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Familiar Fevers

by Lucky Jukebox Brigade

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1.
How long has it been since I knew you well? Since we took it all to town and made our way out on the limb? How long has it been? And still, I’d know you anywhere. But I’m walking in silhouettes, laying low - cause in the whispers, I hear the marauders riding south. Crack the sky; tear the angels down. The headless knaves are marching through the ruins of forgotten towns. Cast your bayonets. Hang ‘em high, and let go like you mean it. We are what we decide, so square off, and let’s get even. In the crosshairs, our fair city lies trembling at the barrel’s end. Tear up the floorboards; crash the chandeliers, cause it’s not home without you here. When we were all stealing whiskey and staying out late, sneaking down to the river to walk the tracks and hear the ghost trains. Since you put me out, I’ve laid for days here on your doorstep. It’s already gone, but I swear we’re gonna make it back. I hope it’s golden where you are. I hope you know I’ll be here waiting. If I live to grow old, I’ll still be searching every face. Run past the end, past the night. Make me believe this one last time. I will pull you from your grave and hold you till you start awake. Scream it out; show your scars, and all the terror in your heart. If I live through these days, I’ll still be searching for your face. We are the lost ones, wrecked and shameless, the ones they said would never make it. Swear to me, you’ll never doubt. We’ll meet again. We’ll make it out. They call it the wrong side of the tracks, cause the good guys ain’t good at that. Call it in the air, a lucky six. Now, the devil’s playing parlor tricks. Play the odds. Play it close. Play the old time songs we know where the piano trips and the old folks say, “Don’t let a good one get away.” Last call. Make it count. The barroom brawl is breaking out. We take our whiskey laced with venom. Spitting teeth, we ain’t fit for heaven. Out the door, steal away to the last place where we once felt safe. We’ll drive straight through into the morning. They’re half a day behind and gaining. Steal away across the border, and scatter us along the shoreline. Lay it down. This home’s a wasteland. Last call. We’re all forsaken.
2.
The Shroud 04:31
I’ve seen the ghost trail caravan raise ash to breath in our old town. I’ll take you down the velvet road. I’ll take you anywhere now that your prophecies betrayed you, left you stranded in a day that never comes or comes in whispers of what cannot be and never was. In these empty halls, we wake the ballrooms of forgotten days. Unearthed, the statues come alive. They twitch and tremble in the night, and spin a broken waltz in their crooked revelry. I swore I saw the stranger with the skeleton key. Oh where oh where are you’ve been gone for far too long. Away, away with you! We’ll ride straight for the dawn with a curse upon your hillside, a curse upon your walls, a vow to break a spell, and a curse to save us all. I am not inclined to die, and I am not here for your life. I am the thief you swore you’d fight, but now you choose to hide behind me. In every final hour, know I always want you near. Can you hear the madman laughing, cause it’s only dark in here? You’ll find me where you left me on this haunted carousel. In that old familiar fever, we were gone before we fell. I was born to lie beside you under cemetery vines, and born to wander ever after you beneath this mortal sky. I’m not the one you were missing in the moonlight. I’m not the phantom you were chasing through the afterlife. A curse upon your hillside. A curse upon your walls. A vow to break a spell, and a curse to save us all. Where’d you get your number? Where’d you hide the others? You never should have come here wearing your mother’s clothes. It was only a mannequin asleep inside the bassinet. They stagger in behind you, and they tell you not to go. Keep your knives under the piano. Keep your sins for the gallows. I’ve been half sick of shadows with half a mind to run. Keep your secrets for the vagabonds, and keep your broken albatross. Believe me that our day will come. Keep your head held high. The waves bewitched the mariner. Delusion never found her. The echo was the harbinger that carried us to shore…where the eyes of portraits follow me. Down every hall, they’re watching me. They are not what they claim to be. On their wires, we twitch and seethe. My dear, we nearly lost you. They possessed you with their charms. You wore them like an amulet, a traitor’s coat of arms. Dance off your demons, and cast this fickle ship far out to sea. With brittle sails, we will ride to your forgotten dreams where we can raise the dead, and we can rage against the light. Be still, my reckless heart. We are the damned. We own the night. Oh where oh where are you’ve been gone for far too long. Away, away with you! We’ll ride straight for the dawn with a curse upon your hillside, a curse upon your walls, a vow to break a spell, and a curse to save us all. My sweet mirage, run away with me. Oh yellow bird, will you wait for me? A curse upon your hillside. A curse upon your walls. This vow will break our spell, and this curse will save us all.
3.
