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Where are the Arms

by Gabriel Kahane

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Alejandro Montañez
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Alejandro Montañez I consider this album to be the first music I truly identified with and fell in love with when I was still growing up. Gabriel's music is so easy to sing along to and has such lovely storytelling. This will always have a place in my heart as one of the best most important albums in my life. Cannot recommend enough!! Favorite track: Parts of Speech.
Andrew Dubber
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Andrew Dubber A faultless record. I thought I'd already bought this, but it appears not to be in my library. Favorite track: Calabash & Catamaran.
Tim Schofield
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Tim Schofield Beneath the accessible and charming singer-songwriter surface lies gorgeous compositions. Even after many playthroughs, I still feel a sense of discovery when listening to this album. Favorite track: Calabash & Catamaran.
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  • Streaming + Download

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

    Also comes with a digital booklet containing all the lyrics and some pretty photos.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    **We have resumed regular shipping (24-48 hours from placement of order) for all products except CDs and t-shirts/tote bags.


    180 gram vinyl of the 2011 album w/ complete lyrics and credits on insert!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Where are the Arms via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 500 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $18 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a beautiful reverse board package with a twelve-page full color booklet.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Where are the Arms via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 1 day
    Purchasable with gift card

      $11 USD or more 

     

  • Sheet Music

    At long last, the piano/vocal songbook for the 2011 album 'Where are the Arms' is available for pre-order!

    72 pp. Includes the composer's own piano reductions for all eleven songs on the original LP.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $30 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 15 Gabriel Kahane releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Poem for Vows, MAGNIFICENT BIRD, To Be American (oxblood glow edition), emergency shelter intake form, Book of Travelers, Little Love (ruined lace edition), Works on Paper: Music for Solo Piano, Crane Palimpsest EP, and 7 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $46.20 USD or more (30% OFF)

     

