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The Dunce Cap

by Joshua McCormack

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

    Includes 7 bonus tracks, consisting of alternate versions and demos of songs from Dark Corners of the Night and The Dunce Cap, as well as songs that were oh so close to making the cut.
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1.
Cipher 05:24
I'm just the cipher in your storyboard romance ill-equipped for life and undefined servant to this pompous labyrinthian drama I'm only here to shove the storyline if you need a lover or a stranger to stangle my body is ready for your needs deus ex machina or stuttering angel tied up in the trunk of a limosine my shadow has run shadow has run shadow has run away my shadow has run joysticks on the table of the lizard-faced boardroom make dance and scream and bleed and moan back alley president Beelzebub Jones make me vanish, you need time alone now I'm the laughing boy who leaps without looking who cares if the fall leads to my death? need a steady stream of debaucherous evenings putting all my weary souls to rest my shadow has run shadow has run shadow has run away my shadow has run I learned to love in pages long discarded I learned to hate edits and change in the dark and unaware I crack that bell jar and let in the air let's etch our dreams on withered palms turn the keyhole when voices calm sell all those magic eightballs nonsense staining the walls my sylvia suicide doll make me the villain in your low budget moments make me complex, not black and white divide the audience to love me and hate me I'm putting all my faith in your tonight my shadow has run shadow has run shadow has run away my shadow has run
2.
the night is old and you're feeling much younger just counting cards trying not to mouth the numbers the coroner knocks on your door but you never answer the night is dead and morning glory finally descends why do you wait til all your glory days have passed staring out from shattered mirrors and stained glass? just relax some it's not as dire outside your mind the coffin shop closes whether you choose to browse or buy why do you wait til all your glory days have passed staring out from shattered mirrors and stained glass? with all the time to spend and waste you tear the walls down a little bit too late the night is young and you've gotten much older the coroner knocks on your door won't you let him in like a friend?
3.
well the sun came down in silk pajamas strolled through my town drinking and laughing then the clouds rolled in and my breath became thin and cold I shake and wake to hammering rain throw open the front door start complaining I see helios passed out in garbage by the side of the road on a holiday I gathered all those beautiful faces for a huge soiree under a lazy sky helios drinks my tequila now he's face down in the kiddy pool ultraviolet light brings bad behavior under his heat I am charcoal flavored I tie those chariot reins to his wrists but he doth protest too much he's on a holiday helios get your ass back in gear there are too many things to be done this year the morning's too grey the grass is too green the fourth of july feels like halloween I need the brutal fist of your solar waves I want to court death in a heat stroke haze tie me to the stake let mosquitos take me pray to the sun crush me crush me crush me on a holiday
4.
Chopper One 02:30
chopper one lost in the sun chopper one, chopper one where did you go going west, going west over the sea if you crash, when you crash swim back to me I've made you a bed tidy and warm chopper one lost in your head chopper one, chopper one raising the dead going fast, going slow buried in style chopper one, chopper one spinning your dials I'm wearing your ring I've shined up my shoes I'll send you the news the rooftops are alive the dance is getting faster the hills ask me when the sun asks me why I've long since forgotten to answer chopper one off course by miles chopper one, chopper one try not to smile michelin man in town can you get down Castro and eighteenth tonight your lightly pressed footsteps match my heartbeat chopper one it's best if you don't disappear in a swift puff of smoke at the swirl, thirty feet from anchor bar door I'll wait for you there chopper one the sound of the traffic on solitary ears
5.
MxD2.1 03:24
6.
the room was suffocating, I went out for some air the winter was on life support but I didn't care a bit I walked blindly through the trees and stumbled into the abyss well I fell into the city where they gave birth to cool the people underground had finally tamed the blues a mile below the surface a perfect state of harmony it was a rod serling cocktail with an hg wells twist the river was untainted by the gods and their piss I couldn't find a crack I couldn't find an unfriendly face but even in this paradise I couldn't block out the creaking of my bones in a multitude I found myself walking alone on and on on and on I heard them singing you are unwanted in the underground all you know will come undone you are unwelcome in the underground dry your tears and move along they read my mind like a novel I forgot to destroy my hidden thoughts were spread out like christmas toys and the men turned to monsters and gnashed their teeth at my tender flesh a city hidden from the gods deep in the underworld mines the heatmiser called the devil on the mainline told him all about the sons of adam stealing their hellish charms I heard him sing you are unwanted in the underground all you know will come undone you are unwelcome in the underground dry your tears and move along they marched up through the streets a thousand soldiers wide and they dashed the brains of each citizen on the buildingside you can't know the secrets of the devil and expect to survive well, I stood there in horror, I couldn't cry or laugh the general of the legion saw me ready to crack he said, "when you meet your maker, just remember who's got your back" I heard him sing you are unwanted in the underground all you know will come undone you are unwelcome in the underground dry your tears and move along
