team best, last life
credits to cherrifire for the cover

the crane w̶i̶v̶e̶s̶ lives - can't have it all

NOT MY MUSIC

uploadin for me. this will be deleted once the officials come out

Predator -Crane Wives

Ulysses Dies At Dawn Trial By Song - The Mechanisms

Song 8 of 10 of The Mechanism's Tales To Be Told Volume 2 album

Support The Mechanisms on their Bandcamp at https://themechanisms.bandcamp.com/

08 Lost In The Cosmos - The Mechanisms

from Incredible Distance [EP], releases February 9, 2018 
Stephan Nance - vocals, piano, synth 
Adam Caswell - programming, synth 
Arrangement - Adam Caswell & Stephan Nance

Lyrics:

Try 
To wend your way 
Through the thickest thickets 
And avoid the ratchet call reviews of the 
Gray Catbird critics. 
Easily 
The mimic mews, 
"Be more original"; 
They heard it from 
A bird more qualified to say it. 
Freely 
They propose a game of musical chairs; 
They bend the rules 
So they will win it when they play it. 

Where there's a seat, 
There'll be someone 
Sitting pretty, 
Calling your every shot 
And shooting down 
Your every call for help. 
Your even feet 
Won't ensure an even footing; 
Your standing won't be understood 
In the sedentary city. 

Try 
To look to your laurels 
In a boxwood hedge 
At public capacity. 
Try to rest 
Among the mock-mockingbird–occupied 
Topiary thrones. 
Eerily 
The tin-can chorus vacates the premises, 
Abruptly and without an echo— 
Sturdy and upright 
In the spotlight, 
You emanate your candidacy 
For upholstery. 

Where there's a seat, 
There'll be someone 
Sitting pretty, 
And where the seating's scarce 
You'll get your shot at 
Getting shot at. 
Your beating heart 
Won't save you from a heartfelt beating; 
Your standing won't be understood 
In the sedentary city.

Sedentary City

gray after gray 
prey after prey 
morning to morning 
day after day 

let's let 
bygones be bygones 
blackening the skies 
in the bygone style 
of soon-to-be-gone monarch butterflies— 
climb up the butte 
stare at the sun-drenched river 
clench your lids 
hurry 
carry the sight 
to the boardwalk 
lift your chin up 
open your eyes 
see a shadow 
watch as it lightens and dies. 
see a shadow 
watch as it lightens and dies. 
see a shadow 
watch as it lightens and dies. 

how can I love someone I've 
only seen in a painting? 
how can I love a voice I've 
only heard described? 
how, on the other hand, can 
you kill somebody who's right in front of 
you seem to have no trouble at all doing it 
you seem to have no trouble at all 

straw after straw 
back after back 
mourning to mourning 
caulking the cracks 

let's let 
bygones be tattooed 
upon our eyes 
let's let 
the truths 
be louder than the lies 
I feel so ashamed to think 
I used to say 
it wasn't your land 
and I didn't take it away 
it wasn't your land 
and I didn't take it away 
it wasn't your land 
and I didn't take it away 

white appetites 
killed the passenger pigeon 
white fashion 
killed the Carolina parakeet 
white silence 
kills people of color 
white power 
will kill the very current it ignited 
my own white power 
will kill a current too 
if I'm not prepared to fight it 

see a pipeline 
run along the oil-drenched river 
see us promise 
changes that we don't deliver 
see a sacred place 
watch us colonize 
the boardwalk 
see a fallen cup 
someone carried that cup 
when it was full 
it must have taken every ounce of strength 
to pour the liquid 
down their gullet 
yet a cis hetero white man 
emptying his gun 
seems to have no trouble at all 
carrying it for a future bullet 
seems to have no trouble at all
credits
from Incredible Distance [EP], releases February 9, 2018 
Stephan Nance - vocals, piano 
Jon Caponetto - trombone 
Adam Caswell - programming 
Sarah Evins - viola 
Alexis Garnica - trumpet 
Dylan Myers - bassoon 
Sarah Rosier - cello 
Arrangement - Adam Caswell

White Appetites

from Incredible Distance [EP], released February 9, 2018 
Music & lyrics by Stephan Nance
Stephan Nance - vocals, piano, programming 
Adam Caswell - programming 
Esther Kwak - clarinet 
Dylan Myers - bassoon 
Arrangement - Adam Caswell

Trampoline sensations 
lingering 
I fall asleep 
grinning 
and awake 
grinning 
in awe 
at what I 
see saw 
see saw 
see saw 
see saw... 

It's unreal 
it's unreal 
it's unreal... 
It's unreal 
it's unreal 
it's unreal... 
It's unreal 
it's unreal 
it's un— 

Cornucopia sofa 
so far you are 
treating me A-OK today— 
Eleemosynary celery 
boyar 
born of crimson velvet clay 
born on an inclement Friday 
born in the month of March... 

