1. |
We Conquer
02:02
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People in the streets are no longer mad.
We’ve filled their beaks, now they wear our plaid.
Our enemies died without a sound.
The insects rose, the eagles fell down.
Please make an orderly line and everything will work out fine.
We can make the trains crash on time and conquer. We conquer.
Soldiers fell, and the woman cried.
Boys signed up and the girls complied.
But it’s not so bad, we brought our tools.
We’ll dig a well, we’ll build a school.
Please make an orderly line and everything will work out fine.
We can make the trains crash on time and conquer. We conquer.
-Jeff Badger, 2010
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2. |
The Golden City
02:21
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The Golden City was our final destination but we never got there. But this much you know. Instead, we’re stuck on a raft, floating on the ocean, and we’re starving like rats. And sick from the motion. We’ve got no water. We’ve got no food. We’ve got no sunscreen. Sharks are in view, and our fears have come true. I remember the day I signed up for the voyage, I had the highest of hopes and the lowest of fears. But if I could say something to my younger self I’d say to keep to the land, the woman, and beer. We’ve got no water. We’ve got no food. We’ve got no sunscreen. Sharks are in view, and the oprions are few. No one will see us, we’re like a tooth in a monsters mouth. No one will see us, I wish that I was back on my couch. -Jeff Badger, 2010
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3. |
Are You Alright Now?
02:31
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He never felt like his body belonged to him. Spent every day uncomfortable inside his own skin. Tattoos and hair dye and piercings by the score - he even split his tongue in half, but he wanted something more.
“But are you alright now?”
“Oh…it’s such a strange thing, modification overwhelmed me.”
He decided the thing to do, instead of added bits, was to start removing things -- so that’s just what he did. First it was a couple toes, than a leg up to the thigh. A hand, an arm, both ears, a nose, a scalp, a lip an eye.
“But are you alright now?”
“Oh…”, he said sincerely, “when you’re just a head you think so clearly.”
It’s such a strange thing. The last time I saw him there was hardly anything left.
-Jeff Badger, 2010
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4. |
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I stole a car. Shot up a bar. Hunted for jaguar, and they’re endangered, so I’m no stranger to crime. As a matter of fact, I, should be arrested. All I want to do is get arrested. Yo, I jacked a bank. Cooked up some crank. So don’t you think, that I’m rotten, and should be stopped, man? I’m a killer and a bum. I should be strung up by my thumbs, or at the very least, arrested. -Jeff Badger, 2010
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5. |
Shelter Island Symphony
01:51
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Just like Egypt’s
Nefertiti
Giant headdress
Tighty whities
Grunts and moaning
Dry papyrus
Carbon copies
Email virus
A symphony
A laughing ghost
It’s up to me
It’s up to us
Hair like static
Eyes like mica
Lady magnet
Child frightener
White noise flower
Hand held headache
Partial meltdown
Call a medic
A symphony
A laughing ghost
It’s up to me
It’s up to us.
Shark infested
Riptide currents
Debris strewn beaches
Swarming vermin
Bells stop ringing
Frogs stop croaking
Can’t stop laughing
Only joking
-Jeff Badger, 2010
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6. |
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I’m not doing shit today except for writing this song. I’m not doing shit today except for singing this song. And I hope it doesn’t take too long. -Jeff Badger, 2010
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7. |
Still
01:35
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Lessons partly learned.
Photos partly burned.
Message unreturned.
Bleach poured in the ferns.
She tore up their whole place.
Put up posters of his face.
He would not give her chase.
So she left without a trace.
Stolen helicopter.
S.W.A.T. team couldn’t stop her.
Rage across the land.
But he says, “Babe, I’m still you man.
Punch me in the guts,
Hijack a city bus,
I would love you still.
There’s no one but us.
No matter who you kill,
I would love you still.”
-Jeff Badger, 2010
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8. |
Building a Fence
02:00
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I’m building a fence, Sir
I’m digging a trench, Sir
I’m delineating boundaries,
It’s just common sense, Sir.
I believe it in my rights,
And it has long been my plan
To sequester my family
On this little plot of land.
I warn you not to trespass, Sir.
I suggest you don’t encroach
Don’t darken my door, Sir,
Unless I invite you as a host.
And if I extend an invitation
To you and your common ilk
Do not meet with joviality
My wigs or robes of silk
For if you misjudge my character
As dandyish or fey,
I’ll use my ostrich-feathered boot
To send you on your way.
Just be mindful of your etiquette
That is my only plea
For this is only merely my residence
But my laboratory.
And it is silence I require
Or my experiments shall fail
Noise insults my ears, Sir,
And my fence can’t silence all.
So unless you want to draw from me
Bitterness and scorn
You’ll keep your hounds at bay, Sir,
And blow lightly on your horn
My fence it will be tall, Sir!
The trench it shall be deep!
Be mindful of your safety, Sir,
And just stay off my street.
-Jeff Badger, 2010
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9. |
Cold Out
02:39
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If the quality of mercy’s not straining
At least it’s stretched to the brink
That if we take one more slip
than this whole rotten ship
Will capsize into the brink
And it’s cold out, cold out, cold on the sea.
Heave, boys, haul up the anchor
And we’ll be in Tahiti by June
‘Cause we live by the gun
And a ration of rum
And the watery shadow of doom
And it’s cold out, cold out, cold on the sea.
This is the tale of a pilot
Who only captained his trips to the West
He chased the sun and kept getting younger
To awake on his mother’s breast
And it’s cold out, cold out, cold on the sea.
-Jeff Badger, 2010
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10. |
Be Specific
01:29
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Alert the press!
Call your senator!
Email the mayor!
Write a letter to the editor!
But be specific, B-E specific.
Tell your friends!
Call your enemies!
Telegraph your neighbors!
IM the centipedes!
But be specific, B-E specific.
Break down the doors, tear down the walls.
Jeff Badger & Brianna Marie, 2010
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11. |
We Command You to Move
01:57
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The restless are native and feeling creative. Who are you to deny them the tools?
A paintbrush, a fader, a top hat, a plate, or a degree from an accredited school.
Just turn us loose and we’ll show you the truth with a unique and provocative view.
Rub your chins and discuss. Drink some cheap wine with us and you’ll be anointed as one of the few.
We demand understanding.
Understand - we’re demanding.
We command you to move.
Don’t turn our studios into condos! Oh, we’re so very fond of being the very first crew on the scene.
Import us, distort us, but just please support us. We’re deserving of unreserved esteem.
We demand understanding.
Understand - we’re demanding.
We command you to move.
-Jeff Badger, 2010
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12. |
Back In The City
01:33
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I’m back in the city, though it’s just for a weekend. And you know I’m always looking, at least I’m always peeking. I saw a man on the bus, eating Fritos out of a bag. I saw a dirty word painted on a concrete slab. Everybody smells like garbage, the air is thick with fumes. Everybody’s sweating that asphalt perfume.
Taxis like tigers, threats at every corner. Girl got hit this morning, boyfriend tried to warn her. I saw a man without a leg talking to man without a nose. I think I’m always drinking ‘cause the bars are never closed. I’m trying to find my friends, but my cell phone’s dead. Honking and grinning. Echoes in my head. Yeah, I’m back in the city. –Jeff Badger, 2010
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13. |
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I have this dream. We meet again. And in this dream you are my only friend. We get tattoos in Chinese script. You get a list of the seven deadly sins. I get a pair of fish. Then we fill our motorcycles up with gas and drive down the river road so fast and your hair is a tangle of dying grass beneath your helmet as we pass an eighteen-wheeler and crash into a field of flowers. So just come to bed. But don’t wake me up. Stay in my dream. The world will be fine without us. They’ll get along fine without us. -Jeff Badger, 2010
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14. |
The Buffalo
01:59
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One armed-man with a violin, milky eyes and, and sagging skin falls to his knees, shivering. Emotional quivering. The idiot king makes his decree, “imprison the children, set the dragons free!” Born breathing fire with a reptile brain, sensitive to light and adverse to pain. Brought together under pressure. Hard to measure, by the nature. Magnetic presence, physics lessons. Gesticulations all for the buffalo. Compound fracture and a bloody nose, died black hair and stolen clothes. He follows the signs north to Nova Scotia, and just beyond the reach of the buzzing lights, from a gas station parking lot he calls his wife one last time, calling out his devotion. One more time for the buffalo. -Jeff Badger, 2010
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Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy Portland, Maine
Blair Wells and Jeff Badger have been creating music as Custardpaws & Mr. Freezy since 1994. “Window Weather” is their first recording since the full-length album The Buffalo in 2011. The album was recorded remotely from their home studios during Quarantine 2020 with Wells in Île-Bizard, Canada and Badger in Maine, USA. ... more
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