FLUFFY THE PITBULL |
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The Stories Behind The Songs
- RAT RACE - A bumper sticker that read "Shop 'till you drop" and a T-shirt that read "He Who Has The Most Toys When He Dies Still Dies" set the wheels in motion for this song.
- SOULS IN THE FOG - This acoustic folk/rock ballad summons images of 911 - people trying to find their way though thick smoke and dust, running away from the collapsing building like ants from a ruined hill and being rudely awakened from their mundane concerns to those of life and death.
- MARSUPIAL SONG - A rockabilly tune with a tongue in cheek look at how a little genetic engineering could make women happier and health care cheaper.
- SURFIN' THE SHADOW ZONE - A tribute to surf music, "B" creature features and other fun & frivolity of the early '60s. This tune originally surfed a different zone but changed its title to the current one for legal reasons.
- THIS TO SHALL PASS - A musical tip of the hat to world beat influenced band The Tea Party with an instrumental reminiscent of Jewish cantorial style. Inspired by the Columbine shootings, the lyrics offer both a warning and hope to others considering similar action.
- SELF DESTRUCT MODE - Musically the child of Spanish, Middle Easter and Klezmer influences. Lyrically the child of a thousand news pieces and tragic anecdotes.
- FEAR - Observation of the acute paranoia in the Western world about everything except the things that'll most likely kill us, brought about this song. "To calm your shattered nerves you light another cigarette," alludes to the fact that the number of people killed by tobacco in a year is many times that of those killed by plane crashes in that time.
- NOWHERE TO GO BUT THE MALL - It may be free to to the mall but if concerts, movies and other diversions are too expensive, what do we do when we get there? This slightly grungy song with a shade of XTC offers an alternate suggestion.
- WE HATE YOUR WORLD - Watching many movies and TV shows about how badly aliens want to blow us up, take us over or steal everything we have prompted the speculation, "What if the aliens aren't all that jealous of us? What if they're not all that impressed?" Those questions, together with irritability fuelled by the flu, produced this song.
- PROPAGANDA - This song came about after having seen newpaper articles on anorexia and bulimia within a few days of an article on the obesity epidemic. Musically it leans towards the prog-rock style with a Jethro Tull flavoured intro.
Ths Story Behind The Title and Cover Art
"Gabardine Swine" a pun on "Gadarene Swine" refers to the account, in Gospel of Mark (5:1-13), of Jesus sending evil spirits from a possessed man into a herd of swine. The swine promptly jumped off a cliff into the sea. The pigs dressed in business suits (Gabardine) jumping off the office tower are possessed by the spirits of greed, status and materialism.