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Totems

by Max Davies

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1.
Totems 04:05
Well you're breaking down again and these masks are wearing thin As without so within So reveal your secret skin Yes you're breaking down again and isn't solitude your friend? Totems end and begin and never say where they've been But when you're looking thru the stars how I wonder what you are From the stranger on the plain to the dream transistor game Of the diamonds in your mind and that pale effusive sign rising tempting you to find totems too worn to unwind So you're breaking down again and the colors that we'll rend are even thicker than the thin will reveal your secret skin But when you're looking thru the stars how I wonder what you are From the stranger on the plain to the dream transistor game Yes you're looking thru the stars and how I wonder what you are From the stranger on the plain to the dream transistor game the dream transistor game the dream transistor game
2.
Nothing 03:18
Hey Jasmine that's no disguise and the wonder whistling by like some absent-minded winter smile doesn't it make you feel like a stranger? O Jasmine I'm spinning out and these feelings that we doubt come on slow but with sudden rise and suddenly I'm a stranger But there's nothing for you to hide with the ground beneath your feet and there's nothing in your eyes right now that won't always be Hey Jasmine begin again because you came and then you went with your simple sunday morning song and suddenly you're a stranger But there's nothing for you to hide with the ground beneath your feet and there's nothing in your eyes right now that won't always be But there's nothing for you to hide with the ground beneath your feet and there's nothing in your eyes right now that won't always be that won't always be No that won't always be
3.
Come Down 03:40
Hey hey Come on down With your ruby lips And your neon sound And though the lilac dream It seems to weep so suddenly Your emerald toes still leave the ground Hey hey Life's a crowd With it's broken eyes And it's shining mouths And though the streets they seem To grey and sigh so subtly Why don't you try and come around? ‘Cause the bells are ringing Thru my dreams And I'm curious if it's the same for you? A silver-screen dream Running thru my head Come on don't you feel the same way too? Hey hey What you've found In the Metro stations And the clouds And tangled up it seems to fade to blue so easily Your augured dreams gently resound So hey hey Come on down With your ruby lips And your neon sound And though the lilac dream it seems to weep so suddenly Your emerald toes still leave the ground ‘Cause the bells are ringing Thru my dreams And I'm curious if it's the same for you? A silver-screen dream Running thru my head Come on don't you feel the same way too? ‘Cause the bells are ringing Thru my dreams And I'm curious if it's the same for you? A silver-screen dream Running thru my head Come on don't you feel the same way too? If you’re dancing Somewhere beyond the doubt Then you're shining Shining Shining out
4.
On Decline 04:43
These memories they get the best of me and I realize I'm not here right now So you hit the road with a different load then it would reveal itself to be in the end Still you're trying to get it right Trying to make things go the way that you thought that they should when you woke up alone with the dream on your lips and the fear on decline Between you and me all of what we see isn't meant to save our lives anymore So we hit the skies with our restless sighs then I realize I'm smaller then I'd thought Still you're trying to get it right Trying to make things go the way that you thought that they should when you woke up alone with the dream on your lips and the fear on decline On decline On decline On decline...
5.
Begin Again 04:47
If there's nothing behind the seams of what the come down used to be and these whispers aren't as dark as they once were. But there's nothing in between the profane and this divinity and these inklings scribble truth as if it were absurd When all of those lies are just curtains for pride then it's really no shame so there's nothing to blame Well there's something coming clean betwixt the highway and obscurity and the language spoke has begun to slowly burn Unabashed dancing queen connecting with infinity realign what seems a million yards of hurt When the dreams open wide from the curtains that hide and the mystery plain brings it all home again So begin again Begin again Well who's to say what's not a dream with the fog obstructing what is seen and anyway it's all just tangled and obscured Evanescent emerald sea the city's pulse the nightmare scene transmit these feelings beyond the realm of words When the dreams lick the sides of the curtains that hide and when it all goes up in flame still this golden dream still remains...
6.
Broken whispers and screams walking backwards again still pushing beyond the curses on the side of the road This city's obscene but then again I'm not sure what that really means Of these haunted halls and hallowed electric dreams or incantations on the brow And so it goes like a dove on high Or the skies aflame and alive What's your will? and where does it lie? And by the way how do you fly? O..... Storied faces pass by sidewalk canvas at the foot of a queen Approaching glorious lights pulling memories to forget later on It's permitted that's right still the return can't be denied There's been a mist on your eyes but gold is everywhere it's just a matter of sight O..... And so it goes like a dove on high Or the skies aflame and alive What's your will? and where does it lie? And by the way how do you fly? O.....
7.
Sphere 04:56
Well the word on the streets on your style is that you picked it up on your way back from the places you used to hide And the myth on the lips of your smile is that your E.S.P. is aimed at me thru the lonely night But if you're feeling kinda down and you need me to try to disappear for awhile Just look for me around the places that you found your style But then out of the black comes desire and the pressure from the diamonds in your eyes leads into the blue design all carrying on inside this sphere of time Ah the fingers of dawn do transpire and this midnight train keeps driving me away further from your side And these pearls on the waves of desire are just mirrors for this ever rising star of gas and fire But if you're feeling upside down and you need me to try to cut you free for awhile But with your ear down to the ground you will hear a lonely melody from the places you used to hide But then out of the black comes desire and the pressure from the diamonds in your eyes leads into the blue design all carrying on inside this sphere of time Yes out of the black comes desire and the pressure from the diamonds in your eyes leads into the blue design all carrying on inside this sphere of time All carrying on inside this sphere of time...
8.
We 04:47
Well you've got your dreams and I've got mine but there's no claim upon the emerald sea outside of time What a beautiful feeling what a golden sign and there's nothing we can't do outside of time This gypsy spirit's gonna vibrate far and wide thru pain and pleasure onto the other side The full moon's reflecting energy and rhyme and is there creation and light outside of time? So what were your dreams have become mine these unseen influences keep these energies alive This gypsy spirit's gonna vibrate far and wide thru pain and pleasure onto the other side This gypsy spirit's gonna vibrate far and wide thru pain and pleasure onto the other side
9.
Hunger 03:52
This body and this need this hunger and these howling eyes they know nothing will be the same again These feelings and this fold this dawning and these silent cries they're just passing by so mind what you say Well the world isn't stopping but you just might make it thru the night and this cycling signal hum is just blood meal for insight This golden moment and the fallen bough the instant and the precious sigh are just blowing forward so mind what you rend Well the world isn't stopping but you just might make it thru the night and this cycling signal hum is just blood meal for insight No the world isn't stopping but you'll surely make it thru the night and this cycling signal hum is just blood meal for insight
10.
Yellow flowers at dusk secrets out on display On these telephone wires over castle spires: "say what you need to say" But wild strawberries and crumbled cavalries bear silent tongues aloft Ancient conceits and veiled honesty's murder thought Liquid history moves on but reason seems to fade on these computer screens and empty magazines perpetually displayed But wild strawberries and crumbled cavalries bear silent tongues aloft Ancient conceits and veiled honesty's murder thought So here's a kiss from a thousand leagues and bullet from the heart when there's nothing left to say or feel well that's where we need to start But wild strawberries and crumbled cavalries bear silent tongues aloft Ancient conceits and veiled honesty's murder thought murder thought murder thought...

