Today we're very excited to bring you the first part of a deeper look into Latin For Truth's upcoming album, Youth Crew Blues. Vocalist/guitarist, Charles took the time to write up the explanations for each track, which also includes the lyrics. Don't forget, Youth Crew Blues is out October 25th on Better Days Records/Team Shithead, and make sure to check out the pre-orders here!
Charles: I'm not sure how thorough or unthorough I'll be explaining each of these songs, so I'll start with a steady slow jog to pace myself with the lot of the material. I'll begin with the obvious and explain the title of the song. It's a play on words with the title of a Stuart Rosenberg film, Cool Hand Luke, made in 1967, starring Paul Newman. It's one of my favorite films for a few different reasons: the directing is great; the casting was perfect; the screenplay is one of my favorites; and the story is essentially Punk as fuck. It's the story of Luke, one of my favorite anti-heroes, who's sentenced to 2 years at a Florida prison camp for cutting the heads off parking meters. It's mainly focused on this unbreakable character, who is just inherently askew with society. No matter how much discomfort or hell it causes him, he can only think, react, and live the way that comes natural to him hence the title Cool Hand Luke. Life is a shrug and a smoke to this guy at all times. Stuart Rosenberg directed The Amityville Horror and The Pope Of Greenwich Village, two other classic movies. He was a great director and versatile story teller that never really broke into Hollywood even after his success with Cool Hand Luke. I can identify with that sort of director at this stage of the band and I see that situation in a lot of my favorite bands like Jawbreaker. All you can do is try to create good art, do the things that interest you, and if commercial success never comes then, well hell, that's fine. You'll always have your work. The screenplay writer, Frank Pierson, who also wrote another one of my favorite movies Dog Day Afternoon, co-wrote this script with the original author and screenplay writer, Donn Pearce. Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson both had a great deal of artistic output around the time of the movies release, though Pearce had a rough couple of years despite the critical success of the novel version of the story that was released 2 years earlier. The book didn't ever sell well, which is another point where I meet up with Pearce. Casting on this film pretty much centers around Paul Newman. There's no reason to rant about this man's career and choices in films cause he's an acting hero. We are all aware of his filmography, if not all, most are. Then finally the screenplay and the dialogue therein, the actual material, the meat and craft of the beast is phenomenal. There's a million sudden nuances that come across with the specific choices made by the actors but without the badass material given to them they'd be adrift. So that's my short rant about how excellent the movie is and why I identify with it, on to the allegory between my lyrics, the intent of the lyrics and the choice in how I referenced Cool Hand Luke. Cool Hand Chuck is not simply a shortening of my name, Charles, to Chuck and a reference to how I see myself as a discontent, out of place traveller among a world of stay inside the lines type folk. I do feel this but it's a step above that acknowledgement. I'm using the verb, chuck, as in to throw to replace Luke's name. There's a lot of weight held with given names and titles. Sometimes we're not completely in control of the amount of weight we carry with these names, replacing that name or title with a verb is my reference at taking control of title. Yes, I am askew but I discard freely, under the weight of my own will, not title, the things I don't feel respectively, taking control but also understanding your own attitude and impetuous instinct is this weird balance game you have to participate in after you hit a certain age. You can't be someone else. We're too far gone at this point. How specifically does this relate to the lyrics of this song? Well the whole song, even really all the songs on the album, are a series of notes to myself to curve my nature, the nature or tendency to kick this loathsome can of family and identity issues around till I'm covered in the dust of all my opportunities. My key to contentment has always been my mirror image. A self knowledge, be self aware and make your title a verb, always be, to simply be and exist as opposed to feeling precut or prepackaged, work hard to be the best version of yourself. Also understand the patterns of comfort in your art, break those patterns and grow. I meant for it to be a small critique on Hardcore and Punk as well, perpetuate idealism but be honest about where you are. No more misanthropy, no more glorifying destructive behavior, and always take action with each situation. It might be a lengthy explanation or maybe a short one but it's what I've got to offer. I may over think. Maybe to literary non-benevolence, I under think. Either way, this is the way I wrote this title and the lyrics beneath the title. I hope you enjoy them.