You got me wrong, I do declare. In sympathy. Through dust and glass. Didn’t catch your name, but I know your kind. A cheap masquerade. A loose alibi. You can count your cards and play the fool, like we ain’t seen the likes of you. You say you’ve been desperate for an enemy. You can have the worst of me. Run along now, boy, best shy away. You went to bed with your demons, and you woke up with hell to pay to the six-tongued medicine man. He’ll trade you cyanide shivers for your best laid plans. You can pray nobody knows where you’ve been, but it takes one to spot another, and I know you for what I am. Empty mirrors won’t hide the madness. A penny for your troubles, and we’ll free the captives. Don’t it make you weak living stitch by stitch? With every step, you show your skin. Tell another story, and let it fray into the wreckage you call your fame. Now, you can count your sorrows, and you can wear them well. It’s been a long time coming. You heard the warning bells. Now, don’t you worry. Don’t you know? We came around. We’ll show you out. We’ll watch you go. Run along now, boy, best shy away. You went to bed with your demons, and you woke up with hell to pay to the six-tongued medicine man. He’ll trade you cyanide shivers for your best laid plans. You can pray nobody knows where you’ve been, but it takes one to spot another, and I know you for what I am. Empty mirrors won’t hide the madness. A penny for your troubles, and we’ll free the captives. There’s a lost car burning outside the tracks. Take one last good look, cause we won’t be turning back in the old world, eye for an eye. You’re pulling at your petals while we're swinging up alive. Alive, we are the crowd. Don’t be coming here, cause you know I’ll be around in the alleys where you sweat through your swagger. We follow close still falling faster. Run along now, boy, best shy away. You went to bed with your demons, and you woke up with hell to pay to the six-tongued medicine man. He’ll trade you cyanide shivers for your best laid plans. You can pray nobody knows where you’ve been, but it takes one to spot another, and I know you for what I am. Empty mirrors won’t hide the madness. A penny for your troubles, and we’ll free the captives. Run along now, boy…
4.
Step inside the reverie of renegades and rascals. Cast your dreams into the night falls on our Atlantis. New cavalry for your new lie with me and say we are forgiven. We’ve been framed and guilty all the while we while away awake again still writhing. It’s such a shame. We found out nothing gold can- This hold needs sabotage. No rest for the wicked. Stay with me, warning bell. Avenge the unrequited. We are the exiled. Maligned by chains and daggers. Baptized by phantoms. Torn from our fading shadows. Mirror, mirror, you’ve done me wrong. The first door on the right was the last door on the left all along. Look out below, child. You’ve been sold to the spoils and the hollows of these catacombs, your sunken home. So, would you kindly pass the blade? They’ll stitch your lips and take a scalpel to their tired shapes. Mind your manners, dear. It’s not polite to stare, but don’t be shy with what you say. Their severed tongues won’t speak our names. Hold real still, baby, and close your eyes now, and pray it’s over soon. Pray I’m the one you always knew would save you know what they say about all good things. The scars are fleeting, but lord help me, I can’t shake this feeling. I am the reckoner. Don’t come here looking for asylum. You said I was your sparrow. You used to be a better liar. Now, who will break first? Don’t keep the vipers waiting. Is this the cost of madness? To watch them drag the salt from your veins. They’ll turn on you with their guns still sweating. Is it someone new? The marshals stagger gasping, “You never should’ve come here. Now they won’t let you go.“ Hold me, and fool me now. Raise their memories as your own. After dark, baby, it’s hard to tell your way between the trap door, your final hour, your narrow escape. And here’s to looking at you - all skin and bones now. A hard fall from the leather and pearls you wore when you called this place your own. They call him old black widow, spilling kerosene. My oh my, don’t let the neighbors see. It’s an old damn shame on the rascals we were. Pour one over your shoulder for the glass-eyed girls. Orphans in the pipelines, salt to steam. There’s a needle in the gutter just out of reach. Deeper downtown at the docks, you were gambling roses. You were swaying the odds. Hey little sister, won’t you save my soul? I’ve been hopping trains watching the sky turn cold. Long way down to our old haunt. Tarnished in scarlet, I’ll be what you want. Child, this ain’t no circus trick. No, there’s no waking up from it. Hand in your pocket and a blade to your neck. For all the struggle and the cure, here’s to the end. Shattered caskets left behind. From broken earth, the dead will rise, and march to avenge the unrequited. Six times damned, and still we stand up fighting. Stalk the hours for breath and bane. On patient roads, the hunter waits. Hold a candle to the sparse and cold. It was me, your crooked hope. Fearsome doves cross the empty south. Don’t let me hold your hand or know I smell the bloodshed on you now. On your knees, the night folds in and drips down from the ceiling. If only you hadn’t stopped believing. If I’m not one of your kind - a traitor born from the fables and cons of the damned with an old fashioned black eye. Pull me under a veil, your recluse torn again. Come to claim from the swallows. Their poison sky bled us all the same. Shackled, tongue-tied, we follow. They’re counting scalps and denying the stains. Paling hands in your new disguise. A ruined barrow where there once lay a garden alive. Hush now, you’re in shambles - all that’s missing where we used to be mine. Scrape the dregs from the aisles. No canon bells, just a chorus of sirens, come to claim for all that’s missing. We were born from all that’s missing is you.
