more from
Wharf Cat Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Shadow On Everything

by Bambara

/
  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    We found a few more of these in our warehouse.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Shadow On Everything via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    7 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Back in Print!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Shadow On Everything via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $22 USD or more 

     

  • Limited Edition Digipack CD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Shadow On Everything via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Vinyl LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    First Edition of 500 Records

    Includes unlimited streaming of Shadow On Everything via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
Dark Circles 03:34
A naked kid is singing Up on the stage He’s covered in paint and he’s barking about the human plague I walk over to the bar And I take a seat Misanthropy can be so grating without a drink Then I see you coming Though a haze of sewer steam Neon glowing in the night Red words: Red Tide Shining in your eyes You come out of the cold The cold follows you in I’ve been waiting for an hour now but who’s counting Lips mouthing hello Dark circles ‘round your eyes You sit down and I tuck my hand between your thighs Tell me more about your hometown The restaurants where you worked The amusement park on the haunted lot Your art friends who sucked each other off For the rich man on the hill Buying meth from the Doe Eyed Girl Skinny-dipping in the desert heat Coyote choirs howling from their traps Your first love who got cut in half From falling on the tracks
2.
Way back, when Elsa was a little girl She saw a deer in her yard And she went over to take a peek She waved at it through the glass A gunshot cracked And steaming blood fanned out around its kicking feet Dead eyes staring Dead eyes staring Now she’s all grown, big-boned, and sweet Dancing to her records late at night When there’s no one around who might Hear her as she tries to sing Fly strips along the walls She twirls through the halls of buzzing wings She puts on the clothes she likes to sleep in Leaves the hall lights on bright And falls nervous into dreaming Cause she knows what she’ll find Staring back all blank and dead She takes a hit and slides out of bed You said Jack’s handsome and he’s dumb Drinks at your father’s bar with all the scum Till his flushed face goes slack He’s new in town. Came one night when it was raining Bag full of blank notebooks on his back And he’s always complaining Yeah he knows he’s a poet just uninspired Says it’s his muse who is a fucking hack Says the bitch must be sleeping on the job Like some lazy god-slob Don’t give a shit about her little Jack He whistles for another round Elsa’s walking down the street Jack sees her through the glass and winks Elsa smiles back from the crosswalk Brakes squealing and screeching Jack runs to the Cadillac Sees Elsa gurgling beneath it Her eyes stare dead-blank Rolling round in her twitching head Like a dumb animal he thinks And the beauty overwhelms him He writes and writes and writes He writes and writes and writes He writes a title on the page “Doe-Eyed Girl” it says
3.
Night’s changing Spiders seem to levitate in headlights While deer hide dumb in the bushes And three snakes hang from the branches of a small tree In front of her house where he’s climbing out of her room José looks back through the window She’s tangled up in the sheets and she’s smiling sweet Talking softly in her sleep He hops down to the driveway Stumbles to his car parked down the street And he turns the key The church looms on the horizon Like the dried up husk of some ancient bug Legs scratching at the rising sun Inside he gathers his things ‘Round the scattered bodies of his passed out friends In a drunken spin Jimmy yawns and says, “Hey what’s goin on?” “Shadows just seem darker these days.” Says José “Anyway, I’m gonna catch a train.” José waits by the tracks Sunrise puts a squint in his eyes And it seems like there’s So many little creatures scurrying around that he can’t see The train comes and he starts running He jumps for it and he slips She wakes up and she sees his gone Just like she expected But she hoped she’d be wrong Thought this morning She could try it on top “Never get old where you were young.” He said while she was nodding off He’s kind of strange she thinks Yeah but so is love The kids in the church start to stir, As light pours in through the holes in the walls, Wondering if José is gone “No one ever really leaves.” Jimmy says through a cloud of smoke “Where would he go anyway?” The sun is up and the birds are pecking Pecking at something lying in the dirt
4.
5.
Monument 03:48
I’ve seen you before In a wet dream or a vision You were knocking on my door Looking for something you were missing You know exactly who I am I own this stretch of barren land This painting on a motel wall This problem that we’re gonna solve See if you help me, well I can give you anything I’ll give you anything I’ll give you anything I know it’s freedom you desire But you reek of religion Maybe it’s that church that caught on fire Where all you punk kids are livin’ These boring monuments All shining and white In honor of boring men Like those poor bastards from the mine Let’s make something huge and full of rust Rebar ‘round my handsome bust Broken glass like jagged flowers Climbing up a twisting tower Yeah I want to see its shadow on everything Shadow on everything Shadow on everything We’ll slip dynamite in the suits Of the people in the museum Or we could wall them all inside And turn it into a mausoleum I’ll come find you in the night You know, I can see perfectly in the dark Its just when the sun hits I cant see anything
6.
Stomps her shadow to the sidewalk In the cigarettes and ash Kicks her shadow through the tall grass In the fallen nests and trash Her shadow walks behind her Follows her into a cab And she holds it underwater Picking at it like a scab I kiss her in the stairway Shadow spilling down the steps Run my fingers through her blonde hair Must have dyed it while I slept I stumble home and turn the lights on Watch it scurry between her knees And I see it when she’s talking Hear it changing how she speaks Out west shadows are squirming In hot cars and dry riverbeds Writhing on an ugly statue Shattered stained glass ‘round its head Jack’s smiling in the dark now Writing things that he can’t see And the words that he can’t read Say “The Door Between Her Teeth” The old man’s in his mansion On his hill filed up with bones Sees his shadow stretching over town Rolls his eyes back and moans José rots in pieces Between three Chokecherry trees Their shadows interlock like fingers On a grave littered with forties Their shadows interlocked like fingers Making sure he’ll never leave Their shadows interlocked like fingers Making sure he’ll never leave
7.
Human Hair 01:20
8.
We’re sneaking through the night And there’s no talking In this dream I hear a bell As we take the driveway around the hill And we keep walking I see you in moon patches Wading naked in the lake I feel the old man watching, but I Keep going anyway You’re struggling through the waves now In slow motion And I see you as a little calf With a lasso round your neck In the Steel Dust Ocean And I know you’re leaving I see the change in your face And I want to go with you, but I know I’ll be alone any place
9.
Watch you sleep on a black towel in the sand In the foam of dead jellyfish and crushed beer cans Sucking flies in your mouth Then you breathe them out Just to suck them back in again I look at the stubble on your sunburned scalp Think about how it scratches on my neck and lips Wonder why you grew your hair out long And then you dyed it blonde Just to shave it all off again In the space between your teeth There’s a doorway to the desert Where you breathe sandstorms to life Howling through broken mines And the hollows of sun bleached skulls You look up at me through the sun Tell me ‘bout some dream you’ve just awoken from Where I died shirtless in the street Pants tangled round my feet Waving a bottle at you like a gun And you’re face is the same As when you found that picture of her in my desk All blonde locks and naked flesh Back then you didn’t say a word Just chirped sad as a lost bird And then you dropped it back into the mess Your mouth open wide Just like your grandma’s when she died And you sigh with a moan Breathing life into snakeskins and dried up bones Something washes up onto the beach Yeah it's half eaten but it's still movin' You reach out and grab my hand, We watch it struggle in the sand And all the seagulls start to sing
10.
Wild Fires 02:54
I woke up today I woke up today and I saw you Woke up and I saw you Stuffing leaves in your mouth You were mumbling something About wild fires And how they sound Come inside Come inside I woke up today and I saw you Woke up and I saw you Digging a hole in the ground You were down on your hands and knees Forming all the dirt into a mound On top you made a house of sticks Round a fat tick plucked from your scalp Come inside Come inside It’s too cold out there Come back to bed I woke up last night and I saw you Standing out in the moonlight Tying a noose with a vine I said mostly to myself, “Is that thing for you or is it mine?” “It’s too cold out there. Come back inside the bedroom.” You said, “It’s colder next to you.”
11.
Backyard 04:16
We’re at some late night art gallery A 50’s living room is nailed to the ceiling You look pretty and sweet with red wine on your teeth But I can’t shake this feeling Like I’m capsized and kicking We’re the last ones here and people start to clean Nagging tired and slow like blood drunk little sand fleas And I shake you awake and say where to next Cause with the morning you leave You say, “I think Red Tide might still be open.” And I say, “When you’re gone how you planning on coping?” I will pretend that you’re dead And I’ll take what you left in my head To the backyard and fill it with flowers instead A bell’s ringing somewhere near the beach It’s bright and shrill and it’s louder than it should be I wonder if you’ll hear it tomorrow night When everyone is sleeping I rest my head on your shoulder “What’re you gonna do when I get back home and she wants you to hold her?” I will pretend that you’re dead And I’ll take what you left in my head To the backyard and fill it with flowers instead
12.
Back Home 03:11
Creatures drag themselves on wet ground Headed towards their burial ground Years of climbing, years of dying On the bones of ancient giants And a hill forms from the death-sludge Growing tall out of the hot mud Then it hardens and it cools A rich man settles down and digs a swimming pool Sculptures hold up a six-column portico Priceless paintings nailed to trees Cadillacs lined up like cavalry And in the basement everything is painted red Except the black disco balls And the mirrors that line the halls And out back there’s a man-made lake With daybeds and tire swings The town kids smoke meth and drink Behind the scrap metal heap The guesthouse lies hidden...

