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1. |
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I left my coat
in the car
so everyone
could see my dress
when I walked
into the bar
you were there
very handsome
a bottle at your lips
when we left together
you had your hands
upon my hips
and when you killed me
with that brick
from the ground
we were down by the water
and the lights were all around
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2. |
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you didn’t even know that I was there
as my blood flowed out
and the river flowed on
a thousand feet away
no girl will ever kiss me
your bullet killed that in me
before it ever had a chance to grow
you won’t see me on your tv
the world didn’t want me
the world won’t care
now that I’m gone
you heard me crying as you ran away
as my blood flowed out
and the river flowed on
a thousand feet away
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3. |
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I played on this beach
as a child
with my mother
and my father
still together
now I lay here
with the sand turning black
and you’re standing
with that knife in your hand
and the water
comes lapping at my feet
and you’re crying
with the fog rolling in
when they find me
jade pickers walking by
my new dress
will be tangled round my thighs
and my fingers
twisted at my side
I played here
as a little girl
with my mother
who was my whole world
made sand castles
every single day
til the green tide
washed them all away
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4. |
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I’ve never been very good
I never was very good to you
I drank and beat you
but I was your dad
Smith & Wesson
Model 36
my sock drawer
wrapped in a rag
bullets in a preserves jar
and last night
we had a fight
and I walked out the door
and last night
we had a fight
and nothing will ever be alright again
You followed me
You murdered me
and left me lying there
you followed me
you murdered me
and out came blood and water
I walked down to the creek
forgot my winter jacket
past the swing set
Where we slaughtered pigs
the family stones
covered with snow
my father and my grandparents
the rusty trucks against the barn
we knew we’d never fix
--------
when you were a baby
and wouldn’t fall asleep at night
your mama would put you in the passenger seat
of our green Chevy Blazer
and drive up and down Cameron Ridge
Tires kicking up gravel
and the deer would freeze for a second
in the headlights
and then dart out of the way
and the trees cast shadows
and the radio was tuned to WWVA 98.7
playing Ronnie Milsap
and TG Sheppard
and Dottie West
Alabama
Eddie Rabbitt
Johnny Lee
and I was at home
listening to the same songs
at the same time
with a bottle of jack on the table
and all the guns
save one
on the rack downstairs
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Hermetic San Francisco Bay Area duo Dunnock play untrue black metal, a raw blend of shambolic, punky riffs, howling noise, and lo-fi, reverb slathered electronic ambience as indebted to the minimalist garage psychedelica of Spacemen 3 and the tormented genre explorations of Xiu Xiu as it is to fellow black metal outsiders Striborg or Velvet Cacoon.
The band's second full length record, "little stories told by ghosts," is the result of five years sporadic work in living room "studios" up and down the East Bay. Telling the story of four fictionalized murders near bodies of water important to would-be Dunnock mastermind Jacob Thomas's childhood and adolescence, the album is narrated by the victims and, through the recounting of their tragic life tales, also serves as an alternative autobiography of sorts for the band's leader. The tide laps at shoes and country streams run through fingers as the lyrics travel from the beaches of Humboldt County to the forgotten hollows of West Virginia and the crumbling Baltimore waterfront of the 1980s.
Musically "little stories told by ghosts" represents a stylistic leap towards the abyss as Dunnock crack open the formula behind their three chord riffs, hammer it into oblivion and mix what's left in a cast iron pan with trace elements of krautrock, shoegaze, spoken word poetry, Bmore breaks, and trip-hop along with lengthy aquatic field recordings and walls of brutal noise, spreading the resulting concoctions out to nearly quarter hour run times. Current and former members of Botanist, Dhampyr, Palace of Worms, and Afraid provide guest vocals and additional instrumentation. Dunnock are a band that have often defined themselves in terms of their failures, and "little stories" represents the band's best effort to fail ambitiously.
"Dunnock plays a sort of outsider black metal that I’m not sure anyone else is even attempting. Imagine Striborg and Godspeed You! Black Emperor doing a collaborative project, and that’s a good starting point."
-Indy Metal Vault (
www.indymetalvault.com/2018/05/16/album-stream-interview-dunnock-little-stories-told-by-ghosts/)
"Sure you can call this stuff art, just as you can call an untidy room art, but neither are arguably impressive in any way."
-The Independent Voice (
www.theindependentvoice.org/2018/05/06/dunnock-little-stories-told-by-ghosts/)
Co-released with Sylvan Screams Analog. Cassettes available from them here:
www.facebook.com/SylvanScreamsAnalog/
AWP025
AWP026