the dotmatrix project

This past Saturday I made the trek out to Durham to catch The Future Kings of Nowhere perform at the Duke Coffeehouse.

It was the third time I’ve experienced FKoN, though the three-piece formation (guitar, trumpet and drums) was new and a very different sound from the full six piece set I caught at the Cradle over the summer and the solo act we put on in July.

Different, but just as overwhelmingly sincere and full of energy.

Off their upcoming album: My Turn

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I walk around with my head in the clouds like I’m happy
It’s hard for me to believe that we’ve broken up
I spent forever tryin’ to get you to love me
And now that you’ve left me I figure that that’s close enough

When people ask how I’m doing
I do a little dance around the house
With my eyes closed and my arms out
I spent so long being nice, quiet and polite
And now you’re gone
And it’s my turn to be loud

Sacrifice is a word that I’ve gotten used to
In my life without ever once thinking it’s wrong
I got by on the crumbs that you dropped when you were through
But I’m done with your crumbs
From now on I get what I want

When people ask how I’m doing
I do a little dance around the house
With my eyes closed and my arms out
I spent so long being nice, quiet and polite
And now you’re gone
And it’s my turn to be loud

It does not make me happy
To see you so unhappy
With how everything worked out
But I feel so much better
I float through stormy weather
I float just like a feather
From a bird who has flown and is not coming back again

I hope that you can find happiness somewhere without me
I hope there’s someone to help you work your issues out
I hope that someday you write some more mean songs about me
We’ll trade heartache for heartache like back when we were going out

When people ask me how I’m doing
I do a little dance around the house
With my eyes closed and my arms out
I spent so long being nice, quiet and polite
And now you’re gone
And it’s my turn
Now you’re gone
And it’s my turn
Now you’re gone
And it’s my turn to be loud

Photo By Jason Ellison

Thank you, Shayne.

UPDATE: The live EP is available for download at Amie Street.

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I’ve been going through the records, we’re not getting any better.
Maybe I’m just getting bitter, I don’t really care whatever.
I’m so tired of open warfare, when the point of this was to be best of friends.
We’ve been going round in circles like a plane without an engine
As we spiral down the slipstream of our quickly sinking friendship.
It’s a trainwreck of an ending. It’s the same as if we’d never even met.
And now I’m going through the motions like a drunken ballerina
who is too tired to dance but keeps on getting up to see if
anybody stuck around to see a show that has been over now for days.
And I know that they’re gone but I keep checking anyway.

We’ve been standing here for hours on the edges of a canyon.
I’ve got my side you’ve got yours and we’re both about to fall in.
The pole we hold between us is the only thing that’s keeping us aloft.
And we’re standing in the hallway, both resolved to finally do this.
We each have our guns drawn but neither of us wants to shoot first.
We could stay like this forever. We could stay like this and never leave.
But there are standards I expect our breaking up to measure up to.
When you fall in love as hard and recklessly as you and I do,
It seems that the final act should have the same intensity as the first scene.
If I don’t lose a couple teeth then it just won’t feel real to me.

So we fall onto the floor, not really sure if this
Is breaking bones or making out, maybe a bit of both.
But I won’t look away first. And you won’t look away first.

“It’s a simple proposition,” said the rabbit to the badger,
“I am sure if we’re committed, we could dig our way to China.
Wouldn’t it be great to see The Wall and all those people standing on their heads?”
So they each picked up a shovel, throwing dirt over their shoulders
And with every shovelful, their little hole got a bit deeper
Til they had to climb down in it, just to reach the bottom layer.
They went on like this all night, scooping up and tossing out dirt.
In the morning they realized they weren’t getting any further.
The hole had grown so deep that the dirt they threw kept falling back on them.
Said the badger to rabbit, “I am sure if we continue
We will pull through this on top. Perseverance is a virtue.”
So they scooped it and they tossed while the dirt piled up around their legs.
And in a matter of hours they buried themselves in it.

And we fall onto the floor, not really sure if this
Is breaking bones or making out, maybe a bit of both.
But I won’t look away first. And you won’t look away first.

I’ve been going through the records, we’re not getting any better.
Maybe I’m just getting bitter, I don’t really care whatever.
I’m so tired of open warfare, when the point of this was to be best of friends.
We’ve been going round in circles like a plane without an engine
As we spiral down the slipstream of our quickly sinking friendship.
It’s a trainwreck of an ending. It’s the same as if we’d never even met.
But now I’m going through the motions like a dedicated doctor
Whose patient has been broken with no chance that he’ll recover.
I keep shocking at the body, just trying to make the heartbeat stay.
And I know that it’s gone but I keep trying anyway.

Yeah we fall onto the floor, not really sure if this
Is breaking bones or making out, maybe a bit of both.
But I won’t look away first. And you won’t look away first.
No I won’t look away first. And you won’t look away first.

Originally uploaded by Jessi Hagood

Off their new album, Cloak and Dagger, Voice and Brain:

Back & Forth

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Underneath the crowds of faces
Are heart’s just yearnin’ to be complacent
Wanting something lasting
Some place to go to rest your bones
I want the thing that I’m willing to live for
To be the same thing I want to die for
Please peel off your faces
Let me see your veins, let me see your skull, let me hear you bleed

Oh and I know
People come and they go
I just want you to stay
Brighten up one more cloudy day

La da da da
Da da da da da
La da da da
Da da da da da
Da da da
Oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
Oooh oh

I’m doing the best I can
To understand
What it takes from me to
Be a good man
It’s just so hard when it’s so easy
To act just like a child
So I pace the floor
Back and forth
Thinking the next step
Might bring me more
Of an idea or clue or something to let me know
What’s going on inside your pretty little head

Oh and I know
People come and they go
I just want you to stay
Brighten up, brighten up
Oh and I know
People come and they go
I just want you to stay
To brighten up one more cloudy day

La da da da
Da da da da da
La da da da
Da da da da da
La da da
Oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
Oooh oh oh

Photo by: Ken Pogs

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Lyrics by Renee Mendoza Haran of Filthybird

I was born to birds
who were singing all of the time.
And I just don’t have time for talking
with singing on my mind.

I was born a bird
and a bird I will die
but I’ll just go on being a bird
singing in the southern skies.

I was born to sing
it’s all I know to do.
It takes all I’ve got
to do the things I know that I should do.

My mother was born to sing
and her mother too
but they lost their voices
singing in a world that was cruel.

I was born to love
even though it hurts.
The straight and narrow path
sleepin’ on the pews of the church.

But none of that was true
except for the part
the part about lovin’,
with all of your heart.

When I hold your hand
I feel you tremblin’.
Like you don’t know what’s going on
and everything you know is wrong.

I know who you are,
You’re a beam of light.
Shining down on me
in the darkest hardest loneliest night

In the southern skies.