Get all 12 Quark Lepton releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Myth of Snugglepuss, Tonite (Spookier Version), A Celebration of Axial Tilt (Special Two-Volume Members-Only FIFTH Anniversary Remastered Bonus Edition), transmigration (beachcop final season soundtrack), BeachCorp (Beachcop Seasons Two & Three), The Hedgehog, The Ballad of Quark Lepton (EP), b e a c h c o p, and 4 more.
Excludes subscriber-only releases.
1. |
(garden myth)
01:37
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2. |
Contingencies
04:03
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If I had prayed to see you again
I would have frayed the cords of the rosary
It was time to let you go
But I won't
Well I played guitar badly
Drunk, insecure and in love
I gave her my heart
Or what I thought my heart might be
There's a long line of women
That I've loved, or well at least,
That line felt long
I measured myself against that line
Now I want to believe in truth or something that looks like truth
And I want to remain in youth or something that tastes like you
Well I prayed she would be impressed
By the way I cared about nothing; she wasn't impressed
She had the good sense to place me back
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3. |
The Empty Bottle
02:33
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D. A
The empty bottle, the empty room
G
She stands beside herself
D
Looking on
The moving curtain lets in half light
The sun moves overhead, invisible
The empty bottle fills itself
The amber liquid
Looks like blood
A cup of coffee in silhouette
She stands beside herself
She falls asleep
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4. |
Tonite
02:52
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Am G
The night, walking sideways like crab legs
Like spiders crawling out from the rugs
You and your babies are grinning
At the kitchen table again
C Am
Tonight, a broken light
Bm F
Transforms you again
Into a lady waiting at a table
Prison bars slant in from the blinds
The babies are sucking your blood now
I’ll be damned if I let them suck mine
They all grow up politicians or killers
And care for you after your prime
They bribed you with blindness and wrinkles
You manufactured them completely alone
(Regular chorus X2, then):
C Am
Tonight, a broken light
F Bm
Transforms you again
F
Oooh ooh
Fm
Oooh ooh
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5. |
In the Trees
02:37
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In the trees, dying far off notes
Industries have long since choked the ground
Foreign form, your body made illegal
Nature born to lie beneath the stars
Now try to live outside the gaze
Sky and stars and rain
And the fog rolled itself across your window
Like thick paint, or bars to hold you in
That’s a lie; the world sent it to hide you
And to bless and cover your escape
Blanketed by the hum of the cicada
Comforted by aliens like you are
Foreign form, your body is celestial
From the storm, tossed upon this earth
Now you know my heart will go with you
Like a shadow eaten by the night
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6. |
Skeleton Corsage
05:45
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You know it's bad when you can't sleep and you can't talk right anymore
You know it's taken a wrong turn when your key doesn't fit the door
And they'll tell you it's all good before they come and ask for more
It isn't right or wrong or grey when you don't recall your own name
It isn't floating off in space when you can't see yourself the same
And they'll tell you it's all good before they leave you with the blame
Just last night I met a ghost who wore a daffodil corsage
That same night parked my car in an unregistered garage
And they said I was so good before they bade me "bon voyage"
When I was young I had a friend who had a friend who looked like me
When I got old it seemed the friend who was the friend could not be seen
Til at the end of every bent and broken dream she came to me
Time is a snake that eats its twin and yet they sometimes share a name
If you start thinking you won't die you only have yourself to blame
You either laugh or else you cry or you go dancing in the rain
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7. |
Hands on the Wheel
03:36
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C Em C G
Hands on the hill, feet in the grass
C B7 C
Gulp down the blue sky like it was your last
C Em C G
Head full of thoughts lost with your bones
C B7 C
Your voice only cracks when you feel alone
F G
It’s enough that you tried
C Em
But it can never last
F G
The person you were
C D
is trapped in the past
Whiskey and Coke, bottle of pills
Try your whole like to explain how you feel
Wind through the leaves, dew on the ground
Your voice only trembles when no one’s around
(Repeat chorus)
Hands on the wheel, foot on the gas
Alien landscapes sigh and drift past
Reaching the shore, snow coming down
The sea is indifferent and so is the sand
(Repeat chorus)
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8. |
(do me a favor)
03:44
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[mystery chords]
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9. |
The Garden Bed
04:44
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G
The garden bed is overgrown
D
And the fruit rots in the sun
G
The seasons change and change again
D A6/F#
The cold retreats but will return
The obelisk I dreamed about
A G
Casts a shadow in this world
These are the things I think about
A6/F# A
As I wait for you to come
G
The worm got round and filled with fruit
D
The tomatoes in the Spring
Bm D A6/F#
Overripe and definite, but softening
The world will turn, return again
A G
The shadow cast upon the moon
And to the end of the path
D A6/F#
I hope that it won’t come to soon
A6/F#
Now all that’s done, to say goodbye
A
To say it only asks a time
And fortunate, unfortunate
D A6/F#
Well who’s to say which one is mine?
The obelisk I dreamed about
A G
Descends and bends me to its will
It is a dream, and warm metal
D A6/F#
It is both real and unreal
A6/F#
What’s left to say? We kill for words
A G
Our flesh is made to shed ideals
And I will bleed and you will bleed
Bm A
Never knowing how it feels
G
The stage right now is bare again
D
Pianos rotting in the rain
G
The pages fade; the words are lost
D A6/F#
And Heaven knows what will remain
The obelisk I dreamed about
A G
Casts a shadow in this world
These are the things I think about
A/F# A
As I wait for your return
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10. |
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F Bb F
Getting older and more numb to the sound
F Bb F
Of the rain like tiny daggers stabbing down
C Am
Or the leaves that whisper like lovers
Bb
Or like the sea
F. Bb
Or the dark that makes no sound at all
F
And the way you love me
Getting tired but washes by the rain
Wishing you would stand here with me
And not be ashamed
With no clothes hiding our bodies
With nothing between
Our hearts our chest our skin
And both washed clean
C. Am
There must be something
F
That I can do
C Am
Perhaps give it up
F
Perhaps see it through
Bb
Calling your name
F
But hearing mine back
Bb
Or hearing it fade
F
Into the black
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11. |
To Know You
03:55
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Hold my hands
Touch my throat
No one knows we're here
Give me all
Of your time
And all of your money, too
Baby you
Are lying down
I am lower than the ground
The ground is cold
The sun is warm
I'll give up my human form
You know
Hold my tongue
Try to be
Softer than I know the way
Hold my gaze
Patiently
Until I find the words to say
Baby you
Are lying now
I am lower than the ground
The sun is cold
Your gaze is warm
I'll give up my human form
To know you
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12. |
Expensive Dress
04:03
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.A F#m
In the dark of the night I see you the best
.A
And the shadows they clothe you
F#m
Like an expensive dress
.A D
Crawling alone
F#m
Like an oblivious ape
D
It feels the most right
F#m
When it’s a mistake
If you keep one eye open
The other one’s closed
And what’s missed in that side
You won’t ever know
Stumbling in darkness
Like a well-meaning ape
It feels the most right when it’s a mistake
It feels the most right when it’s a mistake
And when you come close
Your skin calls to mine
The night that encircles
Is darker than wine
And sweeter then bitter
Like the last lovesick ape
It feels the most right
When it’s a mistake
In the dark of the night
We see its true face
And the glow that's between us
Which can't be replaced
Inherited knowledge
More distant than space
It feels the most right...
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13. |
The Myth of Snugglepuss
03:30
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My heart stopped, and I never saw you again
The sunlight, I was pulled away from it
Breathing, beside you
Hear heart stopped
And I never saw her again
The path forked
Her hair was caught by the wind
Silence
And birdsong
Conquered
And headlong
Well don’t go
Unless you have to
And I won’t go
Until they make me
My heart stopped
And I never saw you again
The sunlight
I was pulled away from it
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Quark Lepton Columbia, South Carolina
Commercial jingles for frosting eaten by spacemen.
Quark Lepton recommends:
Curdled pop songs from the mastermind behind Yukos the Crude!
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TC Costello is a world-travelling troubadour, combining folk, world, and punk influences. This album is maybe his most psychedelic and has my favorite production of all of his stuff.
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Everything Marcum does is great. This one has a special place for me because it was exactly what I needed in 2020, during SC's brief lockdown. The vibe is chill, a little melancholy, a little funny.
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