Get all 8 Elmer and the Ceramic Trees releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of We were Beautiful in August, After the Before, Who's Your Entertainment, Isolation Masquerade, California on a Toothpick, Maps of Outer Space, SaturdayNight Satellite, and Elmer and the Ceramic Trees.
1. |
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Nine o'clock and a shower
I find my way to the door
Am I too old to want to sing?
Just give me an hour
To try to make this my own
You know this all means everything.
'Cause every time I've left here
You know I came back again
It's not that I feel at home
It's just my hair is getting thin
So don't take my indifference for agreeability
You know that heaven's a war zone and we're all it's casualties
But you can sing...sing!
I find it hard to unwind
When I'm tight like a screw
Put on a suit
I'm new and improved!
Just give me some time
That's all I need out of you
Just a little more time before I'm all used.
'Cause every time I left here
You know I came back again
It's not that I feel at home
It's just my hair is getting thin
Being back in this town
I see how everything has changed
Everyone I know is a stranger
Who's pretending to be strange
So, baby, take off your clothes
And dance like they can't see you're afraid
'Cause when the spotlight is turned off
All that's missing is what remains.
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2. |
Holiday in the Rain
04:53
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Loveliness,
I've watched you sleep
Through a rain that's spanned across the centuries
Through the cool white noise I have heard you speak
From the undertow
I watch you sleep.
We're stranded in rivers where highways should be
The flow of the current's so bitterly sweet
Islands of dreams all succumbing to fate
And fall to the winds of your age.
I guess we'll have to pray for a holiday
For a holiday
My god what a waste of your holiday
Of your holiday
Loveliness,
I've watched you sleep
Through a rain that's spanned across the centuries
Through the cool white noise I have heard you speak
From the undertow
I watch you sleep.
So where was the sunlight when we were still young?
Now it's plastered on ceilings and spoken in tongues
How I cling to your ghost though it were some sort of god
In hopes that you'd break with a smile.
I guess we'll have to pray for a holiday
For a holiday
My god what a waste of your holiday
Of your holiday
Another holiday in the rain, hey, hey, hey.
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3. |
My Autumn Haze
04:37
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We once kissed in the rotunda
The marble statues stood miles tall
But then the city rose beneath us
And flung their bodies around like dolls.
Now we lay naked in the rubble
A wilting twilight bruises the sky
I feel like a saint who's walked a lifetime
Looking for a holy place to die
But my nights are black as hell
Your stars won't shine for days
My autumn haze is the kiss of your dismay.
After the violence of a dreamless night
Has purged the colors from my head
And I wake up in a boiling car
With a sun that wants me dead
I look for you in the mirages
That burn like blisters inside my eyes
I brought you flowers to line your halo
And a blue moon to light your sky.
But my nights are black as hell
Your stars won't shine for days
Your autumn haze is the cross of my disgrace
My nights are black as hell
Your stars won't shine for days
Your autumn haze will chill my sorry face.
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4. |
Isolation Masquerade
04:58
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A smokey light floats across the stage
Of her isolation masquerade
Friendly fronts laced with bitterness
For the fairer mouths that sing success
(Just fake it 'til you break yourself in two).
Look at the mess you have made
Look at the mess you have made
Oh my god, you had a beautiful face
She waits by the door
With her coat in her hand
And she plays that she's calm
As she's calling a cab.
But we all can't be holy like angels
And we all can't be holy like angels
Since we all can't be holy like angels...
Allured by dawn toward the finer ways
But morning sailed when midnight rang
Now her seas belong to someone else
Who has the right to play herself
(God made His children out of stars).
Look at the mess you have made
Look at the mess you have made
Oh my god, this was a beautiful place
But her moment collapsed
Beneath the wait of the crowd
When nobody felt when she called through the sound
Well who's saving you now?
But we all can't be holy like angels
And we all can't be holy like angels
Since we all can't be holy like angels
Scrape the gum off of the sidewalk then go wash your eyes.
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5. |
Chemistry
05:21
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She was an angel in the fluorescent lights
Stood atop a waterfall of stairs
Some nights she cries her weight in loneliness
Still other nights she hardly even cares
I think I saw her in a crowded dream
With a barbed wire crucifix draped around her neck
She said "could you tell me where the dumpsters are
Then could you direct me to where the party went?"
And she said, "you might think it's not quite right
The way it make me smile
But the chemistry still gets me high
So I feel it's worth my while."
Neon signs light the road to heaven
Its bone-faced travelers breach the corner of her eye
The steel and glass an urban graveyard
Shaping the contours of a cold indifferent sky
For fleeting seconds she recalls those dreams
That filled her head with big ideas and sweet untruths
But then the sidewalk caves beneath her
And the shame grips around her throat just like a noose.
And she said, "you might think it's not quite right
The way it make me smile
But the chemistry still gets me high
So I feel it's worth my while."
Sensations start to flow
Weightless conscience and heavy toes
Lips dry like desert stone
Sensations overload
And she said, "you might think it's not quite right
The way it make me smile
But the chemistry still gets me high
So I feel it's worth my while."
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6. |
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Under the spell of a western moon
I conquered a nation all to make it to
The jaded coast where all the lonely hearts
Came bleeding to her shores.
