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Hold on Too Tight

by Schooner

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1.
Carrboro 02:39
You moved to Carrboro so you could find Places to go that were not so unkind. Those black, angry men that would eat you alive They ate up your brain, so you left them behind. Hanging out with all the boys in town, Some won’t mind, and some will feel let down. Did you wonder how they'd live without you? You said ’I love you’ without thinking twice, I knew I didn’t but thought it was nice. Right through your eyeballs I saw our demise Twisting and certain as ebony skies. Flaking out on everyone around, Some won’t ask, but some will talk about, What it is that eats your conscience out. As you wander all around the town here. With nothing to lose and nothing to fear. I guess some you win, and some you did. You move much better when you can’t hide. You look content when you’re open wide.
2.
You said tonight that God was on our side, So I prayed for you to die. & I apologize; the truth forgot to hide. And I prayed for you to die. I had a dream; you were a witch it seemed. And I tried to catch your eye You spent the night, a spell book by your side, That I prayed you wouldn’t find. Our minds all full of books and stories, littered and abound, But what’s never seen or heard can never get to spread around. Darling I’ve tried to get you off my mind So I prayed for you to die. So many times I thought the end was nigh And I prayed for you to die.
3.
When we had it out it lightninged, and the fires that lit burned out too. And we leveled out that place, and the earth it burned 'til spring came through. Well I think there’s enough to do. Well we clamored to the ceiling, and the hammers went with teeth and nails, and we never missed a beat. And the house went up in a day or two. Well I think there’s enough to do.
4.
Tears in Your Ears (free) 05:37
You just sat there thinking there’s tears in your ears; that echo through hollows and swallow the years; and fill from the bottom as you well up with fear. You’re barely awake there, your hair in your hands; the bottles and pieces of rusted out cans; were caught and collected, but sat there with your plans. The buckets you dug up, with shovels and cheers, were placed during weeks that the leaks sprung up here. The dancing of droplets on old tin roofs disappear.
5.
Leaving your room could be the luckiest thing. Even this tomb fills with flowers today. The hooks that hold you seem scattered today. The hacks in this room are hopeless and grey, they’re looking away at codes there eroding what you came to say. Leaving your room could be the luckiest thing. Leaving this tomb with a hope and a ray. The light isn’t too bright to burn or defray. The backs there turn blue along with everything, and don’t look the same as those that were there when the bottom was scraped. And all of the money and land it bought you a brand of happiness you couldn’t keep, and you lost your sleep in the deep that conditioned your doom; and all this will loom. Leaving your room could be the luckiest thing. Leaving this tomb with a hope and a ray. The light isn’t too bright to burn or defray. The backs there turn blue along with everything; they're looking away for anything you bought but never could change.
6.
Married (free) 03:18
Dredging up all of these to see; yeah, I think that it’s still got me. Constellations were laid upon, winter clothes barely made it on. Now you’re married. Saw her once outside of a dream, and the bottom fell out it seemed. And distractions came pleasantly. And they always seemed so empty. And I carried these. Sought but never saw anyone. 'Caught a cold I couldn’t outrun. 'Would have thought that these stories were trite; then the spell nearly took my life. And I carried, and I buried these. & now you’re married.
7.
Your necktie’s on too tight to tell it’s wearing you. You’re never home but there is something eating you. Luck lost its tune, and so did you. The lamp that’s by the bed is looking down on you. You chase your wired eyes and open your mouth too. Landlocked and light, you’re losing time. You’re kicking off your shoes, your feet are dirty too. The friends you keep you think are doing this to you. Lit up and blue, they slept till noon. They always do.
8.
All the things that we have ever said, and the things that stick inside my head-- I would rather fuss and fuck Than to tell you that I’m stuck; I took all the blame and went to bed. And we tried to tame but started up the same damn game, I took all the blame and went to bed. Stole the sheets that wrapped around my legs; stole the bones and peddled them like pegs. All the looks and all the luck like the wings that you dug up littered books and pages that you read. But we tried to tame, and started up the same damn thing, Dropping names and playing games instead.
9.
End of Time 00:45
in the time that we had i was happy to be your friend. in the time that we had i was happy to be in love.
10.
Ominous Bird 03:39
After we opened the door we stayed around and just laid on the floor, whispering phrases that laziness raised but would not say what for. After the luck had been spent we stumbled out of the room we’d been sent; all of the world filled with wide open caverns and broken intent. I was the sound of a surfacing fish and you were an ominous bird. Hours and words spent attending to herons and endings on water where nothing was heard. And I bathed in the light where you were, and nothing was heard. Dangled by lines that we cast out in a pond that is growing up fast, bringing the snakes with the grass till the last water turns into gas. Clouds crept up like silent hands, they opened a faucet that covered the land; we scattered off through the puddles so baffled, befuddled, we drowned. You were the sound of a surfacing fish and I was an ominous bird. Hours and words spent attending to herons and endings on water where nothing was heard. And I flew over to where you were, but nothing was heard.
11.
In a hospital open floor where the nurses are waiting for carbon images on the door of some people you never saw. And the smell of the hallway fills; in your head there is death and wills. And you hold off the heat and chills while the doctors keep running around. If you laid down here some would agree; you are more fit to stay here than leave. In a room where you couldn’t believe you were born but were never cut free. Lay here and fend for your own, I may not keep you warm. Born in a hail filled rainstorm under a stained filled form; dressed in dumb luck you wore proud like a birth-marked fore. And the thoughts that you couldn’t kill, and the simple things you can’t feel, and the laughter you couldn’t hear, are leaving with the year. If you laid down here some would agree; you are more fit to stay here than leave. In a room where you couldn’t believe you were born but were never cut free.
12.
Days that were filled with our insolent eyes all that fill up our sides of the will to decide and again in your arms going out of the storm feel the slight though we didn’t go higher. Do what reciprocates into the rift of the light you would bend and bloom in. Strange alibis moving out of the race you were welled up, and you couldn’t tell I believe all the wires burrowed in your veins you will grow to hate. Now time is stained all the fillers and things that have cramped up your arms you’ve no will to dissuade in the rays and the air you almost cannot wait you imagine a time you cease to hesitate. How many hours can you disguise you see eyes that you cannot outwait. Fate and the use of the brands and obtuse burning branches that hang looking up to the skies while the barbed wire fence that you live in keeps you awake.
13.
Ladybug 04:42
I will never be alone. Laid down in the open road, laid there till the night got cold. I held you up and we stopped the flood from flowing so hard. I took you by the hand, and walked all around the broken damn, and talked about love. I saw you late one night; my head was full, my legs were light. I wished with all my might, I wished our veins could give us flight, and take us above. A ladybug in flight stopped to land one lonely night. Well baby, we might fight, and we might die, or hold on to tight, so open your lungs.

