Lazrus, making it

Scott Walker

I’m watching the Scott Walker documentary. Really love this Camus quote on the back of Scott 4:

“A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.”

Borges "Boast of Quietness"

Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigious than meteors.

The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside.

Sure of my life and death, I observe the ambitious and would like to understand them.

Their day is greedy as a lariat in the air.

Their night is a rest from rage within steel, quick to attack.

They speak of humanity.

My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty.

They speak of homeland.

My homeland is the rhythm of a guitar, a few portraits, an old sword, the willow grove’s visible prayer as evening falls.

Time is living me.

More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude.

They are indispensable, singular, worthy of tomorrow.

My name is someone and anyone.

I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn’t expect to arrive.

Boomkat Write-up

It’s like I paid this person to say these things:

Daniel Johnson’s career in electronic music started with Bulbz, a record Daniel used to teach himself how to use the Logic sequencer software. He must have finished the manual by now, because here’s his debut full-length, Lazrus finds Johnson fulfilling a similar role to that of Deastro on his recent Ghostly International album, Moondagger, re-contextualising conventional rock band-type songwriting dynamics within an agile, yet not excessively overblown electronic production. While Johnson starts off with a grandstanding piece of bluesy electro-rock on ‘Heart Of A Dog’, by the time he reaches ‘Goodbye Silhouette’ he’s closer to the sort of preppy electronic bubblegum heard on the Discovery LP. There’s plenty of depth in these songs though, and there’s never a sense that Johnson’s falling into the customary Postal Service-copying traps. Even the most stripped back and revealing songs like ‘Hard Core’ and ‘Devil’s On Our Side (Don’t Be Shy)’ work out favourably, suggesting that this is an artist who’s a proper writer rather than merely a singing producer/programmer.

To Swift Mars EP out today

caleparks:

It feels like I’ve been sitting on this for a while, but my new EP To Swift Mars hits stores today, August 4th via Polyvinyl. It was recorded last year in DC with fellow Aloha member TJ Lipple at the board, mixed in Brooklyn with Brian Jacobs from Apes And Androids and well, I reckon it’s my best solo record yet, by a long way.

Purchase via Polyvinyl, iTunes, or at your local fine music retail shops.

Lazrus Credits and Lyrics

When you buy the record digitally, the lyrics will show up on your little mp3 toys. We’re still looking for ways to get the credits out in non CD formats. For now:

Lazrus

Written and performed by Daniel.
Trevor Naud played guitar on Hard Core, Goodbye Silhouette, Lex Luthr and Lazrus. Rodrigo Palma played bass guitar on Heart Of A Dog, Hard Core, Lex Luthr, Devil’s On Our Side, Lazrus, Ivory and Gold Version. Charles Koltak played keybass on Lazrus. Collin Dupuis played drums on Goodbye Silhouette. Andy Smith did programming on Goldversion.
Recorded and mixed by Daniel, with additional recording by Collin Dupuis and technical assistance from Andy Smith.

Visuals by Trevor Naud.

This record would not be possible without the generosity of Andy Smith, the belief and support of Trevor Naud, Charles Koltak and Rodrigo Palma, and the love of Kirsten and Claire. I am also grateful for the writings of Don Miguel Ruiz.

Heart Of A Dog

I got a heart, like a heart of a dog
Like a heart of a dog that sets a man apart
Bred with the strain, the occasional strain
The occasional strain that drives a heart insane
A little bit weird, a little blood in my beard
A little ring in my ears
I might turn on you
Part of a thing that’s only half of a thing
that’s only half of a missing person
Looking for sparks in the Tokyo dark
In the kind of a dark that colors everything
I’m at an age, a little long in the fang
A little hard to explain why I’ve been chasing my tail around
Chasing the moon, the invisible tune
The invisible proof
The truth, it might turn on you
Carnivorous strain like a digital grain
Like a stain on the picture perfect
You want to find the kind that blows your mind
You don’t want to find half of a missing person
All my love was in the room
But my love was in decay
If I like alone it’s cause I wanted to be
It’s cause I wanted to be
I don’t want to be part of a thing
that’s only half of a thing that’s only half of a missing person
You want to find the kind that blows your mind
You don’t want to find half of a missing person
All my love was in the room
But my love was in decay

Sugar Fish

I was taken from the water
I was taken, dripping, from my sea
I need sugar in my thunder
I need honey in my TNT
I was dying from the same
I was dying for a little rain
I was open to it
For those taken in the morning
For those taken from their fading dreams
There is beauty in the moment
For the beauties tangled in the weeds
If you’re dying from the same
If you’re dying from the same
If you’re hoping it’ll rain on you
Just hoping it’ll change on you
Lady, it’s just the way that you are
The chemicals in your heart
The elements and the stars
Oh lady, don’t try to make it make sense
Cause you can’t make it make sense
Funny faces, funny voices
Funny how I’m bumping into you
Give me more and plenty of it
Give me more and throw me back into the sea