1.
You were on the floor when I got home Scraped you up, cleaned you off, got you out the door I drove you to the basement on your knees. You were sneaking out with little lies in the morning by the market, for a good time You tried to hide it by the lemon trees I took you home and took away your keys. What a charming What a charming charming little disease. The doctor says you’ll make it if you try You look up at all of us with your yellow eye I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry What a charming What a charming charming little disease. Coffee burned, the plastic chair the shuffled feet, the shuffled stare 90 days, no guarantees You sank into a wine dark sea You tried so hard so hard to please What a charming What a charming charming little disease. You were on the floor when I got home Held my breath and stepped real soft Then I locked the door I’ll bring the bottle... What a charming What a charming charming little disease.
2.
Merritt Pkwy 03:00
I was on the side of the road Shiny traffic beetling by She picked up a box of my clothes Offered me a wash and a ride We collected clovers in a park Threaded them through our little fingers She pulled up her shirt and showed me the mark where her father’s snow white knuckle lingered And I say now what I said then please let me forget you In some hot one gas station town please let me forget you We came up with names for our kids though we’d only met an hour before Names with an eastern european fit Frederick, Casimir, and Isidore At a seaside town we picked at our lunch Talking of family, the books that we’d read Back in the car, too nervous to touch She emptied a bottle of water on my head And I say now what I said then please let me forget you In some hot one gas station town please let me forget you
3.
they sit on steps against the wind the colors changing growing thin in lights and lye and lost illusions watch these two discussing what to make of unborn children who may take or not take let us not break their cups are cold their hands are black they sit at angles but distraction will not find them it will find them in a white room where it’s all just touching shells it’s touching shells but It’s just nothing it’s just nothing he would never know if she had never told him that she’d like to be a kind of mother now he’s on his own a drift of sallow bone and nothing there to lift him from the shudder your first love teaches you the parts of speech all the words that you never thought that you could reach the shop and the bulletproof chinese the yellow billboard yellow frieze of last year’s summer flicks and soon the bus of nations hits it’s blinking in the breeze of afternoons and afternoons of yawning and he’s longing and though he’s certain that the shudder’s tied to fall his throat is tight can’t quite recall it’s in the books or in the wall that scene of children standing tall? he clears his throat he clears it he’s got a place in some small town far from the garden and the gown she wears for someone else while someone else will hold her hand in some cold off-white room but he’s okay and you’re okay and we’re okay we break the fall but he’s okay and you’re okay and we’re okay it’s nothing it all
4.
Come on, boy Hasn’t it been long enough? When all you ever thinking of is where are the arms that armed your love? Come on, girl In the window that you now look through You see him grey and curled and blue Where are the arms that armed your love? And come on, heart Dress yourself in cartoon clothes Color cut and fresh cut rose Where are the arms that armed your love? So come on, boy Light the light of narrow joy Pick up the floor, your broken toy Where are the arms that armed your love?
5.
LA 03:07
The color wheel and the western sky. The reflection of a stranger in a strange fluorescent light. Water on the bathroom floor. A mattress for an island and a plastic sheet for shore. LA The selfish city wins again. She drives cause there’s a lot of road. And motion makes her calmer than to take it slow. The man puts on the yellow gloves. She concentrates discretely on the TV up above. LA The selfish city wins again. The windscreen is a cinema tonight The shot of what she left behind She sees herself in stereo. The bungalow gets a splash of sun. She opens up the front door when the man is done. Water on the bathroom floor. Tub’s been up for days now and I can’t see anymore.
6.
Last Dance 03:43
When winter announced itself new pleasures were smaller: corner table, routines— daily walk to the main street; she takes her bundle of pills, she poaches her egg and eats it and feels his slight impression like crushed pillows hold the shape of a body after nights of sleep and shadows oh dear woman… She sits across eager men eager to impress her. They offer words like, “your loss—how are you getting on dear woman?” She smiles and straightens her dress, excuses herself, and gets up out from the table, eyeing the dessert tray. Brief distraction, and then the ladies’ lounge all decked in velvet… locks herself in the stall and she begins to sing: How do I deny do I deny that I am tired and trembling over evening when all I want is a face to hold and love and light and sex and cigarettes? One final delight, final delight in all the finer things that I had grown so used to when all I want is your face; all I want is a last dance. So long. Where’d you go? Oh oh no.
7.
Icebox 02:32
My grandmother catalogued the contents of the icebox, sure that there’s a meal to be made from what was in there. She offered us an orange for the seven days of aftershocks, dressed up in our best clothes with the powder in our hair. It sticks in the throat It sticks in the throat I tried to run, but it runs on remote. The blonde girls in midtown board the express for the East Side; I stare for lack of purpose knowing you are far and gone. I slept through my stop and disembarked to make a joyride; Brighton Beach and Russian baths and Hudson River dawn. It sticks in the throat It sticks in the throat I tried to run, but it runs on remote. My grandmother listens to the men in conversation, sure that there’s a reason to be silent and be still. Table turned and jacket torn in ancient observation, all of us in black against the February chill; I am at the window with my feet up on the sill.
8.
Do you ever feel alone? Let me tell you about something I know A device, a device I made something for you. You could even call it home there are pictures of people you know! A device, a device I made something for you. We would prefer the shades be drawn that you don’t have to look back to what’s gone Do you like, do you like? We long to be near you. You caress the dial It makes you whole again Lie behind the smile You wake up fresh and we’ll pretend that that You can feel the touch ocean and shallow sand You don’t remember much of Calabash & Catamaran. From the glow and from the tongue You could taste it by tapping your thumb Do you like, do you like? We long to be near you. What’s in the pocket of your dress? It’s like a lover but bothers you less the delight, the delight He longs to be near you. All the devices All that you like is ours you touch the dial lie behind the smile the wonder of the small things a comfort your delight in one word oh we touch the dial on and on and on and on
9.
Barn Song 03:13
Kids don’t learn to write their cursive letters here anymore. Fingers more than nimble, and recall's in the frost. Oh all these schools of lisping children, singing rhymes to their dad. What of words in cracked communion? Noble, silent, and bare. Come apart like needles, and we don’t know the names of All these trees up on the island, don’t they just look the same? Why don’t you ever look up to the sky? Windows are shuttered, you cover your eye Don’t see a reason for keeping in time. What of films of Joseph Cotten, angles shot from on high? None of us remembers the details of the plot, but We found black and white romantic, now you’re left with the thought… Why don’t you ever look up to the sky? Windows are shuttered, you cover your eye Don’t see a reason for keeping in time, you’re always distracted, the devil in signs.
10.
Winter Song 03:35
where did it begin? we forgot to mow the lawn too much time spent with electric deck of cards where did it begin? one day the words were gone letters lost and found in someone’s yard kids fall down in the snow they used to shopping carts, a highway toward a single spire mask and glove and pipe but not much learned when you let me in against that careless fire all the farms all the farms all the freight all the books had burned scratching out a past we don’t remember much words come apart like tendon shattered bone once there was a city you knew well its touch still got the linen but the memory’s thread is gone kids fall down in the snow
11.
Great Lakes 04:22
Beyond the spare black curtain the candle and the glow My friend can’t get a word in between the din and the show What’s the use of hammering with tooth and nail what’s all gone pale from fright? When we’re deaf and stammering it’s all a pose. At least our clothes are tight. She second guessed his gesture His threaded bucktooth grin. She falls for men in sweatshirts and boyish boys too thin. Then that Modern Lovers’ song filled up the room. They sang in tune so proud. But that moment petered out; she picked a fight— so what’s that line so what’s that line about?

credits

released September 9, 2011

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Gabriel Kahane Portland, Oregon

Gabriel Kahane is eating chocolate bread.

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