Conversation Piece

by A Lot Like Birds

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about

This is the sophomore LP by the American Progressive/Post-Hardcore band A Lot Like Birds. As opposed to their debut release Plan B, which a collective of 15 guest musicians and incorporated muti-multi-layered guitar and orchestral instrumentation, this record was written with the purpose of being more cohesive, and something that could be taken on the road. With the new addition of Ex-Dance Gavin Dance vocalist Kurt Travis, the band decided to go for a more vocally driven album this time through, where-as Plan B was very much an instrumental album, the few vocals performed on the record intended to be instruments themselves.

credits

released 11 October 2011
Kurt Travis - Vocals
Cory Lockwood - Vocals
Michael Franzino - Guitar/Programming
Ben Wiacek - Guitar
Michael Littlefield - Bass
Joseph Arrington - Drums

Guest Musicians:

Dominic Garcia - Congas
Bot- Tenor Sax
Sean Farnworth - Trumpet

Produced and Engineered by Kris Crummett @ Interlace Audio
Help tracking by engineers Jack O'Donnell @ Shattered Records and Chris Miller @ CTM Sound
Artwork by Bradley F. Edwards
Artwork assembly and layout by Patrick Maxwell
Logo by Nate Burger
A&R - David Conway and Dirk Hemsath for Doghouse Records
Management - Eric Rushing and Aaron Poletti for The Artery Foundation

Special Thanks:


SPECIAL THANKS:

MIKEY: my father and sister, my band - for putting up with me, Maryland, The Horsemen, Reese, Jake Stahl, Third Eye Blind, everyone who's ever believed in me, every count of heartbreak, every drunken rejoice.
CORY: Michi McKillip, my family, Nicholas Ross, Andrew Hansen and my dead dog, Dobbi.
BUTTER: Mark and Diane Littlefield, Jon Talbot, Donna Manu, and Nick Hanks, Levi Weseloh.
BEN: My Mom, My Dad, My Step-Dad, My Sisters, Loren, Steve, Sang, Betty, Lupe, Sam, Cory, Conor, Doug and Rick Kauer at Kauer Guitars, Every one of you have helped me out a ton, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay you.
Kurt: Wade (Sunshine) Yates, Ian Svenonius, Matt Mehana, Chris Lent, Zach Hill, Lauren Johnson, Leanne & Greg Travis, Dance Gavin Dance
JOE: My incredible family, my little sisters Susie and Katie, Jay Lawrence, Ninjohn, Ragin Waters, Brendon, Micah, Peter, Siena, Ryan, Tony @ Bellwether Snares, all the Utah drummers, everyone who has let me sleep next to their water heaters, and all of my brother in ALLB.
THE WHOLE BAND: our amazing friends and fans! Jack O'Donnell and his family, Chris Miller, Kris Crummett, Our Dad / Manager Aaron Poletti and Eric Rushing @ The Artery Foundation, David Conway and Everyone @ Doghouse Records, The Speed of Sound in Seawater, Simon Vandetta, Olivier Mclaughlin, Adrien Mata, Jennifer Solis, Carlos Martinez, Spencer Evans, Forrest Wright, Nate Burger, Athena Koumis, Juli and Tyler of The Dreaded Diamond, Dominic Garcia, Bot, Sean Farnworth and Russell Furay / H. Letham, I the Mighty, Hail the Sun, Jean Claude Band Vans

tags

tags: a lot like birds ambient conversation piece doghouse records experiemental post-hardcore progressive punk the artery foundation experimental post-hardcore progressive Sacramento

