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Michael Penn
Palms & Runes, Tarot & Teas: A Michael Penn Collection
RCA / Epic / Legacy
82876 87286 2
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1. Lucky One / Version One*
(Michael Penn) © Bucket Brigade Songs (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Mixed by Michael Penn and S. Husky Hoskulds
Engineered and Recorded by S. Husky Hoskulds
Recorded and Mixed at Sunset Sound during the sessions for MP4 (Days Since A Lost Time Accident)
Victor Indrizzo: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Michael Penn: Everything Else
Original version can be found on the Epic album (MP4 (Days Since A Lost Time Accident) (EK 69354) (P) 2007 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Previously Unreleased
2. Bunker Hill / New Version*
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Recorded at home by Michael Penn, 2006
Engineered by Bruce McFarlane
Michael Penn: Guitar, Vocals, B3 and Percussion
Peter Adams: Piano
Buddy Judge: Background Vocals
Original version can be found on the RCA album Free-For-All (07863 61113 2) (P) 2007 Mimeograph Records
Previously Unreleased
3. Out Of My Hands
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced and Mixed by Brendan O’Brien
Recorded by Nick DiDia at Southern Tracks Recording (Atlanta, GA), Audities (Hollywood, CA) and Sony Music Studios (New York, NY)
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Brendan O’Brien: Bass
Dan McCarroll: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Taken from the Epic album Resigned (EK 67710) (P) 1997 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Previously Unreleased
4. Cupid’s Got A Brand New Gun / New Version*
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Recorded at home by Michael Penn
Engineered by Bruce McFarlane
Butch: Drums
Michael Penn: Everything Else
Peter Adams: Piano
Buddy Judge: Background Vocals
Original version can be found on the RCA album March (07863 68099 2) (P) 2007 Mimeograph Records
Previously Unreleased
5. Coal
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced by Tony Berg and Michael Penn
Recorded by Susan Rogers at Zeitgeist Studio (Los Angeles, CA)
Mixed by Bob Clearmountain
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
D.J. Bonebrake: Drums
Gurf Molix: Pedal Steel and Background Vocals
Steven Soles: Background Vocals
Chris Hickey: Background Vocals
Original version can be found on the RCA album Free-For-All (07863 61113 2) (P) 2007 Mimeograph Records
Previously Unreleased
6. Try / Alternate Version*
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced and Mixed by Brendan O’Brien
Recorded by Nick DiDia at Sony Music Studios (New York, NY) during the sessions for Resigned
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Brendan O’Brien: Bass
Dan McCarroll: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Original version can be found on the Epic album Resigned (EK 67710) (P) 1997 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Previously Unreleased
7. No Myth
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced by Tony Berg
Recorded by Susan Rogers at Zeitgeist Studio (Los Angeles, CA)
Additional recording at Cherokee Studios and The Enterprise
Michael Penn: Guitar, Bass, Drum Programming and Vocals
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Art Wood: Percussion
David Coleman: Electric Cello
Taken from the RCA album March (07863 68099 2) (P) 1989 BMG Records
Previously Unreleased
8. Barely A Sound / Instrumental*
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Engineered by S. Husky Hoskulds
Recorded and Mixed at Sunset Sound during the sessions for MP4 (Days Since A Lost Time Accident)
Victor Indrizzo: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Michael Penn: Guitar
(P) 2007 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Previously Unreleased
9. Don’t Let Me Go
(Michael Penn) © Bucket Brigade Songs (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Mixed by Michael Penn and S. Husky Hoskulds
Engineered and Recorded by S. Husky Hoskulds
Recorded and Mixed at Sunset Sound.
Additional recording at home, Sound Factory and Mad Dog Studios
Victor Indrizzo: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Michael Penn: Guitar, Bass, Vocals
Taken from the Epic album (MP4 (Days Since A Lost Time Accident) (EK 69354) (P) 2000 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
10. All That That Implies
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced and Mixed by Brendan O’Brien
Recorded by Nick DiDia at Southern Tracks Recording (Atlanta, GA), Audities (Hollywood, CA) and Sony Music Studios (New York, NY)
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Brendan O’Brien: Bass
Dan McCarroll: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Taken from the Epic album Resigned (EK 67710) (P) 1997 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
11. Whole Truth
(Michael Penn) © Bucket Brigade Songs (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Mixed by Michael Penn and S. Husky Hoskulds
Engineered and Recorded by S. Husky Hoskulds
Recorded and Mixed at Sunset Sound.
