1. |
Graveyard Block
04:55
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i used to walk
this graveyard block
every afternoon
to the tune
of morbid, brainy bands
and dream of holding hands
with a girl
in her second
or third
Smiths-fan phase
who shared my self-imposed malaise
i remember the blue light
and the oak leaves taking flight
i remember the heat of the coffee cup
and turning my herringbone collar up
i used to to walk
this graveyard block
every afternoon
to the tune
of morbid, brainy bands
till i found friendly hands
she didn't fit my absurd vision
but she was the perfect revision
i remember her empowered strut
and adorable pixie cut
i remember the distant sound of trains
the silk scarf, and the mary janes
i used to walk
this graveyard block
every afternoon
now back in the cemetery,
i recall our whole story:
there's the wall
where we sat that fall
there's the tree
under which we
had our awkward first kiss
there's the path
where we stood and laughed
i used to walk
this graveyard block
every afternoon
to the tune
of morbid, brainy bands
then come back at night holding hands!
we'd take a different route…
then totally make out!
i remember being accused
of having practiced on an apple
i remember she said you'll get better at this soon
then looked up and recited
A.A. Milne
to the moon
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2. |
Red Stripe
04:08
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in the evenings between 8 and 11 o'clock
in the same skylit room after the same walk
past fine folks addicted to meth amphetamines
who'd been shooting/snorting/whatever in public latrines
i'd sip tea from a mug you'd sort of made
and we'd watch a movie with that guy from blade
it was amazing:
wesley snipe, action hero
as a drag queen!
you showed me the print that won honorable mention
and i got confused about my intentions
when i arrived you were eating a sandwich from the pita pit
and surfing idly on the internet
while listening to frank sinatra
you laughed the whole scene off, but i said "you don't gotta...
let's dance to these absurd songs!
and wish, wish, wish that the summer stretched on!"
let's dance to these absurd songs!
and wish, wish, wish that the summer stretched on!"
and to say goodnight, i would stop for a minute
on your back porch,
stepped down so i could fit
into the hug that we'd been practicing
and when i'd step through the gate i would sing
along with the headphones on
to those absurd songs!
and i'd wish, wish, wish that the summer would stretch on…
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3. |
Cold & Golden
04:42
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i can't actually visualize
what it would be like
to still be involved at all
in each other's lives
and what exactly we had in common remains unclear
and what connection we might have had
grows weaker and weaker every year
it all started with a picturesque autumn walk
where the afternoon, cold and golden,
slid away
in talk
on the marble bench by the old mill
because back then we had time to kill
and it got better the night of the blackout
i called you from a phone booth in the dark
your voice resonated in the pitch
and it flipped a switch!
by the candles and the eerie moon
we hung out in your room
and no, we didn't kiss
or even sit that close to each other
but it was awesome anyway!
i thank you for not wanting to date me
i completely fucked that up irrevocably
yet i've kept playing the mix
yeah, yeah ever since
the one that was all classical music
with instructions in all-caps sharpie
saying "PLAY THIS REALLY LOUD!"
and you were right,
when i play it really loud
my perpetually romantic heart
goes right back to our start!
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4. |
Frenzied Spring
03:09
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FRENZIED SPRING
under the verdant leaves
of the swaying birch trees
in that spring
we'd been waiting for so long
we kissed and i sang her a song
she shut me up:
with a hand to her ear,
she said "listen, o listen, my dear!"
and we, oh we, oh we could hear
the whisperings in those woods
from decades of sweetheart students
standing where we stood
with wild joy and aging innocence
but our story started in the snow
by the light of lamps and her cigarette's glow
she looked like ginger rogers
on one of her best days!
and oh, those nights we slept only an hour or two
kept awake, holding hands in that attic room
i remember the rural lampposts
and the slow-mo snow
covering where our tracks had been
and oh, the years i've spent since then
having to hear songs that other guys have written about her
and oh, the years she's spent since then
with mustachioed hipsters and even my close friends
but oh…i let her go!
but i'm thankful for the memory of the bat
and zany professor with the chinese hat
i'm thankful for that whole frenzied spring
when she told me to stop singing,
but i didn't listen, no, i let my voice bloom…
i opened it up to fill up the room!
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5. |
Mario Mushrooms
05:58
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we sped through the science building on borrowed bikes
pushed through the double doors and then stopped
we noticed in the space between our tire treads
the unusual shape of those sprinkler heads
"they look like mario mushrooms!"
you said
so we made a pact, then and there
to paint them that way
someday
and when time had almost run out
we met up in the middle of the night
i stole the paints and brushes, you brought the flashlight
we worked in purple, red, and white
but it was hard to see
down under the green ash tree…
and as the paint dried and the pink dawn began
we fell asleep
and when we woke up we were holding hands
that was it, that was it, that was good enough
that was good enough
when you woke you asked me to bring you an apple
so i yawned, stretched, and went out searching
the late spring air was hot and heavy but still smelled of flowers
the crowds parted, i had eyes only for you
and wordlessly i handed over the unseasonable fruit
and you grinned
that was it, that was it, that was good enough
that was good enough
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6. |
French New Wave Heroine
03:06
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she was just like madeleine
in "masculin / féminin "
a french new wave heroine
but i'll never, ever go there again
and she, she won my heart
even though she did performance art
she wrote me notes,
kept pressing send
even though she was someone else's girlfriend
and i fell for her in the humid breeze
on a platform built into the trees
where she twirled a dandelion against her cheek
the thought of which still makes me weak
and she, she got inside my head
before we'd ever shared a bed
and i stayed spellbound by that false sun
from the early spring to the autumn
later, back behind the ghostly barn
hating each other, but arm in arm
now past the point of being flirts
we got to the warmth underneath our shirts
and the wind howled down the sloping hill
as the candles flickered in the window sills
and we fell to the ground like snow angels
and branches creaked like tinkling bells
and we, we tossed and turned
showing off everything we'd learned
and the grass blades froze around us just right
like silver brush strokes against the night…
and our breath plumed out like chimney smoke
in the moment our connection broke,
and our hands grew tired of their strained touch
so we let them fall, and we lost so much…
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7. |
One Times One
08:20
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on the day you returned from your world travels
we met at the cemetery gates
where else?
