http://adamgnade.cashmusic.org en-us yes © 2008 Adam Gnade, licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license A novel. Serialized as text and music. Adam Gnade Born and raised in San Diego, California, Adam Gnade enjoys swimming in rivers and lakes, driving at night, and drinking red wine out of mason jars. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon with two rescued pit bulls and considers himself a better than average shot with a Remington shotgun. This is his first book. A novel. Serialized as text and music. Adam Gnade adamgnade@cashmusic.org Music: Cousin be Strong Adam Gnade Adam Gnade "Cousin be Strong" — I like to mix it up. Play solo a while, get the improv kids to show up for the night with trumpets and tambourines, have a band... keep it loose. We called this one Adam Gnade & the Confederate Yankees. It was myself, Thaddeus Christian--who I still record with--Johnny Askew, Brian Smith, Shiloh Halsey, and a couple other guys who came and went. In theory, it was a revolving, communal lineup but those four guys were in it the whole time. ("Cousin be Strong".... the title's a tribute to one of Matthew from Phosphorescent's songs.) It's about imperialism and survival. Bombs falling. Red skies. Cracked earth. New life coming from the ruins. Pagan sensibilities. Hope. Earth magic. War is in most of the songs, but this one's literally a war song. Some of my people are in the military right now, some of 'em over in the gulf, and war hits you different when you're personally invested. Also, it's a pep talk. A lot of these songs start as pep talks for people I love who are having a rough time. Wrote the lyrics (prose, not poetry, never poetry) in London, finished 'em in San Diego. Thad's guitar part started freaky country then turned into something else. "Something else" is my favorite mantra. "Cousin be Strong" — I like to mix it up. Play solo a while, get the improv kids to show up for the night with trumpets and tambourines, have a band... keep it loose. We called this one Adam Gnade & the Confederate Yankees. It was myself, Thaddeus Christian--who I still record with--Johnny Askew, Brian Smith, Shiloh Halsey, and a couple other guys who came and went. In theory, it was a revolving, communal lineup but those four guys were in it the whole time. ("Cousin be Strong".... the title's a tribute to one of Matthew from Phosphorescent's songs.) It's about imperialism and survival. Bombs falling. Red skies. Cracked earth. New life coming from the ruins. Pagan sensibilities. Hope. Earth magic. War is in most of the songs, but this one's literally a war song. Some of my people are in the military right now, some of 'em over in the gulf, and war hits you different when you're personally invested. Also, it's a pep talk. A lot of these songs start as pep talks for people I love who are having a rough time. Wrote the lyrics (prose, not poetry, never poetry) in London, finished 'em in San Diego. Thad's guitar part started freaky country then turned into something else. "Something else" is my favorite mantra. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Music/CousinBeStrong/CousinBeStrong_256.mp3 Tue, 1 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT 3:40 adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Text: Chapters 1 & 2 Adam Gnade Adam Gnade Chapters 1 & 2 of Hymn California. Chapters 1 & 2 of Hymn California. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Text/Part1/HymnCalifornia_part1_ebook.pdf Tue, 1 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Music: Prince of the Confederacy EP Adam Gnade Adam Gnade "Prince of the Confederacy" — Was living in Virginia when I did this one. Spent a lot of time alone in the woods or sitting on the riverbanks watching the boats go by. It was winter and the countryside was barren and dark and icy. Lyrics are about that. Raccoons in the trees. Low tide at the Lafayette River. Neighbors screaming in Spanish. Talismans. Haints. Food Lion. Knuckle bones. Magic hand spells. Alligators. Watching coke deals go down over by the Granby St. Bridge. Was playing with hoodoo spells a little. Coming off antidepressants (Zoloft). Getting paranoid and superstitious. Generally losing it. Recorded this, which is a whole EP of five songs (from four pieces of interconnected prose writing), late one night on a four-track while everyone was sleeping. This was about six months or so before I got signed to release my first record, Run Hide Retreat Surrender, so I still didn’t know what I was doing or why I was doing it. Had to borrow a guitar. Strange stuff, this track. A lot of heavy, oppressive darkness and a lot of trying to find some kind of light to lead me. Would just hang out by myself, drink a lot of wine from a lot of mason jars, read religious texts, and listen to the same old 1930s gospel blues song (“I Feel the Spirit Moving”) over and over and over again. Glad to not be there anymore. “There” meaning totally lost and overwhelmed. A friend of mine called this EP “gothspel.” I thought that was pretty stupid. "Prince of the Confederacy" — Was living in Virginia when I did this one. Spent a lot of time alone in the woods or sitting on the riverbanks watching the boats go by. It was winter and the countryside was barren and dark and icy. Lyrics are about that. Raccoons in the trees. Low tide at the Lafayette River. Neighbors screaming in Spanish. Talismans. Haints. Food Lion. Knuckle bones. Magic hand spells. Alligators. Watching coke deals go down over by the Granby St. Bridge. Was playing with hoodoo spells a little. Coming off antidepressants (Zoloft). Getting paranoid and superstitious. Generally losing it. Recorded this, which is a whole EP of five songs (from four pieces of interconnected prose writing), late one night on a four-track while everyone was sleeping. This was about six months or so before I got signed to release my first record, Run Hide Retreat Surrender, so I still didn’t know what I was doing or why I was doing it. Had to borrow a guitar. Strange stuff, this track. A lot of heavy, oppressive darkness and a lot of trying to find some kind of light to lead me. Would just hang out by myself, drink a lot of wine from a lot of mason jars, read religious texts, and listen to the same old 1930s gospel blues song (“I Feel the Spirit Moving”) over and over and over again. Glad to not be there anymore. “There” meaning totally lost and overwhelmed. A friend of mine called this EP “gothspel.” I thought that was pretty stupid. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Music/PrinceOfTheConfederacy/PrinceOfTheConfederacy_160.mp3 Tue, 27 May 2008 16:00:00 GMT 3:40 adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Text: Chapters 3 & 4 Adam Gnade Adam Gnade Chapters 3 & 4 of Hymn California. Chapters 3 & 4 of Hymn California. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Text/Part2/HymnCalifornia_part2_ebook.pdf Tue, 27 May 2008 16:00:00 GMT adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Music: And On Bad Days We Were Sawn Asunder Adam Gnade Adam Gnade "And On Bad Days We Were Sawn Asunder" — What I remember about this one was a very full basement with Dan, Eli, and JR (who were my band at the time), Ray from Castanets, Nathan from Castanets/Shaky Hands, and some other people I’ve forgotten. Not sure who played what, but this came to be as a really loose jam we all got in on after struggling through a horrible version of my solo song “And Feel the Air Go Still” remade as a bombastic, 15-minute-long desert-rock “epic” with three dueling guitarists (“you’ll be like toreadors and bulls!” I hubristically told them), faux timpani rolls, mariachi trumpet … just a big stupid, convoluted mess. “Bad Days” was the chill-out after trying to make the first song “happen.” Lyrics are about feeling totally disconnected from people your age and about how down you can get when everyone’s talking shit about you behind your back. (It’s not about me; it’s about a very overwhelmed, very suicidal friend of mine, but I’ll leave him anonymous since the hard drug references run pretty deep.) It’s a whole litany of prophecies self-fulfilled, chemical aphasia, cabin fever, a lot of paranoia. The night before we did this one I had talked a girl at a bar into pepper-spraying me (why?) after which I stumbled back home blind (and blind drunk). Somewhere along my journey I came upon a street island full of rose bushes, took my shirt off, mindlessly filled it with rose buds, and (somehow) made it back to the place I was living and covered my bed (a bench seat from a van) in rose pedals before passing out on them. 2006 in Portland, Oregon was an interesting time to be alive. This was a live staple for a very long time. Swore I’d never play it again after the 10,000th drunk guy yelled “wooooo!” when I said “coke lines” in the lyrics. "And On Bad Days We Were Sawn Asunder" — What I remember about this one was a very full basement with Dan, Eli, and JR (who were my band at the time), Ray from Castanets, Nathan from Castanets/Shaky Hands, and some other people I’ve forgotten. Not sure who played what, but this came to be as a really loose jam we all got in on after struggling through a horrible version of my solo song “And Feel the Air Go Still” remade as a bombastic, 15-minute-long desert-rock “epic” with three dueling guitarists (“you’ll be like toreadors and bulls!” I hubristically told them), faux timpani rolls, mariachi trumpet … just a big stupid, convoluted mess. “Bad Days” was the chill-out after trying to make the first song “happen.” Lyrics are about feeling totally disconnected from people your age and about how down you can get when everyone’s talking shit about you behind your back. (It’s not about me; it’s about a very overwhelmed, very suicidal friend of mine, but I’ll leave him anonymous since the hard drug references run pretty deep.) It’s a whole litany of prophecies self-fulfilled, chemical aphasia, cabin fever, a lot of paranoia. The night before we did this one I had talked a girl at a bar into pepper-spraying me (why?) after which I stumbled back home blind (and blind drunk). Somewhere along my journey I came upon a street island full of rose bushes, took my shirt off, mindlessly filled it with rose buds, and (somehow) made it back to the place I was living and covered my bed (a bench seat from a van) in rose pedals before passing out on them. 2006 in Portland, Oregon was an interesting time to be alive. This was a live staple for a very long time. Swore I’d never play it again after the 10,000th drunk guy yelled “wooooo!” when I said “coke lines” in the lyrics. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Music/BadDays/BadDays_160.mp3 Sat, 5 Jul 2008 16:00:00 GMT 6:35 adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Text: Chapter 5 Adam Gnade Adam Gnade Chapter 5 of Hymn California. Chapter 5 of Hymn California. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Text/Part3/HymnCalifornia_part3_ebook.pdf Sat, 5 Jul 2008 16:00:00 GMT adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Music: We Live Nowhere and Know No One Adam Gnade Adam Gnade "We Live Nowhere and Know No One" — This one’s my theme. Been recorded about 10 times; each time totally different. Most versions’ll never leave the vault (which is not really a vault at all, but rather an old brown train-case filled with tapes.) This unreleased version is me on acoustic guitar and vocals, Thad Christian on lead guitar, Brian Smith playing drums, Shiloh Halsey on bass, and Johnny Askew playing Wurlitzer organ. (Johnny might’ve also played air organ under the intro; don’t remember.) Song comes in two parts. Part one’s a guy pleading with his girl to leave their crappy town with him. Part two is the girl pleading with the guy to leave town a little while later but at this point in his life he’s just too beaten down to care or listen. (The ending’s left open, but I think the last scream foretells ascension.) More than any song I’ve written, it sums up how I feel everyday of every week everywhere I am. It’s kind of a shitty way to live, but I guess it’s a real thing and real things can outshine the shit if they’re true enough—and this one’s pretty true. I play this one at every show and I think I always will. "We Live Nowhere and Know No One" — This one’s my theme. Been recorded about 10 times; each time totally different. Most versions’ll never leave the vault (which is not really a vault at all, but rather an old brown train-case filled with tapes.) This unreleased version is me on acoustic guitar and vocals, Thad Christian on lead guitar, Brian Smith playing drums, Shiloh Halsey on bass, and Johnny Askew playing Wurlitzer organ. (Johnny might’ve also played air organ under the intro; don’t remember.) Song comes in two parts. Part one’s a guy pleading with his girl to leave their crappy town with him. Part two is the girl pleading with the guy to leave town a little while later but at this point in his life he’s just too beaten down to care or listen. (The ending’s left open, but I think the last scream foretells ascension.) More than any song I’ve written, it sums up how I feel everyday of every week everywhere I am. It’s kind of a shitty way to live, but I guess it’s a real thing and real things can outshine the shit if they’re true enough—and this one’s pretty true. I play this one at every show and I think I always will. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Music/WeLiveNowhere/WeLiveNowhere_160.mp3 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT 2:54 adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Text: Chaptes 6 & 7 Adam Gnade Adam Gnade Chapters 6 & 7 of Hymn California. Chapters 6 & 7 of Hymn California. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Text/Part4/HymnCalifornia_part4_ebook.pdf Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Music: Hymn California Adam Gnade Adam Gnade "Hymn California" — The book comes out today so I guess it‘s time to do the song that shares its name. Music is by Thaddeus Christian, with input from Eli Jemison, Dan O‘Hara, Brian Smith, Johnny Askew, and Shiloh Halsey, who were, at certain points along the song's evolution, my band. One version of this was released, a slowish dragging one, as part of an EP by Drowned in Sound Recordings, but this one was never put out anywhere. Here‘s something about the song from an interview I did a while back. Rich Biaocco: Randomly, my CD player just faded out the end of Snake Lore Part II and moved into “Ghosts” by sixties jazzeteer Albert Ayler, which is kind of a free-form, acid trumpet, deconstructed New Orleans funeral parade kind of song. On some next-level shit, it works pretty well–you should consider encoring with it! AG: That‘s some synchronicity there! You just explained my musical fantasy of the moment. A few months ago I dreamt I was listening to this song we did, “Hymn California,” and all the time signatures had shifting around. The verse would go on through all normal but when the chorus would hit, it would slow down and chug along into a heavy, greasy New Orleans funeral groove with a horn section swooning all drunken and woozy over the guitars before the verses would pick up again. It had a very loose, sensual, dark propulsion it. The bulk of the song was there, but it was like the verses existed in my conscious while the choruses were from my sub-conscious. I want to recreate that sound more than anything. "Hymn California" — The book comes out today so I guess it‘s time to do the song that shares its name. Music is by Thaddeus Christian, with input from Eli Jemison, Dan O‘Hara, Brian Smith, Johnny Askew, and Shiloh Halsey, who were, at certain points along the song's evolution, my band. One version of this was released, a slowish dragging one, as part of an EP by Drowned in Sound Recordings, but this one was never put out anywhere. Here‘s something about the song from an interview I did a while back. Rich Biaocco: Randomly, my CD player just faded out the end of Snake Lore Part II and moved into “Ghosts” by sixties jazzeteer Albert Ayler, which is kind of a free-form, acid trumpet, deconstructed New Orleans funeral parade kind of song. On some next-level shit, it works pretty well–you should consider encoring with it! AG: That‘s some synchronicity there! You just explained my musical fantasy of the moment. A few months ago I dreamt I was listening to this song we did, “Hymn California,” and all the time signatures had shifting around. The verse would go on through all normal but when the chorus would hit, it would slow down and chug along into a heavy, greasy New Orleans funeral groove with a horn section swooning all drunken and woozy over the guitars before the verses would pick up again. It had a very loose, sensual, dark propulsion it. The bulk of the song was there, but it was like the verses existed in my conscious while the choruses were from my sub-conscious. I want to recreate that sound more than anything. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Music/HymnCalifornia/HymnCalifornia_160.mp3 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT 3:29 adam gnade, hymn california, cash music Text: Chaptes 8 & 9 Adam Gnade Adam Gnade Chapters 8 & 9 of Hymn California. Chapters 8 & 9 of Hymn California. http://s3.amazonaws.com/cash_users/adamgnade/HymnCalifornia/Text/Part5/HymnCalifornia_part5_ebook.pdf Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT adam gnade, hymn california, cash music