Friends to the End
Where Sound And Vision Collide
friendstotheend.net

FRIENDS TO THE END (theme song) [instrumental]

CREDITS:
Piano by Thom Kurtz. Bass & triangle by Tim Dolbear.
Drums & percussion by Eddie Cantu. Guitars by Bill Browder.  Backing vocals by Julia Courtney & Izzy Arcinue.  Mixed by Tim Dolbear.  All instruments recorded by Tim Dolbear at Eclectica Studios in NW Austin, Texas, except acoustic Yamaha C7 Grand Piano recording by John Michael Landon at Estuary Recordings in midtown Austin.

Written, Arranged and Produced by Thom Kurtz. Co-produced by Tim Dolbear. ISRC: QZESK1800020

Copyright © 1989, 2017 Music by Thomas Kurtz (ASCAP 4732692 / IPI 818383223) ISWC: T9216756922 Friends to the End Music Publishing (ASCAP 818383615) All rights reserved. For licensing, fttemusic@gmail.com

FRIENDS TO THE END (Theme Song) [instr.

Friends To The End (Theme Song) [instrumental]

Friends To The End

Friends To The End (Theme Song) [instr]

friendstotheend.net/songs
Where Sound And Vision Collide

Robot Oddity
( And they called me the Magic Man )

I was born and raised in a robot factory.
I run on oxygen and a lifetime warranty.
They taught us everything we might need to know.
I learned my lessons well. They put me in the show.
And they called me the Magic Man
‘Cause I was more than wires inside an iron can.

A blackout fire broke out down at the power plant.
They fried just like fat in frying pans.
Somehow I made it through the raging fire.
Am I the only survivor to inquire?
And they called me the Magic Man
‘Cause I was more than wires inside an iron can. 
La la la la la la, la la la

I saw her running round to find some shelter, la la la la.
I never really found the time to help her,
Help her, but it’s you.

Robots aren’t supposed to cry.
It must have been an oil leak in my eye.
I don’t know. I don’t care. I can’t understand
How I’ll ever make it here in such an effed up land.
And they called me the Magic Man
‘Cause I was more than wires inside an iron can. 
La la la la la la la, la la la

I never thought I’d ever love another, la la la la.
I never thought I’d ever need a lover,
A lover, but it’s you.

I was born and raised in a robot factory.
I run on oxygen and an eternal guarantee.
If you ever knew me, you know I’d never let you down.
So let’s get away for awhile to Magic Town.
And they called me the Magic Man
Warm and wild inside an iron can. 

Vocals, keys, programming and recording – Thom Kurtz.
Drums – Zach Ballard.  Mixing and drum recording by Tim Dolbear, Eclectica Studios.

Written, Arranged & Produced by Thom Kurtz. ISRC: QZESK2100105
 Copyright © 1978, 2021 Lyrics and Music by Thomas Kurtz (ASCAP 4732692 / IPI 818383223) ISWC: T9298164086  Friends To The End Music Publishing (ASCAP 818383615) All rights reserved. For licensing, fttemusic@gmail.com

TOP OF THE WORLD

ROBOT ODDiTY

friendstotheend.net/songs
Where Sound And Vision Collide

ROBOT ODDiTY (sample)
( And they called me the Magic Man )

I was born and raised in a robot factory.
I run on oxygen and a lifetime warranty.
They taught us everything we might need to know.
I learned my lessons well. They put me in the show.
And they called me the Magic Man
‘Cause I was more than wires inside an iron can.
.
.
.

Vocals, keys, programming and recording – Thom Kurtz.
Drums – Zach Ballard.  Mixing and drum recording by Tim Dolbear, Eclectica Studios.

Written, Arranged & Produced by Thom Kurtz. ISRC: QZESK2100106
 Copyright © 1978, 2021 Lyrics and Music by Thomas Kurtz (ASCAP 4732692 / IPI 818383223) ISWC: T9298164086  Friends To The End Music Publishing (ASCAP 818383615) All rights reserved. For licensing, fttemusic@gmail.com

ROBOT ODDiTY [sample]

https://friendstotheend.net/songs
Where Sound And Vision Collide

ROBOT ODDiTY (chill instrumental)

Vocals, keys, programming and recording – Thom Kurtz.
Drums – Zach Ballard. Mixing and drum recording by Tim Dolbear, Eclectica Studios.

Written, Arranged & Produced by Thom Kurtz. ISRC: QZESK2100108
Copyright © 1978, 2021 Lyrics and Music by Thomas Kurtz (ASCAP 4732692 / IPI 818383223) ISWC: T9298164086 Friends To The End Music Publishing (ASCAP 818383615) All rights reserved. For licensing, fttemusic@gmail.com

Released by:
Friends To The End Music
P-line:
℗ 2021 by Friends to the End Music

ROBOT ODDiTY (chill instrumental)

Radio Lee Charts and New Music 001 with Derek Berrill
Friends To The End - ROBOT ODDiTY Emma Edel - On My Mind
Fake Friends - Maybe
Lee John - Send a Sign
Lucky One Lane - Adventures of the Black Arrow Bard - Live for the Night Grey Wind - Am I Asleep
Kate Dineen - Millennial
Sarah Buckley - Magic Powers
Mario Mannering - Search EP - Bite
Pat Pierse - That Song
Queenless Kings - Silence
The Village Vandals - Vandalism (5 on the bands chart E-Train - Two McDonalds (Released on the 15th April) Lineage - empire breakdown
V-MINUS - You Sexy (1 Kerry electronica chart
The 4th Dimension - Out of Africa (no. 5. Top 75 Dance/Electro Tracks of all time)
E O Cene - Noise Hacker (No. 11 Top 75 Dance/Electro Tracks of all time) Sound Crowd - Dream Lover (no 1 op 75 Dance/Electro Tracks of all time) 1995 Ring of Kerry - Ordinary Man
Cathal Flaherty - A Thousand Miles (22 in the Solo Musicians chart)
John Buggy - World In Motion (6 in the Solo Musicians chart)
Shane Duggan - Woman and a Man (3 in the Solo Musicians chart)
Ways of Seeing - Dream A Life (23 in the Solo Musicians chart)
Aftershock - Another Chapter Ends (1 on the Top Kerry Bands)
Shane Duggan - Train’ to get back home to you (Tune in to TG4 on Tuesday 25th April at 9:30pm to Viva Ceol Tire. That track by Shane will be featured on the show.
Faux Mystic - What You Doing?
Simple Things - Home (15 on the Kerry bands Chart)

Radio Lee Charts & New Music

Curated by Austin radio legend Jack Anderson, KUTX Song of the Day featured Chinese Underground on April 26, 2023.  This clip includes Jack's complimentary intro remarks.   You can see the whole review at their website here:

https://kutx.org/song-of-the-day/friends-to-the-end-chinese-underground-premiere/

KUTX Song of the Day, Chinese Underground

Chinese Underground

KUTX Song of the Day, April 26, 2023 - Chinese Underground [feat. Jack Anderson]

01 - AikJ - STALEMATE (Radio Edit)
Friends To The End - TOP OF THE WORLD (2023) - 05 - Chinese Underground
MALACHY TUOHY - 05 - Most Of The Time
01 - UNDER STARLING - Canopies (Radio Edit) EP out on the 5th May 05 - Sarah Buckley - You Got Me
Lucky One Lane - TUBIN
Emma Edel - On My Mind
Kate Dineen - Millennial
Brendan_Hickey_Convergence_ - 08 Headshop Blues
Dietmar Herdt (German singer songwriter - 02_Get Your Spirit Lifted Avatar - Raindrops_on_Blue_Mountain The_Mercy_Janes_Tired_Of_all_The_Noises Cathal_Flaherty_A_Thousand_Miles
Eman_Tsitra_startdust
Joy_Frost_Nightmare_Catcher
Julian_Boland_Keep_Me_Going
Lorraine Nash_Changing_Tides

002 Radio Lee Charts & New Music

Friends to The End - A World Of Troubles (feat Susanna Lee) released in January 2022
Thom Kurtz
Village Vandals - C’est La V from their debut album "VANDALISM" Living in a dream By Lyford
'Most of the Time' - by Malachy Tuohy (of The Riptide Movement) Hello London - The Brink
Amy Craze- Overboard
01 - Kehli - ALL OUTTA LOVE
Sarah Buckley - When You're Gone The Cranberries - Acoustic Cover (Live... at The Bunker)
Video available on Youtube
THE REMEDY CLUB - 01 - Back To You
released 26th May + Album Launch party Sunday 28th May in The Workman’s Club, Dublin (*full band show)
UNDER STARLING - Canopies (Radio Edit) EP released back on the 5th May
Yer Ma - WHY
The last Vinci - E.C.C.

Highlights from The Venue from the 5th May 2023

7th May 2023 - Radio Lee Charts and New Music

Friends To The End
Where Sound And Vision Collide
https://friendstotheend.net/songs/at-the-matinee/

AT THE MATINEE
(What if you say?)

