Carnations

It's been awhile since i have written. we have been busy demoing and i have been writing at break neck speed and falling to pieces in this p-cola heat. i received an email that inspired me to blog:

hi,first off FANTASTIC MUSIC!!!!!! an answer to my prayers!
amazing sound, amazing lyrics.i was wondering where i could find the
lyrics to your song Carnation........searched a bit but came up only with
dead ends...would be cool if you could point me in the right direction.
thanks and keep flying

i realize i haven't posted lyrics in any place consistently. usually lyrics arrived on fiddy million different pieces of papers, that usually end up in the wash. if these tiny scraps of paper survive or avoid the wash cycle, then they stand chance of becoming song. carnations occurred over six months i believe, between reading emily dickinson and edward gorey. liz and i also had some knock drag outs about tempos and feel, since most of it was written on guitar and then piano, they are things that just don't occur on guitar and piano the same. but i think liz did an incredible job with the music, and words aren't bad either. hint: carnations is a play on reincarnation.

Carnations

If carnations heal my heart
then i'll collect the pollen
& grow flowers in the furrow of your brow

I'll take the words you say
& forget the sorrow
like ghosts blowing through
'cause that's what you do to me

in spite of all this gravity
i'll hoist you to my shoulders
like a dirge without a sound
i'll walk you through the ending

the cool earth on your feet
soon you'll find it soothing
I'll paint behind your eyelids
a dream of childhood

just like everything that is sown
you wake with the sun in your eyes
chance whispers in sweet breath
angels breathing down your neck
sorrow won't save me this time

in silence i've put away
my labor and my leisure
and let this rust run through me
decay can be soothing

false starts and maladies
they rest between my shoulders
a void pulling at the seam
too silver for a stitch

this unwinding coat of clay
is fallow anyway
i'll be waiting
deep into the fall
for a moment
when i hear that cold call
spring rushs move my soul
and mum petals fall.

RadioLive Pensacola wednesday 7/18

We are returning to radiolive tomorrow, they invited to follow up on our april appearance. Public radio is such a blessing here in pensacola, and i'm sure its much the same everywhere in the states. The show will broadcast live at 6p central time, anyone can listen here:

http://wuwf.org/radiolive/radiolive.shtml

We plan to unveil a few new songs, and some recent songs from our La Bete album. We will also have a limited edition pressing of la bete available at the show. We recently created a 100 copies of la bete that feature a block print created by Elizabeth, pressed cut and packaged ourselves. Looks real sharp, anyone interested should contact us about a copy or come to a show in the next month if interested.

Things are going well in the cripple lilies neck of the souf. It is extremely humid, and hot. You can cut a slice out in the middle of the day. We are working on new material, and set to enter the studio again in the last week of October, we will probably head back to Chase Park, barring natural disaster (which you can't count out here). We are still searching for a label, or other to fund our next project. But plan on trooping forward regardless of support. Also next month we have a big gig at Pirate's Cove in Josephine. I have never personally been to this club, but it is definately the place to play in the area. We will be playing the night after Colonel Bruce Hampton. It will be an honor to grace the same stage... Oh yeah, also we are playing a show on the 25th with the Castentents in Pensacola!!! I can't believe they will be playing pensacola, really looking forward to this show as well.

July is the month of Leos, i turn the big three one this month, so far so good. keep in touch. -c

Potimus, Kudzu Co

Saw the new p-cola band last night: potimus. Piano, guitar, drums. Jean Carlos plays piano for the band, and writes really good songs. although the band made my ears bleed, which in some cases would be considered really awesome, and a badge honor pinned just below the feather in the proverbial cap; i just filled my hearing holes with tissue and i was fine. i'd like to point out that the rest of the band: ty on guitar and alex on drums, both wrote exceptional parts. Ty's guitar parts, reminded me of the Beatles circa rock psyche phase, mixed with a helping of tom waits raunch. The drummer appeared to need a song or two to warm up, but once he did, he brought the rock... irregardless. Potimus definitely a band worth checking out if you are in the souf in p-cola. at the moment i don't believe Potimus has any recordings available on line, but here is Jean Carlos's myspace:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=34971505

Apparently both bands misspelled their band names, i am sure it is a p-cola idosync.

