1. |
The Mountain
02:46
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bring me down my weapon
from the crawl space by your bed
i have seen the mountain
and i will go there tonight
and surely 'fore the moonlight has left us
oh 'cause tonight all the earth
and all the heavens are a circuit
and the engine is the goddess alone
the crack in your bed
the voice in your head
the sun and the sandstone
the moon and the jawbone oh no
it is only one more mile
'til we reach the promised land
she rests her heel on the big chrome wheel and laughs
"who put these things in your head?
oh, i can hear 'em
it isn't any secret
the road isn't sacred - try and repeat that with me"
the miles return to the mountain
and i can hear the ground is shaking
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2. |
Flood Song I
04:21
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you are crossing
under the wire
and i pray that the water don't come for to carry you down
you are singing
"i am transfigured
and i hope that this flood lifts my tired feet off the ground"
you are glowing
and i surrender
pluck a hair from your head, weave the thread through your hospital gown
you are wading
in the water
chanting "darling, it's okay, it's all out of your hands now"
oh, but homeless and horrified
looking away
from your eyes beyond death
as they sweetly say
i am the architect of your destruction lover
i am gonna make you pay
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3. |
Flood Song II
02:13
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well she left us
with emeralds in our eyes
and a field of wildflowers in our hair
they left her body lying on the horace greeley highway
on the fourth of july
when there was nobody there
but what light is this?
she awoke the next morning
from the sand and the foam
borne on the back of something sinister
and casting her eyes to the funeral pyre
she cries
"all these rivers, they must roll on forever"
but what light is this?
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4. |
1994
05:16
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in half a century
they will mass produce the poison
that will finally take me
away
from this place
cartwheeling through the twin ends
of this vast inner space
floating free
from the anchor contingence erased
on nights like these
i fear the creature
will finally take me
away
from my sleep
walking the miles of myth
of a cruel misery
speaking with stones in the tones
of a prehistory
go on darling go on get some rest
your body is a criminal
go on darling go on get some rest
i am not responsible
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5. |
Three Graces
03:28
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around the hanging tree last night
you come down from your cloud to say
that here beside the glow of god's own gaslight
we were saved
and when she finally heard the news
it was a year ago today
she wept over her coffee in the drawing room
as if to say
three wishes for the race of man
three stitches in the guiding hand
it is written that it all trickles down
three to watch while the elephant bled
three graces return in chains to the homestead
it is written that it all trickles down
tall tales of a former life here
your letters were a legend but you lied
it was the glow on your daddy's chrysler
that finally made me blind
and in the upstairs bedroom
your head was slowly swelling as you cried
"my god, i think this holy water
is finally eating me alive"
it's fine, it's okay
i don't think it matters
it's fine, it's okay
i don't think it matters
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6. |
When I Quit Drinking
03:40
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when i quit drinking
i will come see you
at the bleeding edge of the empire
i will make peace with you
you been waiting
and i been long wandering
along the wire
here by the driveway
widows walk with heads
of their husbands in hand
and you and your sister
watched the wagons from the screen door
the dogs in the yard
peek through the bars
and howl
at the ambulance bells
the storm crossed the desert
with great white sails
and out in the yard
by the big black car
the ash from the pine fire
piled like snow in your hair
and in the right light they said
you looked like an angel
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7. |
Dancing
06:05
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superstitious sweetheart, you're a mess
sick and seeking sanctuary in your own distress
the embers of an adolescence smolder in your breast
but you're the same
sweetheart clip my wings, i am a skeptic
with everything in motion, you're a pawn - you must accept it
and god, you are an angel when you choose to least express it
anyways
she says "i am no beauty i am cruel and i am haunting
i am weak and i am weary, i am sure you do not want me"
and i say "although i am already married to the demon drink,
i like the way you think - so let's go dancing"
a little life and the city lights and now you figure
"the world it ain't my garden, no it's so much fucking bigger
and although i can't see the stars behind a tide of piss and vinegar
i've changed"
and now the lip splits open
the salt of a single syllable misspoken
and the lock outside your bedroom door is always broken
but i'll wait
i said "i am inert, i am the vessel and you steer me
i am supervised and sickened by the things that i hold dearly"
and she reeled me in by singing "oh my dear, i'm nothing like my mom and dad
so put the money in the bag and we'll go dancing"
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8. |
Flood Song III
05:56
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outside the dogs are barking
it's just a little while 'til we see some lighting
the cannons are ready and the river swells
and it's all spilling over like your daddy's beer belly
the breadth of the water and the strength of man
your father was a sailor and your mother was the brass band
long hair caught in the engine
tilt your head back and taste of the medicine
outside the dogs are laughing
the screen door slams and the rafters are snapping
the cannons are ready but the coffee is thin
and it tastes like the oil put a hole in the wineskin
the cannons get a little louder
and all the while, white waters surround her
the firelight illuminates the bed
and it's fine, your eyes roll back into your head
and she comes from on high and says "ooh,
do you recognize me? i am your maker"
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9. |
Highway 40
02:20
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every night i see you climbing down the still house stairs
graceless as the hollow carcass of the yankee flyer
the seven hands of heaven scratching at the surface
of the seven dirty rivers running by her
so i dipped my fingers in because your feet had touched the surface
but it tasted like the snow upon the town where i once lived and i said
"why can't i go there?
