1. |
||||
Caught a ride on the heading somewhere train
And fantasized that we would go live
Where we danced in the shadows of airplanes
And wondered when the birds became so big
I’ve been chasing the shine like the moths do
My whole life I’ve been searching for the prettiest lights
But I mistakenly called you
To follow me back to the city tonight
Morning comes to Montana
Snow capped frames outline the panorama
Spend the whole damn night in the observation car
And felt like a insect in a mason jar
I sigh like the wheels when the train departs
And sleep with the sway of a changing heart
Traveled thousands of miles tryna to make a mark
I won’t complain at all, it’s just the way we are
Do you remember that day on Wy’east
When we found the old creek in the dry heat?
I was dirty from my head to my feet
And the Shadows in the dust were our only time piece
What if we could’ve stayed
Made shelter from the old growth to sleep in the shade
Made dinner from blackberries and meat from our prey
And turned to the stars if we needed to be entertained
Afternoon arrives in Idaho
It’s all too perfect, almost feels like a biodome
What a silly notion. Thoughts from the twilight zone
Coeur D’Alene Lake looking like a blue kaleidoscope
Something tells me if this were a movie
I’d send a message in a bottle leading you to me
Tell you to pack the love letters and the plastic
So you have reason to come, means to match it
When you arrived, I’d be readying the riverboat
Dripping wet from a dip in the swimming hole
We’d start the ever after, and soon forget the past
Point to a plane like wow, what is that?
We always head home, we always head home
The lights from the streets drown the milky way’s glow
Lead by the pull, we can never let go
It ain’t quite the same but I’m still amazed though
|
||||
2. |
||||
Stitches in my head, shit, I’m tougher than leather
Healing wounds of the heart is another endeavor
See, some’ll get worse, and some’ll get better
Some are forever, yeah, it’s summer forever
Sunshine, open up your window
Feel light burning up your sorrow
Playing child games with chrysanthemum petals
That last “love me not” had my stomach unsettled
We were on the blanket, shifting and moving nervously
Your touch had me thinking that 20s the new eternity
Full of heart in the land of the robots
Made it rain in the ice cream cone shop
I was doing work, tryna find ya o spot
When I hit it you was like “baby, don’t stop”
Sunshine, Dragonflies
I was yours, you were mine
I was daisy chained out , spitting watermelon seeds
While the homies downed candy hearts laced with LSD
Swallowed every pill, but couldn’t swallow the truth
Know it all’s who aint know shit, the folly of youth
Full of life in this desolate wasteland
Made it rain at the corner lemonade stand
Boogied in the street even though I cain’t dance
God damn, girl, can I get an Amen?
August came like a month long Sunday
Days got shorter and slipped into the mundane
Other than a broken heart and a couple blood stains
I don’t have a worry or a complaint
Full of doubt in a land full of the sure things
Broke as hell from all the downpouring
Came to on a red sky morning
I ain’t ready to end my story
Cause stitches in my head, yo, I’m tougher than leather
Healing wounds of the heart is another endeavor
See, some’ll get worse, and some’ll get better
Some are forever, yeah, it’s summer forever
|
||||
3. |
||||
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, I always use to have ‘em
A dry mouthed, maladapted fire breathing dragon
20 little co-pilots packed like sardines
Gave me confidence and a faster heartbeat
I was puffing on the reds, sucking down the blues
Green, yellows, black, I was fucking with them too
27s and the shorts, wides and the hundreds
Quality correlated with size of the budget
Started every day with a Spirit or P Funk
Smoke from the grill, and the steam from the teacup
Pocket notebook filled with lines of the penmanship
All the accessories of the wise and contemplative
Shit’s so crazy, there had to be an order in it
Slow it down, fit a life time into forty minutes
No tomorrow when deciphering the past
So I’d pull another out and I’d light it with the last
It’s always just one more than I’m done
I swear it’s just one more than I’m done
Oh give me just one more than I’m done
It’s always just one more than I’m done
