Major Parkinson (2008)

Bitterflies on motorbikes
Major Parkinson (2008)



This is the band's eponymous debut studio album, released in 2008 and recorded in California with producer Sylvia Massy. The collaboration began after Massy discovered the band on Myspace and contacted them with the message: “You are my new favorite band!!!! When can we make an awesome record?”

The album introduces Major Parkinson’s theatrical rock sound, their dark humor and strong sense of storytelling – a high-octane kick-off for the band's expansive musical journey. In 2024, it made its way into Uncut Magazine's list of the top 500 albums of the 2000s.

Hello world

In the Shadow of Mount Shasta

A small piece of album trivia

In the summer of 2006, Major Parkinson travelled from Bergen to Weed, California, to record their debut album at RadioStar Studios with producer Sylvia Massy and co-producer/engineer Kale Holmes. The sessions took place during six intense weeks in July and August, during an extreme heatwave with temperatures reaching 52 degrees Celsius.


The band lived in the apartment above the studio throughout the recording. As good Norwegians, on the first day, an attempt to let in some fresh mountain air resulted in the air-conditioning unit falling from a bedroom window and crashing into the backyard below. Whoever did that got to enjoy the heatwave throughout the stay.


Only minutes after arriving at the studio, the band discovered an old Optigan standing in a corner. And so the intro of Bicycle came to be the very first piece of music recorded for the album.



During the same period, other artists were also working at RadioStar Studios, including Pay Money To My Pain from Japan and Tripdavon from California. This resulted in Weed's first international shuffleboard tournament on the local bar Pappas plays, which Norway of course won.




RadioStar Studios consisted of three separate buildings, the main studio housed in a former cinema. Another building had once been a butcher shop, and legend has it that producer Sylvia Massy locked Jon Ivar in the basement, the very room where bodies were once kept, to spark lyrical inspiration. Whether true or not, we will never know.


On a rare Sunday off, the band walked the winding road up Mount Shasta, rising 4,322 meters above sea level, to watch the sunset. It was 2006 – the band had no mobile phones, no flashlights, and no plan for the way back down. When the sun disappeared, darkness fell suddenly and completely. On the descent, branches cracked in the surrounding forest, where bears and mountain lions were known to roam. This could easily have been the end of the album.


But fortunately, they survived to tell the tale. And to finish their now legendary debut album.

Meat Me in the Disco was originally called the Working Song. The female vocals belong to producer Sylvia Massy — a playful nod to her early days working on a sex phone when she first arrived in Los Angeles - "She's in the corner with a stick".


Lyrics

Bicycle!


They tried to put me on the bicycle

They tried to hook me to the white electric chair

And I was groovy

Papa’s writing in a book, he’s got a master plan

He stole the phrases from "The mad delirium crush”

And I was groovy


Sing a song when you cry

In spite of all these currencies of suffering


Honey we were nothing but a love affair

You were nothing but a love affair to me

You gave me nothing, nothing, none

A woman is a crime, she’s the rhythm of a rhyme

An expression of a code, I can solve it anytime

There’s a guy sneaking behind her shoulders


She’s a girl, and he’s a boy

And I know the game they're playing cause they’re dumb,

transparent, incapable of stopping me


A bitch slap on the sideburn

She was drinking – too tall

Out of proportions, she promised to be small

I only wanted a real good time

I only wanted to make her go

Be careful with the gun

Out of my forehead

I think you’d better run


A bomb in the apartment, treacherous security

A blast in the commercial testing results

Dangerous pollution floating on the avenue

Body renovation Macintosh.

Mommy filled me up with sardonical precautions

Sent me off to drugs and progressive rock

Where’s my Tsarina? My Mezarina?


A radical sensation: My body is on the air

My face is pretty ugly, I see it everywhere

My mind is separated for better and for worse

It’s living in my stomach. I’m a lipstick in a purse


God I'm afraid.

I feel like somebody's watching me or you or him


It's a song when you cry

In spite of all these currencies of suffering


So come down from the ceiling and cry:

They tried to put me on the bicycle!

Bazooka Mirror


Night time is catching up like a broken buttercup

In my ethical assisted violence, days are running out of order

Why won't you talk to me?

Yesterday you talked so sweet

over thirty little cups of cappuccino

And a toast when we said goodbye


Talk to me!

I miss the sense of isolation every day of the week

What are you doing in my room?

Talk to me!

Maybe we can have a conversation

Like we did on TV when there was nothing else to see


Tell me are you having fun?

