PUNCHING BAG

Punching Bag mutated from the opening bass riff created by the best bass player in the world-Creep, my brother, John Kerns. That was probably one of the first 5 songs written for the SIS project. John was always the most aggressive member of both AOE and SIS. He preferred the straight up, down and dirty, edgy stuff. He would veer away from the Ariana Incompletes or the Enyas. Basically anything with a girl's name in the title. Just kidding. Scotty, my fave drummer on the planet, played a firebell in the intro. We mounted it like a cymbal but it was an actual firebell. I'm proud of that one. John's contributions are always great. Some of my fave AOE songs started from John. Grenadine, Quality Girl. Classic stuff. It's an aggressive song with an aggressive theme. The music world was filled with songs of self loathing back then and I tried to put a spin on it by being the punching bag for all that angst.  When we originally demoed this song we had a bunch of keyboard and drum loop stuff going on but we abandoned it thinking it made it sound too Marilyn Manson-ish.  We used to joke that we were going to call ourselves Marilyn Hanson because of the 3 brother thing (like the group Hanson). It was reported in Chart Magazine as if it was fact. Silly on their part. We were kidding. This song is all John with my words and Scotty McCargar slamming away with lil' bro, Ryan, wailing on top.  Good clean dirty fun.

Do you like yourself?  Do you like yourself?
Do you Love yourself, or are you in need?
Do you hate yourself?  Do you loathe yourself?
Wish you were somebody else come and see me
I have no function no other use
But I swear I’ve come to enjoy the abuse
Replacement parts I’m your amputee
What you don’t have you can take from me
I’ll be your punching bag
I’ll be your punching bag
My friend you’re such a drag
But don’t let that affect your performance
Do you feel renewed?  Do you feel complete?
Do you feel fulfilled, or are you in need
You can do your best you can do your worst
Do what you want bur you can’t hurt me
Bell tower everyone, my loaded indifference gun
I’ll take you one by one
Erase your place from my existence