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Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 2 - Swallow Me Whole

by Rabbit Rabbit (Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi)

/
1.
Where do lies grow? In whose garden? Couldn’t be mine. In the un(in)tended garden... How could I know? These vines clamor and climb with flowers bright as blight. The blue-green water holds its tongue but secrets leak out on the shore. A billion tears will drown this Alice, and a million years will turn her teeth to stone. How could I know? Couldn’t be mine.
2.
Found a phone in an Arby’s parking lot. Forgot your number so I kept the time I’d bought. Cross the river on the other side. Not sure I’m still alive, but if I am I’ll sing a song about you. The words will come before I’m done. I’m fairly certain of it. I’m shouting stories to the wind, crushing fireflies. Don’t think I’ll come tonight but if I do I’ll find a way to tell you. I’m counting stars and turning in. So long to Mother Nature. I think you told me I would hate her much later on. Cross the river on the other side just to feel alive. I think I’ll swim and touch the bottom with my shoes. As the world breaks apart I’m gonna run around it. Cross the river on the other side. Maybe cast out a line. For if I do, I’ll surely get back to you. The road ahead is just a lie that keeps a man from falling. Cross the river on the other side. Just enjoy the ride. Not sure you’re waiting, but I’m walking home to you.
3.
This tiny invasion makes me jump against my will. It makes me laugh through tight teeth and I let go. Every time I look away, the record skips, I gasp again. It fills my lungs and sneaks into my heart and makes me sing: La la la la la la... Hold your breath and stand on your head and spin and spin and spin around. Scare yourself silly and chase them away. This tiny invasion will stay and stay! Every little breath of air can make you new again. It fills your lungs, sneaks into your heart and makes you sing: La la la la la la...
4.
In the wind hides a breath. On the breath lies a word. On the word rides a song of superficial glory. On the glory sits a boy. In the boy lurks a question. From the question springs a jury, signed and sealed and in a hurry. In the verdict lies a lesson. In the lesson waits a road. On the road sits an old man. From the old man comes a sigh. On the sigh hides a flicker. In the flicker alights a bird. In the bird lies a silver tongue that swallows all it’s heard. Remember me to the water. Remember me to the hills. Remember me to the outermost house and the silence of the kill. Remember me to the swallows. Remember me to the dawn. Remember me to the glittering green and the bulk and heft and the might and the brawn. Hello sweet pleasure, goodbye divine. I’m just a fraction of an interrupted mind. Hello sweet pleasure, goodbye divine. Just so long as you send a shudder down my spine. Remember me to the water. Remember me to the hills. Remember me to the outermost house and the silence of the kill. Remember me to the bare and the wasted. Remember me to the gathering dark. Remember me to the rising light that shows us each our mark. Set your hungry eyes on me. Swallow me whole, swallow me whole.
5.
My Town 04:04 video
The knife is anxious. Time swallows time, My hand soothes the blade. There’s no safe place for you. Waiting is my weakness. Your lying tongue shall soon lay quiet In flaming fields of eel-grass this human heart is jumping. My muddy boots dig deeper down, the road to sleep is thick and slow in this town... My town. It cuts like cold fire. Breath gives way to dirt. Your spirit burns the air. When your blood sings so sweet This night becomes a fable where devils meet and dreams will shatter. Kings die and beggars die. Rich men and poor men die.
6.
I’ll bake an apple pie while you read a magazine. You bring the firewood in. I’ll sort the napkins from the tea towels. You change the oil while i feed the animals. The sour cream is spoiled, and you bought redundant bananas. Outside the squirrels and robins and foxes and hares, they run through the Kelly’s yard into the Price’s, completely unaware that inside are animals pampered, delivered and kept from all of the trials of staying alive. Fill ’er up again, I’ll drink to that. I’ll hide the pornography under the mattress while you find the baby on top of the fridge with a water gun. You plump the show pillows, I’ll fill the propane while you match the Tupperware tops to the bottoms. It’s no use. Outside the deer and the antelope, foxes and hares, their home is a tangle of parcels divided by roads and attractions. Outside it’s a chorus of sparrows, while inside it’s phones. And the bird in the clock has stopped singing for us since our little Jim broke all his bones. How will we pass the time? How will we pass the time together? You post the pictures of family bliss while I use the Clorox to clean up the paint and the piss. I’ll step on the treadmill while you nuke the broccoli. The hampster looked dead so I touched her. She bared fangs and hissed at me. Outside the squirrels and robins and foxes and hares, they run through the Lambton’s yard into the Weiss’s completely unaware that inside are animals pampered, delivered and kept from all of the trials of staying alive. Fill ’er up again, I’ll drink to that.
7.
Never let a day go by. Even the King of England sometimes cries. Birds will fall out of the sky. Ruby eyes disguise your wandering heart - Don’t even try. Steal away Steal away Lost in a mountain of denial. You swept me down the stairs And dropped me with a smile. I’d just as soon go straight to trial. This jury’s rigged, I’ll just sit back and think awhile. Steal away Steal away First you got a piece of my mind. Then you took my body too. The ties that bind. Steal away Steal away I took a walk to clear my head. Daydreamed of killing you instead. There was a time you shared my bed. Now I sleep alone. This fairy tale can’t be unread. Steal away Steal away
8.
I never met a death I didn’t love. If there’s a message from above I didn’t hear it. Where went my spirit? Drew a map on a paper bag. You said you loved another boy named Brad, not me. Guess I’ll run away. I’m never gonna come back home. Certain roads. Certain people. Certain they know me. I always take what they give me gladly. Sadly. Never gonna go back home. I shot a bird and I watched him die. Nobody cried when I lost my mind this time. I’m the king of disaster. I should have asked her. So I’ll run away. I’m never gonna go back home. Walk the city in my sleep. History is on repeat. The sun is moving on. Simply paralyzing.
9.
Who looked in and saw a table set for four. 
Her name writ backwards in the sun
 on squares of color on the floor. The lark takes a page in its tiny grey mouth
 and turns our dreams to shade. Once I was your only and your all 
with one clenched fist, 
the other wide open. This is the house.
 This is the place.
 This is the house of our love. Who looked in and saw the table set for four. 
Come, oh come and take your place 
in this long line next to me. This is the house.
 This is the place.
 This is the house of our love.
10.
You said you found me on the T.V. Told your daddy got to have me. Her skin’s just like an angel. We could wash her in the bathtub please. You’re a needle in my heart. If you let me I would start to love her like a baby. Maybe she’s the Virgin Mary? I’d like to wear her like a necklace. We could share a kitty breakfast. People always tell me I was meant to be a mama. Cat Lady. Hello Cat Lady. I feed her grapes like Ceaser. She takes a bite if I tease her. Told my friends that I named her Cricket. Fur so fine it makes a honey bear sneeze. Achoo! I’d like to hold you, mold you. Even I could scold you. You’re my little hairless sphynx Everybody thinks, cat lady. Hello Cat Lady. We could take a walk. You could hear me talk about your smooth skin. I’m getting into you. You got me in your pocket, slow down wait a minute. You know I’m in it for life now. Cat Lady. Hello Cat Lady.
11.
The bristlecone pine has nothing to say. The blackberry vine has nothing to say. The carpenter ant has nothing to say. The wintercress plant has nothing to say. The rainbow smelt has nothing to say. Orion’s belt has nothing to say. The earthworm cocoon has nothing to say. The man in the moon has nothing to say. The coral snake has nothing to say. The freshwater lake has nothing to say. The vinegar fly has nothing to say. The sun in the sky has nothing to say.
12.
before the sun there was an oval darkness without any background, height or width; an oval behind the eyes: the mirrored disk. first stop, two, then off toward the outer but there is no rim to dance upon as darkness loses shape and the density unleashed. this boxer has no shadow.