why can't i go there too?"
i looked in the holy mirror and i was hunting you backwards
down the artery whose blood runs with the santa fe chief
there was blood in my boots too, and it tasted just like you
and the union of our lives, however brief
so i dipped my fingers in because i thought it was the currency
of all the heroes far away from home and i said
"i guess i don't care
i guess i don't care, too"
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10. |
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by the time that you opened up your eyes
it was over
the carnival come to a halt
in the night
and the ghosts with no place to go
look so much older
and the lantern inside your mind's eye
reignites
oh, but when we complete
this archaic recital
and any temperance left
has just yet to see trial
and the you of your youth
is completely defiled
and you name what remains
your reality
you finally got your liberty
back in the crucible
your life used to be
so provincial, the people so absorbed
in their misery
you're a hometown hero
of the highest degree
but you're just trying to atone
for your fucked up family
but as sure as our god
builds his home on the shore
and as righteous as you are
you're gonna ask for one more
chance to return our lives back
to the way that they were
but when you disappear
i'll know the score
know the score
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11. |
Acoma
02:19
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the silver sings of foreign lands
take it from my shaking hands
leave quivira far behind
cibola beckons fifty miles nigh
tonight the gears of heaven
will turn like dancers
the will of god has come to pass
the bodies buried in the buffalo grass
spit the blood between my gums
and open up the gates of zion
tonight the blue mountains
will reveal the answer
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12. |
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when you were born screaming
did you think that it would ever stop?
or were you fooled into believing
that the torture was your fault
every inch of your body bound to the crusade
defaced, divorced
from the fire you were forged from
passed out in the puddle
of the filth that which you rose from
crippled by the cradle of the character
from which you escaped
today i finally washed your blood out of my sheets
if only to hold in the hand some proof
of our latest inevitability
lucky to be so free
i cut my skin on the silver you gave me
thought you had the illness licked
but i am howling "i'm a sinner, i am sick
and i am coming for your conscience"
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13. |
Bonus: Parting Gifts
02:56
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this radio silence was restraint at its finest
but in time, it started to impair
the assertion it was more than effective denying
the entrenchment of this despair
so the terror that it's brought and the hell that it's wrought
is manifest as in the same sin
that makes you want to hang a weight from your neck
and sink to the bottom of a bottle of gin
so i took it rough but i am better off
trying to work it out by traditional means
than to bitch and moan that i'm alone
while your face fades from my memory
it was the absolute among us that you just couldn't stomach
made so evident in your vindication
for as you departed you paused to remark
that any day you'd take the pain over the suffocation
now the future is upended or it hangs suspended
in the amber of another drink
or in a message carved by a beer-soaked prophet
in the mirror above the bathroom sink
so fare thee well i hope you are compelled
to accept the liberation you have earned
so take these parting gifts, i pray whatever path you walk
you escape this wicked place
before you burn
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14. |
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15. |
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Bird Friend New Hampshire
Bird Friend is a weird folk band from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Geoff Himsel, Carson Kennedy, Andrew Eckel, and friends.
Bird Friend recommends:
adam's passed out on the floor again
go to album
The Audrey it Burns
by Abner II
talk shit sing in tune
go to album
burning sister taylor river
by wheel kid
things chatter in the dark down here
go to albumIf you like Bird Friend, you may also like:
Crafting powerful songs about commitment and love, the Nashville singer-songwriter channels and subverts ’70s country and folk tropes.
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A vibrant vision of "Central Americana" from the Costa Rica-based artist, blending heartland devotionals with playful Tropicália grooves.
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If you have a fondness for expertly wrought roots-rock with sharp lyrics and aching vocals, look no further—“Strangers” is for you.
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