Part I - “Cee-faring”
Part II - “Lullaby for a baby plastic giraffe”
Part III - “Penguins on a grand parade”
Part IV - “Surely you’re joking, Senor Gorski!”
Part V - “Oddz and Endz”
Part VI -“Go Rob Go!”
Part VII -“Gee-Whiz”
Part VIII -“Gidhorra”
Part IX -“Gee-Whiz” (reprise)
Renaissance Notes
Part I- “Cee-faring”-
The name says it all, doesn’t it? A little corny to be sure, but the whole idea of naming all the subsections of a bloated instrumental is right up there with Rush’s “La Villa Strangiato”. As I’ve said so many times, we take the music extremely seriously, but never ourselves, hence all the self-deprecating stuff you’ll find herein! From the piano outro of “Kiss before dying” into Rob’s long solo, the whole section is in the key of C, hence the illuminative title-I think I do a fair job trying to play “jazz bass” on this section as well
Part II- “Lullaby for a baby plastic giraffe”-
Just an 5-10 second blurb that separates sections 1 & 3, but the genesis of the plastic giraffe (those 2 or 3 hardcore fans of ours in the world today will remember that was the name of our limited corporation back in the late 90’s) was a drink ornament I used to carry for good luck- in fact Mr. Plastic Giraffe is missing both a hind and front leg, but he continues to soldier on at Chris Scorsese’s recording studio! “LLLAAAOOWWWLL” (for those unfortunate few who are uninitiated, that is the phonetic spelling of the virtually unpronounceable sound made by tiny plastic giraffes everywhere-
Part III- “Penguins on a grand parade”-
Cute name for Chris Fox’s shredding solo section, made famous by my predilection for flightless birds in a former life
Part IV- “Surely you’re joking, Senor Gorski!”-
To know him is to love him! Everyone’s favorite soul-less corporate suit continues to be a friend of mine back since our college days-I was considering for the “11:59:59” album cover the idea of featuring my old pal in a Hugo Boss special, evicting homeless shelters while cashing stock options, but the rest of the guys wanted something darker- in all seriousness, I had written this little Spanish guitar piece many years ago, and had promised Gorski I would make him famous some day, so here we are!
Part V- “Oddz and Endz”-
Another throw-away piece from many years ago, I figured I’d compensate for it’s general monotony with those cool, modern spellingz! No diggity you all!
Part VI-“Go Rob Go!”-
Um, I didn’t mean this literally, how was I to know Rob would end up in Madison, WI before he knew I was kidding! A “Rob Schreiber-special”, great riff actually, a little DT-ish, but hey, when has a day gone by that someone HASN’T compared us to them?
Part VII-“Gee-Whiz”-
Me at my wittiest, as this little 10-second connecting riff is in the key of-you guessed it! G! Again, something I wrote as a link piece a long time ago- it’s a good thing we’re so underground, if we were ever commercially successful, I’d be out of good material by now!
Part VIII-“Gidhorra”-
Probably the best part of “Renaissance”, the vaguely “Destroy all Monsters” sounding main guitar line is referenced around Rob and Chris tearing up the scenery with reckless abandon! We played this section live several times in 2003 and their soloing really brought down the house, so I think this section is here to stay!
Part IX-“Gee-Whiz” (reprise)-
Even the most self-indulgent technical monstrosities have to end sometime, right? And if you’re still reading at this point, you’re either a hopeless prog-freak, close friend/family member, or beyond help! In any case, keep buying our records so we can someday reach the dream of being thousand-aires!
