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This is a terrifically fun song to play. It is on the prog side of things, a Joe Ostrowski characteristic maybe. I remember him playing it for us on an acoustic guitar (which is how he wrote most of his tunes), like a soft little lullaby. I loved it, went home and played it for some time. Next rehearsal I said to Joe that it should be a much more rocking tune, and we started banging away at it as a band. I came up with a guitar part that I suggested to Greg that he play before the last chorus. I loved it, he complained that it was impossible to play in tune. I think we both still feel the same to this day. We still play it live occasionally.
I believe it was the first 20ML tune I wrote a bass line for, as it was one of the first batch of new tunes after Decline of Day.
-ne

Yeah, guitar intonation gets rapidly wonky the higher you go on the neck, and two guitars trying to play high parts on imperfectly intonated guitars can often spell a pitchy disaster. Especially during the relatively quiet section Nils enjoys in "Book of J." There is a "sweet spot" during the lifetime of guitar strings--somewhere in the middle--before and after which it's impossible to spend time up there while you're playing with another guitarist without sounding out of tune. Book of J is a reference to Harold Bloom's theory that the Pentateuch--the first five books of the Old Testament--were written as a farce by a woman in the court of Solomon. Sounds good to me.
-gg

lyrics

Almost a fable where dogs are enabled
to speak like boys
Almost a reptile, splayed in the sunshine,
missing it's tail
Almost a landmark covered in spraypaint,
thumbtacks and nails

Almost a red star, a polaroid flash
a gleam in her eye
It's best not to mock her, sobbing and coughing,
slumped on the stairs
Spiraling through the same ugly building
all of us shared

Goddamn the stench,
the smell of the garbage bags tossed in the hall
Witnesses gathering, too scared,
Jehovah waits out on the lawn
He's standing outside near basketball nets made of chain
Baring his teeth before children
who wait to play a quick game

I'll beg a little
(let's just stay here a while)
just enough to take your mind
(won't you please come inside?)
off of the trouble
(I'm afraid of the dark)
I'll fix the clocks when we get back the lights
(so quiet tonight)
Just one thing at a time

You're not so heavy or tortured
or comfortable or totally distinct

Almost a red star, a polaroid flash
a gleam in her eye
It's best not to mock her, sobbing and coughing,
slumped on the stairs
Spiraling through the same ugly building
all of us shared

credits

from Yawn​+​House​=​Explosion, released February 22, 2005
Music: Joe Ostrowski, Greg Giles, Kelly Atkins
Lyrics: Greg Giles, Kelly Atkins

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20 Minute Loop San Francisco, California

Original music for the hook-hungry mob, the nervous foot, the jaded indie-phile.

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