The Sunshine State, by Choo Choo La Rouge

The Sunshine State

by Choo Choo La Rouge

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150 gram black vinyl lp.
First pressing: 224 copies.
Vinyl pressed by Gotta Groove Records
Lacquers cut by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service.

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1.	Hell Is Future Fire 03:28	lyrics	buy track
Hell's not other people It's a taste I've acquired For the reckless way I'm wanting you Hell is future fire Hell is future fire I'm cold as gasoline And you're a red hot wire And I can't wait to spark our fate Hell is future fire Hell is future fire I've got obligations You have your old flat tire Never been but an honest man and now I don't care about consequences My conscience is retired Come and burn with me today Come and burn with me today Tomorrow we might have to pay But tomorrow is so far away Hell is future fire Hell is future fire
2.	I'll Be on the Lawn 02:31	lyrics	buy track
I'll be on the lawn Another week is gone forever And I can't make you smile Honey I can't change the weather And I don't know the score But I'll never care about sports So if you have to go goodbye 'Cause I've got the angels on my side The chorus keeps me company it's never too late it's never too late It's never too late it's never too late It's too late Too late And the bells ring over everything Like love love love Calling from above You can go Anywhere and it's there Like love love love Hovering above You can go Anywhere and it's there Sneaking out the bedroom Hanging from the trees Always and forever Just beyond your reach
3.	Release 03:03	lyrics	buy track
The beach Is under the pavement Come on let's release ourselves Come on let's release ourselves Come on let's release ourselves Come on....release I can feel what you're feeling I can feel what you're feeling And it's heavy machinery heavy machinery Heavy machinery Heavy machines The clouds, they're telling you no You pulled a fortune from your cookie It just said no But you, you you've got a chorus inside That keeps yelling, Go!
4.	In Between 02:48	lyrics	buy track
My friend she speaks in poems and dreams My wife she just says what she means Me I'm somewhere in between I drop my boy at the nursery With tombstones gathering across the street Me I'm somewhere in between Feeling light and breathing deep Feel a house on top of me Sunny smiles kept in a frame Walk away or what's your name? The moon is peaking through the trees And glowing on a pair of knees Me I'm somewhere in between What I have and what I need What I say and what I seem In the clouds or in the weeds Where I am where I want to be The hills are soft and green The sky is looking mighty mean Me I'm somewhere in between
5.	Look What You Done 01:28	lyrics	buy track
Backflipping down the middle of Main Street Through a hurricane Dancing around on broken glass barefoot And feeling no pain Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done I can hurtle a mountain range I could tickle the sky I could stop a 12-gauge buckshot And never feel more alive alive Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done I had me a rocket on a leash And now I'm licking the ground I got my head stuffed in a toilet bowl Hoping I can learn how to drown It feels like I did a double shot of draino And I chased it with a boot in the chest I can't eat I can't sleep I can't think I can't read I can't I can't suffer the rest Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done Look what you done
6.	The Truth 03:23	lyrics	buy track
She said I hate your voice I said I got no choice But you didn't have to Wear those unfortunate shoes She said the truth is ugly Truth doesn't smell nice The truth is bad for business And makes unpopular advice I said you standing here Is really ruining standing here I go here I go But she was on to me Like brutal honesty And I couldn't shake My love/hate Thoughts of her circle Like predatory birds She told me something that her father said When her friends crushed around some young celebrity "Do we have something he can sign?" she asked He said, "No man can give me his autograph, No man can give me his autograph No man can me his autograph." And with those genes I knew that we could proceed
7.	I Wish That I Could Be 02:41	lyrics	buy track
I wish that I could be More like Marlon Brando So please lend your attention If you would be so kind 'Cause I just wanna change I just wanna change your mind And I wanna get into something No one's ever gotten into And ride that shiny feeling Into the perfect line 'Cause I just wanna change I just wanna change your mind 'Cause I'm just a guy Who's never satisfied This classic rock is taking up All 8 lanes And Dylan beats me to it Every single time And I just wanna change I just wanna change your mind
8.	Negative Eight Per Cent for Nothing 02:28	info	buy track
9.	The 70's Are Still Ringing in My Ears 02:58	lyrics	buy track
The 70s are still ringing in my ears All my friends traded in their hard-ons for careers Chase that beat until it disappears And the 70s are ringing in your ears Summer comes and lays me on the lawn Sunny days that last for days and leave me strung along Like a faded hustler waving in the wind One beat then the next until the end Circles of sound Feeling real brown Showing up wind blown Jokers and playboys and clowns and me December ends with another "50 best records" They stomp and shout and pull stops out and clamor for my mind Who can hear when the wind whips past like years And the 70s are ringing in my ears
10.	The Sunshine State 04:27	lyrics	buy track
We would lay a day to waste Killing beer cans in the ancient everglades Times were good but not quite great Golden glow on the condo Reflecting on the sunshine state We would float below the rays Your hips were bronze and your bikini marmalade The skin beneath was pure cocaine Teenage haze I remember Reflecting on the sunshine state Away away A way to be free A way to believe in you We imagined our escape Pinned against the sand By heavy summer days Planes took off and arced away Silver light on the windows Reflecting on the sunshine state Away

about

“Mystery Train," 1956
“Train I ride, 16 coaches long
Train I ride, 16 coaches long
Well, that long black train got my baby and gone”

Human pitted against human. At the end of the day that’s all we are, and no amount of lawyering around it is going to change that fact. On their newest record The Sunshine State, Choo Choo la Rouge promenade straight down the tracks into oncoming traffic. They’ve been injured, and they’ve been blessed. It is time to make a stand. They have the angels on their side, and then again, who the fuck can count on angels?

