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  • Compact Disc

    A subtle, lovely, dark-folk-jazz-tronic record, songs of love and wartime. In all recycled carboard packaging with original artwork by Myshkin.

    Includes immediate download of 11-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $16 USD or more

    ships out within 3 days

  • Digital Album

    Immediate download of 11-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $12 USD  or more

1.
03:34
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2.
03:54
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3.
03:37
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4.
02:51
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5.
04:58
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6.
02:50
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7.
03:07
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8.
05:27
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9.
03:28
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10.
03:16
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11.
04:26
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about

"The story grabs and doesn't let go until you've traveled with her across time and landscapes, accompanied by a soundtrack of jazz-influenced guitar and swinging drumbeats -- and that's just the first tune. Every song is brilliant." -Performing Songwriter

"Dark, smoky folk-jazz. Gripping, affecting and disquieting." - Read Magazine

"Both lyrical and politically pointed. A rich blend topped with her broad-ranging, keening voice." - Washington Post

"Dusky, haunting gems. Corvidae, for all its risk-taking, never sounds forced or unnatural; while Myshkin is all over the place in terms of influences, her work never fails to sound totally organic on this excellent, if brief, CD." - The All Music Guide

"Myshkin's voice is not to be taken lightly. A gorgeous rich alto infused with natural drama and melancholy, and best applied to her own songs: hushed one-act plays that speak volumes." - The New Orleans Times Picayune

"Every bit as creatively challenging as a Radiohead album, sans the 6,000 layers of instruments. A quietly militant social commentary." -1340 magazine

credits

released 01 June 2004

tags

tags: alternative chamberpop electroacoustic gypsy-swing torch Oregon

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all rights reserved

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about

Myshkin and an ever-evolving crew of restless gamblers—string, horn, drum, key, and and wave players. Passions range from tango to electronica, folk-noir to gypsy-swing to modern classical to rocknroll. Literate & spooky. Myshkin mostly plays guitars. When warm, she sings like a shiver down your chakras. Like a heart breaking all wide open. Like one in utter control of uncontrollable things. ... more

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Track Name: Gypsytown
Two old girls from Gypsytown
Drinking with a youngish Yorkshire man
He is tattooed up and down
They are only marked by time’s cruel hand

He’s built to take it, full of beans and bacon
You’d think that he could make it but he can’t keep up
Few are as rough as a Gypsytowner
In her cups

Now picture those two girls young in Gypsytown
Running out of breath to catch the bus
Skirts and aprons, braided crowns
Hands are made for work, work is sure to kill us

And was it fine, your weekend love?
Yes I had myself a night of sin
And who’d you find down at the pub?
My boy Bob and I am gonna marry him

He’s built to take it, full of beans and bacon
You’d think that he could make it I hope he can keep up
Few are as rough as this Gypsytowner
In her cups, always in her cups

One she marries, one she don’t
One she has her babies, one she won’t
Friday nights they meet for pints
And talk about the war

And they’re rough around the edges, rough on every side
Rough into the middle of their flint dulled eyes
Rougher every weekend, rougher every day
They gotta wake up in the morning to that page 3 babe
Rough as dog, and the dog he bites
From the roughest part of the roughest town in sight

They’re built to take it, full of beans and bacon
You’d think that they could make it but they’ll not keep up
Few things are as rough as to be a Gypsytowner
In her cups, always in her cups
Track Name: Drunk
Along the lines of new mown hay
A fiddler and a drummer lay
Making blankets of their coats
Drunk and chasing dreams

One had traveled west and east
Always one tune out of reach
The one that got caught in her throat
While drunk and chasing dreams

One had journeyed north and south
Always one taste in her mouth
The blood beat pulse the god the goat
The drunk of chasing dreams

Drink to me, I’ll drink to thee
And all your true lies
The sun is in the sea the seas in the sky
It’s all gone a wrack and awry
And tomorrow, tomorrow

These two met along the path
Sized each other up and laughed
Took a tumble in the oats
Sun drunk and chasing dreams

Came upon a house so grand
Being buried by the shifting sand
Left the house but took the boat, love
Drunk and chasing dreams

All along the river wide
There along the river side
Such sturdy wonders did they see
While drunk and chasing dreams

Drink to me, I’ll drink to thee
And all your true lies
The sun is in the sea the seas in the sky
It’s all gone a wrack and awry
And tomorrow, tomorrow we die

A solid house on solid rock
A solid church and school and shop
But they preferred the fleeting notes
Tune drunk and chasing dreams

So they played until the rivers end
Played as the tide pulled them in
By inspiration and by rote
Beat drunk and chasing dreams

And when they get too tired to play
Find a field of new mown hay
They’ll want for nothing, no they won’t
While drunk and chasing dreams

Drink to me, I’ll drink to thee
And all your true lies
The sun is in the sea the seas in the sky
It’s all gone a wrack and awry
And tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow we die
Track Name: For Mimi in Jail
Brave as you were, you will only get braver
Just as colors ring and deepen in the dusk
Keep out an ear for the wild voice inside you
As you sit up steeping in the city’s musk

