12/22/2020> The 10th tune on Herd of Birds is "Sardines," another # that started out w/ us messing around w/ loops + noises + we was about to scrap it but our bedder-½ said she could hear sum Fiona Applesque sorta singing over it so we wrote sum lyrics + she turned it into a song. We have no idea what the lyrics are about, the image of running a marathon w/ an Elvis impersonator (think it was in San Diego) popped into our head + how even tho he wouldn't win he'd look cool doing it + then we got to thinking about herd mentality + sardine bait balls, how they all fight to get into the middle of the pack to avoid getting picked off + then we was reflecting on Cannery Row + Steinbeck + the year we spent living in Monterrey + scooby diving there so spose it's about all of that. The noises that sound like dolphins are actually birds, grackles + then in the interludes that's a channel-billed cuckoo + a Cory's shearwater. The looping drums we sampled from an old Korean drum album (Samul Nori) we had + embellished on top of that (banging on our blender filled w/ water amongst other things) + then just added some guitar twangs + a wandering bass line.

SARDINES

no 1 wins dressed as Elvis
10,000 swam thru kelp forests
the fans were told not to save us
a chorus sang “this is hell”
we smelt gunpowder ice cream
+ Nobel takes the caked on
results off the back of a cereal box
sumping’s fishy, an off-kilter kettle
cast of black metal using the lost wax methud

witch 1 added chlorine?
off the shore of Moss Landing
as deep as Grand Cañon
dilooting the waves
resinants still bleeds
visine hides the wrath of grapes
distilled in wine
Sheephead are black, white + red
when dead + hard-boiled
in vinegar + oil
w/ a pinch of sea salt
+ coal-mined canaries
in kind for cowries
+ canned w/ sardines