I Just Drew This Knife, by Spencer Krug

I Just Drew This Knife

by Spencer Krug

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1.	Cry All Day 03:58 video	lyrics	buy track
I’m gonna get back Into sculpture I’m gonna start by splitting this rock in two The day’s yellow rays betray The cock of the bull Lifted out of the blue There’s no treasure There’s no chest There’s no fifteen paces from the palm tree to the X There’s just a page drawn over with lines The white belly of the boat And this chisel of mine And I’m Gonna cry all day, I’m gonna cry all day... I’ve never been so close to quitting it all in all my life And I can’t even tell you why Maybe it’s to do with all the empty space around me Well, ba ba bada dada da da da I’ve never been so close to quitting it all in all my life And I can’t even tell you why Maybe it’s to do with this new melody you found It goes: blah blah-blah, blah blah-blah, blah-blah I’m gonna cry all day, I’m gonna cry all day... And it’s boring that the body’s Necessary for the ashes Like it’s boring that the grave is Necessary for the casket, but Can you hear me ask you For the hundredth time Come to my rescue For the hundredth time ‘Cause I’m Gonna cry all day, I’m gonna cry all day... I’m gonna get back Into sculpture I’m gonna start by splitting this rock in two The day’s yellow rays betray The cock of the bull Lifted out of the blue There’s no treasure There’s no chest There’s no fifteen paces from the palm tree to the X There’s just a page drawn over with lines The white belly of the boat And this chisel of mine
2.	God Knows Why This Is Where I Love You 03:41	lyrics	buy track
Heard through nerd’s ears, I’m doing fine And you’re building a bomb shelter, well, I know your type While up on the hill Billy kick-starts the bike And the sound travels down through the valley of the blind Yes the sound travels down through the valley of the blind And it should’ve just been a drag but the husband died Now the publishers of the rag need the proof, or so they cried And the sound travels down through the valley of the blind Yes the sound travels down through the valley of the blind It’s a paradise for one It’s a paradise for two It’s a pair of bloody hands That we use, and God knows why this is where I love you God knows why this is where I love you This is where the grin of the rivers mouth moves into view Heard through nerd’s ears, I’m doing fine And you’re building a bomb shelter, well, I know your type While in the wellness aisle They told me how the state controls my mind, and now The sound travels down through the valley of the blind God knows why oh god knows why This is where I love you God knows why oh god knows why This is where you love me too
3.	Nostalgia Is The Rose 03:10	lyrics	buy track
Nostalgia... There is a sadness that comes With how fast we become Accustomed to some new thing We all look like babes in the spring Out with the old And in with anything Nostalgia is the rose That regret grows Like an afternoon into an evening Like an afternoon Like an afternoon Like an afternoon in Beijing With you When we had nothing And nothing to do And we couldn't get a cab to the museum So we stayed in our room Nostalgia... What is the way That the dancer falls Without ever really hitting the floor What's the way we used to have Of riding roller coasters And what’s this old rope for And what's the best word For that feeling You have Like your body's Halfway Into a tunnel To a place You just Laid Waste Nostalgia's just a rose that regret grows Like the night grows into day...
4.	Taxi After Taxi 04:07	lyrics	buy track
Slouched on a curb Of a Berlin hotel One I doubt is aging well Nothing like that ever will I let taxi after taxi After taxi go by I could feel life shifting Like a tremor in the ground Now I wonder In an evenhanded way Where I’d be had I raised My forsaken hand Would I be a flame In the great hall of smoke Or another man overboard I would have not have dared say Stop the car For I know I'm no hopeless romantic I would have not have dared say Stop the car Gone all the way to Montreal Instead of flying back to you Flying back to you... A fork in the path is What most would say I say a fulcrum between The past and today And if that's the hammer That forges the blade In the steel I see rainbows And I'm okay A prism in the puddle On our street where the kid Likes to kick his little boots of blue If I had found Some other meaning of truth Would I be lost in the look of someone Not at all like you Or if I had found Some other meaning of truth Would I find myself still Flying back to you Flying back to you... I let taxi after taxi go by So show me those rainbows...
5.	Orcas 03:29	lyrics	buy track
Asleep in the garden You have a dream we have an ark and All the orcas come around because they love you They gather at the hull And while I watch you sing them lullabies I accidentally break the ark in two Flying through the city Like we own this fucking city All the lights turn red to green because they love you And I follow the north star Into a parting sea of cars Until I laugh until I crash into the W hotel Then suddenly I'm standing In a line that winds down the hill Climbing up the tower You come untied to gravity's power Because it loosened up its grip because it loves you But still you have to fall To fall and save me from my fall For while I watched you climb so fast My grip had come loose too Falling through the ocean We can feel the wild motion Of the orcas who return because they love you Now from the ocean floor I watch them push you like a newborn Toward the air above you Then suddenly I'm standing In a line that winds down the hill The line is made of babes who say they're feeling Sacrificial Don't forget to dream something dreamy about me...
