Get all 70 miscellaneous owl releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of you are the light that casts a shadow, Blind Spot, Sink or Swim, little fires, Skyway, Mother's Day, the engine of more, tracing paper (covers vol. 1), and 62 more.
1. |
Cease to Exist
04:22
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If I cease to exist,
The sun and the moon will go on
Without me
If I cease to exist
The rivers will go on rising and falling like the chests
Of the people still sleeping and waking and taking their breaths
Without me
If I cease to exist
The city will go on with all its passions and vanities
Fill the handprint I've left behind with cars and trees
The ivy will cover the holes with its ravenous leaves
Without me
If I cease to exist
My friends may sing a requiem
My family may sing it again and again
Mourning the people I could have been
But the days will smooth the pain away again
Without me
Without me
If I cease to exist
One Sunday afternoon long after I'm dead
My husband will vacuum the dust from behind the bed
And find the roller all tangled with hair that fell from my head
And find the sun going cold and still and the air growing thin
And feel the world and all its intricate parts lurching to an end
Without me
Without me
Without me
Without me
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2. |
Magic Eye
03:33
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You paint a pretty little picture
Self-portrait of the hero dressed in white
I ask myself the question:
Paint inside or read between the lines?
I bought a magic eye book
All flowers and hearts and candy
Held it up like a window to take a look
Tried to see the secrets inside and
I look through, the picture fades, and all I see is you
Doing the things you said you'd never do
Magic eye,
I see right through the lies you've told me each and every day
The snake inside the sea of flowers, the skull inside the rainbow colors,
The sailboat that only sails away
Farther each day
Until it all melts away
Cross my heart and cross my eyes, dear
You ask what I'm so cross about
I'm cross at all those lies, dear
Did you think I was too dumb to find out?
Looking at that glass half empty
The picture is rippled with tears and stains
When I try to look through the window
The glass is clear but all I see is pane
And then my eyes are clear and all I see is you
Doing the things you said you'd never do
Magic eye,
I see right through the lies you've told me each and every day
The snake inside the sea of flowers, the skull inside the rainbow colors,
The sailboat that only sails away
Farther each day
Until it all melts away
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3. |
Walk Steady
02:02
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If I walk steady down that road
And keep my face turned down
If I pull my silence round my neck
and keep my eyes on the ground
Then maybe I can pass right through the words that stick like burrs onto me
Maybe I can be as light as air
If my clothes were bigger, like a mountain
Maybe I could transform
Like a caterpillar wrapping up
To be reborn
Dirty pillows, bedroom eyes, I'm tired of my life inside
This body, wish that I could hide away
Sibyl jarred like a firefly, just her voice that's left behind,
saying, please let me die
Mission Street, coming up the steps from BART, I see them wait for me
Clustered like a pack of wolves along Sixteenth
It's worse though if I change my path, so I just keep
Going like a train along a track
Don't look back
Walk steady
I take the 38 down Geary
And get a window seat
Alone for a little while on my way
To Ocean Beach
Riding off into the Sunset without a thought, like the lucky ones that
live invisible and light as air
I just want to pass right through the filthy words that stick onto me
Maybe I can be as light as air
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4. |
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I could have been all heat and light
Phosphorus streak against the night
A brightness inside your ears
Tunguska flare, a meteor
Oh, tell me your name
I want to move inside you
You are the glow I could have been
Face of the moon that's hiding
I want to move inside you
I want to move inside you
Break all the bones inside you
I could have been a cactus flower
Night-blooming cereus, perfect for an hour
Whenever I start, it's just not soon enough
I'm just not good enough
I'll never be
Oh, tell me your name
I want to move inside you
You are the glow I could have been
Face of the moon that's hiding
I want to move inside you
I want to move inside you
Break all the bones inside you
I dreamed of Amsterdam again
I was rising up like in the Powers of 10
When I dream that I might fall
Is it a dream about playing guitar?
