1. |
Changeling
03:13
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I was named while I slept
so consider it void.
I was a self-loathing fighter,
a good American boy
But don't bother telling me
nothing, I've grown
all feral and forgetful,
full of hot, fitful hopes
I think it started in school;
they taught me ignorance of privilege,
we were a nation at war
that didn't seem to know the difference
But when I heard them talk like battles
could be 'won,' I'd laugh,
"You don't actually expect me
to believe shit like that?"
From then on no classroom
was gonna cage my resentment
i could cast my aspersions
or shoulder burdens/withhold judgement
I saw messiahs, pariahs,
greedslayers, and scabs
but I couldn't come home
till I'd learned how to grab
So I grasped that the Promised Land
is too often promised
by men who would seek, then steal,
then hold office
and that nothing is ever
gonna get very far
till we smother the Old Guard
and put no one in charge
And that until our skulls part
like some flower in bloom
we will rush to get a part
of what power and doom
we can muster
it must be enough, enough
or we're fucked--it's disgusting
but all we know of love.
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2. |
Tell the Keeper
02:35
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Turnspit dogs beneath the feast
goaded into roasting fellow beasts
Wanna say we gotta
jumping over coals thrown at our feet
Oh, they got the numbers, at times
but don’t forget that we still have our teeth
Learned this back when we were curtailed kids
held responsible for what we did
If we knew now what we knew then
I’m sure that we’d be better men
But until we regress, there’s no progress
'cause we’re all id
Who will tell the keeper?
Who will tell the keeper?
Tell the keeper
So we hoard resources in a mad dash
fingers crossed behind our wounded backs
Parlor pinks kitchen sink think piece theories
on what we lack
Glib admonition for ammunition
Convictions strong as a spent match
Who will tell the keeper?
Tell the keeper
Who will tell the keeper?
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3. |
Is To As Are To
03:23
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Is to as are to
Center, it won't hold
Dead hand signal from a
Dweller on the threshold
What is Patience Worth?
Fetch once flesh? Hypnic jerk?
Fistful of cemetery dirt?
Trust and belief come
Crying at the back door
Milk will run out and they
Won’t come a-round no more
Divine, scry, and dowse
Or let the tabby drowse
Blinking wisdom through the house
I will know good deed from sin
On the day my plague comes in
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4. |
Professional Medium
02:56
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Professional medium drew me close
Said 'At the very least, try not to be the most
The leader of the pack eats it and dies;
Stay on toward the middle and strategize'
I said, 'I don’t want much--'
he stopped me there
'You don’t want to want much
You’ve made that clear'
And oh, oh, is that right?
Oh, what had he seen on the inside?
Diagnosed young with Immense Potential
Hunger insatiable yet deferential
Loss-leading achiever, better value intents
Now who’s the winner of our free content?
I still want to be some rare creature
Reaching past featureless, effete crowd-pleaser
Cog-in-the-machine, or coquettish clock teaser
Anachronistic hack’s sacrilegious fever
And oh, oh, is that wrong?
Oh, oh to put in a song?
Oh, whether it was harmless camp
From another also-ran
Or some bad actor
Wasn’t certain
But I know, I’m a little extra and
I’ll probably wonder where I stand
With no direction
Till curtain
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5. |
Lucky Ghost
02:19
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When it feels you’re not on my side
It’s like I might as well have died
Years ‘fore you opened your eyes
Oh darling for the first time
I would wait, torn up by a want
For someone I could only haunt
Days into decades crawl by
While I am watching your life
You couldn’t want a kiss
From someone you don’t know to miss
I keep my phantom limbs far
From wherever we are
Can’t know if you’ll be left between
Here and there from what I have seen
Cursed to wish joy for your heart
Though it may keep us apart
If you crossed to the other side
Not to’ve known I had lived or died
I’d still say my fortune was clear
So lucky to have loved you while you’re here
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6. |
City of Sunken Bells
02:50
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I woke up in a city of
sunken bells
Where hard souls full of hubris
Softshoe from hell to hell
Sucked the day residue
from my fingertip
but how I got here I can’t tell
I found work as a faith healer
Batting cleanup for
the local firing squad
But the luckiest of my charges
were the ones halfway to heaven
Before the devil knew they’d gone
Tried telling these people “there’s another way”
Only to hear them say
“hundreds of
deeply flawed people can’t be wrong”
My words seemed taken light
Till I was taken in the night
To see my boss
Regretted to inform me so
But he was gonna have to not let me go
And sorry for my loss
Wasn’t sure just what he meant
Till in walked my replacement
Justice blind, my welcome old
Handed me
an old blindfold
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7. |
Palekh
02:28
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I was born a breeze,
and you, a breath
“Let us stay vapor,” we’d plead
‘Till someone see’d us to this tense
We awoke as newborns
Each a writhing ball of light
We were instruments of vision
Beyond certain frequencies
Despite all the vibrations
But I shake and age just to exist
(To renew what peace we had forfeit)
So we all shapeshift
or go apeshit soon enough
I’m proof--POOF--I’m breeze, you’re breath
Stumbling towards birth, flowers bloom in reverse
Big, twilight sleep in the dirt
Like meeting the meet I’ll meet
as I leave my body on this earth
We were colonists by proxy
All the sidewalks were enemies
And the noon sun beat us like a ghost
Burnin in a bad dream
But I tossed some prophecy on those streets
You were there
With flowers in your hair
And your pupils grew
like you were lucid or in love
And when the wine took my legs
Your touch took my breath
For it was wasted on anything
I’d said or done before or since
And if you didn’t, now you’ll see
That I was you and you were me
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8. |
The Swailing
02:53
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Like household pets with broken necks,
their bodies dance ‘round their heads
while I dream in infinities, the space between
dumb terror and the door rolls over itself,
halves its body, breaks its back,
drags its weight inches--inches at a time,
like no time. I've got time.
