Kito Peters: News

It's so rare these days that I hear anything I want to listen to over and over and from beginning to end.  So thanks a lot, Boz, for "Dig!"

I recently learned that "High Road" is a finalist in 8 New Mexico Music Awards categories, including Best Song (Don't Get Me Wrong), Best Producer, Best Pop CD, and Best of the Year.  We'll see what happens at the awards banquet in a month!

The first box of our new CD "High Road" arrived yesterday! The package looks great. Hopefully it sounds good, too - I'm still in burn-out from editing and mastering and can't begin to listen yet.

I've uploaded 9 of the (15) songs from "High Road" to this site at soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/kito6/tracks and would love you to listen. Thanks.

High Road was sent off to Oasis today. Finished the mastering with Dom Maita. Uploaded five songs to soundcloud - here's the first one (from which you can get to the other four if you want): http://soundcloud.com/kito6/05-dont-get-me-wrong

We've decided to go with homegrown, minimal mastering on High Road. Just seems to keep the warm, integrated, nuanced vibe better, though of course some pop gets sacrificed. The graphics are done, too, so it's off next week to Oasis for manufacture.

Our new CD, "High Road," certainly has benefited from my friendship, and sometime lyrical consultations, with the redoubtable Dexter Sandap. Thanks again, Dexter!

Is there a genre called "Wagnerian pop?"

The seemingly endless process of making "High Road" will end soon. Dom Maita of Airshow is going to master the record maybe next week. I'll be meeting with Willy Magee the following week to put the graphics together. Had a little photo shoot yesterday with Richard Baron in the deserted Santa Fe Flying Star.

Meanwhile I've put together and sent out copies of a disc containing 15 new songs (out of the 50 I've written since we started "High Road"). Imagining the opposite of "High Road" - which is spare and almost epic in scope and sound. The next one will be more creaky and acoustic and interior. If "High Road" is a film by John Ford from a Bergman script, its successor ("Burn Down The House?") will be more Woody Allen. Should be interesting.

jazzy chords
haven't recorded it yet

I Believe In You

tramping through the jungle they call your town
i watched your face while the shit went down
everyone plays solo no one’s got your back
so you hide your lonely tears from the snarling pack

i believe in you
yeah i believe in you

family is a battleground politics a war
swinging wildly we don’t notice what we’re fighting for
and you know they’ll hurt you if they get a chance
there is joy in others’ suffering at the killers’ dance

i believe in you
yeah i believe in you

i can see you struggle
but i still feel your heart
i have felt the soul shining
in you from the start

everybody needs a friend who honors what they are
if you find one loving witness that can take you far
even though destruction seems the order of the day
you could still be beautiful you could find your way

i believe in you
yeah i believe in you 2X

I've put mixes to two songs from our upcoming record, "High Road," up on Soundcloud. Listen to "Don't Get Me Wrong" at http://soundcloud.com/kito6/01-dont-get-me-wrong-mix2 and "Fly Boy" at http://soundcloud.com/kito6/02-fly-boy-mix. Hope you like them.
Meanwhile, we're almost done with the mix edits for all 15 songs that will comprise "High Road."

I've been feeling a powerful urge to play a sample of my new songs for an audience somewhere.  Hard to find a suitable" listening environment" where people actually pay attention to the music (and of course in my case the lyrics) instead of using sound as the background movie score to their lives.  Where are the coffee houses of yesteryear?

Ironclad

dope and derivatives they’re my drugs of choice
don’t you even hint i didn’t earn this rolls royce
i play the game with no holds barred like everyone i know
selling to the suckers that’s how you make big dough

i heard you lost your house and i feel a little bad
but it’s the triumph of the will and my will’s ironclad

we don’t make nothing now we just invent roulettes
and no one ever beat the house so how did you forget
sure it’s all a shell game and i know we’re headed down
but you can be my sacrifice while i go skipping town

i heard you lost your house and i feel a little bad
but it’s the triumph of the will and my will’s ironclad

i cruise these crowded streets i know it’s me or them
still there’s so much i have done that jesus might condemn
i have made a fortune but do i still have my soul
see the rich get richer while the poor inflate the dole

i heard you lost your house and i feel a little bad
but it’s the triumph of the will and my will’s ironclad

yeah i’m just your average joe i’d never be a saint
and living like a pharoah i got no cause for complaint
a speck upon this ocean i play out my little part
and can’t afford the luxury of some fool bleeding heart

i heard you lost your house and i feel a little bad
but it’s the triumph of the will and my will’s ironclad
it’s ironclad

Though we had six finalists, we got shut out this year at the New Mexico Music Awards (for the first time). Recording on the latest CD's still suspended due to my ear issues (tinnitus/hyperacusis). But we'll be baaaaaack!

Want To Want

i might want to want to turn the other cheek
i might want to want the meadows of the meek
i might want to want to hold my harpoon tongue
but i need what i want the truth since i was young

i might want to want to sing a sweeter song
i might want to want a hive where i belong
i might want to want to finally let it be
but i need what i want more savage prophesy

there’s so many reasons
to be better than i am
but you can whip a wolf all day
won’t make him like a lamb

i might want to want to let go and forgive
i might want to want to bless the way they live
i might want to want to take a higher road
but i need what i want or else i could explode

there’s so many reasons
to be better than i am
but you can whip a wolf all day
won’t make him like a lamb

i might want to want to do some other things
i might want to want the comfort they might bring
i might want to want to serve some gentle good
but i need what i want and i’ve chased it best i could

I had to suspend work indefinitely on the new CD today due to an ear injury. Not happy.

