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TRACK LISTING
2. The Pigeon
3. Amino Acid
4. Banandles
5. No Country
6. Puddlejumper
7. NYC
feat. Shannon Curtis
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9. Tripwire
10. Wonderful Life
11. Maine
12. Throwaway
13. Balanchine
14. Clusterfuck
15. The Rapture
Songs 1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, and 14 written by Jim Pace
Songs 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13 and 15 written by Aaron McQuade
CREDITS
The Ampersands are:
Aaron McQuade (Bass, Drums, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion, Voice) & Jim Pace (Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion, Voice)
​
Featuring:
Evie Nagy - Voice on tracks 1, 2, 9, 14, 15
Shannon Curtis - Voice on tracks 2, 3, 8, 11, 13
Agatha Pace - Voice on track 7
May McQuade - Drums on track 7
Elaine McQuade - Voice on track 7
Stan - Meow on track 15
Produced by:
Aaron McQuade with Jamie Hill
​
Mixed and Mastered by:
Jamie Hill, The Department of Energy Management, Tacoma, WA
​
Recorded at:
HappyFactory, Jersey City, NJ and Oakland, CA
The Department of Energy Management,
Pasadena, CA and Tacoma, WA
Lazily Parked Studios, Chanhassen, MN
​
Cover Art by: Margaret Houska
IT'S ALL BEEN A WASH
Sitting on my own
Writing words across the page
What can I do to convince you?
I’ll make a video
Make a point of what I know to be true
You stupid fools
It’s the end of the world
It’s all been a wash
It’s all been a wash
And I feel so lost and confused
In so many ways
In a couple of days it will all be done
Will we see a polar flip?
Perhaps our friend will make a trip
To this time
I’m sure it’s fine
Been wrong so many times
Running out of chances here to prove I’m right
But then I’m right
THE PIGEON
I walk around, head to the ground
Eyes always down; I see the sky
Don’t know why I’m too lazy to fly
​
Got no desires, just dodging the tires
My friends on the wires all live up high
Don’t know why I’m too lazy to fly
​
Someday I’ll get restless here
And take off for a distant town
And find another corner
Where I’ll probably do the same
​
I am pretty sure you noticed
I was looking at you
And you know that
I am going to turn away
Pretending that I wasn’t
With another guy
You might have got a smile or a wave
But I’m just going to look down
Until the world makes sense to me
​
I am looking for an upswing
Maybe with a box spring
I can occupy
I could be a friend or a faker
It won’t matter at all
Until the world makes sense to me
​
(Hold on to your hope)
Can I duck in the crowd
Am I thinking too loud?
Floating inside a low
Hyperkinetic cloud
(Hold on to your rope)
​
Take a lemon rind and a stunted growth
Use circular logic to confuse them both
Take a bitter pill, a political smile
Use them to damn a cellophane child
Talk a tourniquet talk, give an impolite wave
As a brochure explains that we could all get saved
Except for me, as I get over my fear
I’ve come to terms with being stranded here.
AMINO ACID
I got a dirt bug inside a bucket full of fallout
I bet I’m going to have to feed it
Amino Acid
I need a hole dug, let me fill out an application
I need a minute to complete it
Amino Acid
I got a bareskin rug and a canary in a clothesline
I really wish I didn’t need it
Amino Acid
​
Face the frost fingers crossed
​
Brave another storm
For the shame of staying warm
Desperate to forget
The relentlessly adequate
​
I got an orchard with a snake in every apple
I bet they’re going to try to trick me
Amino Acid
I got a paper with a little piece of duct tape
Stuck on my back and saying “kick me”
Amino Acid
​
Take that swing, lift your voice and sing
​
Hunting seeds inside the swells
Of a tidal wave of shells
I try to disengage
But there’s a complex gravity, I’m scared of atrophy at this age
BANANDLES
You and me
Lost in a colony
Trying to cooperate
All for the greater good
I’ve got a feeling
This is an irreversible trend
Division of labor
Overlap young and old in the end
Defend the home
Or we will lose it all
There are no good old days
Just pleasant moments shared
I’ve got a feeling
(We go marching on)
This is an irreversible trend
(Can’t look back for long)
Division of labor
(Carry all that weight)
Overlap young and old in the end
(We will be in love)
Remember when
Time was an endless path
As I look back on things
I’m happy to be with you
NO COUNTRY
No country of mine will
Throw the first stone in
We have to do something
We’ve got to do better
No country divine will
Build it together
Deliver on promise
The hope of inviting (us)
When you don't
