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Cage of Canaries

from Attic & Cellar by aeroplane, 1929

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lyrics

Cage of Canaries

A century in a desert.
The heat had burned up the days.
Groping ’round in a warren, my wounded knees.
Then parting curtains of tall grass—
cicadas buzzing harsh and electric—
to a raw dawn metropolis, desolate and strange.

And I’m wandering, maundering, pondering my place.

Exhausted folks in a ravaged landscape,
death-obsessed and hemmed in by desire,
a gnawing spirit, content with illusions—
the drowsy masses, the disenfranchised.
I saw the language had fled them, but I was nothing alone
so I kept my collar up and my black brute heart cold.

And I’m muttering, stuttering, fluttering clipped wings.

The city fathers assembled. I met its daughter outside,
a self among the anonymous with chestnut eyes.
I’d bundled my blues in a
handkerchief on a broken broom.
She’d locked hers away in some
dresserdrawer in a yellowed newsprint
tomb and stayed mute as a ruin.

But now they’re profiting, gerrymandering,
slandering to keep me away.

I walked alone by the factories.
Warm concrete wash underfoot.
A barren road had diverged
and I’d tried to stay to the fork.
But compromise has worn out its welcome;
I’ve no solongs in my mouth. Still,
if what I know doesn’t kill me,
what I don’t surely will.

And so I’ll hesitate, vacillate, and falter,
unfledged, under all that dead weight.

The ghosts all rattle their chains on the sidestreets,
and what I need is a miner’s lamp, a cage of canaries.
See, I got turned around—lost the trail of crumbs
I left for myself on the journey out.

_________________________________________

Credit

Frederick Chu – cello
Frédérique Gnaman – violin
Jacob Eli Goldman – laptop, piano, reverse
Rob Hallberg – clarinet
Alex Mazzaferro – voice, acoustic guitar, typewriter, floor tom, electric guitar
Wil Mulhern – floor tom
Sinai Tabak – flute

credits

from Attic & Cellar, released July 1, 2010

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aeroplane, 1929 Springfield, Massachusetts

aeroplane, 1929 was a band from New England. Between 2005 & 2010, they released two albums & two EP's on Topshelf Records. The band consisted of Alex Mazzaferro (vocals/guitar/keys/lyrics), Jacob Goldman (bass/keys/recording/arrangements), Noah Goldman (guitar/pedal steel/keys), & Wil Mulhern (drums), plus friends like Julian Veronesi, Chad Jewett, Dave Van Witt, Alex Syner, & Peter Federman. ... more

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