Additional recording at home, Sound Factory and Mad Dog Studios
Victor Indrizzo: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Michael Penn: Guitar, Bass, Vocals
Taken from the Epic album (MP4 (Days Since A Lost Time Accident) (EK 69354) (P) 2000 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
12. Brave New World
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced by Tony Berg
Recorded by Susan Rogers at Zeitgeist Studio (Los Angeles, CA)
Additional recording at Cherokee Studios and The Enterprise
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Jim Keltner: Drums
Jimmy Haslip: Bass
Art Wood: Percussion
Chuckois “Safe” Sexton: Additional Guitar
Taken from the RCA album March (07863 68099 2) (P) 1989 BMG Records
Previously Unreleased
13. Me Around / Demo*
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Original version can be found on the Epic album Resigned (EK 67710) (P) 2007 Mimeograph Records
Previously Unreleased
14. Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In) / New Version*
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Recorded, Mixed and Engineered at home by Michael Penn
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Peter Abrams: Accordion
Patrick Warren: Chamberlin
Original version can be found on the RCA album Free-For-All (07863 61113 2) (P) 2007 Mimeograph Records
Previously Unreleased
15. Macy Day Parade
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced and Mixed by Brendan O’Brien
Taken from the Japanese release of the Epic album Resigned (EK 67710) (P) 1998 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
16. Figment
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced and Mixed by Brendan O’Brien
Recorded by Nick DiDia at Southern Tracks Recording (Atlanta, GA), Audities (Hollywood, CA) and Sony Music Studios (New York, NY)
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Brendan O’Brien: Bass
Dan McCarroll: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Taken from the Epic album Resigned (EK 67710) (P) 1997 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
17. Bucket Brigade
(Michael Penn) © Bucket Brigade Songs (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Mixed by Michael Penn and S. Husky Hoskulds
Engineered and Recorded by S. Husky Hoskulds
Recorded and Mixed at Sunset Sound.
Additional recording at home, Sound Factory and Mad Dog Studios
Victor Indrizzo: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Michael Penn: Guitar, Bass and Vocals
Taken from the Epic album (MP4 (Days Since A Lost Time Accident) (EK 69354) (P) 2000 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Previously Unreleased
18. I Can Tell
(Michael Penn) © Liafail Music (BMI)
Produced and Mixed by Brendan O’Brien
Recorded by Nick DiDia at Southern Tracks Recording (Atlanta, GA), Audities (Hollywood, CA) and Sony Music Studios (New York, NY)
Michael Penn: Guitar and Vocals
Brendan O’Brien: Bass
Dan McCarroll: Drums
Patrick Warren: Keyboards
Taken from the Epic album Resigned (EK 67710) (P) 1997 Sony BMG Music Entertainment
19. Walter Reed
(Michael Penn) © Bucket Brigade Songs (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Mixed by Michael Penn
Recorded at home
Engineered by Bruce McFarlane
Michael Penn: Guitar, Bass and Vocals
Danny Frankel: Druams
Dave Palmer: Piano
Patrick Warren: Piano
Buddy Judge: Harmony Vocals
Julian Coryell: Slide Guitar
Taken from the album, Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 (88697 03155 2) (P) 2005 Mimeograph Records
Previously Unreleased
20. Opening (from the film, Melvin Goes To Dinner)*
(Michael Penn) © Bucket Brigade Songs (BMI)
Produced by Michael Penn
Michael Penn: Guitar, Piano, Keyboards, Vocals
Recorded at home, 2003 (P) 2007 Mimeograph Records
*Previously Unreleased
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Original Recordings Produced by Michael Penn, Brendan O’Brien and Tony Berg
Compilation Produced by Michael Penn, Darren Salmieri and Jeffrey Schulberg
Mastered by Mark Wilder at Sony Music Studios, December 2006
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Looking over Michael Penn's four-album tenure at BMG and Sony-March (1989), Free-Far-All (1992), Resigned (1997) and MP4: Days Since A Lost Time Accident - is sort of like watching that modern-day, time-shuffling film noir Memento, a comparison that the cinema-savvy Penn might appreciate. His is a career story that unfolds in reverse when compared to many of his contemporary singer-songwriters. The Los Angeles based Penn debuted dramatically in 1989 with "No Myth," an instantly memorable anthem to youthful romantic longing that became a major MTV and radio hit, and March, an album hailed by critics and embraced by a wide-ranging audience. But the mainstream soon moved on and Penn segued from almost-household name into highly regarded but far less visible cult status, an artist whose carefully crafted albums grew more incisive as his market share became more rarefied.
