benji lais. heidi gusts. scoth johnson. brian witks. paul whyte. nick deluca.

words by benji lais. except for the chorus. that was written by kc fresh.

if i ever get brought up on charges by skittle tits from robot ranch (or some reasonable facsimile thereof) and then five or six other scabs copy her statement in that way highschoolers with any kind of study ethic run a wikipedia article thru a slow blender before they try and pass it off as an original work... so too will you find the word "love-bomb" in every statement.

...so yeah. if this ever happens to me, it isn't a publicity stunt for backing a weak album. 

it's foreplay.

YOUR IMAGINARY FRIENDS ARE KINDA... PUSHY.

xoxo,
benji the lais.

[1. Witko Remaster] Witko's Last Lapse

<>>>>>>
the empty shells surrounding the deep love
END EMPIRE

taRka: a process, a place
a collaborative project
by Myrh : Mariam Zohra D
poetry/song/visual arts
@myrhyum @myrhyummy @tariqa-kali
> https://tarka1.bandcamp.com/
> https://mariam-zohra-d.my.canva.site/portfolio#home

great appreciation to a
network of enchanted,
conscious music,
enabling me to weave
a poetry of resilience.
journeying to mystic places,
reflection, projected in waves of rhythm.
feeling home in melodies
made of new and old.
paintings to spark the soul.

This space is proudly shared with
VIA DE ACCESO
@viadeacceso
& NEUROLOGICK THUNDER RKDZ. 
@user-685450274

HERE ONLY REAL LISTENERS!

I'm a songwriter, self-taught musician, dj
and journalist (anyhow composin' !)

ALONE ...born in 1970, I began early to play piano, takin' cello lessons too. Then I left, but I reprise to study music when I was sixteen: piano, guitar and bass, mainly self-made. At the same time, I began to compose music: initially electronic and instrumental, then rock songs with lyrics in English, all alone.

THE BIKES. In my first band, The Bikes, torward the end of the '80, I played guitar: we did covers (mainly Pink Floyd and Deep Purple) and we practised in the back of keyboard player's bicycle shop (here the name of the band!) ...then we changed name in Alter Ego and finally, I left the band.

CRYSTAL BELL. In 1990, I reached the band Saskatchewan: I played bass and we did covers (mainly Doors and Rem) in the singer's home garage. Then the singer left and the rest of the band (me, the guitarists Marco Catarinolo and Federico 'Chicco' Intaglietta and the drummer Matteo Balloni) found another band: Crystal Bell. We did covers (Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Clash and Gary Moore) and some of my compositions like "Hurry up!" ...we tried two singers but finally I began to sing, playin' the bass, and Marco Catarinolo left the guitar for the keyboards. We practised in another garage with other bands and we performed some concerts too. Then, after few months, the band broke.

TRAUMA. I continued to play in that garage with the keyboard player and we played - me on guitar and voice, him on keyboards - my new songs: "One life movie's final frame", "Chinese trip" and "Moonish". For a while, the drummer Salvatore 'Toda' Corrao was with us. Then, Matteo Balloni returned and the bassist Gabriel Del Sarto arrived too but he couldn't play often with us, so finally we found another bassist: Matteo Bernabucci (then, the two bassists always alterneted). We decided to call the band Trauma. I wrote new songs, in Italian too ("Verso l'altrove" - "To the other side" in English -  and "Un fuoco e il buio" that is the italian version of "Moonish"), and I began to collaborate with the guitarist and songwriter Franco Rossi: together we wrote "La meta", "L'attimo" and "Cresce la tua idea" and he played lead guitar with us. We recorded all our songs in the  Music Hill Records studio at Ortola, in Massa (Tuscany - Italy). After a while, the band had a new lead guitarist: Alberico 'Chicco' Baldini.  We re-arranged all original songs and we added to our "playlist" italian covers too: Vasco Rossi, Litfiba, Timoria. We began an intense live activity, In 1993, we won the first edition of "Montignoso Music Festival". In the same year, the band recorded a new session in the Music Hill Records studio and after a while recorded the re-arranged original songs at the hotel Villa Mercedes, closed during the winter. The live activity continued and in the beginning of the 1994 I began to project a rock opera for the theatre, "Inseguendo un sogno", composing new songs. Then the band recorded two new songs "Rabbia" and "Inseguendo un sogno" (the main theme of the rock opera) at the Crystal studio in Montignoso (Tuscany - Italy). In '94 and '95 the live activity was very intense and the band was selected for one of the most important music contest in Italy, "Rock Targato Italia".  We re-arranged "Un fuoco a il buio" and I wrote new songs, "Eutanasia" and "Il cielo d'inverno", then we did the last recording session at the Loading Zone Studio in Frangola (Massa - Tuscany - Italy). Finally, the band broke in 1996 except for a reunion for the festival "Rock for Amnesty" at Baraonda (Massa - Tuscany - Italy) in '96.

