Winter Slay Ride (c) 2008 by Lewis D'Aubin Metal mix: Polka mix: Now grab your biggest carving knife and join me outside The time of year has come again to take a little ride The lights and decorations always guaranteed to thrill Cause something in this season simply makes me want to kill The festive green of rotting flesh The gleam of splattered brain And brilliant red upon the head And faces of the slain x 2 Across the village common, o'er hill and dale we go There's nothing that I love as much as slaying in the snow We'll smash and thrash and slash and gash before the morning light What fun it is to kill and sing a slaying song tonight The festive green of rotting flesh The gleam of splattered brain And brilliant red upon the head And faces of the slain x 2 The village green is crimson now, the snow is pretty red The happy folks who sang and danced and played here are all dead The air is cold and peaceful, the winter moon shines bright So home we run to dream of slaying fun tomorrow night The festive green of rotting flesh The gleam of splattered brain And brilliant red upon the head And faces of the slain x 2

This song took its sweet time waiting to see the light of day... I originally composed it back in 2004 when my wife dragged me out to Esplanade Mall for some last minute shopping. Shopping mall... CHOPPING mall... My loathing for the wringer of this seasonal orgy of capitalism congealed in my brain, which proceeded to sneeze out this song like a seasonal allergy. While I wrote it, I was thinking strongly of our friends in the now defuct horror-punk band 'Antarctica vs. the World' - I wanted to write something in that same style and spirit. The lyrics sat on my hard drive, and the main hook sat in my cranium until December 1st 2008, when Judith asked me if C.O.G. could write a Christmas album to replace the endless cycle of carols and other crap that she'd had to endure on the loudspeaker at work since shortly before Halloween. "Sure," I said, "We could have 'Little Drumbot Boy' and 'COG-damn Ye Merry Gentlemen', and... 'Winter Slay Ride'!" Hey wait, I thought, that's an actual song waiting to be born... so I sat down at the keyboard that night and finally knocked out a listenable demo, which we embellished at rehearsal a week later. A few days after that, Ed came in with his new trumpet and played the little fanfare at the beginning (which I had originally written for oboe.) I then added bells to complement the trumpet and forced myself to stop there with the orchestration (as the polka arrangement was perfect just the way it was.) This is about the least amount of effort I've ever spent on a mix; the lead vocals and main piano riff are demo tracks, put down on the C.O.G. show computer, rather than my main recording rig (in fact, the lead vocals are the first time I'd ever sung the thing!) The recording was originally intended to feature the 'metal' instrumentation on the left speaker and the 'polka' instrumentation on the right. But early tests revealed that the metal instruments simply drowned out everything else. So, using the channel mutes, I simply remixed the song into separate metal and polka stereo mixes and then took them into another sequence and cut back and forth between them. It took a few tries to achieve maximum comedic effect. The beginning of the song also seemed too abrupt, so I added a sound effects intro and some pickup notes to ease the listener into the frenzy! Another week later I had the guys record additional intro lines for a 'Podcast' version of the tune as well. The above video is fan-made, by Paul Purdy. Well done, Paul! Credits Lead vocals.....Lewis D'Aubin Guitars.........Ed Merilh Bass............Jim Fairchild Keyboards.......Lewis D'Aubin Drums...........Lewis D'Aubin Trumpet.........Ed Merilh Backing vocals..Lewis D'Aubin, Ed Merilh, Jim Fairchild, Judith McGee, Peg Trauth Recorded and mixed Winter 2008 at C.O.G. Secret Lab, Harahan LA