Get all 13 Short Hand releases available on Bandcamp.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of stir that mule up, Fourth Peter, Third Peter, Short Life, ill fish, The Leaves, Head Full, Punk Heart, and 5 more.
1. |
Those Roses
02:38
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Nobody knows what those roses know
And those roses know a ton
Nobody knows what those roes know
And those roses know a ton
Love’s like a box that you find in a shop
And you keep it under the bed
And one night you get and inkling of it
Through the mattress under your head
Love’s like a ghost that you keep in the house
Who’s scared of dying twice
The host of the house mostly jokes
That ghosts should be more scared of life
The whole entire history of love
Is a mystery stuck in the mud
The wheels that are spinning are kicking up dirt
But mostly they’re kicking up blood
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2. |
Four Times Depression
03:26
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One time it happened
Two times it mattered
Three times it shattered
And you can’t just let it all go
Four times the sorrows
Five times the sharpness
Six times the hardness
And you can’t just let it all go, no
One time a phone rings
Two times the same thing
Three times a wedding
And you can’t just let it all go
Four times depression
Five times depression
Six times depression
And you just can’t let it all go, no
One time in anger
Two times in danger
Three times it changes
And you just can’t let it all go
Four times forgiveness
Five times the bitterness
Six times the darkness
And you just can’t let it all go, no
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3. |
Strobe Light Photos
03:34
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There are picture frames
hung on the walls
In patterns all over this house
Kids grow up
in strobe-light photos
As we watch from the couch
Books on the shelves are still
Full of words
Even when they are covered in dust
The look in your eye
Is the shape of the sky
And the shape of both of us
The way you move
In a soft bathrobe
Is too sexy to recount
Your lucky sheets your lucky pillows
To feel the breath
That you breathe out
To be in your dreams
Is to be everything
Not possible when I am awake
So all that I want
When I fall asleep
Is the love we could make
Winter begins
I can feel the wind
Through the gap in the backdoor
I could say to you babe
I want you
But babe I could say much more
There are patterns
Like ladders we climb
Till we find each other
We could fall alone
Like puzzled lovers
Are we could fall together
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4. |
More Good Times
03:35
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When I think about the ins and the outs
Of what you and I have gone through together
I think about the rivers
And I think about the changes in the weather
And me at 23 and me at 43
And me at however old I’ll get
It seems has had you around
For nearly every bit of it
And we could say we’re done
We could say let’s move on
We could say goodbye but we won’t
More good times are coming if we don’t
And what might have been with hers and with hims
As dreams are easy to regret
What you got seems short
Of what you think you should get
But instead of speculation and forever facing
A world of endless guessing
I’ve had blessing after blessing
More or less since the wedding
And what’s true enough now was true enough back then
On our honeymoon, hon
I’m a walking problem
And you’re a walking solution
And years like birds and monuments of words
Are crushed in our silent hands
And the tears and the laughter
Come and pass like the sand
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5. |
Something Other
02:56
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They said it was Eve
And that he was displeased
And we know it because of the Torah
They said it was Cain
And that Able was slain
Because daddy didn’t like flora
But I know something other
They said it was Noah
Inside a big boat of
Animals packed into pews
They said it was Moses
Drowning the Pharaohs
In a sea that was split for the Jews
They said it was me
With weakness and glee
They said that I’d go straight to hell
They said it was you
Because you were there too
Like two angels from heaven we fell
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6. |
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There is love and there are ghosts
There’s what stays and what goes
There’s the future there’s the smoke
Out of the real windshield
There is iron and there is rust
There is wood and sawdust
There is now and nostalgia
For what never was
Babe, there’s an emptiness about dreams
But a dreaminess about reality
Which is really just you and me
There’s a family, there are ashes
There’s a passion and the next new fashion
There’s a body and a shadow
But only one can you touch
And there’s a lifetime in our touch
Not a pastime, past time way too much
There’s a lifeboat in our love
And there are oars in the blood
There’s the hostess and the guest
There’s the proof and the guess
There the treasure and the quest
That no one can survive
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7. |
Waiting On Mountains
02:06
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Waiting on mountains to walk
Waiting on mountains to talk
Some of us don’t see no ghosts at all
Some of us don’t see much
Waiting on mountains to run
Waiting on mountains to come
Some of us see clouds blotting the sun
Some of us don’t see why
Some of us are shaking our heads
In the choir
Waiting on mountains to roam
Waiting on mountains at home
Stars like nail hole still in the wall
The moon on a hook like a hat
The great beyond just the ceiling
Above where we nap
Waiting on mountains to leap
Waiting on mountains to sleep
Dancers stand like lambs in a dream
There weight sits into their hips
Some of us can’t move our lips
To say this
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8. |
Nothing Wrong With Esau
04:03
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She said something breathy
Like a fog over a bay
And I heard something special
In the bones of my face
And he said something indistinct
And she heard something clear
And I knew something skated by
But I didn’t know to where
Ain’t that right, Rachel?
Ain’t that right, Rachel?
I don’t know what you saw
But I saw nothing wrong with Esau
I have been the ugly black sheep
And I’ve been the bear skin rug
I’ve pulled everything I can from me
I’ve pulled and pulled and tugged
And he’s been the knight in golf shorts
Swooping down from the sky
And set up tall his throne for life
While I laid down and died
We all have our problems
In a world too short on time
We all feel the pressure nesting
We all commit the crimes
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9. |
So Good Looking
03:05
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4am I go to bed
The blanket covers
Just one leg
An image of you
Fresh in my head
Of you saying
What you said
The way you’re looking at me
So good looking
7am and I wake to find
You’ve awoken
Up my mind
And I am in
Another time
When days become
Dreams of mine
Too tired to leave
The bed
When I could dream
Of you instead
Too in love
To give up yet
Too sure
Not to bet
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10. |
The Same Mistakes
04:05
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You can’t go back and change what might have been
But you can always make the same mistakes again
You can’t know right from wrong always
And when you do you don’t have to do it anyway
There are roads we travel and roads we pass
It’s a world of steel, it’s a world of glass
There’s a creek that runs half way in between
You and me and certain half lived dreams
There are swamps just off the highway some
There are birds atop old tree stumps
Cars hiss like old librarians
And silence bubbles up from a puddle of sin
It takes a whole lifetime to understand
How time takes a toll on woman and man
How a smile from up close is a dying star
How a voice from afar darts in the dark
You can’t go back and change what might have been
But you can always make the same mistakes again
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11. |
St. Caroline Ingles
03:28
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There’s nowhere to look
And there’s nothing to find
The reasons are lost like a kiss
You’d think that I’d learn
But, no, I don’t learn
I fall like a doll in a pit
St. Caroline Ingles, muse from afar
Please help me get up again
St. Caroline Ingles, lover of Charles
Please help me get up again
The boxes are checked
The architecture is wrecked
Like Napoleon at Waterloo
The good old days
Are ashes and grey
But dangle like bait on a hook
Down from my cortex
Some boys come running
All hiding from the cops
Balanced up high
Just wobbly kites
They dive from the rooftops
It might take a bit
But in the end it might
just happen in a flash
it’s like you can’t breath
But you can, just the thing,
Is each breath is a question you ask
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12. |
Vandolah, circa 1989
03:30
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An Econoline van and a spray paint can
The day outstretched like the devil’s hand
To the underpass, where we can paint a sign
Growing older on Vandolah, circa 1989
A sealed envelope or a telephone ring
A wire, a fax, or a series of dreams
A smoke signal or some squiggly little lines
Send it over to Vandolah, circa 1989
And in the summer under tall, tall trees
By the river, where no one can see
We can kiss, nose to nose
And lay down on our undone clothes
So here comes the wind, the great tempting
The sun, the summer, the simmering
The tires above and the life behind
There on the shoulder of Vandolah, circa 1989
Much later in a pocket of night
Over our faces the moonglow slides
The pines alive like dark green torches
We touch so much it scorches
And so again it seems the road to sin
Was really the road worth travelling
Not being good is always such a good time
Just like lovers on Vandolah, circa 1989
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13. |
Always Been Thus
03:10
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If it’s us, then it’s us
And it’s always been thus
So our love won’t split like a tree
If it’s us, then it’s us
And it’s more than enough
For you to stay right here with me
I was young when I spun
The perfect tale of some
Idea that I dug from the sand
But you came and you changed
My thinking for a change
And I found myself a whole new man
Over time in this life
The carrot and the knife
start to feel a bit like old friends
But it’s you, bulletproof
And a lover of the truth
That comes to the rescue again
No house cards, here we are
With a foundation hard
Though the wind and the earth can moan
There we stand, hand in hand
And and and and and and
Baking brick after brick for the home
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14. |
Always Lazy
03:23
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You’re always lazy like an anarchist
You’re always lazy when you’re an artist
You can fill mountains, you can fill hearts
The more art you make the lazier you are
You’re always lazy like a morning mist
You’re always lazy when you’re an artist
You can move mountains you can move stars
The more art you make the lazier you are
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Short Hand Muncie, Indiana
Short Hand figures that it's easier to learn to play an instrument than it is to find someone who can play it. He also figures that it's easier for him to do the writing, recording, mixing, artwork, and anything else that might need to be done. In the end, a set of sounds collect themselves into different shapes one might call "albums." Some sound like this and some sound like that. ... more
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