1. |
Houses at Night
04:37
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Houses at Night
Houses at Night
Are living things
They breathe with the dreams
Of their makers
Houses at night
Like satellite dishes
Sighing out wishes
Through each crack and frame
Houses, houses at night
When everything sleeping is right
Houses, houses at night
When everything sleeping is right
Houses, houses at night
Houses at night
Like Emily sleeping
It’s how they’ve been keeping us alive
Houses at night
their trim painted white
Like shepherds in white linen
They watch over us
Houses, houses at night
When everything sleeping is right
Houses, house at night
When everything sleeping is right
When all souls are equal, there’s none without sin
Each one of us naked when we tuck ourselves in
Houses, houses at night
When my life is over
I will fly above your rooftops
Above your chimneys and your smokestacks
Past your window’s golden light
Past the watchtower’s lonely outpost
And the projects stacked like shelves
Above grass huts and other shelters
That have spared us from ourselves
Houses, houses at night
When everything sleeping is right
When all souls are equal
And all beasts are kin
Even kings stop scheming
When the night closes in
There’s a light in the window
There’s a swing set on the lawn
There’s a cool breeze blowing
And the curtains are drawn
Houses, houses at night
Lyrics by Jason Michas
Music by Jason Michas & Jesse Zubot
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2. |
Salmon Pie Lullaby
03:54
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Salmon Pie Lullaby
She was a friend of mine
One of the fairest kinds
She helped to keep me warm
Helped me to stay reborn
She made me salmon pie
I’s just another lonely guy
A girl so fine it’s true
Passion was her only mood
She made me salmon pie
Days of true love have fallen way behind
My belly’s fat, I’ve been divorced three times
Now I sing
Salmon pie lullaby, salmon pie lullaby
She was a friend of mine
One of the fairest kinds
She told me time would fly
And good friends were hard to come by
She made it not in haste
Though she’d no time to waste
A girl with taste and grit
Though her pie was delicate
She made me salmon pie
Days of true love have fallen way behind
Me belly’s fat, I’ve been divorced three times
Now I sing
Salmon pie lullaby, salmon pie lullaby
Salmon pie, a delicacy so fine it’s true
But will she let you have your pie and eat it too?
Lyrics & Music by Jason Michas
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3. |
The Kind of Love I Need
04:55
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The Kind of Love I Need
I sing
In the down below
In the metro
Underneath your dirty streets
It’s what a broken heart deserves
A quarter from some old time sweet hearts
They’re not from here, they’ve had it harder
They’ll pass on and I’ll concede
But that’s the kind of love I need
That’s the kind of love I need
That’s the kind of love I need
I went to visit Notre Dame
Damned even there
Among the polished pews and splendour
My eyes tore that church asunder
His wooden gaze of peace and wonder
And broke the silence with my thunder
Too ashamed and proud to plead
But that’s the kind of love I need
That’s the kind of love I need
That’s the kind of love I need
Well I left home like victory departing
A cutthroat to the small town dream
And I stepped out like a pigeon on the causeway
Like Hercules getting creamed
Up rose the blizzard with a calculating vengeance
And all detail swells and recedes
And evil played righteous and beauty mocked me
To show this poor boy his misdeed
I’m sorry, forgive me
That’s the kind of love I need
Underneath your dirty streets
It’s what a broken heart deserves
A quarter from some old time sweet hearts
They’re not from here, they’ve had it harder
They’ll pass on and I’ll concede
But that’s the kind of love I need
That’s the kind of love I need
That’s the kind of love I need
Well I walked out
Like a beetle on the hard pan
Like a player in a vaudeville show
And I broke down like a mad man in the dust
Like Job just beginning to know
Down came the voices of anger and derision
And all counsel smiles and misleads
So I’ve come out here to meet you
where things won’t be mistaken
Where foolish believers are freed
I’m tired, release me
That’s the kind of love I need
Is it that all good thing must end?
And every step we take is measured
I walk this earth without a friend
And a price for every pleasure
Got nothing left here to defend!
That’s the kind of love I need
That’s the kind of love I need
Lyrics & Music by Jason Michas
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4. |
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Midnight on the Great Western
In the third-class seat sat
The journeying boy.
And the roof-lamp’s oily flame
Played down on his listless form and face,
Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going,
Or whence he came
In the band of his hat the journeying boy
Had a ticket stuck; and a string
Around his neck bore the key of his box,
That twinkled gleams of the
Lamp’s sad beams
Like a living thing.
What past can be yours, O journeying boy,
Towards a world unknown,
Who calmly, as if incurious quite
On all at stake, can undertake
This plunge alone?
Knows your soul a sphere, O journeying boy,
Our rude realms far above,
Whence with spacious vision
You mark and mete
This region of sin that you find you in,
But are not of?
Poem by Thomas Hardy
Music by Jason Michas
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5. |
Ode to a Dead Bird
05:40
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Ode to a Dead Bird
As I was walking
Not thinking
Like a fool who won’t see an omens warning
On a cool and brisk
Autumnal morning
I spied a sight and peace was broken
Confirming fears unspoken
On cold sidewalk
A little bird
With it’s ear to the ground
And eyes wide open
Now I’m a simple man
An average man
Not given to complex emotion
I stick to simple plans
To low-key plans
Try not to get caught in the commotion
My pleasures come in simple ways
I fit them all within a day
If the grass is green
And my socks are clean
These are some little joys
I celebrate
As I debated
And contemplated
the colour of the falling leaves
In a cool and brisk
Autumnal breeze
The little bird remained remote
Struck dumb by some deafening note
Well such a queer sight
Had set
Unease
In motion
So I set out to rouse the bird
And offer an encouraging word
I spoke of nature’s boundless beauty
To remind that bird of
Birdy’s duty
To draw an arc across the sky
While clouds go passing by
And down below you’d watch us there
Sucking up all the air
Living without doubt or care
So I waited
For the little bird
And still that bird would not respond
Lost inside some darkening song
And all the while the leaves would fall
And I would call and call
Like a child lost in a shopping mall
And all the noises in the sky
And all the people rushing by
While the city burns
And the cell phones yearn
And nobody
Has any time
Little bird!
