Astra Heights Redux

MORE SONG LYRICS

MARK HERE

Here are two more new song lyrics.  The first is Timmy's song called "Daddy's Place"....it's a groovy song indeed and hopefully will have you bobbing you heads.

The second song is called "Ticking" and although we wrote it right before we left on tour, it's still very new to all you good people in LA.  Both of these songs are from a slightly darker place if you know what I mean....hope you guys dig them on Wednesday.

daddy's place

remember the moonlight on the ground

breeze kissed blood stains on our brow

we couldn't mouth a word or speak a sound
mem'ries making me feel queasy all around.   

chorus

At your daddy's place, 

innocence defaced,

had its dirty way

of exacting pay.

the news, like a wind, swept through the town

even the police were dumbfound 

abandoned by your parents in the night

our story kept in secret until now...

chorus

At your daddy's place

you're mom couldn't take

his abusive reign

or your battered face.

we resorted to take him be surprise

cause we'd failed to escape him once or twice

we only meant to knock him to the ground

but momma's touch of poison sent him down

at your daddys place

shock in every face

but not from feeling shame

cause your mom felt the same

at your daddys place

your mom drove away

from his hidden grave

she made us promise to say

she and dad had run away...

from your daddy's place....

ticking

You're working on my good parts honey
You're chipping away every night.
I've considered the alternatives lately
and life alone it seems alright.
like a wolf backed up in a corner
like a thundercloud in the night
I've twisted underneath your tyrannical teeth
and the whole things going dark tonight.

CHORUS
the blood in my veins is boiling
you've passed that point for a time.
i'm looming over you as your sleeping
holding back with all my might.

Does that make me evil or cunning baby

that I dream these dreams every night?

We were great friends just until lately

but I was a young and a sweeter guy.

Now spite's replaced all my feelings

I won't be bullied all my life

you should be more scared of me for 

all your dirty deeds cause I'm about to make it right.

new song-acoustic sample & lyrics

MARK HERE

Hello all, 

So it does kinda suck that we're posting lyrics but no music...so this morning I said to myself "Self, let's record an acoustic rendering and post it online...that'll be more satisfying to everyone involved.."

So here it is, this song is called "When the Ground Gives Way".  It's a sonnet, that I wrote under the very helpful and kind guidance of Dr. Leilani Riehle.   I wanted to stay true to it's form and not change it, since I wrote the lyrics first and music second (which is much more rare for me).  This version of course is acoustic but when we play it live at the VIPER it will be full instruments.  

As you know, Astra is taking a more subtle approach to it's pop/rock and this is in step with that new philosophy.  Hope you like it!!

WHEN THE GROUND GIVES WAY

Does the sand hide, like treasure buried deep,
spite for the waves by whose crashing 'twas shaped?
For loss of majesty old cliffs may weep
or greet their rebirth at every scrape;

As the ground gives way to the weighted past

Naught's lost to waves but rather shore's new growth

And deafening tides whose violence won't last
will ebb as did the love of my once betrothed;

As loss confounded the broken heart's faith
in heaven's promise of love thru the age;

time the noble hero seeks to partake

in the soulmaking course from child to sage.

the mountain reborn as beach on the shore
quietly tutored me as no one before.

Download Whenthegoundgivesway 

LET'S GO BOY & THE PUSH

MARK HERE

Here is the first installment of lyrics for new songs to be performed at the Viper...these will be two of the first songs we record....I am formally making a guarantee that you will love them both.

LET'S GO BOY

VERSE
"stand up, stand up for the first time in your life
don't you wanna paint a life outside the lines?

Come down, from your glass house on the hill

think back upon the truth you used to live.

Your charge, peppered with the pain of your pitfalls..."
she asked me "are you gonna heed or pass the call?".

My love, my love's gonna change the world someday,
'you can read it in the web of stars'... she said.

"you've got to make it better for yourself

you've got to make it, you've got to make it."

CHORUS

"you've got the heart, you've got the soul, you've got the mind, baby."

VERSE 2
the years, pulled the wanderlust out from my head
said i didn't need now that i'm a man.
my past, spent away singing songs with a band
i only spoke my mind with guitar in hand.
and i thought....
you've got to make it better for yourself

you've got to make it, you've got to make it.

CHORUS

you've got the heart, you've got the soul, you've got the mind, baby

BRIDGE
born in the heart, deep in a barren land
i was left all alone.
drifting all around, hitching back and forth from cities to towns
my thoughts were my radio.
but now i'm grown, no more adventure to show
long gave up my boyhood code.
crossed a gypsy woman she looked me straight in the eye
and peered into my soul.
she said "damn boy you already wasted plenty of time in your life
you know what you need? get the guitar back it's so clear in my minds eye.
This is the game, getting better every day."

