Get all 6 Michael Cormier-O'Leary releases available on Bandcamp.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Anything Can Be Left Behind, Heard From The Next Room, More Light!!, Brief Hold: Instrumentals Vol. 1, M-F, and Days Like Pearls.
1. |
Here Comes Spring
05:08
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Here comes spring
There go joggers
Glistening
By the water
Cold enough still
To see their breath
Rising up like smoke
Here comes spring
There go black birds
Scavenging
Through the dark woods
Pecking like mad
For grubs and worms
And one unlucky mouse
Here comes spring
There go neighbors’
Ungloved hands
Wielding scrapers
Clearing their cars
Of April snow
That caught us all off guard
Here comes spring
Catching everyone off guard
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2. |
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We fell in love
Were you doing me a favor?
Push came to shove
Then you stayed out even later
Were you lost, white dove?
No sign of land?
Looking from above
On top of our tower of sand,
I felt lonely but I felt grand
A pillar of salt
Shook by the tyranny of our beating hearts
You up and split
I combed violent dreams for meaning
My therapist
Said it’s only me I’m maiming
Would I call it quits?
It’s gonna hurt
Getting over this
Went sniffing for clues on your shirt
Like a dog for bones in the dirt
The hunt was for not
Dug up the tyranny of our beating hearts
Last time we spoke
I cried into my Old Fashioned
By the glowing
Sixty four-inch flat screen playing
Late-night TV shows
‘Cold Case’ re-runs
We may never know
The extent of the damage done
Traps are laid out for everyone
We fell for them all
Fell for the tyranny of our beating hearts
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3. |
Impossible as a Postcard
02:35
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I see the town all lit up
Parked atop the hill
Pretty as a postcard
And as impossible
I see the bars at night
The bile and the swill
In flickering light
The putrid and the ill
I walk barefoot down Main St.
A heel in either hand
I hear a generator
I hear an old brass band’s
Undead processional
A funeral for the damned
Wailing until
The night comes to an end
In the park you tell me
Forever and a day
I feel it in my stomach
I feel it in the way
Your finger down my back
Is lightning snapped awake
A thunderous clap
Preceded by the rain
I watch you in moonlight
Silhouette in frame
Beneath the twisted oak trees
Beside the crackling flame
I see it all so bright
Your beauty and your pain
The whole of your life
The well of everything
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4. |
Letter From Alan
01:59
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His letter said:
“It’s your friend Alan
Greetings amigo
From Pamplona, Spain
Didn’t run with the bulls
If that’s what you’re thinkin’
I can get crazy
But I’m not insane!
Life here’s different
Everything’s old and lived in
You used to say
‘We could live anywhere and be okay’
How you been, man? Okay?”
My letter said:
“I miss you Alan!
Been back in Lima
Since after Mom’s wake
First Lutheran caught fire
At 14th and Lansing
We set up lawn chairs
In view of the blaze
Life here’s the same
A bit surreal and a little mundane
You used to say
You couldn’t wait to get out of this place
It’s not bad though, It’s okay.”
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5. |
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Grass-stained hands
Milk mustache
Cheap sunglasses
Backwards hats
Skating in the street
Velcro shoes
Everything to gain
Nothing to lose
Boy, Robert
We got fat
You have a kid
I’ve never met
Same age as we were
When I moved
When I cried and cried
“What will we do?”
Old house new house
Red car white car
Trees with pink flowers
Trees with none at all
Everything’s before us
Surging and expanding
Anything,
Anything can be left behind
Our shit jobs
In those days
You sold paper
I spread mayo
On sandwiches
“Chips or Fries?”
The tips were lousy
That’s no surprise
Sandy said
You quit school
IT training
Sounded cool
I was in Ohio
Jumped around
Made a lot of friends
We’re elsewhere now
Old house new house
Blue car gray car
Trees with red berries
Trees with none at all
Everything’s before us
Surging and expanding
Anything,
Anything can be left behind
I’m engaged
To be wed
Our apartment
Fits a bed,
A couch and TV
Christmas lights
Way too many books
Not enough time
We make plans
How ‘bout you?
Job still suck?
Our’s do too
We’re getting older
Serious,
Fixated on the news,
Delirious
Old house new house
Green car black car
Trees bending in the wind
Trees getting blown over
Everything’s before us
Surging and expanding
Anything,
Anything can be left behind
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6. |
Obtain
04:00
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You own the house now
The one you grew up in
I say it’s got charm
You say it fell to shit
And anyway
You need the cash
No keys in the fake rock
Or underneath the mat
Your Mom changed the locks
The time she caught your Dad
Out with the girl
From Auntie Anne’s
Your brother rolls up
In his green sedan
Weed smoke and leather,
Two of his bonehead friends
Stare at your ass
Honking the horn
Start in on the kitchen
Sanitize the sink
Decades of neglect
Are caked on everything
Impossible
To scrub off
I label the boxes
That you stole from work:
Keep, donate, landfill,
Old precious heirlooms, and burn.
I’m trying to
Help how I can
Everything we want
Becomes another thing we have
Becomes extra weight to carry
Becomes something else to move
We were once as light as air
We live and we obtain
We live and we rapidly accumulate
Then we buckle from the load
We live and we obtain
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7. |
Hurricane Valentine
02:07
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You stormed out of the den
And vanished mid-scream
Stuffing cash in your pockets
In the light of the street
Your path of destruction
Was raw and pristine
Like the ice storm of ‘98
Met the drought of ‘03
When you came to town
You took branches down
Left the power lines
Snapping on the ground
Like a bad dream
Sticks to the morning
Hurricane Valentine
Hurricane Valentine
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8. |
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I’m aware
Of my growing
Limits
As I stare
At my third beer
And gag
Push past people on the stairwell clutching their Natty Bo’s
My skin’s turning green
I’m puking off the balcony
I’m right back in it
Though a little bit different
The newest oldest punk at the show
The newest oldest punk that you know
I am wrecked
By a glowing
Tension
Down my neck,
Through my shoulders
And spine
Can I bum one while this band’s on? Maybe one more to go?
They sound kinda good
I’d be in there if I could
But I’m right back at it
Cutting through the static
The newest oldest punk at the show
The newest oldest punk that I know
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9. |
The Door
02:37
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I’d been holed up for most of my life
Locked away unseen
Until your axe came down, crashing through
Was it the smoke billowing
Or are you just all-knowing,
Somehow able
To sense life
Stirring?
Now we sit out on the porch
I don’t hide much anymore
The old hinges
Will not be
Put back on
The door
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10. |
Old Mike
02:26
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Like an action flick
We burn out quick
Nothing lasts
And nothing sticks
Going out tonight
Avengers V
Popcorn bag
And king-size Sprite
Death-defying scenes
Surprise ending
People clap
Excitedly
A group of prepubescent
Boys freak out over
What we’d all seen.
How was it so much better than
Any of us thought possible?
For one minute, I feel like the Old Mike
For one minute, I feel like my old self
For one minute
And then it’s gone
Our lives keep ending up redrawn
Tying and untying knots
Around and around
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Michael Cormier-O'Leary Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
INQUIRIES: [email protected]
songwriter
•
producer
•
improviser
•
drums in Friendship
•
compositions as Hour
... more
Contact Michael Cormier-O'Leary
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