The Tropics Of Phenomenon

by Dragging an Ox through Water

The Tropics Of Phenomenon cover art
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1.
01:37
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2.
03:45
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3.
03:50
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4.
04:57
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5.
03:48
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6.
03:03
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7.
01:21
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8.
02:31
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9.
02:56
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about

The Tropics of Phenomenon (12") (CD VERSION ON FREEDOM TO SPEND!)
by Dragging an Ox through Water

Recorded at Teen Sports! No Rules! studio
for Chris Johanson's "Awesome Vistas" record label
Album cover art by Dana Dart-McLean, Printed by Neil at Monoroid.
source field recordings for "Earthen Airlock" by Sarah Meadows in Kentucky.
All other instruments, playing, recording, engineering, by Brian.
Mastered at John Golden Mastering.

SIDE A:
1. I would Understand
2. Snowbank Treatment
3. a.) The Unbearable Dumbness of Being
b.) Earthen Airlock
4. Dice Smiles

SIDE B:
5. Predictions
6. Houses and Homonculi
7. Lilacs Sprang from These Apes Brains
(Shut Down All U.S. Torture Facilities)
8. Devil's Prayer
9. Not Harping On Powers

credits

released 04 October 2008

tags

tags: folk country crooner folk industrial noise

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Track Name: I would Understand
I would understand,
but I would not go quietly.
these familiarities: I have corroded their centers.
I will set a germ:
the best one I can see.
and help it thrive
the best that I know how.
I will not burn any more of my houses
in the hope of preparing myself for a home.
Track Name: Snowbank Treatment
took a look on the way down and I saw you
took a look on the way up and it was true
I saw nothing, nothing but you
and I was real happy about it

you were a silver on my tree
a hole for ice-fishing, a book of mystery
you were an acorn in a sunny place
and I was real happy to see you.

you were a trouble I never took before
you were a darkness come scrambling at my door
a foreign body dividing into three
a blossom I swallowed in the night

what's on TV I haven't slept in days
oh my honey, a hundred thousand ways
you were a snowbank with barley sticking through
I was a witness to everything here

I used to hang around
catching visions like a passive blood antenna.
catching visions all around.
now I sing in sound
we could stay a while and signal song together
we could travel out of town

you were a snowbank with barley sticking through
a stained glass window, a gnawing at my shoe
I pulled a branch for you before the dawn could ring
I pulled a branch for you always
Track Name: Dice Smiles
loved a lot in this world and some of it was desperate love.
some of it was calm love. and the grass has grown up over all of it
and sewn it to the ground
the grass, the ground claim everything
my blue extension cord is gone
my dreams are itchy and my fingernails are long
buy a house, you don't have to go anywhere
you still have places to go
you still have to go places
you still have to mow the lawn
play dice with smiles
you lay smiles on everyone
you have dream shit all over your face
your face is smiling in the dreams of everyone

bottle of wine got lost in every lawn
your face turned to dice in my dream
your smile was four
your ex-boyfriend was rattling on my front steps
baby, sometimes the words can't feel right
baby, the words can't always feel right
arm yourself with words against the memories of words
clean a house but you don't live there long
something else takes hold
clears a shell, and you hope you held it well
clean a house and stay your whole life long
the words become a song
to fill a shell and you know you sing it well
Track Name: Predictions
you are a clever songbird
singing a clever song birds cannot resist.
and there will be more of you,
there will be more of you,
til everything but you is what's forgotten.
and then won't you know what's been rotten.

break all of your teeth on the ledge of antiquity.
every last love may torment you until there's another.
you must stop recoiling from everything before it happens.
oh forsake faith, forsake dignity, you are not these.
oh forsake faith, forsake dignity, you are not these.

oh honeybee in december,
you can only hide the things that you think you are.
the musculature you're not watching will tell the truth for you.
against your behalf the world records its records.
the visions upon whose behalf you defend your defenses,
they will not extend any gratitude for all your trouble.
oh forsake faith, forsake dignity, you are not these.
oh forsake faith, forsake dignity, this is not all.
Track Name: Houses and Homonculi
that'll be the cattle-back
upon whuch I'll place my gamble
and there'll be a apple tree sprung from the grave I put my odds in
and the kingdom of the cloud, it is a reasoned observation
you believe beyond your mealy eyes
you believe beyond your pumping sperm
you believe beyond the cuteness of conviction
there is trouble there is trials
there is walls and there is whiles
there is everything in styles
and you're a problem for the customs of your kind
you have adopted houses and homonculi

it's in your eye
the persecution for the ones who got you by
and when the story supercedes the bullet hole in your right hand
you can laugh and know that someone understands
and that the kingdom of the cloud is not of man
the cattle back, the apple tree, the poker chip
were never part of any plan
and you rely upon the graces of imagined observation
you rely beyond the prices of your customs
you rely beyond the customs of your kind
there is pints of blood to dry
you will grow grotesque and blithe
there is leafs and there is birdsongs in your spine
tapestries and meningitis rivers wide
you have adopted horses and homonculi.
Track Name: Lilacs Sprang From These Apes' Brains (Shut Down All U.S. Torture Facilities)
lilacs sprang from these apes' brains.
shut down all U.S. torture facilities.
Track Name: Devil's Prayer
Oh the devil's prayer
is in your heart
all the good things in your life
how quickly you defend them
as if you were owed them

Oh a cloven hand
guards all the sad songs
to keep them private
to cradle the injuries
and nurture them into wounds

but I will not be destroyed by the quest for faults
I will open my arms to the tropics of phenomenon
there are so many ways to read the scales
and it's worthwhile to see the numbers as just shapes sometimes.

Oh a haunted hand,
a busted tooth,
you must steer them through the moonlight,
a birth of shells,
the morning bells is not begot by begging promises

oh crooked smile
a crucible
you must rise to face the new dawn
love is welcoming
your strength is hidden in the newness of an unknown day.
Track Name: Not Harping On Powers
when I can't get you out of my skull
that's when I realize
I should have been an EMT
then I write a song about it
can't really write songs
it's too weird
and when you can't take anymore of it
I will back off completely
into the distant distant distance
and when you can't help your crying
I will understand
because I have cried like that too
but it was a long time ago

this is what it's like i guess
the stillness of not thinking straight
or straightening the longest line
and you could take your pick of pears
I would bend the buckled branch
fingers, fairness, everything
and when you can't take anymore of it
I will back off completely
into the distant distant distance
and when you can't help your crying
I will understand
because I have cried like that too
but it was a long time ago