1. |
Three Sleeps
06:02
|
|||
Somehow woke up with a broken lightbulb in my back
Somehow fell asleep in Georgia heat next to the tracks
No train of thought just an empty lot and lungs full of pitch black
No counting sheep, no CBD—just the best sleep I’ve ever had
The second best was at a rest stop somewhere in upstate
We dragged our beds up the mountain head, high enough to consecrate
Woke up in the morning with a sunburn on my face
Saw that we’d slid down and slept ourselves back on to the highway
Am I nostalgic or am I just tired all the time?
My number three in Tennessee was floating down the stream,
A tube for beers, a tube for cigs, and a tube for all our dreams
Didn’t even wake up when I heard his preteen scream
That rope swing laughing as he cried above his shattered knees
Or when that super trooper charged the bank and pulled his taser on me
Am I nostalgic or am I just tired all the time?
The more we wake the more we hate the lapses in our lives
When you lost my keys in Albany to the pool table that night
I called you something that still cuts me deep inside
It only took three sleeps to fall in love with all these dreams
And now I’m scared I won’t get there or anywhere it seems
Am I nostalgic or am I just tired of me?
|
||||
2. |
||||
I wish the light didn’t feel like a miracle
I guess I’ll write that down
and piss away the pages in another dark journal
Feeling like a cake in a urinal
It’s sad to think how long I’ve been Sad’n Low™
I’d love to swim inside some other song
but you sing what you know
Never asked the lifespan to grow
What if we all gave up at the same time
Every couple of months I have to remind you
that it’s me I don’t like
And it’s a blessing that hate doesn’t rhyme
It’s irresponsible to paint the walls with this energy
I should be singing about climate change or housing insecurity
Stuff is beautiful and some people are cool
But it never feels like I am feeling anything
I’m sorry to these chords and I’m sorry to you
Now imagine the compassion here that I could use
They say to be your biggest fan
But I would rather stand beneath the ladder
and let the phone ring
Than weaponize the mountain just to make you feel things
Why is it so hard to live when all I want to do is sing?
|
||||
3. |
My Body is a Temper
05:16
|
|||
When my blood begins to bubble
That’s when I know that I’m in trouble
(Every time the sun comes up)
What if the white flashes are glimpses into a higher plane—
A heaven for the heated?
No matter when I am I always find it to be true
My body is a temper and I’m driving it home to you
When muscle memory takes the wheel
I lose my grip on what is real
My body is a temper crashing into how you feel
When rage becomes the ritual
All your prayers are scattered
And incense causes cancer
So I guess I’m out of answers
Found myself on r/Anger crying on behalf of strangers
My body is a temper and in this case also a mirror
u/LovelyFlowers called it misguided optimism
And I think that's really interesting, that I found God on Reddit
Just got up to yell at dogs—who does that?
Slammed my thumb into the window
And now we’re all crying
WHERE IS MY GOD NOW
Clearly they’ve logged off
So I burn the incense to cauterize this nonsense
If only there was a better way
|
||||
4. |
The Bad is Waiting
03:40
|
|||
The bad is waiting for me in the parking lot
The bad is waiting for me down on every block
The bad is waiting for me in the coffee shop
No matter where I go it’s there
But mostly I am always scared
The bad is waiting for you on the telephone
(A call from home)
The bad is waiting for you once the birds have flown
(And you’re on your own)
The bad is waiting for you like a chaperone
No matter where you go it’s there
But mostly you are always scared
If I could see a calendar of days I’ve lost
I’d burn up like the challenger and melt this permafrost
Who will stab me in the side?
Who will die next in my life?
