12 In A Room
Produced by: Mark Johnson, Little Matson Records, 1998
A NOT LAME Archive Recording

earn that love   when a heart breaks down   desperate
cold weather   when I fall   numbers   love radiates around   through the void   larry stein   real true lover king of love   little cricket   bonus tracks: I like the world (previously unreleased version)   shutting me down   desperate interlude

liner notes: All songs by Mark Johnson except "Earn That Love" "Desperate" "I Like The World" co-written by Antonia. "Numbers" co-written with Michael Mann.

Design: David K. Kessler/NYC
Cover photo by Irene Young.
Inside photo by Brad Weiss.
Back cover photo by Anita Walsh.

Original cover for "12 in a room"

My guests include Dave Rave and Julie Anne Hanlon / background vocals on "Desperate". Julie Anne Hanlon / harmony and background vocals on "Larry Stein". Lisa Herman and Tom Barret / background vocals on "Love Radiates Around" Background vocals on "I Like The World" Frankie Lee. Background vocals on "Shutting Me Down" Maggie Roche. Stewart Lerman / bass and electric guitar on "Desperate". John Marine / performing elephant guitar solo on Thru The Void. All other guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion and vocals by Mark Johnson.

Tape Machines: TEAC 3340, TASCAM 688 and TASCAM DA-30. PULTEC EQP-1A3 equalizer. TELECTRONICS LA-2A compressor. DBX-160-A compress/limiter. SHURE M-57 microphone. CASIO M-40 keyboard. KORG M1EX workstation. Mixes for CD engineered by Noah Barron at Shelter Island Studios in New York City, except for "Desperate" which was produced at New Breed Studios in New York City on sixteen tracks by Stewart Lerman and M W Johnson. "Little Cricket" recorded at 30 Hooke Ave. Poughkeepsie, NY at Steve & Adam Kimmel's house. Mix for CD of Desperate was produced by Richard Lloyd and engineered by Stewart Lerman. Originally mastered at Frankford / Wayne mastering labs in New York City by Rick Essig. Digital editing by Don Sternecker at Mix-O-Lydian Studios in NJ. Recording session voices: Lynne Leighting and Maggie Roche.

Where do songs come from? From the air! To those who can tune in o its frequencies the very air -- this room, the Fourth Street subway platform -- quavers and trembles with the sighs and exhalations of subsonic angels.
Incident on Bleecker Street (that great serpent that winds through the Villages of New York): A local alien has gotten off his bicycle in the middle of the road. Traffic stops. Horns honk, rude remarks fly. He doesn't hear any of it, he's tuned in to his acoustic ghosts. "A melody comes into me head 'da-da-dah-da, show me some mer-cy' and I start thinking is that some Motown song I heard in the Sixties? And I go uh-oh, no it isn't, it's mine. Igotta write it down." So he runs into a candy store and buys a Bic pen and a pad. And then he goes up there to his room, the timeless teenspace where everything stops, where he does his dreaming and his scheming, laughs at yesterday and puts it on tape.
From the ELOish opener to the cosmic "Love Radiates Around" from the Bardo-haunted love ballads to the drowning Larry Stein, from the dire conditions of "Cold Weather Comin' Through the Door" to the dire straits of "Desparate" all the songs on this album were written, recorded and produced in that little 11 x 14 foot room high above Cornelia Street on a 4 Track TEAC. It's a little like making your own movie and playing all the parts.
Clouds go by -- no clock ticking -- night comes down -- guitars strumming-- pulse of the street -- drums smack -- reverb -- mix down to two track -- crash 'till late afternoon -- call up to play it over the phone -- can you hear the words? I'm hungry -- wanna get a bite with me and walk around?
But there's a little of the mad scientist, too. "It's where I get in touch with the thing." Mark at the controls -- turning all the knowb -- he's everybody in the whole universe and he's blasting off. Head exploding 'till it fits the whole room. Head is room. Room alive!
"A song is a collection of the way a certain period of time feels," he says. That's where the real weather is, inside.
-- David Dalton

Special thanks to:
Antonia, Penny Arcade, Beth and Carl Ashby, Wayne Ashdown, Gary Baker, Jim Ball, Peter Bangston, Richard Barone, Bill Bauer, Michael Bloch, Hank Bones, Laney and Niki Brit, Bruce Brodeen, Adam Brownstein, Theresa C., Lori Carson, Don Casale, Dan Castagno, Eddie Celetti, David and Coco Dalton, Peter Davidson, Julian Dawson, Jean De Niro, Peter Donald, Heather Eatman, Dawn Eden, Art Edelstein, Ivan Elias, Pam Ellis and Chris, Danny Fisher, Larry Fisher, Jerry Foyster, Mark Fried, Vinnie Gambino, George Gerdes, Steve Gilmore, Carolyn Goff Gary Pig Gold, Maggie Goldman, David and Cynthis Grahame, Robert Green Ed Haber, Julie Hanlon, Peter Hedges, Carol Hedges, Alfred Hitchcock, Jim Hooghuis, Steve and Pam Karr, Mark Keating, Pat Kenny, David Kessler, Adam and Steve Kimmel, Elaine and Lily Kimmel, Wayne Kramer Avo Kubar, Stephen Kurtzman, Drs. Scott and Peter Lawrence D. C., Frankie Lee, Stewart Lerman, Michael Lesser, Peter Lewy, Lynn Leighting, John McCarthy, Richard Lloyd, Carolyn Mas, Wendy Merman, Mike Mesaros, Eric Michaelson, Miguel M., Willie Nile, Lynda O'Brien, Thom Panunzio, Steve Paul, George and Mary Philhauer, John Pierson, Dave Rave, Keith Rawls, Clint Reno, Deke Rivers, Dave Roche, Sue Ann from P Street, Suzzy Roche, Terre Roche, Jeff Rosen, Michael Ryan (early New York days), Ben and Naomi Saltzman, Lynn Samuels, Norman Savitt, Rob Shapiro, John Sheeran, Teddy Slatus, Jack Smead, Frederick Spione, Syd Straw, Walter Thompson, Tish and Snookie, John Tita, Mark Trude, Kazumi Umeda, Wendy Wall, Steve and Anita Walsh, Brad Weiss, Drew Zing. An additional very special thanks to Maggie Roche, for her continued belief in me. Also a nod to all the great artists. recorded songs I've had a hand in writing.

Copyright 1998 Not Lame Recordings, P.O. Box 9756, Denver, CO 80209, USA, http://www.notlame.com, Fax: 303 744-0999, e-mail: popmusic@notlame.com . Copyright 1998 Tabula Rasa Records, http://www.mark-johnson.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.