Onto you I
Hang myself dry
And thinning is the air in which you rise
Far beneath me
Churns the great sea
Where our ship's imprisoned in the brine
I am a cliffhanger
You're the edge
While I'm a cliffhanger
It's not the end
I am a cliffhanger
'Cause I can't let this book
Close easily
And throw myself over you
Tell me won't you
Please descend to
Return some feeling back into my hands
With your gold key
Maybe set free
The vessel with our captivated plans
I am a cliffhanger
You're the edge
While I'm a cliffhanger
It's not the end
I was walking through the stormy country
You were walking through the stormy country
And the rain, it pierced right through our hides
I gave my hand and we ran against the rain
We found a roof and everything was changed
You moved so very close to me
Underneath the falling sea
We're safe inside our submarine
To a polyrhythmic wash of sound
We wrung each other out
We bow to what until now
Was ruefully drowned
By the sovereign art
Of our solitary hearts
We made our home in the unknown
But we had all we need
To kill the cold and keep us worthy
Underneath the falling sea
We're safe inside our submarine
To a polyrhythmic wash of sound
We wrung each other out
I was walking through the stormy country
You were walking through the stormy country
It was here we saw ourselves so clear
Once upon a new year's morning
On brother's bed I soundly slept
Dreaming of a girl I'd marry
I made believe the truth was deft
La Da Da Da Da
Don't know why I thought it could be for good
Forget it now
Sleep again
Wisdom fell hard upon me
Cutting down the fool inside
The dream I lost was cursed already
Now it must be left to die
La Da Da Da Da
Don't know why I thought it could be for good
Forget it now
Sleep again
You're flushed with your father's blood
And I'm in contempt of your new complexion
You're a master of well-placed ink
And a dead woman escaped with my affection
I know you'd say you don't believe me
But it's easy
Just close your eyes and breathe
'Cause life will always move at this wicked speed
And we will bleed
Just give what you receive
And know I gave enough
For both of us
You know I gave enough
For both of us
Now I feel...
The air that's all around you
Is purgatory from which there's no escaping
I could run in these lost and found shoes
Or risk damnation for saying we're worth saving
All I am is a man who can't watch this all fall away
I'm losing these days
But I'm trying to keep the pace
But life will always move at this wicked speed
And we will bleed
Just give what you receive
And know I gave enough
For both of us
You know I gave enough
for both of us
Backwards moving
Just want
Some peace
I can't do this anymore
Fix this
Use your
Pretty head
Let's go
Back to bed
The nightmare could be over now
Fix this
And sing me back to sleep
'Cause I love you
In this room I've made your bed
I wait and I wait and I wait
Rewinding all the ground we've tread
Again and again and again
But I can't do this anymore
I talk to you in mind
All of the time
Every line has the power
To open your eyes
You're invited to make it all true
'Cause frankly things just aren't right
We walked the path of lose-lose
Where the earth all had dried
But somewhere our shadows are fused
Where trees never die
It's not hard to find if we turn off our minds
Your heart will tell you no lie
Take me to the place where the trees still grow
I never thought we'd leave there for such a cold
'Cause spring was just a lie. The warmth never came
But I know the trees are there still growing the same
You let the irony play
Love was withheld
When I finally found the display
Coins down the well
My wishes, a waste and you don't want a taste
Of what we promised ourselves
Take me to the place where the trees still grow
I never thought we'd leave there for such a cold
'Cause spring was just a lie. The warmth never came
But I know the trees are there still growing the same
So you've got some weight on your back
And no stable ground
I'll make sure your spine stays intact
That a road can be found
Just give me a sign and we'll travel all night
To the place we would be now
Take me to the place where the trees still grow
I never thought we'd leave there for such a cold
'Cause spring was just a lie. The warmth never came
But I know the trees are there still growing the same
By the start of June
We'd walk Michigan Avenue
And on Independence Day
We'd throw all of our cares away
By an August sunset
We'd see my brother happily wed
Then drive to the Greatest Lake
To soak our souls in Agawa Bay
But you want to give this up
I could not give up
'Cause there's no common sense
In falling on the fence
By the start of June
I wrote another song for you
Because melody is truth
While words hide from our abuse
With Fall around the bend
You broke your silence once again
And now you're only in my mind
As a long finished film I won't rewind
You want to give this up
I could not give up
'Cause there's no common sense
In falling on the fence
Darlin' you're really something
I wish you were something else
Your belly it turned so yellow
Like a leaf before it fell
But you don't seem so graceful
On your long way down
All the dirt you stirred up
Has made it into my eyes
And it burns ever so clearly
Yet I still can't say why
You lost all your spine, dear
What did you expect to find here?
Darlin' you're really something
A mary that's lost her blood
What's left here is some kind of poison
Like dried veins beneath the flood
Like roots under the river
I'll never see what they deliver
I never did agree
But still it came to be
'Cause all you did portend
Turns out what just pretense
No, I am not your friend
Darlin' you're really something
I wish you were something else
Your belly it turned so yellow
Like a leaf before it fell
But you don't seem so graceful
On your long way down
I never did agree
But still it came to be
We have moved so perfectly
Together we
Showed up crossed stars and made them fall
Through it all
Don't you remember who I am?
I remember you
You're not this girl who let her love lie
While I stood in salute
But that's the sad truth
That girl chose not to lend a saving hand
To give me any token lovely
Time and time again
We spelled the end before we knew
What letters to
Write in their place. No spirit flowed
To inspire prose
I can't make believe we're not in love
After all that was
'Cause we held so fast the city breathed
Through our bodies
Don't you remember who I am?
I remember you
Your eyes reflected each morning light
To make the world anew
Our bodies glowed from head to toe
Our feeling fingers followed
And we were sure then
This light would happen
Time and time again
The earth is a child of the sun
A mother to the moon
But all we are is falling apart
I don't believe in God
But I believed in you
But all we are is falling apart
As children of forests, we've failed our fathers
Our roots never took in the soil soaked with water
Our shadows have run far away from our center
When you said they looked goddamn great together
But all we are is falling apart.
©2011 Gun Lake
Here's a song from our GBS session last Sunday. If you like it, feel free to share it with your dad.
We'll be recording a GBS session in April, and we'll also be working on our new EP. Balfour is turning 1 year old and I'm turning 26 years old this weekend. Anyway, check out our friends, The Seleton Birds' GBS session below. It's pretty fantastic.
Skeleton Birds from gbs detroit on Vimeo.
We're SoundsThatMatter.com's Artist of the Month. We were honored to win some awards in their Anti-Grammys. Check it out HERE. Also, we're making our best efforts to show up in Austin during SXSW. Help us!
Thank you!We have been nominated for a few honors and we would be, you know, honored if you voted for us. Sounds That Matter has nominated us for "Best Artist" among other things. Click HERE to vote. Also, Ann Arbor's Current Magazine has nominated us for the title of "Best Local Artist" along with some of our good friends. Click HERE for that voting page.
Thank you!We now have a youtube channel HERE. We'll be posting live videos, music videos, and anything other moving images we create/want you to see over there. Here's an example:
Our Quilted Attic live video of Backwards is up today on SYFFAL.com
Backwards - Gun Lake - The Quilted Attic Sessions from Bigger Brush Media on Vimeo.
After what's sure to be a great night in Grand Rapids with awesome rocknrollas, Cartography on the 15th, we are heading out East for CMJ Marathon. This is what's up:
Thursday, October 20
Pete's Candy Store with Chris Bathgate, Abadabad, and Radiation City
Friday, October 21
Googie's Lounge with Koji, Sun Glitters, Saskatchewan, Abadabad, Chrome Sparks, and Selebrities
Friday, October 22
The Living Room with Snowmine, Team Genius, Novel Ideas, and Belgrave
We are playing Dally in the Alley on September 10th at 2pm. Our very own Macklin Underdown will be playing a solo set right before us at 1pm. Come support good things in The D. We have to take off after our set to Illinois for our first ever Daytrotter session the following morning! We're quite excited about this and happy that you'll have other ways to hear our music. This is all leading into an awesome Fall for us. We are playing Spike Hill October 19 and Pete's Candy Store on October 20 for CMJ 2011 with other exciting shows and what not in the works.
We begin June with one of our—and suddenly one of the nation's—favorite songwriters Chris Bathgate. If you like coffee, you can get from Starbucks a free download for my second favorite song on his new record (my favorite is the title track Salt Year). Or you can cut out the corporate middle man, brew your own cup and surf over to his bandcamp. That show is happening June 4th at Woodruffs in Ypsilanti. The very next afternoon, we are playing at the Taste of Ann Arbor on Main Street at 12:55pm. The food will be cheap so hopefully people will feel like paying for music that day. We're heading back to Woodruff's the following Wednesday to play a tribute to artists of Merge Records. We'll be paying tribute to Neutral Milk Hotel and Arcade Fire. Two days later, we'll be in Detroit at The Old Miami with an awesome band called Jesse and the Gnome. I hear that Jesse guy is really awesome too. Indianapolis is the destination the following weekend with a likely stop in Toledo on our way, and a video performance for soundsthatmatter.com before our Indy show. I am still figuring out details for both of these shows, but they will be on the shows page soon. Of course, this is all working towards a climax as we are heading to Philadelphia and NYC on June 24th. We will be playing The Living Room in the lower east side on Saturday, the 25th, at midnight. This weekend is going to rule. It'll be lovely to see everyone who has moved out there. Finally, before we begin an equally busy July, we play The Strutt in Kalamazoo, MI with awesome bands Noisewaves and Cartography.
Be sure to "Like" the website, and visit often to learn about upcoming shows and what not. Oh and we'll have our Quilted Attic session on the site soon. It'll look and sound pretty.
-Mark
Lightning Love has played a special role in my musical growth—not only because my first lineup was two-thirds of that band, but because Leah was one of the first people who really encouraged me to play these songs and keep working on them. I have long regarded her songwriting as somewhat untouchable in its simplistic perfection; thus after recording demos of "Trees" and "Time Again" in the house that she and Ben were sharing, I heard her voice of support loudly. It is for this reason, in addition to my true love for their music, that I am honored that Lightning Love is playing our album release show.
Photographers' influence came later in the course of our development as a band. I met John and Maren at Mittenfest after they fought with the sound system through their set. I liked what I heard enough to check them out the following night at Canterbury House and I was blown away. Their arrangements were incredible, employing plenty of Rhodes and xylophone ambience underneath beautifully harmonized arpeggios and vocals. It was a set that reminded me how beautiful music can be, and I can't wait to see them again on Thursday.
For those of you who haven't read the little blurb on Bandcamp, Balfour is analagous to something beautiful with which you don't want to part. In this regard, it works as a metaphor of itself. I believe we made something special with our first album because I felt every lyric. I am happy to be writing new music now also, but I hope you will come help us celebrate our sending Balfour out into the world.
-Mark