The Hoborchestra
I Only Eat You to Make Me Stronger
b3024
4 December, 2009

Recorded (mostly) at B3HQ, aka the Hobo House from September – November 2009.  Aaron Smith, Richard Nolan, Jen O’Connor and Matthew Loiacono all recorded at their respective recording places and communicated recorded material through email and/or CD.

Index of Band Acronyms:
SDHB – Sgt Dunbar & the Hobo Banned
BitA – Barons in the Attic
WaJ – We are Jeneric
SM – Scientific Maps
BtOHS – BEWARE! the Other Head of Science
BC – the Boston Celtics
ML – Matthew Loiacono

01. The Old Crow
Featuring: Alex Muro (SDHB) – vocals, words & Matt Hamilton (BitA) – harmonica
Music by the Hoborchestra

the old crow has flown from his nest leave behind his home and all its preciousness to be ravaged from the time he must miss take flight in the night and don’t come back again there’s not much left in these branches tangled mess the old crow passing over the red river his small eyes saw the land grow darker the message sent by storm clouds rolling in take flight in the night and don’t come back again there’s not much left in the brances tangled mess the old crow was once a friend of mine we had loved each other well in our time the rain came in we all saw fate was blind take flight in the night and don’t come back again there’s not much left except some trinkets in a nest

02. Spinach Water
Original Song by Hop Along (www.myspace.com/hopalongqueenansleis)
Featuring: Jen O’Connor (WaJ) – vocals & Donna Baird (SDHB, SM) – vocals

now before its any hotter put the spinach in the water daughter daughter are you taking this down? yes ma’am i am yes ma’am now i know your arms are able so please go and set the table your father’s a hard working man and if there’s one thing i won’t stand it’s idle hands hey its still snowing like a mother out there watch that mouth where’s your brother? building snowmen when he should be shoveling us out and i guess its just our luck that we were not born as ducks migrating through the winter look now you’ve gone and burned our dinner all i want is to play in the snow yeah i know its for your own good that i should not let you go

03. A Life Learning Languages
Words and Music by the Hoborchestra
Featuring: Eric Krans (WaJ) – choir vocals

don’t say i love you too cause then all i could do for you is gladden or give you pain between your hope and suspicion before your blame or praise and on me alone with the shine of the light the shame of having a face have i not had nearly one hundred times only to promise not to die? i have begun my long love to god that quiet and aimless chore its a life learning languages but you create nonsense and nothing more the lumpy lead of patience is a long road from the swift happiness of gold to take all this once more upon myself i the estranged turn home i fell in love and i needed a roadmap to get me to your door and when i arrived you said listen let me go let me go and i’ll want you more the lumpy lead of patience is a long road from the swift happiness of gold so i’m taking everything i had left to give and my friends are bringing me home

04. As You Go Down to Sleep
Featuring: Jen O’Connor (Waj) – vocals, words  & Eric Krans (WaJ) – bass, drums, loop machine, tambourine, organ & Louis Apicello (SDHB) – trumpet
Music by the Hoborchestra & We are Jeneric

shoes are sticking to the floor turkeys piled up at the door naked running through the hall all in all in all in all keep your whiskers out the drain or the pipes might go insane you lost your vest down at the ball all in all in all in all turn out your light before each night as you go down to sleep

05. Battle Hymn of the Republic (Blood Upon the Risers)
Original Arrangement by the Hoborchestra combining “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe (1861) and “Blood Upon the Risers”, an American Paratrooper song from WWII
Featuring: Vocals – Richard Nolan (BtOHS, BC), Jesse Horton (BtOHS), Louis Apicello (SDHB), Alex Muro (SDHB), Jen O’Connor (WaJ), Donna Baird (SDHB, SM), Eric Krans (WaJ)

in the beauty of the lillies christ was born across the sea with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me as he died to make men holy let us die to make men free while god is marching on glory glory hallelujiah our god is marching on mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored he has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword his truth is marching on glory glory hallelujiah our god is marching on the risers swung around his neck connectors cracked his dome suspension lines were tied in knots around his skinny bones the canopy became his shroud he hurdled to the ground he ain’t gonna jump no more gory gory what a hell of a way to die we ain’t gonna jump no more he hit the ground the sound was splat his blood went spurting high his commrades they were heard to say a hell of a way to die he lay there rolling round in the welter of his gore and he ain’t gonna jump no more he hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat he is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgement seat be swift my soul to answer him be jubilant my feet our good is marching on there was blood upon the risers there were brains upon the chute intestines were a-dangling from his paratrooper suit he was a mess they picked him up and poured him from his boots and he ain’t gonna jump no more

