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Mark Lint's Dry Folk

by Mark Lint

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1.
Feeling Time 03:21
Hey, ho, watch you go. Tint my memory with a passing glow Changing all, I think, I don’t know for you Fine, fade, passing time. Seal my senses with a glossy grime Drawn in full and resting my mind on you I feel I hope, I feel I hope, I feel I hope, I feel I hope You won’t look back on me and feel you have to look away You, when I was mine… Come off empty with an ass in line Maybe the years will take off the shine from you. Love, loss, aftertouch; pray the premise won’t amount to much Pretty darn free, but left in the clutch of you I feel I hope, I feel I hope, I feel I hope, I feel I hope You won’t look back on me and crack on me and Fade out into black on me and wither into fact on me and Feel you have to look away. Hey, ho, watch you go. Wipe my memory with a glancing blow Changing what, I don’t care to know, for you I feel I hope
2.
1984 04:41
It was 1984; I was thirteen. I had a plaid vest and short shorts And a clip-on tie I wore to go dancing I was the sole boy learning tango not sports I was lonely, yeah; I was horny, yeah I had rude stains on my sheets It was 1984; I was ruled by my needs It was 1984; I was thirteen And I was well stuck in my ways Love would knock me to the floor It would hurt me. I'd have Mad dreams for a couple of days 'Bout a living dress who could not care less And I'd blush furiously What was nothing much to her Felt like everything to me Was it a thought crime? A waste of my time? I fell in love so furiously So many times, so gracelessly It was 1984, I was subject I was ruled over and chained Love and often blood and gore Made me thirsty I would drink deep and get stupid and stained By its thought control, it consumed me whole I felt flushed out in the heat It was 1984, and I was thoroughly beat Was it a thought crime? A waste of my time? I fell in love or what I thought was love It didn't matter then, well, not enough To make me less blind To own my own mind I was born, I was triggered, but which came first? Was I seduced by the moment, or built to burst? It was 1984; I was thirteen Weighed in at 100 and change Standing thin and bent and poor like a string bean I grew too fast on a diet of rage And I lost my youth and I searched for truth But there was not much to be had It was 1984; it was a little bit bad I fell in love so easily, So many times, so fruitlessly So many times, embarrassingly It was 1984; it was history It can be swept clean or just changed I was hoping there was more, but there's just me There were no witnesses to see what I claimed My old store of strife, the artistic life That was all, all that I had It was 1984, and I can't call it bad
3.
I am the Other, baby I will solve all your problems Fill me up with all your insecurities and fly I am another lady, your severalth one and only Come to me, I'm what you need Just worship me and die A sentimental death, fulfilling every Valentine cliché If you never try, you'll never know how it feels to be unmade I am the Other baby Project upon me all your fantasies and entreaties Especially the weird ones, baby I am another crazy, impossibly imperfect Vessel for your self-deceiving picture of your needs But it's the only game in this city, built on rock and roll cliché And if you never try, you'll never know relief from mass malaise Love, love, love it's all you need A break from what's.desensitized you A not uncommon, known condition Should clear up in a year or so Love love love that's guaranteed To give you something for your journal A universal, known religion Self-fulfilling, verifiable Moving towards the empty ache Bring on the incipient heartbreak It all comes with the territory I promise, it won't be more than you can take I am the Other, baby, another force beyond your power Courage to change what you can, your own death wish notwithstanding I am the Other, baby, all wrapped in too much Cultural cliché, so run away as fast as you need reprimanding The Other to your immature The Other to your horse manure The Other to your narcisissistic needs
4.
Heard you down the street Feel like I’m thirteen Never felt so good to be Be alone Held up imagery Only big to me And several hundred others Who like to feel good feeling bad Wholly awarming over Basically swarming over me Don’t you adore, it’s over Dawning on me Maybe be big deal Though so small you feel Your select appeal is real, But excludes you It all felt much too lame Fortunes never came You won’t out last your name, though We seize, we feel you more than you do Wholly awarming over Maybe the storm blows over, see Despite yourself left a legacy Preserved, enshrined, re-enacted Deserved or not, still effective Always dawning on and on and on
5.
I don’t think, I obsess And I’m bored a lot, I guess And I search for things to suck me in Escape is where you find it I ignore, I don’t believe And my heart is off my sleeve And my younger days are over now And relief is where you find it And I reach inside for power now For release and ways to bind it I’m alone with myself I’m deceased as someone else And my enemies confront me now In the keep of my defiance I’m at war with myself Though at least I’ve got my health And my ending with be fabulous At least in terms of finance When I’ve sold my all to gradual Decease, my grief, a line-dance A thief, a chief, a mind dance Computations make me sad When I form a little thought and it rolls over And it bothers me a tad To waste my vast resources, my energy and time On a reasonable skin glossed on a patent life of crime I’m aware, I’m awake And I am the mess I make And the envy of the mad and dead And I do my best to see it I remember every word I said Though my life did not decree it And I won’t give up hope Though I often don’t believe it
6.
Unspoken 03:51
Have you ever heard a word unspoken? Have you ever tried to lose control? Could you try to feel the things that I forgot to say? Could you maybe try to read my soul? Music can diffuse the stench of real life Maybe even substitute for air Taken in a context without life or love or meaning Could you even try to live? Would you care? Don’t think that I’m unhappy It’s just that sometimes I wake up and my heart is screaming and my mind explodes I know you’ve got a full life, but I’ll be around if you need someone to hold If you need someone to hold If you ever feel that something’s incomplete I’ll be here
7.
Time 04:10
