people without whom we would be much worse off
1
fans
who bought our album, visited our web site, and came to our shows. without you, we would be us singing in our bedroom. when we wake up we say "thank you, fans" 7 times before proceeding with our day.
2
steven drozd, david fridmann, michael ivins, and wayne coyne
are the people behind the flaming lips, who have helped us in too many ways to number, musically, personally, and confettially. these are the creators of the official soundtrack of nasa.
3
scott booker
is the man(ager) of hellfire management. it is he who shepherds us carefully through the treacherous byways of indie rock music from his managerial lair in oklahoma city, ok.
4
michael rubin
is all things: producer, proprietor of murmur music, and singing mailbox. when we need someone to play the cat antler on a song, it is mike. when we need someone to help us mix 14,000 tracks of trumpets made from badger hair, again, it is mike.
5
jonathan judge
a director of videos, a man of profound depth and extraordinary profanity, to whom film is but a canvas, and all the world a blue screen. in his hands, a movie camera is like a scalpel, and he is like a surgeon, spilling huge copious piles of intestines everywhere in his search after the truth, or an infected spleen, depending on how that metaphor ends up.
6
abbe rosenfeld
a man of extraordinary patience, who guided us through the earliest days of our music career, and has consented to wear devil horns and ride a bicycle as we filmed, without complaining. he has often shaken his head at our shenanigans, but never turned his back.
7
christine collins
in our videos, she is an angel. in real life, also, an angel, still saving to have her wings removed so that she can enter society without everyone staring. a beam of light through a dark window is ms. collins.
8
gabe soria
we knew him when. there is no finer man on planet x than gabe soria. by day a music and comic-book writer, by night a fixture in the brooklyn underground. he is the one who arbitrates cool throughout the borough of kings, and in our videos, he consents to be a dancer, actor, and general star.
9
paul ford
the squirrel to our rat. no man has been pestered more, and said such cruel things directly to our faces. proprietor of ftrain, npr commentator, co-conspirator, and the fellow behind the web site you hold in your hands, if you are a computer with hands.