Get all 19 Roommate releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of HOLD ON (Wilson Phillips Cover - 2022 single), INNER LIGHT (2021 single), UNTITLED Patricia Schneider (2020 single), FRENCH DISKO (Stereolab cover - 2020 single), BYSTANDER (2020 single), CAPACITOR (Takashi Shallow Dub Version - 2020 single), CAPACITOR (2020 single), KEPLER-452B (2018 single), and 11 more.
1. |
Day After
02:51
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We laughed so much our chests caved in
our stomachs ruptured
Some kind of rapture
like in scripture
We cried so much we thought we'd drown
We thought we'd perish
withered pale and hairless
naked and embarrassed
But instead
we washed up on gentle shores
our wounds healed and sealed
and our bones restored
We ate and ate until we could eat no more
We drank and drank until we drink no more
We slept and slept until we could sleep no more
We dreamt until there was no morning
We dreamt until there was no morning
We dreamt until there was no mourning.
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2. |
We Were Enchanted
08:11
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It's been happening a lot lately
just before I wake up
I see the most terrible things--
School buses exploding
volcanos erupting from the tops of skyscrapers
moustaches dripping with blood
The kid's playing video games
he's probably been up all night
He's mumbling something about potions and daggers
he's firing missiles into corpses
He says that the ghost in the kitchen
keeps turning the microwave on
Is that you funny monkey?
Where'd you learn to do that?
Please don't teach the new cat
Someday we'll let the machines
do everything, everything
Someday we'll never complain
And our most talented friends
will wake up and work again, work again
Shake shake shake their skinny fists again
The old man tried to kill the curse
but he only made it worse
He left us with a song and dance
he left us, he left us, he left us with a heart attack
A mother in the hospital
a sister in the grave
A brother in a supermax
with no one to save him and no one to save
The kid's teacher tells him this is not the golden age
Something tells me that there was never a golden age
never a golden age
Someday the oil will run out
and airplanes forever will be grounded
We will learn to survive from the neighbor's garbage
Troubled heads will prevail
with songs that shimmer and wail
Kings of pain will reign via email
Like all the other kings they will fail.
Funny monkey, come haunt us again
attack us, distract us with your gale force winds
Bring us a virus, unite us in irrational fear
Bring us a mandate and some band-aids and a six-pack of beer
Bring us something to make us think of something else
Bring us medicine but don't bring us health
Bring us money but don't bring us wealth
Bring us something else, something else
It's been happening a lot lately
just before I fall asleep
I see the most beautiful things
The kid's playing video games
with a glint in his eyes like flint in a brushfire
He's singing along to some secondhand song
He's flying a Porsche through a gorgeous sunset
There is beauty all around
Even when we wandered in a terrible trance
We could feel the romance
We made such magical sounds
as we climbed from terraces verdant and rancid
We were enchanted.
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3. |
Way Out
04:04
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It's raining, it's raining and the sun is out
There is fever, there is fever in the town
There are fires in the castle and all around
There is cancer, there is cancer in my house
Bone doctor says I'm in trouble
That I should save for medicine
Witch doctor pulled me from the rubble
He saved my life then made a deathmask from my skin
You're crying, you're crying and your hair is down
There is fighting, there is fighting in the street
There are soldiers in the schoolhouse and underground
There's a pile of flesh and flowers at your feet
Town cryer says we're in trouble
That we should run toward the sun
Crooks and liars, picks and shovels
We'll leave them all behind before this day is done
I'm floating, I'm floating over angry crowds
There is magic, there is magic in the sky
Will you find me in my tiny corner of the clouds?
I'll be waiting with my hands over my eyes
Ringbearer, bring another eulogy
Make it short and sweet and pretty, get it right this time
Wayfarer, burn another effigy
Make a show of it
They won't be getting over this, not tonight
Get on with it
Keep the bonfires lit, all right
All right.
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4. |
New Steam
04:39
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Newsman
Sing me the blues, man
Please don't cry
I've seen the images
I've heard the screams
I need you to tell me how to feel about the whole thing, yeah?
It's all so horrible
I'm inconsolable
Why don't you sing me something anyway, yeah?
Sing me a lullaby
I'd like to sleep tonight
I've been staring at the news for five days
Newswoman
There's a bad storm coming
Don't look so afraid
You've got a tidy script
You'd be wise to stick to it
We know that we'll be fucked when we wake up
But please just tell us we'll be safe, yeah
We'll all be watching you
So sing us a tune or two
Isn't that what you get paid so much to do, yeah?
Sing us a lullaby
We just might sleep tonight
Maybe we can dream the news away, yeah
Maybe we can dream the news away, yeah
Maybe we will dream the news away.
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5. |
Tea Leaves
04:04
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You've got it really good
at least that much is understood
You've got a lot of nerve
to say I don't deserve you
Did I hurt you
when I conquered all the earth for you
when I signed my life in blood to you
when I swallowed up the flood and struck the thunder of our love
We've got everything to lose
we've got papercuts and bruises
and constitutional abuses
in this the palace of our choosing
We could flee this dynasty
in paper wigs and latex faces
we could hide in distant places
places we once promised we'd destroy
We'll kill the killjoys
and sell the story to the tabloids
they'll sift for glory through the boring details
the gory details of our love
I've read the tea leaves
and I know that you will never leave me
and even though I know you won't believe me
I know I know I know I know I know I know we'll never die
The gods will find us
and with their sacraments they'll bind us
and they will cast our love behind us
leaving nothing to remind us
that we were once the greatest lovers in the world
They will cast our love behind us
leaving nothing to remind us
that we were once the greatest lovers in the world.
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6. |
Last Dreams Of Summer
07:27
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Rise and shine my friend
It's your birthday--the first day of summer
Yeah, the world's getting dumber
but don't you stop getting smart
It might be news to you
that you are no one until someone makes you
I know you've been waiting to break through
Try not to break apart
Get your best guitar
and take your mother's car
up to the lake house
Get the lead out--
your new friends are expecting you
You won't sleep tonight--
as long as there's light you'll be singing
The songs you're bringing will drown out the howls
of the midnight sun
Sing your best for them--
let them see the fear and hear the love
You'll never work again
if you can show them what you're made of
All your city friends
will spin and spin and spin and spin you into legend
They will close their eyes
and proselytize
as waste flames light up the sky
Rise and shine my friend
In this riverbed you are born again
On this mountain of garbage
such beautiful grasses grow
Scale the canyon wall
From the cliffs you will see
how a great city falls into ruin
In that crater of fire there soon will be
mountains of snow
In your second life
you're a siren song of awkward sex
And it's a putrid rain
that beats against your glory chest
You are sick with rage
waiting for the scene to render
Don't you close your eyes
when the dragons fly
and fake names light up the sky
In your dreams tonight
you will suffer salvation by candlelight
and I will tell you
that in hell there are worse things than fire
And the ghost brigades
in their slow parade
up to heaven
They will sing with a fury
that only the Lord can inspire
We are young and strong
and death is whistling through the trees
It's a stupid song
but still it brings us to our knees
We are sick with rage
waiting for the light to change
We'd better close our eyes.
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7. |
Night (Rhombus cover)
02:50
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It is the night
It is the night
It is the night come in the afternoon
We are the flies
We are the flies
We're always flying over your dead bodies
Because we're all real tired of me
We're real tired of the shitty stuff
Well let's eliminate the downtime and the throw-up
Let's fool ourselves again
Well let's eliminate the temple and the anchor
and the hooks that don't sink in
Because we're all real tired of me
We're real tired of the city...
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8. |
Isn't Radio
06:07
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You can keep your cheap nostalgia
You can keep your lucky pen
Never mind what your parents called you
You're a fine little specimen
Who will you regale with your family folk-tales
now that the radio ran away?
(and a sunset blaze fades to smoke trails)
You could take to the streets
You could take to the shadows
You could fake like you've taken your own life
and you could hide in Colorado
or really anywhere the wind don't blow
go, go go go go make your way past the border patrol and into Mexico!
At the top of the mountain your brain turns to cotton
and your veins turn to ice
Transmitters are on but the songs are long forgotten
These bone-tired anthems will have to suffice
stone-fired anthems will have to suffice
It isn't radio but it almost sounds like
what radio used to sound like
long ago
A schoolboy's magic show in a field of candy
Mouths foaming and bodies slamming
and hearts aglow
It isn't radio
it's a brokedown torch song
buried under a stamped-out campfire
It's the last hot coal
It's isn't radio but it almost sounds like
what radio used to sound like
long ago.
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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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