about

Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 2 – Swallow Me Whole is the sophomore album from Rabbit Rabbit, out on July 8, 2014 on their own Rabbit Rabbit Records. Rabbit Rabbit is the song-spinning duo of husband and wife team, and critically acclaimed artists Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi. The pair worked extensively with frequent collaborator, bassist, guitarist, engineer and producer Jon Evans (Tori Amos, Ben Folds, Bill Frisell, Sarah McLachlan) on Swallow Me Whole, as well as with New York-based producer Joel Hamilton (Pretty Lights, The Black Keys, Matis Yahu). Iconic bass player Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson) joins them on "Back Home."

In early 2012, Kihlstedt and Bossi launched their audio/video subscription service, Rabbit Rabbit Radio. Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 2- Swallow Me Whole is the product of a year’s writing, the songs revealed to their subscribers one by one on the 1st of every month in 2013, and now mastered and available to the general public for the first time. Their song “After the Storm” from Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 1, just won the eclectic category of the 13th annual Independent Music Awards.

For Volume 2, this forward-thinking musical duo has ditched the CD format, instead releasing the album as a limited edition silkscreened print by acclaimed artist Dan McCarthy, who has worked with Wilco, Andrew Byrd and many more. The print is signed by the artist and by Carla and Matthias, and there is a download code for access to the album’s tracks printed on the back.

“Writing songs is the art of putting a frame around a story.” Kihlstedt notes. “We try to be faithful to what each story needs rather than being faithful to a particular style or genre.” Bossi adds: “We love classical music and all of its intricacy and detail. We revel in the simplicity of a backbeat with blocky chords. We nerd out to prog-rock. We swoon over melody-masters Bacharach and Bowie. We toss our influences together in the pot and serve them up with our own defiantly
minimal sound palette.”

Violinist, vocalist and composer Carla Kihlstedt is best known as a founding member of an array of avant-garde, rock, neo-classical and Americana groups including Tin Hat, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, 2 Foot Yard, Causing a Tiger, and Minamo. She debuted her newest group, New Jazz Standards Quintet, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in May, 2014. She’s written critically acclaimed pieces for the International Contemporary Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Brooklyn Rider, and the ROVA Saxophone Quartet and has contributed to recordings of Tom Waits, Fred Frith, Madeline Peyroux and many more. She currently serves on the faculty of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department. Her husband and band-mate Matthias Bossi has performed with her in Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and The Book of Knots, and in addition to his
own work with his musical production company Ridiculon, has worked with Mike Watt, St. Vincent, Mike Patton, Pretty Lights and John Vanderslice.

credits

released July 8, 2014

Rabbit Rabbit is: Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi with perennial guest Jon Evans. • Mastered by Chad Clark at SIlver Sonya. • Thank you to Jon Evans. You are our unicorn. • Thank you to George Hurd, our secret double-0 Rabbit Rabbit agent. • Thank you to Joel Hamilton, who sprinkles magic on RRR tunes a few times a year. • Thank you to all of our musical guests that lent us not just their noises but their very selves. • Thank you to Dan McCarthy, who drew and screenprinted this poster. He has an amazing print-of-the-month club that you should also subscribe to: danmccarthy.org • Billions of effusive and effervescent thanks to our Rabbit Rabbit Radio subscribers. This album is for you.

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Rabbit Rabbit Radio Falmouth, Massachusetts

Rabbit Rabbit Radio is the song-spinning duo of Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi. Collectively, they are founding members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tin Hat, 2 Foot Yard, Causing a Tiger, The Book of Knots, and Fred Frith’s Cosa Brava.

Drawing on their love of both art & folk song, industrial & improvised music and heart-wrenching balladry, their songs are raw, beautiful, sparse and rich.
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