Falling Stairs

01/21/2026

Tune in today from 4-6 PM EST to hear Ray Charbonneau on 91.5 WMFO play some Falling Stairs and some of our influences! Thank you, Ray!

Tufts Freeform Radio

01/13/2026

Some very cool news: 91.5 WMFO Freeform Radio at Tufts University is going to play some Falling Stairs on Wednesday, January 21st at 4 PM ET, and then play two hours of our influences. You can stream it at http://wmfo.org ! Thank you, Ray Charbonneau!a

Tufts Freeform Radio

11/06/2025

Live, without an audience!

Between studio recordings in the late 80s/early 90s, we had a batch of songs that we wanted to record live, without an audience. Rich Grula produced and engineered this set, which was recorded live on the stage at The Right Track Inn, a club in Freeport, New York, one afternoon in 1990. All songs are previously unreleased (except for Mad, which we recorded at Water Music and Fort Apache later). Enjoy!

13 track album

09/06/2025

“Some lost albums should stay lost. Others you're excited they were found, like un-covered time capsules discovered in attics or basements. I’m pretty sure I caught this Flushing, Queens’ band some enchanted evening at CBGB or Pyramid Club after their lone 1988 EP, That and a Quarter, and noted their obvious get-up-and-go—but they didn't last.

"Now, that EP’s six songs are augmented by six even hotter unreleased ones, proving their cessation was a shame. If you take the faster jump and jangle of 1981-1986 R.E.M. and Libertines U.S., plus Embarrassment, Crippled Pilgrims, and Hoodoo Gurus, with similar electric playing and songwriting acumen, you'd have the hot buzz of the heretofore unheard ‘Daylight’ and ‘Gone’ with thickened guitars like that era's Forever Since Breakfast neophytes, Guided By Voices.

"Whomever preserved and baked these tapes did us a service.”

-Jack Rabid, Editor-in-Chief, The Big Takeover Magazine

The debut album,30 years late.Recorded at Fort Apache and Water Music 1988-93. Tapes stored in cardboard boxes 1993-2023. Baked, digitized and mastered in 2023. LISTEN NOW BUY VINYL OR DIGITAL ALBUM ON BANDCAMP STREAM ON YOUR FAVORITE PLATFORM “Some lost albums should stay lost. Others you’re ex...

03/02/2025

Rest in peace, David.

Falling Stairs is:Charles McEnerney, guitar and vocalsJohn McGrath, bass and vocalsJohn McLoughlin, drumsJohn Rice, vocals and guitarProduced by Rich Grula a...

10/17/2024

Man-Made

And I listen to your story, complaints and free advice and below her is all sorrys, tell me of your awful life.

Thinking of something, thinking of you. Thinking of something, man-made.

Look for comfort in a vision, talk about someone else and she’s waiting for her children to grow up to be.

Thinking of someone, think of him. Thinking of someone, man-made. Thinking of somewhere, think of here. Thinking of somewhere, man-made.

Write down left, write down cry. All she claims is a great divide. And there she goes, and there she goes again. Something else just might arrive.

Taking notice of everything, dry mouth to disavow. Purpose going on the floor here. Let me see, let her know. And I listen to your story. Complaints and free advice. And below her is all sorrys, tell me of your tragic life.

Thinking of something, thinking of you. Thinking of something, man-made. Thinking of somewhere, think of you. Thinking of some way, man-made.

https://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com/track/man-made

Charles McEnerney, vocals and guitar
John McGrath, bass and vocals
John McLoughlin, drums
John Rice, guitar and vocals

Produced by Rich Grula at Water Music, Hoboken, NJ in 1988

“Life is a Kick Trial: 1988-93” album out now. Download for $10 at http://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com or buy vinyl for $20 (plus $5 shipping).

Photo by

08/30/2024

Easy to slide, what’s the name? You can lie, but you don’t remain in here. You won’t find a ranger. Parting your seas, here you go. It’s the season, well, don’t you know, won’t buy, sell.

Listen for a while and he sees it’s his fortune days (as he goes). Only he can judge his ways. Listen for a while and he seems like he got his way (as he goes). Only he can judge his ways.

Here by a bench, here’s a tree. Walk and wallow and learn the lesson well. Don’t exchange now. Up on the top, far below there’s a law and it’s walking through him. It says, I don’t want to see.

Listen for a while and he sees it’s his fortune days (as he goes). Only he can run away. Listen for a while and he leaves for his fortune days (as he goes). Only he can run away.

Out on a limb for a ghost. You can walk, but you won’t walk here. Blue skies have been gone for so long. Easy to fly, to forget broken humbles and strategic wish. I don’t want to see.

Listen for a while and he see’s it’s his fortune days (as he goes). Only he can run way. Listen for a while and he see’s it’s his fortune days (as he goes). Only he can have his way.

Hear "Fortune Days" at https://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com/track/fortune-days

Charles McEnerney, vocals and guitar
John McGrath, bass and vocals
John McLoughlin, drums
John Rice, guitar and vocals

Produced by Rich Grula at Water Music, Hoboken, NJ in 1988

“Life is a Kick Trial: 1988-93” album out now. Download for $10 at http://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com or buy vinyl for $20 (plus $5 shipping).

