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All Your Days - LP

by James O'Brien

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Nathan Pyritz
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aj42
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faboo
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Matthew Girard
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Matt Smith
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Life Underwater Music
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Dave Howland
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1.
Empathy Bomb 02:18
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You’re just a sinister sounding equation You need an empathy bomb You’re a second-stack anyway has-been You need an empathy bomb Hey la la la hey Hey la la la hey Hey la la la hey Give me an empathy bomb Give me an empathy bomb Give me an empathy bomb I need it You’d be better with an empathy bomb, man You’d be swinging by now You’d be lucky if they crumpled your crown, man And you would know by now Hey la la la hey Hey la la la hey Hey la la la hey Give me an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb Give me some empathy You’d be empty if it didn’t come free, man You’d be out of the race You’d be smashed in a negative way, man We’d see your true, true face Hey la la la hey Hey la la la hey Hey la la la hey Give me an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb I need an empathy bomb
2.
Did You Ever Break Down? 02:25
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Did you ever break down In the energized wash With your shoulders white ashes With the heat of the cross On a river rip raging Across a bridge of black thorn In a medium wavelength Did your fingertips burn Were you raising that black soot In a circle of night Did an angel approach you With silver daggers of light Was it a ripple of thunder Was it machine-gun fire Did the red foaming blood race Through the trenches of liars Heaven isn't a place now Heaven isn't a thought Absent lords to be served, you Throw a kingdom of darts Did you ever break down In the energized wash With your shoulders white ashes With the heat of the cross Did you ever break down
3.
All Your Days 03:54
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In a six-foot hickory locker In the basement of your school The ghost of your first prom date Saves a dance for you In the back yard, in the laundry Spectral in the breeze All the girls you never kissed Line the grass upon their knees Away, away You hope a new day has begun Today, today’s All your days, plus one In a tiny fold of gray flesh In the rear left of your skull The sweetest salt you tasted The sandy touch you knew so well In the streetlights soft as Christmas In the back seat of your car Your fingertips like candles Your heart wet, red, and raw I know you tried to catch him He slipped out like a balloon And you smiled at the party While he drifted past the moon Away, away You hope a new day has begun But today, today’s All your days, plus one Now they say it’s California Palo Alto, Santa Cruz And that you called me guilty You won’t acquit I am accused If I acted out the dumb prince Afraid to make the call Well, you chose to swallow water And smeared your blood across my wall Away, away You hope a new day has begun But today, today’s All your days, plus one Away, away You hope a new day has begun But today, today’s All your days, plus one Away, away Away, away Away, away Away, away Away, away Away Away, away Away, away Away, away Away, away Away, away Away, away Away
4.
Columbus 03:42
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I pledge allegiance to the unhappiest boy in the world He finds me every morning with his coffee press and heart-attack complaints He says the internet has dragged his love-life back into the ocean The primordial ooze It's way out, Jack I pledge allegiance to the unhappiest girl in the world She finds me in the pub I thought was mine, I thought my own She resurrects unpleasantness, she drags it out like Christ Must have dragged poor dead, dry Lazarus from his cave into the light I try to say, "Is it like that, with this? Are you trying to impress disciples?" Instead, I say stuff like, "How's your Dad?" It's an endless cycle Every day Every day Every day Now, Christopher Columbus never set foot in America Though every teacher told me that he did I try to kill the sadness in the word America I keep unhappiness inside of me well hid I keep unhappiness inside of me well hid I pledge allegiance to the unhappiest dream in the world It finds me every evening, when I sleep this dream unfurls And in it, I look like Sal Mineo, with black Italian curly hair I'm auditioning for ‘West Side Story’, don't know what I'm doing there But you, you're there beside me, and you're looking for a pointer And I say, "Mumble every line and if you're not cast, don't be disappointed. It's a hard town, and everybody needs a good waiter in America, every day Every day” Now, Christopher Columbus never set foot in America Though every teacher told me that he did I try to kill the sadness in the word America I keep unhappiness inside of me well hid I keep unhappiness inside of me well hid
5.
Factotum 01:42
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We were way out there, really going, and we were way into some trouble You were where? Outside the boundaries, inside his head … like a nest or a hive or a hand grenade Did you ever ask him? Who do you think this is? Who do you think is the person I’m talking about? Nobody ever took him home Nobody ever took him home Nobody ever took him anywhere It was a kind of transmission
6.
Rainbug 01:51
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Rainbug Rainbug Rainbug Rainbug
7.
Wanted To Ache 03:34
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You wanted to ache, so you could join some stupid club Harder to start out, maybe better to just join with something else All your opposites, so young and always fresh Leap to take you down and crush the bird’s nest in your chest Now you can hold your bitter candle to the face you thought you owned But it won’t work to blame bad fortune, your heart’s closet packed with bones We all saw you at the stage-house, making light of what you’ve learned And in the final seconds, baby, someone points and your hands burn Now, as a refugee you wore red, tracing lines along that coast All the postcards of your conquests stamped up, blacked-out, sent to ghosts Two departures, two reunions, that one time you bit the lip To gauge the real reaction, would he bleed or give the slip It was a minor irritation, you realized you’d lost It was a fleeting glimpse of freedom, never counting up the cost Well, there’s a weather front out west now, jackyl firemen fan the flames I saw you running from the snowstorm, crying save me what’s your name
8.
How To Make Friends 01:50
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I’ve been thinking, people, about how to make friends How to get it started, knowing how it all ends Not a friendly sort of person, still, I think you ought to know It helps to have a friendly little place you can go Now, in the way of making friendships, here’s a couple of rules For friendly situations, for keeping things cool To start, if friends are sweet, man, stick with sugar and spice But if your friends are dirty people, I’ve got different advice If your friends are heavy drinkers, you can go and get plowed If they’re quiet, friendly thinkers, don’t go out and get loud If they’re claustrophobic people, stay away from big jams If your friends are open vistas, go as wide as you can Now, if they’re chatty, chatty people, call them up on your phone If your friends have lost their friends, be their friend and give them homes If your friends are lonely people, don’t you leave your friends alone If your friends are lonely people, don’t you leave your friends alone
9.
I'll Go Blind 03:33
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Were we broken, weeping, wailing, spinning Open-mouthed to swallow all that killing For a dollar more, a dream, a fantasy I think we were You bet we were I go blind I go free By design and desire There’s nothing left to see Anymore Hold the handle of a knife You’re taking or you’re giving Would we ever slip this so-called living All the property, the salaries, the stuff I don’t think we would No man, we never would I go blind I go free By design and desire There’s nothing left to see Anymore Anymore This life can’t go on forever, can it Clinging to the broken, choking planet Is there a drink to drown us while we’re sinking There doesn’t seem to be I never found one, though I tried I go blind I go free By design and desire There’s nothing left to see Anymore Anymore Anymore Anymore Anymore
10.
After the Glitter Fades 04:04
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Well, I never thought I’d make it here But you knew I would And I never thought I’d ever get to stay Everything I touch seems to change to something else And everything I want strains to slip away Now, for me this is only life I’ve ever known And love is just a lucky break away Even though the living’s sometimes laced with lies It’s all right A feeling remains Even after the glitter fades Now, the loneliness of this long last stand is hard to take We’re all chasing something And maybe it’s a dream Or it’s a timeless place Or it’s rock and roll Or did your heart break Well, the dream keeps coming And you don’t want to feel Now, for me this is only life I’ve ever known And love is just a lucky break away And even though the living’s sometimes laced with lies It’s all right A feeling remains Even after the glitter fades Now, for me this is only life I’ve ever known And love is just a lucky break away Even though the living’s sometimes laced with lies Don’t think twice A feeling remains Even after the glitter fades Even after the glitter fades Even after the glitter fades Even after the glitter fades Even after the glitter fades Even after the glitter fades
11.
Kyoto 01:07
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12.
Last Real Poet 04:20
