Not Anywhere Anymore

i put down the phone / left a bag of cookies on the corner / filled my brain with a soft white light / sent all my 8-track tapes / to my cousin down in mississippi / took my foot off the pedal, and gave up the fight... A brand new song, live in Tokyo, May 1, 2011. Video here.

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posted by flapjax at midnite (14 comments total)

NOT ANYWHERE ANYMORE

i put down the phone
left a bag of cookies on the corner
filled my brain with a soft white light
sent all my 8-track tapes
to my cousin down in mississippi
took my foot off the pedal and gave up the fight

i'm not anywhere anymore...

my daddy looked at me funny
just before he turned into smoke
and the people along the riverbank
scattered like mist
the floodwaters carried away my bass drum
my pencil and my favorite hat
the clock stopped ticking
as i unclenched my fist

i'm not anywhere anymore...

don't come looking to find me
unless you really know your way around thin air
let the shadows of the branches in the wind
serve as your memory of me
see 'em dancing there , see 'em dancing there

so i'm sorry babe to take you by surprise
with this little change of plan
but i'm tired of being blown 'round
like a tumble weed
i'm not looking for answers, lucky numbers
or keys to the kingdom
ain't a damn thing in this world that i want or need

i'm not anywhere anymore...

Copyright P & C Samm Bennett - all rights reserved
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:51 PM on May 6, 2011

This is dead fab - I like the hook and the overall sound. I was itching to hear some more instrumentation beginning to roll in "scattered like mist". One day I'll pluck up the courage to ask you to let me have the multitrack of something like this to do a bit of additional work on. Entre nous, of course, and just as an experiment. Anyway "the floodwaters carried away my bass drum
my pencil and my favorite hat" has to be the line of the year so far! Terriffic stuff Flapjax.
posted by MajorDundee at 11:09 AM on May 7, 2011

Forgive my redundancy, my comment on youtube: Man, all I can say is that you've got a heart the size of Texas and it's filled to the brim with the soul of Jazz and R&B AND you have the perfect voice to express it.

FWIW, I'd LOVE to hear a flapjax/Dundee collaboration. Neither of you ever disappoint.

In a total day-dream world, flapjax, and this is probably in "been-there, done-that" territory, for you, I'd really love to hear your vocals backed by a little jazz combo. Just a good upright bass and a drummer who knows how to bang and/or be subtle when it counts.

Cheers!
posted by snsranch at 6:54 PM on May 7, 2011

One day I'll pluck up the courage to ask you to let me have the multitrack of something like this to do a bit of additional work on.

Hey, that'd be great! Please note however, that, if it's something like this, it wouldn't even be a "multitrack". This, like so many of the other tunes I've been posting recently to MeFiMu, is just a live-in-concert recording: 2-track stereo. In fact, you could just take this MP3 and roll with it, man, add some tracks! Or I can send you an AIFF of same. Anyway, when you have the time for something like that, sure, man, I'd love to hear what flavors and spices you sprinkle on to something like this!

... this is probably in "been-there, done-that" territory, for you, I'd really love to hear your vocals backed by a little jazz combo.

Actually, no, I ain't been there and I ain't done that! I mean, I have performed and recorded with certain musicians along the way who knew their way around Jazztown much better than I. For example, former members of my old band CHUNK, like bassists Oren Bloedow or Sebastian Steinberg, or drummer Billy Martin (now of Medeski Martin & Wood), but even still, what we did was never exactly jazz. Sometimes it was vaguely jazzy, but... only thing about a "jazz" combo is that then the singer also kinda needs some actual "jazz" chops, which I certainly don't have. But if it was the right combo, and they could get with, say, a Mose Allison-type approach, it could work. I'll think about that.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:41 PM on May 7, 2011

This is a work of genius, Flapjax. #1 in heaven.
posted by unSane at 7:44 PM on May 7, 2011

FWIW I'm a bit hesitant about the jazz thing. This is pretty definitively American gothic, so if you were to expand it (which is not a bad idea, as it has an absolutely terrific hook and cries out for a slow build of backing parts) I'd be thinking about stuff like Calexico (esp Black Heart) or Neko Case.

I really liked this because although it begins all modal, like many of your songs, it then strays into much more diatonic/conventionally harmonic territory, which is hugely gratifying.
posted by unSane at 7:51 PM on May 7, 2011

Thanks so much for your comments, unSane.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:38 PM on May 7, 2011

Flapjax, I'm loving these sparse, catchy, melancholic tunes with just your voice and the strum stick.
posted by Corduroy at 6:53 PM on May 12, 2011

Thank you, Corduroy!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:36 PM on May 12, 2011

Flapjax, I've been trying to work out your strumstick tuning on this. Is it B1-A2-D3 or something like that?
posted by unSane at 8:39 AM on May 18, 2011

(I think I mean B1-A2-D2). Anyway, low B, A an octave and a tone above that, D a fourth above that?
posted by unSane at 8:54 AM on May 18, 2011

Anyway, low B, A an octave and a tone above that, D a fourth above that?

I'm about 90% sure that's correct, but I have so many different tunings for different songs, and I'm currently on the road without either my strumstick or my strumstick songbook (where I keep notes on tunings) so I can't answer your question with absolute certainty til I'm back in Tokyo next week. Til then I'm playing the diddley bow and the electric drum (a new toy) at gigs with the Smoke Benders in the beautiful Hokuriku area!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:25 AM on May 18, 2011

Man, I like a lot of your songs, but this one... this one has got something special about it. There's power in the lyrics. It's good work.

Let me know if the Smoke Benders ever plan an American tour; I'd love to hear this stuff live.
posted by JDHarper at 6:24 PM on June 13, 2011

Thanks, JDharper. I see this song as having a kind of lyric/spiritual kinship to this one.

And we're hoping to get the Smoke Benders to the states sometime. Like the Monkees, we may be comin' to your town.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:50 PM on June 13, 2011