Mercy to Me

Produced By: Wess Floyd with Chris Grainger

Mixed By: Chris Grainger

Engineered by: Patrick Miller, Chris Grainger, and Burhan Quazi

Recorded at: 16 Ton Studio, The Undertow, and Delicious Recording (Nashville, TN)

THE DAISYCUTTERS of THE HOUR:
Wess Floyd - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Gluc
Chris Decker - Guitars, BGV's
Bingham Barnes: Bass Guitar
Javi Sarcar: Drums and Conspiracy Theories
-with-
The Singing Barlowes - BGV's
Chris West - SAX
Justin "Mother" Hill - keys

Foxhole Confessions

A short essay by: Bo Cook

What is a hero? To our parents and grandparents, this question is easy, and the answers define what made them the “greatest generation.” To us, this question becomes almost rhetorical. All we seem to be left with are the ashes of the ideals that our parents once stood for, shed blood for, and we take this for granted every day we wake up. With the punk rock of the 80’s and the grunge era of the 90’s, it became commonplace for us to rebel against any type of rule that any type of authority figure put “in our way.” We were invincible. We knew everything. We were too cool for our parents or anything they stood for. We became lazy, and we missed the point completely.
Rock and Roll, Jazz, Soul…all of these things are given to us by people who had an idea about how to feel in a certain time or place, and the music only reinforced this passion. We, in turn, have turned it in to a charade, a poster-child for the capitalistic ideals that many across the world hate us for. It’s become a business instead of an art form. We forgot that when our parents and their heroes put on coats and hats, it wasn’t because they were cold or wanted to be “hip,” but because they were going somewhere. They were about to do something, anything. We forgot that being “cool” is being yourself, not sounding or acting like everyone else. We forgot how to care and, somewhere along the line, we forgot how to feel. We became selfish and apathetic to everyone but ourselves.
The first album from Wess Floyd and the Daisycutters (Blood Sworn Enemies) championed a rebellion of sorts against the ideals of our generation because, in our own way, this rebellion was the only way that we could force ourselves to feel anything again, whether it was good or bad. Our only way to do this, the only way to really make it sink in, not only to ourselves but to others, is through crass lyrics and loud music. Rock and roll once again becomes an outlet and, in some cases, a cure.
The second album Foxhole Confessions from Wess Floyd takes a step back from all of this. It’s more retrospective and, in a way, more mature. At some times it has a bigger New York sound than the first album. At others, it becomes a more stripped down Nebraska. “Hot-Headed Rebels” tries to reason with what made us do the things we did when we were younger. “Above the Wreckage” has a tinge of regret in telling someone else, perhaps and ex-girlfriend that we inevitably pissed off, that “we should’ve made our mistakes together.” “Mercy to Me” is an appeal for “grace” and “forgiveness” for the things we got wrong and the people we hurt along the way. Overall, the album tells us that we must embrace our past, if only to learn from all of our exciting misfortunes in order that we can become better people, so that, maybe one day, we can be viewed as “heroes,” or maybe the next “great generation”.