Xenophobia
If you enjoy these songs, you can donate any amount to help us pay for mastering of these singles into our next great album! Donations are optional but very much appreciated.
or see more exclusive material and be involved in the artistic process on Patreon. Pay what you want.
We hope this newsletter finds you enjoying the beginnings of summer fun, maybe exploring some back yard badminton or the occasional barbecue with the neighbors. Would you be feeling so smug and carefree if you happened to notice a greenish tint to the family that just moved in next door? They seem so nice, so normal, but why do they have that strange glow to them? We invite you to take a musical journey with us as we confront the universal struggle of fear in the face of the unknown.
Entitled “Xenophobia” we have basically created a Twilight Zone episode compacted into the length of a pop song. Teetering between heavy grooves and whimsical cadences, the piece travels through many moods and emotions with an extended musical passage that features unusual percussion and even a kalimba (African thumb piano) solo.
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There’s a little bit of something for everyone here….except maybe for those new neighbors! Make sure to stay away from them. They may look friendly, but they’re not to be trusted.
Have you seen them?
The little green men
They’re moving in
Pretending to be our friends
It’s not their skin
That makes me frightened
Senses heightened
But I can not pretend
CHORUS:
They’re everywhere I look
Tell me what they want, why they’ve come
They’re everywhere I look
There’s another one, Should I run
Please tell me what they want
Will I feel safe, With a gun
They’re everywhere I look
Everywhere I look
Everywhere!
There’s trouble plenty
If we’re too friendly
They could be deadly
And the apocalypse begins
But No, It’s not their skin
That makes me sickened
Keep your distance
Don’t Infect us with your sin
BRIDGE:
Want from us
You know they’ll take from us
Infect us all with their lies
Steal our jobs
You know they’ll steal our god
Steal our way of life
Always smiling
What’re they hiding?
Perhaps they're spying
They will be condemned
I swear, It’s not their skin
That makes me hate them
Obliterate them
This fallacy must end
Talk like us, I guess they
Look like us, yes, but do
You see what I see?
Walk like us, I guess they
Act like us
They’re fooling you but no one’s fooling me
It’s not their skin, but no
Don’t let them in
They’re neat yes,
But just know, they’re unclean
They say they come peace
And are free from disease
But people, can't you see
they are green!
LYRICS
John
If you enjoy these songs, you can donate any amount to help us pay for mastering of these singles into our next great album! Donations are optional but very much appreciated.
or see more exclusive material and be involved in the artistic process on Patreon. Pay what you want.
Innovative creativity is conjured up in countless ways. It may hit us all at once or possibly as a long, steady flow to be labored over. Either way, we’ll take it! The same can be said of the water closet and the activities that take place on its majestic throne, at least when it comes to the creativity department. Fun fact: the band name, June Cleaver & The Steak Knives, was delivered from deep within the subconsciousness while sitting on the toilet in a eureka moment in the early 1990s. An alternate definition of the word, inspiration, is to draw in a breath - a possibly deadly exercise in some particular bathrooms. But we take our chances because most of our best work comes to us in the cozy privacy of the loo. This is song an upbeat rocker that celebrates the joy of inspiration wherever it may strike.
Erase (The Story of a Bumbling Time Traveler)
If you enjoy these songs, you can donate any amount to help us pay for mastering of these singles into our next great album! Donations are optional but very much appreciated.
or see more exclusive material and be involved in the artistic process on Patreon. Pay what you want.
Our upcoming album, Short Tales of Science Fiction and Family Dissonance, lives up to its name. We have songs about robots, aliens, X-ray glasses and, yes... Time Travel! Join Harold as he attempts to "Kill the dissonance before it begins" in this epic tale.
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I Breathe too loud, I’m in a cloud
of Absent mindedness,
The way I talk, the way I dress,
My morning kiss
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My sunken eyes and my crooked grin
my mere existence gets under your skin,
my mere existence gets under your skin,
Kill the dissonance before it begins,
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But what if there was a way
To make it all go away
Oh, wouldn’t you love to
Find a way
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Looking up, had enough,
Of your frowning face
I slam the door, from this house
There’s no escape
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But I have an emergency plan,
and so back through the door I ran
Down, I crept, down the cellar steps,
to my lab where my secret’s kept
Don’t wanna be under your skin
Kill this dissonance before it begins
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But what if there was a way
To make it all go away
Wouldn’t you love to
Find a way
Another time, another place
A narrow chance to escape
Wouldn’t you love to find a way
to erase
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It's not too late to change my fate
set the year to 1998.
set the year to 1998.
Flip the switch, turn the dial, and close the gate,
Sent to the moment before we met.
Bill Clinton's marriage on TV set
In sea of grunge, I quickly lunge to block your view
And keep my former self from seeing you
Keep us apart and everyone wins
Kill the dissonance before it begins
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THE LYRICS
If you enjoy these songs, you can donate any amount to help us pay for mastering of these singles into our next great album! Donations are optional but very much appreciated.
INSOMNIA
Inspired by true events, this will be the first song on our upcoming album, and it conceptually sets the stage for all the songs that follow. Alongside hallucinogens or certain types of psychotic episodes, insomnia is an obvious gateway to the surreal.
And while most songs build to a climax, this one almost does the complete opposite. At the end of the song, the pounding drums and electric guitars are replaced with soft acoustics, and the aggressive sounds of frustration in the vocals fade away as our hero finally slips into unconsciousness. There's a lot going on in this tune, and we hope to create a "Chopped Up & Broken Down" video in order to do a deeper dive into its inner workings at some point soon.
I lie awake, lie awake every night
Every night, I lie awake
I just lie, awake, so awake
And wait for the morning light
The creaking house
My beating heart,
Oblivion
When will you start?
The Dripping sink
The ticking clock
My racing mind
it will not stop
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My eyes glued tight shut everyday
Each day I close my eyes tight
Each day I’m deep, dead, fast asleep
As I wait for my bed at night
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I have a dream, a dream every night
I dream about dreaming a dream
I have a dream, every night I can't shake
In my dreams I'm lying awake
THE LYRICS
If you enjoy these songs, you can donate any amount to help us pay for mastering of these singles into our next great album! Donations are optional but very much appreciated.
MULTITASKING
Is our increasing dependence on technology making us dumber and less productive? Is it nibbling away at our over-stimulated brains, rotting them from the inside out? Carting the children to their overflowing social activities while dropping off your chainsaw to be sharpened, all the while you try to figure out which gas station to pick dinner up from. Do you find yourself staring at a screen of some kind throughout the day trying to tackle a myriad of botheration or create some kind of distraction from the ever-present horrors of our current state of affairs, ad nauseam?
We know how you feel….Days flow by like a dream, and we have difficulty recalling a single detail from last Thursday. Pat created an illustration back in 2009 that eventually inspired this song, and was musically influenced by both Rush and Zydeco music. This is our our first single in quite awhile, and we hope that you enjoy!
Work’s piling up,
A constant climb to stay on top
For you
There's too much to do
Need more time,
More arms and more eyes
But you
Only have two
Eat your breakfast while you race out the door
Morning conversations while checking the scores
Forget the present, mind’s onto the next
Fix your hair and drive the car while checking your text
Who did you see today? They’re all faceless
Where did you go today? Nameless places
What did you do today? Nothing at all
How was your day, Dear? I can’t recall
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Multitasking steals another day away
Multitasking feels like everyday's the same
Multitasking scattered thoughts cloud my brain
Multitasking steals away another day
You’re never alone when your holding your phone
Alone you don’t what to do
Four things at a time, racing gerbils in your mind
And I can’t seem to get through
Silence is a stranger, TV’s on while you sleep
What happened to the years? There goes another week
Today is yesterday, and tomorrow will be the same
I'm here with your body but not with your brain
Maybe tomorrow my mind will be here
Liquid, Tranquil sharp and clear
Maybe tomorrow we’ll live in the now
But for today we just don’t know how
THE LYRICS
Where are the rest of the singles?
We've put them into the vault, but Patreon Members have full access. Join now, pay what you want. patreon.com/cleaver_music