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Something Wicked

by North by North

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Something Wicked via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    This is the 10 Year Anniversary Edition re-release of our 1st album, 'Something Wicked'. It is a double LP pressed on EXTRA-THICC 180gram vinyl in a beautiful Emerald Green color.

    Includes:

    - Re-imagined cover artwork by Pedro Correa
    - Poly-lined dust sleeves (for extra-smooth protection against scratches)
    - Double-wide single pocket jacket
    - 11x11 lyrics insert
    - Digital download card

    All songs written & performed by North by North (ASCAP)
    Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved

    Engineered and Mixed by Don Bates
    Produced by Don Bates & North by North
    Tracking at Minbal Studios, Chicago IL
    Mastered at Boiler Room, Chicago IL
    Front cover by Pedro Correa
    Back cover and layout by Nate Girard

    Includes unlimited streaming of Something Wicked via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
    ships out within 10 days

      $35 USD or more 

     

1.
Run 00:35
Run through the valley. Run to the river. Run from your brother. Run from the cities. Run from the temples. Run from your brother. Run to your lover. Run to your baby. Run from your brother. Run from your brother. Run from your brother. Run from your brother. Run. Run. Run.
2.
Burn it Down 03:15
The telescreen's coming alive, and it's permeating the room. Leader's voice presides, clandestined to meet my doom. (PRE-CHORUS) And what we think that we know. Wrap it up and call it status quo, yeah. For years I thought I was safe in the streets, Now child you know I can feel the heat. (CHORUS) Mighty is the pen. It is a little less adept to keep itself alive. When the captain says, “Smoke 'em if you got 'em, boys,” those words won't last the night. And listen son, hear it from a wiser man. You better learn to burn it 'cause When they say that kind of secret it can kill a man dead... Believe me it does. Nothing left to fear in this world, girl, except the fear of being alive. And if the firebugs under your bed burn your home, don't lose your head, 'cause it's time, it's time, it's time. (PRE-CHORUS) (CHORUS)
3.
4.
Catacombs 04:36
Lights flashing as the grit was flown. Behind a Packard, the desert sun had grown. Marie shot-gun, bombshell in a boa, reading up on Vogue, sipping on sangria. A weekend stop in a Spanish villa. The lights burned, the lamp was crimson. A lonely ghost in an earthly prison. The pistol at his hip, long rusted. His bootstraps long turned to sand and dust and he lies and waits for the girl he's lusted. (CHORUS) He's lonely in the catacombs. She says those nightmares, soaked with sweat and alone, don't mean a thing. Why's she soaked to the bone? Come on, Maria. Until the hounds of hell are at your door, he'll wait for you because he's lonely in the catacombs. Magazines strewn across the table. The world outside, a field of sable. Her mind, a mess, and thoughts did clamor for safety in the latest Glamour. But now's the time, and not for manners. The grayed hand of the last bandito, belonged once, a man named Carlito. He paid the wind with spurs of silver to find his love and to kindly rid her of what her love could only give her. (CHORUS) But if her love was to be won, what way is this? A man who knows her heart as I, I'm sure she'll miss. The places she made her way from, the cities I could never know. A man he learns of love and still, he let's her go. (CHORUS)
5.
Quick he said, You'll never find your lover 'cept for dead. I come a’riding through the black of night, exact my price. It's too late to refuse this creature's charms, my dear. You summon me and now you shed a tear. Forever waning is the silver shine of love divine, a burden you must bear. (CHORUS) Chase the shadows running through the pale moonlight. She knew the pendulum swung over both of their lives. Not knowing, called his name in a fit of rage. All of the king's blood and glitter will let on this page. Sing your song, the labyrinth kept winding on and on. To find her man, the heart was burning deep, promise to keep. Her mind was sharpened as the edge of her blade, for to deliver on her wedding day, somewhere upon the vile king of night, to bring some light upon this shattered home. (CHORUS)
6.
Venomous Kid 01:35
