1. |
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Don’t you bother the moon,
hockin’ one up in a brass spittoon
He’s keeping up on his union dues and crushin’ beers
Can’t be troubled to shave;
shows up to work with a box of glazed
then trucks it home on a skateboard that his lady lent
I wish that we were friends
One night I offered a ride,
like a pothole tour of the Near East side
His face was flickering on and off and on again
Saw his board snapped in half
Said, “Brother I’ve got a fix for that
I know a hex for your broken decks
so slide on through if you know what’s good for you!”
Just a couple of skeletons
blazed and brittle of bone
with pills to roll off this evening
and knobs to roll off the tone
Just how long the tunnel takes is up to you!
Caught me talkin’ to goats,
sneakin’ around in a thick black cloak
I suppose that you’ve noticed I have ghostwriters
I’m old and tired--so old!
But this party is petulant
Cave and cancel the dance
Damn--they’re canceling everything!
Wait! Computer, enhance!
I can’t protect your delicate sensibilities
It happens how it happens when you get into it with me
And now, it’s transfiguration time
Your face, freckled with holy fright
Wait--they’re cancelling everything
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2. |
Rainbow Trout
04:57
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I am not immune to all this mud
and these aren’t the shoes for it
but we are now become the mosh-pit in a meadow
somewhere down in Florida
I could feel the spirit like it was shooting out my fingertips
That’s why I think if heaven does exist, then we’re in
Don’t do the encore with the amps off
if the rest of your set’s vinegar and piss
I’ll plan on seeing you tomorrow
You plan on knowing your shit
With cuts like a Toledo blade of bluegrass whistling in your teeth
Something ‘bout this eucharist is off
and it’s creeping me right out
I swear I don’t mean to be difficult
but there’s more than fifty in your crowd
and you’re slippery as a rainbow trout
Don’t do that dance that’s going viral
I hear from the worms it opens up a hole and
there’s a demon girl on the other side that uses it to sneak through
and possess your eternal soul…
All in all, it’s fine except for all this slime
Does ectoplasm come out of cotton?
Now, I know how I sound
but this was my favorite sweatshirt
(the Rezn one)
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3. |
Cannabis Rex
05:09
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When this passover has passed
will we be happy that we had it?
Will we still steer clear of pioneer
and go back to dancing at the rabbit?
I have no idea how this will all iron out
and I’m preparing myself for it to not
But then I had a mystical morning
and by noon I was no one at all--
We’ve never been so beautiful!
but you don’t want to see me this way
We went wakeboarding as kids out in a channel in the stick marsh
oblivious to what I now think of as an alligator death march
but it’s just how we did it down in south Florida
I can still dig that part
‘Cause now I’m a bridesmaid in houndstooth
and Death’s looking flushed in the flowers of Vishnu
and each new day’s charms tangled up in his multiple arms,
getting used to the idea of the farm life,
feeling alright about her choices
making cat-like contented noises,
sweating out the poisons
So I project positive vibes to the honeymooning couple
My cosmic consciousness is crammed inside my cheap carry-on duffle bag and I don’t think it will fit in the overhead
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4. |
Decoder Ring
06:15
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I couldn’t wait for it to go on sale
Caught a cormorant with a scissor tail
and then I dressed him up in a bolo tie and told him,
“Best go West boy, with them laser eyes”
Then we burnt it up just like an offering
with your vampire teeth, boy,
and your decoder ring from a cereal box up on a Saturday,
that brand of bliss that requires AAs
I had to stop editing myself; like constantly calibrating
Gotta reinvent, like in a Ram Dass way
tie this ratking nest of thinning Swedish roots up in a pile of fishtail braids
string these wasted arms up in a million beads
and explode the faith the fuck up out a mustard seed
So we cut the tape and I master it
and we send it to some label cats down in Mississipp
Of course they pass on it ‘cause they’re good businessmen
but I’m not one yet and so we try again
(and again)
Should I crumble or commit myself
Either way
buy my records please
I’m moving to the forest
I’m over it with inboxes
Anyway, congratulations on your successful exorcism
I mean it!