Don’t know how you think of me Words that pass between us smack of insincerity It’s OK, to wait a while If you find yourself in cycles of aggression and denial ‘Cause I’ve got time It’s most of what I’ve got to give Time So much about you I still don’t know So much that I expect you’ll eventually let show When you’ve got time… Whatever happens, I will still survive But never quite alive Do you know me? Sometimes I just don’t know how I feel Not sure that I’m real Could you show me? And I think I’ve lost my way Don’t know what to say Please don’t, please don’t turn away With a song, And with a touch I’ll repress my memories And not expect too much ‘Cause I’ve got time…
8.
When I look at the clouds I see all the shapes are free To appear in so many ways But the ways that you see were the ways that I see When we could see clear through our perfect days And with one of those magic eyes where you stare at the page Until some shapes might arise You and I were synced up; we would see simultaneously And we thought that were shared the same eyes Until we did not Because of life Because of the typical nonsense, because You can be wrong about someone And find your connection has faded away We see together, but we fall apart We fit together, but we fall apart When you look into somebody’s eyes you can’t see their soul No matter (rest) how hard you try I can look my cat and it’s sort of the same thing Is that love? Is that just being human? The octopi will give you the same kind of glance Do they see in your soul? Maybe so, but if so, then it’s only the surface Until it is not Because we hide Because of the typical nonsense, because You can be wrong about thinking You’ve found what you thought you had looked for all your life We see together, but we fall apart We seem together, but we fall apart Unless this hope can be given away I’ll keep looking and find it some day I hope I will finally see OK We fit together, but still came apart We were together, but we fell apart
9.
New Couch 03:20
The new couch that you’ve pictured The new couch in your mind Will some day fill the living room Though not as much, I think you’ll find. A few more years, a little bit off The furniture will roll The plans that were uncertain The feats we aimed to do The pictures taken forward of The routine into which we grew A few more years will pull us along The future will arrive We hold our possibility We lean with grave necessity We’ve come this far to witness With ourselves the only judge too The new job that you’ve pictured And those that’ve come and gone The needling sense it’s not enough The need for maybe moving on A few more years, a little bit off It works itself along We hold our possibility We lead with grave necessity We’ve come this far to witness But I’m not sure I can judge Our hope and possibility I hope you still share that with me I want so much to come to you Each goal that may remain this true The new couch won’t resent you For having to wait so long With two new chairs fit for company Who’ve got the color to belong The new life that will find us Our plans all fleshed and new The new couch and the armchairs Will find some stuff to do As long as we just wait here Our new couch will abide I think sometimes I know your mind But only from one side
10.
Came Round 04:07
You came round; I saw your shoes You came round, and I felt used You came round, I don’t know when You came round, and stole my pen You made me up to listen up You weren’t enough I heard you out I didn’t buy it Your feel throughout You came round to get your stuff You came round; you’d had enough You made me up To listen up You didn’t hear me We could not want The real us We couldn’t last If you’re feeling it at all, you will not miss my call If you’re feeling you’re alone, you’ve got to listen for my tone If I’m away I’m dreaming of you, I’m leaving me through, believing it’s true I’m seeking nothing and I’m finding it. I often face the fact that I’m okay, but I miss you every day And the hold you’ve got upon me in a smoky kind of way It’s been years and years and they’ve dragged on very slow But I’m alien and angry and I will not let you go When you enter in my brain and start kicking things around I feel lost and tossed and lonely and I can not feel a sound It’s amazing that you’re ended, it’s amazing you existed It’s incredible I think of you much more than you insisted And wherever you are now, you should detect what I allow There’s an arrow pointing from me, poking out right through my brow And the beam that it projects passes over and infects A stream of inspiration, intermittent and complex Pieces of my soul, blasted out of this black hole Astronomical but finite and what’s left is what you stole And I’d give you the last word, if you believe one thing you’ve heard And the next time you come round I will dismiss you as absurd Like you did me I see you sing Not listening Get over it You came round; I smelled your breath You came round; I felt my death
11.
Who wants to love me? Who wants to love me? Who wants to love me? I've got a lot of money. Don't turn away from me, please, I need ya. If you expose yourself, then I'll see ya. Love's been away so long, I was languishing, oh, languishing Throw me a way to get to your skin Who wants to love me? Who'll be my honey? Who wants to love me? I've got a lot of money. Who wants to care less? Who'll ease my distress? Who'll clean up my mess? Who wants to love me? Come fill this hole in me, please, I need ya Empty a bowl of me, I will feed ya I've been alone so long, it was bloodying, oh, bloodying You could come patch me up with your skin Who wants to love me? Who'll be my honey? Here's all my money. Maybe you'll love me. Who wants to say yes? Who wants to cheat death? Who'll make me confess? Who wants to love me?
12.
I was hungry, so I bought some fries. I done ingest them progressively by size As I chew them slowly I watch your eyes As they bug out to the size of love The size of love is about yea big Smaller than a forest, bigger than a twig Yes, I know that you dig me; I’m what you’re thinkin’ of ‘Cause I see you swellin’ to the size of love I was thirsty, so I bought a coke When you said “add salt,” I thought it was a joke But that occasion haunts me; I missed that poke A taste sensation growing to the size of love As we left that Denny’s Paid the check and skipped to the airlock Next to the cigarette machine I’ve never seen that many nervous ticks in a macho man Your breath so big, and your love so mean I know that you dig me But I’m givin’ you the shove Cause it’s underwhelming, the size It’s less than hefty the size It’s so damn tiny, the size of your love

