Song of the week, 5 January 2003:

Raising Signals
mp3 available by email request
(Music and Words M. Frey (c) 2002)

I apologize in advance for the brief blurb for this song, but I need to go to bed and listen to Brad Roberts (who, by the way, has a new Christmas album) sing about respiratory failure and death now. Should I delay, my lungs have said they will punish me by re-enacting the Aliens chest-burster scene.

I will say just this one bit. Back when I was playing in clubs in Buffalo, I always got the most compliments on my singing on nights where I had horribly egregious chest colds. Something about phlegm, resonance, and a universal link to James Earl Jones, I suppose. So, now you can judge for yourself: does Mark sing better whilst hacking up his bronchi?

Raising Signals
(c) 2003 Mark Frey

towers, silos, and fields
under cotton candy sky
silos empty and rusting, towers blinking with energy
fields gone wild and dry

factories, houses, and schools
under the nets of towers and wires
houses glowing with distance, factories cranking out tomorrow
schools cranking out liars

raising signals now
just raising signals now

waves and trees and cities
all sharing the same crowded air
trees in the breeze flipping off cars, waves bounding and breeding
cities trying not to care

raising signals now
just raising signals now

packet after packet
constant state of change
nothing left to spare
never out of range

I need a quiet place
somewhere the data doesn't go
where I can turn all this movement into direction
not be afraid to grow

raising signals now
just raising signals now