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The last real poet walked into a bar called America Where I sat most mornings drawing maps on napkins Where the gray light punched through windows yellow from decades of Marlboros Ate up your nerves like a two-toothed kid hungry for candy The poet approached the bartender and said “OK, bartender, give me what you got, if you’ve got any” The barman let it bleed Four long shots of courage and cool and good luck and chutzpah The poet swallowed this poison and wheezed while I watched from my napkins While in the halls over our heads, someone crashed into something and broke something fragile Up there, junkies and musicians executed slow dives into obscurity in front of courtesy mirrors in low-price rooms to rent “I could smell this place for a mile,” spoke the poet. “I could feel it like a planter’s corn, a small white hot spot on the tar, every time I took a step” The bartender topped him off with courage and put the other bottles away I collected my napkins and waited The poet drank “This is where art comes to die,” he said. “This is the final lounge in the final hotel of all of our lives. Whatever you’re serving, mister, make it a double, and one for my friend in topography” “Are you dying?” I asked the poet, from my corner of the room “I’m in exile,” he replied. “And my country is the namesake of this saloon I’ve come here to remember” “I remember my mother. I remember my brother a child with blue cheeks and limp wrists, never crying. I remember my ghost-white sedan, churning up the earth in another man’s hands, a beautiful man, a messiah, a Charlton Heston madman freedom fiction lover from Texas, forever” The poet sang out this way for half an hour, rattling jazz at us, the only two listeners in the bar The courage kept flowing I’d had five, maybe six, before he was done The bartender winked at me He’d kept me on the poet’s tab When he’d finished, words hung in the afternoon air like vapor from a gun It smelled like oranges The poet stood and I felt like I saw him for the first time … gaunt, roped with exercise, his eyes a flat grey like the seashore just before it rains He plunked his money down and a tip He tossed a paper envelope next to all of it His fingers whisked my table on his way out the door The bartender salted the change from the dollar bills and left the envelope where it lay He blinked at me through the gloom In my bravery I opened the envelope and into my hand fell a thin bronze disc It was blank on one side On the other was a word, like the stamped words on a pill, a medallion, a medal, or a coin A-N-T-H-R-A-X Somewhere upstairs, somebody sneezed
13.
Gone (ftg Karaugh Brown) 04:05
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How is your new home Way up in the hills I visited last July But you were gone You were gone away How is out there on the road Those dirty old motels I hear you loved Georgia So much you stayed So much you stayed So much you stayed I hear your voice when I’m awake It’s too close to understand What was it you used to say But it’s gone again And it’s gone again And it’s gone again These trees, they gather round These rivers stop and pray All good men They die today Will die today Will die today I hear your voice when I’m awake And it’s too close to understand What was it you used to say But it’s gone again And it’s gone again And it’s gone again But it’s gone again And it’s gone again And it’s gone again But it’s gone again And it’s gone again And it’s gone again
14.
Monster Storm 04:07
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I am the monster storm I am the calving ice I am the whale-meat boat I am the silent hive I am the two-inch hail I am the starving bear There is no turning back You’re lashed to my wheel down here I am I am I am the pine-fed fire I am the ten-foot wave I am the bell of confusion I am the human cage I am the frack in the fault line I am the widening crack You’re lashed to my wheel now There is no turning back I am I am I am I am
15.
Such A Dream 04:36
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Just before the fly becomes the catch Just before two hands jumpstart the chest Just a booted foot upon the neck Just around the bend and up a stretch Such a dream Such a dream I don’t know what it means Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream Just before our fingers touch the rope Just as rows of ink-black printers choke Just as rain-sauced color runs from cloaks Just under the chin where they wrote hope Such a dream Such a dream I don’t know what it means Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream Just when we was sure it was our heart Just as all the wires ripped apart Just before our wild red blood runs home Just around the bend I thought we’d roam Such a dream Such a dream I don’t know what it means Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream I don’t know what it means Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream I don’t know what it means Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream I don’t know what it means Such a dream Such a dream Such a dream

credits

released January 11, 2022

Guitars, vocals, keyboards, rhythm sequencing: James O'Brien
Bass: Matthew Girard
Drums/rhythm programming: Richard Adkins
Background vocals: Karaugh Brown

Produced by James O'Brien
Mixing and mastering and additional production by Matthew Girard

All songs by James O'Brien, except "After the Glitter Fades" (lyrics: Stevie Nicks) and "Gone" (lyrics: Karaugh Brown)

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James O'Brien New York, New York

James O’Brien toured the U.S. and the U.K. from 1998–2004 playing politically aware songs, sometimes solo and sometimes with a band, sharing billings with artists such as Hamell on Trial, Dan Bern, Michael McDermott, John Sinclair, Bill Miller and Freedy Johnson.

In 2017, after a 13-year hiatus, he began to release archival and new material, expanding his catalog to fourteen albums as of 2022. ... more

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