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Love on My Mind

by Bambara

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Lyrics Chapbook

    Includes unlimited streaming of Love on My Mind via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
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  • Streaming + Download

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

      $6 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    First 200 Are Hand-Numbered

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

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Special Edition Green Vinyl LP + Lyric Chap Book (Only 5!)
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    We Found 5 of these in Our Warehouse.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Love on My Mind via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
He’s the godhead Of the two step About as far as he’s concerned. Yeah his boot prints Stomp and skid Strange patterns in the dirt. Always tuned in To a duet He hears carried on the wind. He sings alone In a rough baritone. Rain dripping off his chin. He throws cans at landing planes From his spot near the runway. He knows he’ll see it someday. He’ll see the sky open up. But when his eyes close She’s in nightclothes And she hasn’t aged a day. He lets the girl that he sees Lead his feet In a drunken figure eight. And the pilots With eagle eyes Get a kick out of watching him. Shake his ass Like a snake in the grass That never learned to shed its skin. They’re up there watching him Slither in the rain. They’re always watching him Slither in the rain. Watch him Slither in the rain.
2.
Mythic Love 03:20
I showed up late and tired To a party for a friend. Parked my car on a street Where trees grew along the fence. Then I saw you in the brake lights, Glowing in the limbs, As you searched your purse for matches Cigarette between your lips. Inside, we sat entwined And forgot everyone. Our hands were fugitives in spotlights When the dark bar lit up. With the doors locked behind us We scaled the fire escape And fucked to a choir of Screeching sunrise trains. You said, “This feeling It’s a dog in the mud. It’s a blade on the tip up your tongue. It’s a bottle smashed on the head of a TV stud. Hearing my name when you cum, It’s the Father ,the Holy Ghost, and The Son. It’s a mythic kind of love.” Mythic love I know one day when I wake up, There’ll be a hole in the sky. And from that hole will come an angel With bright, strobing eyes. And in those eyes will flash the brake lights You were bathed in that night With the trees along street And I’ll let loose the reigns of life. I said, “This feeling, It’s a web unspun. It’s breaking the neck of a dove. It’s a gun between your eyes when you’re talkin’ tough. Hearing my name when you cum, It’s the Father, the Holy Ghost, and The Son. It’s a mythic kind of love.” Mythic love
3.
Birds 03:36
Spring, The time of year when tourists shiver on the beach And baby birds begin to fall out of the sidewalk trees. Sometimes when it rained We’d grab a fifth and find a place to watch the planes. One night, we saw a Boeing trailing flames And you said, “They make it or they don’t.” You bought a point-and-shoot To try to document your visions of the truth. Cut your teeth on gritty portraits for the local zines. Snapping everywhere we’d go. We rode to Coney and you shot a couple rolls. And the boney kid who broke my nose was glad to Pose biting on a bodega rose. Then we crashed on the train. I woke up and saw the sun rising With your head on my knees And I closed my eyes. I saw a flicker of your face Above the candle with a sticker of a saint. Lit a cig and then you pulled me into the smoke. Then I was driving in the snow. You and Nick were scared, yelling where to go. But the Firebird was skidding all over the road. I said, “Damn thing’s dancing on its own. We make it or we don’t.” Passed out on the train. I woke up to find the sun blinding. You were still sound asleep, So I closed my eyes. [Then I was walking in a hazy field near where I’m from.] Passed out on the train. [I’d just clipped my first dove with my father’s shotgun.] I was bleeding in the sunlight [I found her among the sunflowers, still flapping her wings.] With your head on my knees [I scooped her gently into my hands, and I set her free.] And love on my mind.
4.