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Track Name: Orange Time Machines Care
Il était une fois
When learning how to crawl became a substitute for walking
Biting my tongue a fair exchange for talking to myself
Knocking pictures off the shelf and swallowing the frames
Spilling wine to comment on the stain
I need a mind erase option, less air to the brain
If God was alive he would’ve amended us but then again no one has it as bad as I have or ever will to the extent that if I have to finish this, I might have to leave everything else undone
And it’s all numb anyway.
I can see our life before my eyes and it looks real
Sunrise; an easy thing to steal
I’ll drive! I’m best behind the wheel
Besides, I get confused and I’ll need you to navigate the complicated courts and lanes that crowd this place
I swear to God the street signs change when my eyes close
They’re not the same.
They’re not the same
I get lost easily
I get lost easily
Help guide me home please
Help guide me home please
I always take the fall! Why are you always getting sick? The complications won’t solve itself!
I always take the fall! Why are you always getting sick? The complication won’t solve itself!
We used to sing our song and what it meant to us and it’s gone and every emotion, that all went along with it’s gone. I shared it all with you. You said you’d love me too. So love me too.
Are you crawling away or is it time to go through? Were we always this way or was I too fucked up to know?
I sang your favorite song. You told me it was too long. I asked you what was wrong. The list goes on and on…
Track Name: THINK DIRTY OUT LOUD
To the fish in the sea, put your mouths on my hook. If I’m soft, will you give me the medusa look? Well, your dress lit the floor on fire when it touched. So my little black book, how it shook, how it shook, how it shook shook shook shook SHOOK!
I heard that sometimes you like to suffocate. Cry out to me oh won’t you please. Speak to me oh GREAT DANE WHILE I RIDE THE MAIN VEIN.
When I write about you honey, oh the ink just runs off the page. Wow, what subject matter but by no means be FLATTERED BY THERE’S BRUISES ON YOUR LEGS.
What a clever trick! Drop in with a bowl of cherries telling me I have to pick, but how could you not see the locks on the door? There’s no turning back. You’ll get all that you wanted and more! So pick up the rope and wear it. If your friends want the noose, will you share it?
Ooh, baby you just don’t do me right! Maybe we can try one more time.
Put your spine right on the dotted line.
Ring around the right posy, woesy and whimsy wire line. That’s just about the right time to make you mine, all mine.
Time and energy all for nothing. I should’ve listened to my intuition. Now I’m stuck under the floorboards but they’re splitting as you’re stripping down to
Vines and melody, they surround you. Sometimes I wonder if your trap really worked. Are you the remedy? Sensual medicine? If so, prep the patient for a long shot.
Lay down where you please, on your back.
La la la la.
I am the dog drooling tar on the nape of your neck.
I eat emotional wrecks and yours is the best. You know I tried. You know I tried.
I’ve got a pocketful of dark black pickup lines that I want to spill down the well of your throat like a pile of ants in an alien line to see what they do. To see what they find. Will you just let them decline? I spiked both our drinks with a gallon of ink, now I’m writing a novel from your insides.
We’re a spider with our limbs doing anything but walking.
A conversation with our mouths doing anything but talking.
Hey, take off the rope! You’ve worn it and after all, it was boring. I think I’m falling asleep.
Track Name: Vanity's Fair
Hold your tongue!
It doesn’t own you!
Or does it by default?
You can’t pretend that it’s not weighing you down or that you really even want me around because you don’t. I know that burdens are a girl’s best friend! In the end, you’d give it up for the weekend.
You don’t even want me around. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. We can’t look at you; you’re not the same. I keep thinking, you use your brain. Already threw it away! Don’t give a fuck what we say! Already threw it away, oh no. Learn to hold your tongue. It doesn’t own you.
You can go but I might stay! Yeah, I noticed that you’re so bored but I’m okay! It’s not a problem for me; is it a problem for you? Hope not!
And if you’re asking me to stick around then why is it, when we separate you keep holding on and on. Oh, but not for long. Not for long!
Aside from all the points turning thoughts into sickness, all my stupid blind ambitions never fit inside your vision. Maybe so, I don’t know. Sure, I could’ve made it work, been the necessary jerk like you wanted me to be. x 3
Aside from all the rest, there’s a sickness in my thoughts where the twist to every plot is: what I think I am, I’m not! Maybe so, I don’t know! I could never make it work but I sure could make it hurt. Do you want this from me? And as you may recall, I never signed a thing at all. You just started your addiction. I just started my withdrawal. It seems to me the suit I wear is too tight at the neck but the tailor that is vanity is sure it fits me best.
It’s not a flattering color on me but I wear it always because my skin’s been sold, it’s always cold and all my methods seem too damn old. I should’ve folded a long time ago.
I came in thinking that I’d know exactly what my part is, know all of the lines because I’d authored all the hardest but I didn’t have the will, so I don’t know why I started. These empty ribs still have no room to fit a proper heart in! So if all you want are flowers, just plant yourself a garden. DON’T RELY ON ME.