Even though what said is done

When the camera was rolling backwards

and the video director slept

Look what they have done to me

I'm looking like a broken Christmas tree

In the radio transistor silence

where the lights are playing out of tune

Meat me in the disco


Girl! Meet me in the disco

We can trim our branches

And dangle from the gallows of cellophane bricks

Laughing in the smog walk

Looking at the traumatized ballistic Primadonna

in the corner with a stick


Girl! Be careful what you wish for

You don’t know what you give until it’s gone

And when it’s gone you’ll never get it back again

Just because you’re faithful

doesn’t make you square or righteous

It’s just a matter of perception


The man is looking at me with a degenerated facial presence

Shoulders wide, looking for a ride

He is sliding through the crowd with a cynical laughter

Automobiles and scattered heels.

Hands upon the wheel Miss Daisy!

Everybody looks so good!


A moaning Casanova in the backseat of a choking convertible

A rolling dice between two thighs

A naked couple riding a caramel

The war! The war! It has begun

I feel like dancing, jumping, having some fun

We are the overnight collectables

and now it's time to feed the prey


Look at my girl! She's a star, She plays piano

Dead to the bone, she's alone and got no places to go

If that's me in five years, I'll blow my head off

but I'm not like her at all, I've still got places to go


Girl! Meet me in the disco

We can trim our branches

and dangle from the gallows of cellophane bricks

Standing in the smog walk

looking at the traumatized ballistic Primadonna

in the corner with a stick

She's in the corner with a stick

Silicon hips


Goddamn those silicon hips smell bad

Yet it feels like they're real in every way

Cause ever since I took this job in June

I've been a sucker for girls

I watch them run, I watch them spin


Once upon a time, when the world was a dirty scene

I had a redneck, spandex, vagabond eating disorder

I said I don't wanna die like my mother used to do

It was a perfect holiday

Now I’m feeling so alone

I want attention!


I was alone because I lost my only friend

He's the latest fashion to be seen

A boulevard of rusty limousines

Yes, out in the back it blew my brain


Now the years are crashing by

Still I'm looking for some purity

A perfect house, a quiet life with Judy Garland

But one day I trapped myself in common sense

and barricaded my door with all these flashy trends

Cause somehow over the rainbow life is so unfair

Is it me I’m looking for?

Well I don’t care

Will you take this ring?


Sorry to inform you I could never love you like you do

You'll never make me bleed

the way you chew those rotten puzzle crackers

when your mind is a blindfold

Pick me up, hang me like a sucker in a leash

I can tell you anything you wanna hear

Save me from the cash register brutality

Coming from your Stairmasturbator vanity

You see, everything left is a cup of sanity

And all the parasites in your domestic personality


Goddamn those silicon hips smell bad

Yet it feels like they're real in every way,

But one day they'll fry under the sun

On the tip of a gun. I guess that's how it's done

But when I'm sturdy will I love myself?

start a riot, start a fight, start a revolution?

Will I be different in this world

if I threw away this superficial life?

Cause, that is what you do to me!

Yes, that is what you do to me!

Cause I'm feeling, so alone and I want to ..

Casanova


I’m on the front page of a dirty magazine

Mr. January pumping kerosene

Can't you see my face, it's a lie?

Close the curtains, flip the switch

Make me happy, baby you're a bitch

Turn me on, turn me on, tonight


Casanova, do you love her?

Now do you really think that you would find that bitter self-esteem

to push between her legs and make her happy like you used to do?

In the time when everything was simple

She was seventeen and you where twenty-two

And it was summer

It was the summer when you ran away

For the traffic noise of screaming rubber ducks

and grieving wives on channel 45

Where no one talks about the weather anymore


Casanova, you're getting older

Now the world is not for you to blame

It's just a movie rolling backwards randomly

Objecting choices that we call in vain

And the violence that you try to justify

is not a language that I still contain

But in the summer I will wrap you up in cellophane

and bury you under the pouring rain

Because no one talks about the weather anymore

It’s a job


But hey, what could I do?

I was eating more than I could chew

Now those cavities are swelling

They’re bursting in a bubble of champagne

But I have painted the house,

I have organized the furniture in alphabetical order

ANd my carpet's made of cashmere.

It's so clean


Hey, what can I say?

I just hate those barber cues in May

Cause when the summer dress is waving

it makes me all remember who I am

Still my porch is symmetrical

My teeth are white,

The lawn is green,

My kids believe in God and my pool is full of chlorine

Clean


Boom!! Out of the blue the past comes sneaking out on you

Dogs are lurking in the alley

Cause somebody caught you digging in the dirt

And you can’t figure out where to get the cleaning products for this job

It’s a job – but there will always be a last stain of blood


In a rush you are burning down your house

You change your name a thousand times

But they will recognize your face and appearance

And your parents they will give you to the cops

Yes, no one says a murder is easy but murder is a job

it’s a job, but there will always be a last stain of blood


Tell me, tell me now, tell me, tell me, tell me

What will you do when the murder gets to you?