What have you heard?
The sound of the earth
Has killed you
Lyrics & Music by Jason Michas
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6. |
Harlem Whispers
05:56
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Harlem Whispers
The snow floats
Like bumble bees
Like fairies and flying saucers
The wind blows
So quietly
It carries horns and laughter
Harlem whispers
And through the courtyard, down on the street
A brownstone stoop waits alone
For it’s missing owners to come home
Harlem whispers
And it speaks
The words I’ve not the strength to hear
Harlem whispers
It breaks my will
Confessing all the time I’ve lost
My dreams that were but candy floss
These people who sold their souls
To small for fame; to poor for gold
And now these streets grey and cold
Have seen their light
I’m a stranger here
A dog barks
A siren wails
The church bells plainly tell the tale
The jazz plays
A bottle breaks
Lovers try to settle score
Harlem whispers
And through my window across the street
To eyes behind midnight’s face
Staring back at me
Harlem whispers
It tells no lies
Won’t even try to hide a thing
Harlem whispers
Even my dreams
Can’t cut a deal on Lenox Street
It knows too much about defeat
These people whose lives were stole
To wise for fame; to rich for gold
And now these street grey and cold
Have seen their light
I’m a stranger here
Lyrics & Music by Jason Michas
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7. |
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In the Valley Where the Mugwumps Walk
Give me some reverb
Commodore reverb
Radio City Music Hall reverb
New York city reverb
Canada city reverb!
In the valley where the mugwumps walk
The spreadsheet for the human soul
A catastrophic, seismic shift
One brilliant moment
A final
Finished
Explanation
Like the rings in a fallen tree
Or the layers of a fault line
The voice of one cared for, of one longed for
Hands you the map
You
Are
Forgiven
All codes are locked
We have a final match
A new language has emerged
In ones
And zeros
In the reverb
In the northern lights
In radio signals
Spread out across the earth
Lyrics by Jason Michas
Music by Jesse Zubot
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8. |
In the Tension
04:43
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In the Tension
In the space that’s fixed twixt 'q' and 'r'
Between railway track and railway car
In the buzzing of the locust crops
Where breathing starts and where it stops
In the body and it’s faltering grip
Though it’s effort barely adequate
When we catch familiar by surprise
In a twisting snake antagonized
In the tension
In the bend
Between the axis and the butt
As we advance like scissors cut
Through this oxygen divided
As you’re watching at the party
On the faces of your friends
In their gesture and their laughter
As you watch them through the lens
As you hear them through the body’s hum
Through flesh and blood
Through which, they come
In the tension
In the pain
By the failure and attempt
Though our hearts conceal contempt
We try and try again!
We are born out in the tension
We are forced between the grain
We are a miracle of friction
We are the aggregate of flame
As the dewdrop hangs toward the fire
As it’s turned to steam
While it’s falling from the wire
In the tension
In the bend
By the failure and attempt
Though our hearts conceal contempt
We try and try again!
Lyrics by Jason Michas
Music by Jason Michas & Jeff Holl
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9. |
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Songs of Praise and Navigation
Seems like the first time we set out on the ocean
Picked a point on the horizon to see where it would take us
Seems like the first time we set our sails in motion
We were an empires grandest hope to glorify a nation
Our course was set
and we were betting
We’d find the land and win the gold
You were as bold and beautiful as Errol Flynn
And from the moment
we left the shore
We belonged to no one anymore
And steel grey water rose up to meet us
Seems like the first time we set out on the ocean
Our faces turned into the wind
Seems like the first time we left what’s known behind us
The water wet against our skin
Sometimes it’s like the music goes
You’ve grown too wise; you’ve grown too old
And it’s been so long since we let it play
Old Salty gave us all his best
With spit and wind and hell fire threat
And we sang songs of praise and navigation
Seems like the first time we set out on the ocean
Our faces turned into the wind
Seems like the first time we left what’s known behind us
The water wet against my skin
Seems like the first time we set our sails in motion
The water wet against my skin
Seems like the first time we set out on the ocean
We set out on our own again
And as the waves broke on the sand
We each became another man
And the world we’d know was changed forever
Lyrics by Jason Michas
Music by Avi Shack & Jason Michas
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10. |
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Every Time We Say Goodbye
Every time we say goodbye
I die a little
Every time we say goodbye
I wonder why a little
Why the Gods above me
Who must be in the know
Think so little of me
They allow you to go
When you're near
There's such an air of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere
Begin to sing about it
There's no love song finer
But how strange the change from major to minor
Every time we say goodbye
When you're near
There's such an air of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere
Begin to sing about it
There's no love song finer
But how strange the change from major to minor
Every time we say goodbye
Lyrics & Music by Cole Porter
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Jason Michas Vancouver, British Columbia
Leading an idiosyncratic path, singer-songwriter Jason Michas started in the heady, early-90s music scene in Vancouver in groups like the voltaic rock band Omnibol. Later releasing his own album, Ode to a Dead Bird, even singing on jazz-themed projects such as Poor Boy: Songs of Nick Drake, his contribution called “stunning” by The Guardian and his voice likened to Sarah Vaughn by AllMusic. ... more
Jason Michas recommends:
A bust-the-door-down, tour-de-force anthemic funk rock band where Michas got his start as a singer/songwriter. Total departure from 'Ode to a Dead Bird'. Revelatory of his asymmetrical influences.
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