In Now and Then

Slow the Time

Sinkhole

The Beast

Other Side

LITTLE HEARTBEAT
Is this the part where we finally touch?
Tearing through the knee-high underbrush?
I can still hear your whisper, "I want the best of your love."

But please god be dumb for once 
and don't ask if she means The Eagles or The Emotions.
Set the pace, raise the stakes, "Listen babe, you've got the best of my love"

I've got what you need
if you want to feel your little heart beat.
So hot, so sweet, you know I want to feel your little heart beat.

I never claimed that we made much sense.
I was playing "Louie, Louie" on the pipe organ 
on the night when I met you, feeling barely 17.

So ring the bell, baby strike a chord--
Homecoming Queen knocking over that liquor store 
nonchalant, "What do you want dilettante?" Sweeter than a tangerine.

I've got what you need
if you want to feel your little heart beat.
So hot, so sweet, you know I want to feel your little heart beat.

I feel it coming on so strong
(I wanna feel your little heart beat)
now that I've held you in my arms.
Yeah, feel your little heart beat.

I've got what you need
if you want to feel your little heart beat.
So hot, so sweet, you know I want to feel your little heart beat.

Keepers

Little Heartbeat

PHOTOGRAPH
Little shogun, what a mess.
Wearing black slacks and maroon rayon vest.
Trying not to be provincial, trying to be direct.
"Hey, can you leave the screen door cracked?
And no you don't even have to ask 

to take my photograph"

Statement haircut, five feet tall.
Back to Deerfield in the fall and I can still see you--
drinking something questionable outside that pizza shop.
Trying to make the townies laugh
and hustling a ride to Western Mass 

just like a photograph.

You can take my photograph.

Photograph

ROOM WITHOUT A FLAME
I was braced
for a gut-shot New Year's Eve.
A boat beyond the shipping lanes
trailing wakeless into spring.
That's when I met you on the street.

Think back before I even knew your name--
how cold it was to be a room without a flame.

By July
all good things around me new.
The atlas lied--
my middle west became unglued.
Holy terror, little you.

Just think back before I even knew your name--
how cold it was to be a room without a flame.

When I feel brave you are the song that swells in my head.
But bruise the silence with your voice in case I forget

to think back before I even knew your name.
How cold it was to be a room without a flame.

Room Without a Flame

PERSON YOU'D BE PROUD OF
There are days I feel so lucky all I can think of is you dying
'cuz I'm worried that life owes me one.
But the arbitrary happenstance of tragedy is tragic.
So the more that these days wear on the more lucky I become.

Yeah that's why you're the voice in my mind (though it's inevitably crowded)
and I'll try to be the type of person you'd be proud of.

Though it may be mawkish and the alt weeklies think it's gauche, 
some hack job that got sold in the room.
A souvenir. A hallmark card. A little banjo hitter swing.
That doesn't mean that it's not true.

Oh who could lie to you beam of light 
with a countenance that's shrouded?
You know I'll try to be the type of person you'd be proud of.

I know you try!
(to be a person you'd be proud of)
The voice in your mind!
(say, "Be a person you'd be proud of.")
Oh beam of light!
(No, just a person you'd be proud of.)
And who could lie
to a person you'd be proud of?

Person You'd Be Proud Of

BETWEEN YOU AND ME
Let it go, what it means to be free--
the hair blowing back from your face holding a beer between your knees.
And don't think I don't know every contingency--
teaching school, maybe the non-profit world, even buying a house in some peripheral city.
But I'm not ready to leave.
So enjoy the show.
Not sure how long it will be, I can't pretend I'm 19,
between you and me.

And I'll wish you the best but I wish it were me
upgrading vans and making big plans and playing on TV.
Again, good luck and god bless!
At least my conscience is clean.
Just a bit saddle sore on this high horse trying to maintain self esteem 
doing that western states lap. 
Eating crackers and cheese.
The room's 200 cap.
I'm playing 2nd of three, that's quite a distance to breach 
between you and me.