DJ. As a deejay, I worked in some discos (The Crocodile, Baraonda and The Cave in Tuscany, Italy) and radios (RadioMilano5 and RadioStudioVersilia in Tuscany, Italy) 'til 1996 when I started my career in journalism.

ALONE AGAIN. From 1996 to today, while workin' as journalist, I continued to write songs, instrumental music, atmospheres. And I'll continue!

"THEY SAID THEY WERE SCIENTISTS. CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS. THEY AIN'T. NEXT IT WAS "ROCK N ROLL BAND," BUT IF YOU DON'T DANCE TO THAT THEY'LL TELL YOU THEY PLAY SERVICE EVERY SUNDAY AT WHICHEVER CHURCH YOU DRIVE PAST ON YOUR WAY TO WORK, BUT NOT THE ONE YOU GO TO, BUT ONE YOU AIN'T YET BEEN TO--

yeah you ask a pastor or his wife ain't NOBODY ever heard of them thas STILL IN TOWN to TELL YOU.

I WAS POLE DANCING TO FEED THE FAM-- DON'T JUDGE CUZ THIS IS LYFE AND SHIT GET REAL and STAY real -AND THE FEMALE (THEY ARE A COUPLE?) APPROACHED ME WITH FITTY BUT I DON'T MUNCH ON RUG YOU KNOW SO I GAVE HER FORTY-FIVE IN CHANGE and she leaned in and whispered to me, "pee-yoo dollar dollar why?" WHICH DON'T MAKE SENSE BECUZ YOU KNOW THAT DJ DEAF AS VAN GOGH BUT WITH NONE OF THE TALENT AND MY SONGS BE LOUD AS LOUD LIKE MY D-TOWN COUSINS KNOW I'M DANCIN AND THEY LIVE ACROSS THE  GREATEST GREAT LAKE OF EM-

but why i'm writin you right now is to warn you that they call themselves a different "B" and "G" name every time we're introduced-- hold up-- ok ok we good-- so yeah: "HI! Have we met?? LOVE your (random article of clothing/accessory you realize later on you OWN but WERE NOT EVEN WEARING THAT NIGHT)... I'm Bobbi and this is my (husband/brother/son/nephew/newfriend) Gerry" or "Billy and Ginger" or "Brisbee and Geraldine"... it's when they run into you somewhere odd like a laundromat and you alone in there washing thongs and such that they give their names as "Bubbles and Gumby" and she say he's her "Daddy" that you get "invited" to the "Executive Lounge".... all i'm sayin is settle your affairs before you go cuz even if you MEAN to say No.... you hear yourself say YES to everything they say.... like whatever they ask you to do, you do it, like you don't know what you're doing all the sudden and they just saw your shuffle and sidled on up to offer you helpful suggestions??-- and whatever they suggest sounds GOOD at the time, so you do it... you do things you can't undo.... you lose sight of things.... you ain't YOU no more, you just.... do... whatever.... the things i done.... and they ain't even finished with me.... I WISH THEY JUST KILL ME INSTEAD OF MAKE ME into THIS. you see ken and barbie and they seem outta place you TURN THE OTHER WAY but do not RUN because they WILL CATCH UP.

"pee-yoo dollar dollar why."

PU$$Y.

"Bubbles and Gumby."

bubbleGum.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU SEE WHAT I AM SAYIN?? THE DEVIL ONLY GOES WHERE HE HAS BEEN INVITED!!! i see you talkin and i know you love Jesus and muthafuckas act like that ol thundergod don't drop a dish and cuss becuz WHAT IS THUNDER, AMIRITE OR WHAT?? but you know jesus loves you for the you INSIDE, beneath the gentle beatdowns life has gave you to toughen you up, YOU KNOW he got KEYS to the you INSIDE, the girl from 123 Sesame St, lunchpal gal or latchkey kid cuz darlin, weren't we all back then?? But JESUS KNOCKS, YOU LET HIM IN."