Potimus= potamus?
kudzu= kudzoo?--- kudzu is correct i am sure
lilies= lillies

Kudzu co. played first, stu began their set with creepy ambient guitar pieces he wrote. then his partner climbed on stage and they began to sing songs, they are a wonderfully weird band, i mean weird in the sense that weird is meant to convey. nothing threatening about them, just plain weird. i love them, i am sure freak folk somehow started with Kudzu Co.

new songs! words, blount compound glass eye reading

Poetry reading at the blount compound tonight, does everyone seem like a twat when you're not drinking with 'em? i have to air out for a week or so, the open bar on tour definately got me into a rhythm: hand to bottle, bottle to mouth, mouth to gutter, gutter to head, head to hurting in the morning. thankfully we have got some work done in this lush summer, five new songs for the next full length. writing songs has been refreshing this time around, the little buddha under my bed has broughten us some song. i'll be sure to lay some crumbs down, or an almond at the foot of the bed, in the morning...

lyrics for two new songs:

Mustard Seed Boat

In the hull of a mustard seed boat
Piercing the sea on the point of an awl
Tattered sails wrapping the sky in a shroud
Inside a water drop that's crushing the sea

I put my hands up to my ears
Wulfram cries, children rise from the bottom of the sea
Cut the hanging from their ropes
What burns beneath their skin will never leave them alone

In the hull of a mustard seed boat
Tossing in our sleep, while the weed grows into a tree

I’ll cut my name into my arm
and let the wound grow into a scar
In here I’ll hide the things that I love
And drown them in my blood
No need for hope again inside my mustard seedling.


Untitled Song For a City in the Wake of a Recent Flood

I lost myself in the blue floodwater
Not like when the port it glowed with jellyfish
Now when I swim in the folds of your hair
Like a fox I dream of empty city blocks
My clumsy feet full of grace, they're in love with all things of this life

I cut myself on the flue at the bottom
Scraping by in the gutter while learning my sides
But I made my mark, singing in a dive
I caught the eye of Emma Carus, she loves me
Oh my clumsy feet full of grace, oh forgive them they can’t seem to dance
No they can't seem to dance

I told myself that some day I’d have it
The secrets you’re commanding that make you blush
And now summer's come to sleep with us, pay no mind
To the chattering twits who say I don’t love you, I do
My clumsy feet full grace, oh forgive they can't seem to dance
No they can't seem to dance

Oh my love, we built our world
around these beautiful corpses of ours
and life and its suffering
no ticker tape parade
no palisade against the rust and decay

sharpen your nails
knock the dust from your heels
we’ll traipse
through a Chaitya hall
on a bed of lotus

I'll hold your head above the floodwater
I'll hold your head about the floodwater

Sluggo's

Our first hometown show occurs tomorrow, liz and i played a duo show when we first got back to p-cola... a little nervous, i am usually alot more tense in front of a group of people i know. its easy to rock a room full of strangers, but your own peeps: scary. we have a few new songs for the people, i've been working like a crazy wild person with long hair in the middle of woods since we got home. we have some new stuff coming down the pipe, pretty exciting.

The Rumple Tanden Friendship Society

We began demoing this week for the new album due out at the end of 2008, we started work on a song called Apollo 1969: Concerning the Recently Uncovered Astronaut Love Triangle. However we are recording a seven song EP in october due for release before our spring tour, the EP will be called: The Rumple Tanden Friendship Society. track listing:

Devil in my Bed
Bordertown
Sebastian's Resurrection
Winter Farandole
Blood on the Tracks
Pocket Full of Stones
All the Pretty Horses

Things are going well for the cripple lilies, we are currently searching for funding for our next project, recording/tour funds. which i am confident we will find, the band is really starting to sink their teeth into the idea of making records for quite a few years.

end of spring tour

we made it home after a hard backstretch on our tour. everyone is in good spirits and glad to be home. we are preparing to record an EP for our sping 2008 tour. should have about five to six songs. also we will be shooting a documentary about a totally independent band recording an album, releasing the album and touring the album should be pretty raw. we'll be in touch. thanks chad.

"I dwive a dis route evewy day!!!!"

new york city: cab drivers, bridges, subways, and lots of alcohol. bad idea. next time i'll be sure to take a damn bike. show was fun. hooray for the pcola folks who showed up and everyone else. love the scene, not the city. almost killed us on the gw bridge. the sea and cake was mind blowing. thanks for the inspiration. almost home......almost.

madison

we played the cafe montmarte last night in downtown madison, really nice club owned by the guitar guy from garbage. we saw him poke his head in the window and scowl, but he never came in to hear the music. we played with two other magnolia artist last night: tom feldmann, and josh harty. it was a folk/country music night. the crowd was a little unprepared for the rockous nipple willies. all and all though it was a good night.

montrose mn

we are in montrose minnesota today staying with tom feldman. hopefully today will be better, its hard to move this 20000lb gorilla with five people in the band. we play at acadia cafe in minneapolis tonight.

the fine line minneapolis

low morale today, everyone is sick, waiting for a miracle.

minneapolis

we are in minneapolis today, staying with dr. katz, haven't seen the doc in a few years. the last few shows have been interesting, we played in omaha at the saddle creek bar with barn burning and aubrey. the sound was aweful, but the show was fairly attended and we rocked it. yesterday we played in des moines to a room full of chairs, finally people showed up as we were finishing our set and bought cds. we have decided on our next tour we will do a live cd from the vaudeville mews. tonight we play at KVSC in st. cloud, should be interesting.

rabbit is the totem animal, the spirit animal, physical metaphor. each time we stop in a town, the first that i see is a rabbit, i will figure this out...

the vitals

coffee
pillow
free food
gas money
free beers/scotchs
the occasional shower

the essential ingredients for the cave man to human conversion kit for touring musicians.

kansas city: Ponchos

kansas city, that is the missouri side should consider renaming the city to ponchos. a gesture to ensure that the city's greatest "authentic" mexican burrito place is remembered. ponchos is also very cheap and yummy... we played at the record bar last night with sterilize stero and the afterparty featuring the less than notorious cody wyoming. it was a pleasure to play two nights with sterilize stero, they have a wonderful prog-folk sound. they are moving to portland in august and i am positive they will do great... on our way to omaha tonight. hopefully scensters will give us a break tonight and whisper during conversation . i woke up this morning in KC (ponchos)to a wonderful coast breeze sneaking under the curtain.

lawrence jackpot lounge

we played last night in lawrence at the jackpot lounge with sterlize stero, and arthur dodge. both acts we're really good. b-ran lost his cell phone to some crackhead, we are still searching for it. we saw two fifty year old dudes fighting after the show, more comedy than blood. and we also cliff from the flaming lips screaming at some people on a street corner. the show went really well, the band gets better every show, we are forming plans for an extended spring tour. also there are a few good articles written about the nipple willies if anyone is interested in reading:

kirby's beerstore

today is our last day in wichita, then we head to lawrence. looking forward to playing five days in a row and then taking a day off minneapolis and then back to playing music. i am really excited to record the next album this fall, we'll probably go back to chase park, after sleeping in the studio after our show in athens i got the bug again, next album should border on that pensacola punk folk rock sound close to pipe bomb meets cripple lilies?

wichita

spent two days camping in bryan ohio's backyard in austin. austin is a tough town, alot like nashville atlanta LA etc. the second show we played at epoch's went really well, caught a cold in austin... we drove eight hours to wichita yesterday to find out that the electric snake show is canceled, no calls, no email to let us know, gee thanks electric snake.

today we are wandering around wichita, discovering the awesomeness of wichita. lots of bridges, and parks and stuff. we are staying with our friends kali and kenta: wonderful people.

the troubador in austin

about four years ago we played at a club named the vibe in austin... a true texas metal club. our little punk rock stomp blues band huddled onto the stage avoiding the pyro technic charges set to explode on stage, we drank bud lites, and inhaled stale cigey smoke. the "vibe" is now a bourbon street themed jock club on 6th street in austin. you can see this club across the street from "the troubadour" where we opened for a hip hop get crunk night dj fantasticarama event. we played to a packed house of chairs and passer-bys. carol wayne gautier vancleave's piano blew up we are considering torching it and dumping it in a river near austin. tour is wonderful, the road is a bitch, i have new songs and we are ready to record the next album.

we are searching for a miniature donkey farm if anyone has a lead.

danzig t-shirt in Texas

I once fell from a tree in a Texas, and my father packed us up and sent us to florida so the salt air could heal our wounds... we arrived in Houston today after a nine hour drive from Montgomery. We played at the head on door last night in montgomery, jumped in the car and drove to houston to play the meltdown. tonight was our first show in houston ever ever. the show was a blast, we encouraged kids to come on stage and dance: onstage dancers dubbed: the mocha lattes. overall great night, there are kids everywhere wearing hard core hats. aaron's danzig t-shirt worked again.

The Cripple Lilies at SXSW

For those of you going to South by Southwest this year, make sure to stop by Epoch Coffee on Friday, March 16. The Cripple Lilies will be playing at 1:30 in the afternoon. Come check us out, Epoch Coffee is at 221 W North Loop Blvd in Austin.

Our new album, Le Bete, comes out May 1. Check out our myspace for the tour dates. www.myspace.com/thecripplelilies