high vibes

Stuff I find interesting to write about mainly.

Mike tunes

So Blue    Lyrics and Music © 2024 by Mike Dampf; Bass - David Leadbitter; vocals & flute - Becky Sora; sax & organ - David Lavkulik; drums & mixing - Tim Bovaconti

The morning sun screams red
'Arise! Arise! get out of bed
go find a pulse and fix your head
The devil give, the devil take
T van Zandt and sweet Nick Drake
come down to give your soul the shake

They're so blue babe. so blue babe
They're so blue babe,
so blue

The Jesus bell swings high noon
Rosetta belts a gospel tune
Redemption must be coming soon
High and holy, headed home
a smoke, a silent telephone
go light one for Nina Simone

You want to live upon a moon
where there's no happy tunes
to bring you down

Sunday evening coming down
spin some Johnny Cash around
a man in black, that lonesome sound
Love is sweet and that's a fact
shut the door till it come back
but keep it open just a crack

So Blue

Until Your Heart Believes       Lyrics and music by Mike Dampf © August, 2024         Flute - Becky Sora; Bass - David Leadbitter; Vocals Jerneja Medved and Mike Dampf

I can see you hurt
I can read the signs
You smile through loneliness
like winter sun through the pines
this kind of wound is slow to heal
and I know how it feels

One light is on long before the dawn
a half moon rises and then it's gone
soft wind rustles the willow leaves
dreamless, until your heart believes

I see you nearly every day
your eyes say it all
it's just 'Hello' and then you look away
like you hit some kind of wall
Sure, you're fine, nothing's been revealed
but I know how it feels

Look at me
look at you
we shouldn't be alone anymore

Until Your Heart Believes

Too Old to Die Young (music and lyric by Mike Dampf © October 2024)    Becky Sora: flute, percussion, mandolin, vocals/ Dave Leadbitter: bass & vocals

You're really gone, not just gone away
I hurt in the spaces where we used to play
if music is love, my love goes unsung
I'm not too old, just too old to die young

Rumors of an angel, flowers on the breeze
you walked into the room, I went weak at the knees
Like in a church, sweet bells were rung
I'm not too old, just too old to die young

I laughed at love, I thought I had time
I played the game until pride made me blind
Thought I was a rock until 'lonely' cracked open my mind

God knows the reasons, I can't say why
this beautiful summer's so fast drifting by
each leaf's gonna fall as the pendulum's swung
I'm not too old, just too old to die young
I'm not too old, just too old to die young

Too Old to Die Young

LIFE AIN'T BUST          Original song by Mike Dampf © November, 2024  Bass by David Leadbitter; Harmonica by Becky Sora/ Original painting by Jay Dampf

Sometime up, sometime down
this old life is a steady pound
freezing rain, burning heat
best step aside if we meet

Give me things that I can trust
Show me how this life ain't bust

Stand in line, hurry, wait
one at a time through the gate
fold your arms, hide your fear
ask yourself why you're here

Give me things that I can trust
Show me how this life ain't bust

Keep quiet, don't gripe and don't make a big fuss
They need you alive but beware 'cause this life
is gonna break you down to dust





Life Ain't Bust

Pretty Loose music and lyrics © 2025 by Mike Dampf and Dave Medcof
Bass: David Leadbitter; Mandolin, percussion, vocals: Becky Sora

Buddy called, said 'Get off the couch'
you're old but that's no excuse
let's meet at the station with a pint and a plan
everything's been getting pretty loose

So we met on up and we strolled on down
down to where they bury 'who vamoosed'
had a drink and a tear over long gone friends
then we started getting pretty loose

He said 'I heard there's a party just down the line
jump a trolley to the Long Branch Loop'
so we climbed aboard, left the dead behind
and rolled along feeling good 'n loose

It was a-pull down the guitar, rosin the bow
treat your liver and your banjo with abuse
sing out the heart, forget about the head
and everyone was getting pretty loose

The good Lord made many lovely things
I've seen a beaver, a cougar and a moose
but nothing's half as lovely as the way I feel
when the music is getting good and loose

Now it's late, I'm back on the train
so sleepy that I drag my own caboose ...
yes I'm old but the day is young
and everything's been getting pretty loose
Ya everything is getting pretty loose!

Pretty Loose

A love song for strangers. Music and lyrics by Mike Dampf and Becky Sora © February, 2025 Becky plays mandolin, vocals; David Leadbitter plays bass. 

THIRD EYE BLUES

God has nothing to say to the sober
He leaves them high and dry but they don't complain
And God knows there ain't anything faster
Than a fall from grace, I'll never clean that stain

Do you know anyone here, you whispered
We were strangers sitting in a pew at the Church of the Homeless Angel
No but I'm gonna know you, I whispered
And by the way you really rock red at a funeral

I'm gonna live forever if it kills me
And I'm gonna love you for all time
Whatever made you want someone this crazy
I've got a third eye but sometimes I'd rather be blind

We balance on the edge of the moments between hope and fear
It seems to me
You and I ring, we're each other's everything
And alone together isn't so lonely

Third Eye Blues

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭,
𝐲𝐞𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐰𝐧.
𝐒𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐈—
𝐈 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧,
𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰.

Thank you guys for the positive feedback :) It only took a few cuts and the pedal effect, like reverb, to get it to sound like this. xx

charli xcx - fall in love again and again (wuthering heights) everything is romantic

made this track and wrote to it today - i really just need to put this out so i can feel like i've completed something cuz i did absolutely nothing but lay around and make music all day

i hope you like it

(lyrics!)

i need to not pick up my phone
i’ll go straight to airplane mode
find something to do i know
i can be a little bit cold

but my third eye
is going blind
i’m unaligned
with my body and mind
its playing tricks
i say "i’m fine"
but really it's hurtin' me deep inside

cuz
i’ve been dreaming bout you
i’ve been wishin that i was next to you
i've been dreaming of us
i've been thinking this is not a need or a must

but
love has treated me so so wrong
this year all i've got to show are songs
and i want to be 
super duper true
to you 
but god i don’t know what to do
cuz last year i was just 22
feels like it up and flew
so far away and out of view
but 23 seems like me and you  

cuz
i’ve been dreaming bout you
i’ve been wishin i was next to you
i’ve been dreaming of us
i’ve been thinking this is not a need or a must

i know sometimes i make you feel insane
i'm sorry thats just how i play this stupid game
i can't act like a child and disobey
all that you want from me and that you say
im sorrryyyyy baby
pleeeese puppy 
i’m trying to be
ultra mega happy
and show you my smile 
and send you my feelings 
and fuck - it is so hard 
being so damn far
i guess i’ll just stay here 
and..
stay singing in my car?
(i'll sing in my car)

i’ve been dreaming bout you
i’ve been wishin i was next to you
i’ve been dreaming of us
i’ve been thinking this is not a need or a must

but
i've been waiting on you
i've been waiting for you to tell me those three words too
cuz
i've been hoping it's true
that one day i'll feel like i am something real for you

airplane mode

Vibes

Young

YOUNG

Mac's debut LP '2' will be out October 16th on Captured Tracks.

Mac DeMarco // My Kind of Woman

Harness Your Hopes by Pavement (at 1.1x speed) [request]

Harness Your Hopes (1.1x Speed)

Writing songs and kitchen party playing with my many musical friends ... pretty much sums it up.