracks

02. Minion

Ted Leonard

A minion of the citadel I gave it up and left my post A stronghold neither strong nor held And now you’re totally exposed

Feeling overcome Feel like I could come undone Feel it welling up And spilling over this fragile cup

A wall I couldn’t see beyond An end I couldn’t have foreseen A waving of a magic wand A dream I didn’t dare to dream

Threat of consequence gave me cinder blocks for shoes No need for common sense, her control was set to cruise A horse with blinders on, I kept trotting straight ahead A dog who sits and begs for the garbage that he’s fed

Some stories need to be revised Some players need to be recast It’s sobering to realize Some ever afters were never meant to last

And now that you’ve found your tower is on the ground in pieces The fortress you prized, but never bothered to fortify its weakness A coward you say, but I knew this would come some day And it wouldn’t take much to come down So I turned the page, wanting more than a servants wage
I won’t be a slave to the crown It’s noble enough to stay in the ruins like a captain who chooses to sink It’s noble but then you always had fixed your eyes on keeping your nobility

03. Hell’s Not Enough

Ted Leonard

Angel eyes and Devil smile; a hand to help another to defile Holding firmly to what can’t be held; know the truth but you’ll never tell Some things are undefined. Some things are in your mind Some things should be a crime but that’s just absurd Some things devious; downright mischievous Some things are grievious but that’s not a word

Hook, line, and weight. No need to debate No way you’ll be turned around Until you die, you’ll hold to the lie That follows you into the ground

You’re strong when they’re weak; you run when they crawl And Hell’s not enough to break your fall You’ve lulled them to sleep with no regret at all And Hell’s not enough to break your fall

To hide my fur, I wear the wool Sometimes you have to be kind to be cruel To help you understand I wax obscure To help you see I’ll paint it all blur

Some things are clearer to me and some are dearer to me So lend an ear or two ‘cause I have a word I done the thinking for you; what’s more I quite adore you So listen I implore you. I must be heard

Hook line and sinker. Thank god you’re not a thinker Here, take this fruity drink you’re fine And though you’ll die; take comfort in the lie Your life’s not yours to lose. It’s mine.

04. Bennett Built a Time Machine

John Boegehold

Bennett Lamb’s been holed up in his shack Working ever patiently Clocks are ticking Bennett’s headed back to New York, 1983

To meet himself as a younger man Show the teenage him a perfect plan The stocks to buy girls not to date He knows the way to reinvent his future Un-make mistakes, un-seal his fate

He’s going back to change his choices Guided by his inner voices And visions that he’d seen Bennett built a time machine

Bennett Lamb’s been five days wide awake He scrawled out every thought he had Complex calculations he did make
All single-spaced on legal pads

He won’t return to watch Babe Ruth To head off Mao or John Wilkes Booth To warn good people in the past Of earthquakes, locust plagues or insurrection There’s just one die he wants recast

05. Get out While You Can

John Boegehold

Beware the ghost that floats two steps behind you It breathes the dust you shake off of your shoes
While tracing ancient scars just to remind you Of every battle past that left a bruise

Your angels and your saviors
Have long since disappeared
And judgment day is here

Get out while you can

Tangled in a web of words unspoken
While fending off the Huns inside your head The burden of a static soul unwoken Is breeding monsters underneath your bed

You’re wrenched out of indifference You sense that something’s wrong The Sirens start their song

When you are gone Life goes on

06. A Better Way to Fly

John Boegehold

Earthbound born to the infinite light Gravity’s enemy pondered the skies

He envied the birds and the arc of their flight

As unquiet shadows cloaked the night He dreamed a better way to fly

Soon one day he’d leave the ground The world would watch him floating by

Blinding lights through open doors His fortune for a place in line In his mind there’s something more Than all the money left behind

Guided by the myth of saints A passageway will be revealed Faith and hope and love remain The last act of a grand ordeal

He dreamed a better way to fly He dreamed a better way

Earthbound born to the infinite light Unquiet shadows cloaked the night He dreamed a better way to fly He envied the birds
The arc of their flight He dreamed a better way to fly

07. The Center Line

Alan Morse & Ryo Okumoto

Maybe I dreamed it all I really can’t recall What came between forever and goodbye Now it all seems so banal So “I’ve already heard it all…” Somebody has to hold it up to the light

But then it gets real And you have to fall apart or fall together When you get yours and I got time When it comes down When we touch the ground It’s such a gentle surrender What if we’ve found the center line?

I walked down to the shore I never noticed it there before But suddenly there it was stretching on forever In so many words it seems Your ashes turn to dreams And the seams that come apart weren’t meant to be together

But it seems to me That we should fall apart to hold together What if there’s truth behind the lie What if it’s real That thing we feel That we should fall together What if we’ve found the center line?

08. To Be Free Again

John Boegehold

My hat in hand as I heard the news
Now I’m leaving the fold forever While walking a mile in the old man’s shoes I’m chasing rainbow weather Someone drew me a map so I’m never coming back round here

They showed me the ghost of a grand design Gone with the change of the seasons A glimpse of a world someone left to find Held out of reach for a reason All their dreams and plans I can’t understand

Breathe in the morning light On the wing taking flight Conscious and clear Hearing destiny call
Come and grow young with me
Life as it’s meant to be Life in a world where the sky never falls See the road ahead That’s the way he said Pack your bags we’re leaving today
Here in our hearts and hands We hold the promised land We’ll find our future and there we will stay
To be free again

So there I was in a waking dream
Time ran slow as summer When far from the valley cross the stream I heard the pipes and the drummers So I followed the sound as the stars shone down

The bodies we grow old in As skin displays the scars
The bones like prison bars that hold us No man escapes unscathed So raise a glass to change and all it brings

There comes a time we stumble Then comes a time we fall
But we crawl again until we’re walking Talking sense again And soon we’re on the mend and on our way

09. Disappear

John Boegehold

Lost among the millions
We are pawns to many kings Never dare to dream the unexpected

To leave by night just slip away See what tomorrow brings

We could disappear You and me We could be Anyplace else not here Anywhere but here

We’d be reported missing And maybe make the news Authorities might say foul play’s suspected They’d probably ask the public’s help They won’t have any clues

We could disappear Suddenly Secretly Quietly free and clear We could disappear You and me We could be Anyplace else not here

Leave the paper chains behind The walls are only in our minds A golden day is growing near To make a break and disappear

Faraway the four winds blow All is ours to find Follow where the rivers flow Feel the sun forever shine

Bonus track

10. Iron Man

Butler, Iommi, Osborne & Ward

Dave Meros - vocals, bass, guitar Nick D’Virgilio - drums Ryo Okumoto - mellotron & synth Ted Leonard - guitar solos