#348: "All That We Wanted Was to Witness Something Beautiful"

I'm back from the west coast Taxpayers tour, and I gotta tell you - I have been feeling such creative exhaustion recently. Is that a thing? Has anyone ever felt that? Too many plates spinning, too many balls in the air. The mechanism inside me that helps make stuff is still there, but it is stretched very thin.

It was nice to cross paths with some of you Song of the Week Clubbers in California. In some ways, it felt like a tour from the old days. Partially that's because my pal Eric joined us on bass, just like he did for the 2010 California Taxpayers tour, 15 years ago. Partially that's because we booked this one pretty haphazardly, just like we used to! Instead of using a booker like we have recently, we booked a lot of these shows ourselves, which is DIY as fuck, but also...a little less organized, shall we say? Haha.

Anyway, here's a new song. The percussion comes from an old breast pump that we had at the house! It sounds like a mechanical purring cat.

This is also my first foray into using a vocoder. The vocoder is a synthesizer that interprets your vocal track and makes it sound sort of robotic sounding. It was really popular in '70's funk songs and is still used today. Daft Punk, Beastie Boys, the opening of California Love, all of 'em used a vocoder.

I thought it would be neat to use it on a more acoustic sounding song like this, since it's not typically used for this sort of thing.

Anyway, hope everybody is hanging in and finding joy wherever they can. Hang on, strap in, tune out, and all that. - rob

All That We Wanted Was to Witness Something Beautiful

Circular logic. 

Smoke from the fires.

Rotting potatoes. 

Free test fentanyl strips.

A rain cloud. 

A death shroud.

A faint sign. 

A ley line.

The echo of the shot has become never-ending.

The cracks in the mirror are beginning to show.

The sharpened edge. 

The shrinking ledge.

What did we want?

What did we want?

All that we wanted was to witness something beautiful.

All that we needed was another one to share it with.

Through all the grey haze.  Through all the black days.

In every lifetime.

In every life-time.

Straight from the faucet: pieces of plastic.

Sheen on the river from radiation.

This is a flawed bet. 

This is a drag net.

This is a blood let. 

This isn’t normal.

The angle of the sun has become obtuse.

The purpose of the dance has never been less clear.

The growing line. 

The blinking sign.

What did we want? 

What did we want?

All that we wanted was to witness something beautiful.

All that we needed was another one to share it with.

Through all the grey haze.  Through all the black days.

In every lifetime.

In every life-time.