Greeting 12/21/98

Welcome to the 1999 version!

This, our ten-year anniversary, finds us much like any other year...waiting for Jim to finish tweaking the latest Mermen music. As soon as he feels like he's done we can release this next *new* studio album. The title is: "The Amazing California Health And Happiness Roadshow." The final songlist hasn't been decided yet but will probably include: "The Hundred-Foot Lemon," "Thalidomide Choo-choo," "Emmylou Rides Clarence West," and the ever-popular "White Trash Raga." Chances are good a version of the old television chestnut "Adventures In Paradise" will make it on there too.

What else have we been doing? Well, The Mermen provided several songs to a Sony Playstation game called "Road Rash 2" (Electronic Arts) released in May of 1998. Our parent label, Atlantic, released a compilation CD from the game with a dark cover that sank like a stone. It was an amusing experience.

On the cinematic side of things, we provided all the music for a movie called "Mavericks", about the world-famous surf spot in Northern California. Our old friend Grant Washburn had asked us if he could use our songs some movie he was making on his own. This was about four years ago. Naturally we said yes because Grant is our pal and he plays beer pong really great. When the final cut was released we were a stunned. What an epic! Grant teamed up with Lili Schad of Clearwater Productions and made a beautiful and powerful film. We're honored to be a part of it.

During the summer of 1998 The Mermen exploded for a couple months. Martyn went on a hejira to the temples of Hathor and Luxor along the sacred River Nile and Jim and Allen went ahead and kept recording new material. Damien Rasmussen (engineer on "Songs Of The Cows") was brought in to slide faders and Vince Littleton (formerly with the M. Saunders Rainforest band) played drums on most of the basic tracks. That was months ago and still we wait patiently for Jim to finish the mixes. But we digress...

At the majestic temple of Kom Obo (Sacred to Sobek - the crocodile God of Digestion) Martyn was healed and transformed; returning to us with Vim, Vigor, Verve and Pep. After we escorted that law firm off the premises we were able to get back down to what we do best. Fuck up the tunes in our own inimitable style. Nobody does it better but then again...who would want to?

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