The bad is waiting and so am I
|
||||
5. |
||||
Meet us at the feet of the antenna
Bring your spells and bolt cutters for posterity
I’ve got smoke bombs and a friend who drives
All this loneliness—it ends tonight
Heaven is a postcard
If we get split up, just run home
If you get picked up, just run the contingency
If they ask you anything, bite down hard on the pill and sing
Heaven is a postcard
Heaven is a slow car
The devil’s in your inbox
And the future’s gone too far
Give us back some mystery—no one else has earned it
Give us back our history—no one else deserves it
Give us back our fluency in projected yearning
Do us this one courtesy and keep the world from burning
You don’t need a phone
You fall in loves with your eyes
We’re the normal ones
We’re the normal guys
|
||||
6. |
||||
Hitting the potholes on purpose
A vision of actual pain
Driving in my own lane
Here we go again with the goddamned cars
Might as well mention the scars and the stars too
The hazards have always been on
As I make my way down to obliteration
Have you ever cried into roti
Your sadness can surprise you
That is if you want it to
(And it could also easily kill you)
Here we go again with the goddamned death
Might as well mention that my life-force just up and left
Where have all the hours gone
And why can’t they take me along
I don’t want to heal
I don’t want to feel
And I don’t want to steal any more than I have to
And I have to
I have this one friend who used to say this one thing
On the subject of my tunes
He called them suicide notes set to music
I wish I had never laughed along
But technically I’m trying to reach out to you through the songs
And technically that was the first time I thought of therapy
And technically it’s heartbreaking but he is someone sadder than me
Whom I love and would love to see
Where have all the hours gone
And why can’t they take me along
I don’t want to heal
I don’t want to feel
And I don’t want to steal anymore
|
||||
7. |
In Trepid
03:49
|
|||
It’s not the touring bands
It’s how the music lands
It’s not the buck-a-beers
It’s how time disappears
And you don’t need a pirate room
To notice how the treasure blooms
And you don’t need an arboretum
To love Woods as soon as you meet him
It’s not the house that I miss
It’s feeling home in all of this
If anyone knows where the magic hid
Come find me in Trepid
It’s where I learned to sing
It’s where I learned a lot of things
The year we made the band
Was the year I learned to stand
And I wish Jeff was on the keys
And Steph was on the harmonies
In the end, I failed my friends
Not old enough yet to understand
It’s not the house that I miss
It’s feeling home in all of this
If anyone knows where the magic hid
Come find me in Trepid
It’s not the house that I miss
It’s feeling loved in all of this
If you’ve ever wondered what magic really is,
Come find me in Trepid
|
||||
8. |
Eternal Retribution
02:33
|
|||
No matter when you hear this it will be tomorrow
Time caves in when you notice it chipping at your shoulder
Some people live like symptoms of eternal retribution
I wonder how much human sadness turns into pollution
Everyone is trying to fill a hole by creating one at the same time
If the best revenge is living well, then why don’t you feel satisfied?
|
||||
9. |
Time is a Threat
04:24
|
|||
A leash on the side of a highway
A stroller in the trash
A pen on the grate of a sewer
Thumbs turned to ash
Time is a threat
Time is a threat
A cloud in the shape of your longing
A breeze offends the past
Groundwater pools under heartache
But even pain won’t last
Time is a threat
Time is a threat
Time is a threat
Don’t turn your back on a sunset
|
||||
10. |
I Still Meet Him Anyway
03:14
|
|||
I meet him in the park
I meet him in the dark
I meet him in the car
And in other cars
There’s never much to say
There’s never much to gain
But after all these years
I still meet him anyway
He calls me in the bath
And he sleeps out on the path
I wish he wasn’t big
And I wish he wasn’t fast
There’s never much to say
There’s never much to gain
But after all these years
He’s still desperate to hang
|
||||
11. |
Passing the Castle
05:06
|
|||
Passing the castle
Wondering what everybody sees
It’s pretty shitty
The way it hulks and skulks above us all
They’ve locked up the mayor’s conscience
In a dungeon where someone could make a life
But everyone deserves the sun in an empty room
This one time, my dad said
“a city is a city and you live there”
But when the city tore the tents down
It didn’t feel like there was much to live for
Passing the castle
Ashamed of what I have and have not earned
But everyone deserves the sun in an empty room
|
||||
12. |
Darkness
05:21
|
|||
The wind pulls back its weathered hand
And lets the arrows cross the sky
Some pierce forever in your heart
Some fizzle out and then they die
Don’t bother looking for the shaft
Darkness will surely block your path
Don’t bother searching for the sound
Darkness will surely drown you out
100 colours cross the sky
Some fade away into the night
But the few so strong so brave
Will paint you right into your grave
Don’t bother looking for the shaft
Darkness will surely block your path
Don’t bother searching for the sound
Darkness will surely drown you out
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Steve Sloane, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp