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Near Hits, Minor Misses, and Three Dozen Half Machines: The Incomplete Home Recordings

by mother explosives

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1.
My Uncle Bob 02:13
In the TV screen he mumbles back at me curse words and video games in the basement under smokey lights "Mad Scientist" works quiet at night mixing quarter sticks of dynamite "I could blow the walls off of the house!" "I could leave a big hole in the ground!" "Making movies with my brothers" "Blow this hard hat to pieces!" "I'm the youngest little brother, I didn't get enough time with mom." "She's been raising all the cousins, all the grandkids, and the dog." "I can't talk to dad he's never home and when he's here he won't talk" "My oldest favorite brother got married and left me in the garage"
2.
3.
Movement I 03:56
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happy 03:23
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6.
Movement IV 05:44
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8.
Movement II 04:41
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11.
Movement V 04:46
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13.
14.
Movement III 05:28
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16.
17.
open spaces 16:28
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19.
tarentum 05:45
20.
Fall in Love 03:07
21.
Sugar Wolf 03:27
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23.
good grief 03:57
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25.
26.
Vicodinner 03:16
27.
drunk 00:56
28.
Heartbeat 03:36
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30.
31.
Lisa Marie 03:54
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35.
first, next 03:57
36.
37.
mother 02:10
38.
shake 05:28

about

Listener,

Mother Explosives has always called his songs "half machines,” and if that is the case then this collection of landing gear, windshield wipers, screws, levers, and transmissions is the kind of scrap yard that you dig through to find the car parts that they don’t make anymore. I have known him for the better part of a decade and over that time he has been at work building versions of these machines only to break them down for scrap metal and reassemble them time and time again. He's built police cars, fires, buffalo, shadows, replica UFOs from Roswell New Mexico, addictions, and lovers.

I used to think that Mother Explosives songs were things that you sew into the lining of your jacket and carried with you: a compass, a bottle opener, a watch. But seeing these half machines rebuilt into the album that you hold in your hands I have to reconsider. These are things that cary you. From western Pennsylvania to western North Carolina. From 2006 to 2014. From the ground you are standing on to wherever. Folk music was always about travel, road songs—feet on a path, tires on a road, wheels on a track. Hard, cold ground. But this album isn’t a trip; it is an orbit. From a family garage to a gas station a world away to somewhere much closer to home.

Take these bits of machine. Carry them and let them carry you.

Sincerely,

Bill Harder
(no one you should know)

credits

released March 1, 2015

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all rights reserved

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about

mother explosives Brevard, North Carolina

Mother Explosives has lived all of his life in the Great Appalachian Valley.


His songs feel familiar until you spend more and more time in them and ultimately realize there are corners of this house you haven’t looked in before. It is warm, encompassing, different. These are songs you can walk around in. Songs you can sow into the lining of your jacket
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