Brincadeira Music

Track Notes

1. The World is a Ghetto

(T. S. Allen, H. Brown, M. Dickerson, L. L. Jordan, C. W. Miller, L. Oskar, H. E. Scott) (by permission from BMG Gold Songs o/b/a Far Out Music Inc.)

[John Toste: vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, percussion, engineering/production; Mike McKenney: vocals, drums, percussion; Clem Brown: vocals, bass, rhythm guitar, organ, synth, percussion, production; Chris Farias: vocals]

Our cover of the War classic from 1972, with magnificent assistance from our friend Christopher James Farias on backing vocals (thanks, Chris).

2. Shout

(I. Stanley and R. Orzabel) (by permission from BMG Platinum Songs o/b/o BMG 10 Music Limited and BMG Platinum Songs o/b/o BMG Vm Music Ltd.)

[John Toste: vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, engineering/production; Mike McKenney: vocals, drums; Clem Brown: vocals, bass, rhythm guitar, organ, synth, production]

Tears for Fears’ number one hit from 1984, described by its original singer as “a simple song of protest”.

3. Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More

(D. Fagen and W. Becker) (by permission from Universal-MCA Music Publishing Division of Universal Music Group)

[John Toste: vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, engineering/production; Mike McKenney: drums; Clem Brown: vocals, bass, rhythm guitar, organ, synth, percussion, production; Matt Brown: guitar]

This tune written by the major dudes in Steely Dan was on their 1975 album Katy Lied and most likely describes a character who moved to wilds of Jersey under duress. Wea culpa: we skipped a verse and jammed instead. Our brother Matt Brown provided the mellifluous blues guitar.

4. High Blood Pressure

(Huey P. Smith) (by permission from Cotillion Music Inc.)

This is Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns’ 1958 paean to elevated blood pressure, sung and drummed by Mike, with some Matt blues guitar added to the group’s mix. Mike does the second-line thing with a pair of snares.

5. Funny Little Planet

(John Toste) (© 2007 John Toste, all rights reserved)

[John Toste: vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, effects, engineering/production; Mike McKenney: drums, tabla; Clem Brown: bass, organ, rhythm guitars, synth, production]

Our signature song, written and sung by John. For better or worse, we all live on this funny little planet.

6. West L.A. Fadeaway

(Jerome Garcia and Robert Hunter) (by permission from Universal Music Corp. O/b/o Ice Nine Publishing Company)

[John Toste: vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, engineering/production; Mike McKenney: drums, vocals; Clem Brown: bass, vocals, rhythm guitars, organ, production]

This is a 1987 Grateful Dead tune (not our favorite Dead era) which we learned from Los Lobos. Like Los Lobos, John knows a little bit about the streets and highways of LA.

7. Alone Again, Or

(Brian Maclean) (by permission from Three Wise Boys Music LLC)

[John Toste: vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, string arrangement, engineering/production; Mike McKenney: drums; Clem Brown: bass, acoustic guitars, synths, erhu, string/horn/flute arrangement, production]

Speaking of LA, this tune was originally by the "racially-diverse" group Love, as quintessential a 60s-era LA band as The Doors, with whom they shared a label. Brian Maclean, one the group’s guitarists, wrote the song and the late great Arthur Lee sang it on Forever Changes, one of the era’ true classic albums. As a single, the song reached No. 123 on the U.S. pop charts in 1967. We did our best to allude to the stellar movie-music orchestration of the original, which was arranged by David Angel.

8. Back in the High Life Again

(Will Jennings and Steve Winwood) (by permission from Blue Sky Rider, Inc., Irving Music, and Songs of Kobalt Music Publishing)

[John Toste: vocals, rhythm guitar, engineering/production; Gary Farias: backing vocals; Mike McKenney: vocals, drums; Matt Brown: mandolins; Clem Brown: bass, lead and rhythm guitars, organ, synths, production]

Our version of the Stevie Winwood hit, with lots of vocal backing from our friend and hero Gary Farias (thanks, Gary). A song of hope and relief.

9. Strawberry Fields Forever / Within You, Without You

(John Lennon/Paul McCartney) (by permission from Sony/ATV Tunes LLC d/b/a ATV o/b/o ATV[Northern Songs Catalog]) (George Harrison) (by permission from BMG Gold Songs o/b/a Harrisongs Ltd.)

[John Toste: vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, engineering/production; Mike McKenney: drums, tabla, vocals; Clem Brown: bass, rhythm guitars, organ, piano, synths, kalimba, guzheng, string/flute arrangement, production]

We use John Lennon’s psychedelic ode to his childhood haunts as a launchpad for modal exploration, with a little help from a Harrisongs melody. For us, this is a relatively short version. All hail to George Martin!

10. Gypsy Rider

(Harold Eugene Clark) (by permission from Warner-Tamerlane Pub Corp. And Gene Clark Music c/o Warner-Tamerline Pub Corp.)

[John Toste: vocals, slide and rhythm guitar, engineering/production; Gary Farias: backing vocals; Matt Brown: mandolin, guitar, and ukulele; Mike McKenney: drums, vocals; Clem Brown: bass, rhythm guitars, organ, production]

Our good friend and former-band-member Bruce Gavin introduced us to this post-Byrds gem from the late Gene Clark’s oeuvre. It’s one of those he-hit-the-highway songs.

11. Sail on Sailor

(Van Dyke Parks, Raymond Louis Kennedy, Tandyn Almer, John F. Rieley, and Brian Douglas Wilson) (by permission from BMG Bumblebee and Brother Publishing Company)

[Mike McKenney: vocals, drums; Gary Farias: backing vocals; John Toste: vocals, guitar, engineering/production; Clem Brown: bass, rhythm guitars, organ, piano, synths, production]

Blondie Chaplin was the lead singer on this song's original 1973 release, the Beach Boys' last great Brian Wilson hit. Brian wrote the song with the help of Van Dyke Parks and others and it was recorded under the comparatively sober eye of brother Carl Wilson in the midst of Brian’s prolonged spell of poor mental and physical health. [Fascinating and contradictory stories about its genesis can be found in Wikipedia.] The song is nevertheless full of grace and glory.

Bonus Track: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

(Neil Young) (by permission from Broken Arrow Music Corporation

[John Toste: vocals, guitar, engineering and production; Mike McKenney: vocals, drums; Clem Brown: vocals, bass]

Here is the way we sound live, more or less, doing the title song from Neil Young’s first album with Crazy Horse Everybody’s had this feeling once or twice.