ABOUT THE UNDERTOAD

COFFEEHOUSE + THE EASY JOKES

This song is a highlight of the ERNT! release.  

The first part of the song is a powerful anthem for the Haven Coffeehouse and Art Gallery, a gathering hole on Second Street in Pomona open between 1992 and 1998 which laid the foundation for the Pomona Arts Colony as it exists today.

It is followed by a noise rock style freakout called "The Easy Jokes". That song features mocking lyrics by Kal about the futility of using music to sting the music business in an age where image and exploitation are the norm.  

Written in 1993 and influenced by Courtney Love's exploitation of her stripper past as well as her husband Kurt Cobain's self-destructive inability to deal with success (and the commercial machine that goes with it), the song instead takes an ironic approach to the topic.  

Paired with Coffeehouse, it embodies both the most idealistic and liberal of the Undertoad's music as well as its most noise-rock style sarcastic.

Click on the link at the right to hear what should be considered The Undertoad's magnum opus!

Lyrics:  Coffeehouse

by Ed Tessier

Welcome to our Temple of Wonders

Between the Margins and Undercover

We Are Rejected, We are The Other

We Build Our Temple, We Live in Spendor

Everybody Loves Their Body

Shape or Color or Machinery

Lay on The Altar of Your Destiny

Surrender Shame, We Are Here To Please

And I, I, I, Forget the Color of Your Hair

I, I, I Have it spread across the sky

I, I, I Can Hear You at the Door

I, I Am a River in the Sea

No World Religion, No Preconditions

We are All Spirits On An Expedition

We Follow Goddess, We Talk to Jesus

We Pray To Mother Earth to Come and Lead Us

We have no Fear of Violation

We have Been Freed of All Domination

We are Disciples of Toleration

Building Our Temple to Liberation