5.
A stitch. A curse. A crime. Oh baby, dry your eyes and look alive. One more step until you’re mine. I’ll be the one you always knew you’d find A ring. A slip. A scar. Another pirouette for the fiends we are. Don’t let them see you shake when the curtain falls. They’ll return you to your tomb, a dream embalmed. Catch me three days shy of ruin, feigning resilience. We are not the kind to fold. A march. A pose. A charm. I’ll be your crutch and cask, a feint of heart, tangled up in all your fits and starts. You know they like you broken and torn apart. Did you flinch or lose your mind in a hall of figure eights or pantomimes? I watch you spinning dizzy on your wires and struggle to cut loose these swollen ties. Did you miss me? My dear, I wouldn’t dare. You fade so quickly - a scandal on the stairs. I swear I knew you. If only for a moment, I saw through you, unraveled and torn open. Now, they’ve got you. You’ll never be the same. They’ll never find you. They’ll never know your name. They’ll never fix you. Your prophets in the sewer grates were with you, but my dear, you’ll never know. Watch me. I will wait below your window. I’ll be your reaper, calling, “Wake up, wake up!” Screen door slams, ain’t nobody home off the creaking porch that sways alone. The empty swing with the scarlet stains where we carved the names that got away. Collapse into another spell. Play it like you never fell. That vestige, she beckons a call to arms. We are the aftermath. We are the only ones. Another roadside cross where nobody rests. Another saint gone rogue in a Sunday dress. Gospel sharp and fever shy. We’ve been had. We’re down but nine. This game is fixed. They’re onto you. I’ve got a dollar that says we are set to lose. They’re selling silk flowers to remember you by, so you’d best not linger in the whispers tonight. (Hush little baby, now it’s all been staged.) Look at me through morphine eyes, and say you still believe we’re too rare to die. I will carry you until my last. I want our old ways. I want our old habits back. Little one, where are you now? I will crawl through the wires to see you out. Frayed and rasping, transistor sparks. Through the savage silence, we are swept apart. (Hush little baby, now it’s all been staged. Mama’s gonna buy you a brand new day.) Here we are, the aftermath, the only ones who believe you now. We are the specters of an ancient dawn. The vespers’ beating echoes on in this crooked house, alive again. Screaming out through silhouettes. A stray light where we carved our names. In absence, we are still the same. Hush little baby, now it’s all been staged. Mama’s gonna buy you a brand new day. And if this day should be our last, drop an anchor. We’re coming back.
6.
The wind howled at the washboard sleeping underneath the moon. Our plan was hatched in a briar patch where lovers shook and swooned. Their lips were stained in violet, their tongues tied into knots. To the loamy beds our secrets spread, but we found ourselves soon caught. So, the banjo called the snare drum. The singer invoked the blues. The electric bass made an upright stand, and the piano lost a tooth. It was a clarion call to bedlam - no horn could be unheard. The devil stood up, kicked off his boots and recited spoken word. “I am not the dark,” he said, “that burns behind your eyes.” “You’re helpless, wed to molten lead.“ And fire rains from the sky. Barefoot on the dance floor, barefoot in the barn. The wood gets worn to pins and needles. It don't do you any harm. We splinter, stagger, smile and sway. Some close their eyes and try to pray, but the devil made us stay. The devil got his way. We held our breath, then screamed bereft and the devil got away. He ran down to the jailhouse. Cried, “Boys, it's sink or swim.” He broke the bars, brought down the stars, and he let the weather in. “It'll pour for forty years or more, so ya better grab your hats.” He dug a hole deep underground and laid out his welcome mat. Sullied, sprained, some still entranced, our senses all but drained. Our souls were cryin' for leaving, but our bodies still remained! Barefoot on the dance floor, barefoot in the barn. The wood gets worn to pins and needles. It don't do you any harm. I've seen where needy creatures lie, seen eyes that burn like coals. The devil's dice is loaded. Now watch it as he rolls. His hand reflects the river - a straight run clean as cold. He gambles hard with no regard, but the devil never folds.