about

We are excited to announce that Bambara's Western Gothic epic, 'Shadow on Everything’ will finally be back in print! The new edition is pressed on "Sunbleached" white vinyl, features a new jacket with the complete lyrics printed on the back and a new sticker. These will ship on November 6th. Lock yours down today before it's sold out once again! 

Special Edition is on White Vinyl and Comes w/ an Enamel Pin

Limited Edition is on White Vinyl

“A beautifully dynamic nightmare” - NPR

“One of the year’s most gripping listens” - Bandcamp Daily

“Not for the faint-hearted” - The Quietus

credits

released April 6, 2018

Bambara is Reid Bateh, Blaze Bateh and William Brookshire

All songs written by Bambara
Lyrics by Reid Bateh

Produced by Andy Chugg

Engineered by Andy Chugg and William Brookshire between June 2016 and October 2017 at Gary's Electric, Gilded Audio and The Bambara Basement.

Mixed by Drew Vandenberg at Chase Park Transduction

Mastered by Josh Bonati

Appearances by:
Jeff Tobias - Baritone and Alto Sax
Lyzi Wakefield - Vocals
Allegra Sauvage - Cello
Ben Chugg - Cornet
Zach Henry - Violin

Album Photography by Erik A. Burdett
Album layout by Blaze Bateh

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Bambara Brooklyn, New York

contact / help

Contact Bambara

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Bambara, you may also like: