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Spider Through the Fog

by Ghost of Monkshood

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1.
How would you like to spend twenty odd years alone? Working for someone else, searching for your own? How would you like a kiss? How would you like to live? How would you like to feel the way you used to feel? Twenty odd years ago, questioning what's real? How would you like to see with new eyes again? You will never spend twenty odd years alone digging through the past with memories for a home so plug yourself right in and let it begin
2.
Now who would create you only to incite you and then hate you for what you do Being young isn't quite there, it turns to a nightmare if you're not careful where you run Beat up, thrown down, don't make a sound Know the children have power Born free of assumption, all children know something of which you know nothing once you give in Tread light, stay strong, keep your head on Know the children have power
3.
You can tell me I'm living in sin I know you think the world has dragged me in But life isn't that simple and you've got a lot to learn It's not my problem if you think I'm gonna burn You keep reading your little black book You keep shooting that condescending look But life's too short for these games they make you play It's not my problem, I'll love you anyway
4.
I Take It 04:01
In the back of my head is the apology I've written for you It's going strong, going now, take the time, take the words and let go It's not my fault that I can't see you through this discarded word pile It's way too early to be telling why I'm nervous, why am I nervous, where has nervous ever gotten me? I take it and take it where does it take me to? From the roots of this cause there's a little man crawling into a mind he used to know It's a medicated time, it's a doctrinated world, it's getting harder every day to let go Can't we talk about the sky or waterfalls, it's beautiful outside if we tear down every wall And every night I have a dream of something going down, it's something natural and getting stronger with every sound. I take it and take it where does it take me to?
5.
Know thy ways no disgrace How well do you know yourself? you might be surprised to find how foreign is your mind could it be that you wanted to know but fear where it will go denial doesn't change your heart it will only split you apart you don't have to act on what you find it just helps to keep it in mind there are those who will feed you guilt and add you to their quilt they will lie to you why lie to yourself? Know thy ways no disgrace
6.
Indecision 03:17
I don't know what I'm saying and it's so hard to try kick me over, change my colors why can't we kick this indecision? and the weather's unkind looping over the sky look out for no one the world's a setting sun now you and I have come undone
7.
Where does your world come from? How does it grow? Was it fed on nonsense all those years ago? It's a focused nightmare with it's eyes down low. Will it turn on you? I would let it go. You've got a line to the almighty or so you've said. I think your confidence is frightening, like lightning to your head. There were times when you were younger when it filled you up with dread, so you've pawned the heat off on me to make room for the righteous dead.
8.
In the Night 04:50
You can't become perfect tonight but word on the street is you might you cannot have freedom in sight by knocking down doors in the night Whatever's in style will pass for denial Get back to your drip-stormy face what passes for the human race? We're back in our prisons tonight waisting our time asking why all we can do is say we tried for ours is a never-ending plight
9.
Capsized 02:50
Her sign is a scepter she rules your kingdom and the sun her market unending she has no time for anyone she pulls your sleeve and you can't help but marvel at her style one bath of her flavor you'll be capsized for quite a while
10.
Funny 03:50
Warm milk and honey makes me feel funny hold me in sunny times I can't recall how we denied it once lost we can never find it it's not a question of time my star's left the sky Oh, to find once again it ends and begins a face with a name recalled through the rain replacing them all to put up a wall supplanting your soul your fire is her coal but oh, to be burned, her flame you have yearned I want to have someone to sing to I want to climb in through your window it's not a question of then, it's where to begin You can only pretend our season won't end it always feels strange when your life's rearranged now there's no one at fault, you take it with salt and leave with a smile for after a while your memory grows dim, you return once again Warm milk and honey makes me feel funny hold me in sunny times
11.
Goddess Hand 03:27
Dear mother I've brought you some honey dear mother and I brought some money I defend you to my friends I keep your picture so it won't bend and I'm holding onto that old goddess hand I heard her sing just like a magpie in a world of madness wishing to die still she's good for a laugh and she'll give you an autograph holding onto that old goddess hand I'm holding the goddess hand pretending not to understand why those arms love to hold a man I'm holding the goddess hand taking off my shoes to stand before the door she showed me before Yes I'm still here waiting for the news dust farmer tracking dirt in her carpet pews there in the old preacher's soul knowing he's grown to old to hold on to that old goddess hand
12.
What a predicament this What a predicament this is What a predicament this is, for your life's gone, for your light's gone Can't help but eat all this biz swallowing up all this cannibal biz born into dining on whatever this is till your soul's gone or your mind's grown How can I explain it to you if I don't know if it's true? how can I expect you to know what's not explained to you? I woke up today with one less thing to say and everything I see seems one step further away
13.
There was a time when you asked to know the truth and she lied and you acquiesced to go along with something that you'd regret. Now that it's done it's difficult to admit it was fun and she, from her perch, has left your eyes and heart and mind in a lurch. All through the day, you're alight inside and then in dismay, and she, still at bay, will be pulling on you every which way. Never will she stray or awkwardly deny what you say. Giving you just enough, is it your fault or her's that things are this tough? I can always rely on never finding a clue if I would've known what you would do only now can this moment be undone in all certainty I know it's all clear under the sun Now something's changed, the air is warmer and your feelings have changed. Sunlight on her face will soon make sleeping in feel like such a waist. Oh, she has bloomed, the days have turned aside from the path of the doomed and buds from her tips are just her way of saying you've survived it.
14.
15.
You go moaning, like a storm finding the storm I go on-ing, like a slow-motional child You go on, spiders of love marching along We go on, spiders in love marching alone We connected in a hip-sational way it feels long gone, cast aside, faded to grey You go on, spiders of love marching along We go on, spiders in love marching alone
16.
Side by Side 03:41
There's a girl who doesn't look away she has grace and doesn't care for games on her face a smile seems to say "everything's fine, life's a good time" There's a boy who doesn't know what to say he took longer than the others to learn the game on his face a smile for the day cause everything's fine, life is sublime side by side how nice to pass the time in smiles Oh, what a happy day side by side
17.
Touch 10:59
Like a delight of the Gods we go round the mind tonight enchanting our every flight of fancy regaining our humanity I will watch you be you will let me live

