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Chains I Kept

by The Orchards

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  • Limited Edition Split Cassette with EDT
    Cassette + Digital Album

    High quality cassette split featuring The Orchards on Side A and EDT's "If We Were Birds" recordings on Side B. Beautiful hand-drawn artwork by Abi Griffith. Only five copies available.

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1.
Springtime 02:58
springtime, listen close you'll hear it marching in and we will greet it like a long-lost friend we'll give it hugs and high-fives welcome, watch all the crowds as we welcome it we'll breath it in just like a cigarette we'll let it fill our lungs then the masks drop, watch as the scarves and the hats come off see all the girls in their summer tops boys with the whitest skin and when night falls, the sheets are shaking baby, that's not all forget how thin are all these bedroom walls make a joyful noise but when we sleep it's bound to be sweet and deep you cannot conceive of the shades that we see in our dreams dawn breaks, the birds are ringing like a wedding bell and soon we'll know the joy of kiss and tell shout it in the streets wake up, the trees are screaming with a violent green we're shaking off this played-out frozen scene our hearts will pump new blood but when we sleep it's bound to be sweet and deep you cannot conceive of the shades that we see in our dreams
2.
before i loved you i was deaf, dumb, and mute never had that much to say now i can't shut up but i am getting closer to what i have to say i can't say it to your face that's for goddamn sure i know you can hear me i know you can feel me i wish you were with me and it were that easy space on the mattress a string of old sadness the pale empty madness of my hands without yours in them you were my tortoise shell home was anywhere our bodies fell to think of it raining and i did not feel a drop i know you can hear me i know you can feel me i wish you were with me that's for goddamn sure because you are the mountain and i am the train tracks even when i'm standing still i am a restless man
3.
oh, my love since you took leave the mountain is snow white but the pasture is green i haven't forgotten the smell of last spring when you took off your sweater like a bird takes to wing you took off your sweater like a bird takes to wing
4.
three o'clock in the morning that's when we made our plans it's the hardest thing for me to understand and my mission was simple to bring you back home but i cannot hold the things i do not own leaving west california with a loaded gun i was gone before i'd even learned to run but i still smile now sometimes when i think of how you came like waves to wash and smooth me out i have known you wounded and i have known you wise with a light to banish all my darkest skies and the weight that you carried what a row to hoe! i could never pay you back all the things i owe
5.
on the night i first spent without her i slept like a fox being chased darling annie, i'm telling you sadly i think home is a time not a place and oh israel, my hands are stronger now i'm working much harder now to cast off the chains i kept around her and myself and just let the story unfold trust something i cannot know cut off my hands to let go in the dark of this morning i've been mistaking all of these soldiers for trees and it's such a fresh feeling, the idea of transforming our old weapons of war into peace because when i raise my voice to sing this song or anything i feel like a devoted man who prays every evening to st. jude or augustine and offers his fate to their hands not foolish enough to make plans and on the outskirts my body felt hers and it was like coming home because we're just flesh and bone but are we just flesh and bone? there's only one way to know press your mouth to my throat lift your ghost from soul strike a match, strike anything else send it all to the sea strike a match, let the fire below burn this uncertainty because when i can just be i know that's where we'll meet across the unknowable deep i know that's where we'll meet and on the outskirts my body felt hers and it was like coming home because we're just flesh and bone but are we just flesh and bone?

about

old songs, fun with garageband, february rpm challenge.

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released March 1, 2013

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The Orchards Portland, Maine

The Orchards were the songwriting project of Pennsylvania native Eric Schwan, based in Portland, ME and featuring a revolving cast of musicians adding orchestral and ambient textures and harmonies to his simple, folk-based songs. They released their LP, "Sing Birds, In Your Shrinking Woods" on Apohadion/Burst & Bloom Records with a final show on September 15, 2019. ... more

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