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Tip of the Sphere

by Cass McCombs

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Josh Loney
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Josh Loney Finally a song where Cass really belts!

This is a great album, that rivals his last one. It starts out strong with three heavy hitters, and mellows out (as most Cass McCombs albums do) for an occasionally underwhelming second half.

But there are enough gems throughout (i.e. Sidewalk Bop After Suicide) to justify any weary moments. Favorite track: I Followed The River South To What.
ivanerik
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ivanerik The most recent Cass McCombs offering... but it's the first of his albums that I've heard tbh. After listening to it pretty much on repeat this week, I confirm it's a real grower, and if this is anything to go by I can see myself exploring his whole back catalogue. Really interesting sound. "Sidewalk Bop..." is like a slowed down twang version of early Roxy Music. Great :-) Favorite track: Sidewalk Bop After Suicide.
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1.
What do you call yourself, if anything? I do not care to call myself much of anything If I had your dollar, I'll show you what I mean You live out on the street, in the open air? Yes I live out in the street, nature is everywhere If I had your dollar, I'll take you anywhere If I really did, what would you go and buy? None of your business, but later I'd be high If I had your dollar, you wouldn't wonder why If you're so hard up, why not try to steal? Right now I'm sunbathing, perhaps later on I will If I had your dollar, I'll show you how to feel Are you ashamed to beg, your youth in full power? Power corrupts! I'm building a cinnamon tower If I had your dollar, I'll finish in the hour What would your mama say, seeing you this way? My mama is a rose, my papa is today If I had your dollar, I'll sing your blues away Where next will you go, when the winter comes? Out to the open highway, but why not ask my thumbs? If I had your dollar, I'll beat it like a drum Does the devil ever come a-knocking on your sleeping bag? If he ever does, I'll offer him a drag If I had your dollar, you'll make my doggy wag What do you call yourself, if anything? I do not care to call myself much of anything If I had your dollar, I'll show you what I mean
2.
To your hands I give you Aboard from Hawaii The ship they call Northern Light A fugitive One of three highwayen Who stopped the Pixley train that night About 8pm 22 February We forced 7000 in gold Two were killed in the melee A fireman of the train And a passenger from Modesto The leader was an Insurance agent, this I know The third man set for Remote islands near the equator When he found the ship Would not put in there There’s reason to believe he set her on fire When our bomb exploded Buckshot unloaded We three made off in dire To the Right Honorable American Council To the Hawaiian King I swear before Notary To make a clean breast Of the whole thing In hope of salvation For surely I’ll be found before port Before Postal authorities can act I surrender myself unto the reward Since I was taken From the Napa asylum And put on a whaler for my own good I told the Captain Not to let me ashore Except under guard If no faith is placed In this letter You are letting a brigand free The passenger coaches Were not molested Violence I can’t see
3.
Estrella 04:36
I built a ribbon out of moss, plain blue moss and presented it to you on your birthday you laughed like the wind was nothing your laughter still rattles me every day, hour, always Estrella That was a past life, and that’s life I’ve been reincarnated into this… thing. that resembles nothing of the former man but your breast stood up to celestial law and the ribbon of distance between us was cut Estrella I was roused and aroused only you can rouse me in that way like music, language was blown out like pulling down the sea like plunging into the stars Estrella If I am delirious it is because you are harboring my tongue my faithless tongue Estrella Estrella esta noche va bien para compartir Estrella etsa noche va bien Tonight a star goes well to share
4.
Absentee 02:48
Take from my heart a splinter Carrying wood, for the coming winter Spider in the pile There all the while Leave me beguiled Part from me Absentee Take from the people their dead river Take from the body its shiver I have something for you I’ll give you a clue It’s shaped like a shoe Part of me Absentee As before, I am nude As before, you are too Aint it true Walking on a country road late last night I passed a stranger in the moonlight I turned around to see Where he did flee But there was just me Return the deed Absentee Part of me Absentee
5.
Real Life 05:15
