1. |
Version 6
05:37
|
|||
|
I was frozen stiff
Scared to death to live
Odds seemed better
Staying out of circulation
Seven solar years
Everything is new
There’s no going back
And what is there to lose and
Static waves are gone
Now I’m tuning in
I reset the presets and
Begin again and
It will be here soon
I can feel it near
Here comes version six
And five will disappear
Somewhere, deep within the monolith
Something’s breaking through
The smooth and shiny surface is fracturing
And there’s nothing I can do
It’s been there for so long
It was bound to happen someday soon
Feel I’m breaking open
Just like I was always going to do
Cutting down the drag
Blow the filters clean
I will learn to love
The sound of this machine and
I’m no passenger
I’m the engineer
Pressure vessel threading
Sharply through the shear and
I was falling fast
Nearly flipped the switch
Swan bands and shock diamonds
Humming right on pitch
This is not the end
It’s nothing to fear
Here comes version six
And five will disappear
I know someday
The copies will degrade
I will blur and fade
No one will miss me
I know someday
I’ll fail to iterate
And the error rate
Will erase me
Somewhere, deep within the monolith
Something’s breaking through
The smooth and shiny surface is fracturing
And there’s nothing I can do
It’s been there for so long
It was bound to happen someday soon
Feel I’m breaking open
Just like I was always going to do
|
||||
2. |
Grandpa
03:02
|
|||
|
Grandpa's from a very different time but he means well
Nobody married Androids when he was young
The disembodied lifestyle wasn't an option
You had to have a body just to be someone
Now he's so old he doesn't have connections
The connections that he had were the people he knew
Not too many of the ones he had are around
And he refuses to connect like the rest of us do
And he's a dangerous man
He doesn't mean to be
He doesn't mean to offend
He's just obsolete
He thought it all would end
And the end would be sweet
how lucky he is
To still be here
Grandpa stole a civic from the auto museum
He told the judge and jury he just wanted to drive
He tore around the city in a perilous manner
He said he a little danger made him feel alive
Grandpa has no interest in recording his dreams
He says he doesn't want anybody to watch
He's worried that they'll catch him in flagrante delicto
Jump out from the closets all at once and yell gotcha
And he's a dangerous man
He doesn't mean to be
He doesn't mean to offend
He's just obsolete
He thought it all would end
And the end would be sweet
how lucky he is
To still be here
Grandpa never thought he'd live ’til 2190
Back when he was younger people died middle age
Doctors used to practice in the dark art of surgery
Long before the advent of the nanonecrophage
Grandpa doesn't understand designer mutations
He tells everybody he's just fine how he is
He isn't even curious about sentient hairstyles
He doesn't feel the need to have a novel appendage
And he's a dangerous man
He doesn't mean to be
He doesn't mean to offend
He's just obsolete
He thought it all would end
And the end would be sweet
how lucky he is
To still be here
And he's a dangerous man
He doesn't mean to be
He doesn't mean to offend
He's just obsolete
He thought it all would end
And the end would be sweet
how lucky he is
To still be here
|
||||
3. |
Here It Comes
03:14
|
|||
|
I guess the thing about the camel in the needle’s eye
Just doesn’t apply for some reason
To hell with being meek and turning the other cheek
When you have a gun and a plan and a chance to get even
Here it comes
Descending a golden staircase
Here it comes
Draped in a flag with a cross in its hand
Here it comes
Shoving its way to the foreground
Here it comes
Speaking double-talk nothings your lizard brain can understand
Forget about peace on earth
And the good samaritan and Mary Magdalene
Never mind about lies and pride and worshiping idols
Never mind, never mind all that ‘cuz
Here it comes
Descending a golden staircase
Here it comes
Draped in a flag with a cross in its hand
Here it comes
Shoving its way to the foreground
Here it comes
Speaking double-talk nothings your lizard brain can understand
Here it comes
|
||||
4. |
The Cloak
03:07
|
|||
|
I wove a cloak out of artifice
Immune to the arrows of Artemis
A sanctuary, a tourniquet
But now I’m afraid I’m a part of it
The thread is fine but the fabric is infinite
You know I traded my skin for it
And I can disappear when I spin in it
But now I’m scared I’ll never be rid of it
When I set it ablaze the smoke hissed from my ears
When I ripped it to shreds the lacerations appeared
And as soon as they’d healed and the bleeding had ended
The thread had respun and the mantle had mended
Knotted round a sinking stone
Seasick and asphyxiating
Dwindled, billowed neath the foam
And damn these bubbles in my bones
I made a mask of stone and spit
That shone like chrome when I handled it
It thrummed with a comfortable resonance
And mirrored my face when it knew I was watching it
I dove into its cool steady permanence
I needed something sure and determinant
Surface tension holds me coldly
Where it leads I follow slowly
Only, it feels like I don’t have a choice
Like it sees through my eyes and it speaks in my voice
I’m calling out in here can you hear me
The echoes make me feel less lonely
And it sounds like there’s a wall out there
An edge that I can make my way to
And kick a hole in this endless blank
Somebody shine a light please? thank you
|
||||
5. |
The Larynx of Leviathan
03:13
|
|||
|
Sharpened my axe and I folded my spade and I
Emptied my pack of the provisions I’d made and I
Though I’d return in a matter of days burt I
Scrawled my goodbyes in the sand just in case
Thought I could
Creep past the teeth like I windborne disease
Thought I could
Go mining diamonds in the larynx of leviathan but
If you’ve ever been in the mouth of the beast, then you know
Once you’re inside, it’s easier to stay than to go and
You could live forever just injecting the gold from its throat
I built a fire and held on ‘til the fever broke
First it was grand, I was stuffing my pack with the
Gold and the gems that I planned to take back with me but
Under that plunder, couldn’t straighten my back yet I
Couldn’t bear to part with it, felt it reach into me
Thought I could
Creep past the teeth like I windborne disease
Thought I could
Go mining diamonds in the larynx of leviathan but
If you’ve ever been in the mouth of the beast, then you know
Once you’re inside, it’s easier to stay than to go and
You could live forever just injecting the gold from its throat
I built a fire and held on ‘til the fever broke
|
||||
6. |
||||
|
Formless and empty, waste and void
Darkness on the surface of the deep
You flew over the face of the water
Pondering the words you might speak
You trumpeted the light and whispered the firmament
Intoned the peaks and hummed out the plains
And you chuckled a bit as you spit out the fish
And quietly whistled as you folded the cranes
We ate the fruit of the tree
There’s no undoing it now
There are thorns in the grass
And snakes on the path but
We’ll have to make it somehow
We’ll have to make it somehow
You put the sapling at the center of the garden and
Willed it to fruit with the changing of seasons and
You made the serpent and left the gate open and
You saw it coming but maybe you had your reasons
You saw that it was good, but was it too plain?
Maybe you were bored and had a penchant for games or
You meant to prevent it but the seventh day came and found you
Deep in slumber in a thundercloud bank
We ate the fruit of the tree
There’s no undoing it now
There are thorns in the grass
And snakes on the path but
We’ll have to make it somehow
We ate the fruit of the tree
There’s no undoing it now
There are thorns in the grass
And snakes on the path but
We’ll have to make it somehow
We’ll have to make it somehow
|
||||
7. |
There Goes Old 630
03:13
|
|||
|
My old man
Was a son of a gun
You shoulda seen him on the run
On that Harley Davidson
My old man was a son of a gun
My old man taught me to drive
And shoot and fish and look alive
And turn a wrench and and ride a bike
Yeah my old man taught me to drive
Oh, here we go, doncha know
That’s what he used to say
Oh, here we go, doncha know
With the windows down on a summer day
My old man didn't talk too much
I think he talked just enough
Once you got him started up
My old man didn't talk too much
My old man had a saxophone
He never learned to play it though
he could make it howl and moan
My old man had a saxophone
At the electric company
Ol' 630 was a legend
His old boss didn't know
Whether to shit or
wind his watch when
630 cheated death
Again
And kept showing up
And working
And climbing poles
At 70 years old
And busting chops
For certain
My old man was more show than tell
Lit 'em up and gave 'em hell
If they didn’t like it, oh well
My old man was more show than tell
My old man worked 'til the day he died
He didn't want to sit around inside
He felt his heart flutter but he let it ride
My old man worked 'til the day he died
And he died with his working boots on
Oh, here we go, doncha know
That’s what he used to say
Oh, here we go, doncha know
With the windows down on a summer day
There goes old 630
There goes old 630
There goes old 630
There goes old 630
|
||||
8. |
||||
|
Leaves are rustling in the west of me
I'm trying to breathe into the rest of me
This thing is trying to get the best of me
But what am I? Let it take me, whatever I am
Alarm bells are ringing in my spacesuit
Is my skeleton trying to get out
Am I surrendering my structure
Is that what this is all about
I saw a movie of a street scene
More than 100 years ago
Everyone was on their way to someplace
Everybody had somewhere to go
Archaeologists will find our artifacts
They'll find a server in the rust
They will smirk at our ephemera
After all of us are dust
Shh!
I think I'm picking up a signal
There's interference in the way
I can feel the static on the waveform
I'm looking for a way to flip the phase
And when the phase is flipped it cancels
And when it cancels there's a hush
But the hush is temporary
The static always comes back in a rush
I saw a movie of a street scene
More than 100 years ago
Everyone was on their way to someplace
Everybody had somewhere to go
Archaeologists will find our artifacts
They'll find a server in the rust
They will smirk at our ephemera
After all of us are dust
If I close my eyes and hold my breath
Till the shooting stars start to explode in my head
I can see what it will be like before I was born
And remember how it was after I'm dead
|
||||
9. |
||||
|
Smokestacks on the horizon
A dynasty of snakes
Uninhabitable islands
The music of this place
The grey man came down the lane
And cast his gaze of silent warning
He tried to speak but could only hiss like
Some old tape recording
Derelict ships on the coastline
Alligators in the pond
Fragments of a scattered bloodline
Soda cans and BB guns
The hurricane picked up the house and
Set it several blocks away
But somehow left the magazines stacked
Neatly on the table
At our Lady of the Sorrows
The matriarch was eating cake
From here on out her time is borrowed
The good Lord giveth and he take
And when the storm had lifted
The only telephone was gone
There were dormers in the causeway
No telling when the help would come
The grey man came down the lane
And cast his gaze of silent warning
He tried to speak but could only hiss like
Some old tape recording
The hurricane picked up the house and
Set it several blocks away
But somehow left the magazines stacked
Neatly on the table
|
||||
10. |
||||
|
Thought I was a thunder cloud
Spitting lightning at the mountains
But I was just a speck of dust
Spinning in the turbulence
Thought I was some grand deluge
As though my very touch were germination
But I was just the thirsty earth
Exhaling petrichor
My word I thought I was something
It turns out I was something else
Such a vast, expansive surface
Gives the illusion of depth
But from up close it’s hard to tell
Thought I had it plotted out
Felt the way erode beneath me
But I was just a tributary
Flowing toward an endless ocean
My word I thought I was something
It turns out I was something else
Such a vast, expansive surface
Gives the illusion of depth
But from up close it’s hard to tell
Felt myself ascending then
Rising of my own volition
But I was just a molecule
That was just evaporation
|
||||
JRK Portland, Oregon
JRK is the solo project of musician, songwriter, and producer Rick Klaras. JRK's self-titled debut was crowdfunded and released in September of 2021.
If you like JRK, you may also like:
Blue Record (Deluxe Version)
by Baroness
featured on Bandcamp Radio Sep 15, 2023
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Sep 15, 2023
go to album
The band’s first album in 10 years is full of drifting guitar chords, psychedelic fuzz, and dreamy shoegaze.
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Nov 12, 2013
go to album
End of Tunes
by Friends Below Zero
The cool and wacky home recorded indie rock on this unearthed 90s gem is full of scrappy, lo-fi charm.
go to album
The Dust Has Come To Stay
by Junk Drawer
This Belfast group makes art-rock with an effortlessly melodic twist.
go to album
New York group Landlady return with an accessible collection of lightly psychedelic, nostalgic pop songs.
go to album