Tambourine tintinnabulations 
annotating 
birdsong, bee song, 
thumping bunny hearts 
clinging 
in awe 
to what they 
see saw 
see saw 
see saw 
see saw... 

It's unreal 
it's unreal 
it's unreal... 
It's unreal 
it's unreal 
it's unreal... 
It's unreal 
it's unreal 
it's un 
reeling in the Earth 
cartwheel and coincide 
sidewind and surrealize 
Sun reeling in the Earth 
Earth reeling in the Sun 
(parenthetical asides aside) 
Sun and Earth 
having begun 
accrete 
accrue 
accelerate— 
collide... 

Pierce my wrists with your nails, 
pierce my temples with your thorns; 
Revoke my resurrection license, 
I can't bear to be reborn. 
Place me on a bed of shells 
(relics of pistachios) 
within earshot of the sound, 
somewhere over the Narrows…

The Sound Narrows

Someday, 
Maybe ten, maybe twenty years from now, 
There will be a knock at your door. 
There will be a man standing there with a clipboard. 
And you will sign your name on the dotted line. 
The man will hand over 
A parcel bundled up in wool. 
You will look down to consider it; 
You will look up to say thanks, 
And the man will be gone... 

But a plaintive cry will draw your eyes 
To a baby pelican 
Sitting on your welcome mat, 
And the pelican’s eyes will dilate, 
And the eyes of the trees will dilate, 
And you will be a sea anemone: 
You will contract upon this contact. 

Will you feel small? 
And will you feel scared? 
And will you gasp for air 
And find there’s nothing there 
But a fatal mistake? 
Will you finally weigh what you have given 
Against what 
You take and you take and you take and you take. 

Somehow, 
You will think once again of the package in your hands 
You will begin to tug at the wool. 
It will come off easily in pieces, 
But it will cut right through the prints upon your fingers and 
It will pile up around you in a mountain of gauze 
In a car on a hospital train, 
Where the surgeons lack credentials 
And the scalpels are just saws. 

But a plaintive cry will draw your eyes 
To a baby pelican 
Sitting on your welcome mat, 
And the pelican’s eyes will dilate, 
And the eyes of the trees will dilate, 
And you will be a sea anemone: 
You will contract upon this contact. 

Will you open your arms 
To the birds? 
Will you open your arms 
To the trees? 
Will you repast them 
With your own blood? 
Will you finally give back 
The breath that you take? 
(and you take and you take and you take. 
You take and you take and you take and you take.) 

Somewhere, 
Underneath the many years of stinging fibers, 
You will find your gift. 
Will you ever understand what it means?

credits
from A Troubled Piece of Fruit, released 23 July 2012 

Stephan Nance, piano/vocals
Merlin Showalter, drums 
Tim McLaughlin, bass/guitar 
Angelica Sather Hodgetts, cello

Stephan Nance — Paid By Weight

ハシブト and ハシボソ
ガラス* caught colds
And シジュウカラ*
Got a yellow throat
And I feel
Like I don’t belong;
When I open my window
I hear all calls
No song

And in the forest
The lianas
Traded gold for evergreen
Threw shade
On the fauna
So ムササビさん*
Hides their head away
Can’t peek out
To catch some rays

Ooh ooh
家の家はどこですか
Ooh ooh
もう家の家はどこですか*

I spent
One month
In paradise
It ruined me
For other surroundings
I spent
Two months
In paradise
They stripped me clean
Of any lingering grounding

Reverse nature shock
An itinerant Song Sparrow* returns to the flock
With the distant stare of a Rough-legged Hawk*
With the deep despair of the last Great Auk*
Sticking a key in an electric lock

Ooh ooh
家の家はどこですか
Ooh ooh
もう家の家はどこですか

*ハシブトガラス — Large-billed Crow
*ハシボソガラス — Carrion Crow
*シジュウカラ — Japanese Tit
*ムササビさん — Musasabi-san (musasabi = Japanese Giant Flying Squirrel)
*家の家はどこですか... — Where's my home / Where's my home again?, or Where's my *home* home / Where's my *home* home again?
*Song Sparrow — ウタスズメ
*Rough-legged Hawk — ケアシノスリ
*Great Auk — オオウミガラス

Stephan Nance - vocals, piano, synth
Adam Caswell - programming
Milo Fultz - bass
Merlin Showalter - drums
Arrangement - Adam Caswell, Stephan Nance, & Merlin Showalter

Reverse Nature Shock (家の家)

The Crane Wives - Hard Sell

Lub Dub

indie chamber pop (bardcore)
pronouns: they/them

Reverse Nature Shock (家の家)

Sparkbird