Quit calling me to remind me. I have many ways to remember all those things and even now, I cling to them. It’s sad.
I know it’s hard but I swear it gets easier. It just takes distraction and time. I can’t tell if I’m undeservedly given to or if I’m undeservedly giving what’s mine.
Track Name: Properties of Friction
Oh, the motor in the back of your neck is begging and calling for sex and the lizards are laying some monstrous eggs in an entropic tropical mess. While you’re sleeping, I’m crawling, I’ve crept to the edge of the bed where you’ve slept for a thousand nights alone in a cavern you call home.
I’m here so let’s do this. Your hands on my legs, you say the things I want to hear. Let’s please just keep touching. I don’t wanna think. Please keep me from thinking.
I missed your name! Can I hear it again? I missed your name! Can I hear it again? While you were talking my eyes kept walking down the walkway of your neckline so I didn’t hear you begging. Can I hear it again?
So many dreams have left me tired, waking up and shaking on my own. I ignored a ticking clock to call you and made a weapon of my phone. Poor judgment and bankrupt morals! A girl without a penny for her thoughts! I guess I like you cheap. I guess that conscience long since rot has sent me spiraling so lost into the planet of your skin. There’s a fear that we will end that just won’t let me begin. And though I have no qualms with lust, your body is a howling, haunted petting zoo that I really shouldn’t touch.
And as I’m walking out the door for good, I turn around to look at you and you’re…
You’re already undressed!
If I draw near, do you disappear? If I stay away, will you call my name?
Track Name: Truly Random Code
True, you say you are. I’ll be honest when I say I’m not. Use any excuse to get what I want. I tell you what you wanna hear. Hurting you is the only thing that I could do. And I tried to make a motive of good intention without attention. So I’ll have the best behavior. I’m not a savior. I have too many layers. And transpose the meaning, the meaning of all of this.
Sorry I missed your call. Was it distress? If I reach past your smile, grab an SOS, do I shatter the illusion? Am I doing you a favor? Is there anything to salvage? Is there anything to savor? Am I wasting time that I don’t have? Convincing bystanders around us that it’s not that bad? Well, it’s pretty bad so head back home. Flip through a book and pick a god to thank you’re not alone.
Narcissus broke a mirror and put the shards into his arm via hypodermic needle but it didn’t do him harm. A little self-reflection went a long, long way. Now he’s hiding in the cellar, scared to show the world his face. Well, I’ve never learned a lesson that I didn’t teach myself. I may have lost my shot at heaven, but I bored myself with hell. My thoughts on Mother Nature? Hurt her every chance you get. I’ve really come to hate her. Let’s cross her off the list!
Every skipped stone shears the river into liquid, shining slivers like the steady scalpel of a surgeon selling virgin flesh to the highest bidder.
If only all the oracles of old could order us to open doors that we have closed or offer options over ones that we naively chose. What we don’t know we don’t know we don’t know.
Stay calm! Stay silent! “Seek out the sewers,” sang out the sirens!
I am the cleaner; you’re the mess.
Your little white flag is right by your side so just fly it.
I am the cleaner; you’re the mess.
SOS!
Track Name: The Blowtorch is Applied to the Sugar
Let me down easy. There’s no reason to tease me. If you don’t need me, please let me go. Playing with my dreams? Not anymore.
Time is dancing on my chest and its casting stones. Its casing parts, each one of them antagonist. And I’m trying to feed the wasp inside my mouth. It’s dying! I’m not sure that it wants to live. Oh well.
Hail the insane and deranged! It wasn’t my embrace. It’s yours. Now I’m trying to walk the straightest line. Now it’s time! I wanted you forever and ever. Now it’s never again. Never. I wanted you forever and ever. Now it’s never again. Never.
Oh, how your hands used to shake, tremble and threaten to break if they weren’t encased in mine, telling you that it’ll be just fine. I could have had it forever and ever. Now it’s never again. Never. I could have had it forever and ever. Now it’s never again. Never.
I would have thrown it all away for you and actually did. It’s all around me but I can’t pick it up because I gave you all what was left of my strength.
Love’s a many splendored thing; an often vendored thing. If love was just a movie about war, it’s the surrender scene!
You think you’ve got it figured out? I didn’t say that! I’ve got doubts! I said I’ve lost my faith in love. There’s still a way to find it! How?
I might’ve cared for it at first. Now that I’ve buried it, my thirst is met in bars and not the fake embrace of needy arms.
That isn’t true! I’ve seen your heart! You didn’t see that it was charred? There was a fire, that’s a start. The fire’s gone and now it’s dark.
Please turn on the light. Please turn on the light!
I think I’m still fucked up! Time didn’t heal me! Oh god!
You were a fever dream but you never broke or went away.
Track Name: A Satire of a Satire of a Satire is Tiring
I’m starting to think that maybe I’m wrong. It’s easy to forget what you’re fighting for and what matters more. But maybe I’m not. What if only time can tell? Well, until then we’ll try this again.
I feel colder without you but I’ve learned to embrace the chill about you. I can’t tell if I lost or found you. Am I making sense or do I confound you?
Oh what to do? Nothing is new. Now I must deal with my true form of reality. They like to tax me drastically. Still learning to fantastically.
Hearing you talk makes me want to shut my mouth. I wonder who taught you to whisper with a voice so loud. Oh wow! You’ve got opinions to share? So just keep yelling through the door sending your four-letter prayers. Get lucky once if I care! Use all your luck if I’m really even there! I’m so exhausted with noise. You give me options but don’t give me a choice.
“Let’s get rich quick,” my invitation to the cynics.
“Well, I can’t do that. I’m saving up for the day that I get sick. So run away with your teenage schemes.”
What you’ve got in smarts; I’ve got ten times in dreams.
I feel colder without you but I’ve learned to embrace the chill about you. I can’t tell if I lost or found you. Am I making sense or do I confound you?
Track Name: Sesame Street is no Place for Me
You commie-loving, death-counting tally-keeping delinquent. I love the way you suck me in. It’s my favorite form of sin. And all this nonsense banter it’s like I’m talking to an infant. I made the best mistake I could make. I’ve thought of worse before but this takes the cake.
So you’re getting over me by getting under other people? Adding insult to injury: what do they equal?
Did you pray to God to fall out of love with me? Cause I do the same but in a different way. I ruined every holiday and hated every game you play. Your wish came true, now you’re true blue.
You’re such a debutante, dilettante, miles of skin to flaunt. You will get what you want.
And now you hang out around with the coolest cats I’ve met. You sold away what’s left within and left me with the mess that I’ve been in.
A wishing well, a witch’s spell: oh, the things that you will need if your convoluted delusions of grandeur ever will succeed.
What’d you do; fall on another accident? I’d rather hang from a fucking ceiling fan.
I can tell you think you’re happy but the audience is never clapping. Years ago, they might’ve loved you. You should have never let them touch you. Now they’ve cut you down into a film to snuff you.
There’s no mask that you can wear if you’ve got no face to wear it on.
Let’s play bow and arrow with each other using tongues! Release our syllables and calculate who’s won.
We all dream we’ll have it all one day.
So count your beauty marks weighed next to your scars. No matter the victor, we’re happy every wound is ours.
Track Name: Tantrum (Far From the Tree the Apple Grew Rotten)
Save your arms and legs cause you’re the mother and no one will hold us up for so long. We will always resort to fodder. We crawl in the crack, falling through your limbs. If she was here, she’d say be careful but she’d already let it go.
Do as I say, not as I’ve done. Just trust in me. Believe me.
When you left me, you didn’t leave me a trail to follow. No, you just swallowed all the crumbs along the way so you could feed all the ghosts that hide inside your bones cause maybe if their mouths are full they’ll stop whispering that you’re better off alone.
It wasn’t nice of you to go out without saying goodbye. So I think I’ll hunt you down and punish you. Good luck trying to hide. My temper’s a teacher with a hell of a lesson plan.
You might know this but I’ve got a rifle and stifling manners. You control this and any consistency scares me from progress. I don’t show it but I’m catching on and can see through the pattern. Don’t talk! Read this! Your strong upper hand will get lost in the process.
Got matters to attend to and methods to convince you to stay right where you
Are you ready to apologize? I won’t believe you but it’s worth a few tries. Don’t look down! Look in my eyes! Go on and feed me some lies. Lie to me!
I make this into what you always keep from me.
Although your secrets are locked away, you forget that you left me a key on a day that’s just memory; when we were young and were happy. When lying on the bed with not a thing to do and words unsaid, we were certain that things were perfect. Of course I’m bitter thinking things would never change. I can’t let go and this is why I always make this into what you keep from me.
Track Name: What Didn't Kill Me Just Got Stronger
This is my body at war!
No hesitation, this is entrapment entangling me. Where’s my attorney to defend or keep my mind from indulging? I’ve failed!
And my nerves have lost their touch. My eyes can’t see so much and if my heart is the next to go, how my brain will scream and let my body know!
My tongue is drafting treaties that my stomach can’t hold. My throat’s been fed lies that it’s finding too hard to swallow. And my liver? Oh god, how it knows that I’m poisoning it, so it grows and exposes its fangs. And its good friends, the veins, feel exactly the same; abandoned, lost, clogged with smoke and ashamed. But as for the blame? No, the blame’s not with me. It’s with you. Is it true you’re less girl than disease?
If this is it, let’s make it a big one! Let’s just seize until our blood starts dancing with fire and our bones explode. The marrow will drip slowly through whichever wounds are open, taking my skin by surprise. Oh, you’re wrong! You think your body is so fucking strong. It’s not! You’re just a flesh-wrapped present for a graveyard with intestines ribboning around you as knots.
Can’t you see I’m spitting out my taste? You did the very same. And when we are through, will the worms even want us or will they take bites of our skin and decide we’d make terrible dirt? To tell you the truth and be crushingly honest: I know I’ve heard that bodies are temples but when temples sink into the ground, they lose all their worth. Life’s a dance? Well, death takes out the grace.