Red Lights Flashing — Lyrics

Red Lights Flashing from the EP Bullets for Manatees, 2012

Blame it all on the state I’m in …
an unusual mess to be dealing with.

Lights that shine steady and green
now are red and rapidly flashing.

Safety smells of quarantine.
An ocean’s in view when the red light’s flashing.
They still review in the factories
that know what to do when the red light’s flashing.

Say “hello” to my friends and kin.
I sincerely think they would laugh if looking in.
And tell them all my good hand’s asleep,
but it helps to numb the sting of clocking in.

Safety smells of quarantine.
An ocean’s in view when the red light’s flashing.
They still review in the factories
that know what to do when the red light’s …

Roy would often feel the need to destroy.
But the left would overpower the right hand
and break free before it could strike again.

Blame it all on the state I’m in …
an unusual mess to be dealing with.

The crowd surrounds the new cloud on the street,
but it looks to me like a blip to me
that lives on my TV screen.

Safety smells of quarantine.
An ocean’s in view when the red light’s flashing.
They still review in the factories
that know what to do when the red light’s …

Safety films for foreign teens
that show what to do when the red light’s flashing
can still be viewed in the factories
that know what to do when the red light’s …
flashing.

Summer Breeze

The year: 1999. Convinced that most people only remember an original band based on the cover songs they do, we added a cover song to our set, Summer Breeze, by Seals & Crofts.

Here are some details, to the best of my recollection:

Drums — Rob Hubbard: At the time Rob didn’t own a drumkit. Luckily for him, I had a set of blue Ludwig Vistalites (even though I didn’t play the drums), which he’d been borrowing. Concert toms … and everybody knows blue drums sound best.

Bass — Keith Roth: Keith lent his talents to Skeeter for some years. Currently Keith fronts Frankenstein 3000, DJs on SiriusXM and Belmar New Jersey’s 95.9 “The Rat.”

At The Mixing Board — Damian Cordisco: At the time, Damian was running a recording studio out of Keith’s rehearsal studio — Main Man Rehearsal in Asbury Park, NJ. It’s a children’s day care center now … so pretty much unchanged.

Recording Details: I think it was 2 ADATs, for a total of somewhere between eight and 16 tracks. Besides the Vistalites Rob was playing, I suspect Keith was playing his beloved SVT. Me, I was playing a $15 Marshall “Mini” I’d recently purchased from a crack addict. I was singing through a relatively cheapo Russian Lomo that comprised the best of what Damian had to offer.

Originally released on Main Man Records’ Die Young. Stay Pretty compilation in 1999, now re-released from The Vault for your listening pleasure. You can download it too, by just submitting an email address.

Never Wanna See Her Face Again

Some years ago, while out at a large local night club, an inebriated, shaved-headed guy, with a teardrop tattooed on his face belched to me, “Hey, you in a band? I just found a bass player and I need someone to play guitar.” Okay, I thought. Here’s my big break.

I go so excited, I wrote this song, Never Wanna See Her Face Again, based loosely (okay maybe not so loosely) on a girl I had recently been dating.

Well — the first time I got together with this singer-guy, It became obvious he couldn’t sing — at all. Nor could I, but I figured if anyone was going to butcher one of my songs, it may as well be me. So that’s how Skeeter started.

It’s available in The Vault — accessible for the first time in years. You can marvel at the terribly-dated production, the song however, seems to have aged pretty gracefully. phew.

On this recording:

  • Jason Petrisko — guitars, vox
  • Rob Hubbard — drums
  • Scott Craig — bass

*Oh yeah, you can even download it for free. You’ll be prompted to enter your email address. We promise we’ll use it responsibly.

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