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The Dark Side Of The Drain

by The Drain On The Balcony

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Limited edition physical release:


    Includes the entire 14-track album on CD-r, with printed label and foldaround printed sleeve in a plastic wallet.

    Includes limited edition Drain On The Balcony button badge.

    Includes immediate download of pdf file containing album artwork and band photos, plus bonus 'Elastic Gurl' video.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Dark Side Of The Drain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 14 days
    edition of 25 

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  • Digital Album
    Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Includes immediate download of pdf file containing album artwork and band photos, plus bonus 'Elastic Gurl' video.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5 GBP  or more

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1.
Looking down from the rooftops Watch the world go by Sometimes people laugh And other times they cry. Looking down from the rooftops Everyone is so small Sometimes people get up And other times they fall. I can see you all Through the sight of my gun I can see you all You’d better run.. Mothers, daughters, fathers, sons Bang – each and every one. Lovers, loners, self-help losers Bang – gone, gone gone. Looking down from the rooftops Deadly game of I-spy Sometimes people live And other times they die. Looking down from the rooftops I can hear them all Sometimes people hang up And other times they call. Simply having a ball Telescopic fun Is it you or is it you? Yes, you’re the one. Shoppers, doubters, Big Issue touters Bang – each and every one. Buskers, bouncers, passing strangers Bang – gone, gone, gone.
2.
Toes 03:46
It's the last dance of the night Now, he thinks that he just might Ask the girl for a dance (Could be the beginning) of a new romance She says she will As they glide across the floor (Eyes closed, flashing lights) could he ever ask for more? Step by step, dancing cheek to cheek He gazed into her eyes, and she made to speak She whispered in his ear Stop treading on my toes I think you're a heel, you're treading on my toes Stop treading because - it hurts Stop treading on - my red shoes I think you're a heel, 'cos you're hurting my soul
3.
She wore Seargent Pepper's jacket, and had braces on her teeth She sang about her make-up and the reality beneath In nineteen seventy-seven we had seen too many ads And here was an alternative to slowly going mad She was a plastic girl In a day-glo world She came out of nowhere And went straight back there I saw her on TV She was germ-free With her identity She spoke for me Her songs seemed to celebrate a consumeristic life But Peel away the irony, and she sticks in the knife She knew the roles expected were a servant or a whore But she gave them the finger - Oh bondage, no more! Nineteen seventy-seven was a very special time If you couldn't sing and couldn't play - you just did it anyway And the Pistols got to number one with a little help from Uncle John And the NME wasn't full of shit - You could do it before you read about it She was a cliche And a poseur too She was artificial Just like me and you And now she's gone And she's not coming back But she left her songs In a plastic bag
4.
Hiding Place 03:56
I’ll be your hiding place Come on out, and show your pretty face Come on now, you know it’s no disgrace I’ll be your hiding place Come out, come out, I’ll take good care of you. I’ll be your hiding place Come on out, and show your pretty face Come on now, you know it’s no disgrace I’ll be your hiding place Come out, come out, I’ll take good care of you. And I’ll huff, , and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down. And I’ll huff, , and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down. Come on out, I’ll be your hiding place Come on out, I’ll be your hiding place Come on out, I’ll be your hiding place Come on out, I’ll be your hiding place 98, 99, 100, I’m coming, ready or not, ready or not Come on out, I’ll be your hiding place Come on out, I’ll be your hiding place Come on out, I’ll be your hiding place Come on out, I’ll be your hiding place
5.
The sun goes down I look around for you Deep in the ground In lost and found for you The scars in the night sky They weep when I cry Where are you now? I need to know It’s been a thousand days I’ve searched in so many ways I’ve looked for you in every place For one last glimpse of your face You’ve gone without a trace Gone underground The world is lost to you Without a sound The earth is dust to you From ashes to ashes Wherever that is Where are you now? I need to know
6.