Goodbye Silhouette

Goodbye silhouette
Goodbye yellow moon

Your eyes are a silhouette
Carved out in the moon
My heart is a yellow moon
Surrounding your eyes

Goodbye Silhouette
Goodbye Yellow Moon

Arrows For Ever

No one I know wants to be alone
A little prince up there on his little moon
Sweeping the dust blue
Thinking up songs for you
The craters of love covering my face
The freckles of a war all over my place
He’s aiming his bow at you
He’s aiming it so true at you
Aiming his bow at you
He’s aiming it so true
(The falling stars in the flower jar
are for you)
It’s so true
I was aiming for you
I was chasing rainbows
and yellow brick roads
I couldn’t see then
Well, how was I supposed to see it
with an arrow in my eye and a crooked heart
It was broken
Even my love was broken
I’ll follow through
My aim is for you
It’s so true
I was aiming forever

Hard Core

You can fall asleep like me any time you want to
You can close your eyes and see into the dark if you want to know
You can make my heart be still if you still believe it
Cause our love is hard core
Our love is hard core
Touch me up and down and we’ll call it a new direction
Pin you to the wall and we’ll make all the proof we could ever need
Heaven’s in the calm but heaven isn’t like we planned it
Cause our love is hard core
I know that we’re just light making love
Siamese twins joined at the tongue
But I can’t let go
Cause I’ve wanted it for so long
You can break a heart of glass with a heart of granite
You can break a heart of gold if that gold belongs to you
I know we’re just trying to be our better versions
Our love, it’s hard core
All I can say
All I can do
Is promise to stay holding on to you
It’s new to us both
But I’ve wanted it for so long
Yes I’ve wanted this for so long
Yes I’ve wanted it for so long
You

Lex Luthr

Frustration, blocked everywhere I go
Confusion, man, you don’t even know
This could be ours in this life
I’m waiting for the knock upon my door
I’m saying nobody knocks anymore
This could be ours in this life
Vibrations in the low end of my soul
I feel like the future from my head down to my toes
This could be ours in this life
Come on now, be the overflow
Come on now, who are we to know?
This could be ours in this life
Sunlight
Information
Proving me up
Proving me down
My brain is a monster eating at my heart
Belief is explosive, blowing love apart
This could be ours in this life
Come on now, be the overflow
Come on now, who are we to know?
This could be ours in this life
Sunlight
Information
Proving me up
Proving me down

Devil’s On Our Side (Don’t Be Shy)

Your tongue is silver and it purrs in my ear
Your face is bronze and your body golden
You open seals and come to my dreams
You’ll rip the world apart
These humid thoughts pour like sweat from my head
and make a sound like a rushing river
Things never change or stay the same
They all look the same in the dark
Baby, the devil’s on our side
Baby, don’t be shy
Write your number on my hand
Mark me there for life
I close my eyes and I feel them open
Life shimmers under my eyelids
I saw you there and the routes were open
I saw the signs of the times in your eyes
The smoke that came when the world was over
You looked the same
I looked the same

Lazrus

The delicate death of harmony and it came a one, two, three
Got leprosy all up in me and my dreams are falling off
Neitzsche drank up all the sea and he left none for me
You bury a pharaoh with his toys and it’s over
It’s over
Wait for it, wait for it
Wait for it now
Love will come rising up for me like grass beneath my feet
The sun’ll beat down a brand new beat and I want some
I want some
So bring me your sweet loving and I’ll be your number one
A change is gonna come but you got to want it
I want it
Wait for it, wait for it
Wait for it now

Ivory

You want me in your room
But made no room for all that came
Doubt isn’t right or wrong
but dreamt in sickness just the same
But it’s okay
The soul, it finds repose and won’t be harmed
Cause it’s okay
It’s all right
And a little wrong
Became the wind to swim within the wind
within the sin within her
And the Mojave sighed the sand like butterflies
Swept darkness on the sun
Scratched our voices and our eyes
It’s okay
And when your sight comes on, you’ll want it gone
Cause it’s okay
It’s all right
This light goes off and on
Cause it’s okay
It’s all right
And a little wrong
Who is saving the world?
Who has savored the world?
Who has overcome the world?
Who has opened up the world?
When your sound comes on you’ll want it gone
Cause it’s okay
It’s all right
It’s okay
It’s all right

Goldversion

In love