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Milks & Rectangles

by Milks & Rectangles

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1.
Please just try to make it plain Strange blood is pounding in my veins Face-down on the street with a mouth of broken teeth I shouldn’t have run mounting my retreat Never fired a gun and never caused a scene Make for the county line Get there before daylight comes Let me explain my bad idea again I know your face, I know you’re not a friend No shame anymore, death in the afternoon Bloody trente-et-uns, I swear that I was true A man without his hat laid out with the flu The remedy he knows he traces to an Irish king It’s four o’clock somewhere and A bird can’t fly on one wing Through the night with hospital patience Like a saint with the hospital patience Through the night with hospital patience Let me explain my bad idea again And stay with me until the very end And take and take and take and take all ills away
2.
Someone tell the invisible kid To stop playing around with the Agent Orange In the haze of the power grid With the elegant weapons they hid What I heard was like a banker’s smile On a telephone that wouldn’t dial Squeaking cleaner than a gurney wheel Running free as a feral child Even if I’m too far gone Can I burn your name into the lawn? I’m a third wheel without A curfew or a place to be Don’t feed me that American line That the end of the world is drawing nigh We’ve still got a couple of years And there must be something better to fear Even if I’m too far gone Can I burn your name into the lawn? I’m a third wheel without A curfew or a place to be Even if I’m too far gone I don’t want to sleep till I see dawn I’m a third wheel without A curfew or a place to be It’s a loaded question but I need An answer immediately
3.
In a junkyard seance looking for a place to stay Asked a rooftop pigeon for the roofs he'd like to save And if you've found yourself a room And if there's someone there with you Don't fall into the wrong hands The clutches of some strange man Make my epitaph a dirty joke In the mother tongue that your father spoke "Snakes walk with their hands in their pockets" Forked tongues that they plug into sockets Don't fall into the wrong hands The clutches of some strange man Don't fall into the wrong hands The snares of his mislaid plans
4.
I'm watching watching JFK Can't tell where the shots are from Can't tell where the shots are from See buildings crumble every day Broadcast on a TV screen The image is sharp and clean If you need me the same way I need you Your heart's the target I'm setting the crosshairs to The atom spies went up on trial Let the nation's secrets leak Russian bombs and widows peaks Don't set your jaw, give me a smile You just trust what you have seen Your theories are sharp and clean If you need me the same way I need you Your heart's the target I'm setting the crosshairs to Civic virtues we've been told Civic virtues lay me low If you need me the same way I need you Your heart's the target I'm setting the crosshairs to
5.
Blanketful of skin, a thin heap of knees Doing no good, Cindy and me. I can see the writing on the wall Waiting for the other foot to fall Loose hips sink ships Scratched records skip Horny as cuckolds, everyone slips The shelves are stacked so thick with rival brands Every local hipster starts a band Chasing a fast thrill, tripping on barbed wire Smoking out the window surveying your empire Feminine tomboy in a clawfooted bathtub Running the taps out, starting a blood grudge Collars get hot, arsonists fight liars Swear words can wear swords And polygraphs light fires Put down your hands your gestures are obscene Like punctured tires on a limousine Some stand aloof The pure and the chaste The prudes and romantics On a church steeple chase Leave me be, I have nothing to give The hard work I’d begun has all ended Strangers kiss her feet, Stolen jewels adorn her, Come this time of year No one ought to scorn her
6.
They bottled all the spirits To give the madman back his head To make his days less ultraviolet And his dreams less infrared He doesn’t want the doctor To find out that he smokes He’s covered up the bullet-holes With pictures of the pope. I’m nobody’s fool Nobody’s fool I’m not going to be a fool for you Where does all my time go? Where should it go instead? It’s a useless business Trying to bring back the dead. There’s a cobra and a mongoose In the glow of a holy flame If you’d kill all your urges Then I’d go do the same. I’m nobody’s fool Nobody’s fool I’m not going to be a fool for you
7.
Bad Czech 03:19
Batten the hatches and get telepathic The future is vague and I can’t ration Delirium I don’t expect Writes me off like a bad Czech Who will drive my car through the wall When traffic has slowed to a crawl? Give me the fix from a medicine show I lost my bearings a long time ago I’m tired of acrobatics All they’ve done is left me hatless We’re not getting any younger And I have got this awful hunger Landmark the pitch dark, I can’t stand it The moon is a hoax and we’re here stranded Delirium I don’t expect Writes me off like a bad Czech She and I don’t see eye to eye We owe debts on borrowed time Notch a new notch on a tightening belt I know that it’s a hard sell I’m tired of acrobatics All they’ve done is left me hatless We’re not getting any younger And I have got this awful hunger for you Who will drive my car through the wall? When traffic has slowed to a crawl Give me the fix from a medicine show I lost my bearings a long time ago You know it’s just how it goes Just how it goes Who will drive my car through the wall When traffic has slowed to a crawl? Baby, here’s something that I didn't expect Write me off just like a bad Czech
8.
Seven Dials 03:23
There’s no net overhead Go tell it to the Commodore Put it out of mind if your nerves are shot And the clock moves slow When the blitzenkreig broke St. Paul’s stood through the smoke, From the Dizzy Block to the Seven Dials, It won’t last all year 95 midnights Waiting for some news Radio’s out of tune Come raining down My window’s open to to the sound A thousand bombshells pounding down Hear a dog whistle blow It’s loud but nobody knows. We’ll imitate the head of state And don’t say a word Now don’t make strange All I want is your intangibles Cardiac arrest in our Sunday best It won’t be long 95 midnights Throwing around elbows Pretending she is here Come raining down Let the V2s drop all around And light the cigarettes all littered on the ground Come raining down My window’s open to to the sound Of a thousand bombshells bombshells bombshells Pounding down
9.
I was convinced of a crime The irrational thoughts of an unsound mind Joan combed the hairs on my head, fed me Crumbs of bread until I was bled dry The climate here is getting stale This country is going to hell Expedite my passport, put me on the next plane Leave all debts outstanding under a false name Make it quick, knock me out cold Let the autopilot get it under control Mistakes were made by the street patrol Explain it to me when we’re all older The lines are tapped Cross it out in black No more heart attacks I hope she has the finer things A brownstone downtown Fit for some Boston Brahmin Stand tall, stand tall Don’t think of the fall Like the Great Charles Blondin This shape we’re in at 3AM, Drunk on common sense and gin Plead the fifth amendment and forget about last year Long days under a dull grey heatless sun Make it quick, knock me out cold Let the autopilot get it under control Mistakes were made by the street patrol Explain it to me when we’re all older The lines are tapped Cross it out in black No more heart attacks Lift your eyes to meet me Just a glance discreetly Just a glance could make such a fool out of me You know it all could come tumbling down in an instant Things can get a little severe following instincts You know it all could come tumbling down Make it quick, knock me out cold Let the autopilot get it under control Mistakes were made by the street patrol Explain it to me when we’re all older The lines are tapped Cross it out in black No more heart attacks
10.
I’m just a key on your chain a guest who can’t stay I’m a stone’s throw away It’s just a matter of pride For the new young threats Who come veiled like a bride Airtight as a Ponzi scheme Send me up the ladder To some captain of industry Consorting with parties unknown You know that no one wants to be alone All the people that you meet Out there on the hot concrete All getting nostalgic for simpler times If everyone knows, don’t call it a secret Let me in on the gory details Go call a reporter to spin The physics of impossible things O these endless days Lurching forward in runaway parade Patience is wearing thin The tap keeps dripping As a pendulum swings Even if we’re not at war If it’s all just conquest I need a little victory Come on, hold me close again These are the glory days In your cold extremities. All the people that you meet Out there on the hot concrete All getting nostalgic for simpler times If everyone knows, don’t call it a secret Let me in on the gory details Go call a reporter to spin The physics of impossible things Pressure going to break my bones Surrounded by parties unknown
11.
Animal Lover 01:52
Tell me all about yourself I bet you’re an animal lover Strays hang around your door Bloodthirsty vultures hover Even if we had tried She and I would never survive With all of the problems of distance, Old flames, doldrums, strange dreams And her father’s collection of knives Sabres rattled, tempers seethed as we spoke of millionaire thieves If she had stayed I’d have showed her the ocean, Blasphemous notions, And kept her kettle boiling for tea Because I’m all love, love No turtleneck or leather glove It’s not enough, no It's not enough...

