the world is ours

This track was a fun one to make, I built the song on top of an instrumental track Dan Bills recorded in his apartment. Its the first song we've written together, we're working on another one now.

The lyrics are pretty optimistic, kind of just about going for it. As Royal Tenenbaum would say,

"I'm not talking about dance lessons. I'm talking about putting a brick through the other guy's windshield. I'm talking about taking it out and chopping it up."

In other words, its go time with the go team.



Here are the lyrics:

Grey veils over blue skies
You came calling for me
I was stumbling along
Still singing those songs
In the skeleton keys

Waiting on a revelation
Till the sun burns through
I was writing a scene
For a new books of dreams
I was looking for you

Lets drown in our revery
Out here beneath the stars
We don't know what comes next
But we know the world is ours

Its go time with the go team
And if you're looking for me
I'm with the queen of the slipstream
Back where I wanted to be

All the people walk in darkness
Broken satellites
I'm writing letters to you
Because I wanna get through
Make you feel alright

There's no more looking back
Now that we've come this far
Way up and down the line
We know the world is ours

Lets drown in our revery
Out here beneath the stars
We don't know what comes next
But we know the world is ours

There's no more looking back
Now that we've come this far
Way up and down the line
We know the world is ours

geography

I kind of felt like writing a song that was stranger, and more impressionistic. With most songs I go for a pretty tight pop structure, and lately I've been writing lyrics that are more direct. With this track I wanted it to be more spontaneous. That was one of my goals undertaking this two song a month thing-to be a bit more carefree and not overwork things. Sometimes you write song to try and save the world. Other times you just want to be psychedelic.

I think this song is about letting go of the things that you don't need.



Here are the lyrics:

Tell me what you see
When you close your eyes
Are you in too deep?
Are you sick of goodbyes?

Your geography
Is an I. O. U.
In a feedback loop
Where the light burns through

In a brokedown car
On the ferris wheel
In a ring of fire
We backed out of the deal
We backed out of the deal

When the roof caved in
We were in a trance
And beyond harm's way
In this graveyard romance

We could let things go
Walk around the block
How our teachers cried
How our parents were shocked

On Saturn's rings
With your heart displaced
On a copper wave
You dropped out of the race
You dropped out of the race

Union Hall Show 5/8

We're super excited to announce that we're playing a show on Saturday May 8th in Park Slope Brooklyn with our friends West Dakota and Valley Lodge. Evan made this rad flyer. Things could get interesting.

Rooftop set: Teenage Anthem

Last week we got together to bbq and play some music together on Dan's rooftop in Brooklyn. We kind of felt out the arrangements as we went along, we had a really great time. Our friend Pete from West Dakota joined us on trumpet. Here's the video of Teenage Anthem for the Drunken Boat:

Teenage Anthem for the Drunken Boat (Acoustic) HD from Beat Radio on Vimeo.

You can also download an mp3 here:
teenage anthem for the drunken boat (acoustic)

We ended up doing a 5 song set. More videos coming soon. You can also check out some pics over at our new Flickr Page.

High Time/Lonely From Rock and Roll single at Ampeater

I'm super excited to have 2 new beat radio tracks featured today at the Ampeater Review. Ampeater is a cool music website that has also released digital singles from Mount Eerie, Twin Sister, and a bunch of other really great bands. Check it out here:

http://ampeatermusic.com/aem090

The a-side is a brand new song called "high time." I guess it’s about trying to be more honest with yourself.

The b side is a song I wrote with Tim Lannen back in 2003 called "Lonely from Rock and Roll". It’s about how our band at the time was breaking up. It rocks out kinda hard. You guys who read this blog might remember a demo i did of this song back in 2008.

You can stream both tracks at the ampeater site or download them as a zip file.

photos by gilbert ng

our friend gilbert is a great rock photog. these are pics from a rehearsal a few weeks back.