23 miles from the city of haze, this gila monster is feeling his age. “It's getting hotter in the trailer,” she said. They used to call me the venomous kid. Then the moon will set and the desert will die. Creatures retreat to their burrows and cry. We kept the power. We hid from the world deep in the labyrinthian family hole. I let my final monologue fully ring. Immortal family, I regret not a thing. Then the moon will set and the desert will die. Creatures retreat to their burrows and cry.
7.
23 years under a bad sign. It's getting harder and harder to believe my own eyes. But I feel it rumbling from the streets to the peaks. You tell me what you know, I'll show you what I've seen. It's a haunting yet noble melody we play. But it goes on and on, year after year this way. So we ran off, had herself a little black Grand Am now. We took it to the edge of town and, the way she flicked her cigarette... Said oh yeah... It's been so long since I joined them. The olden house, though immortal, long forgotten. It envelops me with a sense of sick appeal. The fact I'll die off with the power that nobody can steal. But my bloodline still lives upon that forlorn peak. My uncle Einar is probably flying back from the east. Mama still knows every little thought I'm thinking. Chelsea in the fields with Dogwood. Hunting with her laser eyes. (CHORUS) Oh you got your kin, it's no place of mine. Take you from the family you thought you knew. I will let you see all us human beasts for yourself. The creature comfort's nothing new. (CHORUS) Oh I got my kin, it's a state of mind. Take me from the family I thought I knew. I will spend my days with the mortal blood running through my veins. The veil has been removed.
8.
Hex. X. O. 04:45
Made their way to the promised land. Golden shores. Just escaped the voodoo queen and their lore. I said I'd never forgive you but you keep hammering each long nail. I tell my mama a grown man is better than child's tales. (PRE-CHORUS) And I say, I don't believe that it's true. That my bridges have been burned, woah. A modern man won't be free long as old ones keep their word, woah. And now my life is for naught, but the world still is turning. The curse wants blood. (CHORUS) Whisper in my ear, "Honey please, I could break you,” (break you, oh) This vengeful soul is never to be sated or forgotten. So now I'll take you. I'll lock you in my chest, lose the key. I would beg you. (beg you, oh) It knows the pain. It's been tormenting me far too long, so go. Old devil you know. Hex. X. O. Old devil you know. Hex. X. O. Warlock queen, she placed a curse, pledged to die. They came to a land where the magic closed one red eye. But my son, now she found you, and boy it is too late. What I'm told. She will follow you until your body's gone and wed your soul. (PRE-CHORUS)(CHORUS) This old soul, she says, boy, I've been round and I can say that you don't need to be paying for their deeds, but now I'm staying. Life was cruel, now in death all is clear to this old phantasm. Who says haunting has to be so bad? This old soul, she says boy, I've been round and I can say that you don't need to be paying. (CHORUS)
9.
Drove over rocks and over the sand. Indian blood claims this land. Took me along, to bear where he trod. The land of the jaguar god. Took me with his daddy's gun, and nothing but lead. Found me in my ancient slum, the gutter made me a bed. We were both one step above dead. Spoke to me slow and listless of pace, asked if my tongue knew Ingles. Before I could think I spoke, “Yes I do.” A gun, then his sleeve did produce. Told me he once ran a gang, killed many a man. Professor I once used to be, ‘til I lost all I had. You see, the mescal drove my mind mad. (CHORUS) We drove so long. The hours seeming like days. Deep down I knew I'm better off this way. We spun out the threads and looked back. Found that the threads were the same. Well there's no going back. We're two animals on the run, we can't be tamed. And I saw what I saw. Found that the threads were the same. Well there's no going back. We're two animals on the run, and we can't be tamed. (CHORUS)
10.
Take what you want, I don't know if it's a dream. Lonesome for the harm-bringer of twisted memories. Elegance and opulence were things she did hold dear. I gave up bone and blood for the love of someone near.
11.