Charles: I'll start explaining where most decent songs start, the title, Forever, Down To The Filter. First off, it's one of the many references to Tom Waits on the record. He has a line in one of his songs that says, I smoke my friends down to the filter. I absolutely love that line, to me, it's about really appreciating your friends and your friends also at times being a vice that you shamelessly enjoy, saying I don't flick my friends off in the gutter till that cherry starts burning my knuckles. He might have intended something different, but the lyrics in the song, little drop of poison, rules either way. Okay, now that I explained the reference, what exactly do I mean by saying, Forever, Down to The Filter? Well, I've never been a fan of the word forever unless I'm using it. I don't trust people who say it. It's a great word that people misuse in a dirty manner. A lot of promises are painted pretty with forever. It's like one of those beautiful girls you meet that can't get over that junior high notion of more make up, more beauty, when a lot of these promises are beautiful by themselves. You don't need to doll up love with forever or promise a forever to someone looking for salvation. Forever is a given when love is true. In the way I use the word, it's a half affectionate - half spiteful - a declaration, my forever is unspoken and it gives it twice the weight. I will always be a guy you can lean on and that's what the title is stating, spite the world crumbling around us, I can be my own north star, my own constant. Now the body of the lyrics, this song is a release. A release of the frustrations I've felt since I was younger, trying to put everything together. Why I was born in the hyper-religious south, faithless and fine with it; why my Dad chose to give me his name and his legacy, to rob banks, murder, and pursue the things he pursued; why have I never been able to enjoy simple things, my mind seems to just keep burning on midnight oil; why are we all so afraid but no one will admit it, as if you acknowledge those thoughts in the back of your head it'll some how manifest itself; and why we all keep looking for answers when it seems narcissistic to think that we're important enough to know. I say, you can't blame.. a few times in the lyrics and that's what it all boils down to, you can't blame humans for the errors of human nature. If you hold on to all that, it'll eventually tear you apart. You have to let go cause life is in motion. No matter how long you stare at a rock, it won't bloom into a butterfly. Rocks are rocks, let 'em be. The chorus of the song is pretty blatant. I would love to believe some father like figure, a long comforting arm of the cosmos, looks down on me in a warmhearted, loving gaze. It's a beautiful piece of literary surrealism to me, but that is what it is, a comforting thought. I have plenty of comforting thoughts that I can't bring myself to throw in my foundation of self. I can only know what can be known, the relevance of believing is not something I'd invest in. Believe me though, I'm not saying there isn't a god or a maker, I'm saying I can't invest myself in that belief, cause it'll always be unknown to me. If you have faith, beautiful, it's something that is lost on me. I have a child-like wonder towards the world still, just not in that area. The heavier portion of the song talks specifically about the religious corner of the theme. I might just be joining the party on this idea, but I'm not sure growing up that we were taught to think. I think we were taught to believe, which is scary as hell, that idea is hell, to think about how across this nation we all have these vast resources to expand our consciousness to unknown heights and more than most people are terrified of growth because of what they've been taught to believe, like as if it's a bad idea to expand your knowledge past what you believe? I remember at eleven, I was kicked out of bible study class for asking why god didn't tell the prophets anything about the dinosaurs, not in a malicious, adult, smart ass way, just in an innocent child like curious way. The youth leader got pissed off, grabbed me by the arm, escorted me outside the room, and told me to go sit with my parents. I wasn't allowed to go back to the youth group after that. I just asked a question. It seemed like a relevant question. We're brought up to believe and to be happy with our misery, to stay down and enjoy our lives of servitude. It's a fact, look it up, organized religion has always been a way to trick the lesser thans into staying on their knees. Dark ages, it was illegal to read, you only knew what the priests told you about the scary hell that was promised to our sinful souls if we did not get in line. Monarchies, dictatorships, and most crimes against humanity have been attributed to the creator and creation relationship, inequality, not everything is created equally. I remember being a child and having adults tell me the greatest relationship I'll ever have is with my creator, god, and how we are all here to serve him. I was born to serve, to stay where I am, to believe even when everything is falling apart, that I am being tested on my faith. I say, think on this, think about our governments, think about how slow change comes due to this apathy we have inherited. The most important relationship you can have is with your creator, serve him. Now think back to the government. Why do we complain about the way things are ran but still leave it up to them to govern. Why do we stay poor and miserable? Why do we not pursue every last drop of joy? Is poverty a test? Is shitty government and incompetent presidents a test? Is inequality a test? Why don't we do something? Why do we go to school to get a piece of paper so we can get in line for decent pay? If that's what you want to do, then it's fine and I understand the accreditation system, as simple as the barter system. How do I know your worth? You invested time and money in this field and this paper says so. But all around, why if things are fucked, we out number those sitting on our necks, and we know how to make our lives better, why are we still sitting in these lines? To me, it's a simple personal truth, doesn't apply to all, it all goes back to that relationship from my childhood, a creator and his creation, to serve or be served.