The name Choo Choo la Rouge refers to a part of the Boston subway system that passes through working class enclaves and Ivy League sanctuaries. They were part of the remarkably fertile Boston scene of the late-’90s and early aughts, alongside similarly lacerating and loveable artists Papas Fritas, The In Out, and Hallelujah The Hills. That was a long time ago — twenty years, some say — but anyway the weird urgency of that energetic scene persists, ghost-like throughout their first release since 2009’s underground classic Black Clouds. That is not to say that The Sunshine State is a nostalgic album. From the winsomely ominous strains of the opener “Hell Is Future Fire,” it’s all about the things we have to look forward to. Vincent Scorziello sings:

“Hell's not other people.
It's a taste I've acquired
for the reckless way I'm wanting you.
HELL IS FUTURE FIRE.”

I put the last part in caps, because I’m convinced it's important. But why?

Born in the Bronx and raised in upstate Goshen before being moved at the age of 10 to one of Florida’s expansive residential fantasias, Scorziello recollects the cultural whiplash which informs much of The Sunshine State:

“It was jarring to go from tenement buildings of immigrants in the city and a creaky old house in a dusty backwater town--both oozing history and sparking the imagination--to the plastic vistas of South Florida in the '80s: strip mall, planned development with generic tropical name, golf course--wash, rinse, repeat. It felt cheap and fake. In some ways I came to like it.”

And of course he did, as we all have, or must. Florida is future fire.

Fourteen years have passed since the release of the last Choo Choo la Rouge full length. They seem to de-atomize and then quickly reassemble at the bleakest times. Enjoined by drummer Jon Langmead and bassist Chris Lynch, 2009’s Black Clouds was a thunderclap following the comically nightmarish banking collapse and the subsequent orgy of bailouts and bad choices which followed.

And here they go again on their own, with The Sunshine State, a forensically rendered perfect petri dish for losers, false prophets, psychopaths, con-men and all the other things we tend to consider patriotic. “Negative Eight Percent For Nothing” one track is called, an instrumental whose name and sound cannot help but suggest a not-totally-unintuitive collaboration of the Modern Lovers and Milton Freidman. On “The 70’s” Scorziello just says what we’re all experiencing: “The ‘70s are still ringing in my ears.” It’s an incredible album, one-part Kinks, one-part Zevon, several parts unidentified. Sister Lovers. Brothers In Arms. (It is a nostalgic album.)

Look: it’s January, 2024 and there’s no need for concern. You can’t rent a stoop in the Bronx for less than $8,000 a month and Florida too is thriving. Everywhere Choo Choo la Rouge turns, prosperity follows. Get on board, and get your share.

-Elizabeth Nelson

credits

released April 5, 2024

Choo Choo la Rouge:
Vincent Scorziello - Vocals, Words, Guitars
Jon Langmead - Drums, Percussion
Chris Lynch - Bass, Vocals

Additional Performances:
“Hell Is Future Fire” - Additional vocals by Jennifer O’Connor and Amy Bezunartea
“I'll Be on the Lawn” - Organ by Jon Langmead
“In Between” - Piano by David Sherman
“The Truth” - Electric piano by CCLR
“Negative Eight Per Cent for Nothing” - Additional guitar noodles by Chris Lynch
“The 70’s Are Still Ringing in My Ears” - Casio’s Ghost by Vincent Scorziello
“The Sunshine State” - Electric piano by Chris Lynch

All songs by Choo Choo la Rouge

Recorded by Tom Beaujour at Nuthouse Recording, Hoboken, NJ
Produced by Choo Choo la Rouge
Mixed by Chris Lynch
Mastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service

Additional overdubs recorded by Chris Lynch at The Berwick Institute and at home
“In Between” and “The Sunshine State” recorded by Chris Lynch at The Berwick Institute, Roxbury, MA (RIP)
Drums and backup vocal recording for “In Between” by Tom Beaujour at Nuthouse Recording, Hoboken, NJ
Drum recording for “The Truth” and “The Sunshine State” by Will Chason at Rancho Rivera, San Francisco, CA
“Look What You Done” recorded by Andrew Abrahamson at Studio Eight, Allston, MA
“Negative Eight Per Cent for Nothing” recorded by Chris Lynch at The Berwick Institute
Piano on “In Between” recorded by Ben Rice at Degraw Sound, Brooklyn, NY

Album photos by Andrea Sloan
Design and layout by Sara Brownell

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about

Choo Choo La Rouge Boston, Massachusetts

Choo Choo la Rouge is a guitar/ bass/ drums rock trio from Providence, Seattle, Boston, Anywhere, USA. Their songs are equal parts Kinks, Richman, Zevon, Big Star, Dylan, and more. They’re celebrating the release of their third full-length album, The Sunshine State, available April 5 on Kiam Records ... more

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