08/10/2024

Oh, just pardon those cliches, but they say everything I mean. After all it’s only love and death and pain and sympathy. It’d be nice just to believe unlimited possibilities, but there is truth and there is fact to shake down perfect theories.

Daylight, outside. Revolution’s just a word and I’m not listening.

So we’ll all grow up to say, “Hey those days where the best days.” “I can’t see them too well now, but I remember them, somehow.” Fill the windows with a view, something we’ll all appreciate or is there something else to do to waste my time away?

Daylight, outside. Dedication’s just a word and I’m not bothering. Daylight, on time. Absolution’s just a word, but I’m guessing here.

Hold it up to the light. You see right through it, am I right? Should we take the time to look or is it pointless now? And we’re living fist to mouth, but we won’t lose our sleep at night. Ain’t it strange how it’s evolved into something quite extreme?

Daylight, outside. Education’s just a word and I’m not listening. Daylight, on time.

Persecution’s just a word and we’re all following.I am safe and I am warm, far from the edge of the storm and I’m reading all about it are you glad to be? One step up and one step out and these scales get too weighed down. Is this secret something you’ve found?

Daylight, outside. Revolution’s just a word. I’m not listening. Daylight, on time. Anticipation’s just a word and it’s everything. Daylight, on our. Execution’s just a word until you’re standing there.

“Life is a Kick Trial: 1988-93” album out now. Download for $10 at http://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com or buy vinyl for $20 (plus $5 shipping).

Charles McEnerney, vocals and guitar
John McGrath, bass and vocals
John McLoughlin, drums
Marc Silver, guitar

Produced by Rich Grula at Water Music, Hoboken, NJ and Tim O'Heir at Fort Apache, Cambridge, MA

https://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com/track/daylight

12 track album

08/07/2024

“Life is a Kick Trial: 1988-93” album out now. Download for $10 at http://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com or buy vinyl for $20 (plus $5 shipping), featuring...

Charles McEnerney, guitar and vocals
John McGrath, vocals and bass
John McLoughlin, drums

Produced by Tim O’Heir at Fort Apache, Cambridge, MA in 1992

Gone

I no longer have the power or desire to fill your head with dreams or the fire, but that’s not the way, you were the only one who should see me and now you’re gone and it’s all because of me.

You believe in a will and a way and that will get you every time. I kind of thought like that once but it only lasted for a little while. Not too long ago when my life had some meaning I played around with your head, took it for granted, and now what’s left?

And it’s gonna be hard, which is more than I can say. Will it matter, will it matter any way? I see it’s come quite clear and it’s gone.

Life is a kick trial and it kicks straight through your head and if it lays you out it will leave you there for dead, but that’s not the way, and I was the only one who should see me and now you’re gone and it’s all because of me.

And it’s gonna be hard, which is more than I can say. Will it matter, will it matter any way? I see it’s come quite clear and it’s gone.

Photo by



https://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com/track/gone

from the album Life is a Kick Trial: 1988-93

07/30/2024

“Life is a Kick Trial: 1988-93” album out now. Download for $10 at http://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com or buy vinyl for $20 (plus $5 shipping), featuring…

The Rug

hey, I can't tell you
i don't feel the way I say
it's kinda hard to be concise
when i'm trying to be unclear

hold up signs for recognition
these words go a long way
she wishes she could stay inside
but she's got better places to be

and she will walk through the desert, walk through the years
she can climb over mountains and fall through the tears
when she finds something to hope for, she kneels to pray to him
and she finally sweeps it up under the rug

she fights off being lonely
she just wants to be alone
no crowd to come and sweep her off
she stands the floor and soars

this home does not seem steady
these walls so spread apart
"imagine how much you'd get for
selling off a piece of your heart?"

and she will run through the desert, run through the fears
and she can climb over problems and stumble through the years
and we come to a decision and she makes it seem so clear
and she finally sweeps it up under the rug

the rug is getting bigger
the sweeping can't get done
there's too many thousands of her
to wish they all were gone

closer and not nearer
the plans all went astray
could we use the time we lost to just imagine it all away?

and she will run through the desert, run through the tears
and she can climb over mountains that she's walked around for years
and she comes to a decision she makes it seem so clear
and she finally sweeps it up under the rug

and i come to my decision
i make it seem so real
and we finally sweep it up under the rug

Charles McEnerney, vocals and guitar
John McGrath, bass and vocals
John McLoughlin, drums

Produced by Tim O'Heir at Fort Apache, Cambridge, MA in 1992

Photo by http://johnmcgrathphotography.com



https://fallingstairs.bandcamp.com

12 track album

03/01/2024

We had a few delays with pressing the album, but happy to say it is now at the pressing facility and will be shipping in a few short weeks! Today is Bandcamp Friday, when they do not take a cut of sales, so a great day to buy it!

Please share…

12 track album

01/26/2024

Thanks, Tom Jacoby, for recording all these shows!

Listen to Falling Stairs at Lismar Lounge on December 16, 1988 by charlesmcenerney on