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Mountain Portal

by YOU

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1.
There is a purpose within each of us Inherent longing is the cinder of materiality The Earth is all we have To hold us alight over the sea Moonlight is a dampening brine She penetrates the fat of disjunction If we could be held, homogenized I would rise with the tide Here the clammy flesh disowns me Gaze tethered to lunar countenance Upon the ground I toil restlessly On fire in my sleep The world is a vacuum Bearing cold upon all light Our birthright is the struggle Through which we stay alive Eternity is a paradox we can reject but not deny No machine can perpetuate a desire for life Stride along the vortex heedless Programming override Currency is the grid link of captivity Devouring always only lies No truth has ever been bought or sold In the system it slavishly reifies I will despise that systemic disfunction Irradiate that cancer of our mind Hold close contempt for feeble solipsism Until compassion is it’s price
2.
I don't want to be your girlfriend I just want to hold your hand I'll take you out into the ocean We can stand there We can look into the wind You can have my inspiration You can have my love But if you're going to want my body Baby there's a price that you've got to pay Because everbody has there sign You know that I have my Go on and show me the divine I'll be you're holy virgin porn star I will set you free I can be your pornstar I'll give you everything Nail me up love I'm your blessing from above Come on darling Show them how you love How to love
3.
Gay Science 03:14
Independence Destiny The whole body problem Concrete farce Synthetic mind Sample my dream thoughts and fuck em up all kinds Acid bass lines Vibraslap ratchet hats too Addicted to the clickity clack and the pew pew pew pew Hymnal rack bench Counter point school Talkin fear but the god of the song is praisin you Look at you dancin fool Got a rock in your shoe Like you were shakin' your pulse width toes in the electric blue Stand back lemme get a look atcha Ain't done too many drugs yet Still got those eyes they shine like the ocean I knew Back when I was still scared all sorts Of falling behind Scared of never falling in love scared of forgetting my life Now I come up I live it all kinds I go freeways and I fly I call loud as a trumpet hello world I hope you hear me IM HIGH! I'm gonna make my foot good I'm gonna smile all the time Because I've already got everything I thought I could out of life Carolina Rain Louisiana Dynne I'm still listening To the rain and the thunder Electric resonance High frequency sandstorm sizzle ~~!~
4.
5.
Not Capital 05:42
Here I am sitting in the back Of a golf cart with no brakes I've got the fruit of my own homeland Stuffed in between my legs I am looking for an answer To the question that we are I am searching for solutions from inside this puzzle box I am using both my hands to keep My tongue inside my face Because what I really want to say to you Makes no sound when it comes out straight I am not capital I am a bastard noise seething caterwaul breathing in your face and it smells like blood blood and pussy because I got hungry, and I’ve been busy eating up all of your luck that you gave away for free now all you sell are needles broad enough just for the stream of the lucky famished addicts floating on clouds of cologne down a cosmic slide of paradox like bad acid on rainbow road I am not capital I am a shining star burning holes in space grinning in your face and I’d be damned if you minded I’d say who’s got time for that but as it stands I’m shining on a mirror with a baseball bat swinging blindfolded with three like minded philosophers I caught pissing where I sleep and it smelled so bad it knocked us out into a psychedelic dream and damn did we have dreams! they were the only thing we owned I am not capital I am a unicorn sacred beast of the soul drowned right before your eyes when my hooves catch land they’ll take it by storm my cloven steps seared on the shore to light up the crystal wilderness that’s been clawing at your door making fallow all your land we’re gonna eat up all your chemicals and grow a future on your bones we’ll feed your cancer to the appetite of our embryonic sphinx and choose a world with pyramids and we will know we are the dream I am not capital I am a nightmare real awake and on fire melting your face Dear lord they need a bigger boat I guess Jaws believes in Jesus two she-bears with an appetite is it God or just the red bull? I am not capital I am a rolling stone fingers worn to the bone flying in your face
6.
Pogs 04:03
7.
Yesterday I saw you sitting On your tea cup you were sipping You were looking mighty fine Now that I am thinking I wonder what it was you were drinking Were you drinking of the Cat Kings Eye Did you drop Your bodies shape And sail off into to space? The Cat Kings eye Will show you Where everything is one And where we are Together In space Just stare off Into the Sun Just stare off Become everything at once Look too long Lose all that you own Become your own Just stare off Into the I Just stare off Yesterday I saw you dreaming Or were you simply thinking? Just staring at the sky Were you asking? Or were you basking? Basking in the eye Just basking in the eye.