about

"Hold on Too Tight" Schooner:
Billy Alphin
Tripp Cox
Megan Culton
Kathryn Johnson
Reid Johnson

Recorded and produced by Zeno Gill at Pox Studios in Durham, NC, except for "End of time," recorded by Reid when he lived in a room in Raleigh. Songs by Reid, parts by Schooner. Mastered by Jeff Carroll at Bluefield Mastering in Raleigh, NC. BMI
Cover photograph by Erin Culton. Layout by OG Design Lab.
Released by Fifty-four, Forty, or Fight!

credits

released August 5, 2011

Reid sings, plays guitar, ukelele on "Leaving Your Room" and "Married," and slide guitar on "Married."
Kathryn sings, plays all keys, piano, and lamp shade on "Strange Alibis."
Tripp plays bass, tremolo guitar on "Leaving Your Room," 2 tambourines on "Strange Alibis," and piano & toms on "Ladybug."
Billy plays drum kit, tambourine, bongos on "Married," and toms on "Ladybug."
Megan sings on "Pray for you to Die," and plays cello on "Hospital Floor."
Thomas Moorfield plays pedal steel guitar on "Pray for you to Die," "Married," and "Ladybug."
Scott Phillips plays accordion on "Leaving Your Room" and "Ladybug."
Luke Berchowitz plays mandolin on "Leaving Your Room" and "Ladybug."
Billy Sugarfix plays Theremin on "Ladybug."
Mark Lebetkin plays viola on "Ladybug."
Dave Bjorkback plays glockenspiel on "Ladybug."
The Pox Family Singers, featured on "They Always Do!" and "Ladybug" were, in this rendition, Maria Albani, Dave Bjorkback, Tripp Cox, Megan Culton, Kathryn Johnson, Andy Magowan, Abby Pearce, Elise Pohl, Mark Riebold, and Billy Sugarfix.

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Schooner Durham, North Carolina

Schooner is disheveled-pop-indie-psych-soul from Durham, NC started by Reid Johnson & now features Joshua Carpenter (Floating Action), Nick Jaeger, Patrick O'Neill, Maria Albani, + a rotating cast of characters.

With its energetic songs and fuzzy guitars, Neighborhood Veins is sure to be an album you won’t stop listening to any time soon.-MAGNET
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