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Australian Girls

from Beneath a Balcony by Marc M Cogman

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Dead Messengers, Nothing is Fantastic, Ink and Hollow Bones: The Albatross Demos, Albatross, Kill the Messenger: Live & Rarities (2006-2009), Anthems, Beneath a Balcony, and Welcome to the Danger Show. , and , .

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about

Written and first demoed in Carmel, California over a few days in May of 2007. The full-band version took shape with Giulio Carmassi and Brian Moskin and was demoed at the Fun-N-Only Room in Mar Vista in June/July of 2007 with Brian on drums, Giulio on bass and organ, and Kelli Noftle singing backing vox. The song became a live staple during that summer and fall, and it was finally recorded with the Dead Messengers in the fall of 2008 at Radar! without backing vox. Giulio did his B3 track (like all the keys and organ on the album) at Black Truffle Sound.

I had just returned from two months in Fiji when I wrote this song, and while the story is a fable of sorts (like much of Beneath a Balcony), as opposed to a direct-from-life true story, it’s obvious that it’s drawn from my time there. This song represents a lot of specific things to me, on a more private level, but the over-arching themes are very dark – including a sense of hopelessness about one’s own failures as a human being, and the inability to evolve out of those flaws. Some people are surprised to hear me say it’s one of the most depressing songs I’ve ever written.

lyrics

In the twenty-fifth year of my wandering, I crossed equators and datelines still chasing the dream, got a room on an island with a view of the sea, and six weeks committed to memory. But of all of these things I can’t forget, there’s the Australian girl that I kissed on the lips who said to me, “Always keep your promises. If you lie to me, I’ll know it.”

We lay on our backs in the salty dark, and before the sunrise we saw three shooting stars, and then a rainbow the size of the St. Louis Arch. Everything in its place. I got out my guitar and I tuned a bit, then I played her “Twilight” by Elliott Smith, but I don’t think that I got away with it.

It seemed for a while we’d part happily, but she cried once she thought I had fallen asleep. And when I opened my eyes, she just ran down the beach. I didn’t follow. I just picked up a stone in my trembling hand, and I bent down and carved out my name in the sand, but the ocean just washed it away again.

credits

from Beneath a Balcony, released August 4, 2009
Marc M Cogman - acoustic guitar, 12-string electric guitar, vocals & percussion
Frogs - electric bass
Giulio Carmassi - B3 Hammond organ
Steve McDonald - electric guitar
Justin Siegel - drums

Produced by Justin Siegel and Marc M Cogman

Recorded at Radar! (Los Angeles, CA) by Justin Siegel and Eddie Jackson and Black Truffle Studio (Los Angeles, CA) by Giulio Carmassi

Mixed at Radar! (Los Angeles, CA) by Eddie Jackson

Mastered at Archon (Sherman Oaks, CA) by Aris Archontis

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