1. |
A Real Thing
04:31
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The storm forecast was oversold
you made good time to get indoors
It came in warm when you wanted cold
now you’re too high to count the floors
and you feel it building in the building
pressing down hard from the ceiling
it’s temporary, that’s why it’s a real thing
if it was permanent, there’d be no feeling
Look for the silver lining in the white lie
You find it, and you won’t have to wonder why
Whoever broke the faith will have to buy it
They want to hold you to it? Let them try it
Now sunshine takes sweet time showing up
and assumes the position serves and smiles
are you sure you want to refill an empty cup
or keep your wits clear and test your wiles
The storm forecast was oversold
you did your duties completed your tours
Ice in the glass will water down strength
It’s never the speed so much as the length
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2. |
Along The Creek
04:00
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You’re walking along the creek
You do not have to speak
the water holds its tongue
for old and young
and as you pass along
the feelings grow so strong
that you’re overcome
What’s a little litter
next to human traces,
food and waste?
What’s that pair of pants
doing here unworn
and slightly torn, awaiting
someone to be born
to put them on?
It’s moments like this I miss you,
how you’d pace me up and down
the track, and home and back,
and there again I go.
It’s not the same
without you, you know
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3. |
Boo Hoo
04:28
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You wander the building after dark
The lights are still on the hallway
Just you and your thoughts, no need for company
everyone’s asleep but you, boo hoo
If you could sleep, you would be in bed
but you hold your head, feel your way
through the space
You’ve got memories in your pocket,
not to mention your keys and your
shoulders and arms in their sockets
Nobody’s cooking, no dogs bark
No noise of children from outside at the park
Only a passing car every once in a while
Nothing but peace and quiet, you know,
you haven’t had that in a while!
Are you free ? Are you trapped?
Could you find yourself on
a map if they asked you?
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4. |
Despite All Pain
04:31
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The light faded out of the sky like a hand closing around a throat. There probably wasn’t time to wonder why, even if it’s just a lesson you’re learning by rote.
And it’s cold outside, almost as cold inside, and here you are offside, trying to get on. Is it cold inside when you’re trying to get outside, and everything that you’re on won’t get you off?
And you’re home, it just belongs to someone else
And it’s too late, you’re just a story somebody else tells
There’s piles of clothes, somebody should gather them up, clean up this place. By the time it’s all gathered, like someone else would rather, there won’t be a trace
except in the faces of those who knew what happened to you and were determined to not let it limit them, not let it reduce you. You remain, despite all pain.
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5. |
Hallucinating
04:40
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Some people only move in lines and curves
When it comes to traffic limits or things they observe
The worst only watch them as they go flying by
Hood ornaments aimed at the horizon hands to the sky
What are you waiting for? Time's a-wastin'
This ain't a collision so much as a liaison
I know how many miles it takes to get to you
That's why I'm calling you from out on the avenue
I hope that you don't mind waiting
Till I arrive I'll be hallucinating
I hope you don't mind a bit of waiting
While I'm hallucinating
There used to be bars up and down this stretch
Watering holes for every kind of wretch
You could wet your whistle, prick your thistle
Torch your targets and wait for the missiles
Poppies popping out of the median
Branches silhouetted against growing gloom
Hand on the wheel I've got nothing to feel
But boom chicka boom chicka boom
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6. |
In Your Hands
03:22
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Board up the windows and reinforce the door
There is no profit in being around after dark
Gonna have to make some changes
before others make those changes for you
You know how it is, what you must do
Can’t you read the sign, what they left behind?
This is how things come apart
in your hands if not your heart
Step over that bucket, it covers the leak.
Is it in a language you don’t speak?
You could pick up the lingo if you had enough time
What is there to say? Who would you ask for anyway?
Give in to the joys of incomprehension
There’s no refuge in your pretension, keep it simple baby.
