Get all 6 Avi Vinocur releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Bootleg: Live in San Francisco; April 7, 2022, Casino Time Loop Nightmare No. 366 (Single), Hindsight, Santa Cruz (Single), NO CAUSE FOR ALARM, and Portraits With No Color.
1. |
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Nothing here is like the way
that I’m rememberin
I swore there was a diner down
on 4th and Hennepin
We’d smash our bottles in the street
And curse at Frank Viola
Cause when the Twins lose 102
You spike the coca cola
But that was back then
I remember it well
But maybe I’m wrong
Summer’s longer when you’re young
Whatever drugs you’re on
I think in June we overdosed
And saw The Wrath of Khan
I swore to god the girl in front
was Olivia Newton John
We tried to find her manager
and I woke up in the lawn
But that was back then
I remember it well
But maybe I’m wrong
Oh there was something in the air in Minnesota
Way back then
Oh but I don’t think that where I’m now it meets the quota
Like Minnesota
Nothing here is like it was
30 years ago
But what did I expect that I
Didn’t already know
We lost some friends in the Persian Gulf
But gained some Northern Stars
It could be that it’s colder now
Or they’re tending different bars
Yeah that was back then
And now we’re out here
Wondering if
The cloudiness cleared
Yeah that was back then
I remember it well
But maybe I’m wrong
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2. |
Shit Hotel
03:16
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May the 25th
Round 5:05
Heard a knock on the next door down the hall
and I wonder why
Left $20 bucks
for the cleaning maid
I don’t care what he does
just as long as he gets paid
Fighting in the walls
Like they might break through
Got a weekly rate on this shit hotel
Just to get to you
Since you up and left
I quit drinkin’ again
I know I didn’t make enough time
for you back then
You untied the bird
You said that you would free it
I don’t care what it is just as
long as I can see it
I don’t care what it is just as
long as I can see it
I seen you driving round
In the same old truck
Does it still break down on sundays
or did you change your luck
I bet you met a man
who ain’t absentee
I don’t care who you love just as long
as it is me
I don’t care who you love just as long
as it is me
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3. |
Go North
03:37
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Westward rings the far off bells Of Dawson City, Yukon
The crippled mountains have gone dry but the miners carry on
They're digging and they're panning and they're holding out a hope
As the wind it bites like wolves upon an antelope
..I'll be one of them, riding a truck northward in the snow
......Three days up through Canada I'll go
..... Find work on the crabbing ship
a friend of mine did several years ago
A leathered man he told me:
"When you’re backed into a corner, go north"
Anchorage is not that far, but Fairbanks is a distant star
There was a girl I knew up there, But she went to Alberta
And I cried, lord I cried
But her stories put desire in me to live beneath auroras
To disappear beyond the map where no one could record us
Where 6 months of the year the sun is barely moving toward us
Windowless and clockless hundred miles into the forest
..And I'd be one of them, riding a truck northward in the snow
.... Three days up through Canada I'd go
.... Find work logging birch trees
with the relative that I don't even know
I read it on a railway wall:
"When everything is broken, go north"
..I am one of them, riding a truck up northward in the frost
.... Three days up through Canada so lost
.... Aging with the condors
and breathing in the burning wood exhaust
The last thing that she said:
"If an answer won’t present itself, go north"
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4. |
If It's Tangled
03:46
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I’d mute the sound of the siren
That scares you
I’d cut the gordian knot
That impairs you
I’d gather stones from the wall
Till it isn’t in the way
I'd keep a nightlight standing by
When it’s haunted
I’d change the color of the sky
If you wanted
I’d fix the highway with my hands
So it’s softer on your wheels
And I don’t
Have a plan
Sometimes I'm
Not sure I can
But if you need it
I will find it
and if it’s tangled
I’ll unwind it
Yeah I’ll dissipate the clouds
In your window
I’ll leave the sound of the rain
On your roof though
I’ll figure out what’s going wrong
And have answers for you
And I don’t
Have a plan
Sometimes I'm
Not sure I can
But if you need it
I will find it
And if it’s tangled
I’ll unwind it
I'd keep a nightlight standing by
When it’s haunted
I’d change the color of the sky
If you wanted
And when you need it, I will find it
If it’s tangled, I’ll unwind it
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5. |
Leap Year
02:55
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We both had twenty nine days to come to an armistice or issue a threat
We both had twenty nine days to figure out something that we didn’t quite get
They gave you more than one chance to have driven for a living
and we’d easily have parted
At low-end density there’s the propensity
To boomerang back to the place where this started
Sometimes you gotta take it all with a grain of assault and tighten your armor
Sometimes you gotta fight back with a poisonous snake and a virulent charmer
I gave you 29 days to pick up a pistol
and take me out back
You can sometimes take all the medicine, and even if you’re reticent
Choke on the Ipecac