about

The culmination of a couple of years playing live acoustically, this album brings together newer and older tunes to sketch a chronicle of longing, satiation, and more longing, and how the object(s) of longing might feel about all that nonsense.

credits

released December 18, 2018

Mark Linsenmayer: songwriting, singing, production, direction, various acoustic guitars, electric bass (4-8), upright bass (9, 11, 12), keyboard and recorder (11), additional percussion (5-7, 10, 11)

Rei Tangko: piano (3, 4, 6-11), violin (1, 2, 12), organ (5), harmony singing (1, 2, 6)

Jim Turk: hand percussion

Iris Hutchings: singing (1-3, 6-8, 10, 12)

Ken Keeley: electric bass (1-3, 10), harmony singing (2)

Special thanks for Lucy Lawless for singing lead on 3 (and Jason Smith who recorded her) and to Ken Stringfellow for his harmonies on 4 (which he recorded). And introducing Mina Linsenmayer, singing high harmonies on 2 and 8.

Recorded in Mark’s basement in Aug.-Sep. 2018, though 3 and 4 were started in early 2017, and most of 11 was recorded in Mar. 2012. 1 was entirely recorded, and all tracks were mixed Sep.-Dec. 2018 by Jake Johnson at Paradyme, Madison, WI. Mastered by Justin Hind at Paradyme. Cover art by Solomon Grundy.

Thanks to The Partially Examined Life and its many subscribers for help funding this album, as well as Josh, Ken, Rei, Iris, Jim, Nancy Thompson, Virginia Hutchings, and Kevin Bondelli. Thanks to Colleen Bos of Bos Meadery and Kathryn Fitzgerald of Fisher King Winery, and to our families and supporters.

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Mark Lint Madison, Wisconsin

Catchy, homespun tunes ranging in style from power pop to folk ballads to alt country, laced with a sense of the absurd.

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