about

On Totems:

Begin at the beginning...
O the dreams and feelings (that haunt and herald the corners) of our restless, shifting lives; how they often descend without rhyme or reason, making themselves unavoidable, scratching to achieve some sort of form, some crooked perfection in an imperfect world. These are the things that gently push us towards creation, spark the first swirlings, how difficult to trace their path it is. In other words: sometimes the edges of things aren't always salient and the path isn't necessarily always straight.

Formless (and often in dreams or reveries) the inklings that hatched these recordings originally came into being. What initially seemed a definite structure for this album went through many changes. Often arrangements and orders would deconstruct themselves back down to the germ, only to reassemble into a new collection of songs, chants, and dog-ears of experience.

Essentially, these songs are well-travelled. Some began as piano tinkerings in the cloudy, wet, chestnut fall of northern Italy, or as acoustic contemplations of curses left on the side of the darkling road in Los Angeles. Some came from staring into a starry abyss with the best of friends, others from contemplations of energy in the METRO. Still others came over the dream-transistor in fragments and feelings, auguring dimensions of the future (and of nowhere).

Many of these lyrics happened once-upon-a-time, (some have yet to possibly happen). Some grew undoubtedly from nursery rhymes and other voices. Some winded their way back from a sunrise on the Orient Express en route to Paris. Some descended through the years after contemplating the tops of clouds, others cut their teeth in New York, plotting their reformation whilst reflecting on one fashion or another.

This album is a magical act in a universe of possibility. These songs weren't necessarily written with the intention of having a spiritual significance, but, seem to have picked up the habit somewhere from the places they used to hide... Totems was made to be a complete picture, each song being chosen to help complete that picture, create a definite vibe, construct a certain aura.

These songs come into the world hoping they will help people make some sense of an often senseless world, make the whispers not as dark as they once were. Very often songs have a funny way of coming true, (like incantations on the brow)
making sense later on down-the-road. Some of these songs have already started to yield such auguries. Who knows? maybe if you listen carefully (get your ear close enough to the ground) you'll catch a glimpse of yourself , your future or something familiar in the reflection of these songs? Nevertheless they hope to pour some good vibrations into your ears and and help you to enjoy a moment or two outside of all the noise.

If nothing else, hopefully these songs will stand as a reminder that it's always okay to begin at the beginning.

credits

released February 14, 2010

All songs written by: Max Davies
All vocals and instruments: Max Davies
Except: Stand-up bass on "Everything is Permitted": Hagan Caldwell.
Juno 106 Synthesizer and vocals on "We": Toni Roxanne Oswald.
Recorded in: Boulder, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Nevada City in various bedrooms, basements, et al.
by M. Davies and Hagan Caldwell.
Mixed & Mastered at the Carriage House, Nevada City, California 2009-2010
Additional remastering 2022, at the Bas Couture Bunker.

Album cover photo by Cameron Blok-Andersen

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Max Davies

Songwriter, guitarist and producer. Max Davies has been featured in: Artforum; Guitar World & Guitarist magazines; Centre Pompidou, the American College Dance Festival, Naropa University, and on numerous albums and films. He has worked with Thurston Moore, Anne Waldman, Lydia Lunch, CA Conrad, Toni Oswald, Clark Coolidge, Cecilia Vicuna, Eleni Sikelianos Gregory Alan Isakov, and more. ... more

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