think and breathe
your life on a movie screen
drink it in
you're not doing anything
don't think
just speak
you're not seeing anything complete

Complete

we all know this is nowhere
nowhere you should be heading for
and that we should know better
know better than to be here
in my hand I hold a marker
and a pint glass in the other
we write our notes to one another
on the walls in bathroom stalls just like in school
and if somebody's outside
if somebody's outside
if somebody's outside
if somebody's outside
if somebody's outside
got some durries outside
we might punch the fuckers

I'll take my body for a walk
step over empty bottles on the porch
let my breath fall flat onto the floor
and grind my cigarette into the dirt
I just can't find the right words
to give a voice to why I'm so disturbed
since the world's still got to turn
even as outside burns
I swear this town is fucking cursed
but the city sounds worse
because their bubble's going to burst
and the people where they place their worth

so if I'm out tonight
if my voice gives rise
I can't for my life
be held so high
as in my daily life
'cause in my daily life
I never realise...

and any passer-by would never realise
would never let my by
would never realise
would never let me lie
and any passer-by
would never be so kind
would never be so kind
either we're wrong or right
either it's wrong or right
either we're wrong or right
either it's wrong or right
and any passer-by would never be so kind
would never realise
would never let me by

Nowhere

Damn Williams plays "Art-rock with teeth", channeling the bravado and theatricality of Scott Walker and 70’s Bowie through the raw immediacy of 90’s alternative bands Guided By Voices and The Magnetic Fields, creating a dissonant sonic landscape that enriches its multifaceted narratives that introspectively explore abstract complexities of Australian life and nostalgia. What began as a solo project of former Tiger Choir frontman and bass player from Baglicker and Pretty in Pink, Elliot Taylor has evolved into a four piece family band featuring Olmer Bollinger (Baglicker), James Campbell (Tantrums, Ern Malley) and Lauren Mason (Pretty in Pink, Babysitter). The songs on their upcoming record, Dog Summer, were written and and arranged on Wurundjeri land over a four-year span and recorded at Head Gap studio, infusing each track with a sense of place and time, inviting listeners to journey through a tapestry of sound and story.

‘Roger,’ the second single from Dog Summer, is a taste of the dramatic anthemic side of the record. It’s a character-piece inspired by a personal story from a sporting personality that’s taken on new layers of meaning since inception, approaching identity, culture, resistance and the tension of change through a one-way keyhole dialogue taking you everywhere and nowhere.
lyrics


Roger

Damn all these hell-raising rattlers 
Those flat snakes with tracks down their backs 
From tractors we overtake 
Dust from his flanks flutters up in his wake 
A wallaby runs in the way so we wait 
Before the cattle gate 
When you go round to your drummer’s house 
You’ve got to be careful to go slow 
Or risk falling down a rabbit hole 

Some neighbour from farther down Old Bernie’s Road 
Is having a bonfire 
The air is fresh with fern burnoff 
And my window is all the way down 
I drag it into my lungs 
I drag it into my lungs 

The girls they learned to ask you 
what’s this game you play? 
And from there they feel afraid 
From then on we all feel ashamed 
Learn that to cut through the mess 
You drink and you dress to impress 

Some girls drag you behind the trees these days 
You stumble and make your first good mistake 
As she pulls your mouth into hers and she shows you the way 
The tongue trickles down from the roof of your mouth and you wither away 
Go home a man where your Dad’s found his grave in the ashtray 
Some youth you fulfil, but some you wish you’d abstained 
Some damn summer’s day

Roger

Damn Williams

Related tracks