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Long Spun Thread

by Gabe Levine

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  • Streaming + Download

    Buy directly from the artists -- pay what you can! All proceeds go to making & recording more music.

    New album of experimental folk / off-kilter pop -- the fruit of a year-long collaboration between songwriter Gabe Levine & producer Sandro Perri.

    Featuring Gabe Levine (vocals, guitars), Jesse Levine (organ, rhodes), Mike Smith (bass, string arrangements), Jessica Moore (banjo, vocals), Sandro Perri (synths), Jay Anderson (drums), Brandon Valdivia (drums), Julia Collins (violin), Mika Posen (viola), Nick Storring (cello) and Jeremy Strachan (flute and sax).

    Immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire. Includes jpg files of cover art and liner notes.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD in beautiful reverse-board printed digipack, with original artwork by Anna Silverstein, including 6-page lyric sheet.

    Also includes immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 CAD or more 

     

1.
Believe Me 05:10
How’d you get your arms sewn up Swinging like you missed the cup? Calling stations you can’t dream New relations with new machines Still alive under the crush Still running before the rush Hold position carefully Oh that vision, you’ll tear yourself free Believe me So you show your children out Through closing doors and a chiming sound Catch a break, you poor providers Carry water and scorn dividers You will stagger back to court Filled with the violence you support Slowly getting up to speed And never letting you tear yourself free Believe me
2.
Stop running Your missed connection’s coming And your photograph is turning white with light It’s making day from night Between gates You’re heading to the States They’ll hold you up an hour there or so And then they’ll let you go Stop running don’t you know We got time for a few moments more Got time, after darling, after and before I stopped running My body still is humming And the music is still buzzing round my ears There’s voices I can’t hear I want to hear Lists of names Oh nothing is the same And they’re calling all the families on board Some names you can’t ignore Stop running we swore We got time for a few moments more Got time, after and before Got time, after darling, after and before
3.
Well like good boys they wake up early And work in the fields Work till they’re tired Work till their feet are ragged and wild They’ve done good work, you know they’re much admired But it’s time now to rest and raise a glass Why do they sit, a couple of ghosts Locked in the past? Just cause it all feels wrong Sometimes No thought can hide it And none too strong Sometimes To mend what was divided Friend of mine We left our washing out on the line And now it is raining Bring it inside Where it is warm and these wet rags can dry Nothing that’s torn need be repaired No, it’s not required Nothing will pass except with time Yeah, you know that Why you moving so fast? Just cause it all feels wrong Sometimes No thought can hide it And none too strong Sometimes To mend what was divided Friend of mine Oh friend of mine Friend of mine There’s been bitter wine for drinking But not this time
4.
Long Spun Thread (free) 03:50
Half remembering, half forgetting Half arising, half setting Always ending, always beginning Half unraveling, half spinning The long spun thread Oh long spun thread Whole headed, whole hearted Holes in your pockets from where you started Home is what you must confide in So much traveling, so much winding Of the long spun thread Oh long spun thread Well your stories are the best Your stories are the best I must confess That your stories are the best Oh long-spun thread That binds the living and the dead
5.
Strays on cliffs And another pirate ship Stony pathways Waiting for the tidal wave A paid seat A place to meet Where you’ll be found Honey all the way down For busy hives There’s still a little time to drive Through portions of the deep Looking for a place to sleep Floating down A thousand miles To settle on The sand beside you Where you’ll be found Honey all the way down The way may be dark But oh how you smile Start, start Dreaming for a while Just don’t lose your suit You new recruit Oh how we strayed But any day We will be found Honey all the way down
6.
Out on the gold coast They’re burying them alive And me I’m on a dirty wing With my heart wrapped up inside I’m flying at half-mast Still they light it up in style Flickering and floating past Like barges on the Nile When you’re hungry for something fancy Try those delicate meats We’re cruising down the alleys Chase that dream around Through the palm trees, the big IVs Hope a little trickles down Hope it trickles down to Rudy Yeah, save a drop for me Where the wind blows the crooked nose Points right to the sea When you’re hungry for something easy Try those delicate meats When you’re hungry for some deeper mystery Try those...
7.
Nesting Bird 03:43
Well the nesting bird sings soft and shrill Makes her nest with what she will Sings her troubles in a solemn line All wrapped up in wax paper and twine Wrapped in wax paper and baling twine Singing don’t let me go Along that narrow road alone Well when winter comes you must feed your chicks And so you learn a thousand tricks But the hedgehog famine he smiles and waits Curled in corners of the fine estates Curled up in corners of the fine estates Singing don’t let me go Along that narrow road alone Just speak from your blushing cheeks Your soft throat was made to speak Your solid bones ain’t fit for wings But you can roam round anything I won’t let you go Along that narrow road alone No I won’t let you go Along that narrow road alone
8.
Love’s honest truth Can you bank on it? Looking for the real weight and rhythm Heading down to Florida And I stretched myself out In an empty space in a parking lot Hoping to get knocked out Or just shaken up But oh cameras, oh cameras You never stop And all you residents Are setting fires And all you penitents Must learn to smile Shake out your shoes Oh mystery, pleasure Shake out your shoes Oh love without measure But oh cameras, oh cameras You never stop
9.
Cruel Youth 03:42
I’ve been staring cross the water wide At a garden gate ahead Sweet honey on the other side Just dig is all I did Like a worm in a flower bed Like a cruel youth Lost in paradise In paradise you call the tune A cruel youth Lost in paradise Don’t leave paradise so soon We’ve been working up an appetite For a root that hides below Ain’t it always worth a fight It depends on what you grow And how deep down you go Deep down cruel youth Lost in paradise In paradise you call the tune A cruel youth Lost in paradise Don’t leave paradise so soon
10.
Well in the next room she is waking up In the arms of a little lion Got held up in a squall On the go train Tracing lines on the windowpane How did you get ahead Two rows on that sewing machine And two friends in bed And upstairs life is just a wander Through deep snow, and I long to go Like lovers become them Or like two friends Just lying beside them How did you ever know Like two spools of thread Tracking lines through the snow Knowing where, where to go Like two friends in bed Two friends in bed

