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1.
Howl 04:51
On the banks of Okeecho They're coming in droves They're calling for blood They're calling for gold And on the backs of the old The withered, and blind They set their stones They set their sights And we hang our hopes On cumulous crowds We close our eyes And try to howl And in the name of god The Holy Ghost You starve your crop You sell your soul And build around your heart A loathsome moat You fill it with spite Nice and wide And when you're stuck outside And the ground is cold They'll hold a light To our fuselage bones
2.
Jealous Man 03:32
How many nights did we share this bed? Half asleep, half-undressed The scene of a crime What you got locked-up in that drawer? Think he's under the bed, four on the floor This ain't no scene of a crime Ooh, Jealous Man How many nights we gonna stay up late? So you can read it on my face All you see is a crime How many lovers do you think I take? Half a dozen, fifty, a hundred? Like I'm the scene of a crime Ooh, Jealous Man Green don't look so good on you How many times do I have to say, "You're my only one, my lone stallion." My lonely stallion
3.
Ouroboros 05:12
Ouroboros, make me real Ouroboros, there's wounds to heal Round and round and round we go Spinning wheels, it's all for show Hammered copper, melted gold Pour me in a caster, I will mold Malleable, pliable, I'm marble to your touch Just wrap me round, wrap me round your finger I don't ask for much I am eating my own tail Say what you will, I don't care In my mind's-eye you are fading Deep-seated beliefs lie in waiting Sucking honeysuckle from the hanging tree If I hold a little longer, Keep on waiting, Self-flagellating Would it be the thing to bring you home? But I won't pray to a hateful god So why bend my knees to starve off that love? Yes, I'm angry I am flawed You hang your flypaper and I get caught As if there was nothing worse for a woman to be You say I've got too many words, Too verbose to keep this afloat And you, who wouldn't say shit if you had your mouth full of it Ouroboros, make me real Ouroboros, there's rooms to fill Round and round and round we go Spinning wheels til we get our fill
4.
Stranger 03:53
One day you love me, one day you don't I can never tell if you will or you won't You're like a stranger to me I remember when it was all pressed-in-hand poems Desperado, you were always free to go Don't gotta be a stranger to me And you've run me ragged, lover From all your stagnant running Always on the verge Of gone And we've known each other now Long enough So why you a stranger to me? You wave me in one hand, your eyes they laugh You got the wool pulled over mine, you work fast And you're a stranger to me Lead me down your primrose path Well maybe I'm the fool who's just finding out last That you're a stranger to me And you've run me ragged, lover With all your circle-running Made a familiar friend Of the dawn And you fight it tooth and nail Cause you ain't strong enough So you're just a stranger to me And we've been through it all, and how It's crazy to think That you're still a stranger to me
5.
Fastfoot 05:00
In my dreams, you are cold to me Last night, you threw me off a cliff And that's a far way to fall, from where we are Never knew bones could shatter like that And in a stone-walled room, you belong to me In a stone-walled room, you belong to me still Struck a bargain with fate, you a totem; I, your vase I swear I'll jump if you will But I guess forever didn't last too long How hard is your will to break? And how's it feel, all that wind on your jaw? Cause I guess forever didn't last too long No, I guess forever didn't last too long You got a real fast foot, teeth at your heels Plastic spurs stab at the ground I got no porcelain cage to bound you down So what if we both just tried to stay? Now there's a blister of blood blooming on my skin On that finger where I wore your ring Is it a symbol, or test, to give up the rest? For golden bolos, flea market promise rings
6.
Little Death 07:33
I've been thinking a lot about the cosmos I've been feeling a lot like Christmas Day Notice you're still peddling our love songs Full of all the shit you wouldn't say I've been thinking about last Easter The one we spent on Tomales Bay We got high on that fence and you said, "it really looks more like a maze." And we sang along to "Two Kinds of Love" A little foreshadowing gone wrong We were steering straight for that little death Turns out my sun sets in the west You got them constellation shoulder blades That cut into my chest Mercury, dear departed Saturn's made his great escape And you lit a match in the shadows Venus drove the getaway And you're fixated on Two kinds of love I think you pegged it all wrong

about

The Old Grey Whistle Test is the pseudonym for the solo musical musings of vocalist, songwriter, and frontwoman Tracey Holland.

A bit of a departure from Holland's usual role as one-half of SF's rock/soul outfit Vandella, OGWT sounds something like rock and roll dropped into a beaker-full of Nancy Sinatra-noir, Linda Perhacs' psychedelia, Stevie Nicks-mysticism, and Jenny Lewis' retro-inspired sounds set to a score of Ennio Morricone.

Having collaborated and traveled along the West Coast with her Vandella counterpart and close friend, Chris Tye, for the better part of a decade, Holland started collecting scraps of songs that didn't quite fit the bill for the band. Following a period in her life that Holland describes as “my whole existence being turned over on its head like an hourglass,” the need to fly solo for a spell became more insistent – and thus, the idea for The Old Grey Whistle Test was born. The resulting collection of songs is both more personal, and more cryptic, than anything the singer & songwriter has done previously. "Honestly, I was somewhat terrified of doing a solo record, because it lays you - and only you - pretty bare. I’d just traveled through a pretty intense personal journey of purging, and sort of rebirthing, for lack of a better term, and felt on one hand that I had so much I needed to get out, and on the other hand, fear that I was just spewing all this really personal stuff out. But ultimately, that fear is what actually pushed me towards the edge of the proverbial cliff, so to speak, as I'm a big believer in doing what scares you shitless."

That draw towards the subtler, darker aspects of life is explored throughout "Ouroboros", OGWT’s debut album. Holland digs deep and doesn’t shy away from dissecting the major themes of the record, excavating, almost cringingly at times, both internally (uncomfortable emotions, flawed personal truths, internal broken-mirrors), and externally (holding others accountable for their own smoke and mirrors). The complexities of identity, intimacy, gender, and even unseen metaphysical forces are all dragged out and sifted through – there’s an unmistakable potency and vulnerability to the record, which makes for a strange and beautiful collection of sounds and emotions.

credits

released May 27, 2016

All songs written by Tracey Holland
Produced, engineered, and mixed by Scott McDowell at Hyde Street Studio C in SF, CA
Mastered by Jonathan Kirchner
Artwork by Yasamine June

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