Hex of Infinite Binding EP
Title: Hex of Infinite Binding EP
Released: 2018
Label: Merge Records
Liner Notes
WELCOME WAYWARD TRAVELER TO THE HEX VORTEX. I used to release a whole bunch of EPs. I miss the general spiritual realm of the EP and am hereby centering an intention to spend more time thereat. These songs represent, in part, the first salvo of my resolve. “Almost Every Door” and “Song for Ted Sallis” were written at home in North Carolina sometime during the summer and recorded by Brandon Eggleston at Electrical Audio in Chicago during our three-night stand at Old Town School of Folk Music. “Tucson Fog” is a home recording from last December, things can get a little dark in December. “Hospital Reaction Shot” was produced & engineered by Chris Stamey at Modern Recording, Chapel Hill, NC; Chris also wrote the string arrangements and played bass and electric guitar. Percussion on “Almost Every Door” and “Song for Ted Sallis” by Matt Espy from Dead Rider, maximum respect. Only one of these songs is directly about death but the person or persons in all these songs will someday die. The death one, “Hospital Reaction Shot,” is drawn from a picture of Mickey Deans holding a press conference to inform the world of the death of Judy Garland, to whom he had been married for three months. Yet the press conference is a sham, because Judy Garland lives, as Ted Sallis lives, as do many others thought missing. They can often be found in the vortex shortly before sundown, plotting their return. We live in hope! —John Darnielle
Table of Contents
Song for Ted Sallis 1
Into the source of the squall
I inevitably fall
Toward the wellspring of all agony
Shuffling endlessly
Whether or not it was always going to be this way
It only mattered yesterday
No skin like the skin you woke up in
No skin like the skin you woke up in
Up from the earth and the clay
Melting away
Never lose enough to find my form
Trudge through the storm
Wait in hope
For some as yet undiscovered isotope
No skin like the skin you woke up in
No skin like the skin you woke up in
When at last
The die gets cast
Read the numbers out loud
With your head bowed
Try to find a face to focus on
But the memory's gone
Wherever my former self went
It was an accident
Try to picture him in my mind's eye
Say goodbye
No skin like the skin you woke up in
No skin like the skin you woke up in
Almost Every Door
Cower in the corner
Try hard to disappear
The moment's never going to come
When anyone can say that the coast is clear
Maybe turn around
Find a wall to break your fist on
Almost every door's an exit
Just not this one
Dream about the outside
Sprinting down the open plain
Barefoot and outclassed
Bloody up the broken grain
Every cartoon keg
TNT and nitroglycerin
Almost every door's an exit
Just not this one
Pause before each door
Like a sinner lost in prayer
Always one more hallway
At the bottom of the stair
I get knocked down
But I get up again like a dunce
Cave's all sealed up
Nowhere to hide out in the winter months
Aiming for the blackout
Spare a prayer for souls in prison
Almost every door's an exit
Just not this one
Hospital Reaction Shot
Let the tube lights buzz overhead
Tell the papers that you're dead
You'd want them to be the first to know
Gone down where the goblins go
Head down headed for the curtain call
I'm the last to try to break your fall
Last high tide before the undertow
Gone down where the goblins go
If I'd as much money as I could spend
I never would cry
I never would choose to mend
There's no kingdom
There's no road
Just old sets where faulty flash pots explode
Head out to the sidewalk
On with the show
Gone down where the goblins go
If I'd as much money as I could spend
I never would cry
I never would choose to mend
There's no kingdom
There's no road
Just old sets where faulty flash pots explode
Head out to the sidewalk
On with the show
Gone down where the goblins go
Tucson Fog
The fog rolled in
And it's never gonna lift, I guess
Breathe against the window facing the street
Scribble with my finger on the glass
Trying to read the horoscopes
Of animals long extinct
Trying to read the omens in the kitchen sink
The fog took shape
Like a golem with a vengeful eye
Limbs like rippling swan's necks
At least a hundred stories high
Trying to read the horoscopes
Of animals long extinct
Trying to read the omens in the kitchen sink
Trying to force an ending
Where everything turns out well
Don't really mind the ritual
Just the smell
Get word sometimes
From distant outposts much like mine
Places where the fog rolled in one day
Try to tell 'em it'll work out fine
Trying to read the horoscopes
Of animals long extinct
Trying to read the omens in the kitchen sink
Album Credits
John Darnielle: guitars, vocals, possibly some keyboard
Matt Douglas: woodwinds, vocals, harmony vocals, probably some keyboard
Matt Espy: percussion (“Almost Every Door” and “Song for Ted Sallis”)
Chris Stamey: electric guitar, bass guitar, and string arrangement (“Hospital Reaction Shot”)
Leah Gibson: cello (“Hospital Reaction Shot”)
Aubrey Keisel: viola and violin (“Hospital Reaction Shot”)
Jon Wurster: drums and percussion (“Hospital Reaction Shot”)
“Hospital Reaction Shot” produced, recorded, and mixed by Chris Stamey at Modern Recording (Chapel Hill, NC)
“Almost Every Door” and “Song for Ted Sallis” produced by Brandon Eggleston at Electrical Audio (Chicago, IL), mixed by Chris Boerner
“Tucson Fog” recorded in my bedroom by me
Mastered by Brent Lambert at The Kitchen Mastering (Carrboro, NC)
Artwork by Daniel Murphy
All songs written by John Darnielle, Cadmean Dawn (ASCAP), administered worldwide by Pacific Electric Music Publishing
Footnotes
- "Whatsoever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch. The Man-Thing was once a scientist named Ted Sallis. Ted Sallis, uh, like, like the main figure of our previous song, uh, messed around in the lab too much, and as often happens, I mean, more times than we can really count, you know, you'll be doing some science and then you become like a gigantic eight-foot-tall swamp monster. This is called 'Song for Ted Sallis'." – Swedish American Hall, San Francisco, CA, February 2, 2020. ↩