Penn can perhaps also be likened to one of the authors he has often expressed admiration for, novelist and screenwriter John Fante, who lived in the Bunker Hill neighborhood that Penn name-checks on one of these tracks. Fante amassed a rich body of work evoking mid-20th Century L.A., work that continues to be unearthed and appreciated by new audiences, work with enduring relevance. For a time, Fante was a part of the Hollywood movie machine, toiling in it while not quite feeling part of it. Similarly, Penn is an independent thinker functioning in a major-label world, and that shows in Penn's approach to this collection.
Palms & Runes, Tarot & Tea contains material garnered from throughout Penn's Sixteen-year career-album cuts, demos and alternate takes, along with a few freshly recorded versions of older tunes - but it has the feel of something entirely new. When Legacy approached Penn to help assemble this compilation in a very hands-on way, he saw an opportunity: "I figured I should try to make this an actual album instead of just a collection of old songs - or at least make it feel like one to me. I picked stuff that I still felt connected to and that fit together. "
By juxtaposing tracks according to mood and content rather than just by chronology or familiarity. Penn has fashioned a compelling, impressionistic self-portrait: "I wanted it to head somewhere. I still think of albums as having sides so it had to be split in two ... but since most of what I write about is the difference between love and limerence, it wasn't hard to fashion a through-line in my head."
"Limerence" isn't the kind of word one runs across every day, and rarely in conversation, but Penn has chosen it pointedly. As the Oxford American Dictionary defines it, limerence is "the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person, typically involuntary and characterized by a strong desire for reciprocation of one's feelings ... " – encapsulating in a single word the dilemma so often faced by the protagonists of Penn's songs, characters "wounded unto death by something called love," as he puts it in "Cupid's Got A Brand New Gun."
In fact, Penn went into the studio to remake "Cupid's Got A Brand New Gun" and two others: "I always felt that 'Cupid' was a better song than the original recording. 'Bunker Hill' and 'Long Way Down' are always in my live set and I still feel very connected to them so recording them again was fun.
Penn's songwriting scenarios - of relationships corroded by lies, delusion and betrayal -incorporate both serious drama and black humor. They might seem bitter or cynical, except that in many of his songs hope, however tenuous, springs eternal. Penn writes durable melodies, often with a bright, jangly, mid-Sixties folk-rock feel that belies the downbeat nature of his words. There's just a hint of the psychedelic, to make everything seem a little bit woozy. His lyrics, which boast impressively fast-paced verbal twists and turns, balance the specific with the surreal. And he brings an affecting, melancholy ache to his vocal performances, especially when he's playing the little guy with big ideas battling circumstances beyond his control. His independently released 2005 album Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947, from which "Walter Reed" was taken, particularly focuses on this theme, moving away from romantic miniatures of contemporary life to conspiratorial stories in a post-World War II military industrial complex, his guitar-based arrangements underscored by eerie electronic touches. An engrossing song cycle, redolent of Fante that deserved a wider hearing, Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 has now been rescued and reissued as part of Penn's SONY BMG catalogue.
Among other previously unreleased tracks, "Try," he explains, "was just an alternate version we recorded while in New York for some Sony wing ding. The version of 'Lucky One' here is the one I originally recorded for Days Since A Lost Time Accident. That song started out as this little acoustic lullaby to my son but my manager at the time heard it and thought it could get on the radio ... that's where all the trouble always begins. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I recorded it for the album, goosed up to this quirky rock version. Brendan took it and made it huge and amazing. I figured a fan might want to have this too."
One can search for - and find - themes repeated or contrasted in Penn's artful stacking of these tracks. On one, a character is stuck in traffic on L.A.'s winding Cahuenga Boulevard; on another, he's racing down a freeway towards the future. The big beat of "No Myth" is placed beside the elegant, evocative "Barely A Sound," which has neither words nor super-sized drums yet still manages to be utterly affecting.
No exercise in nostalgia, Palms & Runes is an invitation from Penn to take a deeper look at his repertoire, to discover or get reacquainted, to find connections and dig for clues. This is Michael Penn in the here and now, the place where he's always managed to stay. Don't look back.
- Michael Hill
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www.legacyrecordings.com
www.michaelpenn.com