i lay down in the cool grass
so i wouldn't have to see you approaching
now those first two weeks of june,
they were all dark and dreary…
they were all doom and gloom
but looking up
i watched the sky turn from grey to blue
yeah, summer came that day
and i credit you
so you appeared in my field of vision
in your striped cotton sundress,
and audrey hepburn shades
and we walked around our beloved hometown
making so many plans: a massive summer To-Do
on the corner near the church playground
i heard that mechanical vibrating sound
yeah, i answered my phone– pretended i was somewhere else,
pretended i was alone so that we could keep walking
so that we could keep talking…
and when at last we had to go back
and we stopped outside your mother's garden gate
i felt like i couldn't let go
even though our feelings hadn't been made official
hell, i wasn't even single
but in ten short days i was yours for the taking
and so began the greatest love story of my young life
yeah, i said on that day summer came to me
and i still really mean it, summer came to me!
summer came to me
oh, oh all pervasively
and i credit you!
there was a newfound excitement about the world
and we watched as our dreams, gleaned from books, unfurled
there was the whole countryside to explore
and there was kissing outside the natural foods store!
and to document our time together
there was the making of printed matter!
we picked cherries on the hottest day
and as i stood in the red dotted trees, i gazed
at you perched on a ladder
felt lucky, more full of life than ever
we got naked in the garden, shampooing the dog
and the electricity of our skin
oh i can't even begin…
we took pictures of the sunset every day of july
and we felt safe, we needed no more shelter
than the sky!
now i'm not sure exactly when it really started
maybe before that day at the cemetery gates…
when you rolled up to me on your bicycle named Belleroo
yeah summer came to me
oh, oh all pervasively
and i credit you!
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8. |
Repertoire Of Men
02:33
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i asked you to waltz with me
and we waltzed… just a little clumsily
for weeks i wished…
wished i could remember your name
and in the 1960s dancehall,
there, there you suddenly were
and as the soul singles played,
we swung and swayed!
the first time i gazed beyond the glasses,
i was struck dumb by your stare
in the house sitting mansion
with its electronically controlled air
the city lights behind you,
through a wall of windows
finally i'd made it into
a scene from Antonioni
but being one of your lovers,
though ecstatic, though magic
i felt like a leading man
in the moment he discovers
his story, though mostly comic
has just a hint of the tragic
and the city lights behind you,
you flew through the air
on an uncomfortable tire swing
but you didn't care!
the yellow leaves backlit,
in the foreground
it was a scene of young lovers in autumn
i hadn't created yet
and what we called "rest,"
oh that, that was the best!
in your repertoire of men
i was just the one
more earnest than them
and probably still in love
with all my ex girlfriends!
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9. |
First/Last Frost
05:38
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i stood in a cultivated field
looking at the beautiful work that you'd done
before i even met you
i ascended the hollow stairs
to a long forgotten room
expecting no one,
i found you
and though we talked for less than ten…
well, after that
i just knew, i just knew, i just knew
and later that afternoon i followed the sun
as it descended behind your little house at the top of a hill
i saw you through the window as the first frost began to form
and i just knew, and i just knew!
to the sound of the tea kettle and the purring of your secret cat
surrounded by old postcards and open cookbooks,
i just knew, i just knew, i just knew!
later on the other side, at a completely different point in our lives
our knees kept getting closer
our hands kept getting closer
and i just knew! and i just knew! and i just knew!
on the highway in the nighttime during nostalgic singalongs
when you weren't looking
i sewed myself into the lining of your blackwatch pendleton coat
'cos i just knew, 'cos i just knew!
and on the morning of the last frost
we took a woods walk
coffee in a thermos, a bench on a precipice
and the clouds opened up
when you busted out the pear cake!
it was like a perfect picture, no one was there to take
one kiss ends it all! one kiss ends it all! and i just knew, and you did too…
(you did too)
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10. |
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days, bright and hazy
from first period to the party:
it was us, us against the world!
it was knowing there was someone
on the other side
of the landline or the classroom
it was knowing there was someone
interpreting the same songs
in the same, the same way!
and the search for truth and beauty,
in the isles of the used bookstore
at the bottom of the ice cream cone
in the empty elementary school playground
no it never got old, no it never got old,
no it never/never got old!
and lying on your trampoline in the backyard
when everything, everything was green…
from the witty discourse to the clumsy intercourse,
yeah, everything / everything was green!
and we experienced the seasons
with the poignancy
of the protagonists we wanted to be
but we didn't feel real anger
or disappointment…
no, when we were emo
we manufactured most of that shit
it was knowing there was someone,
down the alleyway
with their head also steeped in reverb
it was knowing there was someone
who dared to share
in the breaking of all of the rules!
everything we did, yeah, everything we did
was unprecedented!
and the search for truth and beauty,
in the isles of the used bookstore
in the bottom of the ice cream cone
in the empty elementary school playground
no it never got old, no it never got old
no it never / never got old!
days, bright and hazy
from first period to the party:
it was us,
us against the world!
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Advrb Portland, Oregon
Andrew Barton plays, sings, and records as Advrb.
Kellen Hopfner sings with
him.
Josh Bay plays cello and electric piano.
Elisabeth Ryan plays drums.
Joshua James Amberson plays bass.
The band sounds both quiet and loud.
... more
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