CHORUS

you've got the heart, you've got the soul, you've got the mind, baby

---------------------------------------------

THE PUSH

(do you want it harder, or just a little complex?)

by and by we seem to get along fine
but i've seen the beast in your eyes, 
the one always up for a fight

oh no, you say you don't do drama no more....

well, it's impossible to understand the credibility of the source

to me you're stripes are painted deep inside

you like it hard don't try to deny


oh don't try to deny
cause you know that i know

that's right
that you're wasting my time, arguing that you want nothing but the simplest of lives
i know you want it harder, you always want it complex
i know you need it hard hard hard...

i've been dating around, now you see me wondering back
i can feel it, the scratch, the pull, the push
i think that...i think that...i think I want it harder
i think I like it harder, I think I want it complex

you know i want it harder, you know I want it complex
you know I need it harder, you know i need it complex

The Mystic Mind

LEILANI HERE

Some of you may remember that Jesse Miller played with Astra Heights last summer while Timothy was still in the Lone Star state.  Well, Jesse's since put up a new podcast website, THE MYSTIC MIND, which is receiving accolades and rave reviews far and wide.  The podcasts are about what might be described as *alternative* avenues to higher spiritual consciousness.  Check it out.  Jesse's steeped in esoteric mysticism and, as always, has a pretty original perspective on matters.  I think lots of you will find it pretty interesting, to say the least.

Please take a look and on our comment board let us know what you tink, I mean think.

Tanks!  I mean, thanks!

New Beginnings

LEILANI HERE

One beginning, two beginnings, three beginnings, four . . . .

1.  Yay Obama!

2.  Astra Heights has a new member.  Lyle, drummer extraordinaire.  Come check him out . . .

3.  . . . . at the Viper Room, where Astra Heights will be playing its first show in a long time on Wednesday, January 28.  They go on at 9.30. There's an unlimited guest list, so contact Bernard, James, Lyle, Mark or Timothy if you are planning on coming.  At this show you will have the pleasure of hearing. . . .

4.  New Astra songs.  That are great.  That are not to be missed.  You watched history in the making today . . . listen to history in the making on the 28th.

We can.

Silver Almonds of Christmas

Wow another massive lapse between entries here! I stumbled upon discarded junk main at my apartment and found an invite to the Eames Gallery holiday open house. I popped in and marveled at the great displays representing the legacy of the Eames creative team. I sat and people watched a little and chuckled at the candies. So fitting for the event that they competed with the genius of the art and furniture for which Emaes is most recognized. See's v.s. Eames? Tough one tonight folks.

See: http://www.eamesgallery.com/

Only the beginning ...

Hmmm well it's a tad overdue that there's a Blog entry here. I am as guilty as anyone. Josh, best wishes in your pursuits. Well after our Rocktastico tour it was time for me to do almost three weeks guiding in the Sierra. Guiding? As y'all know I am a fishing nut and my "gig" was helping people with their fly fishing skills in th high Sierra. There were cold nights, warm days and beautiful places. Here are a few photos....

Here's a horse named Bishop who helped me reach some high country meadows

Here's a sample of the fish I caught - a beautiful fall brown trout

And here's yours truly at work ...

And with a client

So I have since returned to LA and we even have had a few jams and the band is sounding cool. I am refreshed from the Sierra and happy to be back. This morning was a post-rain "crisp" California dawn and the waves looked good as I walked to the polls. Later in the evening I went to one of my favorite restaurants where a few business associates were going to meet. Danny Perloff was there as well as Michael Dorman and his friends. Danny is a great guy and works at Concord Records. He often sneaks me amazing samples of music that they are issuing and I got an Otis Redding cd as well as several Creedence Clearwater CDs. More importantly, we ate and drank well. Michael and I work together at Encourage Marketing and are currently wrapping up some cool work that we have been doing for Jamie Kennedy. Anyway, THE coolest thing of all is that out of Typhoon, they lift the Santa Monica ballots by chopper to a depot in Norwalk. Numerous LA Sherriff agents and SMPD were on hand so I snuck in a shot with the official chopper pilot himself! Imagine that all over America behind the scenes are THE PEOPLE who compile the goods!

From the Beginning is a great song by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Only the Beginning is a great song by Chicago ... hmmmm Chicago! Now that's a city deserving of a celebration!

B

From the beginning...

Hello all Astra Heights fans, family, and friends. I just posted this on our Astra Heights myspace, but I know it's very necessary to post it here as well. This blog is just slightly more personal (even though this is still copy and pasted). Anyway, it is with great honor that I come to you today with this news. Honor mixed with genuine appreciation, love, and most of all, humility. My news is that I'm leaving this band of brothers and honorary brother. I love Mark, James, Bernard, and Timothy (who yep, you guessed it, Timbo's comin' back! Yay!).

My brothers and I have been through a lot. It was with our two older brothers, Phillip and Michael, that we first started Astra Heights almost 7 full years ago. We've made a lot of sacrifices together, and for all of them I am extremely grateful to have made it through. We've met so, so many people: All wonderful, all different, and all mattered. My life changed so much during the course of my time with the band, and I hope you'll continue to support the boys as they continue rockin' without me.

It wasn't an easy decision to leave, but it's just something I feel will help me be able to thrive more in other areas of this ol' life of mine. My plans right now are to go back to school (For those of you who might be curious as to what my plans are). And I most definitely hope you're doing what makes you happy as well. Does school make me happy? Not sure yet. I'll let you know after the next couple of months come to pass.

With all my love, support, appreciation, and love and support and appreciation!

Joshua Morales,
Drummer of Astra Heights (Jan 2001-Oct 2008)

That was pretty vain huh? lol. Laugh with me!

BRINGIN' DA WOOD!

MARK HERE

This guy's coming back....are ya ready?

A good, and new, feeling...

Freedom...