about

Gabe Levine has roots in the Montreal music scene, where he led experimental-country act Sackville (1994-2002) and was a founding member of avant-Yiddish collective Black Ox Orkestar (2000-2007), both affiliated with Constellation Records. Now based in Toronto, his music continues to experiment with folk forms and traditions, blending them with creative songwriting and striking arrangements.

"Levine arranges his group like a wayward laboratory where each member adds subtle creations of sound to the ongoing flow. The result is at times starkly beautiful, but just as often icily transfixing, stalled in slow motion." (NME)

The new disc Long Spun Thread is the fruit of a year-long collaboration between singer-songwriter Gabe Levine and producer Sandro Perri (well-known for his own songwriting as well as his electro project Polmo Polpo). Levine and Perri have gathered some of Toronto's finest improvising musicians for an album of intricate, folk-inflected experimental pop. Blending Krautrock beats, woozy soul keyboards, fingerpicked guitar, fragile harmonies and soaring strings and horns, each of these ten songs creates its own sound-world to flesh out Levine’s introspective and elliptical songwriting. Inspired by artists like Curtis Mayfield, Caetano Veloso, Michael Hurley and Arthur Russell, Levine and Perri combine classic song-forms with layers of sonic inventiveness, creating a music full of circular movement, wandering melodies and infectious rhythms.

The players on Long Spun Thread are some of the most creative on the Toronto scene, comfortable in folk, jazz, experimental, improvised, and indie pop contexts, including bands like Canaille, Muskox, Charms, Timber Timbre, Steamboat, Not The Wind Not The Flag and others.

credits

released October 1, 2010

produced and mixed by Sandro Perri

featuring Gabe Levine (vocals, guitars), Jesse Levine (organ, rhodes), Mike Smith (bass, string arrangements), Jessica Moore (banjo, vocals), Sandro Perri (synths), Jay Anderson (drums), Brandon Valdivia (drums), Julia Collins (violin), Mika Posen (viola), Nick Storring (cello) and Jeremy Strachan (flute and sax)

all songs by Gabe Levine
recorded by James Anderson at 6 Nassau, Toronto
additional recording by Sandro Perri
mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market, Montreal
artwork by Anna Silverstein

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