Category: Eric Din

Berkeley Cat Records is thrilled to announce.. wait, what was it? Hmm.. I may need a snack. Oh! Hahaha yes, I’m So Terribly Stoned, a new collaboration by Eric Din and Damon Wood. Sez Eric: “Damon and I have been good friends and guitar-nerd buddies since forever, and we finally got around to making something together. The process was fun and easy – I sent Damon a track with just my vocal over a drum loop, and within a day he sent me three guitar tracks and a bass track. I loved the way they all worked together and I didn’t edit or change a thing – just positioned everything and mixed it.” Along the way, Shannon Wheeler sent in his interpretation of events to complete the package. We somehow see this as a Christmas or Holiday release, and we understand that won’t make sense to just everyone. Wishing you a safe and merry end of 2020, and wishing us all a bright and creative and healthy new year!

Eric Din: Vocals, P-Bass, production
Damon Wood: Electric guitars, fuzz bass

Artwork by Shannon Wheeler

© 2020 Eric Roy Dinwiddie / Damon Wood
King Roy Music, BMI

We are so thrilled to announce this new single from Eric Din. Exclusively on Berkeley Cat Records thru Bandcamp for now. We’ll prolly put it on the streaming services after some naps. Read the story of the song and lyrics and credits below, and give ‘er a spin right here. If you want the file, click “download” below, and you can have it for Xmas if you like by putting 0 in the dollar amount, that is totally fine, or plop some $ in there to help us offset our costs, and that’s totally fine too. We thank you for your earballs.

Liner notes from Eric:

I had this idea years ago after a wonderful night out at the Jupiter in Berkeley. They had (and hopefully will again!) an ongoing series of outdoor concerts in their large patio near UCB, and I saw a lot of great musical sets there. It being home, I knew many of the bands and folks who worked there over the years. One fine evening with some beers and dancing and carrying on, I watched in awe as servers carried trays of beers and pizzas and pints and pitchers, heroically negotiating their way through the jubilant crowd and making it look easy. I said to myself, if that was me, this would be a quick disaster. While lo and behold, babies, very young tots, joined in the fun, dancing in front of the bandstand, the Jupiter Girls skillfully maneuvered through the crowd and delivered their precious cargo to happy patrons. I thought “that’s a song,” and wrote the verses down on my way home on the 51 bus, slightly pickled and very cheerful. Years, years later, here I am socially distanced, and the memory of that sweet place and that simple, nice moment, gave me the inspiration to finish the song. I recorded the guitars and vocals, added bass and handclaps (I loved recording the handclaps!) and then, mysteriously, I was drawn to the tambura. Took me a while to tune the instrument and when I did, it was a eureka moment – ah, that’s the other-worldly sound, that’s the thing from Planet Jupiter, to my ear, and the way it meshed with the other stringed instruments was magic. I sent a mix of that that to Jay Lane, and asked him to play drums on it, which he did and he sent his tracks over. More magic! I love what Jay did, and there I had multi-track drums and everything else done, but one key thing missing. I had this melody, that I always envisioned to be on trumpet. I tried poking at my little digital sample trigger keyboard thingy and it was OK, but I wanted brass, man! I reached out to Steven Bernstein in New York and sent him the track with my melody idea, and to my amazement and delight, Steve sent me not just the trumpet line, but a whole horn section, arranged and performed as only he could do. So I took these fabulous pieces and mixed it all together and here it is. A homemade band record, featuring three dudes hundreds of miles apart, with our home recording setups and internet connections. One last thought in this lengthy liner note – I am glad that this is a joyous song. Some friends of mine have also recently observed – we don’t seem to need a lot of extra gloom right now. I don’t, anyway. The simple memory of a fun night out galavanting with friends and dancing to a hot band, is really special to me right now. I’ve been in the band, I’ve been in the audience, I don’t know what comes next. But I’m so grateful I can still create and have some long distance fun with some great people, and hopefully make some things folks will enjoy. Oh! The cover art – I sent my thoughts to Shannon Wheeler when the track was in its first stages – just guitar and vocals, and told him the story. He interpreted it as you see here, and as always, Shannon brought a humor and absurdity that is uniquely his own, and as you can see, there aren’t just a few babies, everyone is a baby! Which, you know, is true on some level. The one grown-up in the picture, apparently, is the heroic and unflappable Jupiter Girl. I found his drawing perfect and strangely hilarious, and there ya have it, weeks plus years in the making, the last single before I compile my first solo album, I give you,
Jupiter Girls.

