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We were Beautiful in August

by Elmer and the Ceramic Trees

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mackiejunior
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Candace Griffin
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The Fur Trade
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1.
Rattlesnakes 07:34
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Silly conversations Where do their echos go? The city's dying twilight Like silk on raven skies a wintered glow Faces fight to find their features Providence has cursed their blood Just stay clear of well-lit places You'll catch a fever lying naked in the sun. There's murmurs in the ground And trumpets in the skies Weaving melodies of doom That dislocate my eyes And the vines ascend through cracks Of the street's we'd called our own They parody our veins And reclaim our tired bones. Shimmy and shake I can never catch a break The hours get lonely They slither by like rattlesnakes Tremors in the treetops Awake the morning star Seven thousand laughing angels Cast their silhouettes across the dawn The masters of the skyline Humbled down onto all fours If the silence gets too painful Just imagine there was never sound at all. As the weeks turned into miles I gazed upon a beach And all the ones I'd loved Had been buried by the sea The titans of the Earth Could not roll back the tide So I dug into the dirt And held to what was mine Shimmy and shake I can never catch a break The hours get lonely They slither by like rattlesnakes.
2.
Viral Daydream 04:37
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Built by the clock I've got friends with loose change No holes in my socks I can't complain. (Viral Daydream) And the Martians are invading I can't keep them from my space And their poetry's degrading But they won't say it to my face And the streets all change their colors All the houses change their names We'll be friends in summer weather But winter's scars will still remain. How do you wake up from a dream? Blood for a raft (Great men sit on mountains of gold) Mean Monday blues (Exquisite wine and comfortable shoes) These hands are not mine (Is this what I'm dying for?) Only the bruise. (This club is not for you) (Viral Daydream) We were beautiful in August Magnificent in May But our tragedy was sudden As our comedy was lame Our millennium in autumn Will soon fall the way of Rome In the shadows of its ruins Lies a misplaced sense of home. How do you wake up from a dream?
3.
Cherry Blossum Lane 04:04
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Walking stupid through the clouds Out on Cherry Blossum Lane I'm fearless like a lioness I am roaring into space Life's an accidental kiss Left untold until it flees And I don't feel like myself anymore Whatever that means Whatever that means. You and I took different paths Out to the seance on the lake We count our hopes in the seeds we plant Because the dollar signs were fake Starry love Oh! My stars above Don't ever leave me to my feet Because I'm in love with everyone But this small talk leaves me beat And I just want to sleep. I caught a glimpse of the better world And I have never been so sad The amber dawn assembled agelessly Over the angelic ivory sand I held the Earth in its rotation and I pushed the other way It bore me down like an elephant Now I'm falling out through space I think I've lost my face.
4.
Who's Your Entertainment 05:05
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Snowflakes spin and fall like drunken dancers Hey, commando, this evening has been canceled And the assassins laughed As you felt for your hands They were wired like a suitcase bomb And your breath was cold and your neck was red And they'd shout There's a fire in the middle of the town So put your medications down Let it murder you before you let it out And I said who's your entertainment now? Blameless impressions of the living They bled what you'd offered to give them So why don't you stake out your claim to fame You can call it personality Why can't I fold Why can't I just leave this crowd There's a fire in the middle of the town So put your medications down Let it murder you before you let it out And I said who's your entertainment now? How could you lead me to the edge of the plane To let me wander when I couldn't walk straight But it's all left me but the longing and the doubt And I said who's your entertainment now?
5.
Imaginary Stars 03:54
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Pacing underneath the porchlight Hoping for a better spring It's warmer than it was last year We'll wait and see what June will bring. The ghosts are in the backyard Playing hide and seek again I'm plucking petals off the sunset Until nightfall comes to free my head. And all I want is to bang my drum And go outside and play How's it feel to be the scum That you pretend to hate? But it's not that important Think of something new to say It's not that important We're all imaginary stars today. But no one ever feels that good And no one's felt this low You can live a decent life When you just stay at home You can sleep in Saturdays And brace for Monday's wrath Burn your eyes on TV screens Or perfect your daytime act. But it's not that important Think of something new to say We're not that important We're all imaginary stars today We're all imaginary stars today.
6.
Blue June 04:09
