Get all 12 A Modest Proposal releases available on Bandcamp.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Cliff Diver, Woodlands, Another Introduction, The Overflow, Zugzwang, Home Miniatures #1, Bright, Life Happened, and 4 more.
1. |
Absolute Music
03:59
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Brain dead woman,
should have worn your seatbelt
— always said California
was the perfect climate for vegetables
Premonitions of a violent death
Daydreams of a private garden
— I don’t think so —
Wanted to sound like
an American girl
Twiggy little Russian
Working on your accent
The first one to stand up
To Madame La Touch
Five Foot Three
With just you stockings on
You said you’d rather die
In an automobile
Than in the choke hold
Of some vicious animal
— there goes another one
To the freeway
Toothy little Russian twig
Always asking how it sounds
When you say this or that
Well it sounded to me
Like absolute music
It was absolute music to my ears
Toothy little Russian twig
Took a hunk of flesh
Out of Regular Jim’s neck
They said you only missed
The artery by a thread
Then who showed up
But me and Josie and Jim:
The madam, the crybaby and the comedian —
How’d the doctor like that
For your next of kin?
Yes I will never forget
When the doctor walked in
Said he was going to take
You off the breathing machine
— it was absolute music to my ears
It was absolute music
To my ears
It was absolute music
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2. |
Three Sisters
03:28
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Three sisters,
three poisons in my mind
You can put it down on paper
But some filth won’t transcribe
Why am I contriving stratagems
To live so unhappily?
I perceive the sleep of winter
In what the dream
wants you to know
Like tracking blood red footprints
In the snow
And bringing that home
Beauty blisters
Summer pops the paradise
You can put it down on paper
But some truths won’t transcribe
Why am I contriving stratagems
To live so unhappily?
I perceive the sleep of winter
In what the dream wants you to know
Like tracking blood red footprints
In the snow
And bringing that home
I think I’ll miss her
I think I’ll miss her the most
You can put it down on paper
But some loves don’t transcribe
Why am I contriving stratagems
To live so unhappily?
I perceive the sleep of winter
In what the dream wants you to know
Like tracking blood red footprints
In the snow
And bringing that home
And then
Bringing that home
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3. |
Bungalow 6
04:04
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In Alpine air, mouthing a Havana
OK, fine — life is more
Than beautiful girls and fistfights
I had a few good days
Back in 2005
They are still getting me by
Picking up call girls
And dropping lots of acid
Collecting bugs and butterflies
Looking up the galaxies in me
No one will ever find
Today I controlled myself
Up until 3:45
Then I let the script decide
In the bungalow
Smashing every sales call
Scratching my mosquito bites
Staring my vision of ruin
Into the canvas all night
I was playing a role
I was playing to type
I was scribbling
on a prescription pad
Up shit river with a poem, man
And then some
I was living in the jail
Of the power I feel
Intellectual, cultural life
Acting class on Thursdays at nine
Picasso, Einstein, Jesus Christ —
Those were just phases in my life
A way to tell time
A way to tell time
I was playing a role
I was playing to type
I was scribbling
on a prescription pad
Up shit river with a poem, man
And then some
I was living in the jail
Of the power I feel
Intellectual, cultural life
Acting class on Thursdays at 9
A way to tell time
A way to tell time
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4. |
Gist Of Morning
04:05
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Well there’s something
In this climate
That brings the bones
Out of my face
You may pick up my reflection
In a cold plate
I used to entertain
Now I don’t do anything
I was standing
In the careful reconstruction
Of the whole outdoors
So I cared very little
When they punched
My passport
Oh to sigh and speak
In the thick of things
Albeit unawares
Of what the safari
Was asking
Oh to sigh and speak
And to listen to the leaks
To eat the baguette
In one sitting
There’s something
In this climate
That brings the bones
Out of my face
The bones out of my face
The bones out of my face
My correspondence
Was doggedly sincere
A long sea voyage
Tends to do that to you dear
Cloud formations
Above the actual spot
I am sending the flowers
I dragged my brain across
A lifeless ocean
There’s something
In this climate
That brings the bones
Out of my face
You may pick up my reflection
In a cold plate
I use to entertain
Now I don’t do anything
I feel it is my business
To say so
The deep kiss administered
And the bill of goods sold
They crush you
When they want you to happen
You feel your feet in your shoes
And the mist
Of a traveled to fountain
There’s something
In this climate
That brings the bones
Out of my face
The bones out of my face
The bones out of my face
Today I should be bold and wise
Unless I’ve done my sums wrong
And then it’s back to the drawing board
Where it’s shorts weather
Whether it’s shorts weather or not
And you nearly get
the gist of morning
Because the oxygen’s sharp
Yeah, you really get the gist of morning
Because the oxygen’s sharp
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5. |
Acapulco
03:57
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Watching cop shows
On a stripped mattress
Throwing quarters into a pint glass
I promised I’d come after you
When I was a boy I had no handle
Now I’m pulled like luggage
Through subways and puddles
And they won’t stop pulling
Until I bruise the ankles
Of the world
I’ve shattered the mirrors of Loraine
My granddad had an Acapulco fridge magnet
An ashtray full of seashells and sand
He stayed in the hotel of John Wayne
I’ve shattered the mirrors of Loraine
When I was a kid I stole a gold watch
Just to feel eyes on me
When I was a kid I swung from birch trees
Just to feel for a time that it could be
There is no such thing
There’s no such thing
As making a life of it
I’ve shattered the mirrors of Loraine
With the grace of a cliff diver
The night plunged into you
With th knowledge of a taxi driver
I know that it takes
Most of us a lot of waiting around
I promised I’d come after you
When I was a boy I had no handle
Now I’m pulled like luggage
Through subways and puddles
And they won’t stop pulling
Until I bruise the ankles
Of the world
I asked my granddad what it’s like
To have the apple plucked from your eye
— What is death like?
He said it’s like Acapulco
I asked my granddad what it was like
To have the apple plucked from your eye
— Granddad, what is death like?
I bet it’s like Acapulco
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