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January 8th, 2026

The name of this song is “All Falling Down.” It’s from the Pickups 1994 CD.

Going nowhere?
Take a trip
See the country
Feed your senses
Testing limits
pushing boundaries
Running borders
Jumping fences

There’s a time of the day
a time of the season
gonna look for some reason
for that better day

Open land
Lying naked
Make your mark
Make your stand
Build it bigger
Time is money
Build an empire
If you can

There’s a crown on the hill
All covered in glory
and we wait in the flatlands
for that better day

You told me life’s an adventure
well I guess that love was too much of a load
You told me life’s an adventure
had to leave all that baggage behind at some fork in the road…

All falling down
All falling down
All falling down
Down down down down

I stumble down
the ugly street
Sick at heart
Spirit yearning
Wasted lives
come tumbling down
The tower falls
Been struck by lighting

I don’t want any more…

I can’t think about today
maybe tomorrow
and the dawn turns to gray
On that better day…

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westward bound

October 14th, 2025
The cover for the Pickups' new single, "westward bound"

Our new single!

So…I had a rough draft of this song sitting around for months. It just needed a little mixing. Between a work project that ate my brain and…I dunno, the authoritarian takeover of our country, I put things musical on a back burner.

The work project is done. The authoritarian takeover, not so much. But creating in the face of that is one of the few coping mechanisms I have. It’s an act of defiance, maybe? Even when the song isn’t overtly political (unlike “Los Angeles (is burning).” This one’s more…existential, I guess? I don’t know. You tell me.

Musicians are the usual awesome suspects:

Tony Mandracchia, on everything with strings that isn’t the bass, which on this track include dobro and charango, a very cool instrument that traditionally uses an armadillo shell for the back!

Todd Tatum, Mr. Rock Steady, on drums!

And returning to the recording sphere, Dana Fredsti on castanets!

(vocals and bass by me, Lisa)

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Los Angeles (is burning)

April 4th, 2025
The cover of the latest Pickups release, in celebration of April 5th

Los Angeles (is burning)

Hey! I’m pushing “publish” on our new song tonight, in honor and in celebration of April 5th. I’ll be out there. I hope you will, too ✊🏼

One fine day
Devil winds
No one has to tell me
How this begins

One small flame
Shooting sparks
Everything’s a candle
But it’s still dark

We worked hard
Times are tough
We knew the fire was coming
That’s not enough

All you want
Home sweet home
Everything you dreamed of is
Gone gone gone

Los Angeles is burning
The fires are getting near
And I’m afraid to carry on
Everybody’s wondering
Where do we go from here?
Don’t ask me
I’m just along for the ride

Here we go
Round again
They’re hurting everybody to
Ease the pain

They don’t think
They don’t learn
They think the fire’s not coming for them
They still burn

Los Angeles is burning
The fires are getting near
And I’m afraid to carry on
Everybody’s wondering
Where do we go from here?
I don’t know
I don’t wanna go for the ride

I will draw deep from my well of infinite rage
And joy
And love
Water to dampen the blaze

Sick old man
Setting fires
Pouring all his gasoline
On the pyre

Ashes fall
All around
Everything is burning
But stand your ground

America is burning
The fire’s already here
And I’m not brave but I
Carry on
Everybody’s wondering
Where do we go from here?
We’re together, we don’t have to go for the ride

(words & song by me. Music by the Pickups)

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3 songs about traveling

March 25th, 2025
Old Chinese visa repurposed for a CD cover

A few old Pickups tunes just released to your various streamers…

One of the ways I’ve been trying to maintain my sanity is by doing creative stuff. Mostly music. It’s meant a lot to me to be able to recapture what was a huge and really important piece of my life, playing with The Pickups.

Part of what I’ve been doing is recording new songs. Another part is finding our old recordings and uploading them. This is a little easier than recording new songs, as they were recorded in studios by people who knew what they were doing (unlike me!).

These are three songs we recorded in the mid/late 90s. The second song, “Always Going Somewhere,” is one of my favorite songs I ever wrote. If my new book (currently out on sub) ever sees the light of day, it could serve as the main character’s theme song.

Thanks, Tony Mandracchia, Todd Tatum and Dana Fredsti for being part of something that is so meaningful to me.

If you want to take a listen, here’s the link

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New Song…

February 24th, 2025

Hey! This is a new song. I am a neophyte when it comes to mixing, and I think I have reached the limits of both my skills and my equipment (I definitely recommend a decent set of earbuds here). But I’m putting it up now because I am pissed off, and it is a lot faster to write a song when I am pissed off than an entire novel. I mean, ROCK PAPER TIGER took some serious time!

As always, thanks to the amazing Tony Mandracchia for his guitar work and the fabulous Todd Tatum for drums! (and Dave Hunt for his drum studio!)

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King of the World

October 4th, 2022

I am still in the process of updating and organizing all the music stuff, so consider this a sneak peek of our newest tune: “King of the World.” This song has a funny genesis in that the hook of it and part of the verse are things that have been stuck in my head for decades that I’d never done anything with. Recently the self-generated ear worm got worse and worse (have I ever discussed my ear worm issues? Remind me to share the time that Christy Gerhart and I recorded the backing “karaoke” track for the film Undercover Brother. The song was “Ebony and Ivory.” Trust me when I tell you that you do NOT want to have “Ebony and Ivory” playing in your head incessantly for nearly a month). ANYway, I decided I’d better just turn it into a song if it was going to be in such constant rotation in my personal Brain Radio. Thankfully Tony Mandracchia and Todd Tatum were available!

I am still not good at all at the whole home recording thing and have realized that the less I do to the tracks, the better. For my own vocals, that means no presets, no EQ, just some appropriate reverb. For Tony and Todd’s wonderful tracks, leave ’em alone! (if you’re in LA and need some drums recorded, may I recommend David Hunt? I think they sound fantastic!)

I’m so pleased with the way it came out! I think of it as sorta psychedelic Steely Dan (who once did a very different song called “King of the World” — it’s on one of the first albums I ever bought, COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY).

Hope you enjoy!

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Silver Dollar

November 20th, 2021

 

UPDATE: I had to re-share this because it has THE most awesome drum track by Todd Tatum now. I know there are mixing tweaks yet to come, but I am so happy with how it’s coming along. Thanks to Tony, Todd and Tom for making this happen!

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This is the first song I wrote after my long hiatus from music. Plunderbund played it and I really like the arrangement we had — I wish we were out playing it now. But there’s no point spending too much time mourning what can’t be done. Instead I’m celebrating what I can. I am so grateful to have Tony Mandracchia as a collaborator on this track, bringing the song to life. I still have some work to do on the mix (dobros are complicated, and my skill set is minimal), there are vocal oopses here and there, and I really would love to have real drums instead of robots — but I think this gets the feel of the song across.

SILVER DOLLAR is about a lot of things. Mostly it’s about getting older, trying to put one’s life experiences in context, mourning some things, celebrating others.

Take advantage of the time you’ve got. You never know how long that will be…

EDIT: Here’s the new mix! Now with DRUMS! By Todd Tatum! Recorded by Tom Lee! I love what Todd did on this so much!!!

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“The Mask Goes Over Your Nose (a**hole)”

September 15th, 2021

 

Okay, this isn’t done. But I feel the need to share. I am so very tired of people who refuse to follow simple health guidelines because it’s become some kind of bizarre badge of cultural identity.

Therefore…thanks once again to Tony Mandracchia for his awesome guitar work on this. EDIT: Now with drums by Todd Tatum, recorded by Tom Lee! (still needs mixing prolly)

 

 

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Presenting “Elephant”…by THE PICKUPS!

August 15th, 2021


Remember when I said that I’d have some news on drums soon? Okay, you may not, it was a while ago. But in fact I now DO have some news on drums! And I couldn’t be happier. The amazing Todd Tatum, who was the drummer for the Pickups back in the day, has recorded drum tracks for the tunes that Tony and I have been working on–huge thanks to his friend Tommy Lee (no, not that one!) for the recording engineering on these! Now if I can just get Dana on castanets for at least one tune, we will truly be complete.

I now have three, almost four of the seven songs more or less finished. I realize that “finished” is a relative state here—I mean, mixing is a huge black hole where you could completely spend a thousand years and not realize it, and I am still very much a novice. But I think the results thus far are good representations of the songs, and I am (relatively) content.

So! Presented for your enjoyment, here is “Elephant,” the first song on what will at some point be…an album? I guess? Which I’m calling PLAGUE SONGS, because hey! Why not?

(UPDATED TO LATEST MIX)

 

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Target B-Side!

May 6th, 2021

Hey, it’s a new song! Featuring Tony Mandracchia on the bouzouki!! (and all kinds of other stringed things) It’s possible I am expressing some pandemic feels here. 😆

Next step…real drums…stay tuned! 📺

EDIT! Here are some real drums, thanks to Todd Tatum and recording Meister Tom Lee! I’m updating this a little stealthily because I want the current versions on the site but am not quite done with it all yet!

UPDATED!

 

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