1. |
Mint Condition
03:06
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If I could, I would suture a great divide. Grind an edge on a blunted pride. Make my way out alive. If I could, I would break the grip of her hold. Boldly do what no man has done. Ditch my crutches and run. She’s so heavy on the vitriol. She redlines with a number rolled. In black jeans and a camisole. I can’t wait forever. It’s a fickle market. It’s a drag. It’s a gas, and I can’t live without it.
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2. |
Lullabye
02:41
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I loved you people. I never knew your names. Lit me up like a spark does a tinder bunch, arid veined. There’s a debt to be paid to the horseless of voice with the heart to say, “He had all the signs of life.” Lullabye….
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3. |
The Devil and The Jinn
03:17
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Love is a shoeless charlatan, a silver-tongued huckster with a sadist’s lipless grin. Love is the breaking of a bone, a burning cauliflower ear still throbbing on the telephone. No matter what you do, it slithers back to you. It’s not enough to leave. It’s not enough to be left. Love is the devil and the jinn, a brazen changing problem. It’s a fight you’ll never, ever win. Love is a cruel company store, a trans-global disaster it’s a meltdown to the core. Despite a college try, it’s paints a sorry sight. You piss away your life writing stupid songs that try to say what love it. And when it comes you had better let it in. Go wipe the lamb’s blood off your door. Novenas won’t work anymore. And when it comes you’d better kiss its feet and beg, “Please let me come with you, from love-me-not to love-me-do.”
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4. |
Always in All Ways
02:25
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She can’t believe the peace could be so sudden and so strong. Two scattered lives raked up and stuffed into a carry-on. I said I’d stay at least if I could not be strong. Oh, God we need what we sold. We lifted up into the creepy star-pricked blackened sky. She could bring herself to read it till the ink was dry. She hid her face so no one there would see her cry. Oh, babe we needed what we sold, So many times she cried, “I’m gonna lose my mind.” As many times I meant it. I told her she could have mine. Oh, baby, promise me again we will survive always in all ways. I let he drift of into the soporific airplane hum. Two brittle anti-heroes left to juggle what may come. A runner’s born to cut. A cutter’s born to run. Oh, God, we need what we sold. And when I whispered in her ear I’d never go, she faked like she was sleeping. I saw her eyes blink in the window. Oh. Baby, promise me again we will survive always in all ways.
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5. |
Evidently So
02:25
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There’s a shamed look in your eyes. Wasn’t there before, I’d know. Different than the venial or trite. A flash of silver on the lake. Broke a calm so sweetly known. It left a chasm wider than the sea. It killed the dinosaurs and left two buckles in the knees, a doleful wind through Douglas pleading, “Go, go, please go. I wish you wouldn’t go, go, please go.” I only wish you’d never tried to hide what’s obvious and evidently so. There’s something else I have to know if I’m to carry on. If you were merciful you’d answer this: What do I have to do to kill this love?
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6. |
Wither on The Vine
02:59
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Oh, tell me, please, if it’s not your disease I guess it must be mine. And I can never hammer out why there’s hardly any doubt we wind up back here every time. I want to give you everything that you deserve. It’s so confusing to unwind. Your love can be bold. It can be bitter, can be sold. And sometimes it withers on the vine. Don’t look at me like there’s something more to see. I showed myself to you. And you didn’t mind the sting or the way it made you sing. I never hid you from the truth. If we could break the back of this tyrant would we flame out or still shine? Is it for the lack of whole-hearted trying that we hurt ourselves each time?
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7. |
Throw Me to The Lions
03:19
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Reckless and fast, and the fast never stay. Gone in a flash, then the flash went away. Reckless and fast, and the fast never stay. Gone in a flash, then the flash went away. Gazing out like a jezzabel from a cautionary tale, she said, “I swear that isn’t true.” If freedom is another word for everything to lose, come on, confess your crime before you throw me to the lions.
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8. |
Skinny Jeanne
02:02
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Skinny Jeanne will be the death of you. With crocodiles in her eyes. Should come as no surprise to learn her swearing up-and-down, contritions, pouts and frowns are useful lies. Drinks rum and cola from a sods can. Her gritty teeth and China white. She’ll slap you silly with her sparrow hands. Nothing is heavy in her world. You’re so high above this girl. You’ll never have another dream that stars a different queen than Skinny Jeanne. Skinny Jeanne will be the death of you.
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9. |
The Queen of California
03:26
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She can save you with a punchline. She can be a submarine: Deep and silent as a hurricane whips the sea. She found me the way the nick of time slaps the hand that holds the gun. She’s the queen of California, and she thinks you might be the sun. And the love she gives, oh, you know you don’t deserve it, but you take it. That’s your way. And the love she gives, oh, you swear you will preserve it, but you break her. That’s your way. She needs you the way a city needs boastful pride and shameless greed. She’s the queen of California, and she thinks you might be the sea.
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10. |
I Came Back
02:34
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Bless me father, it’s been far too many years since I woke without your slippery tongue inside my ear: Boy, you’d better never tell a should that I was here. I came back to hear the old man cry. I came back to hear the old man cry. You might think it fades to nothing like the sound of a heavy mass slamming a smaller one around. But it just keeps on coming up, and I swallow it back down. I came back to hear the old man cry. We go. We go. We go like a lamb to the flame. We come. We come for the thing that won’t be saved.
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11. |
Eric Saw Colors
03:38
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As worn into a face of knowing, so sober and sublime. A denigrated holy space full of tears, I found out they were mine. I kept it low in between the lines, though the meaning was absurd. It’s so hard to hear about another one when you’re waiting to be heard. The strange came like epidemic without prejudice to scythe the strong or fettered weak resistor, the sick of heart and mind., to push the lightweight’s curse of love on two feet not on the earth. It’s so hard to hear about another one when you’re waiting to be heard. Across the rigid crust and frozen echo of a shout. The forced and whispered invitation to thrown the sucker out.
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12. |
Frank Say (Bonus Track)
03:04
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13. |
Unsound (Bonus Track)
02:28
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Pernice Brothers Boston, Massachusetts
Joe Pernice formed Pernice Brothers in Massachusetts with his brother Bob in 1997 when Joe was playing with his band the
Scud Mountain Boys. The Scuds disbanded later that year, and Pernice Brothers became Joe’s main musical focus. Their debut release was the '97 Monkey Suit 7” on Sub Pop, followed by the LP Overcome by Happiness in '98.
Pernice & Linehan launched their Ashmont Records in '99.
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