From the desk of Horsepower:

All things considered, I, Horsepower, am most likely the least talented member of the Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad.  I can't play a guitar to save my life.  I can't kick ass and take names like Captain Mediocrity. I certainly can't crunch numbers like DrumBot 200X.  So what am I good for?

Us horse-headed folks are most likely good for only one thing, and that's "sticking out in a good way."

On Boneslinky!, I wrote a few tunes, one of which is a personal favorite: Big Fist.  My brief description of it is something like "how someone with big hands solves all their problems: smashing whatever's in their way."



But where would such an idea come from?  I'm not a violent person, by any means.  I'm more a lover than a fighter (opinions of ex-girlfriends are the exception here).  I can't remember ever smashing things with my average-sized mitts.  So how did I do it?

I watched Saturday morning cartoons.

I remember the day clearly.  I was sitting at the bar of a vegetarian restaurant at breakfast time.  It was a clear Saturday morning in early Autumn, and I was chowing down on a big-ass plate of tofu scramble.  The weight of Nikc's offer to contribute to the album was heavy on my shoulders, particularly since my offerings for the new album had all been shuffled off to the side for one reason or another, and I wanted to do something about it.  I looked up at the television whilst taking a sip of my coffee, and there was a hyperactive kid's cartoon show playing, the sound muted so that all the important conversations that happen in bars at 9am wouldn't be interrupted.  Seeing all the strange characters jumping around, blowing things up with energy blasts and other craziness, struck a chord in me.  I immediately wrote down the first three ideas that came to my mind regarding the characters in the show I was watching:

• A song about a kid who has molten lava in his skull in place of a brain, which causes him to be obsessed with geology.

• Someone with huge fists that crushes buildings or causes earthquakes when punching the ground.

• A sea shanty-style song about a group of sailors fighting a giant octopus.

Perhaps it was the fact I was watching those cartoons, and I saw plenty of examples where people were smashing things already.  But out of the three, the story about someone with big fists was the most vibrant in my head at the time. So I casually munched on more tofu scramble and put pen to paper, jotting down what eventually came to be "Big Fist."

Now, the following practice may be standard operating procedure for most bands, but I fall back on my lack of experience for my testimony to the process that undoubtedly unfolds.

I presented my lyrics for "Big Fist" to the rest of the band through e-mail, explaining to them a few things

• I wrote this song at breakfast, putting down the first words that came to mind (truth be told, it took maybe 10 minutes to write, and that's probably overestimating)

• It's one of three current ideas I wanted to submit for consideration on the album

• It simply MUST be an old-skool, thrash-punk song...I love singing those in the car, along with my tape deck.

Murmurs of approval were sent around the band in various messages, and I was feeling pretty stoked.  Then the eventual happens: Nikc writes back and says something like "I'll fuck around with it this weekend."  I wrote back and said, "Okay, just remember: thrash punk song!"

Two days later, Nikc sends out an e-mail with an MP3 attached labeled "bigfistdemo."  I download it, turn on my speakers, and start up the song.  And true to form--as this always happens with lyrics I had written and submitted--the song I hear from Nikc surpasses all expectations I had set for it.
Big Fist (demo) by flutesquad

No, it's not quite thrash punk.  It's more like this blistering mesh of psychobilly and surf punk from another planet...A planet inhabited by speed-snorting NASCAR fans wearing jetpacks and armed with nail-studded baseball bats and rusty chains.  It fucking rocks, and whenever the breakdown happens, I'm running and jumping all over whatever club it is we're playing it.  Plus, it ends on me calling out, "Muthafucka yeaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

If that's not sticking out in a good way, I don't know what is.  So, it has my vote.

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Like this Song Origin? Check out the story behind Innocent Night, our parody of Benny Mardones' two-time hit "Into The Night!"