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Howl

by Swain

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1.
Enough is enough is enough is enough. Gather your stones when the going gets tough. The bankers, the crooks, the robbers must die. Feast on their guilt, close an eye. Enough is enough is enough is enough. Gather your stones when the going gets tough. We fail to see what’s underneath. Show your gritted teeth.
2.
Nostalgia 02:30
Dirty hands, blistered feet, playing in the sun but now we’re feeling the heat. Summer in the suburbs, safe and sound, knowing what it’s like: nostalgia brings us down. Nostalgia burns. We’ve roamed the streets, always out of luck. The glory days, but now we’re sobering up. Scraped our knees to the barren ground. It’s only skin, but nostalgia keeps us down. Yet we still raise our fists to the heedless skies. We piss on god, our ethos never dies. Nostalgia burns. Nostalgia hurts. Nostalgia flirts. Nostalgia fucks us up.
3.
Howl 01:54
It's not just you. We've all got blackened hearts. We've all got saddened parts. And they don't know this play, they don't feel the bass. No happy endings, no soothing chords, more like a fist on the piano. And I'm happy that we're always offbeat. "...the best minds of my generation, destroyed by madness ... burning for a connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night." They sleep while they count the days. They fear the moment when they part their ways. Heads in cement, knees to the ground. They loathe the beast they've crowned. "They broke their backs lifting moloch to heaven." We are the sea and all its sickness, just as blue and equally still. Like the other sore lips that are swaying with us, "we're all still ill." Brothers, sisters, reap what you sow. God is dead, we're alone. The city's howl never felt so loud, but we're never quite mute.
4.
Shiver 02:02
Blood runs through the offices and fire’s what we breathe. We write the poetry of the dead with every word we type. Remarks are made. Heads turn away. They prefer to stay. Behind gritted teeth our lies take shape. Fed by a festering hate, they procreate. You’ll shiver at what you’ll find inside. Disgusted, there’s nothing left inside.
5.
00:44
6.
Wrongdoer 02:46
Demons: against the wall. Former heroes, idols fall. Guilty; but aren’t we all? The fear, the ease, the human disease. The lies, the skin, sin, sin, sin, sin. Sinners: gather round. We’re lovers still, there’s heart among hounds. The fear, the ease, the human disease. The lies, the skin, sin, sin, sin, sin. Sinners: we’re lovers still. Fear not the beast. Heed not the priest. Cower not on the hill. Love another still.
7.
Cancer 00:48
Open wide and swallow the charade. Do you want a halo to match that crusade? Set fire to the curtains, because the stage is all set. Your little masterpiece put us all in debt. Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bastards bite. ‘Cause these scroungers never lose their appetite. Clench your fist, we’ll be the catalyst. The surge to clear the cancer, we’ll resist. A glimmer of hope for any tide that’s been turned. I salute to every flag that gets burned.
8.
Not a cloud in the sky, but still a howl inside. Us kids know where the beast resides. It’s like Jekyll and Hyde, the horror lies at our sides. Amongst the decay of virtue lies a greater crime. It’s not just us against them. It starts with I against I. “I wake to see the world go wild.” Concrete blocks pierce the sky. Man-made green bores the mind. This is a ballad for the stray dogs, the ones who commit to the wild. We’ll be the blisters under your feet. Making sure you’ll always feel the heat. We’ll be the tumor under your skin. We’ll be the devil’s kin. So tell us where we’re not allowed. We’ll be abound, making that deafening sound. The first to know when it hits, the last to reap the benefits. The premise never changed, we’re just a minor threat. Still free to a certain degree? You can thank the dogs for that.
9.
Gloom 01:45
Break the fingers of the hands that dealt. Pull off the nails, make sure it felt the grief and the pain of being stuck here in misery lane. Call us stubborn, call us closer to death. Yet don’t we all retch at our nicotine breath? The violence in our heads never seemed to discharge the questioning. With both feet on the ground, we keep the gods where they can be found: nowhere.
10.
Swallow, swallow, like there’s no tomorrow. Get your mass injection set. Because no one ever shoved you back. No need for a counterattack. So cross your t’s, dot your i’s. Always on the beat, dehumanized. It’s like your eyes, always bleak. Every single day is like a losing streak. I’d rather die on the streets than to sit right up at your anesthetizing and benumbing job. Don’t govern us, we’ll take our own command. Stick out the left, and we’ll ask for the other hand. Never brake. Never cut it. Never stop. Never shut it. Never sleep. Never close an eye. Never rest. Never ever die. With broken hands and battered wings we lay to rest the foul things. Anxiety is what they breathe. Disseminating the stench. Burn the old, wreck your TV’s, go out on the streets and destroy the concrete. Break the chains, turn up the gain. Get rid of your pain. Cut the rope that keeps us down. Shave the brows that always frown. Burn the cyst that always pains. Give them eyes when the blind man reigns.
11.
Untie the knots of wasted years. The rose is grown by released tears. Burn the hometown. Destroy the crown. Open the cage. Learn to let go. In the wake of a long dispute we’ve grown old, we slumber. Passing time when the time passed us we’ve grown old, and hungry, always hungry. And though the battles between us friends have been long, we long for something more than ordinary. This beat takes us to uncommon ground.
12.
Asleep 01:52
Thoughts and inspiration are bursting through the seams. Lack of motivation to follow up my dreams. I sit alone, unsettled by the path that lies ahead. Everybody’s running, but I’d rather stay in bed. I’m asleep. I’m a waste of time, of your patience, of your care. I’m a waste of good intentions, of your innocence, of love. I’m a waste of your body, of your lips, of warmth. I was a waste of your spirit, of your virginity, of love.

about

Howl video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6imaKu7NioU
Asleep video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCdNQ55dIaU
Nostalgia video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QWq_mJV7uU

First pressing LP's in black, orange and orange with red splatter.
Second pressing LP's in black, blue and blue with green splatter.

If you run a zine or blog and are interested in doing a review or feature of the album, go right ahead! For questions please contact us at hey@weareswain.com

credits

released April 10, 2013

Recorded by Kurt Ballou at Godcity Studios. Mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music.

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