Get all 28 An Historic releases available on Bandcamp and save 75%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Metempsychosis, A Musical Message from Winnett Food Forest, Tell Me What I'm Like Out There, Ecophony, April 3rd, 2019, Thawing, Ophidian Street Rot, Dawn on Nebular Horizon, and 20 more.
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1. |
Summing It All Up
02:00
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Interlude
Said if I had to tell you ‘bout
the last five years
Of all the clotheslines I had to duck
To arrive here
The psychological frolics
That redefined the stage
As the age of 35 started creeping up
And I discovered I was still alive here
You see I really didn’t think my songs
Were good enough
I mean I knew they were pretty great but
Damn, the audience is tough
I keep it right brain, surrealist
No fascists, no cheap hits
On every track I produce I put a bit of myself
If I was summing it all up
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2. |
Nicer in this World
05:20
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You’re starting to like all the time you spend
Out there in nature
Digging a crater for all your friends
And their intentions
Oh did I mention I’m
Starting to see you for what you are
I admire your clarity of vision
I get too distracted
By something that isn’t a reasonable action
Pulled off of the course
But I made my way home by the light of your star
Gonna try to mispronounce this word
Gonna try to pretend like it’s something I intended from the beginning
Gonna turn the newspaper upside and say we’re winning
Even though defeat is close at hand
I’ve been getting inspired by birds
Getting caught up in patterns of winged migration like I’d never heard
That you need a little wanderlust if you just
Want to pull your head up from the sand
It’s nicer in this world
Nicer in this world with a distraction
Think about all of the time you spend learning
About all the dyads
That make up our biome we’re turning
From star stuff to dirt, may-be
God’s in the earth
And she’s starting to see us for what we are
I’m so tired of the symptoms of stress
So I run to the forest
Looking for wild growth like Laetiporus
And when I get lost I can
Make my way home by the light of your start
Gonna try to turn this channel down
Gonna try to cut off the string of talking heads who are all competing
I don’t want a play by play of how our heroes are retreating
I was a B student of the past
How many tiny houses to build a tiny town
How do we make sure that in a hundred years we will be around
Do you notice how I changed the subject
without being asked
It’s nicer in this world
Nicer in this world with a distraction
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3. |
Counter-Clock
05:18
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There's something in the way
Something that is blocking the flow of time
something that is softening all the lines
like chalk in rain
I was about to say
That in the light of flickering neon signs,
your face, it doesn't look quite as real as mine
this city stains
See those buildings grow from piles of dust
I watch your wound undone, his face takes back disgust
I thought this city was as good a place to die
as any other one
The center of another sun
We wanted to escape
To pack a bag and take our six favorite things
A sweater and your journal, your uncle's ring
if time would allow
We put it all on tape
but trying to articulate obstacles
is like trying to spin a sweater from unwashed wool
would we be proud?
It's enough to say we did not go
We got as far as Clara's house right up the road
before we turned our targets toward each other's throats
and then unleashed a salvo that brought down the ghost
See those buildings crumble into dust
I watch your wound inflicted, see that fencepost rust
Now who the hell said anyone could live in here
But if I"m voiceless, I'll try not to shed a tear
But there's something in the way.
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4. |
The Woodcut
03:05
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In the wilder wander
Walk a wall and then you
Roll and show your ankle
Dare the bugs to come and get you
Ferns and fauna brush you
Flinch and flex and then you
Run and swing your legs out
Didn’t know this swamp would be here
Look, the woodcut winter
Turn it in your hands, you’d
Long to show your makers
Why for seasons we are hermits
But now the wind can’t touch you
It’s much too muggy and
The trees were planted densely
In this thirty year old forest
And we’ll talk about the woodcut
When we find a place to swim
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5. |
Wondering
03:47
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River runs at the end of the day
Your hair is wet from swimming
Chill on the air is just a tease
Not like it was this morning
Went to bed when your hair was dry
Your neck still smelled of flowers
The autumn lingers in the breeze
This scene unfolding slower
Listen, listen
Remember, what we hear is just the sound of friction
It keeps me up all night
I’m wondering
Moments passing by like months
A forest we could drink in
I only said the wrong thing once
While you were at the sink
Spent three days up in those woods
Tourists came that weekend
Engines shattered all that calm
To balance it we stopped speaking
Listen, listen
Remember what we hear is just the sound of friction
It keeps me up all night
I live my life with questions
Choices help us pass the time but
My regrets are showing up Too fast
I’m wondering.
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6. |
You Found
04:00
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You found the pathway to the forest
Even though it rained
You found the wall
It was an instinct you could not explain
You found the wreckage
That we tried to hide
I didn’t think you wanted to
Know how she died
The meadow flowers bloom
Only when you’re around
So pour your sadness
Into the ground
You found the reason
To not give in
Your name is called
On forest winds
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7. |
You Don't Have To
03:58
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In the winter, when my skin turns blue
and every possible inch is covered with a layer of breathable nylon
I think about the last time I looked at you
and thought to myself, "this person's got a wonderful smile on"
But you don't have to smile for me
not if you don't want to
not if your face is tired
In the springtime, when I've made my choice
To go an hour without sneezing, spend less time hiding from friends in my basement
I think about the last time I heard your voice
And how good it is to sing with friends and forget for a minute about how you're gonna pay rent
But you don't have to sing for me
Not if you don't want to
Not if your voice is tired
In the summer when I come to bed
been staying up way too late with a beer in hand and a carefree disposition
Do you really think I've lost my head?
Sometimes you prepare so much for a thing, it's almost like you were wishing.
But you don't have to wish for me
we just have to make it through the fall
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8. |
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Here comes the summer
Here comes the spring
I only wanted to hear you sing
Here comes the winter
Here comes the fall
This is the culmination of it all
Pour your voice into me
Torn and mended, season’s ended
You can see right through me
Insulate cause
At this rate I’ll freeze
We got so dizzy
We could not stand
There’s no predicting what you demand
We got so breathless
We got so still
It all grew static when we climbed that hill
Pour your voice into me
Torn and mended, season’s ended
You can see right through me
Insulate cause
At this rate I’ll freeze
Many nights if you hear them sing
They will want to play a tune without a string
When a person’s down, if you hear them sing
They’re trying not to show you everything
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9. |
Last Contact
04:43
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Land we're told had stopped existing
Gaping holes on every map
You grab him by the wrist before
he falls to the attack
Not much more that can be done here
Gloved and masked we watch the hive
Losing ground to quarantine
We're not the first ones to survive
We're not the first ones to survive
at the sound, they flock to take our side
moving deep within the halls resounding
always eager to remind us
We're not the first to risk the sum
At the sign of life we're trained to run
But we're not the first to risk the sum
It is not talking
I think its mocking me
It is not talking
It can only sing
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10. |
Makes Me Right
03:40
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When I dream
I misremember all the arguments we had last time we talked
We said some things
And as we left our house I knew we would regret them and
now I wanna hide from the flickering lights on the ceiling
They carry the weight of the things that you said that were true
Like how sometimes the smell of my sadness leaves you reeling
It shouldn't be here anymore
crushed under our boots into the floor
The storm rolled in
You ran to welcome it instead of being trapped in here with me
When you returned
A different person in all the ways that I could still perceive
And I'm getting sick of the spaces between the floorboard
and I don't wanna rely on these lacerating words
And I'm getting tired of your advice
and the fact that my instincts never seem right
and the gaps in the windows, the dryness of heat
and the lengths to which I'll go to never meet you
It would help if someday you were wrong
But would that make me right?
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11. |
D.C.
03:09
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Never talk to strangers
When I see their faces coming I know I'm facing the wrong way
don't wanna take the long way down
They're rearranging
The buildings grow and memories change
our tables get longer
Can't tell if you smile or frown
But I'd like to think I'd remember you when my heart stops every night
And our memories are measured to a formula
I'd die of fright to see those chattering teeth
and those sunken riff-raff eyes
Where have I seen you before?
And will I see you once more?
Messianic panic
You put all your faith in me like my initials were J.C.
In a sci-fi story I might have read
if I was tyrannic
I'd become what I hate, but that's not this story's logic
The script's revised in my head
Well I'd like to raise a question about destiny
Like who's got time for true love in anachronistic hell
But we've all got our needs,
maybe this would help our story sell
But I'd like to think I'd remember you when my heart stops every night
And our memories are measured to a formula
I'd die of fright to see those chattering teeth
and those sunken riff-raff eyes
Where have I seen you before?
And will I see you once more?
But I'd like to think I'd remember you when my heart stops every night
And our memories are measured to a formula
I've seen the light of a forgotten sun and the smell of rushing waves
where have I seen you before?
Can we be sure of what we're looking for?
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12. |
Write Your Name
04:40
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Everyone was afraid of the ruins
You planted a tree in the rubble
Forced yourself to be around it everyday
I remember wondering what mood were you in
When you walked the streets with a shovel
Even if the sky was looming, grey
And that day when he tried to confront you
Broke the handle in a moment of rage
As our fellow sufferers turned to look
You were smart to ignore all the bait
You’ve got wisdom of someone who’s double your age
But my purpose is only to write about you in my book
If I could only write your name
If I could only speak of what I see
If I could only rearrange
The elements in front of me
I am surprised that your face is still vibrant
It doesn’t betray all the things you have witnessed,
And you’ve had to face it all without much choice
You walked with one eye over your shoulder
You were thinking how the minimum wage doesn’t
Leave much time for you to find your joy
Never seen someone who looked so much like a leader
Your watering can was a manifesta
As you went back to the rubble to tend
Though you know they would never admit it
One at a time they started to copy
And I want to write about it till it ends
If I could only write your name
If I could only speak of what I see
If I could only rearrange
The elements in front of me
I could not accept that I might have to let you go
Every pod of seeds needs a gust of wind to help it grow
If I could only write your name
Try to start a cult of personality
Maybe together we could rearrange
We could get across a new priority
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An Historic New Haven
The home for the music of Adam Matlock, his songwriting alias An Historic, and his electronic project GZARA (fka G.
Zarapanecko).
All music composed by Adam Matlock unless otherwise indicated. For all related projects, visit adammatlock.bandcamp.com
Contact: mystaltree@gmail.com
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