I’ll find time.
Holy ghosts stir up raw decrypt
our root, stalks and leaves. Feeding family trees
in poor soil with blood, memories,
and faith—an unfixed concept
but still, perched just out of sight
We’ll comb the undergrowth by [the] swailing fire[‘s] light
And not breathe
nor speak
Close our eyes so we can see
See
We’ll see
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9. |
Tender Offer
03:07
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A shout in a holler for a hill to die on
A chip on a shoulder that I used to cry on
Tender offer
Remember the old oak missing leaves
Tried to put a grip of stitches in me
And your eyes searched mine
For something I might know
I knew nothing--it's just as well
I grew from that sick puppy
Into a mama wolf who's only whelping runts
And I don’t know anymore if you love me
Or some memory I’ve not recalled for months
But my tender offer still stands
Tender offer
Gone pioneering, came as a thief
Is it any less endearing
As when a heathen takes his leave?
Tender offer
Remember these
Tender offers
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10. |
Something On Your Mind
02:52
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Yesterday, any way you made it was just fine
So you turned your days into night-time
Didn't you know, you can't make it without ever even trying?
And something's on your mind, isn't it?
Let these times show you that you're breaking up the lines
Leaving all your dreams too far behind
Didn't you see, you can't make it without ever even trying?
And something's on your mind
Maybe another day you'll want to feel another way, you can't stop crying
You haven't got a thing to say, you feel you want to run away
There's no use trying, anyway
I've seen the writing on the wall
Who cannot maintain will always fall
Well, you know, you can't make it without ever even trying
Something's on your mind, isn't it?
Tell the truth now, isn't it?
Something's on your mind, isn't it?
Something's on your mind
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11. |
Names of the Hare
04:13
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No fear of a vengeful god
Drives faith into my chest
To stave in the cage that cradles my heart
And tame what remains of the mess
So tell me, tell me I’m blessed
Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
Call me what you will
I’m not so entitled
The moniker's fiction
The scripture, verse is holy libel
Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
Define and conquer
Every creeping thing
Seeking shelter
in all the tagging,
the tagging and releasing
Names of the Hare
Invoked as dispersant
When you cast that spell
How can you tell if it’s working?
Oh, Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
Names, Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
Names of the Hare
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12. |
Wild Shade
03:06
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Winged things, prizes or pests
Fastened to death with the pins in our chests
Or posed with a shell, we both fell from the nest
To spend death as our life’s palimpsest
Spitted things they dropped among leaves
or buried beneath (didn’t know we were seeds)
Kernels of truth assuming the lead
Slowly fed by our foes’ entropy
Hand-made examples
Warnings to send
Dry skin studies and
Jarred wet specimens
Cast out the garden
Or lost to the wind
Ways are found and held
They spring up from within
Wild shades, ageless, unmoved
Will pour from the bodies that we all once used
Resurrection men can claim the refuse
If we fight, we still win when we lose
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Christians & Lions Warren, Rhode Island
A "veritable underdog super group" (TheDig) formed in 2004. Ben Moy Potrykus (Bent Shapes, Receiving End of Sirens, etc), Matt Sisto, Chris Mara, and Chris Barrett are joined by Fiona Wood, Chris D'Amore, James Weinberg, and Sara Honeywell live. Also featuring Sam Potrykus, Kate Virginia, Greg Tellier, and more. ... more
Christians & Lions recommends:
Boss Metal Zone EP
by Beware The Dangers Of A Ghost Scorpion!
Evan, drummer and occasional guitarist for C&L, drums in this amazing horror-surf band. Definitely catch them live if you have the opportunity!
go to album
Kate, who sings and plays just about everything for C&L (banjo, flute, keys, glockenspiel, bass...) fronts her own folk outfit. C&L's Evan engineered this album and plays percussion on it as well!
go to albumIf you like Christians & Lions, you may also like:
supported by 6 fans who also own “Young Familiar”
rebuying on of my favorite records on my favorite streaming app.
go to album
she/her/they/them
by Evan Greer
The singer-songwriter and activist considers the very purposes of protest songs.
go to album
This album speaks to the continuum of African diasporic culture that is central to the vibrant canon of Americana folk music.
go to album
