A Call to Arms

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For the Babylon 5 movie A Call to Arms see Babylon 5: A Call to Arms
A Call to Arms
A Call to Arms cover
EP by Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution
Released December 21, 2001
Recorded 2000-2001
Genre Unclassifiable
Length 18:24
Label The RISC Group
Producer(s) Tomas Kalnoky
Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution chronology
A Call to Arms
(2001)		 ...


Tomas Kalnoky chronology
Keasbey Nights
(1998)		 A Call to Arms
(2001)		 Streetlight Manifesto Demo
(2002)
Alternate cover Lower caption = Re-release cover
Alternate cover Lower caption = Re-release cover

A Call to Arms is the first CD released by the musical ensemble Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, and is an EP containing 5 tracks. It was independently released in December of 2001 by The RISC Group, to a small, but critically acclaimed reception. The Bandits are unclassifiable genre-wise, one of their main appeals, as they incorporate many different influences into their music. The CD itself is notable for not coming in the standard CD case: instead it comes in handmade packaging made of corrugated cardboard, duct and masking tape, and some velcro to hold it closed. It was due to this handmade nature, which was very time consuming, that the CD is a very limited edition, with only a few hundred copies in existence (the band members who put the packaging together have Assembly next to them in the personnel section). At one point, the band promised that they would offer bonus material of some sort to the few fans that were able to purchase an original CD in the handmade package. To date, these promises have not been realized. Also, it is highly likely that the CD was named after the Ernest Hemingway novel A Farewell to Arms, as he is one of Tomas Kalnoky's literary heroes, as mentioned in the songwriting notes for "Here's to Life".

In October 2005 the CD was reissued with a digipak case and different artwork. It is now available from the online RISC Store.

Along with the reissued digipack of A Call to Arms, The Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution (BOTAR) support file-sharing and music downloading, they offered the full songs in mp3 format on their site for no charge.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Tomas Kalnoky

  1. "Intro: This Is a Call to Arms" – 1:22
  2. "Here's to Life" – 5:18
    • Kalnoky originally wrote this while still in Catch 22, and even performed it live, but it was never recorded with them.
    • This was later covered by a related project, Streetlight Manifesto, on their first album Everything Goes Numb (2003)
  3. "Dear Sergio:" – 3:04
    • This is a reworking of a song Kalnoky originally wrote for the band Catch 22, which he used to be a member of, it also includes an additional verse.
  4. "It's a Wonderful Life" – 4:56
  5. "They Provide the Paint for the Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint on the Insides of Your Eyelids" – 3:39

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Songwriting notes

Included in the booklet that came with the CD were songwriting notes for each of the songs, which explained their origins and meanings. They are almost word for word, with original typing errors and American spellings intact, the only difference being it is all in capitals in the booklet and the songs titles do not have quotation marks.

"Intro: This is a Call to Arms"
Kind of a last minute addition to "Here's to Life" that never really sat right with the song as it was. Rachel does a very nice job with the vocal part (one of my ex-roommates used to ask me to play her part on the stereo before he went to bed each night). The full band makes its entrance: Bang! I wanted to juxtapose the softness and fragility of the sound up to this point with some gut wrenching noise, then bring it back to a soothing cello/guitar bit only to do it again a couple more times. Then Dan does a little bari thang and in comes the first tune, a complicated number we like to call:

"Here's to Life"
Ahh, this is an old one. Written a good three years ago, I'm just ecstatic that the song finally made it onto tape (metaphorically of course; we're much too technologically advanced to bother with "tape", haha). I'd finished it while still in another group I was running with at the time and somehow I wasn't crazy about how it sounded. I then decided a new type of band was necessary to bring a song like this to fruition and the Bandits were born. As for the subject matter, yeesh, I guess it's on the heavier side of things. Why does it seem that all my favorite artists/writers/musicians decide to remove themselves from our world by violent means? After writing this song I unfortunately got to experience the ripple effect of a suicide and needless to say, the song took on new meaning and importance. When an individual takes his own life, he kills a lot more than himself. I think I've said more than I wanted to on ths subject so I'll move on. (And for the fact-nerds: I know Camus' death was never proved to be self-inflicted, read the details and make your own conclusions) And I know Salinger didn't commit suicide: he's the hero here. So many talented people can't grasp or even withstand the pressures of a public life following success. Salinger, in my opinion at least, handled it so much more beautifully than the others that are mentioned: he simply disappeared from the light that seemed to hurt him more than help him. OK, I'll shut up now.

"Dear Sergio:"
Another oldie that I wasn'y [sic] really happy with the first time around. It's cool the way the strings kind of weave in and out of the horns, making it so much more dynamic than the original. If only Sergio knew.. bythe [sic] way, someone asked if he was a real person and the answer is yes. We more or less grew up together in Keasbey, NJ. Ah, the memories. We used to play with his Commodore 64 in his closet, of all places, for hours. I moved away and just last year I saw him in a computer store, working checkout. He didn't recognise me so I didn't say anything.

"It's A Wonderful Life"
I'm not going to delve too deeply into what's going on in the world right now (although I could go on for quite some time), but it's interesting how this EP was intended to be pretty much a concept album about war/conflict and then, next thing you know, it's not so much a theoretical concept as it is a harsh reality. This song was written imagining what it would be like missing a loved one while off at war. The main melody was written quite some time ago and recently I wrote the song around that, as is often the case. Chris did an amazing job with the bass, as usual, but I particularly like his work with the verses. Pete and Dan rock out on the solos, delicious also, but it's what we've come to expect from them, no? And then the finale, the classic "Cha-Cha-Cha".

"They Provide the Paint for the Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint on the Insides of Your Eyelids"
I know, I know, I've caught some flak for the title already, but I liked it and it sort of just ended up like that. Originally an anti-war song that sort of (d)evolved into a fight-the-power type thing as they usually do with my limited attention span. Recording the gang vocals was interesting, seeing old friends that I used to play shows with back in the day. The outtakes are pretty hilarious, maybe they'll appear as a bonus track somewhere.. It seems the more I write in a minor key the more the songs sound Russian. This isn't bad, per se, just an observation. Stay tuned to the Bandits website for an animated film set to this song.

[edit] External links

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