Violent wind along a mountain pass
Her fingers melted in my sweaty hands
Highways sing beneath the twinkled light
Of the desert's starry hordes
And if your mind retreats
To dreams of mountain peaks
And my love won't make you swoon
Quite like the ocean view
Then I'll put California on a toothpick
And I will bring it home to you
I'll put California on a toothpick
And I will bring it home to you.
Nocturnal lives weave their tangled roads
They drink together but they'll cry alone
They haunt the guestrooms of acquaintances
Still trying to fill their holes.
I'll drink your wine and I'll feed your mouth
Just say the milk is cream if it's gone sour
And we'll forget about those lonely parts
When we stood at separate poles.
And if your mind retreats
To dreams of mountain peaks
And my love won't make you swoon
Quite like the ocean view
Then I'll put California on a toothpick
And I will bring it home to you
I'll put California on a toothpick
And I will bring it home to you.
When I found you in your bloom
Through hidden valleys cloudless evenings flew
Eagle-eyed through my busted brain
That I couldn't hold in place.
We'll plant our roses in our yard
Their thorns have pricked but haven't left us scarred
And we'll waltz through the catacombs
When eternity gives way.
And if your mind retreats
To dreams of mountain peaks
And my love won't make you swoon
Quite like the ocean view
Then I'll put California on a toothpick
And I will bring it home to you
I'll put California on a toothpick
And I will bring it home to you.
I will bring it home to you.
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7. |
Cities
05:40
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Don't say there's nothing here to miss
When the cause of my breath
Is left to dangle by a sigh
When I'm wading through the warmth of an impossible sea
Toward an island bathed in fire
Phone me up at midnight from some crater on the west coast
I'd tell you all the details but I'd rather not impose
Besides all the places we've ever been are only scenes in the movies.
But you can lay it all
You can lay it all on me.
Nothing's quite so perfect
As the lonely shadow play of night
When there's no use, love, in keeping the things
That hurt you bottled up inside.
So you can lay it all
You can lay it all on me.
Some nights the planets that we see
Through the glass of the sky
Feel less alien than Earth
So can we lead our secret lives upon the surface of Mars
When the fear hangs like a curse?
And if there's nothing we can do
About the distance that we can't change
We can hold out hope that all the cities rearrange
Or we can take the good shit with the bad
And just hold on for a someday.
So you can lay it all
You can lay it all on me.
And I saw you in a vision
From the far side of the moon
And you filled my nights with oceans
The turned to deserts way too soon.
You can lay it all
You can lay it all on me.
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8. |
No One's Watching This
05:49
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Why so awake?
The dance is off
The jester took your ring.
You built concert halls
From bedroom floors
It didn't mean a thing.
Your whisper sinks
Drowned by the chords
You play to be pretend.
With no success
Don't get depressed
There's no one watching this.
Oh, you've come so far
Only to be eclipsed
No one's watching this.
And, baby, you're a star
But what's the point of it?
No one's watching this.
Can't fall asleep
Keep the TV on
Get me the wine glass please
The sheet's too loose
Legs can't keep still
My mouth keeps grinding teeth.
Just break my wings
So I can rest
Unknown to my regrets
And pound the floor
With violent fists
There's no one watching this.
Oh, you've come so far
Only to be eclipsed
No one's watching this.
And, baby, you're a star
But what's the point of it?
No one's watching this.
I lurk in the shadows but long for the light
I kicked down the door then ran scared for my life
And I want something more but I'll stick to my kind
And one day this specter just might lose its shine.
No one's watching this.
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9. |
Pictures of Rain
04:21
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Take this photograph
Take it off my hands
Because the scenery makes me sad
And I thought it was the past.
This happy memory
Let it fall away from me
Because I'm not so sure it's me
In the smiling face I see
And then I lose it all again
The images are all lies
In this Friday morning gray
There's something that feels so alive
Does my paradise await
In these pictures of rain?
I've become convinced
Of my own defectiveness
There's something dearly wrong with me
So please tell me what it is.
What was and could have been
An absurd coincidence
Although I'm told to let it rest
I'm not at home in my own flesh.
And then I lose it all again
The images are all lies
In this Friday morning gray
There's something that feels so alive
Does my paradise await?
And I'm bored but I'm safe
With my pictures of rain
Watching cars on the wall
Hoping something will change
Precious childhood scenes
Recur as time-ravaged dreams
Through the lens of a crack in the shade.
And then I lose it all again
The images are all lies
In this Friday morning gray
There's something that feels so alive
And then I lose it all again
The images are all lies
In this Friday morning gray
There's something burns me alive
Does my paradise await?
Does my paradise await?
Does my paradise await
In these pictures of rain?
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10. |
Caribbean Sun
05:11
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Somewhere there's a piper by the ocean
With her flute she lures me down beneath the waves.
And I'm terrified by these quick, sudden motions
But I'm rosy in this tide pool in a sweet daze.
I waited for my ship to come to me
Upon a rock I lay asleep
Sound asleep.
The ocean is a lemon, the beach is a nosebleed
And the Caribbean sun will burn you down
And the piper plays her song into the ocean
Enticed, entranced I'll go searching for her sound.
And finally I feel so free
There's nothing left to ruin me
Oh, love, I'm free.
Somewhere there's a castle under the ocean
With the radiant glow of a nuclear winter's night
And I'll blow my head down in the water
Until my vessel rises moonward with the tide.
The sun collapses into me
The skyline sinks below the sea
Oh, love, I'm free.
Within the mind of God I swim
Toward no particular beginning
Oh, love, I'm free
I'm free.
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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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