1. |
||||
There's a tote bag on the doorknob of my closet full of clothes
The last thing I wore when I last held ya, I just can't bring myself to wash
Ever since you left there's things I haven't dared to touch
Cause that'll mean you're really gone and I loved you so fuckin much
We were driving home without you and I looked up at the moon
It was a golden tilted crescent, when I saw it I saw you
Through relationships and breakups you were there for every one
And when something didn't work out I was never alone
When I adopted you at 19 I figured in 10-15 years
You'd be the old man in my house I'd share with a partner and some kids
But now I'm turning 30 in a studio apartment
Haven't started my own family and you my friend are gone
I'm not sure I want to be a mother and I don't have a partner
But I have a lot of best friends, so it really could be worse
Your death has me reflecting on where I thought I'd be
And how I couldn't protect you, but I'm so glad you're at peace
The clothes I wore when I last held ya, I haven't brought myself to wash
I cried so hard when I left you
I loved you so fuckin much
|
||||
2. |
||||
Covid you've got my voice so low
Got a fever of a hundred and I'm movin slow
Shouldn't have gone out two steppin
Now I'm stuck inside until August first
Covid you've got my voice so low
Got a fever of a hundred and I'm movin slow
|
||||
3. |
Plastic Champagne Flutes
03:20
|
|||
First frost it was last June
I wasn't ready with my boots
I only had my running shoes
Did Winter hit you that hard too?
Didn't see it at 22
Monster in our shared gene pool
Stranger used to share my room
Pickin up garbage on 5th avenue
White out weather couldn't see
Snow kept fallin to my knees
Never felt so cold in 90 degrees
I'm lookin for a sign of Spring
Got a few things waiting for you
Matching bracelets and a panicked mood
Wasn't sure you would come through
Showed up with plastic champagne flutes
Zip-ties where there once was lace
Parking ramp cigarettes to help the wait
Wasn't sure you would be okay
Caught a glimpse of you that eve
Conversations over Mac and Cheese
Who do I turn to in this scene?
Got me tossin in my sleep
Found an escape on a hot July day
Distractions from a close-knit gang
Not sure how much tequila I drank
Campfire comfort on a river bank
Poured out ashes in the lake
Recording of Amazing Grace
Melancholy tourists getting in the way
Fresh water filling up with salty waves
Wish you didn't have to leave
Sobbing in my car to Dancing Queen
Connected in a memory
Hope to see a sign of you this Spring
There's no goodbye
You always planted things that bloom twice
We'll see her put up a fight and come back to me
|
||||
4. |
||||
Alarm goes off and I’m up with the sun
Wish I was asleep or on my way to have some fun
There’s a bunch of stuff around my house I could get done
I know I’m being whiny and I’m not the only one
Forty hours is too many to
Be at a place you
Don’t want to be
Can we at least do a four day work week?
I want to quit my job
I want to quit my job
Don’t wanna join a meeting where we talk about my goals
This isn’t what I want to do while I am growing old
You’re paying me for labor but you’re chipping at my soul
Say you care about employees but I think it’s all for show
If universal income was a thing we’d all be
Living with less anxiety
Struggle in the name of greed
I want to quit my job
I want to quit my job
I want to quit my job
I want to quit my job
|
||||
5. |
||||
Just so you know when you approach 30
You’ll still be figuring all of this out
There’s so many ways to exist in this world
You don’t have to do it like anybody else
Even if your identity isn’t as loud
You know who you are you can trust yourself
You’ll even be surprised to find
There’s some rigidity to the counterculture side
But when you find your people it’ll all feel right
They’ll be patient and honest and kind
And you’ll be able to talk to them about
Things you never felt comfortable telling anyone else
You are doing it
You are doing it
You are doing it right
If you’re happy with the art you make
And the things that you do and the way that you are
It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks
Keep your head in the clouds and your eyes fixed on the stars
And the things that you like are valid interests
You don’t have to call it a guilty pleasure
And you can do the things you think you can’t
Even if it doesn’t always go as planned
And it doesn’t matter who approves
Even the people you always thought were cooler than you
And sometimes everything feels tough
But by being alive you’re more than enough
You are doing it
You are doing it
You are doing it right
You are doing it
You are doing it
You are doing it right
|
||||
6. |
||||
Please don't fuck with my friends
You're gonna have to answer to me
They don't deserve to have their good hearts twisted
Up in your dirty-ass sheets
My friends are good people
They would never do this to you
It wouldn't take much for you
To be a decent human being too
You're gonna regret it
Don't worry I'll leave you alone
But when my friends are off doing great things
You'll remember this when you're all alone
|
||||
7. |
Good (Acoustic)
03:02
|
|||
Have I always been a fool?
Believed in my own lie
Told myself it didn’t hurt
Told myself that it was fine
The sweetness we exchanged
And the tender words we write
Left it for California
Gonna build a whole new life
But this is good, we’re all good
This is good, we’re all good
This is good, we’re all good
Every time I thought
Maybe if I hadn’t cried
Or if something different happened
Would we see another light?
