Automatic Writing

Automatic Writing is the first part of an improvisation gig of Ataxia (the band that John Frusciante has made with Joe Lally, Fugazi's bassist, and Josh Klinghoffer).
This was for about two weeks in February 2004. They played two shows and recorded two records. They recorded bass drums and guitar parts , and at night John writed the vocals parts with the lyrics for most of the songs. Joe Lally wrote the vocals of one song and Josh Klinghoffer for two songs. At first, they wanted to all record in one day, but they had nearly 90 minutes of music. So they recorded it in 4 days and played two shows at the Knitting Factory. They finally released the recording in two parts, this one, Automatic Writing, in August 2004 and the 2nd one in May 2007.

John said that the word 'Ataxia' is Greek for 'disorder'
They named the record Automatic Writing in reference to the surrealist movement initiated by the French writer André Breton (who his the author of the famous Manifeste du Surréalisme (1924) and Second Manifeste du Surréalisme (1930); he describes in these books a new theory of esthetic experience which has completely upset all the fields of creation, with artists such as Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, or Man Ray...) .
This movement consisted in writing things without reflecting to this and without searching any meanings to what they writed. André Breton imagined this techniques consisting in writing all that went through his mind, without paying attention to the coherence of the sentence, or grammar or even vocabulary to free the power of his subconscious. (this movement was mostly inspired by the subconscious's theory of Freud). The first work written with this technique is Les Champs Magnétiques, written by André Breton and Philippe Soupault.

Sorry for all the literary references,
Flaw of the profession... ;)
(This is, by the way, one of the reason I got interested in Ataxia's records (for the reference to the automatic writing, as I already enjoyed a lot surrealists things...).

Anyway, now I'm going to speak about music...
This is a really powerful music made of long improvisations (all songs last over 5 minutes, some songs even lasts 12 minutes, as the amazing 'Montreal'), with a nearly chaotic atmosphere, with John Frusciante's keening vocals and expressive bursts of fluid guitar.

One advice: if you enjoy the long improvisation of John in RHCP's shows, go now to buy this record !!!!



Release Date: August 10, 2004



Tracks:

01 Dust
02 Another
03 The Sides
04 Addition
05 Montreal





Lyrics:



Dust

Some of the chances we take,
To make the money we make.
Manufacturing disease
The creature we can see
I'm pleased it some other day
And I've got something to say
You don't need love
So get under the rock
Now, I have a mutated brain
It is the form that's been made
You got for broke
With your prog rock show
Don't you know what I mean ?
The sick things that I've seen
When you don't fall down
There's a piercing sound
It was the sky that we learned
That we're to spy on the bird
The clouds all feel
Where we don't feel real
It was implied to make a caption
"It's a pain world", is her reaction
We've answered why it's not been action
we blow the ghosts,is this our faction
This was the movie we made
And we were shooting to fate
We gather dust when you said it's a must
And in the end that we shake
It is the function that's fake
We don't feel real
You don't know how it feels
Now, we've given up a lot
And we've gone right past the spot
We're fueled inside
It's the must that we hide
It was implied to make a caption
"It's a pain world", is her reaction
We've answered why it's not been action
We blow the ghosts, is this our faction
Now, I have a mutated brain
It is the form that's been made
You got for broke
With your prog rock show
It was implied to make a caption
"It's a pain world", is her reaction
We've answered why it's not been action
We blow the ghosts, is this our faction
Blow



Another

Nervous with good reason
from...
no no no no no no no
no not not not not no nah
no no
no no no no no no no
no no not much not what watch
Nervous with good reason what
Nervous with no good reason
Nervous with no good reason
no no no no no no no
How come you have another when you look any way any way ?
you make your way and we know how powerful...
spitting on your house, spit on your house, spit on yourfriends and...
lookHow come you have another when you look any way any way?Why?
What we mean is the first thing that we dream
The blood


The Sides

Life won't change today
Every single day
Things don't come my way
It's just my time to fade
They move on, people they go out
Just why the filler is without
Things don't come my way
I Cover up my face
At my only rate
Every single day
You sit still and the twins walk right by
You feel thin, as the lead of your life
Dress on, the feeling, correspond
With the side of the road that we're on
Life won't change today
I cover up my face
Every single day
At my only rate
You sit still and the twins walk right by
You feel thin, as the lead of your life
People want to whisper when they shout
And move on, the people they go out
Nothing will change today
Is what I always say
Yes, things will get too rough
I can never get enough
They move on, people they go out
It's just why the filler is without
People want to whisper when they shout
It's 'cause on the inside, they're in doubt
Life won't change today
I cover up my face
At my only rate
It's just my time to fade


Addition

Well that is what we cry
Feelings we keep inside
And you are not in the right
And you've no reason to hide
It's that we must collide
Nothing can overwrite
And you are not on my side
And we will never arrive
Be quiet at times to learn
That's about to take a turn

And I am fixing to burn
From which I'll not return
A little bit of love
From somebody above
Life is addition in any way
There's no such time now as today, today
Saw you walking back from a nightmare
Won't change what you're to do, well I don't care
I grew up there and I wasn't scared
I am from there, I was born there
Forgive me if I cry
Look when you lifted the sky
Everybody emptied their slime
Those memoriesstole my side
And will you sit by my side,
If me not live past tonight ?
Life isn't here and so streaming
What was the feeling to stream again, stream again?
I am becoming a voyeur
I am a small man, I told ya
I don't miss coming at all
Saw you walking back from a nightmare
Won't change what you're to do, well I don't care
I grew up there and I wasn't scared
I am from there, I was born there
Well that is what we cry
Feelings we keep inside
And you are not in the right
And you've no reason to hide
That's when we must collide
Nothing can overwrite
And you are not on my side
And we will not arrive
Saw you walking back from a nightmare
Won't change what you're to do, well I don't care
I grew up there and I wasn't scared
I was born there, I am from there


Montreal

I'm trying to get to you
To the cold and glass and pain
Cutting back on everything
Never on a passing train
Sentence scraps the paper
Could not be there to you
And built-in conversation
What we would never lose
I'm going to Montreal
I won't do what they tell me
No I stay just the same
Tunneled all the pine trees
Still play a wasting game
I'm going, I'm going
I'm going to Montreal
I was looking for an answer
I would never find in you
I was looking for an answerI'm going, I'm going away
I'm going to Montreal
I was looking for an answer
I would never find in you
Sold all my records
What a stupid thing to do
Going to Montreal
I never had a clue
No, I never had a clue