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Acoustic Microwave Background I

by Plumes

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1.
You never looked over your shoulder dear, and that autumn won't, once more, be found I step back now that I am older dear, and doubts I had start to compound I took inspiration but was so inclined, to color the pane streaming light from behind And the truth smashed my stain glass and though I pine, I see the shade was mine They walk around naked in paradise, deluded in young love's pursuit, The serpent gave blind eve some good advice, these suitors should all eat the fruit, You're vindicated by some broken hearts. Why couldn't they see they were doomed from the start? The apples they haul make a heavy cart- she's not with you, depart Rise from the rubble around you, friend, rebuild on a far away plot Don't chase after that which destroyed you, friend, just salvage the pieces you've got The neighbors won't listen when you try to warn about the temptation that will leave them torn That house was no home, all the faces wore, expressions quite forlorn Say what you want to me, say it Say what you want to me, I'm listening Say what you want to me I'll give you all that you are shouting here, but it doesn't absolve you of what would appear To be taking advantage of one man's fear Another to endear
2.
Interception 01:23
What can I do? You’re looking for an answer But I only have bad news Bad news for you You’re not the first You’re not the greatest candidate Though you’re not quite the worst Bubble to burst You don’t fit the bill It takes some more to fill The list of pros And so it goes Say no I will (Whistling/ do do’s) You don’t fit the bill It takes some more to fill The list of pros And so it goes Say no I will
3.
Your Atlantic crossing Has finally transpired The catalyst welcome Now I’m forced to retire The cold turkey cut off Dispassion endorsed Sees vacancies growing Where obsession was sourced My fast came a diet Made healthier still To keep you excluded A habit from will Now knowing you’re elsewhere But you’re not there to stay Brings anticipation Of a chance meeting day If first I see you Through a window one way The burden befalls me Think of something to say Will I greet your indifference? Or be smite with a smile, And return to the puzzle, Of reading your dial? That impossible project Has an inviting style But no arbiter’s input And no right to fair trial The truth of your feelings Not amenable to A psychic subpoena If they’re not known to you So if yours is the first hand To reach cross the aisle Surprised I will see it Playing dumb all the while I don’t want the story Of how I turned round Or how I then relapsed Or what wasn’t found But a retreat from meeting Is a neon display Of how many feelings Exist to betray So let that decision Select you for hire Your stakes are much lower And mine could catch fire If by a small chance The face of your die For trying it over Lands facing the sky I hope that I jump ship And ‘scape siren song Not collude with my captor Hoping we’ll get along So how ‘bout you fuck off Cause I’ve got no trust That you’d be forthcoming That I'll guard my lust So I’ll keep my head down Surveying the tiles To postpone the chew out Only just for a while
4.
Crisis at 16 02:33
Sorry I took all the keys, I couldn’t pick a set Night drives help a mind of chronic musings to forget I hope that me missing doesn’t leave you too upset If you haven’t found me now then you just haven’t found me yet Maybe I’ll decide to wait just off route 99 Once you’ve crossed above 146 look to the side Maybe they’ll be others there with me once you arrive If they aren’t there already I’m sure they’ll come by sometime Maybe I’ll drive to the beach and walk to leave you tracks Leading toward the stars that gaze upon that rippling black Their death freed the atoms used to host this thought attack And if these atoms don’t return tomorrow they’ve been given back If I’m not home by the morning then I won’t be coming back If I’m not home by the morning then I won’t be coming back If I’m not home by the morning then I won’t be coming back If I’m not home by the morning then I won’t be coming back
5.
The seventeenth time that I tried for a try saw the tenth cry of “finally through” October 7th allowed the 11th, lost crops from doubt’s drought regrew I knew fertile land was hid under the sand So I always make time for you Collateral plight of an internal fight, I stepped in your ring off cue Still as my hopes fell back onto the ropes I took every punch you threw When push comes to shove if you untie your gloves I’ll always have time for you But midnight conversation And escalator eyes Again they meet on Mary’s Street And I wonder if I’ll ask again how do we say goodbye I wonder if I’ll ask again how do we say goodbye Cause that’s when you kissed me, and the artifice fell I almost announced it, but I thought you could tell I thought it was progress, an unspoken kind It seemed your translation of similar mind But failures in voicing, left only four songs About your disinterest, you’d tell me were wrong I wondered if I’d ask again how do we say goodbye I wondered if I’d ask again how do we say goodbye I wondered if I’d ask again how do we say goodbye I wondered if I’d ask again how do we say goodbye And springtime revelations Made space for the debut An open stance on our advance I always had time for you I always had time for you The plans of our lives like two sides of a zipper the teeth fastened now are few With each conversation yet more confirmation the hunch that I had was true We’re on the cusp now to zip the rest up And I’ll always have time for you I’ll always have time for you I’ll always have time, I’ll always have time I’ll always have time for you
6.
Little Roach 01:45
Little roach how did you know I would be there? At this hour of leaving I should know I must beware Little roach how strange to find you on your back You don’t bite or snarl yet you induce heart attack But your struggle helps my approach Little roach Not a friend with hand to lend because of poor aesthetic luck You’re gross as fuck But when nukes make you earth’s dukes you’ll not eat puke but Twinkie treats Humans bequeath Little roach, I wish you well, your future’s strong Unless you climb four stories; my food ain’t where you belong I won’t hesitate to spray your ass with raid
7.
We’d move out of the city To countryside drives Of trees aglow The beautiful dead Of orange and red And goldening yellow And we’ll eat of the apple tree However many Perhaps by then have grown And share with the deer Who visit each year Despite all the growls You can spend time adoring The new hardwood flooring And shelves of books and cats Oh, wherever is Your Mrs. Norris? The purring and poring Open eyes in the morning Sun comes as you’re snoring Across us from the east And later the west The windows are best At my teenage mooring But I’ve mapped these grounds already Helped enact their last 20 years Home finds my footing so steady I’d never wade through a broadening sphere
8.
The Music 05:03
Would I be enough without the music? What would we have been without the songs? Was it necessary or sufficient, For to last as two so long? You called my bluff, took open invitation Exegesis on my diary Shrouded prayers turned into conversation But for songs your inquiry But I can’t claim the credit for the channels to my hands Stemming from the ether ‘yond a storm I can’t command Exercising personhood sorites Casts essential every part of us Did Apollo scheme with Aphrodite? Could blind fortune make it thus? What if not a strong attraction midst the rest unchanged? What if then yet key encounters weren’t so arranged? But as we find us now I’m the music You found me there in the songs Never mind necessary or sufficient It was guiding us all along

about

We write songs on acoustic guitars in a bedroom. (As it happens, we write songs on the pictured acoustic guitars in the pictured bedroom.)
Very often, the process of writing on a lonely instrument is the process of discovering the most basic, essential, or distilled center of a song, so that it can be later fully realized with a full band's electric multi-instrumentation and percussion. Very often, the first part played requires waiting for companions to layer over it, or to group around it. Also, very often, the song is groomed to standards of length, or catchiness over the course of some editing process.
Sometimes, though, songs that emerge through an acoustic guitar in a bedroom seem fully realized as they are. They might be best as simple acoustic songs, kind of short, and perhaps without a chorus. This is an album of those songs.
Songs that are better left acoustic appear intermittently, so this track listing has slowly accrued from the summer of 2014 until now. Once another 8 tracks have shown up, expect the Acoustic Microwave Background 2.
Oh, also the name of the album series is a play on "The Cosmic Microwave Background," which describes the leftover microwaves spread across the entire universe. These ubiquitous leftovers are the stretched remains of the orange light that was the whole universe right before it cooled enough for atoms to form. Those atoms gave rise to all the complexity that allowed conscious humans to listen to stylized noises published online. In a similar sense, these songs represent the fundamental stage that all songs grow through to greater complexity.
Anyhow, we hope you enjoy them!

credits

released February 17, 2018

All lyrics, music, engineering and mixing by Plumes
Artwork by Sophia Richardson

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Plumes Boston, Massachusetts

Plumes is Ben Long (on the drums!) Tim Green and John Thorsen. Music- listening to it, learning to play it, writing more of it- has been one of few things we've taken really seriously for the last 7 years. These songs grew through many late nights and missed appointments. Our songs are all really about something. It's sincere and sometimes naked. Hope you like it ... more

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