The woman who walks through walls Well she could just open doors The person she likes to haunt He's always expecting more So she waits for the night to fall For the time when the spiders crawl From the cracks in the plasterboard Through the dust on the flagstone floor And her touch melts through my skin, and froths my blood like cappuccino And her eyes dance around my brain, like drunken lovers at a disco And in my peripheral view Like a polaroid of my youth She's making my coffee cool As she stands back in my bedroom She's the woman who writes the rules In a scripture of cheap perfume Now she's watching my eyelids move Making sure that my dreams are true And her silhouette hypnotises me, like smoke twisting in the night sky And her whisper seeps inside me, like a frost descending on my mind And she's watching the spit slide out From the side of my sleeping mouth It's the glue on my paper crown And it's starting to loosen now I'm the hangman who laughed too loud It's time that she cut me down It seems like my swinging round Is starting to bore the crowd And each day I search for her, like a broken sign on the roadside And each night she finds me, like a fox caught up in the headlights There's fish swimming round the insides of my eyes The answerphone blinks but the voice is too quiet There's a moth on the pillow to kiss me goodnight There's a spark from the wall when I switch off the lights She's a festival queen, she's a mad butterfly She's a saxaphone solo fed back into the mics She's a rollercoast ride, on a white knuckle sky And I tap on the wall, just to check I'm alive Yeah she walks through the wall, just to give me a fright Oh I wait by the wall, I'm her waiter tonight I'm the naked maître d' in a salmonella restaurant Hey the dish of the day is my bones on a tin plate Lined up and numbered, she gonna eat me tonight She gonna stir fry me, wine on me, dine on me She biting me Tip up the bed, turn on the lights I can smell the sadness of the night I can feel the waves lapping at the corners of my mind Pushing up driftwood colder than time
7.
We're so bored We're so bored We're so bored We're so bored We're bored So bored Bored Bored with life We're so bored We're bored What is there to do About being bored? Boredom We're so bored We're so bored We're so bored We're still bored
8.
Down by the riverside Clubs heave, the blood flows. Down by the riverside Vodka shots and neon glow Down by the riverside Drunks pour out their woe Down by the riverside, down by the riverside. Down by the riverside Sirens wail their crimson trail. Down by the riverside Feet walk on glass and nails Down by the riverside Chat-up lines doomed to fail. Down by the riverside, down by the riverside. But armed with my false tan I will, will always get my man. Armed with my false tan I’m doing, doing the best I can. I could never have guessed that you would come to stay I could never believe that it’s time you went away I could never have guessed that the night could be so long When I open my eyes, I just hope that you’ll be gone. Hope that you’ll be gone. Down by the riverside Smurfs hunt in their blue dye Down by the riverside Girls cast their boys aside Down by the riverside Boys drink down their pride Down by the riverside, down by the riverside. Down by the riverside Every girl is Cheryl Cole Down by the riverside Boys score in their own goal Down by the riverside Sambucas take their toll. Down by the riverside, down by the riverside. I could never have guessed I’d make the same mistake I really should have known that it’s give and little take. I could never have guessed that the night could be so long When I open my eyes, I just hope that you’ll be gone. Hope that you’ll be gone. Down by the riverside, down by the riverside.
9.
So.. you went back to black There's no return, and no comeback You took the trip, you chose to go But in the end I think you lost control. You lived too fast - your feet don't touch the floor Preserved in wax - like those who went before Fame and drugs were - stronger than you And so you did - what you had to do Black Black Black Black An angel's voice from a mouth that sinned You were like a blowtorch in the wind You told it like it is and you can bet Now you've got no time left to regret Black Black Black Black
10.