And if I've lost you
If the frost blooms
If your ghost melts away
I'll play
For the heat death of the universe
It's not too late
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5. |
Cuban Heels
02:37
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If the Cuban heels stay on my feet
I'll be dancing
If the Goodyear welt is strong and neat
I'll be dancing
I'll be dancing
Cordovan city mocs
Triple stitched
Veg tan vitello boots
Break them in
Cut the groove, skive the shank and holdfast
The shoe makes the man makes the right shoe last
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6. |
Cold Hands
02:29
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I hear the boots upon the ground tonight
The rose upon the cheek of the libertine
And all the lost boys will be found tonight
Tasting whiskey cokes and kerosene
Cold hands cradle the flame of my memories
Do you see the flicker of your name?
And in the lamplight in the snow tonight
The flexing of a glove outlined in black
Hollow fingers like a new hand for a hermit crab
Cloud City was pretty but I'm never going back
Cold hands reach for a glove to slip into
To listen to, to illuminate, to love
And I've just been wasting time
I could have been in some field so far from here
With the sun burning on my shoulders
And someone breathing summer in my ear
I hear the lapping of the wolf tonight
Incinerator glow in a highball glass
Canned Heat flutes the air in the bar like a manticore
I hate it but I know all things must pass
Cold hands strike cold like the little match girl
Matchmaker, will the tinder spark to life?
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7. |
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Even if I can't play like a Guitar Center masturbator
Yeah I still know the name of a resonator
"There's this thing called 'tone,' maybe you've heard it mentioned?"
Yeah I don't need that tone from you and I don't need your condescension!
I JUST WANT TO BUY SOME FUCKING STRINGS
I'm not waiting for my man
I'm not waiting for a boyfriend
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
That I'm just trying to spend
If you could just treat me like a human
If you could just, you could just, you could just
Maybe I'm a patron but you don't need to patronize me
"Oh, tell me, do you play guitar? Oh, do you know some chords already?
This is called a 'pedal' and this is called an 'amp'"
Would you still say that to me if I was a man?
Would you still say that to me?
I'm not waiting for my man
I'm not waiting for a boyfriend
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
That I'm just trying to spend
If you could just treat me like a human
If you could just fucking stop
I'm not waiting for my man
I'm not waiting for a boyfriend
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
That I'm just trying to spend
If you could just treat me like a human
If you could just, you could just, you could just...
"What do you play, Sweet Child O'Mine or Postal Service?"
The only two music genres that exist in the world, I guess
Is this what they teach you in your training about how to sell?
Can I just browse in here without having to prove myself?
Can I not just fucking shop in peace?
I'm not waiting for my man
I'm not waiting for a boyfriend
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
That I'm just trying to spend
If you could just treat me like a human
If you could just, you could just, you could just, you could just...
STOP
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8. |
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Gods that come in golden showers
Through the rooftop, down the wires
Lit like a lamp by the laptop's glow
Exploding with light like The Pleasure Principle
They turn to see you
They know your name
Your dark center
Your shining shame
You must change your life
Headless torso of a hairless man
Filling up my screen again
It's true, you know it when you see it
Nothing left to the imagination
But the head that's hovering above the frame
Those eyes, are they fixed upon your face?
I could be happy if I found someone
Who looks at me like I'm better than I am
My favorite monster looks like loneliness
And loneliness looks just like a man
Like a man
Like a man
Hard to tell the difference between a god and a monster
Or if the woman in the video actually wants it
If holy just describes a bunch of holes, a hollow
A swan or a bull or a TV repairman
Knocking at the door, coming on in
Shining like gilt, like a statue of Apollo
And I could be happy if I found someone
Who looks at me like I'm better than I am
My favorite monster looks like loneliness
And loneliness looks just like a man
Like a man
Like a man
A smile runs from hip to thigh
Says like Shakira, hips don't lie
The girl gets down on her knees as though to pray
They're beautiful, all of them
The faceless women and the headless men
It seems so real, why can't I touch it?
And I could be happy if I found someone
Who looks at me like I'm better than I am
My favorite monster looks like loneliness
And loneliness looks just like a man
Like a man
Like a man
You must change your life
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9. |
Chinese New Year
04:49
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February falls into the slot we've made, a Roman II, a Chinese New Year
And all the time is lost again, a vanishing pen writes resolutions
Look out the window, wait for the moon to rise, wait for the falling snow
The bands abandoned, the plans we stole, we're all going solo
A photo of a rainbow against the wet gray sky above the house where I used to live
The old year's dog jumping against the sleeping new year's pig
I think my mother was crying, my sister's hiding the address of her new home
So the envelopes have no words, they're just crimson red, with the edges all ringed in gold
In gold
Wait, the sleet strikes the pavement
With the sound of far-off applause
The train's at the station
While the microphone falls
The month pulls in its claws
And sits in the window to wait
So hold me, the snow is falling
Our bodies will carve the cold like lightning
Elliott sings Miss Misery like the winter descending into my ear
Like the last thing that I'll ever hear
Words in an aviary, learned by ear, learned by sensation
Mysterious as kiwi birds, as deep sea beasts, as radio waves, and
When I was a child I thought that happiness meant to fall so fast
But now time tumbles and seesaws down out from my grasp
And I want it to last
Wait, the sleet strikes the pavement
With the sound of far-off applause
The train's at the station
While the microphone falls
The month pulls in its claws
And sits in the window to wait
So hold me, the snow is falling
Our bodies will carve the cold like lightning
Elliott sings Miss Misery like the winter descending into my ear
Like the last thing that I'll ever hear
I count it in three
So hold me, the snow is falling
Our bodies will carve the cold like lightning
Elliott sings Miss Misery like the winter descending into my ear
Like the last thing that I'll ever hear
I count it in three
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10. |
Margaret Said
03:31
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Margaret said
I'm a sleepwalker, but a slow talker
With so much to say
I'll sleep when I'm dead
I'm a day drinker and a slow thinker
With some things to get straight
Is it all in my head?
Ooh, is it all in my head?
Ooh, is it all in my head?
Margaret said
Do I belong here? I feel so wrong here,
A Peg that's always too square
All these faces I know
Could they be best friends, are they just dead ends?
Red herrings or Chekhov's gun?
Is there anyone there?
Ooh, is there anyone there?
Ooh, is there anyone there?
Tell me what you're thinking when you look out that window
Why are you so sad and far away?
Happiness is just another thing to owe somebody
A smile's just another thing they can take
And I want to save them
For a rainy day
For someone who really needs them
I'll know it when I see them
And she turns to me and smiles
Yeah, have this for a while
Maybe you could use it more than me
Ooh, Margaret said
Ooh, Margaret said
Ooh, Margaret said
Ooh, that's what Margaret said
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11. |
Desiderata
03:44
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I want to dream like dogs dream
I want my love to be pure
I want to love like dogs love
I want my dreams to be pure
And if I and my body should close
Like the fifth place in a row
On the corner of East Wash and Blair
Like the heart of a rose
That imagines the snow
Descending carefully everywhere
Desiderata
No less than the stars and the trees
Desiderata
You have a right to be here
You, too, are a child of the universe
The shape of your life makes it whole
Though the shape of your life feels so small
And the pain doesn't seem it could ever fade away
You deserve to be here
You deserve to stay
Desiderata
Imagine the astronaut cut from his line
Hand slipping from yours as he floats into time
And the farther he gets, the more cruel looks like kind
It all matters less
The colder he gets
The closer he gets to nothing and everywhere
I love you
In the darkness between the stars
I can't talk to you
It feels like breathing's just gotten so hard
I, too, am a child of the universe
The shape of my life makes it whole
Though the shape of my life feels so small
And the pain doesn't seem it could ever fade away
Do I deserve to be here
Do you want me to stay
Desiderata
Desiderata
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