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Incidental Lightshow

by The Armoires

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1.
Fort Ashby 04:12
Out-of-tune piano, cylinder gramophone Katydids, calliopes, big machines that buzz and groan Down at the County Fair There’s music in the air It’s like a Tom Waits tune but with a different singer It’s a great big world and it seems to me (it’s coming back to me) It’s much bigger and it’s so much smaller than it Ever used to be In my grandma and grandfather’s backyard They built a forty-foot slide All I remember is the light There’s a funhouse called Star Warz, it’s spelled with a “z” Copyright infringement, it’s all coming back to me Here comes a big bass drum To rock my skeleton There’s candy in the air, it’s slipping through my fingers It’s a great big world and it seems to me It’s much bigger and it’s so much smaller than it Ever used to be Now they tell me that it’s monster trucks and Tractor pulls in the night All I remember is the light Put me in the moonwalk, I can’t even stand Take me to the stage to see Daddy in a country band Some kid who’s half my size She won the livestock prize She had a little lamb And then the lamb got bigger It’s a great big world and it seems to me It’s much bigger and it’s so much smaller than it Ever used to be Got my baby beside me going eastbound On a cross-country flight All I can think of is the light It’s coming back to me…
2.
Caterwaul 05:04
Come down, catercorner Carry me across the square Come down, catastrophic Crushed and quite beyond repair Come down, calla lilies Cold and lovely in a vase Come down, cantilever Can you lever me in place? But if it’s not your time You can’t make it your time If it’s not your time Come down, cat o’ nine tails Count again, it’s more like ten Come down, catatonic Cannot wake her up again And if it’s not her time You can’t make it her time Can’t make it her time Come down, Cosa Nostra Clarity and Claritin Come down, catalytic Car exhaust to do you in Come down, cantaloupe and Honey, do it while you can Come down, caterwaul and Honey can I be your man? And if it’s not your time You can’t make it your time If it’s not your time Caterwaul, catewaul, caterwaul
3.
Responsible 03:19
Bones are falling from the trees And I can’t get my car to start It’s broken down just like my heart And my wah wah pedal Crow takes wing from the branches above And I swear to God she winks at me I don’t know why, but I’m watching her fly And it makes me feel better RSVP Unrequited Ready, aim, fire! No one is responsible at all The wind is blowing apples through My kitchen window every day Stack ‘em up and save ‘em for the kids when they visit I wanna be more than a flickering number I wanna be more than a demographic I wanna be more, that’s not too much to Ask for, is it? Unresponsive Correspondent Just plain corossive No one is responsible At all, all No one is to blame, because No one is responsible At all Been raining bones for three days straight I still can’t get my car to start The guy down at the Pick-A-Part Is a cold-eyed geezer Says, “Son, your car ain’t worth a dime But how much for that broken heart? I’ll keep it with the other four In the back of my freezer.” Irresponsible Inhibition Reuptake—fire! No one is responsible at all No one is responsible at all
4.
Unhaunted 04:55
Empty house on my street with the doors chained up tight And a window with candles that burn late at night Children quicken their pace as they walk on by From all the stories they’ve heard and they’re too young to die And I miss her so badly I wish I were there To see the spectral lights and feel the chill in the air Empty bottle of wine and nobody to toast I’m so jealous of other people’s ghosts When I want her to haunt me she leaves me alone No creaking floor, no flickering flame Black candelabra and black cat bone No disembodied voice to breathe my name Got a box with a lock of her hair that I saved And a bag filled with dirt that I took from her grave Halloween once again and I’m here by myself While her ghost is out haunting somebody else When I want her to haunt me she leaves me alone No creaking floor, no flickering flame Black candelabra and black cat bone No disembodied voice to breathe my name Unhaunted She’s leaving me Unhaunted Don’t want to be Unhaunted And she had such faith in the world beyond But I’m truly afraid that she’s truly gone She won’t come to me as some tender wraith In a column of vapor with her face When I want her to haunt me she leaves me alone No creaking floor, no flickering flame Black candelabra and black cat bone No disembodied voice to breathe my name It’s November the First under a hangover sky She’s bound to leave me unhaunted whatever I try All my breaking and entering won’t raise the dead And I’ll still be unhaunted tonight in her bed All the leaves on the ground blow around in the wind Like a family of rodents relieved of their skin Halloween on a dirt road, 1983 I believed it was real, it could happen to me
5.