Walk down the line
It's tough to believe
I really don't know
Falling through
The endless parade
A countless barrage
Of the mess we've made
PUDDLEJUMPER
Alone with all the chances you have blown
And all the matches that you’ve thrown
Personifying acetone
To burn the bridges you had known
And torch the anchor you had grown
That kept you grounded as a stone
The chain made sure you’d never flown
But the hands that held it were your own
Tear the covers of the wings
Cut off all the strings
Look out to the open sky
Now you fire up the fan
You’re the only one who can
Time to let your puddlejumper fly
Alone inside an amplifier cone
Your heart a sudden megaphone
Ignore what others would condone
And feel the pain within your bone
Just slip away like silicone
You were a question never asked,
A limb inside a cast,
A signal only standing by
Hide a safe singular voice
From the tyranny of choice
Time to let your puddlejumper fly
BRACING FOR THE FALL
FEAT. SHANNON CURTIS
Time has never been something of a friend
Time will always be movement without end
Every moment past, now eternally
Try to hold them fast, laugh as they break free
And the calm waves of its flow
Hide a vicious undertow
Driving forward, flailing backward
Try not to move at all
But we are always bracing for the fall
Nothing you can keep, regardless of intent
Never earned or saved, only ever spent
And the seconds doppler by
There’s no choice but comply
Driving forward
Flailing backward
Try not to move at all
TRIPWIRE
I laid down the tripwire and retreated to my place behind the door
And I sat a while to gather up the energy to lay down even more
They’re reinforced and triple-tied
And camouflaged against the rug
To catch those toes as they walk by
They’re pulled as tight as I can tug
Because my work is never done
I’ll never know the only one
They ever trip is me
WONDERFUL LIFE
Got a wonderful life
So happy to be here
When all is said and done
You turned me around
Into a wonderful life
This soapbox isn’t enough
Agree whenever you want
Comment after me
Blowing smoke until
This soapbox burns to the ground
And when you decide
What you’re gonna do
How to get a hold
On what you’re going through
Had a chance to reflect
Turn it all into chords
Strum a little bit
Sing a little song
Got a wonderful life
MAINE
If you’re harboring in Acadian wind
Let the flame on your feet lick the salt from your sin
You got an old guard slide rule (come on up!)
A waterwheel for guilt-fuel (come on up!)
You got a cool new boat, swell (come on up!)
You bought a knockoff Rockwell (come on up!)
If you’re harboring in Acadian wind
Let the fire in the foam take your spine for a spin
THROWAWAY
Guess I'm here so you can scream
And rage until you feel
Better about the rules
Enforced upon society
Have a nice day
Ask me for a wand that cannot possibly exist
Telling you the truth
Does not appear to make a difference
Greed is driving actions
Meant to put the others down
Can't help you while I see that
You are pushing them around
BALANCHINE
I’ve been kicking along
Inexorable expectation
A why-not-wand, a sword
Between a Balanchine and Ball-and-Chain
I keep dicking around
Behind the altar Milgram found
And I’m only following orders
To not explain what keeps me sane
Or get as close as I ever came
Perfect posture, inner critic
My equator, my song
Multipolar and exhausted
So Mercator was wrong
How’d it go on for so long?
All these lives together jog
Toward a needless end in an angry fog
All these words forever lost
To a finite box with an endless cost
A thousand miles or more I bled
For a couple weeks outside my head
A thousand trees to hide one sound
And a million cuts just to take one down
All these words forever lost
All these worlds forever lost
For the best, I guess
Throw your blues in a pile
Thinking back for a while
When the grass would occur
Just as green as you were
But the cage that you bought
Is too small for your thoughts
Set your message to send
And record it when
You know you’ll never be there again
Rip the magic from the wand
I guess the moment is gone
CLUSTERFUCK
What a clusterfuck
How do I begin to describe
What is happening outside of these four walls
On an island home
Forbidden to run without hope
They yell for me to be freed with their tired calls
Here's what they don't quite understand
I'd rather be here than at home
Tied to a tyrant running show
Best to be cold, afraid, alone
Reduction of wage
Has left me on the edge of the end
It won't be long until I cease to be
But until I do
I'm the pride of the people back east
With one last step I am truly free