Narrow the walls, the locked walls that surround you
While they’re taking your time for breaking their rules
But wide is the sky and it’s all hidden inside you
Like a file in a pie, starry dome of your mind

And don’t mind the doubt and keep to your council
Don’t you worry about all that wasted time
‘Cause day in day out with your hands tied behind you
You touch more than you see, you are working our way free

And narrow the path it is wished we would follow
Looking neither up nor down
Enlightened horizon or dim bloody hollow just swallow, just swallow
But wide is the sky, and it’s all hidden inside you
Unexplored, unconfined, starry dome of your mind
Track Name: Saving of the Day
Couldn’t get around wouldn’t get around to it
The saving of the day
Blame it on the pounding through the wall
The race the climb the fall
Blame it on the difference in the sound of it
The miracle of death
Losing of respect
Missiles in their nests
Birds bound to their cliffs

Couldn’t get around or even leave the ground of it
Like looking at a wall, and all you see is wall
Not the toeholds in it, chinks to make it break and fall
Couldn’t get across all the goddamned loss of it
What were the first years like? I always feel your hand in mine
On aeroplanes

A mattress on the porch, then a leash that grew too short
When did we decide we could decide each other’s course?

Couldn’t get, wouldn’t get around to it
The saving of the day

Couldn’t get around, wouldn’t get around you
Once you were there
A mountain in the steamy delta air
Impossible to see, you were so fair
Couldn’t get across how you were boss of it
You seemed so fair to me
All until I could not breathe
For the buzzing of the bees

What was it like before that, was it still some subtle war, that?
When did I begin exhibiting signs and bedsores

Couldn’t get around, wouldn’t get around to it
The saving of the day
Track Name: Caledonia
My body is a circuit board
Every nerve on line
My body is a circuit board
Surges all the time

I ask what my bodies for
Answer comes seems true
Sweat love out of every pore
Collect love like dew

Some tomorrow morning I’ll be driving down the sky
The rain be rising off the road
Catching in the sunlight in clouds of holy smoke
Like some vision of hope

I’m gonna ferry that in my hold I’m gonna take it to the other side
Oh this terra inconsolable, what pretty tears she cries

Someone took the walls replaced it with the war
Someone took the winter long
Someone took the wheel and won’t tell me what for
Drove right off the embankment expecting me to thanks them

Caledonia called, I walked on through the wall
Caledonia called, spun around ‘til I fell
Feet first through the world I fell

Late one lazy afternoon the curlews and the sirens cut the gathering gloom
Dinners on the table quit complaining I am still one of the lucky few
I’m gonna sit on this here egg, I’m gonna hatch a little paradise
Dig a little dirt mine, build a little nest upon her weary thigh

Someone took the wolves, someone took the waves
Someone took the way I was
The taming of the land is the digging of the graves
Drove right off the embankment expecting me to thank them

Caledonia called, I walked on through the wall
Caledonia called, spun around ‘til I fell
Feet first through the world I fell

Slow now the fear of night will slip and disappear into the dying coals
Soft the glow under the ash of all the crashes, all the stories told, stories retold
Sweet the little piece of warmth to hold inside my hand until the morning breaks
Oh this terra uncontrollable, you’ll grow over even all my worst mistakes

Someone took the wish right out of the well
Someone took the whole damn aquifer
Sucking the world dry so I can have my fill
Drove right off the embankment, expecting me to thank them

Caledonia called, I walked on through the wall
Caledonia called, spun around ‘til I fell
Feet first through the world I fell

Your ghost is everywhere, you do not believe
But your ghost is everywhere, every red brick street
Track Name: Pipeline
I don’t know who put the holes in the pipeline
I don’t know why there were holes in the pipeline
All that I know, gasoline flowed from those holes like silver wine

I caught that gasoline in any old jar I could find
Caught that gasoline in any old bottle
One hundred or more of my neighbors caught gasoline by my side

The fumes made you dizzy the gas burned your skin
The fumes made you sick and the gas burned your skin
But we shouted and laughed like it was silver or silk we were bathing in

I don’t know who put the spark to the fire
I don’t know why someone put the spark to the fire
All that I know, that silver lagoon suddenly turned into a lake of fire

Now I hear the bellringer walking the street
Listen the bellringer is walking the street
Calling the wounded to come to the hospital, promising not to turn us in for thieves

But how can I trust them to treat and release me
How can I trust they will treat me and leave me
The burns on my body speak clear I am guilty of thieving their gasoline

But I don’t know who put the holes in the pipeline
I don’t know why there were holes in the pipeline
All that I know, gasoline flowed from those holes like silver wine
Track Name: Human Cannonball
Today is the city, tomorrow the town
All the boys are pretty but all the boys are clowns
Little lies like fireflies are lighting up the crowd
Big top is swaying high wire’s frayed
You and I are about to get down

I’m gonna light your fuse, I’m gonna count to ten
I’m gonna watch you rise and fall again
Will you land in the stands or in the lion’s den
Either way there’s only hungry faces
Waiting for some hunter to kill them something
And you’re perfect for the part, you’re a human cannonball

Tonight it’s the barroom, tomorrow the park
We’ve been singing with the drunks but we’ll be drinking with the meadowlarks
Little hopes like puffs of smoke are drifting through the dark
I can’t see clear from there to here
But I usually know where you are

Didn’t you light my fuse, didn’t you count to ten
Didn’t you watch me rise and fall again
Did I land in the stands or in the lions den
Either way there’s only hungry faces
Waiting for some hustler to sell them something
And I’m perfect for the part, I’m a human cannonball

Today it’s the taxi, tomorrow might be the bus
All those girls be practicing all those things they must
Fat cats and bar rats they’ll be pointing their fingers at us
But little dreams are sprouted seeds
They just keep coming up through the dust

I’m gonna light your fuse, I’m gonna count to ten
I’m gonna watch you rise and fall again
Will you land in the stands or in the lions den
Either way there’s only hungry faces
Waiting for some human to tell them something
And you’re perfect for the part, you’re a human cannonball
Track Name: The Dance
Who lives in our house
Is it soldiers now
Is it empty, what a waste
Rooms left messy in my haste

I carried one suitcase
Of course I held the baby
Children carried what I could pack
In a hatbox and a rucksack

Months since we’ve been here
And how I miss you dear
They took our son to some other camp
I don’t know if I’ll get him back

Mrs. Van der Wijk sleeps on the palette next to mine
Interrupts my dreams with her loud lamenting
Just when the dancing was commencing

Take my hand and lead my feet
Our day in the sun was sweet

I’m down, down, down
Just can’t get around
Sonja takes care of the baby
I’d never tell her, might get a big head, but
She has the patience of a saint

And I’m down, down, down
Don’t know how I’ll make it round and round
How many moons till the end of the war
I sleep when I can so I can dream more

Take my hand and lead my feet
Our day in the sun was sweet
Spin me round before I wake
The sun’s gone down and I can’t picture your face

Who lives in our house
Is it soldiers now
Tearing my lace and breaking my china
And if it’s all gone, how will you find us?
Track Name: Blackberry Winter
Boats slip down the river
The world is split in two
One half shines and shivers
The other half is mute

Cars slip by my window
The wet streets hiss like cats
Stretched long and sleek and heartless
Tear your heart out just like that

There’s roses in the yard
Forgetting in the wine
It’s snowing in my heart
But it’s only raining outside

Been to London, been to Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam
Made my home down in the ninth ward of New Orleans
First days of October and the winter’s coming on
But it never gets too cold here and the winter soon is gone

So why this icy feeling
That’s settled in my mind
It’s sleeting from my ceiling
It’s only raining outside

I need one long day in your woods
One night under your stars
Lay in the leaves looking deep
Into the fire’s heart

I need that fire to warm me
I’m so cold I’m keeping this whole city cool
With my blackberry winter
Through May and into June

I’m glowing such a rich red
A cold, unholy light
You could ice skate round my kitchen,
It’s only raining outside

I’m glowing such a rich red
Burning with a cold, unholy light
You had better come on in my kitchen
Cause it’s raining outside
Track Name: Candle to the Gun
It’s how you walked along
Streets too windy for you
Pulled your coat around you
Held your candle to the gun
So we can’t get on
In this catalogue world
Rip some pages out
Fold ourselves a bigger one

I see your mouth set
All on fire
I see the map of how I’m wired
We slip into each other’s gears
Come here

It’s how I pull it out
Through the riddle of doubt
Pull the sound around me
Hold my candle o the gun
So we can’t get on
In this mercenary world
We’ll hold our own parade
Build our own bomb

Word and graph and note on staff
And drifting fallout aftermath
All the way to the wilding water
The seeds of things you find in springs
Sealed up to keep the promise in
Where the miners all lose their daughters
Your feral eye your tulip thigh your jack-knife mind
I’m going for a dive

I see your mouth set
All on fire
I see the map of how I’m wired
We slip into each other’s gears
Come here
Track Name: Bird of Paradise
Very little air today
The birds are crying in the rain
Each day at dawn they wailing scorn
The birthing of the world

Very little we must say
I know when you are swollen gray
You know when I am falling
Into puddles like a girl

But when my eyes finally fade to white
You will be my sight
Dress me in black safe as the night
My bird of paradise

Very little we must say
But it’s good if we say it anyway
Help you loose your storms it helps me
Find all my scattered pearls

Very little air today
The birds breathe shallow in the rain
Each day at dusk they waling mourn
The passing of the world

But when your eyes finally fade to white
I will be your sight
Dress you in black safe as the night
My bird of paradise