Sparkbird

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

Lyrics:

One small sound
One small word 
In tongues all over the world
I said it
I said it 
One small word
I said it
I didn't
I said it
I didn't
Tongues all over

Can't pick them out
Can't press them in 
I'll never hide my scars
Can't pick them out
Can't press them in
I'll never hide my scars 
I'll never hide my scars 

One small sound
One small sight 
One unsheathed knife must glint 
In an alternate timeline's light
One rust-ridden blade juts out 
Of a friendly moonstruck shape
To tear, tear terribly, terribly
Tear, tear terribly 
The delicate crepe of night

Familiarity breeds
Indifference
Familiarity breeds discontent
Familiarity breeds
Indifference
Familiarity breeds discontent

My other time machine
A pungent, putrid brownish-green 
November smile 
Blandishing my two-timing door

One small sound
One small bite
One tomial tooth
One Loggerhead Shrike must skewer 
My invertebrate doppelgänger 
On barbed wire in a parallel universe 

My tongue parallelly bleeds 
One small drop 
In a monthful of blood 
In tongues all over the world
I said it, I didn't
It doesn't matter
What I said or didn't
Admit it
You were never going to get it
I was always gonna get it

Can't pick them out
Can't press them in 
I'll never hide my scars
Can't pick them out
Can't press them in
I'll never hide my
Familiarity breeds
Familiarity breeds

Not only is it thicker
Blood is stickier than water
Maybe that's relevant somehow
Can I explode now?

Credits:
Music & lyrics by Stephan Nance
Produced by Josh Frigo
Co-produced by Stephan Nance
Keyboard, vocals, backing vocals - Stephan Nance
Drums & percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Bass - Jeni Magana
Strings arrangement - Stephan Nance and Michelle Packman
Strings - Bizarre Star Strings:
• Patti King - violin
• Kyleen King - viola
• Anna Fritz -  cello
Guitar, additional backing vocals - Josh Frigo
Vocal coaching - Nevada Jones and Adam Sweeney
Vocals recorded at The Map Room
Vocal session engineer - Adam Sweeney
Mixed by Josh Frigo
Mastered by Alex Dobbert
Artwork - Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design - Chad Lowe

November

My man is a stagnant water,
a mud-your-linen, cacklin’ bogland
Waded in his iris to my knees
I bathed in his mouth overnight
We drank moonbeams from oily skies
Come dawn, he begged me, “Please, love, never leave”

Hmm, hmm
Hmm, hmm,

I have hands for building altars,
Lips to pray to reckless gods
Yeah, I was made to be a devotee
His mangroves held me ‘till died
My body’s relic left behind
To fossilize beneath the willow trees

Hmm, hmm,
Hmm, Hmm,

Thrashing like Ophelia in my featherdown coat
Won’t someone teach me to love without it swallowing me whole
If to be loved is to be changed, I’m only worsenin’
Mosquito larvae in my ribs
He only loves me when I rot with him

I’m my father’s stubborn daughter
And I am no gentle lover
Only crown I wear is loyalty
My man is a stagnant water,
a mud-your-linen, cacklin’ bogland
And I’m forever stuck his bog body

Hmm, hmm,
Hmm, hmm

The Bog Bodies

The Bog Bodies (Dorm Demo)

How strange I am to all
How strange to sleep so long

Not a soul, not a soul
Will meet my gaze or greet me
And the carob tree’s brittle leaves
Rattle hoarsely on the wind

“You are out of time
You are out of favor
You are but a cipher
You are the circle maker
You are out of time
You are out of favor
You are but a cipher
You are the circle maker

“How strange you are to all
How strange to sleep so long

“How strange to grow so old
And to never grow up
And to never grow tall
And to never grow wise
And to never grow anything
But smaller and farther away”

How strange I am to all
How strange to sleep so long

But in sleep, I may dream
Fairy lights illuminating everything
Everyone gathered all around me
Singing a song

Only the carob tree
Will keep me company
Oh, bitter friend
Oh, beloved enemy
Symbol of the time gone by
And stretching out in front of me
A lonely life of any length is like eternity

And I am out of time
I am out of favor
I am but a cipher
I am the circle maker
Praying for the rain
Paying for the prayer
Begging for a sign that I was
Ever even there

How strange I am to all
How strange to sleep so long

To sleep to feel seen
To sleep perchance to dream

The Circle Maker

The Circle Maker (Demo)

Lyrics:

If the double-row eighteen-cylinder
Air-cooled radial engine
Is not enough to tip you off
Before he slips you off the needle
Drops you into unstitched space
The wasteland which henceforth
Shall be referred to as “your place”

The captain lives by the sword
And the captain loves by the sword
When the captain dies by the sword
He'll leave you trapped in the cockpit
Crying out "Mayday!"