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7. |
Ounce Of Shame
05:16
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Every day you wake up in the world they made, doing all that you need to get paid, hoping that certain memories will fade, bracing one day for the knock at the door, followed by the raid. You will die before you feel an ounce of shame. You will lie to do what it takes to protect your name. You are lost in a reverie, dreaming of legacy and how it will feel when you can be still, but for now you focus your will, feel your feet on the grill as the surface grows warm. They won’t find anyone like you among their number in the cemetery. You will get your slumber, obscurity will be your shroud; not even death will make you proud. You know that’s not allowed even to the avowed, such as you
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8. |
Palm And Pine
03:41
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Palms stay greasy in this town.
Love or money lubricates them down
but don't let clouds overhead get warm
Lightning strike and bring down a firestorm
Pines climb high in plain sight
Climb into space and touch moonlight
Don't let grow them too tall
Evil sabotage can cull them all
This landscape is full of pines and palms
You wonder what they do in each other's arms
They might wave in the wind like everything's calm
Grow tall until they fall that's not all of their charm
Stare long enough forget mountains on horizon edges
divided by houses, picket fences, gutters and ledges
and you never even focus on hedges and grudges
Or the inconvenient fact no one ever judges
Open hands have palms open hearts will pine
Until open eyes and arms allow us to align
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9. |
Perspective
03:35
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I would tell you to marvel
at the world that isn’t there
if it didn’t fill you with despair
far too common to be useful
I would tell you rather
than give in, continue to care
I’ll admit it’s hard and rarely fair
you might even find me truthful
Presence and recency
are by no means predestination
are by no means permanence
more like rent paid at a residence
You live among the horrors
You don’t have to let them live in you
Life will drive you crazy if you let it
don’t mistake the view for perspective
You would tell me darling
I am made of such stern stuff
This is just the skin I shed and slough
when I feel woeful and rueful
You would tell me trauma
deeper than a dent or scratch to buff
hasn’t made me want to cry enough
or leave for someone more youthful
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10. |
Proof Against Weather
03:48
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When you run the tapes back,
the last glance looks like flirting.
When you run the tapes back,
you can see it in their eyes,
how they’re hurting:
how busily everyone’s working
to hold it together, to prove
it’s not a duty they’re shirking,
seeking proof against weather.
And who can tell by watching
the movements just how well, or
just how soothing, any of it’s going to be
now that we know that they end up free,
now that we know they started off hoping
they’d stay shackled, before we learned
how to run it all backwards.
We know they don’t stay shackled.
We don’t have to run it backwards.
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11. |
Somebody Else's Gun
03:56
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White sky, black shadow
I feel them both in my marrow
it’s making me ill, it’s overtaking my will
It’s too high-contrast
for it to last, recalling the past
we thought we’d gotten past,
we thought we’d gotten over.
Why can’t we get over?
Black sky, white shadow
the scene is reversed
we think it’s different but it’s still cursed
It’s all speculative fiction
these ideas in friction
we put them together and
hope the smoke clears in time
What will we tell the future
Will they only see the scar,
or the needle and suture,
or the way I tried to shoot you
with somebody else’s gun?
Black lines on a white page,
scrawled across in rage
Hope to get down something
to contribute for the record
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12. |
Trouble
05:13
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Is that fog in the air or glitter so shiny?
Gloom feels a bit like winter.
I used to thrill when I felt you enter
Why lie. The thrill is still there
The hint the glint the shine the shimmer
Hoping to get chosen is a choice
Missing out means misunderstanding
I forget the sound of my own voice
It's my mistake you think I'm demanding
You think I'm trouble, well, maybe I am
It's the lane in front of your lights.
It teaches a lesson until it runs out.
It's a wheel between your hands.
You try to steer that shows what you're about
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13. |
What Was Home
02:59
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You carve out a home from
the people you spend your time among
You carve out a home from
the people. You learn to be strong
And there you go lifting yourself up
Performing miracles like it was nothing
What was home but an idea you learned,
something you had to set fire to till it burned?
You raise your voice into
something like a song
You raise your voice and
find others singing along
And you brace yourself
against the idea you may be wrong
until you find it’s not so, at least for now
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Saint and Kings San Pablo, California
I’m a singer-songwriter using guitars and keyboards to craft distinctive dispatches from intimate interiors, vast exteriors and all points in between. Drawing on years of pop, soul, indie, folk and dance-music fandom, I try to turn observations and narratives into succinct sonic snapshots. ... more
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