Jupiter Girls

So fine,
Always on my mind,
Until five,
I do my work online,
And then I must get outside,
Take the 51 line,
Stop in front of the BART stop,
With my nickles and dimes,

And say
Hello, Jupiter Girls
Hello, Jupiter Girls
Hello, Jupiter Girls
You are my world

Jupiter girls,
We all go crazy,
I don’t mind,
We like to watch you pass by
At the Trumpetvine

Jupiter girls,
They got that walk right down,
Carryin’ all that precious cargo,
And it never falls down, no,
Not on the dancing babies,
Not on me and my friends,
That jazz band keeps on wailing,
They take it up a peg

And say
Hello, Jupiter Girls
Hello, Jupiter Girls
Hello, Jupiter Girls
You are my world

We all go crazy,
It’s just fine,
Me like to watch you pass by
At the Trumpetvine,

And say
Hello, Jupiter Girls
Hello, Jupiter Girls
Hello, Jupiter Girls
You are my world

And say
Hello, Jupiter Girls
Hello, Jupiter Girls
Hello, Jupiter Girls
You are my world

© 2020 Eric Roy Dinwiddie
King Roy Music, BMI

Eric Din: Acoustic and electric guitars, bass, vocals, handclaps, and tambura

Jay Lane: Drums

Steven Bernstein: Trumpets, flugabone, alto horns, slide trumpets, piccolo trumpets, and mellophones

Artwork by Shannon Wheeler

Produced by Eric Din for Berkeley Cat Records

Another “new” track from yours truly, this one a reboot of a song my UpTones brethren Paul Jackson wrote in the late 1980s. It was right after the original UpTones broke up and Paul and Ben and I started HOBO. We released it as a single and played it in our set for a while as we hoboed up and down the west coast playing concerts and nightclubs and the occasional campfire.

In 2017 I heard a new version with some different lyrics and asked Paul if he’d mind if I made a rewrite. Graciously Paul agreed and I tracked it at home with acoustic guitar and a “voice-box” lead guitar created with a Pignose amp and a funnel (for my fellow Frampton geeks!)

Now in the COVIDopalypse I wanted drums and bass to round it out so I called Dave Tweedie who put down some fabulous acoustic drum tracks, and then I played the bass. Mixed it up and here it be! I’m very happy with how it came out. Hope you also enjoy.

Oh, it’s been called, alternately, Laughing Man or The Laughing Man. I went with Laughing Man and Shannon’s artwork says The Laughing Man and that’s appropriate. “The Laughing Man, he can’t decide.” Full lyrics and credits below. Feel free to share any ol’ which way ya like. Thank you.

Laughing Man

There’s a pile of tacks where the floor meets the wall
He put them there so my pictures would not fall
The laughing man got a magic 8 ball
The laughing man sees and knows all

He is the laughing man
He is the laughing man
And he’ll do what he can
To see that we don’t understand

There’s a laughter where my hand pulls at my eye
He put it there so that I wouldn’t cry

And still the laughing children
Out on a summer’s day
Save their pennies and marbles
To hear the laughing man play

He is the laughing man
He is the laughing man
And he’ll do what he can
To see that we don’t understand

It ain’t a joke but here’s a punch line
He’s laughing at the knot I tied
The laughing man, he can’t decide
The laughing man, he never dies

And still the laughing children
Even as skies turn gray
Travel with minimal cargo
To hear the laughing man play

© 2017 Paul Albert Jackson / Eric Roy Dinwiddie,
Zymurgy Music, BMI / King Roy Music, BMI

Produced by Eric Din at Din’s house
Eric Din: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Talkyboxen
Drums recorded by Dave Tweedie at Dave’s house
Cover art by Shannon Wheeler at Shannon’s house
Now you may listen to it at your house
Like magic