When a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher aerial courtship
Nosedives in a blitzkrieg from that Whiskey Delta
You can tell the backyard bomber
Never helmed a cargo crate
He croaks out undoing and doom
To the wishful safety net
You jeopardized your life to loom

The captain lives by the sword
And the captain loves by the sword
Once you elope with the captain
You'll leave on a sordid honeymoon
Trapped in the cockpit
Crying out "Mayday!"

Always the last and never the least
Always the fast and never the feast
Always the cult of domesticity
Always the jolts of electricity
Always surpassed and never decreased
Always amassed and never released
Always the past controls your mind
Never the peace you hoped to God you'd finally find

The captain lives by the sword
And the captain loves by the sword
And when he dies by the sword
He’ll reward you for your obedience
For your countenance has woven in at every turn

Even as the back, even as the back
Of the hand
Even as the back, even as the back
Of the hand still burns
Even as the back, even as the back
Of the hand still burns
From the last airstrike

Credits:
Music and lyrics - Stephan Nance
Piano/vocals/backing vocals - Stephan Nance
Programming/bass guitar/guitars/banjo/organ/keys - Josh Frigo
Violin/viola/cello - Yoed Nir
Double bass - Jeni Magana
Trumpet - John Lake
Trombone/bass trombone - Becca Patterson
French horn - Meredith Moore
Piccolo/flute/oboe/clarinet/bassoon - Josh Plotner
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Drums - Aksel Coe
Orchestral arrangement - Josh Plotner
Vocal recording engineer - Adam Sweeney
Mixing - Josh Frigo
Mastering - Alex Dobbert
Artwork - Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design - Chad Lowe

Mayday!

Preybirds

Preybirds (The Watched Version)

Rule #47 - The Birds Are Plotting

The Light That Comes Through

Lyrics:

Quiet onset of a yawn
Old growth onslaught
Shallow foresight
Dawn dawns on these lawns

In a town on a mountain
Where the ghosts inhabit poisoned wooden caves
And the things they do and the things they say
Live in smaller caves
And the details of those things
Dwell in even smaller caves

A truth or two got lost
Nary a tooth got flossed

On the hearth near the mallard drake
In the entertainment center by the sliding door
On a spotlit plinth in an empty corridor
From one ear to the other
In a terracotta pot upon a bookcase
In a handcrafted cabinet of spoons

When you lose your mind
Leave those useless curios behind

Always be you
You will always be you
And I think that that's a good person to be
As long as you're doing
No harm unto others
Then you're always doing the right thing by me
You're always doing the right thing by me

But how can I do that
When I have no habitat?

When they shoot you down
To prove that they exist
Hold your ground and passively resist
Hold your ground and passively resist

Why me?
Why me?
Always bleeding in the brambles
Isn't there somebody else I could be?

Always be you
You will always be you
And I think that that's a good person to be
As long as you're doing
No harm unto others
Then you're always doing the right thing by me
You're always doing the right thing by me

Sow the seeds of peace
I agree
But also see the forest for the trees

You can spend your whole life
Planting annuals dutifully year after year
But by no small marigold patch will
An Ivory-billed Woodpecker appear

You can spend your whole life
Planting annuals dutifully year after year
But by no small marigold patch will
An Ivory-billed Woodpecker appear


Credits:
Music and lyrics - Stephan Nance
Piano, vocals, backing vocals - Stephan Nance
Banjo, guitars, keys - Josh Frigo
Backing vocals - Annie Elise
Double bass - Jeni Magana
Cello, violin, viola - Yoed Nir
Drums - Jon Truman
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Strings arrangement - Stephan Nance & Michelle Packman
Vocal recording engineer - Annie Elise
Mixing - Josh Frigo
Mastering - Alex Dobbert
Artwork - Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design - Chad Lowe

Wooden

A Thousand Songs About It All: Act 1 is out now!
Download/Stream: https://madilynmei.lnk.to/AThousandSongsAboutItAll
Album Merch + Vinyl & CD: https://shop.madilynmei.com/ 
 
Written and Performed by Madilyn Mei 
Produced and Mixed by Scrawny 
Mastered by Joe Hutchinson 
Video Animation by Scrawny 
Intro/Outro Animation by Madilyn Mei & Scrawny 
 
Lyrics:
Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days, hee-haw
Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days

Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
What would they say? Hee-haw
Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days

I’ve been swimming upstream
Trying to scream underwater
Does nobody hear me
Cry like a lamb to the slaughter?