I Don’t Write Much

i don’t write much about the babes no more
when they knock i lock the door
i had enough of highs and lows
and freezing in love’s fever throes

yes of course i still check em out
but i’m relieved to be without
i miss touch but the freight’s too high
the only way is to walk on by

a woman will kill you just for fun
i can’t look back on the damage done

i don’t write much about the babes no more
all that drama what was it for
and now my kids are finally grown
thank god i’m holed up on my own

they said i caused my share of pain
i’d swear i’d change then do it again
two beasts craving god knows what
licking blood from an open cut

a man will kill you just for fun
i can’t look back on the damage done

i don’t write much about the babes no more
find what i need at the convenience store
and i get off on the girls online
it’s a little lonely but i guess i’m fine
a little lonely but i’m fine
disinclined

We're recording the lead vocals now on our new CD. After that, Coral Cadman will provide her usual gorgeous backing vocals, and then we'll be ready to mix. Consensus is that this record will be our best yet. I'm sure of it.

Santa Fe

yeah we got the mountains here
yeah we got the sky
with lots of speculation bout
what happens when you die

galleries and healers
hippies gone to grey
politicians retirees
all mixed in santa fe

and i come from the city
where nature seems so dead
looking for where heart and spirit
talk back to my head

closest thing inside these states
to being an ex-pat
raving desperados
and i still feel like that

turquoise faux adobe
there’s plenty here to hate
but out beyond the boutique walls
ancient voices wait

and i come from the city
where nature seems so dead
looking for where heart and spirit
talk back to my head

there is no place left untouched
the buzzards had their way
pockets of resistance
lying low in santa fe 2X

Being Loves Being

being loves being i don’t know why
deep down we smile even when we cry
we just want to stay here
sample every breath
honey i will cherish suffering
right up to my death

being loves being it’s a rule of thumb
we dance in the shadows here of kingdom come
everyone a whirlwind
indentured to the breath
honey i will roll in magic
dervish to the death

being loves being but we do forget
when we haven’t pushed against the bedrock yet
it can feel so painful
passions blur the breath
every moment burning
on the bullet train of death

being loves being though we curse and bless
every creature living knows its form of happiness
rafting down emotions
we grab another breath
welded to the river
the flood of life and death

Best Americana - Flesh and Blood
Best Jazz - Too Much Light
Best Humorous/Novelty - Raised By Aliens
Best Song - Flesh And Blood
Best Engineer - David Cragin for Bully On The Block
Best Pop CD - Too Much Light

During the past three years we've won for best pop cd, best jazz song, and best world beat song. Hopefully the judges will smile on us again, but in any case it's an honor to be chosen as finalists in so many categories.

Capital Dreams

we are the children of capital schemes
we hemorrhage interest dream capital dreams
and now the malls empty like ghost towns of old
when people got nothing nothing gets sold

once the thing’s rolling it’s so hard to stop
and all of our rats own rooms at the top
and so a depression swims back into view
spinning in free fall now who has a clue

and i stand outside the inside
i stand where eagles won’t fly
i stand for no national anthem
i stand with beacons held high

we got our scapegoats religion and race
while everyone tells you class has no place
we all should be rich so if we are poor
that means we’re laggards and losers for sure

and we don’t make anything much anymore
though looters and scammers still scare up a score
so i can’t imagine where we go from here
hoping like moses a path will appear

and i stand outside the inside
i stand where eagles won’t fly
i stand for no national anthem
i stand with beacons held high

i heard them passing in packards of rust
nabobs of industry risen from dust
and i saw a hooverville burst into flame
and when i awoke so much looked the same

and i stand outside the inside
i stand where eagles won’t fly
i stand for no national anthem
i stand with beacons held high
i stand
i stand

Ready To Blow

(blues chords)

it’s all about theft it’s all about fear
it’s all about rank and who’s gonna steer
it’s all about pride it’s all about dough
it’s all too much i’m ready to blow

it’s all about clueless all about blind
it’s all about heart and soul left behind
it’s all about envy and endless ego
look out daddy i’m ready to blow

it’s all about cowardice all about lies
it’s all about thumbs in your best friend’s eyes
it’s all about slick sliding to and fro
my heart is racing i’m ready to blow

it’s crazy living in this frigging zoo
when at least sometimes you know what's right to do

it’s all about scam it's all about mine
it’s all about boundaries don’t cross that line
it’s all about freedom to maim the right foe
my hair’s on fire i’m ready to blow

it’s all about shock and none about awe
it’s all about stuffing more crap in your craw
it’s all about crushing the people below
getting close now i’m ready to blow
getting close now i'm ready to blow

i've been writing a bunch of new songs recently
this one is in waltz time

Long Way Home

the snow fell soft on a quiet street
where i walked slow in stunned defeat
the world i’d known had just slipped away
now there was nothing and so much to say

and it’s a long long long way home

you only lose when you never try
i said to myself but i wanted to cry
snow meant oblivion white for forget
but i wasn’t ready to let it be yet

and it’s a long long long way home

out on the avenue cars barely moved
i wondered what all our suffering proved
maybe we’re passions and useless at best
maybe we’re children who need to be blessed

and it’s a long long long way home

next i remember cold key’s in the door
kicking off snow as i climbed to my floor
i felt the sadness but something else too
fluttered inside me and soared up anew

and it’s a long long long way home 2X

And now "Four Way Stop" is # 2 on the All Genre chart at IAC. Will it hit #1?