7.
Glamour 03:45
Bloodshot and sure, staggering through the door, I’m coming home to you. Tangled in sheets, I’ll be your sweet absentee. If you only knew. I know the sway of your hips, and I’ve been counting your quips, and all you left behind. A lost silhouette, static breath on the end. I’m guilty by your side. I called your name across the sea. From far along, you came to me. Let’s make a scene. Why don’t we take to the streets? Let’s do it for the glamour. Electric tonight, they won’t take us alive. Oh, you can’t take me anywhere. Tattered in pearls, you’re an old fashioned girl on the arms of a modern man. Don’t say you’ve atoned, dripping lace from your bones. You’re the tempest in my hand. I called your name across the sea. From far along, you came to me. For all the things we’ll never be - bury the bridges, cause no one comes here. I’ve seen our Belladonna and she looks just like you. I’ve followed you for miles back to your old bedroom. Darling, keep it down. I’ve been waiting in the shadows, and I won’t leave here without you. You can keep me guessing. You can keep me honest. Don’t tell me where you’ve been. Don’t you get me started. After the ashes when all is quiet, won’t you walk me home tonight? Don’t you dare fade away. Don’t you stall at the break. I said, “I’m only leaving.” A scratch down your spine. Let these pills pass the time. Don’t play it like you need me. In your silk limousine, your silver lining came free. Hold steady for the cameras. I saw the ghost in your eyes tremble thin under lights - a curse that we’ve been planning on. I called your name across the sea. From far along, you came to me. For all the things we’ll never be - choke all the torches. They’ll never find me. I’ve seen our Belladonna and she looks just like you. I’ve followed you for miles back to your old bedroom. Darling, keep it down. I’ll be waiting in the shadows, and I won’t leave here without you. You can keep me guessing. You can keep me honest. Don’t tell me where you’ve been. Don’t you get me started. After the ashes when all is quiet, won’t you walk me home tonight?
8.
Don’t walk alone down the velvet road. The dawn is coming to lead you home. And we will rise, ashes away. We’ll wake up new, all that remains. Now you’ve been told, “It don’t come easy.” Still, somehow, you can’t stop believing. Step out of your bones into the night, and call to me across the miles. Don’t tell me the glory days are gone. Don’t close your eyes. We’re not alone. You know we dare not speak its name, but want it in the worst way. Hymnals for our battle cries. A brothel sworn to lullabies. “We could’ve had it all,” they say, and tremble as they turn away. Said, “I fell deep one July morning. A face in the crowd in the noon parade. In all my days, nothing has changed. Twenty years, and I’m still calling out her name.” I followed you down every hall. I felt your skin. I know your thorns. Don’t tell me that you’ve lost the fight. I’ve seen the fever in your eyes. Make some mayhem with me now, and someday we will find our crowd - those renegades we heard about. We’ll steal away and paint the town. Do you remember a quarter till nine? Barefoot at the drive in, slinging moonshine all night. Hope, we hardly knew you after all these years spent singing someone else’s blues that somehow led us here. Too proud to say you broke me, but I need you like the old days. Now, we’re too far gone. There’s nobody waiting. One look across the room, and somehow, we’re still standing. Call me a liar - it’s always been a gamble. They say it’s a fix. I call it a pardon. There’s a man in a Cadillac making an offer. They say it’s a shame. I call it a cancer. They took you away, and I’m lost in the embers. They say it’s a hit. Call it redemption - shored against the ruins, veiled in distance. They say it all will fade. The mark of a traitor! We are vanished in the wake of what we lost. You might think you’ve got me, but you’ll never find a body. The rivers rust over. You’ll surely lose your way. The vandals are the prophets here. The truth is in the corner, dear. And I can’t bring you home. Don’t walk alone down the velvet road. The dawn is coming to lead you home. And we will rise, ashes away. We’ll wake up new, all that remains. Take me home. Oh, I’ve been waiting all these years to see your face. The glory days are here again. Stand by me. Let the moonlight in.
9.