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, my homies use to bum ‘em
Been handing out stoges since the kid was youngin’
Cherry tipped stick put a cherry on the post meal
Cauterize the broken emotions that just won’t heal
Social smoker, never did it sober
Until one Sunday had a couple left over
Flicked the yellow bic til the fuse was lit
Took a sip and thought I could get used to this, shit
Pretty soon, I couldn’t drive without one
Couldn’t navigate the high without one
Helped me balance out the trip when I was diving down some
Take ‘em to the filter, nevermind the outcome
My grand daddy’s died from a lucky stripe love
And I put that same poison up in my lungs
Smoking at the funeral sitting in the ash
I pulled another out, and I lit it with the last
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, I still tend to crave ‘em
Sitting at the bar and the shit smells amazin’
Been over two years since I kicked it cold turkey
Thanks to a sickness and a bit of soul searching
Started feeling old and thinking about fifty
And all the people I love hanging around with me
The temptations come, but I push ‘em to the back
If I pulled another out, it wouldn’t be the last
|
||||
4. |
||||
Champagne in my OJ
Bumping old Ghostface
Keep it chiller than a snowflake
Cooler than a cold rain
Fill my glass past the top
Stunting in the AM
The backyard is my playpen
No burdens, so weightless,
Hit the levitation
Feel like an astronaut
Bought a new crib, half acre on the deed
My lady put the money up, she crazier than me
That NorthWest summer got me hanging in the heat
In a little kiddie pool still playing make believe
Got a big beer gut, swag like a senior
No shoes, snipped shorts, tattered up t-shirt
Yeah…last night they carried me off
I begin the next morning with the hair of the dog
A good rough…Post with a ceegar puff
Newest Lukulele Slim, let the geetar strum
Whittling knife in my hands, carve the tree bark up
For now and forever show my sweetheart love
I mean “Hey”, my definition of the better ways
Is loving what I made, and sipping my lemonade
Resting like a deity up on the 7th day
Before I work the 8th, I pop it and celebrate
I roll with Cooks and Andre
Don’t need to drop dollars, I just top it with some OJ
I’m balling when I’m bubbling, I sparkle when I shine
A better way to celebrate, it’s all in your mind.
OJ in my champagne
Blueberries in my pancakes
You know I do the damng thang, stretch it like a hamstrang
Sip until the bubbly’s gone
Turn all of the screens black
Bumping old three stacks
Mind my own beez whacks, Luda don’t need that
Acting like nothing’s wrong
Try to name a mah fugger doper than the kid
Know that I’m a failure, know that I’m the shit
Fill the champagne and oj to the lip
Then pour a couple glugs out for the homey’s that we miss
Got an apricot tree, apple and a plum too
Hunk of meat on the grill, baggie full of junk food
SPF 50, lather up the skin
Fight the melanoma so it don’t come back again
Good lord, been lit since before ‘04
And I’ll prolly keep it swag for like 4-0 more
While the other dorks whined like some poor ol’ sports
I was easy catching Z’s like zorro’s sword
I mean cheers, my definition of the higher tier
Is conquering what I fear, and sipping my pint of beer
Working to better the man I see inside the mirror
So before we disappear, let’s toast it to brighter years
|
||||
5. |
||||
Cold as icicles, baby you should know
I am not so usual
(Lucas)
Looking for a marker that’ll mesmerize the mania
Searching for a reason I should step outside the radius
Match maker, sidewalk crack back breaker
Sing like a good Samaritan and a bad neighbor
Mach 5 the mission, or meditate and chill
Anything it takes to pay the bills or medicate the ills
I say that I’m an artist to excuse the self talk
To justify the daydreams and brush the L’s off
Jack of all dabblers collaging all the hobbies up
Sprouting vegetation by rerouting rusty aqueducts
Inviting only family to mob upon a posse cut
So you can kick the pebbles, rocks and dust if you ain’t squad with us
Come a couple check points since a pip squeaking
Kid speaking gibberish while thinking it’s significant
I’ve learned to work and play, learned to blur the difference
Learned to think big and to pick a tiny instrument…slim
(Steve)
Before I was old enough to know better I knew better