The news took my breath away
Asked what she’s like anyway
These are things I don’t want to know
If you asked I would’ve stayed
But this is good, we’re all good
This is good, we’re all good
This is good, we’re all good
The wave it leaves the shore
Cloud passes through the sky
If someone could make you happy
Why couldn’t I, why couldn’t I?
|
||||
8. |
Neighbors
05:57
|
|||
Growing up they were my best friends
I never knew how rare that was
One call and the yard was filled with everyone
Even the ones who were never home
Let us climb their trees and pick the apples in autumn
I can't remember the ones in the campus apartments
We never became friends with them because it felt like we were so close
Two twin beds to a room, I never felt the need to be more social
Then it was a duplex with my sister and our friend
And the guys downstairs and the couple next door with the kids
One time he knocked on the door
Said "your car mirror was in the road,
A guy on a bike hit it and angrily ripped it off"
I can't remember having many questions about that
I probably should've had a few questions about that
Moved a couple blocks away with a friend
And our neighbors really scared me
They were always yelling and one time
I heard one of them mention that he had a taser
From my window on the second floor
But one time my roommate was on a run
When she passed their house flames were pouring out
And she called 911
No one was hurt and the next day they gave us flowers
And we never had any trouble with them again
On the other side of the duplex was a couple who studied horticulture
They made a big garden and let us take whatever vegetables we wanted
But when they moved they insisted
I still had one of their bowls they brought vegetables over in
I didn't have their fucking bowl
The next one was a woman named Claire
Who coincidentally ended up in the next two buildings I moved into
She was nice, and I never had any trouble from her
The next time I lived alone, the man next door was a professional at pool
And he was always leaving the apartment with his set of cues
He told me he would take trips to Vegas to compete
And I found that fascinating
Then in Saint Paul there was a guy next door who was a musician
In the townhouse, always having the loudest sex
He was fine for the most part, but sometimes things were tense
Between him and my friend
And then I left
In my first spot in New Mexico
There were so many wonderful people on our block
I loved to see them all when I took my daily pandemic walks
And then it was a sweet woman who lived downstairs
Another apartment, a fourplex
And the only time she got upset was when I was doing laundry after 10
But I didn't realize anyone enforced that
The casita I lived in after that was tucked behind a house
Where my landlord's daughter and her dog lived
They were nice as hell and they even gave me some plants
And when I'd go out of town she'd check in on my cat
Trying to figure out the current lay of the land
In this 5-unit complex
The guy next next door is a bartender at a spot downtown
He said his name is Climber
And the woman in the back plays music loud
But when it comes to that we have an agreement
Then there's a caterer too who tried to ask me out
And I told him I wasn't available for that
I wasn't available for that
And those are all the neighbors that I've had
|
||||
9. |
Split Like Fire
02:20
|
|||
Split like fire in the wind
Thought it was nothing
Out of range and off of skin
Always had your number
Would it be summer without you?
I never knew, I never knew
Something bout the way it all takes shape
I start running
To the eye of a hurricane
Was it a long time coming?
If there was no grey could I grasp the blue?
I never knew, I never knew
|
||||
10. |
||||
It had been about 7 years since I last saw him
Sold me a bag of weed in uptown
On Tuesday at a stoplight, I wanted to cry
Opened Instagram and learned that he had died
Called my sister and asked if she was sitting down
She told me that's what she had called me earlier about
Said he was found in the bathtub in his house
It was before I had even gotten home
I don't know why it felt so profound
I was teary the rest of the day
Remembering the time in my life when I would see him around town
I don't know why some grief comes with guilt
When someone dies you didn't know that well
I racked my brain for things I knew about him
One Fourth of July a bunch of us watched the fireworks
In his apartment across from Surdyk's
One of the times I felt like one of the cool kids
There was the time he was Scarface for Halloween
He would always say what everyone was thinking
Somethin about him reminded me of a puppy dog
In every memory I have he's holding a soccer ball
He was probably at the party where I first tried blow
He was goofy and knowingly the butt of every joke
But I didn't really know him that well
I'm a thousand miles away from where we knew each other
But I had a breakdown over his death still
Yeah I had a breakdown over his death still
|
||||
11. |
||||
Make the bed, coffee brewed
Not the way that you would do
Laundromat, grocery store
You’re in the perimeter
Tie my shoes, on a run
Wonder if you’ll see this one
I know that you’re far away
But you cross my mind most days
Hope you’re doing well
I think of you often
Send my demos to a friend they don’t say what you would’ve said
You preferred just my guitar to versions with the synthesizer
Do you still write everyday, or work the job you seemed to hate?
I wonder if you wonder too or miss the things we used to do
Let’s catch up sometime
I think of you often
Think of you when I’m in town want to let you know when I’m around
But I want to do what’s best, give both of our hearts a rest
There are days it feels hard, roses still on my dashboard
I’m sorry that I made it end, I was all break and no bend
I wish we were still friends
I think of you often
I think of you often
|
||||
12. |
||||
Wasting time, playing a game I learned I didn’t like
Never thought I was great with words but I tell myself it’s always good to try
You tell me I’ve stayed the same even though I tell you otherwise
I was such a different person last time
I was such a different person last time
Lost ourselves on three-two beer on a Sunday, it was all we could buy
Burnt through cash post-tax return couldn’t get my mind off the flight
Innocence won’t break the chain, who knew there was this much more to find?
I was such a different person last time
I was such a different person last time
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Velvet Vision, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp