Tuesday, October 23, 2012

NASA and new news 4 U 2 know part 4: NASA

NASA!

Just in time for the dissolution of the our esteemed space program.

I could use this new song release as a platform to talk about nazi conspiracies surrounding the American space program, the faking of the moon landing, or the general cover up of extra-terrestrial life in our solar system and NASA's culpability.  But really, who wants to read that shit on a blog about power pop?  Maybe a few of you….  Well screw it, here's the lyrics to the song instead:

NASA

If I could only change your mind
I know I'd change the world

I don't want to wake her up
I don't want to wake the silent earth
I don't want to wake her up
her clouds are snowbanks frozen in mid peace
the southern atlantic hooks across the milky alleyway
like a bowling ball's relief

I don't want to wake the silent earth
her chaos works so orderly
as silently as time and TV
shining through subsonically

Below the splayed blanket of
smoke and dinosaur skin
we are all in
and we prepare to begin again
this little face to face
with this pear shaped place
here in upper space
I'm sure we could be happy together
but it just might throw your rotation out of whack

If I said something in my sleep that made you uncomfortable
I could tell a joke and we could laugh it off
pretend I never said it

If I could change your mind
I know I could change the world

NASA was originally written at the end of the song writing cycle that included all of the Tantric Scrimshaw album.  "Vampire's Reflection," which appears on our new ep Business on the Lanai, was also written around the same time.  I have no idea who NASA was written to.  Most of the time, I have at least one girl in mind when I write lyrics to these songs (the muse, I always need my muse).  At this point, I can't really imagine who might have been messing with my head in the moment these lyrics were conceived.

Where were they conceived?  I was doing some kind of performance at a new art museum at my old alma mater Skidmore College.  I really shouldn't have been there--it was years after graduating and I had left Saratoga Springs with a real sour taste in my mouth.  One of my friends knew the dance teacher at Skidmore, and she was charged with putting together a performance for the opening of new art museum at school.  My friend Dave and I were invited up to be a part of this performance (we were going to be paid -- I couldn't pass that up just on principal alone).  When we got to the school, it turned out that there was a large group of really beautiful dancers involved with the piece.  I remember having a real crush on one dancer, and it seemed like maybe she was actually digging me, but for some reason, a different dancer ended up coming back to my room (I was staying in the college guest house) and talking to me for hours into the night.  She was pretty boring, I remember wanting her to leave, and we didn't end up hooking up, it was pretty disappointing.


The museum we performed in is called the Tang museum.  You decide if the name is significant or unfortunate.  Here's what it looks like from space:

Well anyway, somewhere in this weekend, I found myself sitting in front of the TV in my room, watching the NASA channel.  I think the sound was off.  I was just staring at a live moving image of the earth being filmed from a satellite in space.  It blew my mind that you could just casually watch  the earth from space on TV, it seemed pretty significant for some reason.  I remember watching the roundness of our planet roll by, and thinking that the surface of the earth, with the mixture of clouds, continents, and water creating textures across it, looked like, well….a bowling ball.   Honestly.  I admit, that's a weird association.  But those kinds of honest details are what makes life interesting, to me.

Just sitting there, in that quiet moment, looking at the earth turn.  You never know what will inspire art. This moment did it.  I wrote the lyrics while watching the earth turn on TV.



We ended up not being able to include the song on TWE TS - I think it was probably written after the album was recorded.  We did get the 2001 live band version of the TWE to learn the song, and I think we actually played it live at a show once.  But it never got too much farther than a shitty sounding  demo in terms of recordings.

Until now.

And now its yours, for free.  Just go to www.TheTWEx.com

I do think there must be some significance to this tune being released at the end of 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar, the year where we are supposed to transform into a super earth, or where essentially  everyone on earth 'wakes up' from the dream of unconsciousness we've been living and sees the truth of the universe:  that everything is made of energy and life is far more beautiful, malleable, and infinite than we've been able to experience.  Some say that the consciousness of the earth itself is waking up from its dream.  And because the earth wakes up, we are all more or less forced to wake up because we are riding along with it.  I think I was feeling this idea at the time, and feeling the largeness of it, and feeling like maybe I was enjoying just watching the earth sleep.  Its so beautiful just rolling along in its forgetfulness.  I don't know if you've ever watched someone you love sleep, but its pretty amazing-- they often look so peaceful and innocent, and they are utterly defenseless.  Its sort of the ultimate expression of trust in life.

Actually, watching someone sleep reminds me of this incredible sketch:


 But I digress.

Please enjoy NASA, on us.

Find a quiet moment and play it.  See if you can tap into the intense realness/utter un-realness of being alive on this globe, in this solar system, in this galaxy, in this universe.  See if you can notice yourself as the witness of this miracle.  You may not think life is all that special, but if, in this moment, while you are listening to NASA -- if in this moment, I can change your mind….



1 comment:

  1. I always thought it was 'bowling ball's release.' The more you know ...

    ReplyDelete