But when you're making me laugh I start to lose steam
and stop being a brat. Let's go drive to the beach, I've got one perfect thing--
between you and me.

Between You and Me

YOUR LOVE HAS GOT ME RUNNING HOME (TO YOU)
I just think of the sound,
the sound of you starting your day
through the door you closed to keep the cold at bay.
Yeah if I roll
into the deepest blues
I couldn't stay if I wanted to.

You know your love has got me running home to you.

But now I've gotta go,
go sing my song in some strange room.
And feel the eyes watching me swing about you.
But if I get strung out (and god knows I can)
I feel you pull me back like a rubber band.

You know your love has got me running home to you.

Let's not let life just become boring--
an obligation double date.
A TV show we're half ignoring,
a salsa class that we both hate.

You know your love has got me running home to you.

Your Love Has Got Me Running Home (To You)

A SHORT GOODBYE TO NO ONE IN PARTICULAR
To me the scene of that fucked up car accident.
To you a place where you take lessons on guitar.
And in the house on Halloween that would never answer their door bell
I see a young buck reading comics in the dark.

Walk by most certainly a stranger on the street
and don’t they look like someone I would know?
I say a short goodbye to no one in particular          
and then let go, let go, let go.
 
Lay bare the stories I have annexed or embellished.
Dissect each distressing realization in a church.
Kick the door in of inexplicably terrifying houses.
Wander through where my would be girlfriends used to work.

I could swear that that’s a stranger on the street
but don’t they look like someone I would know?
I'll say a short goodbye to no one in particular
and then let go, let go, let go.
 
Lock eyes and nod at every stranger on the street.
Damn they look like someone I would know.
I say a short goodbye to no one in particular
and then let go, let go, let go.

A Short Goodbye to No One in Particular.

WILLOW TREE (music and lyrics by Chad VanGaalen)
Sleep all day just waiting for the sun to set.
I hang my clothes out on the line.
And when I die I hang my head beside the willow tree.
When I'm dead is when I'll be free.

And you can take my body,
put it in a boat,
light it on fire,
you can use the kerosene.
And you can take my body,
put it in a boat,
light it on fire,
and send it out to sea.

Willow Tree

STRAIGHT UP WESTERN (WHITE NOISE)
Straight up western, chasing daylight.
Routed through the central plains.
I swear half of me was made for something wild
and half was made for something plain.

Out with the vampires after the show
and it won't be long 'til I'm too old to go.

When the room's too crowded with the shouters at the bar,
and it's all that I can do to walk you outside to the car,
psycho buzzing, when I triple check the locks on all the doors,
I feel you touch me like a soft voice in white noise.

Beset by fast food in the mountains--
a ski resort without the snow.
That string of outlet malls whipping by.
Then a broadly defined chateau.
And I feel like the opposite of New Years Eve--
I'm not drunk at all or getting antsy to leave.

When the room's too crowded with the shouters at the bar,
and it's all that I can do to walk you outside to the car,
psycho buzzing, when I triple check the locks on all the doors,
I feel you touch me like a soft voice in white noise.

Straight Up Western (White Noise)

AMERICA, GOODNIGHT!
We'll get to the bottom of the bag near Bellingham.
You can still feel it right? You can still feel it, right.
Cross the border holding on to just a gram.
We'll stay up all night. We'll stay up all night.

And then take me into your arms.
Take me into your arms.
Find a good place to stay warm--
we'll stay out of sight. We'll stay out of sight.

C'mon, mellow out, this won't be hard. I can just tell.
Start drinking water now. Start drinking water now.
My uncle's got a place we can chill out a spell.
We'll listen to music loud--really good music loud.

You know this is going to be hard?
I know this is going to be hard
So just take me into your arms.
We're not gonna sleep tonight. We're not gonna sleep tonight.

Comb your hair; we'll clean out the car at the duty free.
Don't sketch out now. Don't you sketch out now.
The air up here's thick and feels good in my lungs.
America, goodnight! America, goodnight!

Cataldo Band

Popular tracks