Risen From The Rails

All songs by Nathan Beach and Grant K
© 2010 Bryan’s Cabin Songs, ASCAP

Recorded in North Texas by Climate
Released 6 April 2010
Technologies: Ableton Live, Native Instruments
Album package and artwork by Darren Frayne
Climate Homemade Records
42:14

Viejas Amigas (0:15)
Bacopa (2:55)
Credit Line (0:40)
Form To Me (2:25)
CAML (3:04)
Chiggers (4:06)
The Escape (1:57)
Waiting for Time (2:47)
The Inferno (3:33)
Risen From The Rails (1:21)
Wooden Polonaise (2:06)
Waves of Pure Flesh (2:11)
My Very Nature (2:55)
Way Back (2:47)
The Union Expanded (2:22)
Monk’s Hood (2:08)
Gleam of Tusks (4:35)

All songs can be previewed in full or purchased at Bandcamp. Also available at Amazon.com.

LYRICS

Viejas Amigas

(instrumental)

Bacopa

i’m a pyracanthus
in the kudzu
i’ve got no change to speak
but will try to make due

i woke up with a headache
and called it “sunday”
i cannot account for
the length of my stay

i lived a life that stayed put
and filled with snowing
i wore some extra socks
when the rain was blowing

Credit Line

we are waiting in the credit line
we tried so hard to behave
but we’ve found no other way to pay
for me
and for you

Form To Me

i put on my shoes and roll back my cuffs
shine up my grill and check for dandruff
it’s been a couple years and i look a little rough
pull out a twenty and hope it’s enough

but
you took a fully live thing and put it in a grave
it’s three years later and i’ve got some things to say
i miss the late nights with my little short wave
since she never forgave me for the way i behaved

i squeeze the metacarpus via Digital Bones™
then i hear familiar static on the telephone
you filled up the moat, sent out the phalanx
i hope this little tune instills dissent in your ranks

but
you took a fully live thing and put it in a sling
it’s three years later and i’ve got some things to sing
i’ve got my microphone and a pocket /i ching/
but i check the friend request and still it’s “pending”

CAML

i try to stay objective
that is my prime directive
though you think i’m brainless
i speak machine language
feeling slightly urban
i think i’ll have a bourbon
it’s more than i can handle
my bones are slightly fragile

blow out the candles
let’s compile some CAML Light
blow out the candles
we’re so very strongly typed

f# was furloughed
interpreting some byte code
it’s more than i can handle
i play the roman vandal
i analyze your syntax
but let’s get down to brass tacks
though you think i’m brainless
i speak machine language

blow out the candles
let’s compile some CAML Light
blow out the candles
we’re so very strongly typed

Chiggers

i know i should find a place for you
a little stylostome where you sit and chew
you’ll die by autumn i say verily
and break a tiny branch in my family tree

i’ve got chiggers

the cairo is such a shady place to go
wired all night on sand and snow
i hold my body up in the ladies’ room
and hope the primal itch will be over soon

i’ve got chiggers

The Escape

we could make our escape
if we left today
head out of town
on stemmons freeway
trail the fading lights
of an april tuesday
you heard your mother say
it doesn’t have to be that way

we could put on our skates
at the rink today
make a little time
for your birthday party
lay on the couch
sideways
the other way
i think my sister’s here to stay

we could turn down the lights
and change the mood
drink a little wine
in a living room lean-to
haze that the stars pass through
two eyes of blue
i really never had a clue

Waiting for Time

you say so many nice things while waiting for time
and then i found some change in the shoe shine line
how long you think you can make it alone?
how long you think you can make it alone?

there’s never a next time
there’s never a next time

one two three
all my servants go free
so they take a step down
to the bourgeoisie
head on back home
to tennessee
with your shiny new gun
and your master’s degree

how long will you make me sigh and moan?
how long will you make me sigh and moan?

[charging a dime]
you said so many nice things while waiting in line
and then i saw you change in the shade of a shine
how long do you think you can make it alone?
hang up your jacket or hang up the phone
there’s never a next time
there’s never a next time

[NB: some melodic credit due to Blüe Öystër Cült]

The Inferno

and now was the day departing
the eye could catch its beam
a ceiling of sky
and fire flies
and remainders of the wind

her eyes might meet your gaze
as fog winds through the rays

i cannot lie
why can’t i lie?
why can’t i lie?
so shifty and sly

and we wanted love to be
a divine comedy
and we fell in love to sing
those pagan harmonies
and we’d pay a buck to be
the lay man on the street

and we wanted love to be
a divine comedy
and we fell in love to sing
those pagan harmonies

Risen From The Rails

(instrumental)

