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Strangers

by Balto

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 12 Balto releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Wrong End, Spanish Wine, No Hard Feeling (4-Track), From Them to Us, From Us To You (A Cover Tape), Magnet / Mind, Black Snake, Mojave Blues/Still Don't Know, Bullshit Dream, Songs for Viktor, and 4 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $18.75 USD or more (25% OFF)

     

  • Limited Edition Vinyl (incl. CD & Download)
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Balto's new LP, lovingly pressed to vinyl here in Oregon!

    Included along with the 150 gram record is a CD version and a download code for any format you choose! Features full-color mixed-media artwork by Alyce Vasquez and a postcard for your refrigerator.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Strangers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • CD Version (with bonus Tracks)
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    This version contains two live versions of Balto songs from a Daytrotter Session in 2017! Artwork by Alyce Vasquez

    Includes unlimited streaming of Strangers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • CA LUV Shirt (Blue)
    T-Shirt/Apparel + Digital Album

    Gildan Softstyle shirt screen printed with artwork by Matt J Adams. Lovely and soft - they run a bit small, as they were printed in Belgium.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Strangers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Come with me in the southern heat Where the mind recalls the fever of a gypsy queen Spilling rum from plastic cups Getting lit beneath the balconies in the delta sun I’ve known love as a fleeting beauty lost upon the young If you saw my mind, hit the high just like i planned it driven low and lost and stranded with the fear of another year You're driving down to my house ‘cross town Where the floorboards creak, the heatpipes speak, and the walls could shout You’re looking thin and you look tired Wanna do it like we used to but there's no second try I’ve known love as a fleeting beauty lost upon the young If you saw my mind, hit the high just like i planned it driven low and lost and stranded with the fear of another year of feeling less each day Have we fallen asleep? Slipping in the fog of the american dream For a love so true It don't kick it don't scream like the television said it would do
2.
Those were the days she was a christian Godless, honest, and polite I fell into her crimson arms her sheets were sails in every dawn I Was a tourist in her house, for a short time in the south I gathered flowers from the neighbors’ yards Scattered petals for my love to find I staggered up and down the block I felt an outlaw on the run We were but tourists in that spring - there was a light on everything I’m spending most days in my memories A scene in shadow on every corner, every street But how I lingered far too long where the lotus eaters’ go I was a child, last I knew, then I fell in love with you Oh what a restless generation walks the wire across an endless sea You and I becoming strangers And every moment passing by is just a lifetime left behind I was awakened from an anxious dream But the visions just won’t shake from me The face of everyone I love As faint as fire in the sun the trace of everything we did a thinning haze upon the wind I was a tourist in your life, for a little, little while
3.
CA LUV 02:51
First Encounters of a simpler kind Damn it was easy, I was so surprised One nostalgic melancholy moment Felt it even as it passed me by The tinny music from the radio, The first snow in a while The cup of coffee as the dawn was breaking The cigarettes inside I like the way you’re slow to smile I like your eyes, I like you stoned and wild And if the night-time makes you lightning Well then I’m thunder in the distant sky But every morning is a different story Let me see you in the light Is this a dream, some other dark confusion Or someone else’s life? Oh it’s alright Oh it’s alright Load us up on wells and cheap champagne We’re gonna shake this thing awake somehow We’ll make a scene, be seasick strangers Turning in the low-light of¬¬ a lonesome crowd I’ve been brooding for a long time baby But I want to to shut it out I want to hide behind the big delusion Don’t let me down!
4.
Midnight 03:21
Midnight, when their headlights fade You slipped back to your father’s house Burning underneath your clothes As if no hands could hold Your pale body down Against the cold, hard ground Oh, We don’t get it back I’m afraid that death’s like that Morning was a long way off You were tired but you couldn’t sleep Keep seeing as if from miles away How your body lay Among discarded things Your childhood memories Oh, We don’t get it back I’m pretty sure death’s like that Time has left some burdens Left some secret shames But oh, can it lift the weight I think it can(‘t)
5.
Born Astray 04:48
A dream a dying flame My brain is tinder to the spark Just waiting for the day to start It’s somewhere in your dress Your breath, and words down in the dark I loved you but I’m long gone It sure was getting To see you in the dawn Glowing with your love song And staying up afraid I’d go away some day And knowing it ‘aint far off I was born a Gambler I was born astray And I been playing hands lord That I can’t sustain Another morning breaks My train’s the six, I go uptown Thought I saw you there in the crowd My friends all sitting round In town for tall tails and a drink I keep slipping off to lean on the sink Cuz I can feel you in my blood In the tatters of my lungs Are you somewhere underneath the sun? did you catch another’s eye Are you slipping past the line You know I was a waste of time
6.
Take me home from the Junkyard where your other lovers rust I was guessing on the words that wait for the silence to finally stop Suddenly aware of every memory we made when we were young Where you’re naked in the living room, and it aint fate but it’s enough But how the vision changes and beauty wilts with age I can sense it in your posture, in your smile, it feels the same Oh Lord, it aint easy to let it go, but baby, that’s the way we knew it’d be Oh Lord, it aint easy to let you go, so we’ll go on and on and on and on and on As if she’s calling from a dream I can see the scene dissolve into the room Oh the rain upon the windows, oh the deep November gloom “I’ve been praying I’ve been hoping on a man,” she says to the boy she met too soon all the children that we might have made now vanishing from view But I, for one, seems everyone’s still shooting in the dark Or maybe still in awe of all the fires we could start Oh Lord, it aint easy to let it go, but baby, that’s the way we knew it’d be Oh Lord, it aint easy to let you go, so we’ll go on and on and on and on and on
7.
The Star of Bethlehem shines on the hot velvet night I was walking home, sunburnt and stoned I had clumsily tried to pass some weight off my mind And you know what my words are worth now She’d be gone in the morning, she was just packing her things Her back was turned, saying, “you’ll never learn Why my love stays obscured, why I’m feeling so hurt,” And I know what your words are worth now little, next to nothing Cuz I come home to you every night, though I’ve tried To slip from your side, to the easy silence To dance with the shadow of a life passing by So the hours kept turning, felt the dawn coming on She pushed me then, put it all to the test Did I wrap ‘round your dreams, or is it a good time to leave? Well I know what those words are worth now As she drifted away, I didn’t expect so much pain I was frantic, spent, clutching the bed I begged her to stay, we sure as shit fell into place So she knows what my words are worth now little, next to nothing Cuz I come home to you every night, though I’ve tried To slip from your side, to the easy silence To dance with the shadow of a life passing by Lady I know I’ve been ready to go For as long as you’ve known me by name Time slipping past, I keep waiting on chance But convinced that your something I need But it’s never a good time, it seems A good time to leave Never a good time to leave
8.
Bells over the rooftops A celebration smile Your father put his belt across your back For the last of many times Your sisters passed out flyers Your mother’s still in shock Awake through every endless summer night While you were sleeping beneath the docks A runaway with years to run on Could get a long way out of queens Yelling timber in the kingdom Pulling fish out of the sea A couple years, a couple boxcars A carney, a marine A half a dozen girls besides your mother Shooting stars across their dreams But I don’t want to grow old anywhere with anyone Gonna keep the best intentions but regret the things I’ve done I’m going down, I’m going down don’t you try to stop me now Oh I’m not the man I thought I’d be and I won’t be coming round Are those your children in the kitchen? Are they Hungry or were you wrong About the little orphan girl you married Or your debts or dead end job? A couple lost among the secrets Broken windows and boarded doors Do you recall the weight that left your shoulders when you first left this town for good? But I don’t want to grow old anywhere with anyone keep the best intentions but regret the things I’ve done I’m going down, I’m going down don’t you try to stop me now Oh I’m not the man I thought I’d be and I won’t be coming round But it’s quiet in the ward now And the children have gone home And left you with the nurses and technicians And whatever’s killing all your bones If I could wake up as a child If I could wake up and begin I’d burn up every dollar bill I’d ever touched And throw the ashes in the wind
9.
Like Everyone, Guess I'm coming undone Getting colder as the years roll on Has my skin gotten thicker? Am I ready and willing to sell my days until my days are gone? Better get it straight before you burn away Before there's nothing left to know anymore Tell me how could you love anyone much when you know how good it used to feel? Everybody Shuts off one way or another, you know it's true So if you're gonna drown here tonight I want to drown with you Have you seen her yet in her lily white dress Making eyes with all the jealous men? on her way up the aisle with a child inside her and all the other things that might have been Could you watch him stand with his pale shaking hands like a heathen in the promised land? Taking what 'aint his from a stranger's kiss To share a ghost dance as the end begins +++ As sure as the sky becomes the sea my one true love is gonna tire of me she'll go out in the night when the pale moment's right to let the world spin watch it all unwind and I'll turn my gaze to the endless waves oh roll on ocean, roll on swollen and slow So a year lasts a lifetime and the world could stay wild For it's all become so narrow now
10.
It’s a perfect one night show Lights on in the morning when I’m walking home It’s a shadow, it’s a wall of glass Reflections of each other when we did our best Is it enough? I got a message that you passed along To some other destination with the lights turned off Past the pines. In some bed awake at night where distant lovers lie Say “it’s a perfect one night show” It’s the one thing I’ll remember when I finally go

