Where’d your gardener go?
Has he left you lone?
Clouds began to show,
He packed up for home

Snowflakes fall
Snowflakes fall

Raise your tender shoots,
Now the winter’s gone
Beat back to your roots,
Your first bloom withdrawn

Rise once more!
Rise once more!

Slow at first to
Show your green and
Glow, your roots must
Grow deeper still
Till you press yourself against the rock;
Your thousand fibrous fingers lock
A shoring up of stem and stock;
Sure mooring in the tempest’s knock

Eyes of high passersby
Wouldn’t notice you;
Signs of glories now nigh
Only faint and few
Till the dayspring streams,
And the gardener’s dreams
Break as morning gleams

Rise once more!
Rise once more!

[audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/Metal_Wave.mp3]

        1. Chozo                     [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/01_Chozo.mp3]
        2. For the Birds             [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/02_For_the_Birds.mp3]
        3. Shadowland                [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/03_Shadowland.mp3]
        4. Adrift                    [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/04_Adrift.mp3]
        5. Breakfast with Godzilla   [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/05_Breakfast_With_Godzilla.mp3]
        6. Wake                      [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/06_Wake.mp3]
        7. All Clear                 [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/07_All_Clear.mp3]
        8. Nostalgia Dogs            [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/08_Nostalgia_Dogs.mp3]
        9. Easter Song               [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/09_Easter_Song.mp3]
        10. The Fight                [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/10_The_Fight.mp3]
        11. Midnight Snack           [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/11_Midnight_Snack.mp3]
        12. Veggie Soup              [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/12_Veggie_Soup.mp3]
        13. Go On, Be Still          [audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/13_Go_On_Be_Still.mp3]

All recordings, music, and lyrics copyright Anthony Hall, 2009, except lyrics on 3 copyright Anneke Majors, 2008

I wake–it seems I had fallen asleep
On watch at the top of the hill.
I think how as the sun has set,
I’ve lost my own shadow in the Earth’s.
The day has moved it’s face
To look upon the fires far away.

From there, the last of the news that we heard
Came as rustling of the trees in the wind.
We hoped, and held to the last of our breath,
Then sighed, and shut the panes against the rain,
Till there came a clear and calm,
And I climbed to watch the orange turn to blue.

Sometimes,
when the winds hush,
You brace yourself
For the eye to pass,
And the far wall’s rush
To send its blast,
Driving you back
To the shelter.

But oh, this is no such storm.
For lo, forming as I watch,

A light appears
At the end of the lake.
My poor heart breaks
For pure joy’s sake.
They’re coming home!
They’re coming home at last!

My signal flares,
The town responds.
The midnight blue
Erupts in orange:
Fireworks–
The fire of peace.

The townfolk rush
To drown the docks,
And meet the waves
Of the final wake
Of the mighty ship
On its final call to port,

Never, never again to debark.
We’ll no more shut our eyes against the dark.
Awake, awake, everyone down to the lake!
Awake, awake, everyone down to the lake!

When I was a little kid
Riding in the car,
Sometimes I’d look to see
No hands upon the wheel.
No parent in the seat,
Nobody to slow it down,
Strapped too tight
To reach up front
And take the wheel–
I hope we stay on the road.

On my first day of class
I opened my front door.
Southbound birds and falling leaves
Swirled beneath my feet.
Further at the foot of the cliff,
The sea devoured the rain.
The closing sky took a heavy breath,
My vision swam,
I fell with a splash to my desk.

All throughout the day
The lightning bolts were too far away,
And I couldn’t see
To find my way to shore, but I

Knew there was an end,
Though the means ran thick with ashes and dust.
I swam with the current
Till the waters rolled more pure.

And now I’m older and smart,
With my own hands on the wheel,
But I’m not far down the road before I’m

Slamming on the breaks,
Spinning the car around.
I come to a sliding stop
To face the setting sun.
It’s burning a way through the frozen haze.
The world is turning in a drunken craze.
I should be afraid,
I should dig in my heals,
I should like to get off,
But I’ve learned enought that I

Know there is an end
Though the means run thick with ashes and dust.
I’ll Swim with the current
Till the waters roll more pure.

And now I’m older and smart,
With my own hands on the wheel,
But I’m not far down the road before I

Halt.
Stop.
But the Earth turns over again,
And the filthy slush slides away
Over the edge, lost
In the night pit.
Oh let it fall,
Oh let it fall
Un-mourned.
Only save up your tears for the dawn
When He’ll loosen His grip on the thorns,
And the petals fall into drifts
At the side of the road,
A soft landing for all the lost and aimless cars.

[audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/squid/mp3/For_the_Birds.mp3]

You don’t mind me coming round
I’m not sure what to do with that

It’s not like with other folks,
Where I’m shooed and waved out
From some well-kept city park
Where they spray down the nests
And the gates turn away
Nice old women
With old bread for my brood

So please don’t get me wrong,
I’m not saying you’re for the birds
It’s just strange
And it’s different
And it’s nice
When I fear “no”
To hear “yes”

So I’ll keep picking twigs on your lawn
I’ll keep making my call
Waiting dusk till dawn
Listening for your song
To see you hopping along
Till you light upon my tree
Swee dee dee dee dee

We will hop out our wee dance,
Together, you and I.

The Universe expresses its sense of literary symbolism in an unrelenting grayness, showing in cross-hatched peeks above you as you make your daily way from the high tower keep down through the streets of Tedium to the Phone Support Center dungeons. You know the exact shape and dimensions of a black hole: a box, five foot on each side, whose walls you can peer over into hundreds of neighboring, identical black holes. Though no light has ever escaped their surfaces, you know their rough Berber-carpeted walls to be a dingy mauve, identical to the color of your elementary school. Astronomers spend their lives at the telescope searching for such wonders, but you need go no further than your daily routine: a descent into the grottos of 5^th and Grove St.

You rise, cross to shut off the talking heads, and end your epic journey in heroic repose, forehead cradled in hand against the window. The only variety in your view of brick and rust is offered by the adventurous greasy rain droplet on the pane of glass, gathering round its friends and neighbors for a precipitous plunge into the great unknown.

Squid recorded the following sample of his original guitar work and asked me to post it; please, enjoy.

[audio:http://www.thebutteredslice.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/squeaky-slides.mp3]