Take care what you don’t wish for It might be passing by your door Take care what you don’t wish for It might just not come true It might come home to you She says it’s not good for a man to live alone She asks you are you a believer? She says Her brother did such things he killed her family You never know if she means literally Hearts might heal But you can’t unbreak a home Hearts might heal Take care what you don’t wish for It might be passing by your door Take care what you don’t wish for It might just not come true It might break you in two She says be careful with your heart, my friend, she says Look what I let mine do to me She says she knows that she’s a catch, and so she is, but She lets her girlfriend run her over Hearts might heal But you can’t unbreak a home Hearts might heal Take care what you don’t wish for It might be passing by your door Take care what you don’t wish for It might just not come true It might break you in two She feels the pressure gathering behind her eyes She sees less of you by degrees You’ve given her a home and she’s given you hope But now all four of you are breaking Take care what you don’t wish for
6.
Incidental lightshow Unexpected bloom Bouncing, bounding, flying, soaring Leaving to a view Anywhere there’s fire Anywhere that’s high Captured now in clay and crosslegged Looking to the sky In the eyes of a mantis In the stars on the ceiling You’re here, you’re there You’re everywhere Playing with the lights Cards upon the table Tools upon the ground Mantis on the chandelier Kick drum loud and proud Off the beaten path now You can call me if you’re stuck Etched in skin of ones who lost you Vines and sky and truck In the eyes of a mantis In the stars on the ceiling You’re here, you’re there You’re everywhere Playing with the lights Late night conversation Always just one more Never thought I’d miss the nights You kept me up ’til four Are you down to kick it? Are you here tonight? Are you laughing in the stars and Playing with the lights? In the eyes of a mantis In the stars on the ceiling In the soul of a blue dog In the music and laughter In the tattoos and rainstorms In the moth and the flame You’re here, you’re there, you’re everywhere Playing with the lights
7.
Wire Girl 04:07
You don’t wear your skin any more Won’t let him in any more You can’t risk contact with the Captain’s tears You don’t count the days any more Don’t feel the spray any more It’s been a part of you for all these years Wire girl, wireframe world And rusted iron hair Inklings of your infrastructure inching for the door Steel wool muscles pull On copper lungs and heart Slivers of your superstructure strewn across the floor Cast adrift, the skipper and his mate Crew of fading shades The Captain’s fancy rampant on the deck A girl long dead now sketched in hurried strokes Wiry wisps of smoke Metallic skin the ocean stars reflect Wire girl, wireframe world And rusted iron hair Inklings of your infrastructure inching for the door Steel wool muscles pull On copper lungs and heart Slivers of your superstructure strewn across the floor Washed ashore, the crew and captain gone And you still hanging on By hooks you’ve fashioned from your tangled skin A girl no longer tethered to the past Brave new world that has Such see-through sculptures in it Wire girl, wireframe world And rusted iron hair Inklings of your infrastructure inching for the door Steel wool muscles pull On copper lungs and heart Slivers of your superstructure strewn across the floor Across the floor
8.
Not so high and lonesome as a question mark implied Not as wild as mercury, but close Doesn’t get much lower than the waterline at Doubtful Sound Driving rhythms drive me to the coast Sally showed up in the mail When I helped her post her bail Looking spotless, looking pale Sally followed me around To the shore and back to town She drew the crescent, drew it down She took me down to Doubtful Sound Poisonous and venomous marine organisms Clothbound books embossed with skates and rays A butterfly distraction on a Sunday in a plumbing shop The ringing in my ears goes on for days Sally’s long and tall and blonde Sally plays me like a song When we turn each other on Sally fits me like a crown Sally sure does get around She’ll be my verb and I’m her noun She took me down to Doubtful Sound Look into her cat’s eye, you can see she’s not too deep But she’s higher and she’s brighter than the moon Doesn’t drive a Mustang, but she overdrives with overtones That rise and fall like swells in the monsoon Sally joins me at the hip Sally goes down like a ship Turn her up and let her rip Sally followed me around To the shore and back to town Can’t help but wonder where we’re bound She took me down to Doubtful Sound She took me down to Doubtful Sound She took me down to Doubtful Sound She took me down, she took me down She took me down She took me down She took me down
9.
