East of Western

by Cat Hair Ensemble

East of Western cover art
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about

Written in LA traffic. Honed at Mr. T's Bowl in Highland Park. Recorded furtively at a TV voice-over studio. Released several years after the fact. Behold: EAST OF WESTERN.

credits

released 12 October 2011
Roderick Cumming - vocals, guitar, accordion, tenor banjo
Andrew Duncan - trumpet, percussion
Clint W. Heidorn - guitar, tenor banjo, bouzouki
Michael Anthony Ibarra - contrabass
Spencer Savage - drums
Joe Tepperman - trombone

All music and lyrics written by Roderick Cumming (BMI), except “Formal Friday” by Roderick Cumming and Clint Heidorn (BMI), and “From the Odessa Jail” trad./arr. by Roderick Cumming

Recorded and mixed by David Guerrero at LA Studios, Los Angeles, CA

Mastered by JJ Golden at John Golden Mastering

Design by Jordan Crane

tags

tags: folk accordion alternative banjo folk jazz punk tango world Los Angeles

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all rights reserved

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about

Melodies that cough and choke as much as they croon...dance tunes for one-legged dancers...nervous tangos, club-footed waltzes, gallows swing.

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Track Name: This Year I'm Using a Knife
I sat at my window and wasted
A perfectly good Saturday
I’m not even sure I like coffee
But I drank a whole pot anyway
I think that the winter is coming
But the seasons out here are so flat
I think that I woke up this morning
But no one can verify that
Yes, I think that I woke up this morning
But no one can verify that

I’m here in my little subcompact
The car’s off and I’m still alive
It seems that I’ve gotten home safely
But I can’t remember the drive
And then there’s a realization
That brings on a couple of tears
Honestly, I can’t remember
Too much from the last several years
Oh, honestly, I can’t remember
Much from the last several years

The holiday season’s upon us
And the wolves all line up at the door
I still need to clean out the toilet
Before I can open the store
At home I can fear for my future
But here I must fear for my life
Last year I killed them with kindness
This year I’m using a knife
Track Name: Me and the Rats
I killed my mother the day I was born
And father was none too forgiving
The lashes I felt
From his tongue and his belt
Told me I shouldn’t be the one living

She knows I’m sorry; her eyes say it all
I’ve seen them in that rusted locket
When I packed my bags
I made sure I put that in my pocket

I never met her but I’d swear I've felt her
While wearing her lipstick and flats
God cannot see us down in this bomb shelter
Her ghost and me and the rats

Some gloomy Sunday, Father will know
His prodigal boy is returning
When he realizes
The floorboards around him are burning
Track Name: Company Time
Be you hourly, be you salary
Night shift, nine to five
You have an obligation to chase your destiny
On company time

Write your novel, write your poetry
On your boss’s dime
Your cigarette will taste like a
Lover’s kiss when smoked
On company time

Fire up the photocopier
Sound the stapler
Do not live in fear
If they should catch you
Show no remorse
You have a job, not a career

I’m not one to preach unlawfulness
Then abstain from crime
I put a pen to Post-It and
Then I wrote this, all on company time
All on company time
Track Name: Standing in the Ruins Getting Wrecked
I left the States a week ago with no goodbyes to say
Tossed all obligations for a Roman holiday
And as I walked along the streets, it hit me in a flash
That even mighty empires turn to trash

The smell of smoke and urine punctuated every breath
The columns had graffiti, epitaphs of glory’s death
Centurions and emperors gave way to fascist thugs
And Virgil’s kin were hustling for drugs

The weight of human history was lifted from my back
I turned my face away and now I’m on another track
They banned me from the hostel, I’m almost out of bread
And I’m sleeping in the streets where Caesar bled

So I’ll drink this wine before it turns to vinegar
And smile as time ties nooses ‘round our necks
I’m laughing as I’m shouting out at nothing
I’m standing in the ruins getting wrecked

The grappa and the cheap Chianti hold me in their grips
I’m running through the cafés stealing table scraps and tips
Accordions are drowning in a sea of mandolins
And I cannot hear my conscience through the din

“Bacchanalia” seems too grand a word for getting pissed
And I’ve been grinning far too much to be a nihilist
Call me “continental,” “cosmopolitan,” “urbane”
And call the fucking universe “insane”

So I’ll drink this wine before it turns to vinegar
And smile as time ties nooses ‘round our necks
I’m laughing as I’m shouting out at nothing
I’m standing in the ruins getting wrecked

I think I’ve learned a lesson from the Vandals and the Gauls
When culture starts to crumble you should kick it in the balls
Let Nero fiddle with himself and light another fuse
When nothing’s left, there’s nothing left to lose

And now I’m standing in the Colosseum
The sky above my head is rushing past
Italian ghosts are trying hard to warn me
That glories of the present never last

So I’ll drink this wine before it turns to vinegar
And smile as time ties nooses ‘round our necks
I’m laughing as I’m shouting out at nothing
I’m standing in the ruins getting wrecked
Track Name: Nitrate
You said your lines, dropped your head
And hid your eyes behind your crow-black hair
Seventy years cannot hide the look of sadness that was
Frozen there
And as I think upon it now
I’m reminded of a summer day
When I held a dying bird and watched it suffer
Watched it fade away
And I hated time
And I cursed a world
That let beauty understand despair
And I wept for it
Like I wept for you
And for everything beyond repair
For bodies die and nitrate burns
But our memories are here to stay
The edge may dull but the point stays sharp
And it stings us to our final days
Track Name: Cut Off My Arms
Another sleepless three a.m.
And now it’s turning into four
My pillow’s nowhere to be found
I’ve kicked the blankets to the floor
These useless toothpicks are to blame
For all my worry and unrest
It seems they’re always in the way
So perhaps it would be best
If I cut off my arms
If I cut off my arms

There is no brand of booze or pill
There is no mattress made by Swedes
That has the properties it takes
To deal with my nocturnal needs
If I had someone else around
Then maybe I could use an axe
I’ll stumble to the metro stop
And reach across the railroad tracks
And I’ll cut off my arms
And I’ll cut off my arms

When you were still in love with me
I used to sleep all through the night
With my face buried in your hair
And my arms wrapped around you tight
But now they keep me up ‘til dawn
Now that I’ve nothing left to hold
And I don’t want them anymore
These stupid limbs that let you go
So I’ll cut off my arms
So I’ll cut off my arms
Track Name: Take a Little More
Human beings are quite astounding
For they’re built just like balloons
You can give them quite a pounding
And they seem to be immune
You kick one in the stomach
He screams out that he’ll die
You kick again, he’s still alive
We dispel his silly lie

Three cuts of veal
Why not make it four?
You say that’s all that you can take
But you can take a little more
The rich keep getting richer
And poorer still the poor
You say that’s all that you can take
But you can take a little more

And the same thing goes for cruel men
And their habits quiet perverse
We marvel at their meanness
Which we think could not be worse
But then to our amazement
Their cruelty grows in size
While they’re laying low the dead
They steal the pennies from their eyes

Three cuts of veal
Why not make it four?
You say that’s all that you can take
But you can take a little more
The rich keep getting richer
And poorer still the poor
You say that’s all that you can take
But you can take a little more

And what of gentle kindness?
Does that not grow as well?
Oh, is there not a Heaven
As well as fiery Hell?
Oh, let’s not be dissemblers
No, let us not deceive
For Hell is every day alive
And Heaven is for the naive

Three cuts of veal
Why not make it four?
You say that’s all that you can take
But you can take a little more
The rich keep getting richer
And poorer still the poor
You say that’s all that you can take
But you can take a little more
Track Name: The Napoleon of Regret
The little words I should have said
The flowers that I should have sent
The opportunities I wasted
All those days misspent

The times I opened up my mouth
And all the times I kept it shut
The scenes inside my head
I’d like to go back and re-cut

I’ll run for elephant and win
Then drop a crown around my ears
Sip Slivovitz in Austerlitz
And in a few short years

I’ll trudge along to Waterloo
Dragging these things I can’t forget
These sorry memories
That make me the Napoleon of regret
Track Name: The Creeper
When the creeper has found its way around
The mighty oak comes down
And when the seed of love is planted in my heart
Oh, no one shall tear us apart

Father was a sailor, sailed upon the seas
And roving was his disease
When you’re not beside me, I feel so far from fine
That loving you must be mine

When the creeper has found its way around
The mighty oak comes down
And when the seed of love is planted in my heart
Oh, no one shall tear us apart
Track Name: Absent
I went AWOL on Monday
Now it’s Saturday night
Haven’t eaten for days
And my head’s feeling light
I’m in love with the moon
And the stars are so bright
In this desert I wander alone
In this desert I wander alone

Bet they don’t even miss me
Bet no tears have been spilled
Bet my bed in the barracks
Is already filled
With another warm body
That’s ripe to be drilled
Just another dumb bastard like me
Just another dumb bastard like me

Have no use for my rifle
So it sits in the dust
Let the showers of spring
Turn the barrel to rust
And let no other sucker
Be fooled into trusting
Those curves that have led me astray
Those curves that have led me astray

At my mother’s apartment
A couple MPs
Are probably stationed
And waiting for me
But I’m in the moonlight
And starting to freeze
And I wish the whole world a good night
And I wish the whole world a good night