Music by Francois rarely, actually never needs improving upon, but the lyrics and vocals here take this to a wonderful, if melancholy new place. I’m glad I heard this

Unique and satisfying collaboration. An "art song"... just as I like.

Wow, Al. The lyrics you've crafted are pitch-perfect -- each word hits home hard, in all the right ways. Thanks for reaching out and asking to do this. I am honoured that you would add so much to my small collage of melancholy notes...

The Cat's Favourite Tracks From The Past 30 days (6/10/22)

Hypnotist

This is Not Even Rock and Roll

I'm a walking cliche with my guitar
I want to get rich and be a star
There's only one hitch: I'm getting too old
And this is not even
This is not even
This is not even rock and roll

Strange how estranged everyone's become
They can't understand what I am
And I'm not worthy of a microphone
And this is not even
This is not even
This is not even rock and roll

I'm thinking with guitar mind
Love to feel it unwind
Tell me are you inclined
To show me why you're do fine?

The hawk above the highway knows my name
The restaurant mirrors multiply my face
Back and forth to infinity I go
And this is not even
This is not even
This is not even rock and roll

ISRC:
ushm92277104

This Is Not Even Rock and Roll

Look at me tree
All my branches broken
Leaves all gone

Words: Helen
music: Andy

Tree

Check out @flamingo-jones pages, tons of good music there!

Syndicate Cargo Pt.1 (feat. Flamingo Jones)

Hey man, I hope you like this
.
.
.
.
Parallaxing; always in the back of my head
Monumenting; towering over everything that's said
It's a mountain of, "I'm not here right now"

something else is going on & I think it's here to stay

I'm not sure if it ends,
but it's got to get better than this emptiness

I'm still not really making progress

Still Not Really Making Progress (Francois Cormier collaboration)

"A vagrant with a feckless heart
Preparing to depart again
Eyes are strained upon the dark
Ever searching out the stars

This darkling world a wilderness
And we are doomed to wander it

Stumbling listless, roaming blind
By a legend ill defined
The firmament that separates
Is firmer than his trust so desolate

This darkling world a wilderness
And we are doomed to wander it"

wander

I am ME, and I am You-min. Anything else within these two lines is simply... All Good. 

Making up boxes, no matter how one frames it, is just prop-a-gating the same ole' divisive cracks under a fresh coat of bad faith-paint. So stop marking up tribal bounds, and instead, let's all BOND within the only Spectrum that should really matter: this gorgeous You-n-I-verse that we all share.

****************************************************  
LYRICS

How do you grope about
with eyes popped wide when there's no view 
of what stretches behind the salt suss-pression of 
your sticky-sweater skin?

Do fingers ball up, full exploratory-like
Flail away in fistfuls
Fuzzy flurry of Punch & Ply
Do digits dance delicate 'twixt the dunes
to dowse what fiery diary swells within?

***

Why do we trope around
Big Lies plopped down wide open, peer-review
a spectrum skew molded by-the-bi trap within?

Genitalia vibrant stroke impressions
Hexadex or Binary, veiled hue expression
'Box be box' in spite of facets or dimension --
it still walls us in...

***

What makes a fellah-fellah
...stakes a sistah-sistah
...slakes a mallow-yellow
...wakes a mistah
Whoda howda whyda focus on special 
kindsa tribal lines and gloves?

What fakes a feelah-feelah
...cakes a mistah-sistah
...shakes a twistah-listah
...breaks a blistah
why wouldn't ya want an all-encompassing 
kinda it's-all-good full life to love?

***

Why do the hokey-pocus
...lose the larger focus
...choose the lie that chokes us
...rue the roost with spose-dahs?

You R you N you Are you-min
time to toss the tribes
and share one

LOVE

****************************************************

Gro(w)ping Thru The F(l)og

little daisy
too pretty, too lazy
you wish for a man
but you won’t think it’s crazy when
he’s not what you needed
a supposedly candid photo,
just a stand-in
for a little sanity

little susan
you’re broken up, you’re losing
but wait for the moment
when happiness is using you
to make something that’s beautiful, 
and loved with a full heart, 
you’ve woken up, 
to something that’s musical

done with sighing,
you’re cracked up, you’re smiling
it means that you’re sober from
the run from blue october
how do you feel meeting someone for the first time
and you’re still circling round and round at the starting line

little steps (dec 2 18)

Originally this was going to be a sing-songy track, but then my fingers couldn't stop strolling in the deep end deed-tales, and now we're all entangled by yet another instru-mental.

Soar-y.

In The Weeds, Fingers Entangled Firmamently

"Dreams die all the time
But I'm too young to have none left
I'm not inspired, I'm just resigned
Afraid of what's ahead
Don't bother me as I retreat
To the corner of my skull
And ill at ease, in vacant dreams
I'll fall off the edge

I'll fall off the edge
I'll fall off the edge

I didn't notice my ceiling
Closing on me I was staring at my floor
I know it's only a feeling
But it's telling me that there is nothing more

The apparition of my ambition
Leaves me in the fog
He says "Farewell" and I can tell
This is our final talk
The mournful mist shrouds all but this
One sure and solid aim

Death awaits us all
Death awaits us all

I didn't notice my ceiling
Closing on me I was staring at my floor
I know it's only a feeling
But it's telling me that there is nothing more"

Threw open GarageBand for the first time in about half a year today, and this was the result. Nice to get a demo fired off before the year is over :)

dreams die

Just cause -- we don't have enough to worry about...

**************************************************

LYRICS
(What's in your brain?)
(Its seams are starting to strain...)
(What's on your mind?)
(It seems it's not all that kind...)

((I'm sure I see you))
((I think I know you))
((I'd swear I love you))
((Why can't you feel the same?))

***

See to Sea -- so many exposures
Eye to I -- don't wanna cry, ain't gonna fly
I wanna feel just fine -- I want what's mine
Why do we have to draw these lines?

(((Told to distrust you)))
(((Not to discuss you)))
(((I'm taught to hate you)))
(((Why won't you take the blame?)))

You to me -- so many explosions
Eye for an aye -- the bodies' lie, don't wanna die
A cross, a field of mines -- a bloody grind
How did we all become so blind?


**************************************************
[Written/recorded while down in Siesta Key in May 2024, using only my laptop's crappy onboard mic for vocals. The message behind the mess still comes through loud and clear, though (i hope)...]

Warry Wort

What's the point of Peace-preaching if all we're leaving are pieces?

*********************************
LYRICS

If you had to put a price on Paradise
Well, just a slice
How do you tally the bill?
Is an acre too much?
How much crypto for a human's touch?
What would it take just to...
What would it take just to chill?

In-turned nights, tossed brain-throw fights
The cool side can't win
Hot heads they churn heavy through thought-cycle's wince and spin
Even dreams' textured psy-naps are brute relief with no peace
But pieces, de-fragments, mess-eye-ache release

***

If you had to put a price on Paradise
What would suffice
Who would I have to kill?
Is a country too much?
What appropriation for a Culture's clutch?
How much wine should I...
How much blood should I spill?

Even dreams' textured psy-naps are brute relief with no peace
But pieces, de-fragments, mess-eye-ache release

***

If you had to put a price on Paradise
Just roll them dice
Would it be your god's will?
Is a being of light getting off sleight-
Outta-hand with his peoples' plight?
How many holes must we...
How many graves must we fill?


*********************************
[again, created/recorded while down in Siesta Key in May 2024, using only my crappy lappy mic, so pretty raw... but maybe that's part of the point?]

The Paradise Price (acoustic / lo-fi)

Hey, wait... was I gone and/or am I here again? Does a France-wah fart in the forest?

***
LYRICS

Been away, but I'm fixin' to amble over
Promise I won't stay too long
C'mon -- what do you say? 
S'been a while since i trampled your clover
I swear -- this time there'll be
No gamble by shamble-ramblin' 

Why today? well, that's a very good question 
Perhaps to gloss over
Truly didn't mean to stray, 
Wasn't up to anything wrong
But you know how it is -- 
Things crop up that are hard 
When it gets pitch dark and colder
I surely hope that i am not being too forward 
Or laying it a little too
Laying it a little too
Laying it a little too 
Strong?