White paper leaves Scattered across the Ventura Freeway She’d bet her last cent That this had been someone’s unsold screenplay Violent and crass Filled in with underdeveloped clichés She’d written one, too And now she was driving it out of LA Her modern romance Written entirely on spec She thought it might sell But what she really wants to do is direct Live and direct She ditches the car She breaks the heels off of both of her shoes This credit card Can’t take too much more abuse Hikes to a hotel Checks in and opens a tab at the bar She opens the script But he catches her eye before she gets too far This tired hotel This low desert town Her modern romance Nothing but fury and sound Live and direct He can’t keep it up She can’t keep it down Dreams and hotels Burn them all down to the ground She turns on the light She sees the script lying there on the floor Goes back to the bar Where she sits lighting matches and being ignored She holds the flame to Scene One And she lights it and thinks what the hell She couldn’t care less If this blaze gutted this whole damn hotel Her modern romance Written entirely on spec She thought it might sell But what she really wants to do is direct Live and direct
10.
She lost time, she lost space Stepped out of line and lost her place She lost skin, she lost face She lost gender age and race And so the dead wheel rolls She turned around and lost another Down among that Newberry Spectacle Had she but known just how little time was left to her She could never know how little time was left to her She savings, she lost grace Lost the plot and lost the pace Got short time and got short shrift A victim of pronominal drift And so the dead wheel rolls She turned around and lost another Down among that Newberry Spectacle Had she but known just how little time was left to her She could never know how little time was left to her She used to think it was punishment enough But now she seems to like it just fine She’s come to feel that if they just could see the artistry They couldn’t judge her unkind She’s circumscribed within a triangle Enduring the Pythagorean Curse In between the jaws of the Nightmare Child And something that might even be worse Down in the Newberry Spectacle Within the Newberry Spectacles Whoa, oh Longside the Newberry Spectacle Deep in the Newberry Spectacle Whoa, oh Straight to the Newberry Spectacle Down by the Newberry Spectacle Whoa, oh
11.
Norma Corona, what have you done To invite such an inquisition, put yourself Under the gun? Creditors and jilted boyfriends Are calling looking for you Norma Corona, what did you do? You wear your telephone crown at a Come hither angle But you’re letting us down, you’re letting us dangle Ah ha, Norma Norma Corona, how could you leave us alone? Sometimes we know that it’s for you ’cause it’s Spanish, sometimes We can tell by the tone Taking your calls is taking all of our time There’s nothing left Norma Corona, WTF? You wear your telephone crown at a Come hither angle But you’re letting us down, you’re letting us dangle We got your number, that’s the Luck of the draw Caught up in your wake, caught in your thrall Ah ha, Norma People Magazine, we must protest She was surely one of the sexiest Fifty people alive on earth that year Preferential treatment of the famous will not stand We call for: Full human rights for non-famous people! State recognition for non-famous people! Violent revolution on behalf of the non-famous people! Like Norma Corona, where did you go? We’ll have you know we’re not the only ones who Want to know Norma!
12.
Sometime it seems like a whole lot of trouble Not to run down the people in front of me Sometimes I find it’s easier to fall Sometimes I find it’s best to sit in the bleachers And just take in the scene as it passes by Children doing figure eights and all Sometimes you want to sit back and observe Sometimes you’re ready to go Sometimes you feel like you get what you’re wishing for Sometimes you don’t even know Double blades for you, my beautiful daughter Double blades across the lake Double blades across the ancestral water Double blades so you can skate Sometimes it seems like the sled that you’re sliding on Gets a little bit off track Slips off the left or to the right Sometimes I dream that the bike that you’re riding on Gets a little too far ahead of me Slips around the corner out of sight Sometimes you want to sit back and observe Sometimes you’re ready to go Sometimes you feel like you get what you’re wishing for Sometimes you don’t even know Double blades for you, my beautiful daughter Double blades across the lake Double blades across the ancestral water Double blades so you can skate And dreams come true And dreams come true Sometimes you wish for a heart-covered spy-scope And you throw your coin into the wishing well Sometimes the order doesn’t seem so tall Sometimes I can’t even find one at Walmart Or in any old drugstore in Keyser Sometimes I can’t even find one at the mall Sometimes you want to sit back and observe Sometimes you’re ready to go Sometimes you’re wishing for clear skies and sunshine Sometimes you’re wishing for snow

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released July 6, 2016

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The Armoires Burbank, California

Anchored by the unique harmonies of Christina Bulbenko and Rex Broome, The Armoires present a tapestry of jangling guitar, keyboard and viola framing songs that evoke LA forerunners from The Byrds to X and the Paisley Underground, with a lyrical sensibility that is all their own. ... more

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