Here’s the picture where you had Nick strutting In your beetle wing dress. Junkie Lady Macbeth, Sleepwalking through cops catcalling on the sidewalk. Heart-shaped hickeys ‘round the scar on his neck. Next. The fog is a wash of neon, Blurring out the pretty faces of some rooftop girls. Standing shoulder-to shoulder, naked figures with theirs hips Cocked. Lined up on the railing like a string of fake pearls. And here’s me sharing a bed with a trashcan. Comatose. Sweat shining all TV green. I can see what must be that old Steve McQueen chase scene Reflected in your framed portrait of The King. You got this shot when Knox drove from Florida For a busted up jaw and couch full of burn holes. He was cut from the belly of a gator, years later, But here he’s still laughing with his mouth wired closed. Well, it’s a shame this one’s mostly ruined, Grainy figures fade to white as they approach the top left. What’s left is a cowboy hat, a bad back tatt. Stream of taxis pouring from the sunset. Next. Smoke rings moan in a chrome coke mirror. The flash is a comet on a path toward your head. Your bloodshot eyes look like they’re trying to find some sign Of what’s out there, just beyond the photo’s edge.
5.
Got jumped as I stumbled home Sunday night. He cut deep but the drugs killed the feeling. You found me snoring on the sheets stained red. Then you packed my wound full of ground cayenne And dragged me out of bed. The worn out doctor smelled like liquor sweat. And when you saw that her stitch-hand was shaking, You framed a shot with your thrift store lens. I saw a flash and watched the needle dig. (I’m feelin’ like a funeral) I said, (Feelin’ like a funeral) “It ain’t the city air. (Feelin’ like a funeral) It’s deep in my soul. (Feelin’ like a funeral) It lives in there. (Feelin’ like a funeral) And I can’t I can’t get (Feelin’ like a funeral) No kind of stiches there. (Feelin’ like a funeral) So, the next time Around, don’t go Sounding the siren.” We left the hospital. On the street, we passed by the old folks home. Another room had been moved to the trash pile. And we watched a gown flutter like a ghost On a dresser drawer full of taped game shows. (I’m feelin’ like a funeral) “I swear, (Feelin’ like a funeral) It ain’t the city air. (Feelin’ like a funeral) It’s deep in my soul. (Feelin’ like a funeral) It lives in there. (Feelin’ like a funeral) And I can’t, I can’t get (Feelin’ like a funeral) No kinda stitches there. (Feelin’ like a funeral) So, the next time Around, don’t go Sounding the siren.” At home, you put on the nightgown And I ran my finger over moth holes I found, Tracing constellations in a warm cotton sky. You touched my wrist in a patch of light, and said, “When you’re asleep, sometimes I check your pulse.” And I said, “There’s no need cause, baby, everyday I’m feeling like a funeral.” I’m feelin’ like a funeral I swear, (Feelin’ like a funeral) “It ain’t the city air. (Feelin’ like a funeral) It’s deep in my soul, baby. (Feelin’ like a funeral) It lives in there. (Feelin’ like a funeral) And I can’t I can’t get (Feelin’ like a funeral) No kind of stiches there. (Feelin’ like a funeral) So, the next time Around, don’t go Sounding the siren.”
6.
Little Wars 05:15
Two women stare into the camera Trying not to smile To one of them it came easily For the other one it took a while. You chose them for this reason, And the spacing of their eyes. Said, they looked like prey and predator On a smoke break from an endless fight. When I felt you changing I stayed the same. You said I was a caveman Afraid of a flame. Said, the best years of your life have been wasted. Always blacked out, or crashing, Working day shifts with the shakes. In our apartment All your photos on the bed You walked around in your underwear In a heat wave drunk and underfed. I grabbed a picture Of a beggar in the park On his knees at the feet pedestrians In a crown he’d made from MetroCards. I said, “Guess times are hard for The King of New York.” You unhooked your bra, dropped it on the floor and said, “This city’s full of little wars.” When I felt you changing I stayed the same. You said I was a caveman Afraid of a flame. Said, the best years of our lives had been wasted Stashing cash tips in the mattress, Slinging well shots for the snakes. (Wash this filthy city from your skin with me.) (We’ll cut our hair and burn our things and leave by spring.) I heard what you said And chose to stay instead. (Wash this filthy city from your skin with me.) (We’ll cut our hair and burn our things and leave by spring.) You got a husband, I saw He treats you real nice. He’s gentle and blonde And smiles with his eyes. You found a nice job And make art when there’s time. The garden you planted Has started to bloom. You’ll finish the plans For the baby come June. You put a new crib In your old darkroom. At my place there’s a box Of photos you took. Some nights, when it’s hot I can’t help but look. And I thought you should know The King’s still on his knees But, I wish he’d stand up, Throw his arms around me And say, “Don’t get confused, just do what you do. This city could use a good caveman like you.” “Yeah, this city could use A good caveman like you” I feel it. I see it. I feel it. It’s moving I feel it. I see it .I feel it. Always moving

