Barking Nymph

Jazzy power-punk ballad for those long summer bike rides. I think I meant for this to be soft and sparse, but you know how I do. Could use some help with a new name for this.

lyrics:
you sail: all expert maneuvers. and you say, "yeah it's been a while." and you know you're making me nervous, but don't stop. you're making me smile, if only in self-defense.
now shrug and list off the islands where our flags still flap in the wind and sink into the old sand and salt to show where we've been but don't want to be again.

don't feed that starving atlas your dark continents. hug the margins with old gods and barking nymphs. i'll meet you there.

there's no reason to hurry, you say. you've got nothing to hide. i could map out your shorelines all day and never see nothing twice. all right.
there's no reason to worry, i say, about carving our place. no use picking out flats and houses, rock walls and white picket gates, thinking, "here we'll stay."

don't feed that starving atlas

out among the sea monsters and grues.
under checkerboard table-cloth, it's all the fight in you and i wanted to show you.
just don't feed the atlas
he's trying to catch us

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by es_de_bah (10 comments total)

This reminds me of the type of music I used to listen to as a teenager. Kind of like Silkworm, but more than that. I really like it. Thanks for posting.
posted by dobie at 9:26 AM on July 22

nice. i hadn't heard of them before, but i agree. a lot of the riffs were cannibalized from this song i wrote for a short-lived project 3 years ago, and the emo-tastic energy is still banging around in there, i guess.
posted by es_de_bah at 10:00 AM on July 22

This is really great, I love the relaxed, sprawling quality it has, kind of reminds me of Destroyer. Nice vocal delivery too, it manages to come across as lazy-indie without being precious or annoying.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 12:17 PM on July 22

I like these lyrics, es_de_bah.

Could use some help with a new name for this.

I think if this were my tune I'd call it "That Starving Atlas", or "Carve Our Place." One of the two.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:19 PM on July 22

This is different from anything I've heard in a long while. To me, this is basically a great song that I'll never love because of some of the stylistic choices. However, that's entirely my failing as a listener. I'm intrigued by the lyrics and I too love the sprawling quality of this. I also liked the chiming calm guitar as well as the soft drums. The vocal production hurts it a little for me, but again that might just be my issue. There are things about this track that I really enjoy and I'm very impressed by it. Thanks!
posted by edlundart at 9:23 AM on July 23

To me, this is basically a great song that I'll never love because of some of the stylistic choices. However, that's entirely my failing as a listener.

That's a good way of putting what I wanted to say. It's not my cup of tea, but it seems like high-quality stuff. Rock on!
posted by danb at 9:28 PM on July 24

Really like it. Got that certain Pavement-y-ness to it that pleases me tremendously. Good job!
posted by Cantdosleepy at 5:06 AM on July 25

Forgot to add - I agree that the name isn't right. I think given the relaxed nature of the lyrics and the simpleness of the song, you'd want a far more normal, almost conversational title. Barking Nymph seems to be trying a bit hard, if that makes sense. Even a title like 'yeah, it's been a while' would work quite well...
posted by Cantdosleepy at 5:08 AM on July 25

Well played yet again, es_de_bah!

And I'm sure you're sick of reading about groups this song reminds people of, but, on first listen, it totally made me think of old Mercury Rev.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:41 AM on July 26

thanks guys. i think i'm going to go with 'nothing twice' for the title.
posted by es_de_bah at 1:11 PM on July 26