The Last Days of Leviathan

Nightingale

Purchase the CD or digital version from the band's online store!: https://www.spgiraffestore.com/collections/music-albums/products/steam-powered-giraffe-the-vice-quadrant-cd

The band Steam Powered Giraffe's space opera album!

Join the robots on a cosmic adventure as they journey into space with this two hour long 2-disc space opera featuring new age, rock, pop, and folk genres, all on 28 tracks!

Check out the Vice Quadrant Companion Timeline!
A timeline made by the band that helps tell the story of The Vice Quadrant along with the album!: http://steampoweredgiraffe.com/index.php/vqtimeline/

The Vice Quadrant

Necrostar

Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush
The freezing rain has
Pushed them down into the valley
With the rest of us
Flushed
From the comfortably lush
Forest floor
They draw their bows across
Serrated edges of
Musical saws and crush
The frigid, sharply pointed hearts
Of icicles like us

Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush...

Swish! swish!
The Osprey hovers seeking fish
The glassy pond
Displays the menu but won't serve the dish
To birds who wish
To linger when
The air turns cold
Defying pressure
To defer to Cackling Geese
And Western

Gulls, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish...

Who doesn't wish they could
Begin
To leave?
Who doesn't wish they could
Believe
In letting something end?
We have these wishes
But we're hung up
On a superstitious
Focus on the family
We see in Collared Doves
With love much stronger
Than we probably
Should ever hope
For ours to be.

Are we a "we are" today?
Will we be a "we will be" tomorrow?
Were we a "we were" already
Long ago?
We don't know
What price makes sense to pay,
So we settle for indebted sorrow,
Never knowing we could dine and
Dash into that nullifying snow.

Thrash! thrash!
The so-called trash birds
Taking baths
Betray their cuteness
In the recklessness with which
They lash
Their lustrous feathers
Petroleum with flecks of ash
In an unseasonable
Puddle
Glaciating fast

Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, freeze,
Splash, splash, splash,
Freeze, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, freeze,
Splash, splash, splash...

Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush,
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!

Varied Thrush

Ta-da!
Today
The headache finally goes away
The headache finally goes
Ta-da!
Today
I feel the harmony between
My heart and body and my brain
Everything will be okay

And if you ask what bird I want to be
I'll say a blue jay
If you ask what time I want to leave
I'll change the conversation
If you lean in close and kiss me
I won't mind
I’ll probably respond in kind

Ta-da!
Today
I find the energy to play
I find the energy
Ta-da!
Today
I hear a friendly melody
In every enemy refrain
Everything will be okay
Everything will be okay

Ta-da!
Today
I see the light across the bay
Ta-da!
Today
A sudden symphony
is somewhere out there trumpeting my name
Everything will be okay

And if you ask what bird I want to be
I'll say a blue jay
If you ask what time I want to leave
I'll change the conversation
If you lean in close and kiss me
I won't mind
I’ll probably respond in kind
I’ll probably respond in kind
I’ll probably respond in kind
I’ll probably respond in kind.


credits

released January 7, 2022
Music & lyrics by Stephan Nance
Arrangement by Stephan Nance

Piano/vocals - Stephan Nance
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Electric bass - Jeni Magana
Trumpet - Jackie Coleman

Mixing & mastering by Thaddeus Moore, Liquid Mixing & Mastering

Recorded in Portland, Los Angeles, and New York

Artwork by Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design by Chad Lowe

Blue Jay

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide

So we've been told, and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far

What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me

All of us under its spell
We know that it's probably magic

Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same

I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm s'posed to be

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me
La da da di da da ooh
La da da da la di da ooh
credits


Music & lyrics by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher
Arrangement by Stephan Nance

Piano/vocals - Stephan Nance
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Electric bass - Jeni Magana
Trumpet - Jackie Coleman

Mixing & mastering by Thaddeus Moore, Liquid Mixing & Mastering

Recorded in Portland, Los Angeles, and New York

Graphic design by Chad Lowe

Rainbow Connection

Element Two: Earth

The Moral

JAILBREAK - REF (Mastered with Thunder at 50pct)(2)

Eleisha Eagle - The Quittin' Kind (Bass)

You tell me that the boat is moving forward— 
Whatever that means when there is no land in sight. 
I’d always pegged you as a shorebird— 
But in light of certain facts, 
I’m inclined to take it back. 

Don’t underestimate me; 
This field of research is my specialty, my specialty! 
I will crack this hierarchy 
If it is the death of me, 
The death of me! 
The death of me… 

You tell me we are sailing on a one-way sea— 
I nod my head and hold my tongue. 
(You are an idiot!) 
You gave me a bum steer, crowing of your lofty views; 
I might have known you were 
A rooster on a booster seat! 

Don’t underestimate me! 
(Clearly there’s no danger of my underestimating you!) 
I will commandeer this vessel 
If it is the death of you, 
The death of you! 

—Must you respond so saltily? 
My faculties… 
Have long been… 
Bursting at the seams… 
Brimming as they are… 
With onomies, 
And ologies, 
And 
Memories! 
Memories! 
Memories! 

Don’t esterundimate me! 
I will hack this crierarchy! 
—Cut me, please—a little slack, I mean— 
Mental tacking’s never been my specialty. 
My knack is for a marked lack of strategy. 
But spin around and take another whack at me 
Look back at me — and see! 
I will stack up properly! 
If it is the death of me, 
The death of me, 
The death of me, 
The death of me!

credits
from A Troubled Piece of Fruit, released 23 July 2012 

Stephan Nance, piano/vocals
Angelica Sather Hodgetts, cello

Stephan Nance — One-Way Sea

The digital release of 'Len't - the single includes  the radio edit of 'Lent' and 2 b-sides; the Danton Supple produced 'Foolishly Wrong' and the band's self-produced early favourite 'Stalker's Tango'

All 3 songs can be purchased on iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/lent-single/id586010772 

Foolishly Wrong

I'm Always Walking As Somebody Else

indie chamber pop (bardcore)
pronouns: they/them

Rainbow Connection

Sparkbird