credits

released February 24, 2017

Produced by Philippe Bronchtein
Engineered by Tim Shrout
Mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman
Mastered by Roger Seibel

Recorded November 2015 at Sean Flora’s R2B2 on Sauvie Island, OR
Additional recording December 2015 through February 2016 around Portland

Cover by Alyce Vazquez
Layout by Lindsay Carlisle
Lettering by Abigael Tripp

Arranged by Balto
Songs by Daniel Sheron (SESAC)
All Songs © On the Rails Music (SESAC)
©℗ 2017 Total Reality Meltdown
www.baltoamerica.com
www.totalrealitymeltdown.com


Daniel Sheron – Vocals, Guitars
Luke Beckel – Guitars, Vocals, Pump Organ
Seth Mower – Drums, Vocals, Percussion
Devon Hoffner – Bass, Vocals

Featuring

Adam Finger – Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Vocals
Philippe Bronchtein – JUNO, Rhodes
Tim Shrout – Sousaphone on track 4
Ally Hall, Moorea Masa, & Mel Guérison – Backing Vocals on tracks 1,5, & 10

Made in the USA

Endless thanks go out to our friends and families for all the support they have shown us over the years – it’s impossible to fully express just how much you mean to us and how grateful we are

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Balto Los Angeles, California

Card Carrying Cultists of the Great American Song, The Great American Groove, and the Great American Highway

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