Get all 8 Swale releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of There's No One Here, Wooden Heart, Kiss Mess, The Next Instead, Direct Inbreds [remixes], A Small Arrival, Waterlanding, and Verdigris.
1. |
Everyone Likes To
03:03
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Cut the shit, you know we’ve all got our problems, scarred in places we don’t even know. What makes you think that your drama defines you? That’s what I’d like to know. You come in screaming, you crashing the party. You act like all of us have hurt you before. You don’t need to find someone to break you, that’s what they make drugs for. Draw the windows, who’s watching the front door? Too many assholes trying to get in. And to think that you used to be tight bros way back when. But you don’t have to play the villain or victim, you don’t have to throw the baby away. I can see that you keep your mouth open but I can’t hear what you say. Maybe you start with good intentions: just to feel all right. Everyone likes to fight. Everyone likes to get high. Congratulations on becoming your father. Bet you never saw yourself standing here: counting minutes and waiting for something while weekends turn to years. Don’t call me later. Don’t tell me you’re sorry. Don’t tell me all the shit you’ve told me before. You don’t need to convince me you mean well, that’s what your memory’s for. Everyone starts with good intentions: just to feel all right. Everyone likes to fight. Everyone likes to get high.
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2. |
Joyless
03:38
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“War is not the answer,” a great man once said, but the wheels of destruction keep us running to our end. The wind might blow cold and the leaders might fail to lead but the day will come when our fathers are gone and its up to you and me. The history of man is written on the face of the joyless and homeless. We’re all the same.
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3. |
Beaten Down
03:05
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I thought I was beaten down, then you beat me down. I thought I had been around and was strong but you showed me I was wrong. Who knew the dark night of the soul could be so wonderful? My body’s weak and my mind was trained to fear everything, I was so deranged. I didn’t think I could go on in this solitary song, but in the breaking of the dawn I knew I could go on. I wanted some kid of control. I was such a fool. When there’s nothing left to do I just got to let you do what you do. Nothing I had done before did anything to prepare me for you and I don’t know about the pain but true love fell down like rain. I thought I was beaten down, then you beat me down.
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4. |
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We take apart a lifetime, disregard the bad times and erase them all. We take apart a lifetime, catalog the good times and decorate the walls. We break apart a lifetime, celebrate the good times and end the day. We break apart a lifetime, relegate the bad times and send them all away. But you are not the photograph even though we’d love to last as long as that. We are not the photograph even though we’d love to last as long as that.
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5. |
Before the Night
04:45
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Before the night is over, with all our might the wheel against our shoulder. We can’t speed it up. We can’t slow it down. Before the night is over, with no sunlight we feel a little colder. We don’t pick it up. We don’t put it down. Before the night is over, we’ll be all right. We’ll be a little older. We won’t speed it up and we won’t slow it down.
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6. |
Old School
03:01
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Old school, gone like shifting sand. The oldest friends and the warmest beds, old promised land. The past is past, what was may never be again. Lonesome men unfazed by consequence, their lives laid out before they were even born. Broken bones and season worn, a ticket for a ride they could never leave again. So they say, “It’s how you live your life.” You travel far by sitting still. Old wasted land. The past is past, what was is bound to be again
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7. |
Waiting for You
02:09
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I’m waiting for you to love what you do. I’ll see you through and it all comes down to you. You taught me to dance but now you never have the chance in your circumstance and it all comes down to you. You told me to go, but what do you know? I’ll never go because I like to watch you grow. You’re my favorite show and it all comes down to you.
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8. |
Popular Crowd
03:07
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Hey, you had the radio on. You were the fortunate son. You ran the numbers down and stars came down like sound. We were hanging out. We weren’t the popular crowd. Let the record show: got many miles to go. Hey, after you put up a fight, we kissed by the dashboard light and that shit was stuck like glue and I was into you. We were hanging out. We weren’t the popular crowd. We ran on batteries, did what we please. Are you feeling heavy yet? Did you win or lose the bet? Am I the only girl who makes you sweat? Are you feeling lucky yet? We were hanging out. We weren’t the popular crowd. Let the record show: we let the records play. We had a holiday. We were hanging out. We ran on batteries and did what we please.
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9. |
Golden Crutch
03:41
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I tell you you hurt me, you say you hurt twice as much. You got so much sympathy walking around with that golden crutch. So you called in the armies and soldiers fell in line, willing accomplices helping you perpetrate major crimes. But I never felt light in your arms though you had charm to spare. And rats are just rodents but you had real teeth to bare. She looks like a gymnast, let’s hope she’s flexible. She’ll have to be to deal with your role reversals. So you sailed to an island very far away and you fit in so perfectly on that green island of castaways. Wait for a bottle to wash up on the shore. Maybe you’ll find in it the answer that you have been waiting for.
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10. |
Jack Sharp
01:24
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Jack Sharp jumped into my lap. I expected lots of things but I didn’t expect that. Look sharp, he wears a good disguise. Jack Sharp, he’ll get you right between the eyes
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11. |
Edible #2
03:33
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Another month of text and death and broken teeth. Too fucked up to fall asleep, and miles to go until we leave and miles to go before I see the noose inside the family tree, razor lines under the sleeve. I’m running out of room to breathe and miles to go before I feed and tenderize the dim machine. Nothing better to believe than shaking hands and turning green for paper-thin and magazine, for plastic skin and staying clean, while every inch just wants to bleed and every inch just wants to scream and hide behind what eyes won’t see. We stretch the night so we can dream. We swallow want and name it need. There’s no more room for me to breathe and no more room behind my teeth and even still, there’s more to eat. I’m just a hungry mouth to feed.
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12. |
The Next Instead
06:16
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When the night has come and the dark is deep and wide: waiting for the words to rhyme, waiting for another line, waiting for the end of time. When the dawn has gone and the day is black and long: waiting for the right from wrong, waiting for a better song, waiting for what comes along. When the stars rain down and the moon is cracked and red: waiting for what’s just ahead, waiting until the wounds have bled, waiting for the next instead.
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Swale Burlington, Vermont
Swale plays songs that are loud and quiet and they appreciate each other and anyone who comes to listen.
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