That whoever I met told truth never
That whenever she wrong, just let her
I know it ain’t right, but save yourself a night man, forget it
Before I was junkie gas pumping on the monthly
I was certain there was nothing worth working for
This jerk is more nothing than the void itself
Avoid the well, its coins and its wishes
Friends stick to your business
Day crimes, from the banks to its robbers
Don’t worry, they’re insured they ain’t gonna stop us
Plus when they go broke they ain’t go no problems
Print some more paper while the tax payer watching
Bad man, sometimes you can see it in my eyes
It happens automatically, I don’t even try
Fuck around the best like “Who the hell am I”
Forget about the rest, baby, don’t waste your time
(Lucas)
Trek to the bodega with a pair of dirty hobbit feet
Wish upon a satellite and other worldly oddities
The signal is a summoning, missles are rebuttling
I stitch a wing and summit when the simple things are puzzling
We busy, titled to a tizzy just to amp the endorphins
No castle or fortress, no family fortune
Chicken with the mandarin oranges
Might as well grub now before they ration the portions
Wallet made of duct tape, necklace made of sharks teeth
Plastic cup full of magic within arm’s reach
Anxious little Andy with a palpitating heart beat
Swallowing my nerves to be the life of the party
Normal is subjective, usual is too
You should use whatever adjective is beautiful to you
I’ma do the same, do the same, do the do the same thing
And hold on to a piece of me while everything is changing
|
||||
6. |
From the Edge
04:08
|
|||
12 years old on a Door County dock
Where the low level bluffs look like full mountain tops
Fanny pack strapped with a newer short swagger
Stumbling like a poet out the troubadour tavern
We was 5 deep, whole family in a line of ducks
Tossing wonder bread to the lake brim, line ‘em up
Sunset looking like it brushed with the midas touch
Dime a dozen view for a man with a pirate’s lust
Concrete feeling like a rickety bridge
I walked a tight rope down the middle of it
Eyes like a lighthouse on my littler sis
Rotate and shine upon on Lake Michigan’s lips
I thought what if something comes along and accidentally bumps her
Something grabs hold and my sister goes under
And I reacted like a scaredy-cat or a coward
While my flesh and blood sinks downward
So I said, please don’t stray, please don’t fall
I see no way, I could save us all
From the undertow or a kraken from the depths
Take my hand and back up off the edge
If I were to stumble off the edge
How would I meet my fate
Would I watch the ground get close
Or the sky fall away
On a cliff at the pacific ocean,
I was high as a kite with some mixed emotions
Staring out into the dip below,
And I saw myself fall like stripped erosion
Tip toed with a hindered motion,
And a lighthouse eye, can’t miss the omens
This the beauty, me the beholder,
Get lost in the glow of the symbiosis
Knock in the knees, sweep the leg,
Don’t trust my balance to greet the edge
Chuck a rock to the bottom and I feel the dread,
Like what if that stone was me instead
Jump back, jump back, stay in the middle
Belly of the yellow, brain of the brittle
Hold still like I’ll wait for the sibyl
To determine if I’ll be the next face of the vigil
And I swear to you, on everything
I’d risk it all, love and limb
To pull you back, to keep you here
And if I slip, to hug the wind
While I fall, I’ll scream and shout
Figure out which way to face
Ground or sky, how will I
Embrace my fate
|
||||
7. |
||||
(Brass Clouds)
Clocks in reverse as we rehearse the clone rituals
At home habitual, filling up the kitchen bowl
I try to survive the sword storm, new vs the norm core
Ratio over 3 to 1 to overcome the four score
I’ve poisoned apples and broken satellites
Turn up the kick and Acrolie, pack it right and stack the light
I’m holding mics with rotted hands, I’ve got some plotted plans
Plus someday I’ll be another person potted plant
(Lucas)
I’ma a sucker for a sore sight that guts me like a Philly Wrap
I get it til my silly ass is spinning like the ceiling fan
Spilling that soliloquy illy to get you leaping off the lily pad
You feelling that? We got ‘em hooked like Billy Bass
Stick and stone cuts, the prose struck like so what
You must have mistaken me, homey, I don’t give no fucks
Double negative, I put a bunch of sweat in this