Genocide, June 2025:
Israel is only the executioner, every nation which has armed that country in the past year is an accessory to that genocide, an accomplice, a facilitator.  We cannot talk about war crimes because when you target unarmed civilians, mostly women and children, we are talking about a massacre, like terrorists do, not a war. The people who orchestrated that massacre, in the US, the most duplicitous, followed by those of the UK, Germany, France, and probably a few lesser ones should be tried for crimes against humanity just as well as Netanyahu and his cabinet, because it has been going on for two years, generously reported by media of all kinds, so the enablers knew exactly how the arms were to be used, as a tool for revenge, domination, and humiliation of the Palestinian people.  The conflict has ceased to be about the defense of anything for months.

The parties responsible have made a mockery of decency, morals, fairness, proportion, or justice, not to mention empathy.  Of what little there was, these concepts will be a lot longer to come back than they were to be struck down.  

Is it 1984 already?!?!
 ...

I have not been able to recover access to my other account [https://soundcloud.com/ha-kekong] for a couple of years.  I have tried a few times to get back into it but SoundCloud doesn't trust me.  Same phone number, same email addresses, and they still claim that they can't verify my identity.  I created that account about three years ago as a substitute to my regular account which SoundCloud temporarily closed.  They closed it as part of some upgrade procedure in their system, the result of a bug that affected many accounts, about two years ago.  Since SC did not inform its users I didn't know if that was permanent or not, so I created that other account which I can't access.  Don't be mad if I have not replied to your message in the past two years, that's because I never got them ; ) ... You can always reach me here though.
...

This one here (957729823) is for regular folks.

I love you, both.

...

You can't see it because of the angle with which I took the shot, aiming down, but beyond those blocks is the sea.  To the left is the Mediterranean, to the right is the Atlantic Ocean.  No it's not Gibraltar, but a little bit further West. ... Actually I checked recently and it is further North more than West, I thought I was facing South when in fact I probably was facing the Atlantic ocean, which is why I suppose the waves were of a decent size where we were.
...

My face and the bike are a courtesy of Joël Vaudreuil
[https://vimeo.com/user8897093]  ... Merci Joe!
I then went ahead and butchered his work with a borrowed helmet.
... Sorry Joe. =(
...

I'm trying to promote what I think is good music, so if you want to help out a bit I'd rather you [like] or [repost] my *playlists* rather than my field recordings, if you don't mind, unless you are a die hard fan of those things. Thank you ; )

I speak French, so if you send me a private message, and that you are a francophone, please write in French, thank you.  ... I mean, you don't absolutely have to, but I would prefer it. 

All my field recordings (except for when I record a person) are public, freely downloadable by anyone who is able to click on the button.  I encourage anyone interested to use them in any way whatsoever, on purpose or accidentally. No need for permissions or credits or any other kind  of administrative maneuvers.
...

Anarchists give me hope.

I'm a big fan of EFF.  Love ya EFF.  (no connection with the above line)
... and of course Richard Stallman and Linux and all the others.  Bless yous.

Now don't be lazy, go find out what it is this "EFF" that I'm talking about.  I'll give you a hint: it has to do with computers.

You have a nice day now.  Hugs & Kisses.

music by benji lais, celia ross, koala coddington, steven st thomas, garett schroeder, bradley barrows, native dave, ryan kastel, nick smithey, jeremy dean, maya galvin, paul whyte, nick deluca, jim conner, casey frechette, matty pavelka, betsy wiedell, heidi gusts, scott johnson, andy berg, justin kring, davide rizzo, neve su di lei, ryan rusch, jake shrider, stephanie peterson, matt bearden, jeff linder, chekka rios, lisa forrestal, justin kervina, alex cervantes, kandi nelson, brian witko, dawvee huntrods, luke olson, erik fernquist, gordon maukstad, mle atwater, emily joy,  ryan bettenberg and timmy tao.

[1. Witko Remaster] Witko's Last Lapse

Pluto in Love