about

"...please indulge Reasons to Live as it once again decamps to the Maritimes to wax effusive about another guitar band doing the region’s storied mid-‘90s Sloan/Eric’s Trip/Thrush Hermit indie-rock legacy proper justice ... [Milks and Rectangles' album is] bound to further sow the seeds of future notoriety amongst more underground-attuned CanCon fans. I hear some Soft Boys, some Guided by Voices, some Franz Ferdinand, some Joel Plaskett and a tantalizing whiff of Domestiques-into-Peloton-era Delgados here, none of it quite solidified. Yet it’s a concoction Milks and Rectangles can claim as entirely its own."
Ben Rayner’s Reasons to Live for July 1 — Toronto Star

"The changing tempos and eclectic series of instruments and diverse directions this one takes left me like I'd just had one of those weird flavoured bag of crisps. You know the ones. You can sort of tell what it is, but it doesn't resemble the flavour on the packet but it is good anyway. Got it? Good."
Dave Goodwin — PennyBlackMusic.co.uk

credits

released June 5, 2012

Milks & Rectangles are Christian Ledwell, Justin Uyterlinde, Mike Carver and Brandon Williams. Produced, engineered and mixed by Daniel Ledwell. Engineering at the Echo Chamber by Charles Austin and James O’Toole. Mastered by J. LaPointe at Archive Mastering. Kinley Dowling appears on "Heart's The Target" and "Nobody's Fool." Album artwork by Phil MacIsaac.

Funding for this recording was provided by the Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts.

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Milks & Rectangles Prince Edward Island

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