Dear Clint: The easy answer to your question is SGT. DISCO, the album from 2007.

HOWEVER, to properly answer your question we will need to launch into an egg-head discussion about Apollonian verses Dionysian musical expressions. For those who need refreshed, where Apollo strives toward harmony and balance and higher thought, Dionysus delves into the unconscious and gives over to dream and sometimes to frenzy and mayhem. This dichotomy can be used to categorize many of the bands, artists, and albums you are already familiar with. By the same token, a listener can also be classified the same way. Are you an Apollonian or a Dionysian listener? Maybe it depends on your mood on any given day. For example, in an Apollonian mood, you might enjoy Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony or the Beatles' Abbey Road. And if you're in a Dionysian mood, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring might be good, or Tom Waits’ Bone machine. So your question regarding which circus devils album to start with depends on these factors as they apply to you and/or your current mood. Here is a list of circus devils albums, classified with the following letter abbreviations.
A= Appolonian / D= Dionysian.

- GRINGO (2009) A : The most accessible album tune-wise, and for this reason, maybe the best introduction. A good preparation for the more challenging material on the previous albums.
- ATAXIA (2008) D: Manic and dark. Probably not the best introduction, unless you are naturally gravitated toward the D-side of life.
- Sgt. DISCO (2007) D + A : Probably the best introduction to circus devils. Represents many of the musical veins traversed by the previous four albums. Chock full of listening adventure.
- FIVE (2005) D : People tell us that we made this record but we don't remember.
- PINBALL MARS (2004) D : Gut level rock and lullabies sung in half-sleep. Full of characters and danger and good fun. Not bad for a first pick.
- The HAROLD PIG MEMORIAL (2002) A : Measured and sober. A full-fledged concept album. For serious listeners.
- RINGWORM INTERIORS (2001) DD : This album represents circus devils as a primordial creature climbing out of the muck and toward the light, and then back into the muck. Not the best introduction. But rewarding for those who enjoy a jarring ride.

Dear Jim: Thank you for asking. Everything has a meaning. Never let anyone tell you otherwise! Not that we have to believe in those meanings. It's enough just to know the meanings are there, even if hidden in a sub-conscious dimension. The song I Razors takes place in the future, about 37 years from now. During that troubled time, the Earth will be in a fury, doing all in its power to shake us off her skin, with earthquakes, typhoons, floods, tornadoes and electrical storms that will rain down lightning in torrents of death. I Razors will be a mind-altering, black market candy that will come in a container that looks like an old-time oil can, for those of you who remember the 1970s. The funny thing about I- Razors is that no two pieces are alike. And each piece has a soul (or so it says on the label). So when you eat it, that soul will share your headscape for a period of about 7 hours. And the more you eat, the more souls you will take in. Sometimes the souls in the candy don't get along, and sometimes they can't stand to be separated. Either way, it makes for an exciting time. Let me tell you, the kids will be going crazy for I Razors! In those troubled times, recreation of this sort will be very popular . . .anything to take their minds off the terrible things happening out of doors. The song is our interpretation of an I Razor trip. Prominent religious figures will declare that I Razors are a one-way ticket to hell. We reserve judgement on that count.

Dear Scott: Yes you will! Gringo is an album that proves that a band can rock without electric guitars. Well, maybe that's going too far. But folks tell me it's an enjoyable, breezy listen compared to the other records. Gringo is an acoustic song cycle, and as always, in terms of content, there is a trip. The action takes place during an unspecified time period (probably the past, and probably the late 20th century, and probably the 1970s and 1980s, and probably the American Southwest), and it follows the life of a single character . . . Not you, Scott, but some other guy that you probably never met. His name is not Harold Pig, by the way.

Dear Bringer: The next album will be titled GRONGO. It will be sung entirely in the language of the Shfarg people, a prehistoric tribe recently discovered living in remote areas of Greenland. It will be the first ever rock album sung in a formerly-extinct language.

Dear Newsworth: I got Peter Gabriel on the phone this morning and asked him your question about the LAMB. He says he doesn't want to talk about it. Maybe he doesn't know what it means either. Pete reckons that we should just listen to the songs and look to our own impressions for meaning. Maybe he's right. Sometimes we should let sleeping lambs lie.

