Following on from our hooves, animal, and body parts band theme, we turn to two very contrasting tracks, from the versatile Rhode Island band who have variously been described as anything between alt-country and punk. The first is a painfully honest lovelorn track from from their first full debut album of 2007, War Elephant, questioning romance, creativity and authenticity. But in the sixth line, there's a clue to the second song …
I am the guarded line
And you fill me in with whatever you like
I am just going through the motions
I need an old-fashioned potion
There has gotta be some old recipe
'Cuz I gotta get drunk
I gotta forget about some things.
I lived in lies all my life
And I've been living here for a long, long time
And I know its been coming down a while now
When it shows, then you get me on the dial
But right now you're half way around the world
Maybe I'll see better days, but I'm not so sure I will.
I'm still hanging round and round
Sometimes it's a racket, but lately not a sound
In the bowels of history and time
I have learned to stay back and never shine
Now I feel stupid when I smile
For not a journey, a circus are our lives.
I can't make up for everything I waste
And I know that I could never afford a taste
Of anything that your lovely hands make
It eats away before the soul brake.
Just because it brings a smile to my face
Such a bad memory, you just can't erase.
I know of a City to steal from
And I know of a City to cheat on
And I know of a City of Sin
And that's the place I wanna meet you in
And say hello all over again
Romance me and take it back to the beginning.
The second is a shamelessly, here, bar-referenced song, appropriate for any Friday, and comes from their fourth album of 2011, Divine Providence. Shaking off the labels of serious indie-folk and more gentle acoustic guitar styles of previous work, frontman John Joseph McCauley and co decided to go for more of a raw style. So this has a real shackles-off, fuck-it-it's-Friday feel, with echoes of Roadrunner by Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, as well material by The Ramones or The Replacements. Hard to argue with that formula, really.
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