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East of Western

by Cat Hair Ensemble

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Jordan
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Jordan Incredible. Old-timey feel with a sometimes frantic energy but some truth being quietly considered in other tracks. The singing is raw and feels honest. Much focus on the struggles of the working class that I haven't seen in music before. Favorite track: This Year I'm Using a Knife.
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1.
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Company Time 02:57
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
5.
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
6.
Nitrate 01:48
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
7.
8.
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
9.
10.
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
11.
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
12.
The Creeper 03:34
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
13.
14.
Absent 02:29
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

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 October 12, 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

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Cat Hair Ensemble Los Angeles, California

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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