Even superheroes are stronger when they band together with like-minded colleagues. Everything in this one really happened, though not necessarily to (or by) the people named here.
lyrics
LYRICS
High school ended summer started
The bell rang and we departed
To ride the Dragon Coaster at Rye Playland
Changed our clothes in Tommy’s room
Held our noses chewed the shrooms
Had us parked before they hit I had my day planned
Sandy, Leslie, me and Jay
Who else showed up that day?
Was Zuckerman the one who brought the beer?
Oh, wait Adam Gale was there he
Was always kind of scary
His mom and dad died separately that year
The good times never end
I’ve got some super friends
We spent the first hours on the beach
I had lost the power of speech
I felt every grain of sand upon my body
There was oil in Long Island Sound
Leslie waded in and sat right down
She was crazy but she also was a hottie
As Leslie waved her arms around
Karen said, “What if she drowns?”
And Alex Poehlman said, “If she dies, she dies”
So we left Leslie behind
And rode the coaster seven times
Tearing through the tunnel, it all intensifies
I flashed back to second grade
Being exactly this afraid
That kind of thing happens all the time on drugs
And my grandma seemed so mean
But she wasn’t what she seemed
Maybe her yelling was a kind of hug
And Alex had these allergies
Everything made him sneeze
We loved him but we still called him a wussy
From the time the guy was nine
His dad gave him a hard time
Are you also allergic around pussy?
We avoided little kids
Cuz we felt so dangerous
The sun sank into the sound across the park
We were on our way to college
We felt fucking full of knowledge
But the vibe changed as soon as it got dark
Haven’t seen Karen since then
Leslie lives in Darien
Alex named his son for a robot in The Black Hole
That flick was wicked bad
But he’s a decent dad
Tommy’s out again but still on parole
And I realized everyone’s a light switch
Right now we’re all turned on
One day we’ll be flipped off
That don’t change the fact you are a light switch
And I hang on to those kind of hints
Though it seems stupid now
Go right ahead and laugh
I haven’t been afraid of death ever since
Cuz I'm a light switch
I'm Mr. Light Switch
credits
from Super,
released September 11, 2015
Recorded and mixed by Johannes Luley at My Sonic Temple, Los Angeles, CA
Matt Lucich: Drums
Jonathan Zuniga: Bass
Gretchen Giselle: Lady vocals
Jay: Keyboards, Acoustic and electric guitars, Tambourine, Vocals
Tim: Vocals
The Bonerama Horns:
Mark Mullins - Trombone, Horn arrangements
Craig Klein - Trombone
Greg Hicks - Trombone
It's the essence of TMJ to follow up a smart song about the need to forge new memories with a killer that grooves on everything great and awful about the 1970s. Brash, confident, and deeply pleasurable -- and its vibe is punctured by the new old b-side's warning "living backwards in time/losing your mind." As always, TMJ has it all ways, beautifully. Alan S
