New Noise Magazine is pleased to be bringing forth an exclusive track by track of the record Q-Nails by Detroits’s The Stools.
Jet Fuel – This was the first song we ever wrote. Written and recorded on the fly in a fruit cellar. We released it on our first EP 30mg Blues. The original version was much slower and had a guitar solo. We’ve since reworked it by speeding it up, adding multiple guitar tracks, and more lyrics in the verse. Since the release it has been the opening of every live show.
Pyramid Blues – chuck helped finish these lyrics last minute in the studio. Musically we tried to cram an entire Ramones album worth of riffs into 1 minute. The lyrics are about how easy it is to lose everything all at once but mostly about the “woes” of being broke and buying the cheapest, shittiest cigarettes you can find… Pyramid Blues
Red Meat – this is another really early one that didn’t make it on the EP. It’s about skipping class and barbecuing at Belle Isle in Detroit. Will has since quit both college and eating meat entirely…
Q-Nails – a very short lived but really notorious diy venue in Hamtramck. It had many locations throughout the years but “Q-Nails” was its final spot. Before we played together as a band we saw so many great acts play there that helped us shape the idea of what we wanted our band to sound like. It was a really important spot to meet national touring bands and people from around detroit that we’re into the same music we wouldn’t have meet otherwise. It felt more appropriate to write a song about everything we didn’t like about the place to avoid getting too sentimental.
Not You – AN ODE TO THE SHADOWS OF NIGHT… it was mostly written while driving around Warren and Roseville avoiding work. The guitar playing and tone on the first Shadows of night really inspired the main theme of the song. We got a young kid from our friend Craig’s music school to do the saxophone parts for this one. Honestly the Sax made the song for us.
Talk ’bout – This one is about sitting around with your friend or girlfriend and not having anything to talk about because you’re together all the time. You know when you get three words into a story and they finish it for you because they’ve heard it 15 times? It was the first song Krystian wrote for the band and he wanted it to kinda sound like a Negative Approach song. He was sick when he did the vocals. Actually, I think we were all sick when we recorded this.
Interlude – Will got jury duty and had to call the Jury Reporter line a bunch of times and this plays every time you call, he said it started to sound like a poem after awhile.
John R. Boogie – We put the vocals thru a guitar amp in a tiny bathroom for this one. It was written on bass with the guitar playing the background part. We rarely play it live but it’s a fun tune. The inspiration for this song came from mostly resenting anybody who had the courage to talk to strangers or were able to put themselves out there to get what they want. John R. Boogie is just visualizing socialization as a really really easy dance to make it easier.
Coney Loose – If you dont know what a Loose Hamburger is, or Coney Island, find out… We grew up hanging out there and eating countless of said Loose’s, We recorded this one with a bunch of different equipment from the rest of the record, we wanted it to sound super beefy. It was also on “30mg Blues” and its the closest thing we will probably ever have to a sing along.
Wrong Bomb – “Wrong Bomb” was almost the opening track for this album, but it ended up feeling more like a closer, so we flipped it with Jet Fuel which was gonna be the closing track originally. Its the longest song we had at the time, It’s about the literal physical pain you would feel if 50’s love songs where true.
