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The Necromancer's Kids

by Warbles

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1.
JON: Lara and myself, we were still inside When our mother died LARA: Inheriting a tragedy Now it's holding on to you and me JON: Married in the belly of a failing host To the Holy Ghost LARA: The doctor sent a scalpel through Now it’s holding on to me and you BOTH: And our father banged his ribs When he dumped us in the crib When his twins have gone to bed He’ll be talking to the dead We are the necromancer’s kids JON: “The secrets of the future are the fruit of the dead” That’s what father said LARA: Establishing his clientele And then we became his personnel JON: Demon divination by the candlelight Just a business rite LARA: And pining for our mother’s shade She’s the only spirit he forbade BOTH: We’re the sum of what we lack So we decked ourselves in black When our father goes to bed We’ll be talking to the dead We are the necromancer’s kids Then our mother’s ghost assembled in the room And with loveless grace informed us of our doom JON: Sister, I felt so cold, I thought I had died Then the bastard found us, beat us alive Oh we can never return, get in the car and drive And take me anywhere that you want to go We can drive real slow, let’s just leave Ohio LARA: Jon, you know it’s not your fault Being born into a dead man’s vault JON: Mother and the father and the ghost, amen We are orphans now, we were orphans then LARA: And nothing can repay that debt You forgive but you cannot forget JON: And you held your head and sighed, “What a curse to be alive, but don’t ever, ever let me die” BOTH: We are the necromancer’s kids We got tired of raising the dead So we raised each other instead
2.
LARA: Tell me, Buddy, is the chairman keeping you up? Tell me, Buddy, are the glad men kicking you in? Well if the flood runs over the mountains up to your chin Buddy, you are my bones Buddy, you are my skin When I’m with you I am home Buddy, you are my twin JON: Little Lara, is a name tag weighing you down? Little Lara, are the billboards boxing you in? With every breath as young as you’ll be, as old as you’ve been Lara, you are my bones Lara, you are my skin When I’m with you I am home Lara, you are my twin Bodies belted out of orbit Something pulls us back in When I’m with you I am home, Lara I’ll never make it on my own, Lara * * * LARA: Kind blue skies above Stolen car below Emancipation takes the spark Burn smooth and slow If the Devil grew God To draw the Devil back in She’d still be singing With her mind rolled open to the world JON: He will not miss his home It’s a battle cry It’s a bitter lie blown Through the telephone And you were drawing figure-of-eights He will not miss his home How could he miss his home? LARA: Kind blue skies above Stolen car below Emancipation takes the spark Burn smooth and slow If the Devil grew God To draw the Devil back in She’d still be singing With her mind rolled open to the world JON: He will not miss his home It’s a battle cry It’s a bitter lie blown Through the telephone And you were drawing figure-of-eights LARA: It’s an abstract portrait of fate JON: He shall not miss his home * * * JON: Dutch Colonial Revival You were seared into my brain The cassette is flipping over “I believe I’m gonna rain” If you buy the cigarettes Then I can do the gasoline Oh my head is a piñata And my heart’s a tangerine Guess we never got happy Guess we never bled cool Dreading gym and going swimming Getting picked on in the pool Spending Sundays at the mall And wishing comfort could be bought Mr. Sullivan my teacher Said, Think about your thoughts So think of Saturday mornings Sneaking crooked down the steps Mining cereal for prizes Watching TV while he slept Until our bodies grew louder And we taught them how to sin Secret corners in the basement Lara, you are my twin Remember peeling through the ceiling Wrapped in blankets in the black When we flew into infinity And never looked back Until the day we took mushrooms In our clearing on the rocks Dad was human, just a stranger True forgiveness never knocks So listen, don’t cry, Lara ‘Cause the pain is gonna bloom See an old man smiling On a young man’s gloom See a young boy clinging To the tulips in the tomb When I’m with you I am home, Lara I’ll never make it on my own, Lara LARA: I’m so grateful that I can call you my twin
3.
City Suite 16:01
JON: When morning comes Let’s forget it’s ever dark You hold me close We go walking through the park Bright dove-tipped trees Urban arteries in bloom Spill human seed Wafting westward like perfume Through the city suites Through all the city suites * * * JON: Hey hey I’m blowing away I love you but it’s me versus different chemicals When they go strumming my veins I’m laughing through my teeth, I’m a beaten animal So with my hands in my pockets and my shoes untied I go out to kiss the creator We’re gonna talk talk talk ‘Til the thinking slows and I know, I know, I know… We got his funeral grin His baggy hospital eyes I hope you’re riding the rails As I go scraping the skies And cut away from the crowd For a familiar street Where I’m becoming the man I said I never would be He’s leaning out of the frame His face is twisted and wild His blood is punishing me I am forever a child Watching my shadow recede Into the darkening hall My body’s running away But I remember it all I remember it all The city’s quivering hope Is shining out of our spines I had a bucket of change And drank a bottle of wine Fuck man it’s great to be young And sell your hunger for bread Sister I’ve fallen in love With something ugly and dead I keep a picture of you I couldn’t tell you the year Sneaking some cake in your cheeks The stillness brings me to tears What hands have cradled the void These hooks have swatted away Black bile scours my heart It’s just like dad used to say “Don’t be so sensitive kid This life will swallow you whole” So I adopted a shame Called what I couldn’t control Still, it was easier then Before I had to survive When I would lie in my bed Imagine mom was alive I would envision a night When I’d be perfect and free With an invisible moon An unpredictable sea And everybody I saw Someone I wanted to be And each reciprocal glance Would be a present to me Now there’s a time and a place I wish I couldn’t recall I remember it all I remember it all If I need what I despise If I curse what I create If I cannot change this feeling Feeling is fate If the father could not love If the mother could not hate Then he’s always missing something Something tells me that By blade, by bullet, by flood or by flight I’m gonna ditch this body in the city tonight Because it’s never been mine Because it’s never been mine I said by blade, by bullet, by flood or by flight I’m gonna ditch this body in the city tonight Because it’s never been mine No, no, no, no it’s never been mine So I said nothing at all Except a hypocrite’s prayer Though you carry the map Lara darling, don’t follow me here He was a delicate dog What a delicate dog He sang: Lara and myself, we were still inside When our mother died… I am cut loose I am born again I am cut loose But I remember it all * * * JON: I am the boy with the sinkhole eyes And the crooked legs Tripping into the bar I wanna do what you’re thinking I want to pour what you’re drinking I want to know who you are I wanna sit at your table I want to sit at your table I want to sit to the side Who am I? Could he ever be on your side? I’ve got the face of a soldier My mother’s dad was a soldier He died in a major war For my Roman nose And my blue, blue jeans Brown hairs that defect like friends to the floor I wanna sit at your table I want to sit at your table I want to sit to the side Who am I? Could he ever be on your side? She’s some kind of mannequin goddess I don’t know a word that I’m saying But it sounds like something important Because she’s beautiful, I guess She’s V-I-V-I-A-N-A She’s taken note of my shoes I’m carving deer on the wall She says What are you called I tell her Jon with no H Then she parts her lips just ever so slightly Thumbs in my pockets She’s making light of the time I’m going out of my clothes When I whisper the words That you never should say Did you know that my dad is the guy on TV? Do you want to hear some poetry? Bright dove-tipped trees Urban arteries in bloom Spill human seed And I want to spill some too... Let us fix our eyes on Jesus Who for the joy set before him endured the cross Put on that strawberry gloss It’s my favorite distraction She’s some kind of mannequin goddess I don’t know a word that I’m saying But it sounds like something important Because she’s beautiful, I guess She’s V-I-V-I-A-N-A Here’s something new to remember A burning letter held our bodies aloft We were soft as doves I had to sit at your table I used to sit at your table You smiled and you took me to your city suite * * * JON: Now I’m in love with it all But she remembers it all LARA: As he was tearing away He hollered it was him versus different chemicals So I had nothing to say I chased him through the streets like a cheated criminal So now it’s so long stranger, will I see you again I bent down and cursed the creator I’ll take your hindsight love It’s the only kind that I know, I know, I know… Spare me your lullabies I’ll set fire to your pillows, blacken your billows And rise from your city suite In the guise of a pigeon, dumb with derision above But I’ll be thinking of you My twin, my kind Take your time Make all the memories you need Be young, go blind Take your time I’ll be alright on my own Yes Jon, just fine Take your time I’ll be alright on my own Yes Jon, just fine Take your time And sing: “Lara and myself we were still inside When our mother died” So our mother died! I am cut loose I am born again I am cut loose But I remember it all I am cut loose Singing, “Lara and myself were still inside When our mother died” I am cut loose * * * JON: When morning comes Let’s forget it’s ever dark You hold me close We go walking through the park
4.
Paul Revere 04:16
JON: I am not ready for the fall Who are you seeing? Won’t you call? I’ve been a postman for the pay But I’m writing a book about riding away I was a captive of your charms Of raw amber mornings in your arms Oh how you shivered! How you swooned! Now I dole out your mail in the late afternoons But when I was the man with the news, where were you? Yeah when I was the man with the news, where were you? Yeah now I ride around like a spent cavalier, Paul Revere But when I was the man with the news, where were you? So I keep to my route And I tally the leaves Blowing dry down the street You told me I would never change, love Not so, not so I’m hollowed out and in decay, love Come home, come home I’ll be delivered in the dark Stripped of my splintered, sallow bark Nothing to blacken or exalt I can’t blame you for leaving, it’s nobody’s fault So just take my collapse with a pillar of salt But when I was the man with the news, where were you? Yeah when I was the man with the news, where were you? Yeah now I ride around like a spent cavalier, Paul Revere But when I was the man with the news, where were you?
5.
Pilgrimage 05:03
LARA: The woman with the painted eyebrow stare With crimson rubber lips and copper hair Clings to her cart down on Pilgrimage Row And soon she’ll roll it where the numbers end She’ll fill it up and roll it back again Judy or Bridget or Joan trudges home from her morning retreat She’s got nothing to speak of and no one to meet But it’s not like she made any promises It’s not like she’s ever had happiness Real happiness And passing through a couple’s parting hands Her memories dance upon their wedding bands Making it hard to go easy, I know Remember when he used to call on you And taught you all the things that lovers do Back and forth, back and forth Pinning you down with his capital eyes As he lapped like a beast at the source of your thighs Well it’s not like you made any promises It’s not like you ever had happiness Real happiness And his words are like dollars What’s backing them If I could leave this city No lights, no talk, no pity Just another month Another year at least Another pilgrimage Joan, I know that you’re the same as me We’re haunted by the same epiphany Love is the only thing worth this decay But nothing changes after twenty-two Except the way that people look at you When did I ever get Old in whose eyes? In whose eyes? In whose eyes? I will now count the faces that fed me to time Well it’s not like we made any promises It’s not like I’ll ever have happiness Real happiness Oh, what’s happiness? And his words are like dollars What’s backing them If happiness was just a pilgrimage
6.
Ashes 02:48
JON: Today I met a lawyer Young but ready to retire Trashed and tripping through the avenue With eyes of sunken lead He was choking on the past And he was asking for a fire So I lit his trembling cigarette And this is what he said Let the ashes speckle my workclothes At last the day is done When it started shit was golden There was promise there was purpose But the people disappoint you You disappoint yourself And the frames of my existence Once were vivid with desire But the sequence soon eluded me And emptied me of want Let the ashes speckle my workclothes At last the day is done And I dreamt I saw the mushroom Looming heavy in the skyline And I watched it rumble and flicker and run Until the scene went black And the only thought that soothed me In the Technicolor rubble was If we could start this over again We’d fuck it all up twice Let the ashes speckle my workclothes At last the day is done Let the ashes speckle Armani Let the ashes speckle Versace Let the ashes speckle my body At last the day is done At last the day has come
7.
Spin Me Away 06:13
LARA: Take your time, take your time Lay me out and thread it through me My lips have gone cold; you’re alright Here’s to chance, here’s to choice To the chaos in the cupboard As the trains rattle by in the night Spin me away Apple seed is pigeon feed Just spin me away Wind me up, reel me in Wrap me tight around the spindle Hear me whine, watch me twirl, let me go You return, you retreat Ceaseless coming, endless going It’s the cheapest sensation I know Spin me away Apple seed is pigeon feed Just spin me away * * * LARA: Momma loves her baby Don’t you know it’s true And daddy loves his baby Just as much as a man can do As much as a man can do You know he’d do it to you You’re measured out in minutes When the thread is spun Just keep your head down And don’t look up to no one Mister am I gonna get paid today Need a dollar got a daughter on the way She won’t know the worst of it She’ll never know Daddy’s fled from momma’s bed She’ll never know Mister am I gonna get paid today Need a dollar got a daughter on the way Mister am I gonna get paid today Can’t work another fourteen hour day Can’t work another fourteen hour day, no way Need a dollar got a daughter on the way Mister am I gonna get paid today Need a dollar got a daughter on the way * * * LARA: Brittle words, crippled birds Making promises like pigeons When there’s only one vow we can keep Idly I made one too Never dreamt I’d have to break it With the shears to my heart We were pinned from the start So I’ll spare her and snip her away
8.
Reprise 00:44
(Instrumental)
9.
JON: Who wants a waltz about pigeons and doves Pyramid builders and pockets of mud And the blood it goes slow, it goes slow Through a mind full of bitterness Muscling for meaning in top-heavy piles I was cruel as the fuel in the engines of style While the bones, they grew tight, they grew tall ‘Round a mind full of bitterness My mind’s in a bit of a bind Lara goes out in the rain And plays like a bird in a bitter wind One, two, now you’re out of the blue Lara don’t rattle my chains It’s a curse and it kills to consider it And you know it’s just down, it’s just smoke Blowing ‘round in a bitter wind And the kids don’t get tickled or choked If you ever get out My mind’s in a bit of a bind Lara goes out in the rain And plays like a bird in a bitter wind One, two, now you’re out of the blue Lara don’t rattle my chains It’s a curse and it kills to consider it No Name, taken out of the game Drools in our Gemini heart She’s a part and we’ll never be rid of it Cold chrome under feathers and foam Tendrils reach out from the moon It’s a curse and it kills to consider it * * * JON: I watched my father on storefront TVs Asking me what I was trying to be “Carve out a niche or collect in the ditch ‘Cause it’s nothing but ego and madness between” I looked up to the towers, majestic and mean Felt my sister collapse in the absence beneath Thought of my momma and then Viviana And gave her the words I was needing for me Life has no love for you Yeah, well I do, I do Time has no plans for you Yeah, well I do, I do I can’t see anything I hear the birds sing, a few I won’t say anything No more sad songs for you Oh love Pigeons and doves are not the same bird
10.
I Got Life 03:06
JON: So this is how it ends My mother’s black curse The harvest for a seed In the hardboiled earth Are you aching like me Never know where you belong It’s a trivial swim It’s a serious song Brisk breezes chill you to the bone Howling sirens call you home That’s a place I’ve never been to There’s so much I can’t contain Ancient currents in my veins And that’s what I’m going to give you I’ve got life Let me give it to you I put my sister in the ground Tucked her in and let her down Who’s to care if I continue? All the kin I’ll never meet Fleeting strangers in repeat And that’s what I’m going to give you I’ve got life Let me give it to you

credits

released April 18, 2014

Warbles is Tom Curtain (vocals, guitars, runaway piano, aux. percussion, SFX), with
Jonathan Corey (piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, zither)
Jake Pavel (drums)
Kristen Drymala (cello)
Aaron Fried (cello)
Brian McGrath (trumpet)
Evan Uebelacker (viola)
Edward Wharton (viola)

Backup vocals on "Paul Revere" and "I Got Life" sung by Jonathan Corey, Tom Curtain, CJ Hughes, and M. Reverdy Rhodes

Production by Jonathan Corey and Tom Curtain
Engineering by Jonathan Corey
Additional engineering by Elio DeLuca
Mixing and mastering by Jamal Ruhe

Cover image: Trinity, 2013 by Christopher DiPietro

All songs written by Tom Curtain © 2014 Old Struggler Records

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Warbles Brooklyn, New York

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