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Comedy Minus One
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Billie

by OUT

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1.
MRI 03:57
Taking steps, taking names Surrounded by submission Unbearable condition Magnets are moving fast The static fills the cracks Forcing our confidence Forcing our beliefs Enforcing our religions Forcing our relief Taking steps, taking names Surrounded by submission Unbearable condition Magnets are moving fast The static fills the cracks Serene scenes I stare My eyes are black in there Who's feeling like dirt?
2.
He likes the boys in the band He says that I’m his man But I’ve got no time for that now So get in the van This is an unreal town Still we drift around Wandering through each chartered street With the violent sound And what I wouldn’t’ do For $50 and some soup Would make my mother reconsider Graduate school Well we got Bismarcked Outside Elkhart Had to call my friend Garth To float us a car It’s still an unreal town We still drift around Walking through Alabama streets With the Dumbening sound Bozeman in June Sleeping under the moon You blew the pool game And tried to blow me, too. I’m 42 years old With 41 records sold In the last ten years or so I am told It’s still and unreal town We still drift around Blazing through these glorious streets To the Hungry Man (Body Futures) sound I called my friend Jon Told him the gatefold’s wrong And that the registration’s fucked up And to play our newest song.
3.
Porch Cake 03:29
Absolute grief Consumes me For awhile Everyone stares Everyone shares the floor Sadness swallows you Like water in space Please slow down I need to catch up Stop this work Attention around I can't stand it I hate all of it Sure wound up Time to be over it? No.
4.
Hey, you person there? Is that would you really said? Sounded like it's what you meant Is that what they really said? We continue this Ad nauseam eternity Complete with redundancy A whole lot of vacancy STILL TALKING WRONG! Smack that convenient mind Slap-shot of tension times Abrupt, is sometimes kind Patterns lost on borrowed times Hey, you person there? Is that would you really said? Sounded like it's what you meant Is that what they really said? STILL TALKING WRONG!
5.
Rashomon 03:06
Zipping through the days at not-quite-light speed Communicate by only semaphore Remembering a time when you still liked me Meet me by the oldest’s bedroom door Cue the waterworks to start at dinner Caliphates will form and then elide Sleeper cells begin and then they splinter Why’d we sign up for this fucked up ride? Oh I don’t know why you stick around My dear Mel, meet me downtown Zipping through the days at twice light speed Still communicate by semaphore Pretty sure you’ll never learn to like me Meet me by the youngest’s bedroom door Let’s take LSD and watch Casino Turn up Devo loud as it can go When the kids leave we’ll hit the vino Find out what we stuck around here for.
6.
Step-Dads 01:42
10,000 comedians out of work, Yet you insist on being one. 20,000 counselors out of work, Yet you insist on being one. Sneaking in activities Like a step-dad on his weekend You don’t get to be sentimental When you never once passed Bechtel I look for a brick wall behind you When you’re talking at me like you do
7.
Wrestle 01:43
Will you wrestle with me? You're a dancer, yer a fine, fine dancer
8.
Dead Eagle 02:56
The plans we make The escapes we create Dead eagle drags on That anger lives long Sometimes we crack Mostly we crawl A fool's run, now it's done Sinister, you're a minister Minister, done being sinister
9.
Reach 03:57
Please, excuse my reach Hypocrite I am Contradict, some I might bleed We've been coded; manufactured Scolding, within privilege Scowling and ungrateful Hypocrite I am, some Please, excuse my reach
10.
Drones like terns out of season on these plains The red fist on your neck—the vigil remains On Cannonball and Standing Rock With the bulging in your veins Maybe Hutterites will take you in In compounds and communes free from sin On the banks of the vast Missouri We will char and burn again And deep, deep down We will all drown In dark matter and a violent sound

about

There's something about a Midwestern summertime thunderstorm. Actually, with climate change in the mix, there's a LOT of somethings about severe weather in the midst of the Great Lakes. In the last few years, the weather around here's just gotten a little more Extra – just in the past six months we went from wind chills of 50 below to a 100+ heat index, with little to take the edge off other than a good ol' violent cloudburst. The scent of electricity heralding a welcome break in the oppressive summer heat, backed with violent winds and lightning that could send a tree into your house. It's deadly and refreshing all at once. Depending on your personality, you may just as likely run out into the maelstrom spinning like a top, or dive for cover into the basement with the dog. Tornadoes, after all.

Billie (cmo044), the second full length from Kalamazoo, Michigan's OUT, is named after one of those dearly departed family pets, and damned if it isn't a Michigan thunderstorm compressed onto thirty minutes of wax. Ike Turner's and Chafe Hensley's guitars crackle, zap, and cut right through the humidity, layering storm clouds while TJ Larmee's bass rumbles and Mark Larmee's drums crack and boom. Engineer Mike Roche turned the band's vocals into rain, washing over the proceedings with heavenly cleansing power. Just listen to Hensley hang onto the notes during “Still Talking Wrong” and see if you're not suddenly reaching upward like Andy Dufresne just crawled out of prison.

Billie covers a lot of thematic, stormy territory, violent, heavy, and exhilarating at once – health scares; departed friends; the trials of living with a (loving) partner for the last 16 years; relatives who still say awful garbage at holiday dinners; a brave friend who put it all on the line one fateful night out on the plains; gettin’ wild when kids are out of the house. All manner of pox and canker. But for all the gloom and doom and drama, there's just as much sunlight cutting through the clouds and the thunder and lightning. Heck, lightning can kill, but it's also awesome, right? The crazy thing is, when you see OUT live, you might find yourself shouting along with a refrain like “who's feeling like dirt?” but you'll also find yourself grinning like a fool while you're doing it. It's how they roll—as Brian Schill wrote about OUT's debut, Swim Buddies, in Agricouture, “each of the eleven tracks is simultaneously fist-pumping and bleak - just right for the America to come - [to] engage in what Judith Butler once called the ‘politics of despair.’”

Yes indeed, there's levity and joy in these songs, and it's not just a “haha we're doomed” nihilistic glee, either – by drenching themselves in the torrential downpour of life's madness, be it cancer or climate change, OUT remind us all just how awesomely wonderful life can be. Sure, album closer “You Sure Are Strong” may exclaim “we'll all drown,” but that just drives home how precious that time out in the rain can be before it washes us away. Between the basement and the storm, I think I'd rather spin like a top outside and get wet.

Speaking of getting out of the basement, OUT will be doing their thing this year, playing shows to support the 500 copies of this slab that Comedy Minus One is unleashing on the world. These Kalamazoo cloudbursters will hopefully be cascading into your town soon, ready to spread some bleak-ass Midwestern rave-up love.

Kalama-boom.

To order an LP - shop.comedyminusone.com/products/out-billie-lp

credits

released January 24, 2020

Dedicated to those keeping the creeps at bay.

Members of OUT would like to thank our families, friends and community for supporting our work. Special shout-outs go to our life-bro Ryan Nelson for his excellent creative work in sequencing Billie; Ruby Hensley and Jalil Johnson for the photographic adventure.

All songs written by OUT.

Recorded and mixed by Mike Roche at Broadside Productions in Kalamazoo, MI.

Mastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service in Chicago, IL.

Manufactured at Smashed Plastic in Chicago, IL.

Presented by Comedy Minus One in Princeton, NJ.
comedyminusone.com

©2019 OutKzoo.
℗2019 Comedy Minus One.

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OUT Kalamazoo, Michigan

OUT.

Chafe Hensley, guitar/voice.

ML Larmee,
drums, keys.

TJ Larmee, bass/voice.

Ike Turner, guitar/voice.
... more

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