Songs

My Reasons
ALLISON: This is the first song Vince and I ever wrote. I have no recollection of the conversation that lead to us writing songs, but I remember e-mailing these lyrics to his wife, Anna Beth, and telling her that if she thought they were dumb, not to pass them on. I'm so glad she didn't listen to me (not that she ever does, anyway). I wrote it so long ago, I can't remember if it had a specific catalyst, but I do get tired a lot, and I do have my reasons for it, so the song is true.

VINCE: AB gave me a printout of these lyrics and explained that they were from her friend Allison, who she'd just recently met. I think the date on the e-mail was January of 2001. I do remember us recording the music and vocals in the living room on a Roland VS-840EX. The arrangement on this song is so strange, yet it works well with the lyrics. I especially like the part where the music drops and Al sings, "you love me."

Listen to a clip of My Reasons.

Salesman
ALLISON: We met this guy in Austin one night who was the consummate salesman. We had kind of a rough time with him, and some of the lines in the song are direct quotes of things he actually said. I think we had originally titled this Death of a Salesman. Every time I sing it, I laugh.

VINCE: Al already had these lyrics and we sat in my dining room in Monroe trying to come up with music. I started playing this weird picking, strummy thing in C and Al said she liked it. And then, a song was born. That guy in Austin was a typical man's man. I think he felt that he really bonded with me because he touched me or patted me every time he passed by, which was just a little too much.

Listen to a clip of Salesman.

Gone Off Somewhere
ALLISON: One weekend I was in Monroe and we were hanging around with a neighbor of the Chaos. As he was leaving their house, he jumped off the steps of their porch and landed on the head of their cat, Buffy. The cat had come out of nowhere, and it was a total fluke, freak accident. Buffy, of course, shot off into the trees, and we spent the rest of the day looking for her, all for naught. It was an extremely sad day and we moped aro