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Seaside, seasick, star-punked lovers They carve their names out under the covers Secret seconds now eloped With eternity by stone Blue June came They knew it was over A poet birthed with a flip of her shoulder And the hours illuminate All the faults in their embrace. And the blues are gonna bite you bad on Monday When the screen door slams And all the animals go running Roots entwined Stems grow untangled They catch the sun At separate angles As springtime's lover's suite Drifts softly out of key. Blue June came They knew it was over Their summer strains Long walks turn shorter And the phone calls of the past Come haunting as they crash And heartbreak stains on wrinkled sheets fade slowly Scrub them off with bleach with the hand she once was holding Slowly. And heartbreak stains on wrinkled sheets fade slowly Scrub them off with bleach with the hand she once was holding How the ghost of something ended becomes so holy Slowly.
7.
You in Red 04:03
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Home is wine Grows more delicious with time And the longer you're away The more you wished you might have stayed. Lying in the grass with the shadows of the clouds Planting thoughts in my mind that can never leave the ground Arkady sighs and gently sets me down. Dandelion dreams simmer sweetly in the sun Spitting kisses in the wind Holding secrets in my lungs I could win the west if Monday never comes. But maybe I'd just like to hold the view Of your glow in the shine of the afternoon. And the road through my life Although it may wind I find it brings me back here Every single time To where the sweetness of summer Hangs on youth's untamed breath You in red is so hard to forget You in red is so hard to forget. Never figured out a way to stay Never figured out a way to stay But even if I could The fruit would over-ripen and the twilight be too understood. The fall came on too soon And every setting sun has gotta turn and face its light on the moon. And the road through my life Although it may wind I find it brings me back here Every single time To where the sweetness of summer Hangs on youth's untamed breath You in red is so hard to forget You in red is so hard to forget.
8.
Ocean Garden 05:36
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I slip into the quiet sounds when I can't sleep Let the radio noises and distant voices carry me To someplace I can't lift my head or feel my toes To my ocean garden take me deep where no one goes 'Cause I can remember the fog of the morning Rolling through my mind The beauty of nothing and the infinite all-thing Held in balance by the tide Sensations of floating with no way of knowing The bounds of space or time So can you hold my line? Horizons bend by whim of sea at distant shores And I can hide from my worried mind in liquid roars Fractured light through waters weeps to depths untouched By the atrocities that taint the surface up above. No skylines, no byways No cities, no highways No trace of human law No property values or power craving the vacuum In my coral castle halls Just a river of rainbow becoming around me Of creatures great and small. So can you hold my call? I dreamt I was a fish and I could stay And I knew the land no more than night knows day And my world could bloom and breathe Down in the belly of the sea.
9.
American Spring 03:40
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At the edge of the forest The last piles of snow Broke into tiny rivers From the grip of the cold Her hand soft and warm She rubbed on my cheek Our eyes met in silence We'd no need to speak Our eyes met in silence We'd no need to speak. We lay on our backs With our shirts in the mud Through the freshly-leaved trees Watched the sinking spring sun Our lips locked in an innocent And childish love That freed us from fear And it freed us from want It freed us from fear And it freed us from want. When the sun sank beneath The curve of the Earth The golden prairie grass was no different than the dirt My eyes opened up As our lips pulled apart And I was alone And cold in the dark And I was alone And cold in the dark.
10.
After the Before 04:28
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I awoke in a strange and melancholy lull All the voices I'd known seemed to rattle around my skull I leaned over the sink and I turned it into the sea Still I couldn't take my eyes off you Just a touch too much Now I cut at the sight of the things we'd loved Goodbye is where I live Goodnight I won't forget And I've swung through the trees In daylight sepia toned All the fumes of July burrowed deep inside my nose And at the bottom of a crescent-shaped pool I dreamt I was the sun But I could never shine that bright for you Just a touch too late Have I slept through the cracks In the gorgeous path you'd laid? Goodbye is where I live Goodnight I won't forge

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released October 27, 2023

Copyright 2023. All songs written, performed, recorded, and produced by Robbie Haas.

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Elmer and the Ceramic Trees Janesville, Wisconsin

Conceived in the summer of 2012 by Janesville, Wisconsin singer-songwriter Robbie Haas, Elmer and the Ceramic Trees blend the lush melodies of bands like The Beatles and Big Star with the doom-and-gloom pop of The Cure and Echo and The Bunny Men, the driving rhythms of New Order, and the big choruses of Bowie and Arcade Fire to form a style of indie pop that is at once harrowing and gorgeous. ... more

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