about

Pitchfork: [7.3] In the Year of the Wolf (Bands), Ghost of Monkshood missed it by a hair: Monkshood is another name for aconite, aka wolfsbane. Aconite's a sedative, but also a poison, and hoo boy somebody stop me before I start constructing one of those specious metaphors linking a band's music to their (probably arbitrarily chosen) name. Nothing poisonous here anyway, unless you're fatally allergic to the kind of music that tends to hover in place instead of moving. Spider Through the Fog is tranquilizer-dosed phantom folk drifting bodiless through veils of mist, medleys of cloudy ambiance marshaled into improbable pop songs. On the microphone, they came to haze and amaze you: The murkier side of Animal Collective (that would be Panda Bear) after a Donovan binge, with snatches of Four Tet coming through the wall.

Put a bunch of smarty-pantses together with a random assortment of instruments (besides the usual accoutrements, Ghost of Monkshood reached into the grab bag and found a banjo, a trumpet, a sax) and one of two things happens-- one, they subjugate craft to pretension and record an unlistenable mess that wants to be hailed as ambitious and challenging, placing the burden on the listener, like here, we recorded the thing, now you figure out how to enjoy it, and don't forget to be smart enough to get it. The other option is that the band makes sure they have actual songs and aren't just deconstructing thin air, like the aforementioned Animal Collective, Architecture in Helsinki, and yep, Ghost of Monkshood. Seventeen tracks is too many for, say, a rock album, which ultimately wants to propel you out of it and into the world, but it's just right for Ghost of Monkshood, whose music encourages staying inside it, and needs the extra time to work its gradual hypnosis.

Spider Through the Fog immediately immerses you in a rich drone ricocheting between the right and left channels, establishing the limits of the echo chamber the album will ramify within. For the duration, Ghost of Monkshood enliven pillowy analog static and acoustic guitars with flower-child vocals and flickers of vivid detail: There's the weirdly rickety guitar solo on "I Take It"; the ghost of G-funk whistling through "Traces of the Cave"; the gnarled cassette-tape-suicide on "Goddess Hand"; the sudden funk capping "In the Night"; the busted music box on "Capsized". The sweet and the sinister get equal time on Spider Through the Snow, often becoming so blurred as to be indistinguishable, and its to Ghost of Monkshood's credit that the album still comes off as an affable, pleasant surprise, not an endurance test."

— Brian Howe, October 3, 2005

credits

released March 15, 2005

Produced by Chase Spivey & Chris McDaniel
Album art by Chris McDaniel

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Ghost of Monkshood Norman, Oklahoma

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