6.	The Shadow 03:36	lyrics	buy track
You’re aware that in the night the shadow is still there And you're aware that it's the light that makes the shadow appear And still you go around as though Destruction’s not your name We are bound to be the keepers of the mutants that we make We must allow the grim release of the mutant from the cage And still you go around as though Destruction’s not your name Holy hell come take me now and show me where to lay In hills unknown and fill my heart with shame And I know that's not quite the same— I know that's not quite the same as an answer You’re aware of the wreckage in your wake You will tear at the edges of vindication And still you go around as though Destruction’s not your name And you’re aware the shadow is always there
7.	Exonerator 03:40	lyrics	buy track
The navy bathrobe that she made me last year When there was still a silky luster to my hair Was what the phantom standing in the past wore Oh, he was barely there And I said: What kind of thief are you? He said: I'm the one the next one will steal from Always the bridesmaid and never the bride Oh nevermind, I cried You’re barely there anymore I don’t think the deal is fair anymore Exonerate me Exonerator If who we seem to be inside our own dreams Makes up the core of who we actually are Then I’m a violent and unscrewed beast You’re barely there anymore I don’t think the deal is fair anymore I think you live in the air Between the key and the door Exonerate me Exonerator
8.	For Fear That Songs Come True 02:50	lyrics	buy track
There’s the smell of the earth And the smell of the earth burning And the long line, like worms, We burrow-burrowed in There's the action in the east It's a crack in the egg They'll stay standing still until The bishop finds a vein And there are things I'm afraid to sing For fear that songs come true And then there is everything else And then there is you And then there’s the queen Oh the old queen She finally died La dada dada And there are things I'm afraid to sing For fear that songs come true And then there is everything else And then there is you Everyone is poor now Like it always should've been The king took the cow But we did the reconnaissance Everyone is poor now Like it always should've been We drained the cow so hollow We could pop her with a pin And there are things I'm afraid to sing For fear that songs come true And then there is everything else And then there is you
9.	Love Song 03:26 video	lyrics	buy track
I was occupied Untying the knots I'd tied I tied them all wrong I tried to have a song Not be Be about love Like a hand that hides a glove When the totems rearrange The order of their faces And the world The world order changes I'll just need you to say I'll just need you to say you love me When the crow wolfs down the dove And what’s below is found above All I'll need... is love I was occupied Untying the knots I'd tied When I knocked over the roped-off ceramics Oh, I almost had it! I guess we can grow our own food to survive Just put your hand inside the glove And say that you love me, and say that you care And say that the butterflies flying by the butterfly bush Will always be there Never knew just who we'd be I colored inside the lines you drew for me Like a hand that hides inside the glove When the crow wolfs down the dove All I'll need... is love
10.	Something About The Real World 05:22	lyrics	buy track
These days have made a shade of you These days have made a shade of you A caterpillar slave A caterpillar slave The pen wears wing-shapes through the page The pen wears wing-shapes through the page Something about the real world Something about the real world Need something about the real world Here Like how the sky at night is a cliche The sky at night is a cliche We'll always love it anyway We'll always love it anyway A star becomes the eye of god When you've got end times in your eyes Something about the real world Something about the real world Need something about the real world Here Like the time we ran the kissing booth We ran the hell out of that booth Under the window turning blue And all your neighbors heard it too There was no customer but me There was no customer but you Something about the real world Something about the real world That’s something about the real world There Count all the lightbulbs in the room Count all the lightbulbs in the room From door to wall to door again From door to wall to door again And admit you think a horse is just A unicorn with an invisible horn, oh Something about the real world Something about the real world That's something about the real world There I have a picture It's of a stone I'm not an artist, I just Drew this stone Hey angel, you're just a stone I don't know how to throw away anymore I have a picture It's of a tree I'm not an artist, I just Drew this tree It’s the same tree I see every single morning Looking out the window at the tree I have a picture It's of a knife I'm not an artist, I just Drew this knife And I know I can cut away the good Or I can cut away the bad In life With this knife I have a picture It's of a heart I don't know if it's mine, I just Drew this heart Hey heart, you're just a stone I don't know how to throw away anymore Light stabs out like windmill blades From just a single dot And I'm like, Oh, that single dot Must be a star