about

SPECIAL EDITION 12” IS ON BLACK VINYL AND COMES WITH A LYRICS CHAPBOOK.

FIRST 200 12”s ARE HAND NUMBERED, FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED.

About 'Love on My Mind'

If the start of the breakthrough for Bambara was the radically reimagined sound of 2018’s Shadow On Everything (dubbed by NPR a “western gothic opus”), then the moment it truly arrived was on the cinematically riotous noir-punk of 2020’s Stray. In the UK, buoyed by the enthusiasm of 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq (who called the band, “one of his favourite discoveries of the year”), the band rose sharply, immediately selling out shows across the country. Meanwhile, back in their native US, KEXP’s John Richards echoed the same sentiment. Things were set. In fact, tickets had just gone on sale for their biggest show to date, a 1500 cap headliner at London’s Electric Ballroom.

Then…well, then same as for everyone. Shutdown, lockdown, hibernation, nothing. It was a hammer blow. But rather than rue their misfortune, the band desperately tried to turn it into a positive, immediately moving to try to make more, and – they were determined - better, music. The result is the career-high 'Love On My Mind' – a six song mini-album, mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer - that condenses all the energy and darkness that has made Bambara so compelling but rearranges them into something defiantly new.

Not that getting there was easy. With the band’s core (twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, the singer and drummer, and childhood friend William Brookshire, bass) scattered across the US, they remotely pieced together an EP but as soon as it was finished, they scrapped it. In their words, it felt “dishonest”. They were striving for something new and they hadn’t hit the mark. They realized they needed to change approach so at that point they decided to reconvene in New York. Finally, things started to take shape.
By now, they had a better idea of where they wanted to head. They knew they wanted to include a couple of duets and enlisted the vocals of Bria Salmena (Orville Peck/Frigs) and Drew Citron (Public Practice). They also wanted to expand their sound palette so turned to Jason Disu and Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) to add trombone and saxophone respectively. They recorded again, utilizing all these new elements, sampling their recordings as they went along, in the process manipulating the sounds across the mini album. The final result is something astonishing.

Opening track, “Slither in the Rain,” all hissing high-hat and spectral synthlines, is a true statement of intent. It’s minimal and atmospheric, foregrounding Bateh’s raw vocals as he introduces one of 'Love On My Mind’s main characters, years after the events of the album are over, a lonely man who throws bottles at airplanes and dances a two-step in the pattern of a figure-8. While Bateh has always been adept at character sketches, here we are introduced to a newfound vulnerability that runs true through the entire album and causes the songs to hit on a more human level. It’s a change he readily acknowledges.

“The lyrics for 'Love on My Mind' are a little more personal,” he admits, “and definitely more vulnerable and human. There’s more of a focus on realism. I think part of that was because I’d become zoned in on photography during lockdown. Being in NYC without being able to actually experience it made me search for representations of the way it feels to be running around in the city. And I found that in photographs. Mainly, Ballad of Sexual Dependency by Nan Goldin. This also influenced the decision to make one of the characters in the story a photographer, presenting pieces of the story through her snapshots.”

That’s something that makes sense of a track like “Point And Shoot” - – in which each stanza describes the louche, lawless scenes of “rooftop girls / standing shoulder-to-shoulder, naked figures with their hips / cocked,” busted up jaws, and couches full of burn-holes captured by the snapshots of 'Love on My Mind’s female lead – displays an autobiographical intimacy that is not as apparent in Bambara’s previous releases. There’s also a newfound tenderness here that hasn’t always been present before – especially on “Birds”, a rare love song (from which the releases’s title is derived) and album closer “Little Wars” a gripping finale of loneliness and isolation.

It's important to note though that in the refiguring of their sonic and lyrical sensibilities, Bambara haven’t lost the thrill of what attracted so many people to them in the first place. It’s just here the wild, kinetic energy is channeled like never before. Put simply, often this mini album just rampages. “Mythic Love” (featuring vocals from Bria Salmena), with its driving bassline and ricocheting guitar lines, brings to mind past rave-ups like “Serafina” and “Sunbleached Skulls” but obliterates them in the process, while “Feelin’ Like A Funeral” – a dangerously oscillating tale of a city knifing – is probably the most thrillingly anthemic song the band have ever recorded.

It all just contributes to the picture of something truly special. Love on My Mind is another massive step forward for Bambara, the boldest thing they’ve ever done and the sound of yet another breakthrough. This time though, absolutely nothing’s going to stop them following through on it.

credits

released February 25, 2022

Album cover by Pooneh Ghana
"Mythic Love" and "Birds" cover images by Lin Zhipeng (aka.223).

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Bambara Brooklyn, New York

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