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Vigil on Swan

by Trochee Trochee

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1.
The Smoke 05:00
I wasn’t there at the Safeway where Our Congresswoman got shot in the parking lot. I wasn’t there, I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there, I was barely here at all. I wasn’t anywhere, but when the smoke sucked you in, I was there. And by the time I arrived, everybody was high. He had the KGUN 9 live feed Hooked up through his new Apple TV. You were on the couch shaking and crying and barely watching. Call it vain, call it valiant: called our parents, killed the Valium. But that day was the start of so much of our own pain. I have memories inside me of collecting monetary contributions. I was sixteen, just driving, it was her very first campaign. I never voted, you knew better. You were twenty and her intern. You woke up sick that day, called out of work that day, All that went down at the Safeway, You should have been there. That’s what I heard you say as KGUN 9 read the names And the President said he’d shortly be there to read us a prayer. “It’s okay to feel scared.” There were others I knew better. You and I were never that close. You were on the couch and our friends rolled spliffs. I just watched you through the smoke.
2.
We were young, we were dumb, No one’s contesting that. On a play set off of Rosemont, A few things happened several times. Smoking cigarettes our teacher bought us Before she got caught, Still don’t know who talked, But she never taught in Tucson after that. There were two swing sets, “One for children, one for smaller children.” That was the joke you made. Six months later, we were taking acid and you asked me Why I’m laughing. This is memory, this is memory. That’s another story. By that time I wasn’t living on Calle Vista de Colores. I guess we were each other’s first time a few times. Pretty weird to see you here in New York with your new band. I brought my girlfriend, you guys always got along. We were young, we were dumb, we were never in love. We both knew that, but I still felt bad Because every time I used to see you Something would happen that we wouldn’t plan to. Something would happen that we wouldn’t mean to. Like trying acid for the first time on your bed, Or that party at Arthur’s house (but I don’t talk about that). I’m not trying to cosplay glory days because now we’re friends. I don’t know why When I thought about my house on Calle Vista de Colores, The first thing that I thought about was you And how I cannot wait to hear Your next record.
3.
Kasey's Song 03:39
I’ve heard everyone’s halcyon days, no matter the place, Come and go. I know you were worried your poetry told me too much. I’m tired of reading, tired of breathing the stale Desert air. I know you were born here, And you know you wait for monsoons Or graduate into a honeymoon. You collapsed on my bed and you confessed To an inherited sense of dread. You talked of the grief horse your dad bought you The last time it felt this bad, And then you never talked about it again. Where did your horse go, Kasey? Where did your horse go, Kasey? You’ve had such sad eyes lately. Needless to say, you never made it back from winter break. Where did your horse go, Kasey? Where did your horse go, Kasey? Who went out riding when you dropped out, got married? There are pictures of you in Guam, two babies. There are poems I saved from the halcyon days. Are you happy? I guess I wouldn’t know quite how to tell.
4.
Goff's Song 02:41
There was that summer you had the get-rich-quick scheme: Buy up some bikes, And fix them up on Sixth Street. You went down to the auction. The place was pulsing with policemen. And with my seed contribution, You went all in. You went all in. You bought all thirty-five broken bikes. Suffice it to say, that summer slipped away. The autumn, the winter, both did the same. The morning he shot her, There were bicycle frames strewn along the staircase, And chained along the fence was the one you’d fixed With no brakes. When we recovered, You went out riding Down Euclid Towards Sixth Street And another day.
5.
See you soon. There’s a light leak in the last sealed roof Of Biosphere 2. I’m waist deep in fizzing uncontrolled photons Frying flora like only Sonora can. Golf ball of the highway, Fairway of the 10. Data’s in the trash can, In the rough again. I swear I’m leaving, I swear I’m climbing out the roof. Just give me ‘til the glass gets cleared. Give me 2.2, I guess I’ll see you soon. Give me 2.2.
6.
Vigil On 02:25
I’ve been to Strawberry Fields. I’ve been to Hank Sr.’s grave. I stood in line for a day and saw Reagan lying in state. I’ve seen the look on your face As April recedes into May, Your brother’s birthday. In the absence of faith, I saw the light on your face. In the absence of faith, I saw the light on your face.
7.
It was warm the night you first met: Your grandma’s car behind the Target. The window fog you’ll never forget, And how for two years you really loved her. Stocking up for Patagonia, The motor stuck and that’s when you ‘fess up. That was the fall she was to follow you to college, She was enrolled and packed up. “Alex, I don’t love her.” I said, “She loves you, yeah yeah yeah yeah.” “And with a love like that…” Two years gone, and it’s cold in Flagstaff. You took her call inside Bookmans. She was stranded so she called you, Yeah you got her, got to talking, All you remember’s how she told She grew up with the shooter. “It’s strange how people change.” And so she exits, And she thanks you, Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
8.
Linus & Lucy 03:26
Another life. Another time zone entirely. Those of us who up and left, Never to return again. Who could really blame us then? The local scene was dead. Lovers, friends, parents, and Congresswomen. These are whom I leave behind. Celebrated in my mind For carrying the desert’s weight Until it breaks. It will break. And when it breaks, You may not break, But it will break. It will burn. We’ll return, And we will thirst, And it will burn. Smoke will rise. We’ll catch our flights. From the sky, I’ll spy the Mission Burnished white As the palm trees fry And the cacti cry With everlasting life. But the homes down south weren’t so lucky. And the lives up north weren’t so lucky. Your folks on the east side are tending their property, And my mother is in the backyard feeding everything remaining.
9.
When you turned twenty-one, I left my house late. That’s just like me. A little warm for March and a bit too far to walk, But here I come. We ran out of things to say by winter break of eighth grade. Then we dated, then we didn’t. Took a year for me to look at you. But you, you waited. When you turned twenty-one, we all did shots at the Auld Dub. They were on fire, and so were you. We were tired, but you pulled through. You always manage to. When you turned twenty-one your night did not go how you planned. Your night did not go how you meant it to. I was long gone. I left your party early. That’s just like me. One last winter break, not quite twenty-two. Took me nine months to hang out with you. We collapsed and we confessed our numbers, Yours one higher, that’s just fine. You never saw that coming, you said. You told me about your birthday, you said, “I always figured it would be us two.” And as the cold breaks, here is us two.
10.
The Sky 02:15
I try to remember when I was younger. I cannot. I cannot. I try to remember driving my car home. I cannot. I cannot. I saw the stoplight fade in the flicker Of candles and voters crowded in vesper. The KGUN 9 ‘copter slowed to a shudder. Shatter. Recover. On Swan Road. “So peaceful.” The sky over Swan Road, guiding my car home. So peaceful. “So peaceful.”

about

The second full-length release by Trochee Trochee.

Produced by Keith Lauria.
Mixed and Mastered by Eric Castillo.
All songs written and performed by Trochee Trochee
(Trochee Trochee is Alex, Jack, Taylor, George).
Cover photo by Sean Whalen.
Logo by Amy Tidwell.
Cat Cassettes Purr 020
Meal Plan Records 001
Copyright Ghostie Recordings

credits

released June 30, 2017

All tracking for the album was recorded to 8-track cassette at The Beak recording studio in Beacon, NY. Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, & 8 recorded October 14-16, 2016. Tracks 3, 7, 9, & 10 recorded January 27-29, 2017. Track 6 recorded February 18, 2017.

Tambourine on Track 4 by George.
Additional lyrics on Track 7 by Lennon-McCartney.
Additional vocals on Track 9 by Keith.
Stratocaster on Track 10 appears courtesy of Meal Plan Records.

Thank you to everyone who has listened to us, played with us, and let us shred on their premises.

Special thanks to: Keith, T.J., & The Beak, Eric & Nada, The Dougherty Family, Rroyd, Cynthia (R.I.P.), Mullarkey & Cat Cassettes, Sean & Amy, E., Sean G., Kevina, Stan, Taylor B., Gabby G., Andrew, Kyle Milner, Ella, Ella’s Bellas, Madeline, Aaron, James & the Way Station, Logan & Trundle Sessions, PoMoRo, Ex-Cowboy, Miser Amicus, Diners, Watchable Wildlife, Catherine & Clark, Patrick & Bryant, Cancionsito, Michelle & Steve & Rich, Tim & Matt, Ashley, Cord, Miguel, Dogbreth, 8bit, Old Table, Run-On Sunshine, Phil From Accounting, The Love Ways, C.J. Renner, Joey & Pratt Film Lab, the Tidwell family, Levi, Duplication.ca, and Ghostie in the Corner.

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Trochee Trochee Brooklyn, New York

A chilly midnight jam in a young Michael Stipe's basement, we've stayed in the country too long.

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