Dessa - IDES

lifequest

Dessa

Doomtree & more

Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Produced by Michael Piroli, Andy Thompson, and Lazerbeak
Cello by Dan Lawonn
Mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering
Cover art by Kai Benson

Dessa - "Talking Business"

Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Produced by Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson
Mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering
Art by Kai Benson

Dessa - "I Already Like You"

VERSE 1
Flip a coin, flip a car
I don’t care where we are
The picture and the sound won’t synch
And some things time can’t fix
I’m built for nights like this
Don’t mean I’m proud of it
And the rose in my teeth
Was a pin so it seems
You pull it and brace to blast
Get ready for the bang and flash
Alright just one last dance
make it fast

Prechorus
I know
How the tide pulls deep
Eyes open
But the mind’s asleep
Flash frozen
In the driver’s seat
Lights and motion
But they’re lost on me.

VERSE 2
There’s a dozen selves inside you
Tryna be the one to run the dials
And some aren’t even on your side
When the hunger comes and finds you,
only code it knows is rote survival
you’ll do the rest in your spare time
Tryna get that universal feeling
in an invite-only private room
guess the ring came off in the glove
Looks like you pawned the silver lining
Around the cloud that follows you
Guess that good old push came to shove

Prechorus
I know
How the tide pulls deep
Eyes open
But the mind’s asleep
Flash frozen
In the driver’s seat
Lights and motion
But they’re lost on me.

HOOK 1
Out in the water
You can’t touch bottom
It pulls you farther
Life on land forgotten

Verse 3
-4 bar instrumental-
The world rolls over
I’m pulled under
Stone cold sober,
But I feel nothing.

Bridge
I’m just a girl
In the body of a boy
In the belly of a whale
You can’t be sure
This far from shore
Which winds prevail

Prechorus
I know
How the tide pulls deep
Eyes open
But the mind’s asleep
Flash frozen
In the driver’s seat
Lights and motion
But they’re lost on me.

HOOK 2 (double)

OUTRO
Flip a coin, flip a car
I don’t care where we are

credits
released March 15, 2021
Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Produced by Andy Thompson, Lazerbeak, and Dessa
Mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering
Art by Kai Benson

Dessa - "Life On Land"

Verse 1
Ever since I was a little predator
Mom’s like, don’t get ahead of her
I was on the hunt for something better than the regular
And I knew there was candy at the register
So not about to settle for the vegetables.
Full grown, still got a sweet tooth
still tryna climb all the walls I can see, you
take your influences wichoo,
everywhere you go.
Mine were Carmen Sandiego
Lauryn Hill and Terry Gross.
But I’ve been playing hard to keep:
Kiss and teleport
Dark roots where the bleach won’t reach
Man, that’s gotta be a metaphor
But I’m still tryna storyboard it
Call me back if it’s important
If you’re looking for me
On this Tinder shit about partners in crime
Seems like Bonnie’s working little harder than Clyde
When it comes to the heist, doesn’t feel like a partnership
Cuz my accomplice is completely incompetent.

Nonsense 1
(Twizzlers)

Verse 2
Two bars walk into a joke.
First is a gold bar, other is soap.
Yo, lemme get the punchline I’m worth most
Gold says with a glass too full to toast
But Soap makes her voice go real low
Leans close
Rarely one to go boast
But when the banks hit the button, the credit goes down to nothing,
And the flood waters come in, then let’s see who floats.
Watch for unintended consequences—those you don’t see
The initials of your girlfriend could kill the fucking oak tree.
Nothing in my pocket but the body heat
Travel light, and mind your manners, man
That’s my foreign policy.

I’m that Netflix chick,
See the pieces on the ceiling—
The strategy above me
All the moves when I’m competing:
I’ll arrive by lightning bolt
Leave by cannonball
The china’s fine, man
The bull’s mechanical

Nonsense 2
(Robots)

Outro
A base hit is the son of a pitch
A tanning bed is the sun of the rich.
Son, keep your knuckles up, front of the fists
Don’t go broke, looking for something to fix

Released April 15, 2021
Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Produced by Paper Tiger, Andy Thompson, and Lazerbeak
Mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering
Cover art by Kai Benson
Lyric video by Matthew Levine - Cosmic Fox Media

Dessa - "Terry Gross"

VERSE 1
Running water
Standing wave
I’m looking at what must be your pet hurricane
Got you so spun
No break from the rain
Her roof held off your floor by just a trembling windowpane
Maybe that ringing in your ears
Is just her bell around your neck
And with a smoke ring on her finger
She goes and signals for the check
Dolce & Gabanna
Sodom and Gomorrah
Broken link in bio
Can’t tell the hunger from the boredom anymore

CHORUS
It looks like she loved you to pieces
Seems she’s been having the time of your life.
It looks like she loved you to pieces
But time
Is on nobody’s side

VERSE 2
Her double take
And single give
She’s out of pocket
Running numbers—not my business
But I can see how broke you’re going
Every time I visit
This life of yours passing just-just as fast as she can live it
Dolce & Gabanna
Sodom and Gomorrah
Broken link in bio
Can’t tell the hunger from the boredom anymore

BRIDGE
You can’t save your youth
For later, so
Take all you that you can carry and
Time is on nobody’s side

CHORUS
It looks like she loved you to pieces
Seems she’s been having the time of your life.
It looks like she loved you to pieces
But time
Is on nobody’s side

OUTRO CHORUS
It’s not too late
Til you say it is
Kingdoms come, kingdoms go
You don’t have to be brave
To lift your face to this
I’ll be your yes among no’s
It’s not too late,
Til you say it is
I’ll be your yes among no’s
Kingdoms come, kingdoms go
You don’t have to be brave
To lift your face to this

Released November 15, 2021
Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Produced by Dessa, Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson
Mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering
Art by Kai Benson

Dessa - "LYTP"

Dessa - The Crow

Lyrics and Vocals by Dessa
Produced by Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson

Mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering

Dessa - "Blush"

Lyrics and Vocals by Dessa
Additional Vocals by Aviva Jaye
Produced by Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson

LYRICS
You keep in touch
but out of reach 
You know me
I always did like hide and seek 
This crush
I’m underneath 
it gets lonely
more hand to mouth than cheek to cheek

Tell me again and
this time try to mean it
Tell me again and
This time try to mean it
 
You call me up 
from far away 
though it’s so late 
you don’t seem to have much to say
I think you must 
have news to break 
I can take it 
I’d rather hear it from you, baby

Hook
 
If we’re just play fighting 
how come that blade’s shining 
how come my eyeliner’s running 
Then all of a sudden
you strike lightning
You turn me outside in
then I’m hit 
I’m in trouble
Now it’s
just a matter of time
 
It’s just a matter of time
It’s just a matter of time
 
I hope you love somebody
Even if that body isn’t mine
 
Even if that body isn’t mine
it isn’t
Even if that body isn’t
if that body isn’t
Even if that body isn’t
that body isn’t mine
 
Oh, just a little liquid courage and
Ooh, just a little powdered faith
I’ve been in and out of trouble  
while you have been walking away 
Oh, just a little liquid courage and
Ooh, just a little powdered faith
And oh, you’ve been running out of patience
And me, I’ve just been dancing in place

Bury the Lede

Tell Me Again

Taken from Doomtree's 2007 release "False Hopes"
Produced by Cecil Otter

www.doomtree.net

Cecil Otter "A Hundred Fathers"

The new album ALL HANDS in stores 01.27.15 www.doomtree.net

THE BENDS
Produced by Cecil Otter
Additional production by Lazerbeak
Vocal sample by Will Humphries, Guitar by Jake Hanson, Additional vocals by Joe Mabbott and Isaac Gale
(Dessa)
Leave when the snow melts / on the first clear night / River runs deep / walk against it / Walk til the Southern Cross peaks on the west edge / of the brine lake at the dredged end / Ruts in the mud, then gravel, then a paved one / left at the Amoco, right at the station / First train—wait / take the second headed east
/ window seat, pretty girl with the gold teeth / has a hotel key with your name on it / Stay on it til the train hits the border in the morning / Duck the conductor, leave through the back door / wait for my sign on the platform / Smoke on the skyline / welcome to Delphi / They’ll come with questions / answer what you can / everybody knows the new oracle’s at hand
(Hook)
Oh, there prolly ain’t another way / and I watch so amazed / and float through everyday / hoping I don’t float away / that I don’t float away
(Stef)
Cold world, no blanket / dark nights, no Batman, what up? / I keep a nail in the hand and a hammer on
the nightstand / locked in, no B plan / Keep the mouth shut, let em stay lost / radio up, radio off / Either
no guts or it’s so what / rather read up then trust my neck to the blood suck / Full moon, hand fulla silver bullets / high noon all day with these assholes / How soon is too soon to pull it when I doubt they count they paces at all / So fly took a bullet in the wax wing / so high but didn’t get the chance to melt / so tight how when he came down didn’t even look scared / just eased on back into the veldt
(Hook)
(Sims)
The woods are deep / yeah them woods are deep / I was drinking that cheap shit to fall asleep / and really solely to hold my feet / because these days I’ve been taking that heavy so lightly / that I might float away completely / in my psyche I’m the natural man in a Black Friday stampede / LED murder spree for cheap / and the video screams Worldstar War Z / I’m feeling dirty but feeling so good I just smile at the thieves / fold up a note in the breeze / I’ve got a few miles to go before I concede
(Hook)
(Cecil)
You got it wrong, but you got it made / a lot of weight but you gotta wait for a lot of aid though / and I’m not a maid or amazed by the raise in your payroll / ergo silence the offers / High-wire walkers, child actors / ain’t vying for your father figure fodder / Otter out, we outta town, you outta line you lil faulker / taut line from the dock to the Oscars
(Mike)
And I’m reading like a Rorschach / hiding lines in the pantomime, allegory in a smirk / Where my eyes won’t take you my moves do that work, a nonverbal creep / Where the O.G.s weep / slide, slip, test glide / Connect like catchin rec like R-E-S-P-I-R-ation from the Westside / Now it’s strong in the Midwest in my own nation
/ got a fam and we crewed up in sub-clans, no subjugation / with the wings and the chops, put the beans
in the pot / like the seeds to the crop, Doomtree No Kings cut the top / head em off at the neck, better off dead, dead em all / better them than you, right? / Forever type shit
(Hook)

DOOMTREE "The Bends"

CECIL (Hook) 
We got cracks in our armor / Got cracks in the ceiling / and this axe that we’re wielding will react when we’re feeling that / Crack / Attack / Attack and we’re on you like a Mack truck Your Honor / We are that fucking filthy 

SIMS 
It’s 2000 and self destruct and everybody’s yelling that shit is all fucked / Yuck / I never liked the construct of that square wheel / Like “money ain’t real” / …wait…but that ain’t real / ...Oh, now I get it / We could take it all and split it / Give it to the village / Doomtree villains / out for the killing…no kidding / Good man but I went a bit bitter when they took a little bit of the dinner off my plate / High stakes / Okay / I’ll play / but it ain’t your game / and it ain’t your rules cuz it ain’t your world / and I brought my crew / We some dirty lip fuck your rules living ugly goons / It’s no kings / No way / You’re so vain / you probably think it’s about you / Well it is and it ain’t / and it ain’t, but it is / I go so fucking nasty no restraint / Well I get props and I play it off / I see em hot but I fade em all / Hello world it’s L.O.P. / B.T.Z. / Keep your ring / Move out my way, let me do my thing / let me do my thing / Imma do my thing 

MIKE 
Friction lock rivet / Goonish as all fuck / Prudent to all stunts / Proving the laws of logarithm / Like the wag of a dog’s tail / Bark back / Woof! / Light the rag on your cocktail / Spark that / Champ on that slang chop / Chump on that chomp rap / Prolly a stomp sack / Man gimme my prop back / Hold your tooth to my non dap / I ain’t no Diddy boy / That Beni know we go scrimp dance / Dougie don’t stop that! / Señor Frreal Z 3 R zero / None other, who’s kooler / Hoola-hooping thru bank 0’s / Hewlett packing, loogie yacking on Don Hero’s / Bomb appearance / Nights in Paris / raw dogging cross limos / Toss demos / Snot rockets blow up the sub-labels / Long tables / Calling shots on a crowd potato / The slang mongrel with fanged tonsils / We slay goblins / Gayngly gayng violent / Wrangling fake monsters (Hook) 

STEF 
What’s up? / No kings / No love for your made-up things / In the paint but it ain’t no game on the wall with a little complaint / Leave that stain / Weave through cities dodging rain no thing but an open door / It’s yours / No lie but you gotta get dirty man fix your pride / We some preach em real, reach em, steal em from low ideals type dudes / with a stepped up set of skills and an ick style so kill that wills update daily / No frills or pilled up babies / No posture phony just rock solid unfuckwitable dropped knowledge / No love for the bull horns give em / Thorns get em in / Swarm, let em make friends with a storm / Buddy up get close to the war / Insides out, no love for the boring / Naw, bored / and I bet the hearts off and beating under hardwood flooring / Poor man’s Poe (Hook)

Doomtree "No Way"

No April Fools joke here. After dropping the out-of-nowhere “Cross Countries” single earlier this week, Cecil Otter announces the immediate release of his new EP Dear Echo, available digitally through Doomtree Records.  Longtime Doomtree crew member and behind-the-scenes production wizard, Cecil has spent years developing his unique and signature sound, and Dear Echo pushes the genre boundaries even further for his most modern, lush, and experimental offering yet.  Recorded in Fall Creek, WI at Justin Vernon’s renowned April Base Studios, the six-track EP includes three brand new songs alongside their accompanying instrumentals, with production, songwriting, and vocals masterfully handled by Cecil himself.  Available now for download, Dear Echo will also see a vinyl release later this year.  Standard and deluxe LP packages are now available for pre-order from the Doomtree webstore, and include limited-edition white vinyl and an extremely rare signed-and-numbered screen-print series featuring the artwork Cecil created during the Dear Echo recording sessions.

After self-producing several of his own solo albums throughout the 2000’s, Cecil Otter rose to fame as one half of the mashup duo Wugazi, a remix project that overlapped the gritty raps of Wu-Tang Clan with the sounds of post-rock vets Fugazi.  The project went instantly viral and garnered high praise from the likes of NBC, Rolling Stone, MTV, and even Jay-Z’s own site, Life + Times.  Dear Echo marks Cecil’s first new collection of solo material since 2008’s Rebel Yellow.

Dear Echo

Cross Countries

Cecil Otter "Cross Countries"

We Don't Even Live Here

Fuck Your Stuff

After self-producing several of his own solo albums throughout the 2000’s, Cecil Otter rose to fame as one half of the mashup duo Wugazi, a remix project that overlapped the gritty raps of Wu-Tang Clan with the sounds of post-rock vets Fugazi.  The project went instantly viral and garnered high praise from the likes of NBC, Rolling Stone, MTV, and even Jay-Z’s own site, Life + Times.  Dear Echo marks Cecil’s first new collection of solo material since 2008’s Rebel Yellow.

Cecil Otter "Beauty"

Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Music by Dessa, Lazerbeak, and Andy Thompson
Cello by Dan Lawonn
Violin by Andy Thompson

Chime

Velodrome

Dessa "Velodrome"

new DESSA 
album CHIME
in stores 2.23.18
pre-order: http://smarturl.it/DessaChime

Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Music by Andy Thompson
Additional production by Lazerbeak

LYRICS

I’ve been Wendy
living with the Lost Boys
youth spent as a deckhand on the convoy
moved every night to prove we were something
got confused if it was from or to that we were running. 
I've seen Gibraltar
I’ve seen the Taj Mahal
Soweto, Hagia Sophia 
Chefchaouen paints their walls blue
I’ve played to full rooms
I’ve played the fool too 
burning through the bottoms of a pair of new boots
Cut my hair
tape my tits down 
A woman on her own must be from out of town
funny, you don’t know the concessions that you’re making until you catalog em
and by then they’re many and you’re battle-hardened. 
Heat makes liquid of the asphalt 
keepsakes and parking tickets on the dashboard 
I'm here to file my report as the vixen of the wolf pack; 
tell Patient Zero, he can have his rib back. 

Chorus
You can count my ribs
Wanna know what class I’m in—
Count my,
You can count my ribs. 

You can’t be too broke to break
as a woman
Always something left to take 
so you shouldn't  
try to stay too late or talk to strangers
look too long, go too far out of range cause
angels can’t watch everybody all the time
stay close, hems low, safe inside;
that formula works if you can live it 
but it works by putting half the world off limits. 

Chorus

We don’t say, Go out and be brave
nah, we say Be careful, stay safe 
in any given instance, that don't hurt
but it sinks in like stilettos in soft earth,
like the big win is a day without an incident 
I beg to differ with it
I think a woman’s worth
I think that she deserves 
a better line of work 
than motherfucking vigilance.
Don’t give me vigilance
by definition 
you can’t make a difference 
if the big ambition 
is simply standing sentry to your innocence  
that’s not a way to live 
that can’t be what a woman is
that gives her nothing to aspire to.
What that is—
what that is
is just a life of running fire drills. 

We’re runnin fire drills.

Fire Drills

Dessa "Fire Drills"

Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Music by Chance Lewis, Lazerbeak, Andy Thompson, and Dessa

5 out of 6

Dessa "5 out of 6"

Cecil Otter "Rebel Yellow"

Dessa "Fighting Fish"

Dessa "Call Off Your Ghost"

Vocals and lyrics by Dessa
Produced by Lazerbeak
Additional production by Andy Thompson

Mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering
Art by Kai Benson

Dessa - "Rome"

Lyrics and vocals by Dessa
Produced by Andy Thompson, Lazerbeak, and Dessa
Trumpet: Cameron Kinghorn
Mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering
Art by Kai Benson