Were A your telephone What would I hear? And what good are words If they never reach your ear? Were A your nuclear bomb What would I dream? And would A care at all Would I squint into the gleam? Pleased to meet you The world is at your command Real Life Were A oxygen How would I breathe? And if A lost it all on red Tell me, how would I grieve? What can A say is real, Numbers or words? And were A the wind, Is I for the birds? A is nowhere I, a puzzle, a game Real Life
6.
Sleeping volcanoes Under our heathen shambala Ready to blow molten shale Any minute Help me Armageddon! Help me to be calm Help me Armageddon! And I’ll help you with your song We’re the refugees Drifting your trees Our the shadow never sleeps All over the world All over the world Little boys and girls Don’t forget the old ones too Someday that might be you We’re all over the world Thank you to the authentic fake Our true enigmatic uncle Welcome to coo coo land! Home of the fake Help us Armageddon! And we’ll help you every day Help us Armageddon! And we’ll help you in every way In Babylon Though you wake up and find us gone Our beat goes on and on We’re all over the world We’re all over the world Don’t forget the elders Someday there might be helter-skelter All over the world Until the next world The third world Or the next world war Class war all over the world We’re all over the world We’re all over the world We’re over it!
7.
I walked these sidewalks Through so many years I got chunks of sidewalk Coming out of my ears Same old sidewalk Same old crowd Same old distorted feeling Same old thunder cloud One in a million A million in one All stomping the sidewalk Polka-dotted with gum Magical feeling Cool breeze through my hair I walked to the park There aint nobody there Magical baby Magical song Magical sunset All summer long Streets been my silence Streets been my bed I’ve bled, puked and cried here And dreamt I was dead Seen a ton of bad omens Walked through you fighting with your lover Stepped over a few purple bodies And dreamt I was another The street lamps came on Fireflies all around Dreaming of my baby Somewhere in this town Stood out front a bar Watched the people inside Stepped on my cigarette And into the night
8.
I want to live in a magic mirror In the real world Full of rain I will I want to live in a day like today But not today I will When the city is silent And we wake up to the rain Alone together in a strange bed When nothing is preserved And nothing is agreed upon And everything is silent And wind rushes through paper I will Listen, through a magic mirror In the real world Another day, that’s just like today Full of rain, just like this rain That is silent, just like this I will
9.
Pile of cash- Trash Pinched into a butterfly by a rubber band Where are you my brothers that I may share these spoils? Where are you my sisters that I may repay my debt? What a lot it is to spend this trash alone What a lot it is, what a lot it is… The garbage dump may have turned Into a recycling center But it looks exactly the same The same broken bed frames, Soggy cardboard, gulls Same trash I saw here when I was a kid In fact, this used to be our playground In American Canyon Where Walmart employees and customers Are one and the same They’ve even built apartments here To add a residential coffin to the bargain Guess I’ll stay forever and work for the company store Where are you? Where are you? Where are you to share these spoils, this sacred American trash? Black as my soul is, don’t leave me here alone Here to fall into the bottomless canyon of nightmares Falling, falling, falling… In American Canyon Where trucks and homes are bigger The cops are moistly white And they have a recycling center And a Walmart
10.
Tying up loose ends Before I gotta go I found a box of old family photographs Who are all these people? I think this one’s Aunt Dorothy Is that her husband? What was his name? He was gone before my time I think they lived back in Ohio somewhere Is there anyone still left who can tell me Who all these people are? Tying up loose ends Before I gotta go
11.
Rounder 10:09
Were a radia gunslung Were a murdream boysroom On a slight of jadeself Are you tied of drying, rounder? Dimed a thousand cycles Come around to meet we Holding each folding How are you keeling, rounder? Were a rounder too Plant a seed to vulture Damned to returning Who married the widow Were a round man turning, rounder? Hostess of November Were the horses clodding On slick embers going Past the gamblers odding, rounder Were a rounder too
12.
13.
14.

credits

released February 8, 2019

Produced by Cass McCombs & Dan Horne
Engineered by Sam Griffin Owens
Mixed by Dan Horne
Mastered by Heba Kadry
Vinyl cut by Carl Rowatti
Recorded at Figure 8 Studios, Brooklyn NY
Additional engineering on The Great Pixley Train Robbery by Jason Quever
All songs Cass McCombs (BMI)

Art by Tahiti Pehrson
Titles: Mary Ping

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