Released 2001
Magna Carta #MA90542

Alex Skolnick: guitars
Tim Alexander: drums and guitar
Michael Manring: basses

1. American Jingo
2. Any Unforseen Event
3. The Risk of Failure
4. Low Voter Turnout
5. Unclear, Inarticulate Things
6. RSVP
7. My Fellow Astronauts
8. Dubya
9. The Killers are to Blame
10. Nightmare on 48th Street
11. Public Speaking is Very Easy

This CD is the follow-up to our first, eponymously titled recording and I was really glad that Magna Carta records asked us to get together again.

Tim, Alex and I first got together to record a tune on my solo CD, Thonk, and it was such a good combination that I really hoped we'de have a chance to do more. Playing with them is a lot of fun and I'm never quite sure what kind of sonic mayhem we're going to cause when find ourselves together in the same room!

On this record we decided to be a little more organized going in than we were for the first record. That's not saying much though, because the concept for the first one was to make totally un-prepared, on-the-spot compositions and improvisations, so we went in with almost nothing! This time we each composed bits and sections and we got together beforehand to go over our ideas. In the studio we put all the ideas together, leaving room for plenty of improvisation and spontaneity (it's nice to be doing so many recordings where everyone plays together these days!).

Since we were recording during the presidential election mess last winter, that became kind of a theme for the music and it really seemed to fit in nicely with our general concept of reacting to the attention deficiencies in our culture—especially our own! We come from pretty different musical backgrounds and while I think I would describe this recording as "experimental rock," it was fun to weave in elements of jazz, metal, avant-garde, world music, fusion and funk.

— Michael