7.
O.S_MFB 03:44
ledora may birthed a bad magician milk fever blues and mad statisticians on sunday mornings no more war between the patient and the proud pantsuits and hellfire sex workers, holy sisters walk arm in arm with their matching blisters leda cracks the swan king's neck skirt of Cambridge in the breeze there goes the neighborhood here she comes, original slave rose from her elysian grave ophelia held her breath for five hundred years compounding interest on the sum of your fears here she comes, original slave glitter crown, oh beauty behave conquering the castle and banishing the beast make him the ottoman that props up your feet she trickles through your rituals makes you obsolete throws your limp body over seneca falls she hides outside her home and strangles would-be kings she got the fury she don't need the balls I know you are an animal free from paternal lies I want to feel the savage inside got your own weights and measures memorized never forgive the ones who wounded your pride above my level you wield the gavel I'm penitent I'm petulent I'm a revival tent collapsing I'm cracked obsidian
8.
Animaniac 04:28
the smear in the sky appeared discretely to me dead colors and blank space where the starlight should be each step that I take advances the looping scenery the line work of my cartoon hands defines me tied up in three panels flip the pages flip the channel watch me dance the pencil marks are being erased in the minds of animaniacs I watch all your pretty faces melt on the street while babalu hunts down two long pigs to skin for the feast lean over fat the paint starts to crack have mercy on the animaniacs reactions scripted death as lessons 30 fps keeps you guessing now you're steamboat willie trapped in neo tokyo spill the water and you'll blot out the sun as fictions copulate with the facts in the beds of animaniacs animaniac animaniac
9.
Postscript 02:03
after the berlin wall the chain had swung open but I couldn't move after the berlin wall I hear the high voltage the blood thirsty mobs I'm trying hard just to catch you, my dear I keep leaving lines in the dust I keep turning down those dark alleys it's the wrong way, now I'm lost I've been digging up the same dead man I make him a marionette I bash my head on the same wall again it's the wrong way, now I'm lost and I can't see the berlin wall I can't find my way home if I'm not in chains in front of the berlin wall I know all my limits I know to obey
10.
go to hell 03:38
as you wave from the highlife stand up tall and go to hell if your breath catches fire pack your bags and go to hell the mirror shines from the violence every time we go to hell the ambiance of a riot all the world can go to hell behold the chalice of silence stand up proud and go to hell welcome arms of defiance hold my hand and go to hell
11.
Kid Icarus 04:12
such a pretty boy sleep in my pretty arms cause the streets are too loud you'll be crushed by the crowd a little bird caught out in the street helpless such a pretty boy sing me your pretty song if I freeze you in time through euryale's eyes will you sing the same song for me everyday? what will be your space race when the rockets turn to rust? hold on to those illusions keep blowing off the dust then back and forth from earth to sun to the moon I'll watch you glide away from it all just a pretty boy locked in an ugly room have I held you so long that all the death squads have gone fame and fortune turn to dirty words with a hammer and steel in a third act reveal you are icarus rebuilding his wings will I fall to my knees as you rise from the ash the question lingers on my lips what will be your space race when the rockets turn to rust? hold on to those illusions keep blowing off the dust then back and forth from earth to sun to the moon I'll watch you glide across the sky take me in your arms don't let me fall

about

When I started making what would become Dark Corners of the Night, my idea was to go far noisier and stranger than The Phantom King. As I realized I'd be moving to Arizona, the original idea shifted, and Dark Corners of the Night became a combo of songs written in the midwest and the southwest.

The songs on The Dunce Cap represent what probably would've been released had I not moved to Arizona.

credits

released July 3, 2020

Joshua McCormack - all vocals and instruments
Chopper One and MxD2.1 recorded in San Francisco at random hotel when I had a broken leg.
All other tracks recorded at Terminal Velocity Studios, as it moved between Northwest Indiana and Tucson.

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about

Joshua McCormack Tucson, Arizona

From the odd acoustic pop of Joshua Mccormack Presents Holiday Girl , to the electronic-tinged rock of The Phantom King , to the collection of sonic oddities on The Dunce Cap, he’s been restless for years.

His recent album Lights Out 4 Baby Grand, shows a more personal side, while The World, Just For You is a collection of cover songs he recorded to survive the dystopian ambivalence of 2020.
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