Met her at the gallery. I tried to buy a glass of wine. She said you haven't got a yarn to spin worthy of my time. I'm hunting for a man whose touch is forever cold. I'll see you with fingers of gold. Next day, I carried out my aesthetic chore. Avian claws gilded with the finest ore. Hacked off all the fingers that my mama gave to me and quickly ascended the scene. (CHORUS) Darlin', I cry, amputation for art's sake left aside. (ooh) See you walking away through my crystalline matisse eye. (ooh) A modernist puzzle of man and design. Ricocheted around the hearts of modern boys. Deftly making my way through the jangled noise. One look at my digits and her eyes grew very wide. She managed to whisper, "Sublime!" She's a girl, you know, who's gonna keep her word. She'll be your wife, and you will be her world. But lustrous, oh, and precious as your fingers have become, Your gaze needs a piercing blue stone! (CHORUS)
12.
Sat up late last night, you had the twilight all in your eyes. We watched the fires die ever so slowly on the mountain side. But now the trail is cold, until we grow up and grow old, we'll live by the pistol. I know, lord I know, blood brothers we have come to be. We take no quarter from the outside, no band of miscreants are we. But now you speak the sin of bandits, there is but one: Do you feel like dancing? (CHORUS) Speak one word, it's your immortal soul, but you know it's alright, it's alright. Caught my eye through the lead and fire, she had me. Snuck upon me, she was brandishing a little flame that night. She showed me everything and as she says goodnight I know, Ain't nothing I can say to them boys in the Marshall Hawthorne gang. Daddy was a preacher man way down in Houston town. His mama made a tidy living, 'least once the jewels were handed down. But then he ran away, told us all because love was too easy. Marshall Hawthorne, he made his way into them smoky hills. And with his daddy's Smith and Wesson, he found a way to pay them bills. Upon discovering an abandoned old chapel, the hideout became. The almighty evicted. (CHORUS)
13.
Soft Soul 03:43
Woke up amongst the pines. I said something is wrong. (la da da) “Let's take a late night stride,” she said, singing a song. (la da da) My thinking aint quite right, where's my bed? (la da da) Making up my mind, yes, I'm dead. (CHORUS) Been there done that, my soft soul pierced upon the tack. And the stray cats, they wanna be climbing all over my back and some breach of fate has brought me back you, oh yeah. Though my brain is fast decaying, I can see to the truth and the venom of all the nefarious lies you put upon this ruse just to snuff me out. Staggered along the drive now, a car parked on the side. (la da da) Straining bloodshot eyes, oh, the crows circle the sky. (la da da) Stumble along the hall, now, a faint Tiffany light. (la da da) Wrapped up around his thighs, “oh,” she cried. (CHORUS) I tried to speak a single word but then I realized my jaw was wide. The lamp splayed an eerie phosphorescence, the man jumped, my woman cried. Swung a chair up from behind me then he got up, ran for his life. Came up close and strained my cataracts to get a look, but then she died. Feel it, feel it, feel it.
14.
Sitting there on the kitchenette floor. I was chatting up the good ol' doctor, oh I said. Kid was born with a crooked soul. Innocence was a virtue he did not know. I said I know what I'm naming my boy, and you know Lucifer was the moniker on my lips as they sang. (CHORUS) Hot electric pain, twist and burn in my brain and my baby's gone, and this boy is my bane and maybe I'm paranoid, but I got mind left to lose. Feel the pitter patter, it shook me like a rattle. Wee little beastie, gonna hunt me til I gather all my grit... It's him or me. I want my love back in my arms. Before my boy Lucy did me so wrong. I hope somehow I can find a way. Believe me, the sun is gonna shine upon my blood soaked blade. Cigarette held loose in his lips, as he said, “Danny boy, your mind’s playing parlour tricks, it’s just a trick...” I got up, but then he walked for the door, and then I heard the sound. I’ve heard it one thousand times before. He's coming back for more. I got up with the vigor of a hundred men, and then I found salvation in the cutlery bin. In the cutlery bin, I found my best friend... (CHORUS)
15.