Does the stray dog cry “someone leash me?”
Should he lie down and die in the street?
Hug a tree like a full grown puppy

I don't wanna be a self-fulfilling prophecy
But I’ve been here before, it never ends well in my dreams
If were I were a cowboy, it wouldn't change a thing
But at least I’d be a cowboy!
At least I'd be a cowboy!
At least I'd be a cowboy!

Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days, hee-haw
Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days

Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
What would they say? Hee-haw
Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days

I’ve been living alone
Tryna make home in myself again
I am lost again
Please don’t leave me

Does the stray dog cry “someone leash me?”
Should he lie down and die in the street?
Hug a tree like a full grown puppy

I don't wanna be a self-fulfilling prophecy
But I’ve been here before, it never ends well in my dreams
If were I were a cowboy, it wouldn't change a thing
But at least I’d be a cowboy!
At least I'd be a cowboy!
At least I'd be a cowboy!

I don't wanna be the clown I know you see in me
But it’s not my first rodeo, despite what you may think
If I were a cowboy, it’d change everything
Cause at least I’d be a cowboy!
At least I'd be a cowboy!
At least I'd be a cowboy!

Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days, hee-haw
Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days

Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
What would they say? Hee-haw
Yippee-ki-yay, yee-haw
One of those days

At Least I'd Be A Cowboy!

Stream/Buy

Who Shot the Bird Boy?

Lyrics:
Lay me down
Among the bones
Within my reliquary
Dyeballs and chestnuts
Dotting a damp yellow yard

Eyes open wide
But there's a shroud
Across the sky
Squirrels scurry by
Climbing the trees
I never made the time to try

Who would've thought
Who would have ever thought
Summer would pass so fast

Day by day
I met each arbitrary deadline
And maintained
The silly charade
Of a person who can act their age

Now silk-tailed waxwings jingle
Bells my mind recalls
But ears can't hear
I seek them following paths
Of berries dropping everywhere

Who would've thought
Who would have ever thought
Summer would pass so fast

[Instrumental]

One last time
Before the mold
Crept into figs and quinces
I meant to rinse myself
In a warm golden light

And let it sink deep
Into my skin and
Fold a blanket round my heart
Knowing it's hard
To keep hope alive
When the sun goes dark

Who would've thought
Who would have ever thought
Who would've thought
Summer would pass so fast

Sun Goes Dark

When The Leaves Come Falling Down- Van Morrison -Cover

No one can see
My bravery;
I stomp on humdrum ground,
I navigate mundane terrain.
But all the same,
An ancient flame
Ignites a fervency that
Surges into every vein.

Dash, jump, climb, crawl!
Gotta get out, gotta get out—
Dart, dive, fly, tumble!
Gotta get out, gotta get out
Gotta get you out, out, out!

In a previous life
I surely
Swept you off your feet
And carried you away
From the choking ash
And scorching heat,
To begin anew
Beyond the ruins of Pompeii
And to live
To see another sunny day.

On every list
Of things to do,
An unchecked box reminds me
That the task of saving you
Remains undone
And unbegun
And unfulfillable 
Until the day we need to run
Until the day we need to run
We need to run—

Dash, jump, climb, crawl!
Gotta get out, gotta get out—
Dart, dive, fly, tumble!
Gotta get out, gotta get out
Gotta get you out, out, out!

In a previous life
I surely
Swept you off your feet
And carried you away
From the choking ash
And scorching heat,
To begin anew
Beyond the ruins of Pompeii
And to live
To see another sunny day.

From form to form,
From place to place,
From birth to birth,
From death to death,
From earth to outer space—
From Plague and flood,
From fire and blight,
From each catastrophe
That threatens to eclipse your light—

Dash, jump, climb, crawl!
Gotta get out, gotta get out—
Dart, dive, fly, tumble!
Gotta get out, gotta get out
Gotta get you out, out, out!

To begin anew
Beyond the ruins of Pompeii
And to live
To see another sunny day.

Stephan Nance - vocals, piano, synth
Simeon Brown - violin
Maddi Krafve - alto & tenor saxophones
Tim McLaughlin - trumpet
Lizzy Donovan - cello
Arrangement - Adam Caswell & Stephan Nance

Pompeii

does ur insecurity ever get so bad that u just wanna yeet urself into a forest and screech at passersby?
more tunes at ratwyfe,bandcamp.com

cryptid (mothman)

indie chamber pop (bardcore)
pronouns: they/them

''Be strong,'' I whispered to my wifi signal

Wooden

Sparkbird

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