Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
Purchasable with gift card
name your price
about
Howdy. It’s been a while. ;)
First off, OUR MUSIC IS STILL FREE - but lots of nice people keep asking us to make some sort of support option available to them… so, for once, we’ll try out “name your price" here.
(But it's _still_ free. )
______________________________
Okay: this song carries a special meaning for us.
To be honest, “always” is pretty atypical of what we do: it's quiet, spare, no weird instrumentation… and it’s the closest thing to a "love song" than we'll ever record again.
It's one of our oldest songs - our files show us working on it as early as November 2003...
... and it's also the very last thing we were working on when Wendy suddenly lost control over her voice in late 2004, just before we moved to Mexico Beach.
Within a couple of months, she could barely swallow.
Six months later - after the first of two throat operations - we were told point-blank that she would never sing again.
And 4 years later, “always” was also the very first thing Wendy sang just to prove to herself that she WOULD sing again. (In fact, the vocal take used in this version _is _ that take.)
In essence, this song changed everything about our musical direction - but to us, it was about something much bigger:
To us, it’s about Permanence. And Perseverance.
Whenever we hear it, it tells us to Never Give Up.
So three weeks ago, out of the blue, in the midst of the intensifying maelstrom that’s been our life of late, we received a request for a high-quality (read AIF/WAV) version of “always” that could be used within a soundtrack.
We had originally released "always" as a rushed mix for our 2009 album "hey... that's not a tootsie® roll...", always meaning to go back & "do it right..."
... but we never did.
We checked out that rushed 2009 mix - and even though we're still manically fighting the total clusterfuck that has forced our current 3-year hiatus (more surgery while needing to move - again), we immediately just dropped everything to go back & do this song justice: to finally "do it right."
We realized we_needed_ to do this - not just for a soundtrack, or to make it sound better, but to remember who we are and what we believe in.
We see so many people lately - so many of our friends - suffering through horrible personal battles while The Disaster Named 2017 continues to shit on us all.
And as wave after wave of horseshit falls on top of us all, it’s so damned tempting to just give up, just give in, just let these waves of hopelessness wash over us…
Don’t.
Don’t stop fighting the good fight.
Because those good things about being human - being _humane_ - are still worth fighting for.
14 years after we first started on working on it, 12 years since Wendy was told she’d never sing again, 8 years since she proved everybody wrong & we released it - and after all of the many, many other battles we’ve dealt with just to survive & get to this moment…
We think we finally got it right.
We’re Still Here.
And we’re still making music, dammit.
Consider this song as our small token of resistance.
Never Give Up.
k&w ;)
all souls day, 2017
p.s. mzkitty sez hi
lyrics
____________________________
always (2017 r3 mix)
when there's a song to be sung
you will know that I will sing it
you will know that i will sing it
just
for you
for your song will set me free
once sung
I know what I'll be
I'll be whole again
I'll be whole again
I'll be whole
through you
always
and when the evening comes
you will only have to call me
you will only have to call me
i'll be there
for no matter where I roam
i will only have one home
and i'll come home again
i'll come home again
i'll come home
to you
always
credits
released November 1, 2017
____________________________
as usual, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY-4.0) by another cultural landslide 2017 blah blah woof woof god bless our overly litigious society please feel free to share this music with anybody & everybody
_____________________________
and finally, here's the geeky stuff for acl geeks & completists:
per our Remix/Remaster/Redo plan ("r3") in re our older material, this r3 version sits somewhere in the middle of that spectrum: we kept wendy's original 2009 vocal, but cleaned up the artifacts plopped into the track by the only mike we had available at the time (a $99-used-ebay-special); we then replaced the original piano track, opting to stay true to the original yet reducing it to more of a skeleton; and finally, the horn arrangement was completely reworked & reduced down to a solo french horn, a french horn backing section - and a tuba. (Hey, we’re another cultural landslide: if we can’t have duck-calls or annoying rabbits within this song, allow us one freakin’ tuba, dammit.)
our goal was to make this version not only cleaner & clearer - but much more intimate as well.
If we were forced to pick only one musician who we think is Doing It Right as a musician, we'd say Jonah Matranga. And he's been doing it right for over 20 years. Start here. Then keep listening. another cultural landslide
If you haven't heard about Marian Call - well, she's an inspiration to independent musicians. If you haven't HEARD Marian Call - well, then, you really need to Listen to her. another cultural landslide
Delicately constructed free jazz that reveals its details slowly, gradually unfolding to reveal beautifully considered compositions. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 5, 2023
Efterklang returns with another collection of stately songs that pair billowing melodies with richly textured arrangements. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 3, 2021
Infecious and collaboration-focused, Adrien Leprêtre's new Samba De La Muerte effort contains a global dance party for the ages. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 15, 2020