8.
Sunflower 01:31
9.
I wanna be your baby now Put me in your tummy honey She's gonna show you the world She's got eyes for you Eyes for you, eyes for you I'm gonna show you the world I've got eyes for you Eyes for you, eyes for you (sprinkled with bromantic chatter)
10.
If you could see outside The greater space Around your mind Break apart the lines And hear The spinning drone of time The blood That's burning in your mind Would cease to move And you'd be kind Of a kind Out of time
11.
Dark World 05:06
Wind across the dunes Sings it's invisible song Time drifts forward On the back of a tortoise Who is floating down the nile What is this question Tearing through my skin What from me is taken When my dreams are locked within The seance is embodiment Thine only enemy is fear Open the doorway of apperception Expand time until neurosis disappears But if your queen escapes you Ask your star to find you You'll be wrapped in light From the sky But if I could find Any dream that I've had In Hell Would it really be Anymore If I don't need a way out Secrets are Hard to find And hard to keep In your mind They live in time A crystal song And they shine In your eyes Light is just That eager hunting We reflect Like blinding glass Me I'll stay In the sane refuge Of a dark world mind But if I could find Any dream that I've had In Hell Would it really be Anymore If I don't need a way out
12.
Hey honey Their shapes will sneak into your mind (Mind mind mind mind) Hey honey Their hypno-screens will tell you lies (Lies) Because they just want to take over your mind (They want to take over your mind) They just want to take over your head (They want to take over your head) They just want to take over your heart (They want to take over your heart babe) They just want to take over your mind (Mind mind mind mind) Their pixalated chains are wrapped around Your hands, LED rectangle bound You are blind folded by the man You're blind folded by the man You've got to take him down You've got to fight You've got to fight! The television!!! ( gata fight the television, gata fight the television, gata fight, gata fight) They're coming for you They're coming for you through the television YAH! Because they just want to take over your mind They just want to take over your head They just want to take over your heart They just want to take over your mind Your mind!
13.
Oh and I saw you Standing on the other side of the street You said Oh and you let out another sigh Collapsed in an angle of degrees entagled So I ran like a city fox Got to you Ya I dragged you into the light Askin' why are there only two sides You said there's not let's break the lines Let's break the lines And you kissed me in the chasm shadow You kissed me and the world crumbles You kissed me and my body shudders I Shudder I Listen Listen how your body twists There's a thousand stories from your finger to your wrist Hand in hand we got it all every word between our palms You talk so much your words turn red If we only had a powder for our head Won't you shut up for me? Shut up and dance This is how we break lines
14.
Champion 03:23
I am a champion of being Fear is the concept I've been loathing Benign in virtue of it's prevalence How long have we been hoping On a wealthier man's god? If I could sing to you in perfect words What I have learned about my soul You'd understand they're all worth having Where all we have to fear is what we're told Where we're going ain't gonna grow old It's diggin in creeper Underground Railway to the middle of an ocean Guarded Sacred Always Already forgotten in the wavecrash apostrophe Not absolutely evil Just kinda mean Accidentally hurtful when the situation calls for a clown Qualified for removal from any reputable establishment in town Gracefully capable of a plethora of dishonorable and atrocious things Fuck it, I'm free
15.
Sports 01:15
Going to the tailgate Just before the game We don't go to rock shows 'cause that shit is lame We want SPORTS! SPORTS!! SPORTS!!! SPORTS!!!! SPORTS! We want SPORTS! SPORTS!! SPORTS!!! SPORTS!!!! fuck you!
16.
Hairbrush 06:04
You lost your feet standing in the snow For hours you would stand out in the cold You said the whiteness had unpinned your wings You burned and stood and then you sang Ya you sang You said "this life is painfully beautiful And so When I go Yes when I go I wish never to return When I burn I wish never to return" Well I Want to hear your swan song I want to be there when you die To see the light escape your eyes I want to be the silent witness to your prayer I want to make paint brushes from your hair (In limbo) All your fears come to sing again The river is dry and the crows are hungering Whispers speak in currents of the night You dream of things that burn and swallow fire And hearts consuming everything They consume your desire You can't think where you are All you know is that it's dark So you sing! You don't know which god will come And you pray, But you don't know which god will come So you dance! You don't care which god there is above Because You know there are stars between the stars between the stars There's blanket of light underneath the dark You climb upon your moth You Fly into the night And eat a hole upon the darkness Covering the light You go and join the light Ya go and join the light! Go and join the light!
17.

about

All those ideas that go into your record; the sounds, feelings, expectations… When Hiram picked me up that day we delved directly into that world. Skipping through obligatory reminders and updates on hometown happenings, we began to synthesize the worlds we’d been fostering in our minds. We talked of Pantheons and of spiritual evocation, we speculated as to the coloration of cosmic iron fuzz, and we interrogated each other’s ideas of time formant.
I don’t know that the tale we spun ever made rational sense either separately or together; but it made a tremendous amount of phenomenological sense, and we both left for the desert with a mutual understanding that we knew what we were going to make, we knew what parts we had and how they would fit together in a way that retains their integrity but edifies the larger structure. We may have known this only theoretically, but the theory had a personal salience that never left from us during the production of the album.
We arrived in Red River to a full house of happy people. This is Hiram’s family cabin and every year relatives come from near and far to participate in the Red River Fourth of July parade. Nieces and Nephews were constructing rainbow trout hats and Grandma Jewell was sewing up Dad’s Teddy Roosevelt chaps. The weather was grey, but we we’re settling into paradise. All of us had grabbed ourselves out of full time jobs- stress, grind, soul-crushing indentured existence; and leapt into a forest paradise. Windows reached from the floor to the hight of the vaulted ceilings in the great room at the center of the cabin. A tapestry of field, stream and summit, beams in light tempered by the cold of the waning June gloom. The space is filled with the light and energy of wild and curious innocence. As Hiram and I began to plug in amplifiers, tune guitars and set up stomp boxes; our discussion of the day previous began to take on a terrific weight. What was just then so crystalline and clean cut on the plane of verbal history does not so effortlessly extend itself to imagining the intricacies of it’s transmogrification. We began to wonder what it would take; what shape will be the space, where will we aim our hearts to ensnare the pantheon which we purported to purchase with imagination?
About that time Lee Sillery arrived at the cabin, with his studio packed into the car. We unloaded monitors, a mixing console, a cable snake, pre-amps, interfaces, rack-mounted channel strips and more. After spending some time sidestepping some old and noisy wiring, we had a full studio wired up in the family cabin. The drums were just outside Lee's control room. In the dining area, and the guitar amps were opposite each other in the adjacent great room. Everyone worked facing the windows which looked out to a breathtaking view of the mountain from anywhere in the cabin.
That night we built a fire outside. We played banjos and guitars, caught up with siblings and parents, danced in the long grass, laughed together in ecstasy, and dreamed of a song to mean it all; to keep it close.
For the next 5 days we worked tirelessly. We got up early, the first to rise made coffee and got everyone up to face the day. We would pick out the songs we wanted to take on for that day and set straight to it. Sometimes we would start with a drum track, sometimes a guitar track, but most of the songs were recorded from the foundation of the drums and guitar being played and recorded together. This imbued a natural feel to the beginning of the day. Because these songs were brand new to all of us there was a lot of time spent simply learning the songs as we would have in rehearsal, playing them until we got a feel, finding the right speed and range. Once the feeling was found, we would press record and let the energy expand into that space, play the song with the full feeling of our vision of it’s potential. After that initial capture, it was a simple matter of patience for the overdubbed instruments and vocals to fill the space left in the tune.
Many of the songs are recorded minimally, some with only one guitar and vocal track. Other songs, songs that beckoned for it, received more extended treatments: samples, synthesizers, field recordings, etc. In each case and for each song, we responded to the energy captured in that initial recording, and didn’t waste any time recording something that wasn’t sure of it’s place in our world. In the moment this can be the most difficult move. Once a foundation is laid, it is my compulsion to start composing for every nook and cranny of the sound. On this record I had to hone in, appreciate and utilize the full detail of the instrumentation we had.
I believe our crunch for time may have worked to our advantage in this particular case. We simply didn’t have time to sit around thinking up extraneous instrumentation for these songs, we had only the ideal image of what they were at their core, and the drive to bring that into existence as efficiently as possible. I think in the end, some of the simplest recordings on the album ended up being our favorite songs. I think “Gay Science” is a prime example. I taught Hiram the guitar riff for this song so that I could more easily sing along with the drums and guitar during recording. As we played the track back, a I felt a bouncy jangle that I’d never heard on my own. I recorded a totally different bass line than what I had intended, and that was that.
We had planned from the beginning to take the Fourth of July as a vacation day. The holiday landed right in the middle of our time recording and we all needed a break by that point. Lucky for us, the family had prepared a marvelous parade float that evoked the natural beauty of the enchanted circle and celebrated the National Parks of America. They gave us styrofoam hats that transformed us into chipmunks and trout, and we walked down the sunny and candy cluttered streets of Red River that morning laughing and smiling and waving; taking part in a truly joyous celebration of freedom. There was much feasting, much frisbee, and only a little bit of sneaking away to adjust mixes throughout that day. Family and friends came and went, the recording was off to a great start but we knew we would be busy. The fourth was the only day we didn’t work from sun rise to midnight. We were joined in the second part of the week by friends of the fire spinning persuasion, and enjoyed extended displays of twirling flames under the stars and beside the dinner fire.
Splitting wood for said fire was a continual pursuit, and proved especially effective as an outlet of frustration during difficult takes or long bouts of technical troubleshooting. By the end of the week we had all but busted through every axe, hatchet, and sledgehammer on the property. I recommend to any mountain portaler that a freshly handled axe find it’s way into your rucksack.
As recording began to wrap up, a strong presence made it itself felt there in the cabin. We had filled up the vaulted ceilings of this great room, filled it to the top with searing guitar solos and triumphant arias, with the ringing of cymbals and the hiss of electric vacuum. We began to feel the magic of the pantheon we imagined, the empowerment that comes from a new family of gods, born imagined to the new world.
We were listening for the first time through to the finished mix of “Dark World” when our friends returned from a day trip hike. Bewildered and silent they made their way in through the sliding glass door to the control room. Looking about his head like he heard voices in the rafters, Simon looked over at me and proposed with cautious reverence: “This right here is like the center of the universe,” he held his arms up like a cosmic energy funnel and I think we could all see it, at least feel it.
It had come to be our last day to spend in the mountains. The studio was packed away and the final mix of the album was being sent off to be mastered.
We were joined the night prior by our fellow traveller and dear friend Amina, and Hiram was looking forward to taking us all on his favorite hike to Horseshoe Lake, which sat just beneath the summit of Wheeler Peak. It was a 15-mile journey into higher altitudes, so we were fortunate to have a substantial breakfast prepared for us. After the delicately satisfying poached eggs which Amina dressed with avocado and perched atop a buttery english muffin, all we had to eat was one organic gummy bear soaked in LSD apiece until we reached the top.
There, after nearly unfathomable and absolutely indescribable obstacles overcome, after facing down gila monster mountain slides and making snow angels in July, at the end of a week of absolute spiritual focus and permanent inscription; we found the mountain portal. A crystal clear lake reflected the warm light of the sun back into a sky untroubled by clouds. A herd of bighorn sheep gently gazed upon us from the ridge, from the top of New Mexico, views unimpeded by trees. We dove into the cold clear water for as long as we could stand. We were mesmerized, looking out over the edge of the lake where the water flowed down the mountain, face bare to nothing but open sky.
There, at the top; dried of a wet more pure than we’ve ever been by wind so thin of air it could tear skin, we shared an apple and started back down.

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released December 1, 2016

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YOU Albuquerque, New Mexico

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