Wooden Polonaise

i should have bought the sun from the sky for you
an honest weekday in sarge’s platoon
why not escape to the gulf of texas
in june

we’ve got a pure taste
we’re the bride and groom
we wooden polonaise
in the ballroom

i can’t erase your lies from my permaview
or try to sympathize with the things you do
i wish you’d creep away in the
stale blue light of the moon

we’ve got a pure taste
we’re the bride and groom
we wooden polonaise
in the ballroom

i hear the final days are coming soon
with a mighty squeak or a tiny boom
let our children sing just a little bit
out of tune

Waves of Pure Flesh

when night crawls i’ll destroy your fucking face
and make a sack lunch of buttered pale white skin
you’ll never know just how far i’ve withdrawn
sketching on fly-ash walls, signed “Ole King Ludd”

further way, further ways
waves pure and fresh
further way, further ways
waves of pure flesh

i’ll come around and creak your nursery gates
a kick and a punch to bruise your pale white skin
you’ll never know just how far i’ve withdrawn
dawn on bedroom walls rusty with blood

further way, further ways
waves pure and fresh
further way, further ways
waves of pure flesh

My Very Nature

i don’t want you to go home
i’m overwhelmed
i’m so alone
you gave me stilts
but i keep falling down
i still don’t know why you keep me around
i ate real good
and they say it shows
hail the waitress, it’s time to go
i did something bad
but i called it good
so i head outdoors into the neighborhood
where

my very nature ain’t a fatal flaw
stay rough and sturdy with those dirty paws
where my very nature ain’t a fatal flaw
stay rough and sturdy with those dirty paws

you gave me a shoe
but my foot’s still cold
another year gone
we’re so old
i smile for the camera in the ladies’ room
where creature comforts never come too soon
but

my very nature ain’t a fatal flaw
stay rough and sturdy with those dirty paws
my very nature ain’t a fatal flaw
stay rough and sturdy with those dirty paws
my very nature ain’t a fatal flaw
stay rough and sturdy with those dirty

Way Back

sitting in the basement, your sister and me
slipping through the bases one, two, three
we go way back
fluffing up the cushions on the leather settee
laying in the hay stacks
sighting up the father with her hands so tiny
she’s moving right in and i’d rather sight see
and takes me out to eat though i feel so sickly

i sing by myself i do this nightly
looking down the street through my window darkly
we go way back
i bought a Big Gulp™ and i feel a little dizzy
laying in the hay stacks
thinking to myself what a waste of three sheets
she’s moving right in though i’d rather sight see
and takes me out to eat though i feel so sickly

we go way back, we go way back
we’re washing the bedsheets
we go way back, we go way back
we’re washing the bedsheets

sitting on the edge of the arab sea
waiting on a ship full of horns and dark meat
we go way back
i heard your mother say with a voice so softly
laying in the hay stacks
let the sailors in with a grin so charming
she’s moving right in though i’d rather sight see
she takes me out to eat though i feel so sickly

we go way back, we go way back
we’re washing the bedsheets
we go way back, we go way back
we’re washing the bedsheets
we go way back, we go way back
we’re washing the bedsheets

The Union Expanded

state your point of view
fill it with venom and virtue
it’s something you can’t undo
but come on and give me a preview

i am through listening to your lying
i am through dealing with your denying

i know you think you were misled
we’re working on our farmstead
we’re doing what the good book said
and sitting on a warhead

i am through listening to your lying
i am through dealing with your denying

i love you sweet maggie
my sailor suit is so skimpy
i’d sail across the deep blue sea
but i’d bring you in for the bounty

i am through listening to your lying
i am through dealing with your denying

Monk’s Hood

i didn’t think i’d stay
wasting the weeks and days
life was all squares and greys
field mice and birds of prey
take a sandwich off the tray
proceed to chewing

i tend to frighten friends away
drove down to the coast in the rain
took a look across the bay
at the sea gulls in the lingering rays
“throw the credit cards away”
what else did you think that Our Father would say?

i’m living in a monk’s hood
i’m living more or less like a monk would

Gleam of Tusks

[dedicated to Ray Combs]

gleam of tusks
it’s just past dusk
i came to burn those photographs
those photographs

for that gleam on my tusks
i brush with pure fluoride
when the baby wants something to eat
we get some polypeptides

and dine by the light of our t.v.
and die by the light of our t.v.

my thoughts are mostly about
whether i live or die
i count the digits in my bonus check
and think of public suicide
tonight on the screen of your t.v.

if i took
back those things i said
to you today

would you please come
back to glendale
be my wife and kids

i say we go
back to basics
use a lantern
buy a hammer
rattlesnakes and wood

my final show
hallelujah