about

One night, at some unrelated recording session, years ago already, handsome young Browning whips out his phone to show old Koop and even older Krug the instrumental recordings he’s made over the pandemic, saying that now that they're finished, he doesn’t know what to do with them. The music coming from his phone is dark and sparse, but also slick; tight enough to feel like some kind of twisted pop. The two old ghouls' mouths start to water and their eyes bulge. Krug rubs his greedy claws together and says, I might have an idea.

At home, in his studio (lair), old Krug chops up one of young Browning’s works, rearranges the parts to suit his own freakish needs, then squawks out an ill-conceived incantation overtop. He sends the whole mess to creaky Koop, who, in turn, from within his own dank cave of gadgets and oddities, skronks onto the franken-song an eccentric idea of what a guitar melody might be. They deliver the concoction back to young Browning, its progenitor, and cringe in wait for his gen z insults that they won’t understand, but he is unexpectedly pleased.

Still, they make tweaks. They tweak until the annoyingly subjective and idiosyncratic desires of all three are barely satisfied. Hoo-rah! they cheer, Krug coughing through the “rah,” having not lifted his arms that high in years. The three unlikely collaborators then decide they will make an album this way, repurposing Browning’s perfectly fine and lovely instrumental tracks into “better” “songs” by unnaturally forcing them into pop-structure-shaped holes, then adding lyrical phrases of vague meaning and forgivingly distorted guitar.

They work remotely, and slowly, posting a single demo onto Krug’s dubious Patreon page monthly, until finally a whole record’s worth of songs exist. Our three near-unemployed musicians then convene eagerly, desperately, in the woods, at a studio ridiculously called “The Studio,” and re-record the entire batch of deformities into one surprisingly cohesive collection, each song like a button-eyed bear sewn from parts of other bears, with pink and purple arms never meant for the beige torso onto which they’re now fastened.

(Oh yeah, then they added “The Shadow,” which was made earlier.)

credits

released October 13, 2023

Eli Browning—drums, bass, guitar, keys
Jordan Koop—lead guitar
Spencer Krug—vocals, keys, bass

Engineered by Eli Browning and Jordan Koop at The Studio
Mixed by Jordan Koop at The Noise Floor Recording Studio
Produced by Eli Browning, Jordan Koop, and Spencer Krug
Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering
Cover artwork and layout by Michael Doerksen

These songs were written, arranged, and produced in full collaboration with Eli Browning and Jordan Koop. A true group effort, this album is as much theirs as it is mine. —SK

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about

Pronounced Kroog British Columbia

Spencer Krug is central to a handful of projects (Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade, Moonface, Swan Lake), and has been on a number of labels (Sub Pop, Jagjaguwar, Paper Bag, Royal Mountain, Global Symphonic, Absolutely Kosher.) Pronounced Kroog is the self-made label on which he now releases new music under his own name, as well as reissues from past projects. ... more

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