***

not like the nights when it               felt
                                       easy; 
nowadays, i feel much 
                                                                    older
so please -- 
won't you                                just 
play along

Away But Fixin to Amble Over

If one rings in the New Ear, does that mean they have tin-new-tus?

(Just an odd little piece to stumble into 2025 on a light-ear foot, after my seriousoussous-er songstuff of late...)

****************************************
LYRICS
Can you feel the new year snaking in as the old leaks out it's fading
can you breathe this new beginning pushing out the old air's failings

zubba zey zey
zubba zubba zey
zubba zey
zubba zubba zey 
zubba zey 
zubba zubba zubba zey
zubba zey zey
zubba zubba zey zey
zey
 
zubba zubba zey 
zubba zey zey
zubba zubba zey
zubba zey
zubba zey zey
zubba zubba zubba zubba zey
zubba zey
zubba zubba zey
zubba zey zey

zubba zey zey zey
zubba zubba zey
zubba zey
zubba zubba zey 
zubba zey 
zubba zubba zubba zey
zubba zey zey
zubba zubba zey zey
zey

zubba zubba zubba


it's the new ear / weird
same as the old ear / weird

************************************************

New Ear

"May you live in interesting times"...

Hm. Maybe we need to go back to boring. It seemed less... glowballsy dis-turbulating?

************************************************
LYRICS

Can't help but feelin' that I've been here before
The tension vibrates through my skin to the core
Around me bodies fall like flies to the floor
As i bust through the ranks like a ram through your door
Can't help but feelin'

Around me bodies fall like flies
Around me bodies fall like flies
Can't help but feelin'

Broad cast for reelin' what i frame you to be
Remake the fabric of your digital sea
Surrounding bodies of stars scar my eyes and i scream
as the universe melts, pixel dust rends the scene

Surrounding bodies of stars scar my eyes
Surrounding bodies of stars scar my eyes
Surrounding bodies 
Leave me reelin' reelin'

Now disbelievin' seems much easier to me
Hiss-story shifts to fruitful web-rooted tree
Entangled 'bodiment snakes 'cross the floor
Sinks its teeth in your flesh venom scores new view see
now you're free

Re-brand my truth to surround you in lies
Robot my truth to compound you in lies
Re-boot my truth
ground you in lies

Can't help but feelin' that I've been here before
Broad cast for reelin' what i frame you to be
Now disbelievin' seems much easier to me
Around me bodies fall like flies
Leave me reelin'


************************************************
Recorded and mixed on a new (10 years overdue) lappy, using its crappy lappy mic (surprisingly not that crappy) in a Siesta Key rented room that exudes far too much white inundustrial noise, but not mastered yet because i forgot to download my old mastering S/W from my old crappy lappy (you were never crappy old lappy, but you just couldn't keep up anymore. Hope your new home and its fantasmical godchild creatrix will treat you better than i ever did...).

I've Been Here Before (unmastered)

This is my little personal diary of songs and melodies. Please enjoy

The Cat is currently sleeping while I look for a singer....
If you're interested in being part of Cat Came Back V2.0......drop me a line.....

Cat Came Back (up to 2023) were:
Gina Graham - vocals 
Graeme Mc Pherson - bass, keyboards, samples, beats, production. 
Music written by Graeme, words by Gina.

Our music can also be found on most of the popular streaming platforms but I can't guarantee it will always be there or even here on Soundcloud for that matter.... 
So if you really liked anything you heard here and want to keep it, please visit our Bandcamp page. Or if not ours, support someone else's music you've heard here - it's a tangible gesture that will make their day. 
There's a link below to my personal Bandcamp purchases and recommendations, many of which were artists I discovered here on Soundcloud.

Thanks for listening, Graeme.

Still Not Really Making Progress (Francois Cormier collaboration)

jal williams

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Kelvin and friends

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Jonathan Beckenstein

Cat Came Back

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