06. A Tale to Tell the Kids
Words and music by the Hoborchestra

your old house is by my new favorite tree i see the leaves change from a spot across the street and i never knew until i came back looking for you it’s not a parking lot but a patch of grass now it takes me longer to get home i’ve gotten older and started driving slow why didn’t we just stay where i gave you paints? i had a washboard and unconditional love its a sarcastic catholic girl on your shirt but they didn’t know i wouldn’t become your first there in your aunts house where i had to sleep on the couch and fake praise for uncle dave’s favorite team i planned a random circumstance to ask to heard if you would spare me the chance a tale to tell the kids about how we split but came back beside a canal of glass cause i thought i saw you coming down the street oh god it scared the shit out of me put my face in a book i could barely bring myself to look and oh how i sighed when some lady walked by its the time of year to think about you and bring leaves home to hang in my room from a fiery red maple tree that annually reminds me how it could have been great if you didn’t hate yourself it could have been swell oh well

07. Secret Handshakes & Greetings
Featuring: Aaron Smith (SM) – words, vocals, electric guitar
Music by the Hoborchestra

on screen the spiral speaker never ends underneath the cloaks of countless stoned villains hidden catalogs of the descending dead anagrams all the druids would love to pencil you in for their meetings secret handshakes and greetings removing cultural cornerstones and suck up to cyclones a grammatical shift to those favorite blackouts wipe off all his makeup and mess about bad analogies of ancient leaders and miracles all the druids, etc etc… (spastic shredding)

08. Singing Upwards
Featuring: Matthew Loiacono (ML)- vocals, words, mandolin, banjo, feedback, mandolin bubbles & Matt Hamilton (BitA) – harmonica
Music by the Hoborchestra & Matthew Loiacono

if we pick the right time to move maybe we wouldn’t miss another moon already out there carrying off all our legs half of the wind swept you back again pushing me out where thinking we mirror the thought raising an undone simple love apart holding out where you missed aloud feeling you pass by me only part of you singing upwards feeling you pass by me

09. Born to Ruin
Featuring: Richard Nolan (BC, BtOHS) – vocals, words, whooses
Music by the Hoborchestra

you don’t want a life like ours you don’t want to work this break a sweat lose some bets get a job lose your job hit the road play some shows get the girl lose the girl hit the drums you don’t want to work this heard break your neck and your balls change your place and your clothes set some goals learn to glow surprise us all please do call when you’re grown don’t disown mom and dad safe at home covers blown i’m awful slow to pay back loans the only suit i own is yours

10. If Fire Drives You Away
Words & Music by the Hoborchestra
Featuring: Eric Krans (WaJ) – electric guitar

i wish i wanted what you whisper scream for and dream of the most but for a number of encumbering and as of now unknown reasons i don’t when the winds change at the right time in a certain spot of sunlight a fire starts toward the sea and the moon pulls you to me save the world your way i should probably follow but will most likely wallow in the ways of vice and waste but with you that’s OK so by you i’m OK that’s why i’m OK with you that’s why i’m still in love with you it’s sad that its just bad timing again but my hypotheses require these three things to be common knowledge before we can begin your favorite tree and the reason why for what you won’t eat and all your past tragedies

11. Beatrice I
Words & Music by the Hoborchestra

i thought certainly it must be that beatrice will die then i had to close my eyes and in a waning wind that came and went i thought i heard it said thou too art dead in time so hold your tounge all cold and come see our lady where she lies when i opened my eyes i cried oh beatrice that wasn’t me you knew when we were young that isn’t mine i own naught before nine except that time you cried and it is as it once was then once again you lay in wait for god you’ ve built him up so much you’re broke down by the time i come around when i opened my eyes i cried oh beatrice oh please will you believe in this?

12. Someone Is Hiding
Words & Music by the Hoborchestra
featuring: Dan Pardee (SDHB) – accordion

oo if they get you assume they got me too and we’ll meet in the belly of some beast and slowly become one lets get up before the sun and check the place for bugs someone is hiding and has it out for me but it might just be spiders take to the nearest pasture search for asters cause once i saw some flowers on a mountain and heard the sound of my father in the path of a cloud its wet for only a second but ain’t you noticed how it always rains twice in the forest?

13.
Olympus Pearlcorder Microcassette recording at Grizzle Ocean Mountain Lean-To.
featuring: Matt Wolkoff – Dungeon Mastering; Alex Muro, Louis Apicello, Rob Vanderbles – Role Playing, whiskey drinking, undead killing
Original Song by We are Jeneric (www.myspace.com/wearejeneric)

i don’t want to grow up i want to stay here i don’t want to plan for next year i don’t want to build a nest i don’t want to collect i don’t want to have to do anything i don’t feel like burying i don’t want to think about the frozen ground i just want to run around chase my brother up and down

Someone Is Hiding

oo if they get you assume they got me too and we’ll meet in the belly of some beast and slowly become one lets get up before the sun and check the place for bugs someone is hiding and has it out for me but it might just be spiders take to the nearest pasture search for asters cause once i saw some flowers on a mountain and heard the sound of my father in the path of a cloud its wet for only a second but ain’t you noticed how it always rains twice in the forest?