I gave you twenty nine days to rip off the tourniquet and see if it bleeds
I gave you twenty nine days to check on the houseplant and see what it needs
Here we are on a hill above town, wondering which side we should run down
One’s blue and one side’s brown,
one side run, and one side drown
Jump
Jump
Jump
Jump
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6. |
Still Hung Up On A Flaw
03:31
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There’s a colonial house
Right before Acadia ends
I knew that you were gonna buy it someday
but we never talked about it again
I am a painter of canvasses
so money isn’t easy to draw
You always said that I should show what I do
But I’m still hung up on a flaw
And what good can come from the lights on
Yeah what good can come from the lights on
Maybe I’m lonelier
Lonelier
So I’m painting in the dark and guessing what colors are lonelier
Lonelier
Everything is grey and shaded
in a way that suits me
I tried to sketch the house
That takes your eyes off of the road
I tried to capture the state it’s in
With chipped paint and staircases bowed
I have no courage to show you
I know what you’ll probably say
But I swear that there’s room for improvement
Before I go file it away
Maybe I’m lonelier
Lonelier
so I’m painting in the dark and guessing what colors are lonelier
Lonelier
Everything is grey and shaded
in a way that suits me
It’s been a month since the car crash
I still haven’t figured out words
In the place of the sound of your voice
Is the whisper of Acadian birds
I finished painting the house last night
But not the way it’s standing today
I cleaned it up and I fixed all the stairs
And I drew you in the entryway
Maybe I’m lonelier
Lonelier
So I’m painting in the dark and guessing what colors are lonelier
Lonelier
Everything is blue and I shaded
it like you would have wanted
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7. |
Escape
04:19
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8. |
Firestorm
02:30
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Wyoming border line
Around 6am
All the rearview ones
He never cared for them
Smoke it drifted a-
cross the open prairie
We assumed it was
only temporary
In the world he lived
It barely ever rained
he was a firestorm
that’s finally been contained
He drew the jack of spades
on his final turn
He didn’t know it then
It was an uncontrolled burn
There were always cards
He never loved the same
It was game over girl
And highway over game
In the world he lived
It barely ever rained
he was a firestorm
that’s finally been contained
In the world he lived
It barely ever rained
he was a firestorm
that’s finally been contained
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9. |
One More Morning
00:40
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One More Morning
One More Morning
One More Morning
One More Morning
One More Morning
One More Morning
One More Morning
One More Mourning
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10. |
Tell John Prine Hello
02:29
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I’ve kept my cards close
to my chest
I’ve dealt with heartaches
that I never have expressed
I never saved enough
to invest
But if nothing else I
gave it my best
Yea I’m barely gonna make it by the skin off my ears
and I can see that it is all downhill from here
And when I finally get there, on the wings of a crow
I promise you I’m gonna tell John Prine hello
I had a good run for a
Mixed up man
Nothing ever went
according to plan
A lotta rain fell when I
was weaker-than
I tried to smile for you the
best I can
Yea I’m barely gonna make it by the skin off my ears
and I can see that it’s all downhill from here
And when I finally get there, on the wings of a crow
I promise you I’m gonna tell John Prine hello
Winter comes and winter goes
There is always an ending to the snows
I don’t know how, and I don’t know when
I just want to see the grass growing green again
I can’t get it off my mind
I can’t get it off my mind
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11. |
McKinley Hill
03:41
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At one point there were evergreens
In this part of the state
But I always knew it as some kind of a miserable wasteland
In the 50s on McKinley Hill
Mr. Senator you made room
For 17 houses, a reservoir, and a sulphur mine
It’s an old familiar story
That you keep behind a door
But someday someone’s gonna wanna
Even up the score
But the rug you swept it under
Wasn’t even yours to begin with
First came the strugglin’
Then came the pills
Both of them were brought here
Against the people’s wills
They’re addicted to the hard stuff
A product of your theft
You’d drink a 5th of something
If it’s cleaner than the water that is left
At one point there were eagles here
Dancing in the trees
But the pit of the mine it drowned them in a poison lakebed
Mr. Senator I beg of you
Bear witness to this place
The decaying earth, and the decaying town beside it
It’s an old familiar story
That you’ve likely heard revised
But you don’t know the agony
Till you see it with your eyes
In Washington you billed them
But the people out here can’t pay it now
First came the strugglin’
Then came the pills
Both of them were brought here
Against the people’s wills
They’re addicted to the hard stuff
Still paying for your theft
You’d drink a 5th of something
If it’s cleaner than the water that is left
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Avi Vinocur San Francisco, California
Member of the band Goodnight, Texas
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