Tell me now, tell me, tell me, tell me.

What will you do when the murderer gets to you?


Did you do that? Did you put him in the trunk of the Chevy?

Is he heavy to carry? Do you have equipment in the bag?

Yes, as a matter of fact I brought everything you need for:

Rococo chopping, body wrapping, ankle strapping, body cracking,

higher learning, lawyer burning, cold suspicion, inquisition,

body heat acceleration, heart attack or simulation, papers for the preparation

Daddy’s got a plan!


Dig a little deeper, dig a little deeper, dig a little deeper.

Deeper! Deeper! Deeper!


Tell me, tell me now ...


I feel abused and disabled and my mind is never stable

In the twist, I’m a tango or a TV pay fandango

And the words that I trust is a require for request

If a man’s making money he is better than the rest

I’m a whore! I’m a whore! It is what I do best.

And the two-headed hammer on the dead man’s chest

is economy, pure and simple interests,

And we’re all together in it

If you’re out then you have to pay the price


Tell me, tell me now ...

Sanity fair


Snowflakes falling from the ground

Baby can I have another dance, another dance with you?

Cause I just don’t know what to do

When I see your eyes walking around

So if you need me I’ll be here

Lets sing a song.

Why won’t you walk away?

Why want you walk away from me!

Just take a look at us now, the sanitarium joy

I got your lipstick on my white sleeve and they are talking to me


I’m dancing on the carousel, babies pumping gasoline

Waiting “Forties cookie queen jam”

I’m on the carousel waving with a samurai sword in epileptic sodomy


But when did this obscene insanity

become such a sophisticated topic to discuss for us?

When all that I wanted from the dirty Cinderella to uncover my expenses for the purple bus.

Oh, we had a few drinks, we had a few laughs

We had a few kicks and then bang!

I’m a toy boy stereotype

And a plastic celluloid Jesus for the dashboard

in your car, smoking tar, breaking bottles with my teeth

Off-white and capitol blue, just tell me what to do!


I’m dancing on the carousel ..


Hey little girl, I got your lipstick on my sleeve

We got so lost on Christmas eve

Now I’m stuck in bed with leprechauns and reindeer in my head

You give me shivers down my spine when you tell me you are mine

Now life is smiling back to me again

I never promised to be good, I never promised to be faithful

Just smash your head against the wall when you’re feeling disappointed


I’m dancing on the carousel ..


Dizzy, floating a million miles away

Death in the Candystore


Love me, love me, I am just a lonely boy

Give me soda pop and toys

Love me, love me, please a little candy girl

Take those chocolates from the boys


The sight of angry children

And the way they’re drawing obsession in their moves

It’s all about the nature, hate is everywhere in that tiny store

And when Molly gets her kicks, gives out candy for the tricks

Yeah, those kids always eat too fast

Still they’re dying for a bag or a multicolored drag

And when they cry, they say:


Love me, love me, I’m just a lonely boy

Give me soda pop and toys

Love me, love me, please a little candy girl

Take those chocolates from the boys


I say: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. The number is the worst

It’s the devil of the game

And then, when your babies seems like puppets on a string

You will know there is a catch cause your joining in the ring

Mrs. Hopalong melodramatic gets the panic

Do kids ever get enough?

When it's time to close the store

They will always ask for more, but that is life


Love me, love me ...


They’re eating way too fast


This is for the devil in the picture that you couldn’t believe

It’s the truth of the agony you couldn’t achieve

So where's your daddy sleeping over? Why did he never tell?

Where's your mom? Where's her lover? Where is Nanny Estelle?

Are they going for the pressure? Are they always too high?

Are you bad for the future? Are you going to die?


Love me, love me, I’m just a lonely boy

Soda pop and toys


197


My daddy’s in the movie. Section 45

He’s got to figure out a way to put Marilyn behind the yellow curtain

Sleepless, weepless

As he keeps on banging his head upon the screen

He didn't mean to me rude,

he didn't mean to be nude

in front of all the pretty girls

He did a masochistic twist with a razor,

played a little song for the duck taped girl


A simple operation, practically impossible to blow

There are 197 numbers on the table, sketches, a ticket to the show

She’s a 24 Madonna, a voluptuous girl, a ballerina Suprema

She’s the German at the back of the commercial delay

I called the manager

Monkey see monkey do, for the Monday show!