It takes a lot of work to make it seem like something effortless
For the purpose, the props, and the praise
I go hard as the body obeys
For the sun and the droplets of rain
I got love for some opposite thangs
(Brass Clouds)
Born naked with horns sacred
The torn vagrant from hands of the sworn ancients
Unraveling the strands of persuasion, percussion placement
Adjacent to the vocal tracks we are lacing
(Lucas)
My imagination’s like some five year old Picasso’s
Finger painting aliens with shiny, glowing nostrils
A hundred popping eyes on a hundred winding tentacles
This is what they’ll get next time someone tries to mess with you
(Brass Clouds)
Hollow bottle flutes follow me like the boots on my feet
Cleats for the concrete, fleets for the song sheet
Right way to the wrong week, sugar coated bong free
Short circuiting the long leash
(Lucas)
Talks cheaper than a scribbled IOU slip
I speak it, then I say it, then I plan it, then I do it
My dome is but a star for a team of tiny muses
That’ll circle round and round, call it mindful revolution
(Brass Clouds)
Growing glass gardens on dilapidated rooftops
Dropping like a new stock, only ever moved a few blocks
Lock and load and control your headphones
The kings of this dead zone, selling souls like cell phones
(Lucas)
Buy ‘em all, discount pricing
Crash and burn, baby, but I dismount nicely
Humble attitude with a sick style psyche
I only wake the fuck up to get down nightly, aight, peace
|
||||
8. |
||||
Pine cones, pine trees, pine needles
I am of the land that will make your spine tingle
Observer of the slugs and the wooly caterpillar camps
Sifting through the majesty that’s measured by the milligrams
Little things squiggling, burrowed in the mud and dirt
Heart beat speed on turbo like a humming bird’s
Sharpened stone arrows hurled at the Oncerler
I am here to ensure this world will go undisturbed
On ward yonder with a pack of dragonflies
Digging green thumbs into the veins of a nurse log
I know the night from the stars to the satellites
So I’ll be well aware once your gadgetry is turn off
Nap in the woods, back at the bush
Dreamscape soundtracked by a babbling brook
Hit the highest branch, no grappling hooks
Just an avatar swagger and some magical kush
Rally up the renegades with wolf pack howls
Make a mortal man shake, make a cool cat grovel
Journey to the middle of nowhere, I’ve been there
Got a couple lungs full of fresh air
Glow like we are the moon to the mothwings
Bow heads then we chew through the offerings
Gaia’s undiscovered from the twilight zone
Pine needles, pine trees, pine cones
I don’t know what you think or what you heard dunny
It’s Neon Autumn, and we keeps it fern gully
While the rest of the world tries to leave the earth bloody
Claud Six gonna keep it Fern Gully
I don’t know what you think or what you heard dunny
It’s Neon Autumn, and we keeps it fern gully
While the rest of the world tries to leave the earth bloody
Brass Clouds gonna keep it Fern Gully
|
||||
9. |
||||
(Kellen)
How does this always happen
Wish that I could look inside my absent minded map
In the dizzy history of this messy mental trap
There is a thread to unravel countless mysteries
Of my ever missing carabineer of keys
Please, come on, man, you can do better than this
You’d lose your own hands if they weren’t fixed to your wrists
Thirty years of torturing your brain is catching up to you
Now you’re thirty minutes late, tell me what you’re gonna do
(Lucas)
I done lost my keys somewhere today
The recovery mission led me underneath the staircase
Where the machines from an old friends ghost music
Sit wrapped in cables, I still can’t go through it
Probably need to check the laundry basket, rummage through the pockets
The needle in the stuff up in my closet
Flipping couch cushions, pushion out the box spring
No keys, but a whole graveyard of lost things
(Kellen)
What’s this? The license I misplaced in ‘06
Buried here with all the burnt spliffs and guitar picks
Think of all the songs that they never got to play
Lost with all of the good decisions I never made
But, hey, wait, you still got time for redemption
Find your chain of keys, venture forth and get some
Pick up all the pieces of your scattered life so far
The road ahead awaits if you could just get in your car
(Lucas)
God Dammnit. This is getting stupid.