Charles: This explanation will be much simpler. Earlier in LFT's releases, I tried to write this song but it seems like I failed to capture my experiences, so here is the product of a second effort. The title is a reference to those hipster kids in New Orleans, gutter Punk kids, which I met but didn't seem to impress. They were insanely shitty towards me, spite me also being homeless, young, from a broken home. I have no real resentment towards them or their subculture. It was just funny cause while I was a street musician, coffee shop owners on Oak Street would be bitchy towards me and refer to me as the gutter Punk traffic (I put a k instead of a c cause my misspelling to be cute severely annoys people, so I'll prolly do it till the day I die) but I wasn't cool enough to be a gutter Punk, had to keep to myself on the streets. It was ironic, not being cool enough for the kids who smell like shit and accepted everyone. I have a theory though, very simple theory, I am severely uncool, too uncool even for homeless people. The lyrics explain themselves: how damaged most people's views are of homeless people; how you never really know who your friends are till you really need them; how hunger is the most sobering experience ever; and how when you go to look for yourself you'll always find yourself wherever you are, which sounds stupid as shit, but at a young age you think you'll find yourself on some great adventure. You are you in your hometown, in Paris, in New Jersey, in the Alps, in the worst smelling truck stop bathroom while taking a shit. If you hate where you're from then you prolly hate yourself. You have to learn to accept everything about yourself to move forward. It's intense spreading yourself as thin as I did on that trip and landing flat on your face. After a month or so of living on the streets in New Orleans, I crawled my way back to Scottsboro, came home to nothing, ended up sleeping at the park in Scottsboro and at Corey's for a few days. I was a sharecropper that summer I came back, worked for room and board, sleeping in a trailer with no air conditioning in over one hundred degree weather. Over all it was a big year for learning, not that grade school learning but something inside your chest expanding till it hurts. So that's what the song is really about. Also, I make one Tom Waits and three Kerouac references, one to the term Dharma bums, one to Satori In Paris, and one to a line in Dharma Bums, all's over... and one reference to Tom Waits. That's the conclusion of the song, no matter how bad you fuck things up, you're always innocent when you dream, so keep dreaming. There's one thing I'd like to get out in the open, a very negative experience that has shaped who I am today. It's linked in with the song as well. After I had pawned my acoustic to get a bus ticket, then denied a seat on the bus cause I didn't have enough money, a nice young lady paid for the rest of my bus ticket from N.O. to Birmingham. It was an act of human grace that I'll always remember cause I had never felt that level of hopelessness. When the first lady said, sorry, not enough money. Next. I just started crying, I'm not the type of dude that cries. I've seen my share of raw deals. It was everything I had, I hadn't eaten in three days, and it took me over 15 hours to walk across New Orleans to that greyhound station. So it was an absolutely beautiful moment when that lady called me to her station and said she'd pay for the rest of my ticket. On the first leg of the ride, another homeless man sat beside me (no one would let us sit next to them cause we both smelled and looked horrible). Well this young gentleman, I remember him having electric blue eyes and a shaved head, smelled worse than anyone I have ever smelled in my 20 years of existence. I didn't say anything because I understood, me personally not having showered in over three weeks, but the odor hit a few guys behind us and all hell broke loose. The grown men started calling him a faggot, asked him why he hadn't showered, and everything kept swelling till eventually everyone on the back half of the bus was throwing stuff at me and him, screaming faggot, eventually escalating to a few dudes hitting the back of his head. I tried to help, saying I smelled like shit too. I told the guy I was sorry and he said it wasn't my fault. Well the guy started crying, which made the grown men even hungrier for humiliation, so a few of them busted out deodorant and started scrapping it across his face, trying to put it in his mouth. The man screamed for the bus driver to stop and the driver did. The man got out around forty miles outside of New Orleans, the men quieted down, and I stared outside my window weeping like a child. I had my chance to stand up for someone who couldn't stand up for him or herself, I failed. For the rest of my life I will feel like a coward for that one moment. That's why now; I would die to redeem myself. Less than two hours after I felt true human grace, I failed to pay it forward. It hurts to think about. I will always do anything I can to help someone in need. Don't ever be a bystander.
Charles: This song was born to fail. I could never sum up a life, the beauty of someone's existence or the joy someone brought to everyone they came in contact with, in one song. It's an impossible task. So what do you do when a friend passes away? Do you write a song for them, write an album, live the life they won't have a chance to live themselves? I mean, really, what the fuck do you do? I don't have a clue what you do. I write songs and shitty poetry and short stories, that's how I dealt with it. I tried to talk about him to people, think about him, keep him alive in spirit. The lyrics just go over this point right before Jake's death when I had almost completely withdrawn from the idea of pursuing music. You can't pay rent and bills, feed yourself, have healthy relationships and pursue music full time. It's impossible. Some can manage the task but they usually have parents to support them or extremely special circumstances that afford them the comforts of living. The verse is essentially about losing that insatiable hunger you have when you start writing your own music. You just want to get better, push yourself, grow and grow and grow until you feel like you deserve a spot on a bill somewhere. The endless roar soon becomes a dull whimper after a few years of being homeless, failed relationships, no money to feed yourself or entertain a friend or love interest. Everything dies down to one question, why? Why am I doing this if I'm completely miserable? The harder you try, the faster the world seems to turn. You just want to let go and be slung into the deepest darkest corner of apathy. I was there. The love of my life, music, had died. There was no great longing to hit the studio, to push myself forward, to pull this heavy mess of bullshit Punk forward. I just wanted to pay my bills and eat relatively tasty food, maybe take a girl out on a decent date, live my life through my favorite records and books. Well all that changed when Jake died. It reamped my hunger to create, for no other reason to do the only thing that has ever felt right to me. It was the most tragic thing ever, me being a jaded 24 year old musician looking at a hungry, amazing musician lying in a casket, lifeless. He was such a brilliant kid, a great drummer, now he would never track another record, write another song, do another tour. His opportunities were taken from him by an accident. Absolutely tragic. We'll always miss you, Jake. I really wish I could have heard the records you would have made in five years.
Charles: This song might be the simplest complex song on the record. In overall theme it's about two things: the duality of being in a band that finally gets a fan base, potential power of destruction or creation of morality, creating awareness but people taking that and building walls around it; and being in a band and going back and forth from justifying what you're doing to others to constantly questioning yourself about why you throw away good opportunities to pursue music. I don't ever want to pull any one person towards the left or right side of the political scope or destroy religion or someone's culture. We promote educating yourself and asking questions, if you're ever in a place where questions are not welcome then there's not much room for growth there. Same attitude towards music, we don't want everyone to think being in a band is the greatest thing you could possibly do. We're not pulling either way. We just want to speak honestly about where we are as a band and what we think when we're out on the road or writing a record. I try to cover all the emotions, tell the truth about what I feel. That's why it goes back and forth between so much. It's a lot to cover in a three minute Punk song. You meet beautifully warm, vibrate people; you see great bands on tour; and you get to travel. All that is amazing, that's why I love working at this - being a serious band. It's a toss up to how I feel from day to day. It's a given I love creating music. If I could live inside a studio, I would just write music all day and put out records. The crappy side is the climb up and promoting it, that's the bullshit part. Ari from Lifetime did an interview with Jewcy.com, in the interview he explained it perfectly, he said that writing and creating records is the part he loved about being in Lifetime but as they got bigger and they had to promote their music like it was a product, that's when things got deluded, when everyone has to like you to sell records. Coming from the scene in which he grew up, the reason he got into Punk and Hardcore was the fact that you could finally be you and not apologize for it. If you're promoting your music as a product, working your audience, milking them to pay your bills, that's when shit just gets turned on it's head. I feel the same. My music is me, these lyrics are me. I don't want everyone to like me. I much prefer certain people feel very alienated by me and my thoughts, cause I'm equally disturbed by them. The last line is another note to me. Just keep my head clear of the negative thoughts at all costs because I'm never doing anything too bad or harmful to my future. Sometimes you have to think about your legacy as opposed to a sound five year plan.
Charles: First I'll explain the phrase, shithead prose. It's broken poetry. It's a dope like me, lacking style and formal education, trying to find the rhythm of his heart through writing. I'm horrible at writing but I have a lot of stuff yelling for attention in my head. It's easy for me to write extensively about how I feel. I feel a lot, fumble most other efforts. Music seems to be the one thing in which I'm competent so I stick with it. So that's what the phrase from the title means, a dickhead, who isn't much good at anything, writing poetry. The song was written for my Grandmother, one of the positive influences from my dad's side of the family. She was a very strong woman that had a lot on her plate. Her sons were in and out of prison, her husband was an abusive alcoholic at one point, and she worked most of her life to pass away with not much to her name aside from a dysfunctional family. After I hit the age of 14 or so, I didn't see her much because I was slowly becoming more and more detached from what I thought was a horrible heritage. There was too much shame involved with my name and where I came from, so I disconnected from that identity, spent a long time working on this new one. At an early age, I understood the importance of art in culture, the importance to me personally - to create, control, and distribute emotions, moments or still frames of humanity through all these weird, intriguing ways. It was an out for me. I could finally create, not just be a face attached to name. Well I spent years chasing art, which focused itself in music, pretty much forgot the relevance of where I came from, how it had affected me. Fast forward to 2010, I got a call from a family member I didn't keep in touch with, she had died. I never felt so shitty. I disrespected her and the sacrifices she made to help raise me while my dad was in prison. This song is really just an apology to her. You can't be an artist without being a human being first, the relationships you have outside of what you create are just as important as the art.    |
