Chalk Street

New rough demo for a live "rock" project

I'm writing a new batch of songs for a live band I want to start . . my self-imposed criteria is that I have to get it all across with drums, bass, one guitar and one vocal line. Unfortunately there are only five drummers in Seattle and they're all spoken for . . . sigh. I've got ads out there and hopefully I'll get some bites.

The subject of the song: when I was younger driving a car was a ticket to fun and freedom. These days what with the oil politics, driving feels like a morally questionable act, especially in a big gas-guzzling van. This song is sort of about that. Lyrics below.

tormentors who would you appease
your signal scrambled
like a sunbeam in the trees
enfolding ancient industries
I'll burn and burn until I
sweat out this disease

the chairman's screaming on the wire
a tin roof strangler on a stack of burning tires
this engine bares a burning tooth
fanned by ten thousand tongues
policing up the truth

I'm going to drive myself to sleep
down streets of dark refineries
over the cracks and chalk and
bones and bottles
I'm going to drive so far away
no one will ever speak my name
over the cracks and chalk and
bones and bottles
dreaming and seething

• play
• pause
• min volume
• max volume

posted by arcanecrowbar (3 comments total)

Hmmm, only song on the page with no comments all week. Guess that's a comment in itself.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 11:04 AM on August 8, 2008

I just got around to listening to it now, and I really like it. The guitar part is great, and the lyrics are nicely delivered on top of it. And, of course, I like recordings that sound like demos anyway, usually a lot more than the songs when they are carefully produced, so the actual recording sounds just right to me.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:30 AM on August 9, 2008

Thanks!
posted by arcanecrowbar at 7:31 PM on August 10, 2008