I used to go downtown every day at two.  
I’d give up my ground, girl, to see the show with you.  
And, if there was nothin’ good, we’d say the words we thought they would  
At the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  

If I hurt you, please forgive me.  
I almost forgot where I am  
And the spirit of the screen has come over me here in a foreign land.  
If I watch you, it will kill me,  
Drowning in my own tears, 
And my only happiness is limited to when my matinee appears.  

What if you say, “Movies are just fantasy?”  
Or if I get too confused up there, without another set of shoes to wear,  
What an easy way to pay my dues and lose my cares!  

The times aren’t the same, my love, since I lost sight of you,  
But I don’t put the blame above everything I do,  
And, if I could name my love, it would be you  
At the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  

If I miss you, will you write me?  
Send me the love of your hand  
And the memory of you will come to me whenever I command.  
If I listen patiently, will I hear you  
Speaking to me through the years? 
And the voice sounds a lot like a movie box when my matinee appears.  

What if you say, “Movies are just fantasy?”  
Or if I get too confused up there, without another set of shoes to wear,  
What an easy way to pay my dues and lose my cares!  
What an easy way to pay the dues,  What an easy way to pay the dues,  
What an easy way to pay my dues and lose your cares!  

Maybe in another week or two, I’ll see you sitting near. 
I’ll try to get a seat by you and whisper in  your ear  
All the sweet words we once heard while sitting here  
At the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  at the matinee . . .  

Written, Arranged & Produced by Thom Kurtz.    Co-produced by Tim Dolbear.   ISRC:  QZESK1800022

Piano & lead vocals by Thom Kurtz  
Flute by Sarah Jane Hargis.  Nylon acoustic guitar by Tim Dolbear  
Drums & percussion by Eddie Cantu.   Bass program by Thom Kurtz
Backing vocals by Julia Courtney, Izzy Arcinue, RC McCree and Thom  
Sound recordings and mix by Tim Dolbear, Eclectica Studios.
Written, Arranged and Produced by Thom Kurtz.

Copyright ©  1979, 2015  Lyrics and Music by Thomas Kurtz  (ASCAP 4732692 / IPI 818383223)  ISWC: T9216753729  Friends To The End Music Publishing  (ASCAP 818383615)   All rights reserved.  For licensing, fttemusic@gmail.com

THE DEBUT SINGLE

At The Matinee

Friends to the End - Where Sound And Vision Collide
https://friendstotheend.net/songs/as-sure-as-your-sorrow-is-joy/

AS SURE AS YOUR SORROW IS JOY (instr. duet feat. Hailey Walterman)

Viola extraordinaire – Hailey Walterman. 
Programming by Thom Kurtz. 
Sound mix and all recording by Tim Dolbear at Eclectica Studios.

Written, Arranged and Produced by Thom Kurtz.  Co-produced by Tim Dolbear.   ISRC: QZESK1800030   Copyright © 1980, 2016 Lyrics and Music by Thomas Kurtz (ASCAP 4732692 / IPI 818383223) ISWC: T9216758677 Friends to the End Music Publishing (ASCAP 818383615) All rights reserved. For licensing, fttemusic@gmail.com

OLD PECAN STREET

As Sure As Your Sorrow Is Joy (Instrumental feat. Hailey Walterman)

As Sure

As Sure As Your Sorrow Is Joy (instr. duet feat. Hailey Walterman)

https://friendstotheend.net/songs
Where Sound And Vision Collide

WHERE'D YOU PUT THE BABY?
( You threw out the bath water. )

Where’d you put the baby?
Where’d you put the baby?

Did you draw the bath water?
The baby needs a little washin’.
Do you know?  Is it your son or daughter?
Did you take any precaution?
You threw out the bath water.
Well, you been so busy lately.
Where’d you put the baby?
Where’d you put the baby?

Who threw out the bath water?
Do you hear?  Is anybody cryin’?
Is it your son or your daughter?
You know somebody must be lyin’.
What you been doin’ well lately?
Could it really be dyin’?

Where’d you put the baby?
Where’d you put the baby?
You threw out the bath water,
But where’d you put the baby?
Where’d you put the baby?
Where’d you put the baby?

Lead vocal and keys – Thom Kurtz.   
Bass & guitars – Tim Dolbear.
Drums – Wayne Salzmann II. 
Percussion - Nick Tozzo.
Backing vocals – Ofie Kodjoe.
Mixed and recorded by Tim Dolbear, Eclectica Studios.

Written, Arranged & Produced by Thom Kurtz.  Co-produced by Tim Dolbear.   ISRC: QZESK1800055  Copyright © 2019 Lyrics and Music by Thomas Kurtz (ASCAP 4732692 / IPI 818383223) ISWC: T9267664039 Friends To The End Music Publishing (ASCAP 818383615) All rights reserved. For licensing, fttemusic@gmail.com

AUDITION EP VOL.3

Where'd You Put the Baby?

Where'd You Put

Dropped Aug.25 - Our summer release for 2023 - Soap Creek Saloon

Our spring 2023 release from April 28 - Chinese Underground.

Marching Chinese marimbas, pining erhu players, and guzheng samples are the orchestral flairs that Thom Kurtz mixes with his lyrical witticisms in Friends To The End’s new single, Chinese Underground. The upbeat and playful ballad takes sardonic stabs at authoritarian attitudes, with killer lines like:
     “I thought Mao Zedong was dead and buried / the kind of man who never married.”
     “Now that he’s back up on his throne / you better watch out or he’ll break your bones.

At first, the song seems to be mocking Mao, but the focal point is that some ideas never wither, wilt, or waver. Even though they ebb, they will resurface later.

A sea blue android spins his regretful victory song on a keyboard odyssey from a bric-a-brac robot factory to a sunny, magic beach town finale, while riding sonic waves of piano, synth and brassy percussion shuffles. ROBOT ODDiTY is the upcoming summer 2022 Modern soft rock track from FRIENDS TO THE END. The accompanying edgy music video with a psychedelic twist paints the tale of indoctrination and moral discovery by Thom Kurtz, the creator behind his FRIENDS TO THE END band project, with a near-death experience in a raging fire at a power plant, while living as “wires inside an iron can.” 

ROBOT ODDiTY is the follow-up to the Youtube music video hit WHERE'D YOU PUT THE BABY?, now with over 130K views. This Modern soft rock new wave satire of a romantic couple questioning their priorities finds them frantically searching the house, while what they find becomes more surreal, such as a vastly oversized baby and visions of Abe Lincoln and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The appropriately frantic, guitar-heavy music and accusatory vocals were obviously inspired by David Byrnes’ subversive lyrics and the early days of Talking Heads.

Kurtz’s trademark creative artistry, propelled by his arsenal of experimental theatre pop songwriting, is flavored by such wide ranging influences as Bowie to Steely Dan, Keith Jarrett to Duke Ellington, and Todd Rundgren to David Grisman. What Thom Kurtz calls Modern soft rock — always including top-of-the-line ensemble instrumentation fused with song-specific, custom-built vocals – is a kind of singer-songwriter storyteller fusing various shades of chamber pop, and art and prog rock.

FRIENDS TO THE END was first launched to the DSPs like Spotify and Apple Music in August 2020, with the debut in audio and music video of LOVE ON THE ROCKS (Shipwrecked) featuring vocal melancholy by young Julia Courtney, against a dark and dreary sky shipwrecked on the rocks of another broken romance. A shimmering, Chopin-inspired piano riff brightens the Modern soft rock ballad with a hopeful glimmer as Julia surveys other ships along the bay. Viewership for the FRIENDS TO THE END music channel tops 2,200 subscribers with more than 1 Million total views, for three more recent single releases through 2021, and also including promo and demo videos released since 2016, such as “Ameri-Cat Idol.”

The lovely Susanna Lee sings the breezy Pacific coast vocals for the hopeful anthem, A WORLD OF TROUBLES featuring peppy “Penny Lane”-meets-Haydn trumpet fanfares and a lyrical study of everlasting parts of life and the earth, such as air in the sky, salts in the sea, and the wind on the ocean. Kurtz mixes the inner voice of his lyrics with imaginative visions of emotional illustrations, unleashing the deep power of wisdoms of ‘humanhood’ and punctuated by musical touches of whimsy, joy and sometimes sorrow, where the sound and vision collide. What’s specially poignant is how each song is a destination on life’s journey, as well as a journey through the FRIENDS TO THE END song catalog. Thom Kurtz produced roughly two dozen song masters over two and a half years using his background in literature, art and film as a guide to the musical arrangements and collaboration with over three dozen session musicians.

Says Kurtz, “FRIENDS TO THE END sounds like a group of people, but it's really a group of songs - and each song is one big step in my life.” Now establishing FRIENDS TO THE END as a performing band is Kurtz’s next near term challenge, in support of the exciting release of ROBOT ODDiTY, the next enchanting step on the path to bring all these friends of his to the public. 

Discriminating listeners who favor a wide variety of original songs with meaning to discover may find essentials at FRIENDS TO THE END.  Keep informed with your email signup at:  https://found.ee/fttemail

As Sure As Your Sorrow Is Joy (instr. duet feat. Hailey Walterman)

friendstotheend

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