We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Tonight's Whispering

by Gondoliers

/
1.
Hair Patterns 01:58
lyrics
You know that man? He's the one from before Look at how he looks His name is something like "what's his name" From that time before ( this time that is ) Remember that chick He was always with? She had the hair and she dressed like she was all that there is Like she was something special Like she was something precious From some time before this time we're in I don't know why I can't really say But I got the feeling something else was going on In those good old days In a time before this time that is Now it's strange to say But you know what I mean They never ever said hi to me And that's how you, that's how you know When they lord it over you With their unintentional hair All those secrets and lies piled up inside of there And that's how you That there's something wrong With those kind of folk.
2.
Man Next Door 03:19
lyrics
Step up and sing or sit back and pout Whatever you think will make us think what you think you're all about Get in the ring or sob in your drink You don't need to throw a single punch To show you're a knock out I've been buried in dirt Living among the worms Now I'm peeling back all my bandages And exposing my new flesh to the elements I'm a mummy rising rising up from my tomb And running through these woods in the nude Dress to the left or dress to the right Just to the side of our righteous leftist lives The man you loved is not this one He's the man behind door # 2 And he's been watching all your moves I've been living down underground Breathing the mud and the roots Now I'm peeling off all my bandages And rising up from my tomb I'm exposing all of my wounds to the wind And running around in the nude We didn't stand one single chance Of getting into that man's heaven He was always watching from a short distance With a sideways glance We were just neighbors to our savior We just obeyed because he did us favors I washed off the rocks that I found in the yard It turns out that I had been pissing out diamonds It burns like hell when passing It tore my head to shreds I've got no good news But I'm collecting clues I'm a mummy just rising up from the tomb And I'm running as fast as I can through th
3.
Unshared Beliefs 03:19
lyrics
Wash your hands and count to 20 Don't take other people's shit Don't just follow the $ but Keep a close eye on where it's all been hidden There's always room for one more Always the chance we were wrong before When we look at ourselves in photos We are losing our souls for sure We are parakeets fighting with mirrors Fish biting glass as feet come nearer Our disintegration is our charm We are not meant to last through this much harm Now there are salts to huff And so much less pain to tough out When things got too rough There are safe words that we can call out When our jaws come unhinged It opens the door to our inards And the demons that were hanging about Will be free to go out on the town We can paint our cell walls any color we please And build all the machines we dreamed would come to be We need only ignore the detractors Make love to the screen Not just worship the actors Share all the dreams that keep us from sleeping Delve deep into our unshared beliefs
4.
Downward Drift 02:50
lyrics
Now we're trying to prop up this house with sticks It's harder than it looks to you with your free-swinging dicks It would seem that I'm in need of some therapeutic massages There are some wonderful books with pictures, diagrams, and catharsis The water table is rather full It's almost as if we'd planned it to overflow Just beneath our units the chickens are running amok Inside of my belly their offspring have run out of luck They obediently kept to their stations You seized upon the situation While I just watched the weeds grow up Between the shingles and the foundation The ants keep on making their way in No matter how many we step on The water table is rather full It's almost as if we'd planned it to overflow Oh, now I know that we will most likely Choke on the chicken's bones We stay sick as long as we stick to the Narrative of the downward drift We stay sick as long as we stick to the plan Laid out by the invisible hands We lose our patients once we slip our mitts From the hands of the downward drifting man.
5.
Loose Associations 02:21
lyrics
Never ever ever was I ever more sure that we were surely slipping Than the day the radio told me we were surely winning There's a voice in the air aimed straight at my ear hole I'm sure that we'd be the greatest of peers though I think you were sent by then to test my persistence I know you were sent by them to test my resistance There's a voice in the air aimed straight at my ear hole I'm sure that we'd be the greatest of peers though I won't say nothing to no one about what we did The secret remains between us and the mattresses I'll light a match just to burn off the gasses Then we'll kiss goodbye to 7 years of taxes I won't say nothing to nobody nohow The colors are running and I haven't learned how To separate the meat from the brains So the mess spreads and camouflages With the bloodstains We got loose with the truth We got loose with the clues With young associates we would jest And free associate with the rest The truth is so ruthless The youth is so useless The brutality of the truth is that We've made a mess of this.
6.
We Fit 04:02
lyrics
All up and down the grounds of this tit-wrenching town We walk like zombies with mommies nipping at our heels We didn't get laid and we didn't get paid then We didn't get paid again and we didn't get laid again We fit so snuggily Still there is something endearing about these blocks of masonry Abandoned and standing is if they'll never recede In symmetry enduring the sounds of our feet hitting the ground From corner to corner to roundabout to rotary We fit so snuggily Between the hats and the hairs, between the stoners and their stares Watching the lions from the comfort of our favorite chairs Under awnings, smoking and yawning awaiting the neighbors Newest spawning to spark the infarction in our hearts that reminds us Why we built that ark so goddamned wide So that we'd fit Into the cracks and the crevices Into the gapes in the oddest of places We are happier in the tighter spaces Where the man won't catch our faces Up the flagpoles, up the stairs, up the towers Wherever we drop seed we blossom and flower Into closets and bathrooms and convenience stores We spread our love across the kitchen floors If we were home and left in charge We would just sleep in and retard If we don't build a boat we can't ever float We'll just lay in our baths until our deaths come and find us alone Awaiting the guiding hands of the EMTs Gently we will be eased Into double wide aluminum beds miraculously We fit so snuggily.
7.
Slaves 03:31
lyrics
If I don't survive to see The bottom of this bowl of peeled grapes Please, please, please, please Remember me to my slaves Nothing is more important Than the names that they will shout in the streets Blindly they have built all our finest ways They scrub our columns until the gleam as teeth From the walls they have built they will Hail, hail, hail, hail Hail to my train Nothing is more important Than the names that they will shout in the streets These hills will bear my name These coins will bear my face These slaves will bear my body to the grave I have Romulan ambition Their skins will appear as clear as window pane The truth in leather will be before us once again All ways will lead to my way As the wine stains my fatted cheeks Nothing is more important Than the names that they will shout in the streets I have Romulan ambition If only to hang my body around your necks
8.
Goldwing 02:59
lyrics
Float towards the door Hold onto what's yours Take your one good find Take it with you on the highway Take it to bed every night Watch it open up wide And burn with the weed Staining your genes You're an old star Burning bright Pass it off and pass it along to the next collector Pass it off and pass it back to the store where you got it Pass it off and put it back into the microphone Your pants are torn Your head is shorn You can't forget you were wronged before Drop your pins into the holes where they were first formed Drop your pins with the caps into the collection dish Drop your pins into the soil and prayer that they are made into gold Race towards their sharp uniforms Built up to super-size on platforms Embrace the soldiers thighs and let them keep what they stole And dance Dance until your heart explodes Dance until you lose yourself And lose your soul Dance until your feet fall off Dance until your feet grow wings and you bleed solid gold.
9.
Mackerel Hill 04:30
lyrics
Or maybe some sort of a factory There may have been a really specialized machine They probably broke down and closed down When times started changing When they couldn't afford to stay current and profitable Isn't that the way we all go? Down out of history Rusting away in the weeds, near the woods This much I know I can tell when there's been a commotion I know a little bit about a little bit about this sort of thing I can tell there was a show. I can smell a letting go The bodies leave stains and auras and things Glowing rings hovering above plants in the shapes Of the tragedies that they've witnessed You don't need records to show that the past was here And it was brutally administered There was some major accounting delivered Somebody paid for someone's sins There must have been one gigantic reckoning Something went horribly wrong up on Mackerel Hill
10.
Broadcaster 02:25
lyrics
Listen up you bliss-ters and bobbers I'm broadcasting to you all hear On this sort of nature station I'm not preaching, I'm just saying You can tie it down and end it's reign But I can't keep it penned up for the sofa or the bedspread I'm broadcasting There's safety in #s There's a future for all heirs So I'm tossing my nets out As far as I can spread 'em I'm broadcasting My eyes keep searching Looking for survivors I'm a troller trolling on the curved horizon I can keep on going until my libido sinks into the ocean The next one will be stronger still and even harder to kill A crystallized monster A true abomination An occasion for celebration With no reservations A maker of men A builder of nations A mover of motions A broadcasting sensation

about

The most unsettling trio of noisemakers on any plane of existence today, Gondoliers, are set to release their first record on Midriff Records on November 19, 2013. The album, Tonight’s Whispering, dives headlong into twisted worlds. The vinyl version of Tonight’s Whispering is a split release between Midriff Records and the 100% Breakfast label (www.weirdorecords.com, 844 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139). Tonight’s Whispering is a fury of noise-pop wonder and tension.

Tonight’s Whispering is full of poison vapor synths and the hailstorm guitars that Gondoliers has been mapping out for the past few years behind the demented navigation of vocalist John Manson. Here, the band distills their sickened mind-meld of generations of the thorniest rock possible – laserstorm prog, the gnarled electronics of Einsturzende Neubauten, the off-balance drums of Jawbox, guitars that swerve between Duane Denison and Thurston Moore all with the looseness and fun of a Pavement album.

Gondoliers – which was originally Daniel Madri (Joy, the Jack McCoys, Godboy) on guitar and synths and Brendan Gibson on drums – had released a handful of instrumental records as a two-piece before hooking up with Manson for their first stab at recording together in 2011. Manson was already one of the most recognizable performers in the Boston, MA area. He’d spent years howling through gas masks and bashing battered metal drums in Neptune, fronting the Young Sexy Assassins from behind an onstage desk, and courting awkward moments with the junkyard Vangelis atmospherics of Magic People. From outside of clubs and basement bulkheads, you’d hear his voice carry over the rest of the band’s cacophony in its telltale crazed oration, one long and unfolding nightmare sermon. He was a perfect fit for the Gondoliers’ bleak sci-fi assault.

The re-launched band took to blasting rickety basement shows with blinding floodlights and overwhelming noise. Gondoliers come at the whole thing with a metaphysical trickster detachment. They dress in coveralls, they dress in hard hats. They wrap themselves in plastic backyard sports equipment and spill cheap beer all over the house.

There are sleek, ice cold synth pads from ‘80s dystopian night clubs. There are uncomfortable guitars tangled up and discarded from post-hardcore garbage trucks. Sickened feverish dreams slip past it in an oily fog. The band conjures a mish-mash of John Carpenter films playing melted and out of order at all the wrong speeds. Casts of pilgrims, castaways, backyard hobos, lusting visitors with little wrists, archrivals, and narcissistic artists jump out of shadows. The band changes directions without the slightest warning. Gondoliers are a dangerous, messy band. Part twisted dance band, part jarring noise band, but not without familiarity. Like an old art damaged drinking buddy, Tonight’s Whispering pulls you in with its eccentricities and does things that stick in your craw for months after they’ve left. It’s a strange world and Gondoliers are cool with it.

Gondoliers will be touring Europe this fall with more road time to come. We hope you’ll get behind Tonight’s Whispering and bask in its magic.

credits

released November 19, 2013

John Manson - Vocals
Dan Madri - Guitar, Synth, backing vocals
Brendan Gibson - Drums

Recorded by Doug DeMay

Available on vinyl from 100%Breakfast/Midriff Records
Available digitally at www.midriffrecords.com/store/mdrf029/

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Gondoliers Somerville, Massachusetts

contact / help

Contact Gondoliers

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Gondoliers, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now