CD/Cover/Other
- Originally thought to be titled "House Of Smoke And Mirrors"
- houseofsmokeandmirrors.com website launcher when you insert the cd into a computer, has a little hidden feature with it. Click the top of the main mountain, and it turns into a picture of a raccoon.
- A track listing for the album was leaked onto the official message board.
Leaked |
Official Release |
01. Pledge Of Allegiance |
01. Pledge Of Allegiance |
- As you can see Lullaby For A New World Order and Bright End Of Nowhere were not included in the leaked track listing, also the song Heartbroken on the leaked version is not on the
Official listing, It was either cut form the album, or re-titled as one of the two titles which were not on the leaked track listing. Also the ordering of the songs is slightly
different.
- The Vinyl relase has a different track order due to song lengths and vinyl side restraints.
Songs
Pledge Of Allegiance
- If you listen closely to the first few seconds of this song you can Matt in the background saying "This is a commercial..." I'm not quite sure how much of the line he says though.
21st Century Living
- Features voices of Rich Priske, Matt's nephew, Warne Livesey's son and others
Bright End Of Nowhere
- The official message board was named after this song for a short period of time.
Near Fantastica
- The lyrics for this song were featured in the 2 Year Anniversary Manifesto, but from that version to the recorded version the lyrics had been modified.
Double Life
- at about 3:06 very faintly in the background whistling(?) can be heard as well as at about 3:12 Matt says stop
B-Sides
Comfortable Criminals
Matt's comments:
This is actually been a really great experience. I was never all that fond of the finished version of this song, but it's fun to release it and
have you guys take a listen to something that was, in some ways, left in the midst of its development is some respects in favor of something altogether different.
When I made the decision to scrap the song, I wrote and pretty much recorded A Long Way Down the day I decided that I wouldn't continue working on
Comfortable Criminals. The same thing occurred with Near Fantastica, which was originally tilted "Villain Of The Year". For those of you that have paid
attention at shows, the first two verses of "Villain Of The Year" found their way into the ending of Symbolistic White Walls. I never got that far
with Villain Of The Year, nowhere near as far as Comfortable Criminals, so there's won't be a version of it released. The really interesting thing
about Near Fantastica is that if you listen carefully during the verses you can hear a ratty sounding guitar lightly strumming the basic chord
progression. The great thing about that sound is that it's actually me writing the song.
Videos
Weapon
- There is only 1 version of this video. The online one is slightly modified because some of the effects from the one you see on TV couldn't be done for on a computer.
- There are many phrases and almost subliminal messages in this video they are as follows (repeats aren't listed):
- HEAD
- SOUND?
- OPERATION: Jungles Of Peril
- VIVA LA REVOLUTION EH, COMRADES?
- gain the world but lose yourself.
- BORING.
- LIFE + ART = LOW INVESTMENT RETURN
- Pat,
Couldn't sleep again last night. It's been like that lately, don't know
why really. Haven't been bothered by it for a while, so it's back to the ceiling watch and the numbers and the remembrance of faces that I've lost. Why do I do that do you suppose?
Just like I think of you.
- howdy
- all action figures possible
- WARNING: Some action figures have been known to spontaneously combust. Children wearing highly
flammable materials should use extreme caution. If action figures cause skin irritation, nausea, or blindness, immediately contact The Poison Control Center for assistance. Children
under the age of 25 should not play with this toy.
- isn't he singing?
- THIS IS JIM!
- Jim is one of the many unsung heroes behind the scenes that helps make the
video magic seen on your television possible. Without people like Jim, right now you would be watching another channel because this one would be blank. Then again, maybe this channel
is "blank" and you should be watching something else. It's okay, we're pretty sure that Jim work on feature films as well, so he won't be out of a job if you did decide to
grab your remote and give it a click.
- BORN
- CRAWL
- WALK
- SCHOOL
- DRINK
- SEX
- SHOOT YOUR WISE ASS MOUTH
- WORK
- GO TO WAR
- GO TO THE MALL
- FIND YOURSELF
- MEET YOURSELF
- PANIC
- When you're at the top there's nowhere left to go but down. That's been said in a million country songs.
It's true. As true for nations as it is for their citizens. For when you are at the top you aspire to attain that which cannot be attained. And in doing so achieve the ruin of all
that you have built.
- THE MIDDLE
- that was boring
- T R Y
- 1) A Standard Rock Video Composition
- Pat,
There's no way to know where to go from here.
It seems to me I've been thinking about it all these years you've been gone, like there was some big mystery out there coming for me. But the longer I sit here and wait for it the
more I realize that it's never going to come. That it was up to me to go and dispel the myth of it myself. But having realized that, it's like my feet are stuck in cement and I can't
move. You know Chris has kids now, a boy and a girl and you'd love them. Tamer than we were when we were little. I look at them and think that maybe Chris had it figured out a long
time ago. That he went searching and figured out that there's just some old man behind a curtain pulling ropes and levers. Sometimes I want to ask him about it but can't bring myself
to do it. What would he think I wonder? Who would be the failure then?
- (wait)
- (you're asleep)
- (wake up)
- Everyone's got a God to kill for they just all
have different names
- END
In A World Called Catastrophe
- The numbers in the screen capture below (8.5.12.16_21.19) means HELP US.
(A=1, B=2, C=3, etc)