Get your shit together, man, you’re 30 now, Lucas
Too old to be careless and wait for the lessons
Momma always said you should pay more attention
Use to have a house key, now I have a million keys
One for every new layer of responsibility
Always on the go, til I slip to senility
Shit, my drunk ass last night prolly lost them things willingly
(Kellen)
Did I have them at the show, did I drop them on the flo’
Did I leave them in the do’, shit, did I turn off the stove
I don’t think anyone’s home, nobody picks up they phone
Leave a message at the tone, beep, yo
I lost my fucking keys again, man, I swear the fucking vanished
I looked in every nook in the entire fucking planet
You handed them to me after we loaded up the van
Oh, damn, they were right here in my hand
|
||||
10. |
||||
One table at the greasy spoon
3 plates and the morning news
It’s a pleasure just to eat with you
Come for the talk, stay for the food
(Lucas)
I’d rather take a booth than a set of stools
Don’t wanna wait in any lines hanging out the vestibule
The cheaper the better, ain’t a fine dine foodie
Like my spot with newspaper clips and signed unis
Grab the menu, pretend to puruse through
When the waitress comes around I order the usual
Substitute fries for the hash browns
Elevator vibes in the background
No coffee, no Stumptown mocha
I’ll take my caffeine in a cup of house Cola
I’ll take the tall tales with a dash of pep, grain of salt
Toasted, over-medium, and covered in a gravy sauce
(Efftupp)
Anytime you get offered an ultimatum
Go with the side that just offered you eggs and bacon
Need a break from the politics we've been debatin
50 years later, still cling to Ronald Reagan
Who needs a vitamin? I got my chaser!
Did y'all see the score from the Cedar Rapids Pacers?
They got that new kid, throwing a damn doozy
Got a slick shot that makes Curry look like Bob Cousy
(Blake Ambrose)
Of course I still get brews with Dru,
But it is a lot rarer we both shoot the shit over breakfast with Luc.
We all just paddled in from the coast. A butter knife hits the floor as I reach for some toast.
The whole table's got fists cocked for the choad, who says it's Gavin's ghost
I just finished my hashbrowns at Maggie's Haberdashery
Frying bacon like, you won't get my stash from me.
If you don't hear back from me, assume my sausage chomper atrophied
Or my whole plan for a mid life crisis ended in catastrophe.
(Efftupp)
I carve satanic mickey mouse into my pancakes
Make his penis from my sausage and scrambled eggs
Blake and Luc steady giving me the gas face
But I don't give a damn cause I'm a hoot at this grand age
And I’ma scoot when I'm done to grab my lady
Ride slow, drive the young people crazy
Hard butterscotch candies to the face maybe
I’ma be a dirty old bastard til the grass shades me
(Blake Ambrose)
We've exhausted the small talk and are discussing our vibrance
Decoding the roars of these silver maned lions
We can't believe Dru still has eye sight to pilot
Lucas laughing gets ready to chime in
All of a sudden the next booth erupts in violence
“Gimme the truth or it's your eyelids”
We say know John Wilkes and the rest in silence
Three subtle winks that mean death to tyrants
(Lucas)
Nothing left on the plate but parsley and orange peels
My tummy grumbles, my heart beats the warm feels
Condiment convos, waxing whatever
The future’s unknown and the past lives forever
This one’s on me, I got it, check please
All right, my friends, same time, next week
|
||||
11. |
Ants in the Modem
03:09
|
|||
Ants in the modem, it’s a colony of tech support
Finding home and God in the hum of the electric source
Within the scurry is a bug penning nevermores
And contemplating symbolism stuffed behind a cellar door
Hives Inq. Been producing mighty hijinks
While the tastemakers all catch their 40 eye winks
We do it for the flutter in the belly
Outside of that there is nothing you can tell me
We are but a tiny spider in the tub
All is good and well til the spiraling’s begun
Carried by the circumstance right into the plunge
Leaving back a web of the types of things we’ve done
I know it ain’t as famous as I wish
I know the feeling when you’re big bang has been eclipsed
Relegated to the dimmest star in the whole sky
Just because you don’t see it don’t mean it don’t shine
We something like a tree when it falls
Nobody hears it, nobody at all
We building something here right now with a saw
Come around and catch a house made of logs
We something like a tree when it falls
Nobody hears it, nobody at all
We built our own town in the mist and the fog
Come around and see a city in the moss
Bees in the gutter, a colony of should’ve beens
If you see a sob story, then you better look again
Within the mayhem sits one lazy busy bee
Trying to find a way to make it all work more efficiently
Hives Squad, like a third eye’d Cyclops
While the writers pick and choose, we lurking in the blind spot
We do it for the tingle in the toes
Taking it as it comes and relinquishing control
We are but a buzzing fly between the panes
Best seat in the house to perceive the scenic range
Distracted by the view, we don’t even see the cage
Til the conscious leaves the flesh and the piece of meat decays
I know it ain’t as noticed as I wished
I know the feeling of your magnum opus being missed
Relegated to the smallest fish in the whole sea
Just because you don’t catch it don’t mean it don’t breathe
|
||||
12. |
Field of Wildflowers
03:30
|
|||
Cans of soup, stacks of ammo
Grazed by the light of the last waxy candle
I traded moon beams for a tightly fastened manhole
Solitary king in a tin casket castle
When we first heard the sirens that day
We were quarantined to keep the virus at bay
No fear upon her face, eyes like the sky used to be
The blue I’d stare into to make the time fly beautifully
It stops here. I quit carving tally marks long ago
My calloused heart gone to stone
I’m sick of being tired and tired of waking up
Tired of choking on the dust and the aging basement must’ve
Been her scent. She smelled like the sun squeezing through a dew drop
And danced like nostalgia on an evening with a jukebox
She kissed me. Mrs. Forevermore in her wedding gown
She said “I love you” come with me, we’re getting out
Ain’t no getting out of here, pacing in the pharaoh’s tomb
An eternity for one with a tank of air for two
The belongings that I buried, the things I carried through
The water and the diamond for the girl I’m married to
Where to? She said where fairies drink the berry juice
I can feel her laugh lift my spirits like an air balloon
I touched her face, told her, “I’d go anywhere with you”
I’d dive from 30,000 in your arms without a parachute
Shoot the smoky arrow, tobacco stash is dwindling
Flat upon the mattres, stoic as a plastic figurine
We were sposed to bounce and build a cabin from a giving tree
The future of that favored past has been smashed to smithereens
She recited both our vows
Said “you made a promise, don’t you back out on me now”
I said I never would while descending towards the devil
She batted teary eyes, turned, and sprinted towards the meadow
Echo (echo) signed with an XO
My stomach’s punishment pushing past the peaking threshold
The generator and the dying gadgets trading blips
The machine in me’s alive, but this ain’t no way to live
I screamed until I cried, begging her to boomerang
She drove into the clearing, morphing with the new terrain
My hesitation scored by the sirens that had warned us
I saw the fire and I slammed the door shut
On our anniversary we had a brimstone bridal shower
That drove us from our sanctuary in the ivory tower
I retreated to the earth protected in the final hours
Her bomb shelter was a field of wildflowers
|
BCxLD Portland, Oregon
Producer Brass Clouds teams up with emcee Lucas Dix (Hives Inquiry Squad, Jellyfish Brigade, Shut-ins and the Colony) to form BCxLD. My, How Time Flies is a four part series that will be released over the course of 12 months.
Streaming and Download help
BCxLD recommends:
If you like BCxLD, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp