Lion Drome

Put me on the first train outta here
Might be far from home
Not down with the headrush of the bully megaphone
Just let me sleep without the devil in my ear
Put me on the first train outta here

How long until you hear your voice?
How long until you make another choice that's not insane?
How long until you hear your voice?
How long, when sanity is calling for the day?

Put me on the first train outta here
Might be far from home
Not down with the pinball machine in the public square we've seen
Just let me sleep without counting down my days
Put me on the first train outta here

Music and Lyrics by Mike Lopez
Mike Lopez - vocals / all guitars /synth
Jerry Bousquet - Drums
Mark Foerster - Bass
Dave Beegle - Production and engineering

We've got some sick, disgusting, childish people in and around politics and I can't believe what comes out of their mouths these days. Decorum is lost and few should be proud of their actions. I'm wore out by it and just shake my head daily about what I see and hear. I just wonder if they ever stop themselves and listen to the garbage they spew. Well they should and then course-correct if they have an ounce of character. America deserves better than this.

What breaks the sky into the atmosphere / Our collective in a song. 

Our mournful nights, our headstrong fights and calm. 

Ophiuchus took the energy and returned with glowing eyes. It’s coming down. It’s all around your head. And I'm under the spell of the Black Light Cobra. 

The BLOODLETTING (Concrete Blonde) will be so clean, CINEMATICS (The Epilogues) lighting up the screen. You’re under the spell 

So DREAM BROTHER (Jeff Buckley) and PRAY YOUR GODS (Toad The Wet Sprocket), there’s RAIN IN THE TUNNEL (Michael Lee Firkins) defying the odds and I’m under the spell. 

Oh safely UNDER LOCK AND KEY (Dokken), this RAGE FOR ORDER (Queensryche) ends in silence for me. Yet So alive LIGHT UP THE SKY (Van Halen) and THE UNDERGROUND (Meg Myers). HAMMER AWAY (Racer X) the mind decay, Unwind like WIRE (U2) and … And I'm under the spell of the Black Light Cobra

DANCING ON COALS (Bang Tango) all those WASTED YEARS (Iron Maiden) It’s MORE THAN A FEELING (Boston) were MY LAST WORDS (Megadeth) I fell under the spell. 

She brought over some old BOC and there were FIREWORKS (Blue Oyster Cult) between her and me. And I'm under the spell.

Oh, LOST IN PARADISE (Evanescence) is so sweet, the SOUND OF MUZAK (Porcupine Tree) keeps the DRIVE (The cars) to so alive. In SEASONS (Badlands) of the LAUGHING BOY (Duran Duran) YOUR’E IN LOVE (Ratt), ALL IS FULL OF LOVE (Bjork) and now WE’LL BURN THE SKY (Scorpions). 

Remember, live it all AGAIN (Alice in Chains) Your love wasn’t severed away … In another time, another place. For me, I’m begging now and I’m under the spell. I'm under the spell of the Black Light Cobra

What breaks the sky into the atmosphere / Our collective in a song. Our mournful nights, our headstrong fights and calm. 

What makes you think that you’ll get away? You’ll be pursued until the end. Its coming down. Its all around your head.

  ST THERESA (Joan Osborne) - I’m DOWN FOR LIFE (Testament) Oh ST. THERESA, BONE DOWN (T-Ride) ST. THERESA around in your head.

Music and Lyrics by Mike Lopez

Mike Lopez - Vocals / all guitars / synth

Jerry Bousquet - Drums

Mark Foerster - Bass

Dave Beegle - Production and engineering

The concept was the celebration of ear worm songs, albums or artists that we love and play over and over again. It pictures a teen in their bedroom, adorned with posters, including a black light poster with a cobra on it. These were commonplace in the 70's. 

The person would play these songs over and over and the sound waves would escape our atmosphere and drift into outer space, reaching the constellation Ophiuchus (the snake charmer) and the constellation delighted in them. It magically traced the signal back and would visit the teens room while he played music, through the black light poster, whose cobra eyes would glow when Ophiuchus was "there".

I had this music bugging me so much as my own personal earworm that the only way to get it out of my head was to record it, so I contacted everyone and booked a session. This was really the start of what would become the Hero Down record.

You'll notice that most of the lyrics adopted references to songs, albums or bands that could qualify for me as music I might have sent out to the heavens over and over. I know I left out a bunch but 28 (?) of them was a good group to rally around.

In the moment that I see you, you fade away
Fades away
In the moment that I hear you
Your voice wouldn't stay
In the canyons all around me
Repeats the wondering of "why""
In the sorrow of the moment
Refusing a goodbye

Forever on a spinning wheel.
Rain on the rooftop, a constant pounding fear
That loss is poisoning my mind
Reach out for something
Anything
Is there anyone who can bring you to me
near?

And the mourners all around me
Share an emptiness inside
In the aching of the moment
Still refusing a goodbye

Forever on a spinning wheel.
Rain on the rooftop, a constant pounding fear
That loss is poisoning my mind
Reach out for something
Anything
Is there anyone who can bring you to me
near?

Hero down
One hero, hero down
Life turned upside down
One hero, hero down

Forever on a spinning wheel.
Rain on the rooftop, a constant stabbing steel
The loss is poisoning my mind
Holding out for some more time now

Hero down
One hero, hero down
Life turned upside down
One hero, hero down
and down...

Music and Lyrics by Mike Lopez

Vocals, guitars, synths by Mike Lopez
Bass by Mark Foerster
Drums by Jerry Bousquet
Additional keys by Dave Beegle

Hero Down is my reflection on what it would feel like to have inconsolable grief with the loss of a leader or someone of that magnitude. A loss that affects many and afflicts them with a confusion of purpose and a lack of stability. The lyric "That loss is poisoning my mind" sums up the torture.

My initial inspiration was watching the incredible rallying, fight and resolve of the Ukrainian people to expel the Russian invasion in early 2022. What would it have been like if their president and other main leaders were successfully assassinated? Imagine the disorientation and displacement of faith.

Other figures come to thought...Jesus with the disciples...MLK, JFK. Losses that shake foundations.

8/18/25 I had to make a very recent edit to this insight section after looking at the cover art for Hero Down. Its appropriate that a devastating crash is being captured given the three accidents plus another medical procedure that hit the Lion Drome team in the midst of putting this release together. Four "Heroes" were down. Fortunately, we are more or less coming out in good shape, armed with good stories to tell.

Running for my life
Down Sleepy Hollow paths
Horses close behind
Their headlights turn my way
Tracking every turn
Every lead I ever had, now gone

Running for my life
Into a big reveal
The horses once behind, betray an open door
Risking all it's you
Every fear I ever had, now gone

This wanting... to give you all control
The needing...take us home!
The haunting...those whispers in your dreams
Why you can't sleep

Come inside
Come inside

This wanting... to give you all control
The needing...take us home!
The haunting...those whispers in your dreams
Why you can't ever sleep

Lyrics and Music by Mike Lopez

Mike Lopez - All Vocals, All electric guitars, synths/keys
Mark Foerster - Bass
Jerry Bousquet - drums
Dave Beegle - piano, acoustic guitar, synth/keys, cinematic sounds

In 2022 I sold my dream car after only one year of ownership.
The reasons were for taking advantage of a great investment position, thinking I'd be able to get another one like it down the line.

I had a great connection with it and missed it terribly. Had lots of dreams about it.

So for this song, I embellished and turned it into more of a story.
Something akin to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow meets Christine (S. King)

The song drops you into one of many repeating nightmares where I'm trying to outrun a noise that sounds like angry horses plus a bright shining light. All of this happening on these scary-looking forest roads and paths.

But while every previous dream had me getting away at the last minute, this is the final dream and I find myself at a dead end.

I turn around to face the light and see there are no horses, but a faint outline of a car in the fog and headlights beaming.

the door opens and I walk to it and get inside as it beckons me to "come inside".

What I discover is that its the car I got rid of that has been pursuing me because of the connection we had. It just wants its driver back. Its been trying to reach me through dreams.

What we do

What we say

What we feel

What we mean...just hide it away from the tiny ears of that sweet child

I am here 

We are here

You're family's a sphere

I just come to say "The world's your oyster, dear. And everything's just fine"

Behind the curtain, the world's afraid (oh, and sober so)

Each with our rightful mess to claim

Goodnight, sleep tight. Everything is fine.

So raise your own Arizona

A beach with Corona

A hideaway from all the tears for that sweet child

I am here 

We are here

You're family's your sphere

And we come to say "The sky's the limit dear and everything is fine

Behind the curtain, the world's afraid (oh, and sober so)

Each with our rightful mess to claim

Goodnight, sleep tight. Everything is fine.

Here it comes!

Captain Chaos and the Moonshine Gunners!

Music and Lyrics by Mike Lopez

Mike Lopez - all guitars, synth and vocals

Jerry Bousquet - drums

Mark Foerster - bass

Dave Beegle - production and engineering

Its seems to me that as parents, grandparents, what have you...that we need to be cautious about just how much of the scary world and our own dramas get seen and imprinted on our young ones. Its easy to forget day to day. Up to a certain age, I really want mine to have that innocent thought that the world is indeed their oyster. As they mature, they will have to wrestle that away from the real world and claim it. But that initial belief is part of what gets them there.

I had fun with the Raising Arizona imagery as it played into the lyrics. Remember the baby getting tossed around and kidnapped by Leonard Smalls, explosions, blood, oil and violence...and yet the baby, High Jr. just had a grin on its face the whole time...none the wiser. 

As for who is Captain Chaos and the Moonshine Gunners...well we all have a nemesis who part the dark highway on a steel horse out of nowhere and tries to turn the world upside down.  And yes, the character on the song art is a nod to a Leonard Smalls character, yet in the Lion Drome Arena world.

You don't have to ask me why I needed you so

No choice, captive in a hold of a hurricane

It's like a feeling in the air

Sometimes you just know

You know? You know?

We're gonna push play up until we don't

Where there's fire, she's a whole lot of smoke

So glad you're my 8 trac flashback

Gonna turn the key and a way we go

Smash the gas 'till we hit the show

So glad you're my 8 trac flashback

8 track flashback

You don't have to ask me why we needed to go

Whiskey A Go Go at the end of our hurricane

And when there's music in the air

Sometimes you just go

You know? You know?

Like a 7-1-8 launch control,

Lip Bang concussion rocked my head

And the California Highway State Patrol said I'm lucky I'm not dead  

You know? You know, You know?

We're gonna push play up until we don't

Where there's fire, she's a whole lot of smoke

So glad you're my 8 trac flashback

Gonna turn the key and a way we go

Smash the gas 'till we hit the show

So glad you're my 8 trac flashback

8 track flashback

We're gonna push play up until we don't

Where there's fire, she's a whole lot of smoke

So glad you're my 8 trac flashback

Gonna turn the key and a way we go

Smash the gas 'till we hit the show

So glad you're my 8 trac flashback

8 trac

Blondie baby doll, not the Nordstrom rack

woah......

Music and Lyrics by Mike Lopez

Mike Lopez - all vocals, guitars and keyboards

Jerry Bousquet - drums

Mark Foerster - bass

Dave Beegle - production and engineering

My wife and I met on a photoshoot for my band Eve's Drop back in 2001 and our connection has been partially founded in music ever since. Maybe someday we will hop in the Cayman and take off to California to hit a show at the Whiskey A Go Go. Sounds like fun! 

Concerning the title, she was branded 8 Trac Flashback in high school because she knew a lot of music before her time. The Blondie baby doll reference was a nod to her style leanings.

Too much life spent pressed against the window

Trying to see how the other half has lived

A wounded heart mourns for the feeling of our yesterday when we had won

And...they called us lost

As if life had been made a widow

The dreams of men lost along the way

Who we are today means so much less in the conversation

They called us lost

Lost along the way

Lost along... the way

Too much life spent looking through a key hole

Its better that we don't congregate

There's no escape

Ambition shackled

The pills, they keep us still

'til we are none

And...they called us lost

As if life had been made a widow

The dreams of men...they're lost along the way

Who we are today means so much less in the conversation

They called us lost

Lost along the way

Lost along.

You are not lost

You're life's been given an answer

The dream is awake and its here to stay

Who you are today means so much more than you're understanding

You are not lost

Come, I am the way

Music and Lyrics by Mike Lopez

Mike Lopez - vocals, lead guitar

Jerry Bousquet - drums

Mark Foerster - bass

Dave Beegle - production and engineering, piano, acoustic guitars

I pictured two scenarios of people sidelined in life as if they have become erased out of our day to day timeline, frozen in a painful existence. 

The first verse about a homeless mom with kids. Homeless by no fault of her own, and once, just like most of the rest of us, winning at life. That is to say, at least making ends meet for a modern life. Maybe it was a divorce that left her in dire straits. Maybe a crippling medical issue left her unable to work and turned things upside down. Now she's sidelined, watching the world move on seemingly without her.

Next, I pictured a political prisoner or long time hostage. Hope taken away, drugged routinely and escape made impossible. 

But against that backdrop, the last voice you hear in the final chorus is one of hope and rescue.

This song goes back to 2012 and I've held off on recording it until the right moment. Its good to see it make the light of day beyond the 2012 demo.

Back in the rear mirror, a desert sown with pain

Now life-victims fully-dressed in blame

Oh the toll

Deliver us

A passage through the dark

Taken from my only world to cities in a war cage

Given some repatriation day

Oh the toll

Deliver us

A passage back to home

You've got a hell of a lot of nerve interdicting God's good plan!

You've got a loathsome energy focused on the fall of man.

No sober hope in this self-righteous clan.

You've got a hell of a lot of nerve to me but you don't know the plan.

A lonely road and a sinister sky hangs above.

I can't take it anymore.

This lonely road.

And a sinister sky hangs above

I can't take it anymore.

Oh, anymore

You've got a hell of a lot of nerve interrupting God's good plan!

You've got a loathsome energy focused on the fall of man.

No sober hope in this self-righteous clan.

You've got a hell of a lot of nerve to me but you don't know the plan.

You've got a hell of a lot of nerve interdicting God's good plan!

You've got a loathsome energy focused on this fall of man.

No sober hope in this self-righteous clan.

You've got a hell of a lot of nerve to me but you don't know the plan.

Music and Lyrics by Mike Lopez

Mike Lopez - vocals, all guitars, synths

Jerry Bousquet - drums

Mark Foerster - bass

Dave Beegle - production and engineering

Ah yes...bring me your huddled masses yearning for freedom...a shinning city on the hill, standing with and for democracies the world over.  Now a hypocritical mess. Go to any bookstore and you'll find numerous books filled with amazing stories of people being delivered from the most awful situations. Fleeing communism under cover of night, escaping death squads, lion's dens etc. But now, the very sorts of people in power that you might assume would take America's charge to heart, are actively undoing what might be God's good plans for delivering  people from an endless life of hardship. I'll never understand it and its a blight on ourselves to change one of this things that has made this country great.

Through two verses, one on immigrants daring a desert journey, looking for asylum and one focused on the thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children by Russia, I've said my disgusted peace and resignation on these "leaders". The pointed criticism relative to the Ukrainian children involves the ending of funding by the administration to The Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab, which was tracking the children's whereabouts as best as possible. Their collective plight made more dire as we loose sight of where they may be, all for the heinous act of personal political aims.

Jerry's pants never late for the dance and the place becomes his dojo

Yeah, he's here!

My fault that you can call him Cheddar

That polyester Coltrane in gear

He is the King of the Club

And he's just getting started

Learn his rules of the road

Appointments tonight!

Lets hear it for the King of the Club!

Jerry's vest always loaded for the dance

Every button is like a bough-break

Soak it up so good

My fault that you can call him Cheddar

That polyester Coltrane

Smoked mirror

He is the King of the Club

And he's just getting started

Come kiss the ring of your world

Get knighted tonight

Lets hear it for the King of the Club!

Music and Lyrics by Mike Lopez

Mike Lopez - vocals, all guitars, synths

Jerry Bousquet - drums

Mark Foerster - bass

Dave Beegle - electric piano, production and engineering

This  disco rock song called King of the Club is inspired by an entertaining, old coot named Jerry that I used to work with. He would wear the tackiest but still incredibly awesome pants that he kept from the 70’s. Jerry’s best pants were a bright cheddar yellow pair and also a red, white and dark blue vertically striped one. He claimed that women went wild for he and his choice outfits back in the day. Before we all got laid off, somehow he either gifted this red white and blue pair to me or I asked him for them. I can’t recall but I’ve held on to them as a kind of trophy all this time (since 2004). So back to the song, I pictured him and his slacks and maybe a button busting vest, holding court at Studio 54 or something in the disco days.