A body on detention, all the boys are peppering the kid

Mr. Epileptic only 17 this summer, blue in the eyes, blue in the face

and the testicles breaking on the bench


Hey, don’t you worry too much

I am the doctor with the beautiful touch

I’m only here to make you fell a little better today

A little better in the usual way

So don’t you cry, I’ll fix you up and put a smile on you face

Put you together, read the medical news

that you never had the chance to understand on your own

It’s so easy to throw away everything else when you’re all alone


She tasted good like gingerous pie

But then the old man forced me to cry

She drank me up two bottles of bliss

And when she stopped she gave me a kiss


I want to have a piece of you trust

Wrap it up in your teenage lust

Take a ride with Citizen Kane

until the world is going insane

I Am Erica


I met a little girl on the marketplace

Born without a proper face

Made to fill that magical sensation

A lovely voice like a radio talking in a lavatory disarray

Yacuzzi conversation flow

It was the summer of 187


She played piano, stiff to the bone

Blue in the eyes under a veil of leather

We dressed her in red, but she took off her hip

and now she’s gone for good


Dance, dance, dance, I'm Erica

Look at me, lucky me, I'm all you got

Yes, I've been in love with you baby

ever since I was a high school boy

but I never said it's gonna be easy


Hello, hello, we’re putting up a show

The Germans in the attic baking chains of little Joes

It’s such a beautiful day, they’re crying on display

where bitterflies on motorbikes

and nasty conversations are the best


Dance, dance, dance, I'm Erica.

Look at me, look at me, I'm all you got.

Yes I had a crush on you baby ever since I was an orphanage girl

You promised me a place in your world


Baby, baby, baby, can I kiss you?

Can I kiss you on the lip?

Can I put you in a jelly belly jar and take a sip?

Baby, baby can I touch you?

Can I touch you on the thigh?

Can I touch you where my shoulder needs to cry?


They watch, they touch, they promised way too much

The greasy hands are ripping of her pants

And all her friends they say:

Hello, hello, look at her now

Just hanging from the chandelier, she’s such a ballerina

Oh God, you must have seen her when she was doing the fandango

Now roll the curtains down

Here comes the queen of the play:

The Japanese girl with the rusty tambourine


Dance, dance, dance, America!

Look at me, Look at me, I’m all you got

Yes I've been loving you baby ever since I was an orphanage girl

Awkward as a drunk


Oh, tell me why I'm to blame for this eager

to touch every inch of your body

Oh, tell me why I was laughing when you fucked up my mind

When you followed me down in the drain


I love you like the humming of pouring scotch

I’m a puppy with a bone when I’m drinking too much

But I’m ready for the day when the ship goes down

when they play the violin

And my mommy and my daddy will be proud of me

when I’m hanging from the brink of sanity

patching me up when I break my teeth

from the worth I cannot chew


Ever since elementary school I was dating different girls

But none of them could dress up like a bottle

So when I lost all my empathy in a bowl of brown Mackay

the traffic lights in your distorted bedroom sustained

Now my brain is hurting like a rusty chain


So tell me why I’m to blame for this eager

to crush every inch of your body and soul

Even though I was laughing when you fucked up my mind

Drew the line to the hole in my head

Greatest love


The greatest love that you’ll ever read

is in a book of fairytales and mystery

Where all the troubles are black and white

And all you see is heaven from the open sight

When you are crying, crying too slow


They say that everyone’s happy there

By the untamed rivers, floating with the breeze

The sweet affection of thousand tears

A better wish for silence, the flowers and the trees


What’s the greatest love that you’ll ever be

A face in the mirror?

What’s the greatest love that you’ll ever be

If I could never read?


When your heart is a lonely place

And your mind is plain at the back of the race

And when your money becomes a bribe

And all the people you hate seems like the friends of your life

And you’re dying

Dying too slow


Don’t take the irony seriously

Cause all the faces you know they are all versions of you

So don’t be selfish and cynical

Cause all the problems you have are all created by you

So don’t you hate me


Cause I’m the greatest love that you’ll ever be:

A face in the mirror.

Yes, I’m the greatest love that you’ll ever be

But when you turn off the lights..


Stuck in the back, I’m your reason to be sorry

I’m the devil, I’m your crack

I’m the maker of your worries

'Till the break of your neck, I’m your pain until you die

In bitterness, in better days, the cheater of a lie


I’m your president, hypocrisy for beggars and the blind

I’m the sick manipulator of the beauties that you find

On the biggest contradiction for the pain you love the most

I am your life, I am your hope

yes I am Jesus, I’m your satisfaction!


I’m the greatest love that you’ll ever be, a face in the mirror

I’m the greatest love that you’ll ever be, but life is just misery

Cause when the greatest love is a cup of tea and a road to suicide

Then the greatest love is just what you need

So come on!

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