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5. |
Coral Castle
05:24
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Fear and loathing in the glade!
the reptilian arousal of hot beneath the collar,
the lush of summer’s cactus blossoming crush on me
(according to all palmetto leaves)
Heard there’s a seer in this swamp--
I’m sure he wouldn’t mind some company
I’m as meek as moths
but getting riper with the rage borne of our clusterfuck engagement
Don’t get upset
I’m not upset
Are you upset baby?
I wish it could have been like, somewhere in Chicago
But I built your castle from the corpses
of a million tiny seahorses and shells
barnacles up in the belfry
and now with how fractured I feel
I’ve become an electric eel inside a pool of plecos
and I’m cool with it
In my catatonia,
you came to me from in a forest fire
said, “I’m only stopping through for the night
We can order pad thai. settle in, and have a long talk”
So, you’re not coming out
Have I always been so dumb?
How didn’t I see this coming?
So I’m upset, yeah I’m upset, aren’t you upset baby?
I gotta tell these cryptid kids their mom isn’t coming
Well tell me what’s a girl to do when Satan shows up on your stoop
I’m at a loss--he is inverting all my crosses
But turns out to be a lovely dude and I wanna show off my home studio
and we bond over which Black Sabbath LPs we dig
Old Scratch with stingray bass in hand and I make up a metal band
so full of fuzz and so downtuned that it’s disgusting
Plus I’ve got a spot we can rehearse
so cool, crepuscular, and cursed that you could laugh,
like over the credits of a slasher film
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6. |
Hole Mesa Fangs
07:05
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You’re lookin’ lowly as a holy fawn
but I’m not falling for your flimsy front so easily
of course I’ll cave and then we’ll both give thanks
for the opportunity to tangle fangs again in your closet
There was never such a love so star-crossed!
I am awash in your tentacular void
and when that black hole took me like a fly fishhook,
we couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended
hot damn and holy crow!
I was sucking at cthulhu teat,
gettin’ careless with my canine teeth again
She kissed my forehead and she packed my bag
with the best damn sandwiches you’ve ever had
and then went quiet
She has not so much as called command base
I know I’m cryo-sleeping solo again
I’m huffing comet gas in my oxygen mask
so I can hallucinate happier thoughts and sleep through the night--
They’re getting longer, don’t you think?
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7. |
Nine of Swords
06:11
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I went to an oracle in Baltimore on a solo tour leg
and using telepathy she said,
“You’re on the pothead path to a penthouse view of your early ruin,”
but this happens every time my tarot’s read
I run with a crow and with a witch and with this tiny jaguar
and I have other friends that I forget
I look at the laying on of healing hands in the church of the brethren
but I’m not entirely sold on reiki yet
What is it with the hands?
Won’t you give me that good wisdom you’re famous for in these parts?
I’m overwhelmed here
Catch me at crossroads trying to conjure the ghost of one Robert Johnson
He’ll ask for a lot but I’ll talk him down
and come out on top of the deal, a bandit at the crucifixion
I forget what I was talking about...
Never not Nine of Swords, babe
We die a little bit each day
It’s nothing to get bent out of shape about, believe me
It’s easy!
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8. |
White Lodge (fire)
05:59
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Now choke up on your chainsaw grip, girl
Put the baby to bed
Double check that all the windows are boarded proper
Then sidle down from in your cyclone, momma
from those pentacular peaks
You know my brain has been a sugarcane field on fire
full of troubling things, a veritable potpourri
such that I’ve sprouted another eye just to keep these two company
As a daring detective
in a troubling town
in a case where I’m faced with a cryptic killer
in the dirtiest mirror
in the dingiest dive
I know I’m alive for a breath and then
true transcendence will trawl along
in a junk fit with sable sails
and you'll want on, but the line is longer than the Appalachian trail
Come now, baby boy
Embrace the void and put on “On the Beach”
and learn from God to listen,
not to always have to preach
You, who are always putting time in a place of authority:
Stand in the shade of the medicine man
Don’t have your head in the sand when the LORD comes back
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Joshua Powell Indianapolis, Indiana
Joshua Powell is the exhausted wizard at the helm of IN's most haunted rock band. From his hardcore roots in the Floridian swamps and beyond the fever dream of his folk era, his literary lyrics dig for enlightenment in a surrealist muck. “Four LP's and over 900 shows later, the midwestern road dog's ever- evolving, transcendent style embraces hallucinatory metal and grimy psychedelia.” -Audiotree ... more
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