Howl 03:06
There's a place where I go to, to see how the world has changed so much. I cannot seem to see where I have been. You'll find out what's real can't be true for everyone. Now, take a step inside. Wasted Witch, hear me, you've got no hold on this poor girl's head. Leave this place and huff your incense. I am lost, and I can't see where the stars bring me, but I guess that's alright. Come, take my hand. What's passed is past. There's no turning back. This is the world that you've seen. Vanity can be deadly when green gobs of it seep from your perfect skin and matching pearly teeth. I realized, maybe, that looks aren’t what matter, and I see that in your eyes. Your head is filled with ancient thoughts. Throw them to the wind. You've got the world that you've dreamed. Darling, I must go. My people need me. You're the only one who can mend my hardened heart. The curse upon my head will follow me until I'm dead unless I find my innocence. Take a step outside to see how the world has changed so much. I find myself in utter glee. Take my hand. Let's walk; you're safe above crowds of people that can't see your face. I am found, and I can see that the stars had a plan for me: to help regain my lost sanity. You'll find out what's real can't be true for everyone. Now, take a step inside.
10.
Meridian 04:23
The haunted lighthouse blinking red. Our shadows spent the night there. The cross-sound ferry’s on time again somehow. Stubborn waves crash endlessly against the distant bluffs. I am only here in echoes. Charting currents, my sea legs are dangling overboard. Charcoal waters turned white in our wake. Smaller craft with less to lose might speed along with no resistance, not knowing what they’re up against. If the world were still new, I would sail straight for the horizon, and maybe fall off the edge or find a new continent. Remember when we’d paddle out in the dead of night just to know? There’s a pirate out there somewhere. There’s a pirate out there somewhere. And he licks his salty lips, and the wind swallows his black hair. And he’s daring us with lightning eyes, saying, “Sailing ships in the night, they don’t pass, they collide.“ Sailing ships in the night, they don’t pass, they collide, longing for foghorn days. Longing for foghorn days.
11.
Six ways through the looking glass. You vanished with a crooked glance, and wrote to say you won’t look back. “Don’t miss me. I won’t be the last.“ They say there is no safe harbor. There are no heroes left now. They’re lost in reveries and fables, abandoned in the hollows of our town. Six fathoms down, and we’re still sinking. “Abandon ship!” the captain sings. Sipping brandy in his leather chair, he fell into a vacant stare, and said, “I’m sorry, dear - we’ve lost it all.” All you had to do was stay. We could rise from the ruins. We could raise a new Atlantis from the sea. Tell me how you made it out. I’ll tell you where to find her now, where the echoes know your name, and the whispers lead you south. I’m with you when your compass spins - the falcon in your dreams. As you spit your poison arrows, I will weave your rites of spring. The snipers have marked you, but they can’t stop us now, and you won’t remember me as you fall into the crowd. You’ll only leave me riddles written by a heavy hand. Brother, meet me on the battle lines, and say, “I’ll be your man.”
12.
Lionel I 01:41
13.
Lionel II 06:02
A quarter till the dawn rises up from the dark to mask a face I swore I saw. Was it you? I can’t recall, but I will chase you down until nothing is holy anymore. And you will leave me where I lay. Hang a veil, and leave me desperate under your black waves where I can’t hear the sirens. From beyond the grave, tell me all your madness. Tell me you will stay. We can choke the light. Take me home now. This pedestal we live on, we could never call our own. Mark my words, dear. I would take it back to hear you say, “I’ll be your man.” We used to be the blameless. We never knew these were the olden days. Now you’re giving in, and I won’t sleep again, knowing that the faithful got away. Take me home now. Take me home now. When you’re an old man with panic lines drawn, crying, “We should have stopped them. Oh, we should have known.” Make me brave. Tonight we rise. When you’re an old man, remember this day. We were pulled from the well in a rage screaming, “I won’t go.” (These days the streetlights are the only stars we know.) No, I won’t go. (We know you’re out there. We have heard the crowing.) I’ve seen the danger in your eyes. An elegy to all you left behind. (Take a copper and trade it for a mile.) No, I won’t go. (Starving for a brother as you herald the end times.) Come at me, sword unseen. You’re all the things we swore we’d never be. Leave me now. Believe me now. The one you denied still waits in the eaves by your side. Mark your words. We’re crippled awake, and we beg for the dreams of the night. Crippled awake by the hangman as he chokes the light. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. Wake me up. Make me beg for the dreams of the night. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. Wake me up to the hangman as he chokes the light. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. Wake me up. This delusion will tear us apart. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. I hope it’s golden where you are. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. I hope it’s golden where you are. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. Wake me up now. I hope it’s golden where you are.

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released July 18, 2014

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Lucky Jukebox Brigade Albany, New York

​The Lucky Jukebox Brigade is a shapeshifting musical monster.

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