Dear Travus: Thanks for your splendid question. I will tell you what it all means! Pay attention now, cause it won't happen again. Ataxia takes place in the future for the most part. This is not the future in a musical sense. It is the future as witnessed through the lens of the third eye, from the standpoint of the present moment. The trip begins with a self-recrimination arising in half-sleep - an acknowledgement of spiritual paralysis. As we all know, this sort of activity attracts the attention of entities who may decide to appear at the foot of your bed in the dead of night. But don't fear! These entities are in fact guides, like the ghost of Christmas future in the Dickens story. Either that, or they're demons who've come to steal your soul and leave you a shivering cipher. But that's a story for another album. The theme here is a private battle against the paralysis of spirit. This paralysis will become institutionalized in the future, through the establishment of a social milieu where the spirit has nothing left to do, and where fear and complacency rule over the mind on every level. In the future, the human spirit will be like a fish out of water, thrashing to no purpose until it weakens and falls still and quiet. It will be up to the individual to dive down into the dark waters and re-discover what was lost -- and put an end to the burden of guilt that would otherwise require a regimen of prescription drugs.

Think of Ataxia as an astral adventure, or lucid dream. The protagonist's discovery of a deep-seated guilt leads him to the conclusion that he has lost the path, betrayed his own spirit, and surrendered control to forces outside himself. While this kind of soul searching is a good thing, it means that right away he will find himself in a not-so-friendly- place. In this case, it's the future, and everyone there appears to be out of their minds, including himself (his future self). There is disorientation, terror and ecstasy, moments of deep dread, resignation, celebration, illumination, and finally, the protagonist re-visits his own youth, and a particular football game when time seemed to stand still. Think of it as a sort of a grail-castle moment. He then re-discovers the seat of his identity and the natural stability it brings. You might think the adventure ends here, but no! This is where the paranoia sets in. Finding himself in a society where an invisible over-mind is in place, projected through the eyes of soldiers and civilians alike, the self-realized individual imagines himself to be a wanted target. Think of Franz Kafka's "the trial," only in this case the protagonist does not maintain his innocence. He knows he is guilty, even though he is unable to answer the question, "Guilty of what?"

Think of this guilt as the collective guilt of Western civilization, resulting from the repressed memory of our original identity or primitive soul, which we have abandoned or buried in exchange for a life of cheap comforts, superficial illusions and comfortable ignorance. Once having broken through the spiritual paralysis of his endemic guilt, the protagonist's victory is dampened by the discovery that he is truly alone. In the context of the future world, a realized individual -- for all intents and purposes -- will be a non-entity, of no interest to his or her neighbours as such, and not worth chasing down and neutralizing by any branch of authority. He will be the future's version of the invisible man. In fact, in the future, identity-swapping will be a form of recreation. In the context of such a world, what can be the value of a self-realized, integrated individual? As to what happens to such a person set adrift in a sea of masks is a story for another day.

There are a couple of flashbacks to the recent and distant past, but most of the action in Ataxia happens in a world yet to come. You may think to yourself, "Jeez, I don't want any part of that world!" Well too bad, because here it comes. It's not the place of a rock-and-roll combo such as Circus Devils to give you instructions in negotiating that world. Our job is to gaze into the dark waters and report back to you what we see. If you don't like it, consider that when you get into a bath tub filled with scalding hot water, you have to dip your toes in first. The future is much the same. As the days tick by, we slowly become comfortable there, without remembering that it was bad for us in the first place. Our transformation into a smug people with insipid souls has been gradual, spanning centuries. Ataxia is a benign form of sudden immersion into the future. But for all of us, the slow immersion has already begun. You may think this is all doom and gloom. But with every new child born comes a new adventure, and another chance to preserve our birthright as cosmic beings whose lives span many dimensions. I hope this answers your question, Travus.

Dear Mr. Dog: Circus Devils can be heard in life-like Stereo. Your friends ask too much. Our recording budget is the same as our budget for mouthwash.

Dear Justin: How many albums do we need to make before we get our own section in the record shops? Seven? Seventeen? Thirty-seven? Justin, don't look to sgt. Disco for help. We learned that during these past months he has become a born again christian and has enrolled in Jerry Falwell's Liberty University with no plans to return to real world. It's time to take matters into your own hands. Here's what you do. Cut out a plastic card or piece of cardboard with "Circus Devils" written on top and create your own Circus Devils section, nestled right between the Christmas Monkeys and the Clap. Of course the clerks will undo your careful work, but if you keep going back and replacing the card and discs, they will eventually grow tired and give up. This is how change takes place in a society filled with complacent, lazy, snot-nosed record store clerks.

Dear Freddy: We believe your question is rhetorical and fashioned in an attempt to be cute and funny. This will not be tolerated.