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MAKE LIKE (2015 album)

by Roommate

/
1.
PEOPLE ON SCREENS people on screens they do terrible things people on screens so much more gorgeous than me back in the day we played in fields of gravel and clay we bloodied our knees and fled from our mothers we bled like brothers people on screens my hands control what they see spite blighted feed flight plans, intransigent schemes fright brightened street white guilt, white hot private screed equal extremes are we still friends? does the scene ever end? breeders will breed and thieves will plunder bereaved, we will wonder people on screens habits fate the dream people on screens have your way with me have your way with me
2.
SECRET CLAW 05:16
SECRET CLAW secret claw hoorah hoorah secret claw hoorah hoorah hurry up and flash me a sign are we scurrying or standing in line? do we worry or do we semper fi? do we tourniquet or is this goodbye? secret claw tell all tell all secret claw tell all tell all tell us everything you know to be true and if you don't know just pretend that you do give us names that we can blame for the fall give up the game give up the secret claw tell us all about your disease did you get it from the things you believe there must be better ways to play out this scene don't be afraid to trade your blue for green hurry up and flash us a sign are we scurrying or standing in line? do we worry or do we testify? are we born again or is this goodbye? secret claw hoorah hoorah secret claw hoorah hoorah
3.
DANCER HOWL 06:53
DANCER HOWL enlighten me go ahead, frighten me what is that shine in your eyes? why won't you apologize? change the subject turn back toward the stage don't claim to love it if you don't don't make like hate when you're really just afraid I know I seemed impervious If you only knew how nervous I was I know I seemed gregarious If you only knew how scared I was change the subject get back in the game don't waste your judgment on some scum you'll never know don't make like hate-- you are loved and saved oooh in north side caves we pretend to be brave as in vain we attempt to explain fresh graves on the south and the out sides will we never tire of rewiring our brains with low-grade fame and role-play? level up, it's never enough find another face a further out space pace yourself replace yourself do you still get thrilled by a shrill parade? do you still get chills when the killscreen fades? are you paragon or renegade? do you dare to want for better days? change the subject step back into your stance don't try to rise above it when it's fine here way down low why make like hate when you could fake like romance? when you could make like trance? drummer dance sweat through the ass of your pants singer listen singer listen dancer howl there's only here and now dancer how dancer ha
4.
CURSES 04:35
CURSES I swear it wasn't me I swear it wasn't me did I ever tell you who I was going to be? or did I only tell you it wasn't me? I’m overdressing the wreckage, counting cracks and catching flack for it I’m talking smack at the back of the bus all the way to the valley of death I sing my curses in reverse unrehearsed, we're none the worse for it we’re none the worse for it this family is a cult this cult it is a home this house it is a dried-up pile of bones watch your mouth and soon these bones you will own I’m trying my protect my possessions, counting blessings and losing track again I’m ransacking the past for believable masks of irredeemable men I sing my curses in reverse unrehearsed and what's worse, no one notices we might as well lose at life if we keep winning, winning winning winning at this we might as well lose at life if we keep winning this this I thought I was sure I thought I was pure I thought I was cured I thought I was yours
5.
WILDERNESS 03:07
WILDERNESS when you left me in the wilderness I didn’t cry though I howled at the moon and scowled at the sky ooh when you left me in the wilderness oh eventually I thanked my lucky stars that you didn’t leave me in the car ooh
6.
OLD GOLDEN 04:33
OLD GOLDEN flying like a bat out of hell crying like a two-hearted fool croaking like a broke speak & spell I am choking on an old golden rule pretty lady don't keep me waiting I’m a regular here but i've still got the fear I think it's worse now that I have found myself come on let's drink to our health! shrieking baby, you've got your whole life to go crazy you've no way of knowing how good you have it you just grab and forget while your parents consume and regret ruin and wreck! if I knew the way to your house I would draw a map on my hand there's no way this stain will come out there's no shame can contain my demand humble urchin, someday you will slay with your beauty don't get snooty up there on top of the world remember the homely girls all the lonely, interned, uninsured humble servant your master is lurking pretend you don't see him and that you don't know how hard it would be to be him go away go away! serve us some other day, go away! there are backwards black holes in the ocean floor there are days when the pain gets inflamed and immaculate rage gets engorged there are days when the flames reach the sky we don't even ask why we don't even ask why flying like a bat out of hell crying like a two-hearted fool croaking like a broke speak & spell I am choking on an old golden rule I am broken like an old golden rule
7.
RIOT SIZE 05:12
RIOT SIZE I have seen stupidity 
so bold it blinds I have seen the cruelest clueless worst kinds tiger in a lion suit 
 beetle in a pine lodgepoles are all getting eaten alive shiny things on tiny screens inviting us to fight
 to justify outrage on a burning page
 fake smiles in a pile fanning flames to damn the names of matron saints in exile when my favorite singer died
 my eyes ran dry rejoice rejoice rejoice rejoice rejoice in voices deeper than time native tongues of favorite sons expunged by haters' love
 invaders' love plaintive tales of sacred fails blown up to giant size
 riot size we can amortize, rationalize 
 lies are still lies
 we can clamor for some glamour prize
 we can we can stammer, stick our cameras into riots' eyes trade your grief for mimicry, trade your rage for laughter
 shake shake the rafters it's not too late to chase your dreams and cheat your masters make like disaster trade these sword for minor chords and major maxims get reactive
8.
TRI TWI 04:41
TRI TWI invisible silent   triple twilit   swinging door no need for excitement it's just lightning it's just war insidious skyline fetid byline standard and poor these words an incitement an indictment an open sore nothing more confederate styling yankee dry heave banshee squall this isn't your crisis any way you slice it it's not your call it's not your fault it's a simple thing, empathy don't you make a symphony of my sympathy I've been you one day you will have been me too this crown shrinks like violets this autopilot has run ashore this town stinks like violence in a dry wind breathe insipid lore no need for excitement it's just lightning it's just war thirsty gore bursting pores mercy corps cursed bore nothing more

about

100% of Roommate's share of proceeds to benefit The National Network of Abortion Funds:
abortionfunds.org

press quotes:

"It's not flashy, it's not trendy, but like a good friend, the time you spend in its company will be handsomely rewarded."
-Tim Clarke, Dots and Loops, (#1 on "My favourite records of 2015")

"Make Like feels like a culmination of all that’s come before it – a distillation of an aesthetic and a refinement of purpose. Just shy of forty minutes, the album is astute, economical, meticulously performed and produced, and deeply affecting, both lyrically and musically. It’s a thoroughly satisfying whole, an unselfconsciously classic-sounding record with masterful segues and a neat division into two sides that no doubt rewards listening on vinyl...
A thread of heartening resilience runs through Make Like‘s atmosphere of confusion and frustration, while the balance it sustains between the widescreen and the intimate rewards repeat listens with fresh revelations."
-Tim Clarke, [sic] Magazine

"...a gem of hazy, off-kilter atmospheric pop. Think Jesus and Mary Chain sharing a hookah with MGMT and you get the picture."
-Jim Kaz, New Noise Magazine

"straight up amazing... a straight-forward blend of Gang of Four-ish edginess (albeit with softer corners) along with the most palatable of pre-hiatus Dismemberment Plan’s harmonies. It’s catchy, but with plenty of turns and minors, upbeat but not exactly hip-shaking."
-Jacob An Kittenplan, Cassette Gods

"The truest success of Make Like is that one can physically hear in it a musician who has found a group of fellow makers with whom he can realize the sounds in his head in ways he’s maybe never been able to bring to fruition before. There is comfort here, heads on shoulders, a long iron bar of time bent and flattened and curled on itself into a circle...
...this may not be their last album, but if it is, I can’t think of a better way for them to go out. Complete and unfettered, it’s like a story so well told it almost achieves a kind of cosmic symmetry. Let this be the place we use to mark their time in our lives, them giving us their best and us giving them our appreciation."
-Dom Sinacola, Cokemachineglow

"brainy, nuanced pop"
-Philip Montoro, Chicago Reader

"If there are ghosts on Roommate's new album—Make Like, released in June on Strange Weather—Lambert never addresses them by name. His new lyrics are free-associative and darkly playful, cast against a fevered backdrop of psychedelic art-pop."
-Sasha Geffen, Chicago Reader

"The band is ostensibly a pop ensemble built around Kent Lambert's songwriting, but we use 'pop' loosely here. The hooks are off kilter and many of the song have a weird, tilting and slightly disorienting feel to them. This is power pop viewed through a smoky glass reflecting a slightly alternate dimension. It resembles pop music, but its heart shuffles and lurches instead of beating in an expected fashion.
-Jim Kopeny, Chicagoist

"On the track 'People on Screens' local indie-pop project Roommate observes those who have grown from children playing outside into adults glued to reality TV. Like reality programming the opening track is alternately alluring and terrifying—or maybe just terrifyingly alluring—as the band pulls together dub hand claps, spindly organ melodies, and what sounds like howling wind to create a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere with fine, lighter-than-air melodies. “People on Screens” sets the standard for Roommate’s fourth album, the brand-new Make Like (Strange Weather). Front man and founder Kent Lambert isn’t afraid to explore the darkness of contemporary society, which enriches Roommate’s whimsical, lush music. The group hits the mark with 'Wilderness,' a stark piano-led number that blossoms into a lovely psych-pop tune and rises like the sun."
-Leor Galil, Chicago Reader

credits

released June 23, 2015

ROOMMATE
MAKE LIKE

RELEASED ON STRANGE WEATHER RECORDS

Recorded and mixed by Nick Broste and Roommate with Gerard Barreto at Soma, Shape Shoppe, and Haddrock, Chicago, and the Roger Brown House, New Buffalo, Michigan
Arranged by Roommate and Nick Broste 
SECRET CLAW horn arrangements by Elanor Leskiw
Lyrics by Kent Lambert (ASCAP)
TRI TWI lyrics by Kent Lambert and Sharon Lanza
Mastered by Rashad Becker, Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin 
Album cover by David Barret Lloyd
Layout design by Dean Rank
___
A
1 PEOPLE ON SCREENS
Nick Broste: treatments
Kent Lambert: vox, piano, synths
Gillian Lisée: bass, vox
Seth Vanek: drums, drumpad, percussion 
Sam Wagster: guitar 

2 SECRET CLAW
Nick Broste: trombone, treatments
Sam Johnson: trumpet 
Kent Lambert: vox, piano, synths 
Elanor Leskiw: trombone
Gillian Lisée: bass, vox
Lance Loiselle: sousaphone 
Luther Rochester: Buchla Music Easel 
Seth Vanek: drums 
Sam Wagster: guitars 

3 DANCER HOWL
Nick Broste: treatments
Kent Lambert: vox, piano, Rhodes, synths, electronics
Gillian Lisée: bass, vox 
Seth Vanek: drums, drumpad 
Sam Wagster: guitar

4 CURSES
Kent Lambert: vox, piano, synths
Gillian Lisée: bass, vox
Luther Rochester: vibraphone
Seth Vanek: drums, drumpad
Sam Wagster: pedal steel guitar

B
5 WILDERNESS
Kent Lambert: vox, piano, synths, drum programming
Gillian Lisée: bass, vox
Luther Rochester: Buchla Music Easel, synths
Seth Vanek: drums, drumpad, bowed cymbal
Sam Wagster: pedal steel guitar

6 OLD GOLDEN
Nick Broste: trombone, treatments
Kent Lambert: vox, piano, Farfisa organ, Rhodes, synths, percussion
Gillian Lisée: bass, vox
Seth Vanek: drums, drumpad
Sam Wagster: guitar

7 RIOT SIZE
Reid Coker: guitar
Kent Lambert: vox, piano, synths
Gillian Lisée: bass, vox
Luther Rochester: Buchla Music Easel, vibraphone
Seth Vanek: drums, drumpad, autoharp
Sam Wagster: pedal steel guitar

8 TRI TWI
Nick Broste: vox, percussion
Cody Hennesy: guitars
Kent Lambert: vox, piano, synths, percussion
David Levine: flute
Luther Rochester: vibraphone
Seth Vanek: drums, percussion
Sam Wagster: bass

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about

Roommate Chicago

Roommate began as a Kent Lambert solo project in NYC in 2000 and has been an ever-mutating Chicago band since 2004. The band's 2015 album MAKE LIKE was described by [sic] magazine's Tim Clarke as "astute, economical, meticulously performed and produced, and deeply affecting, both lyrically and musically." ... more

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