written/recorded 2016-17, released 2017.
available on vinyl from Feeding Tube with art by Alexis Graman :
feedingtuberecords.com/releases/how-to-slip-away/
the sequel (2021):
laloi.bandcamp.com/album/feed-a-pigeon-breed-a-rat
.....
“In this mortal frame of mine which is made of a hundred bones and nine orifices there is something, and this something is called a wind-swept spirit for lack of a better name, for it is much like a thin drapery that is torn and swept away at the slightest stir of the wind. This something in me took to writing poetry years ago, merely to amuse itself at first, but finally making it its lifelong business. It must be admitted, however, that there were times when it sank into such dejection that it was almost ready to drop its pursuit, or again times when it was so puffed up with pride that it exulted in vain victories over the others. Indeed, ever since it began to write poetry, it has never found peace with itself, always wavering between doubts of one kind and another. At one time it wanted to gain security by entering the service of a court, and at another it wished to measure the depth of its ignorance by trying to be a scholar, but it was prevented from either because of its unquenchable love of poetry. The fact is, it knows no other art than the art of writing poetry, and therefore, it hangs on to it more or less blindly.” — Matsuo Bashō
“How to Slip Away” : written on piano , arranged for layered monophonic guitar & recorded to Tascam 388 open-reel December 2016 to June 2017 in Brooklyn NY
— Zach Phillips : all songs , lyrics , recording , direction , guitar , & bass ; clav on #1
— Colin White : narration throughout
— Chris Cohen : final word / solo
1. “Slip Away” // Sarah Smith : vocal
2. “Cat’s Paw” // Alexis Graman , painter : vocal , drums
3. “Playing Dumb” // Kalmia Traver : vocal , saxophone
4. “Puppet of the Government” // Nick Baker : vocal , drums
5. “Four Minutes to Play” // Ani Ivry-Block : vocal , piano solo
6. “a Week of Sundays” // Derek Baron : vocal , drums
7. “Swarovsky” // Ryan Power : vocal , guitar solo
8. “the Windowsill” // Jazz Adam : vocal , clavinet solo
9. “Fucking Up” // Sean Schuster-Craig : vocal , guitar solo
10. “Deep Rose” // Sylvia Gorelick : vocal
11. “My Kaleidoscope” // Marlon Cherry : vocal , lead guitar
12. “Rotting Wheel” // Andrea Schiavelli : vocal , piano solo
13. “Edith Rose” // Hanna Novak : vocal , piano solo
14. “the One Singing” // Kate Mohanty : vocal , saxophone
15. “Pepper People” // Lucy Hollier : vocal , trombone
16. “Love You Know” // Tom Csatari : vocal , lead guitar
17. “Roll Like an Apple” // Mike Kolb : vocal , drums , guitar solo
18. “Repeating It All” // Calvin Grad : vocal , lead guitar
19. “Mistress of the Junior Professed” // Sophie Dickinson : vocal , harp
20. “Peter Absent” // Quentin Moore : vocal , guitar solo
“And the poem of the week:
The purple shame looked at the yellow moon
There was a huge beam hanging on a banana tree
And in the valley
An old grandpa sat sitting
Who said ‘I am happy reading.’” — Erje Ayden
released December 4, 2019