Where do we go? Wasn't there someplace near the road? The sky starts to crack, the heavens unfold. We tremble unsure, but now soaked to the bone. Drink from this wine, drop your guard now, you'll be fine. Dry off your clothes, ignore all the signs. We've waited so long in the back of your minds... Flickered into life, an insidious glow in the veil of the night. With open arms, drew them like a moth unto a fire. Thunder shakes the room, rain pounding down a torrential monsoon. Enter my dear, find your solace in the spider's lair. And now, within the false sense of safety inclined, they take the chance to consummate despite their own chagrin. Take it from me baby, we're just startin’. (CHORUS) Two pairs of bright eyes staring out between flickered lights. Took a look down stairs, it might be better, baby, if we stay the night. The switchblade is glinting red, it says it's over now... and it's right. Been waiting for so long in your mind... Now the final blow, forever destroying the saccharine beau. He'll survive, nothing like the man that she proposed. The girl she cries alone. The branding of fire, reborn in repose, no holding back. Nothing like the lady she had known. And so, now bid farewell to the honey-eyed babes. Born again in fire and the leather gods alone. Glowing like the cigarette they share home. (CHORUS)
16.
She was looking like a real girl. She didn't know, but I was watching. The surf was foaming up around her waist. The fluttering of the bellows, oh yeah, one look could test the welding. A nuclear brain can't hope to understand. Cold fusion hearts were never meant to know a young embrace. The recall on my soul is near. But now darlin, the waves are crashing all across your frightened face. I'll prove I'm real right here... (CHORUS) I took the plunge, I felt it all through my gears. But I pushed on through the undertow, knew nothing of fear. Let the circuits burn up, as I lay you on the sand. I said to you baby, don't you quit on your man. Her eyes were open in the sunlight, and just a second when they took her. I thought I heard her ask, “What was his name?” All the papers did a feature, “Metal Man: Ally or Menace?” I thought I'd never see her face again. People came and went, I hoped that I would see you on the shore. The nights I'd remember to charge... Baby, I thought I'd find you waiting at the warehouse door. Then one night you came back to me. (CHORUS)
17.
Baby says I've gone to the country. The last train's leaving town. The cold black steel of the trestle, babe, was severed about a county down. It's alright, said a voice through the pay telephone, boys gonna work 'til dawn. She'd put faith in the devil's pocketbook just to prove her own mama wrong. (CHORUS) And you say what you want, you take the part before you know the lines. If you can't make us the fool, well baby at least you'll burn out bright. The storm is calling you home. But you're dancing on the edge of a blade. Set on a course looking for that hurricane. I hope you know the high road keeps a girl safe and warm. But it feels right looking in the eye of the storm. Drove a slight thread of road through the country, had to let her skin taste air. With a howl crawling up to her ebon locks, a path no beast would ever dare. It wasn't 'fore long, headlights had sunken behind the red oak and mist. You were marked with an elegant deathwish tattooed right above your silken breast. (CHORUS) I call you. (oh oh oh oh) Thought I saw you. (oh oh oh oh ) 'tween the shadows there beneath these ancient trees. The devil had me too, girl. (oh oh oh oh) Like my father (oh oh oh oh) before. And now the storm has spilled its rain. The lightning piercing deep now (oh oh oh oh) and it won't stop now. (oh oh) ‘til the girl can say we've all been washed clean. I'm clean of all my fear now, baby please.
18.
The Terror 03:38
Sign my name, and a drop of perspiration drips upon the letter to her. My lover's eyes, a requiem for what is gone. The menfolk marching on their way, a malefic assault. And there upon the den, will the mortal men escape the Terror's claws? Fleeing like the desert sun to a place where lovers lie. Oh forgive me, and take the ancient canyon pass. Little darling, we’ll roam the wilderness at last... Forget about the past. Found my letter and knew I had gone to deliver on. I laid them four boys down to rest, their eyes would never see the sun. Maria riding through the pass, my spirit drew her near. Upon the spire stone, stood her brother's bones. The men who she once feared. Fleeing like the desert sun to a place where lovers lie. Old Maria, now called la Bruja of the sands, with the Jackal, will roam the wilds of this land.

credits

released January 23, 2014

Nate Girard - Vocals/Guitar
Kendra Blank - Bass/Keys
Dylan Andrews - Drums


All songs written & performed by North by North (ASCAP)
Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved

Engineered and Mixed by Don Bates
Produced by Don Bates & North by North

Tracking at Minbal Studios, Chicago IL
Mastered at Boiler Room, Chicago IL
Artwork and design by Nate Girard

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