Get all 9 Matt Oleksa releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Bella-Bella Mystic, Clutch, Dig, Gotcha, Nodding Flowers, Ice Eaters, Honeymoon After a Rain, Every Bug Wants To Live, and 1 more.
1. |
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St. Paul and the city folk
All in all make pretty good smoke
I’m goin’ where it takes me
I’m movin’ where it shakes me
To the country
Take it back from where you came
Get yourself another name
I’m going where it’s sunny
And honey, there ain’t no money
In the country
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2. |
Hugo Returns
03:33
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Good evening, how are you?
It’s so good to see you
I’ve been thinking about you
Ever since you went away
Did you climb a mountain?
Did you drink from a fountain?
Was the food good in Portugal?
Or was it Spain?
Did it ever rain?
Looks like it might rain
Anouk took to drinking
When Anouk took to feeding
The madman off the caravan
With a cracked silver spoon
And the neighbor’s shoulder
Has grown a little colder
Blue moss on the cross
Whittled from a willow tree
Or was it hickory?
Or chicken bone?
Billows of scarlet a-gatherin’
The Black Sea is ragin’
A funeral, a sister’s weddin’
Brought Hugo back again
The nurses drink vodka
The radio plays polka
Grandpa’s on fire
But he don’t feel a thing
The Steppe in the stucco
Loose-leaf tobacco
Ropes of smoke tie tongues to the moon
But that ain’t the moon
It’s a cold clock
Billows of scarlet a-gatherin’
The Black Sea is ragin’
A funeral, a sister’s weddin’
Brought Hugo back again
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3. |
Watch It Flow
04:09
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Black Market Mama
Below the black alder tree
Do you know where a Joe
Can get a cup of coffee?
You see, I’m weak and I’m weary
Been seein’ colors oh so
Hot, sharp dagger
Watch it flow
Watch it flow
Down the Mississippi River
To the Gulf of Mexico
Of city and country
It’s easy to hurt
In the sun, in the rain
A fistful of dirt
Coal and cotton
Homegrown Texaco
You know, a ticket to a burnin’
Watch it flow
Watch it flow
Down the Mississippi River
To the Gulf of Mexico
The water is black
It’s cold to the touch
It crawls, it falls
It don’t think too much
A better man before me
A butcher yet to go
You know, you walk the line, arrive in time
Watch it flow
Watch it flow
Down the Mississippi River
To the Gulf of Mexico
Take it or leave it
It’s only opened space
Mercy’s slippery
She don’t wear a face
Bursts of violet
In idol eyes that grow
On a wolf chewin’ a dog dream
Watch it flow
Watch it flow
Down the Mississippi River
To the Gulf of Mexico
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4. |
Draft Day BBQ
02:42
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Blackbird perched on autumn’s shoulder
Joking while the wheat fields burn
You’ll get out when you get older
Stuff your cake, wait your turn
Kids catchin’ leaves fallin’ from the trees
Leavin’ ‘em in bags by the side of the road
Down the road there’s a home
And in that home there’s a room
Doom swats flies from a broom
Raisins for the bride and the groom
Get in tune
You’re coming on way too soon
Turn that frown upside down
Watch the clown cut the balloon
Make a wish—blow a kiss—holy shit!—it’s the moon
Black smoke gallows dance above
A little bronze man on the window ledge
Barbosol worn in a Rawlings glove
Memory shaves with a razor’s edge
The deeper the root, the sweeter the fruit
The harder the homeboy crack
Out the window, down the road
In my papa’s Cadillac
Veering off the track
Never coming back
Are you on crack?
You cannot save the hunchback
Life is time—time is money—money’s time, so get going
Walk the line—arrive in time for the end of time to get going
Black smoke gallows dance above
A little bronze man on the window ledge
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5. |
The Jugglers, Mid-April
03:57
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Should I go first, love
What would you do?
Would you go back to Houston?
Would you see it through?
The snow is fallin’
All around our door
Snow on the snow
From the night before
Should you go first, love
I’ll tell you what I’d do
I’d soak your bones
In barbecue
I’d ring the bell
I’d lock all the doors
I’d light a cigarette
I’d finish the chores
Girls/ Boys get pistols
Boys/Girls get cap guns
Let’s see what the bang-bang can do
Oh, maybe
My moon pie baby
Tonight, it’s me or you
Should I go first, love
What would you do?
Would you go back to Boise?
Would you see it through?
The rain is drivin’
Rather endlessly
Into the misty lake
Of my memory
Well, should you go first, love
I’ll tell you what I’d do
I’d sucker punch
The cockatoo
I’d call Canary
We’d catch a game
Better luck next year
I love you, it’s a shame
Girls/Boys get pistols
Boys/Girls get cap guns
Let’s see what the bang-bang can do
Oh, maybe
My moon pie baby
Tonight, it’s me or you
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6. |
Rule of the Spoon
03:47
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The rain beats down upon the tin
Roof and runs down and in
Oak barrels like a babbling stream
What Jack calls rain, Jane calls a dream
I was a bandit you know
But now I fold the clothes
Be nice to me
Be nice to me
And I’ll be nice to you
Through the keyhole, candlelight
Flickers and trembles all through the night
He sings Irene as she sharpens knives
The cats around here got a thousand lives
I was a bandit you know
But now I fold the clothes
Be nice to me
Be nice to me
And I’ll be nice to you
The sad blue glow of another dawn
Cut ‘cross the hills, spilled over the lawn
Bottle caps, cigarettes in a Tonka truck
What Jane calls junk, Jack calls good luck
I was a bandit you know
But now I fold the clothes
Be nice to me
Be nice to me
And I’ll be nice to you
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7. |
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And anyway, I don’t care
Box 'em up, send 'em over there
Black smoke to keep away the frost
Nowhere to go, nowhere to get lost
Out of sight, out of mind—the country
Purple perfume on the wind
She around but she ain’t in
The devil won but he got bored
Turned in his horn for a four-door Ford
Gone to Utah upon visitation from a cow chewin’ fresh carnation
I caught ya sippin’ vodka on the balcony
Tossin’ tomatoes anonymously
I’ll forgive you if you waltz with me
Get back inside and waltz
Babushka’s out back in the tin trashcan
And she's feelin’ for bugs with her good hand
“Escargot tastes like lead”
“No, it don’t, it’s in your head”
In her head, it’s all in her head
President Elect of the junkyard union
Choked on the fifth prior to communion
Died on James who spilled on Ted
Who punched James who spat on Ed, said
“Positive Actuarial Event!”
I caught ya sippin’ vodka on the balcony
Tossin’ tomatoes anonymously
I’ll forgive you if you waltz with me
Get back inside and waltz
The news enough to nearly fall
Like Picasso through the wall
Cold, crimson moon burns above
A pail of milk, a splash of blood
A horse eye blazin’ in the mud
And anyway, I don’t care
Box 'em up, send 'em over there
She gone, she gone, she gone with him
She gone, she gone, she gone with him
She gone to Utah
I caught ya sippin’ vodka on the balcony
Tossin’ tomatoes anonymously
I’ll forgive you if you waltz with me
Get back inside and waltz
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8. |
Aberdeen
03:17
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Sittin’ there
In the easy chair
On a Sunday afternoon
And there’s something in the ways
The light’s strikin’ the daisies
That gets me to thinkin’ of you
“But a memory”
Says a bumblebee
Drowning in a cola can
“Buzzes awhile
Then goes out of style
Oh, you do what you do while you can”
Say one for the hungry
Say one for Aberdeen
Say one for the thirsty
Say one for Aberdeen
Say one for the naked
Say one for Aberdeen
When the branch broke
And the lion woke
He sang for me
On the ledge
At the water’s edge
Countin’ fish floating by
One fish, two fish
Red fish, blue fish
Life gets hard then you die
If I had the time
For every dime
I put away for impendin’ doom
Could’ve been
Would’ve been
Breakin’ into bloomin’ daisies
Say one for the hungry
Say one for Aberdeen
Say one for the naked
Say one for Aberdeen
Say one for the thirsty
Say one for Aberdeen
When the branch broke
And the lion woke
He sang for me
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9. |
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Of course, it’s almost October
And the lantern is a stain
Poured over what’s over
Pressed against the windowpane
It’s raining on the cold one hundred
Anastasia's sleeping
Speak soft. Please, don’t boast
Those are flowers in the freezer
Through a postcard of a coast
It’s raining on the cold one hundred
Every storm’s got a silver lining
As much I know—it’s true
Still, I could’ve lived with the evening
If you could’ve lived with it, too
It’s raining on the cold one hundred again
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10. |
Paris, Kentucky
04:26
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She comes to my window
In the deep death of evenin’
In a breath of light
Familiar and strange
Before the coral flame
Before her
Before the laws
Of the blade and the lamb
Come with me, she says
Fade into me, she says
And the four walls melt
Breath becomin’
Stallions runnin’
Over deserts peppered
With brittlebush in bloom
Flowing over
And overflowin’
Tigris, Euphrates
The faint glimmer of a room
Let it fall from your face
This is the place
Where Marina sang
I’m just a poor boy
From Paris, Kentucky
Born near a room
With a window and a view
And there are six, no seven
Yes, seven oranges
In a bowl below a portrait of a photograph of you
Between the charcoal and page
The beast and the cage
I am the iron king
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11. |
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She woke, swung her head to the window
As her village was burnin’ down
Twenty years of dogs kept in kettles
Twenty miles from Raventown
The window is a mirror
It reflects dimly
The light tremblin’
In a gypsy’s face
And the face is flesh
It is only temporary
There’s soul beyond
The last bell’s toll
A long way from Romania
A long way from here
On the Kansas train
On a Kansas plain
Nursin’ a long neck beer
Pierced and poured over canvas
The artist does what she must
Cuts a stone swollen with velvet and golden
And is down the road in a cloud of dust
Dust is breath
It resides faithfully
In the word, in the song
Of the holy fool
You’re born here
You die here
The arrow pierces cold air
As it fades into the mouth of melody
A long way from Romania
A long way from here
On a Kansas train
On a Kansas plain
Nursin’ a long neck beer
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Matt Oleksa Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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