It was one of those days you realise the world was gonna change The colours in the sky would never look the same again I didn't feel that old but if you counted up the days You'd understand how long I had to wait... to rip up the pages I was glad I got up early to see the mist come off the trees I didn't mind the chilly feel of cobwebs on my feet The rocks were getting warmer as I sat down by the sea The sun came round the corner & shone on me Ripping up the pages, changing all the names You find a dusty roud and you walk quite slow til you're sure you lost your way Who cares where the days went, and how many more remain There's always time to say you're feeling fine, you can die with a smile on your face Just rip up the pages Well I scrambled 'round the rocks until I'd left the beach behind The water like a jewellery box was flashing in my eye The rolling of the waves was like a churchbell in my mind It seemed to be announcing it was time... to rip up the pages Above the jumbled town I found my way onto the dunes And sat down on the ground to take in something of the view It would take another lifetime to count all those shades of blue Which seemed as good as anything to do The dust of the town settled over me as I lay on the ground in a pattern of leaves I had a feeling I had some things to do, but the feelings didn't last I watched the bark peel off the trees and I listened to the whine of the midday breeze You never have the future, and you've already lost the past There's no last line...
11.
Solihull council policy chiefs have refused to support a 'Trotskyite' campaign to ban nuclear weapons in Britain Councillor Michael Ellis said the Manchester councillors proposing the ban were 'a bunch of Trotskyites' Councillors accepted his resolution to welcome the policy of her majesty's government in providing a proper level of effective nuclear deterrent We endorse Mr Les Pitt's comments on rent arrears. Some of these tenants are giving priority to colour television and motor cars
12.
When I'm watching my TV When I'm reading my magazine Drinking gin in a swimming pool Earning money on the dole I'm thinking of you I think of you Thinking of you It's you, it's you I'm hooked on you Hooked on you I am hooked on you I'm hooked I'm hooked, I'm hooked on you When I'm going to a show When I'm playing on the radio When I'm lying in my bed It's just the things that you did and the things that you said I'm hooked on you, I'm hooked on you I'm thinking of you, I'm thinking of you It's you, it's you, it's you When I'm taking photographs Every line is just to get a laugh People think that they're so witty When they're trying to impress those too pretty I'm hooked on you 'Cos your eyes are blue When you're sniffing glue When I'm trying to eat your irish stew Even if you gave me the blues I just want to be with you I just want something to do Something to do, to do with you 'Cos I am hooked on you
13.
Déjà Vu 02:27
Felt like déjà vu When I first met you Just like déjà vu Back in the day When I first met you Déjà vu One and one is two Held together with glue Betrayals just a few Back in the day When I first met you Déjà vu Now that we are through Here comes someone new Think it could be you Back in the day When I first met you Déjà vu
14.
Over The Top 05:30
The officers command from behind Wasting my life with their time Using me to further their ideals Kept with lies of honour in the field The orders came in today Forwards; Backwards; it's a bullet either way The enemy were told exactly the same We're all blind, it's just a game And I'm going going going, over the top I'm going going going, I can't stop I'm going going going going going over the top Friends have come and gone, but I remain Leaving me to suffer their pain I'm still an unknown, I'm not on their death list yet They still won't give me the time... to forget That I'm going going going, over the top I'm going, I'm going, I can't stop I'm going going going going going over the top They won't let me stop Don't let them do this to me...

about

This is the second album by The Drain On The Balcony, recorded during 2011 and 2012 at Rocker's StAR Studios in Bristol.

Unlike the first album, Drainwaves, released earlier this year, which caught up on over 30 years of Drain history, most of the songs here are new, each of the band, inspired by the creative processes involved in the making of Drainwaves, has contributed songs to this one.

The album encompasses a range of styles, from punk to soul, and from heavy metal to reggae, the band's basic instrumentation augmented by violin, flute, horns, harmonium, and of course the lush backing vocals provided by The Drainettes, with the distinctive vocals of Caitlin taking lead on a couple of songs.

Wary of alienating their hardcore fans there are also five more reworkings of songs from the first incarnation of the band, 1978 - 1982.

The album title really does sum up the content, perhaps taking its lead from the first track on the first album, Statistical Celebrity, most of the songs here have a darker edge - perhaps reflecting the bands' own increasing awareness of their own mortality, death in its many forms is never far away.

Two of the songs are tributes to very different inspirational female singers who died during the making of the album - Amy Winehouse and Poly Styrene. There are also references to burial, ghosts, suicide, terrorists, mass-murderers, nuclear deterrence, and the wholesale slaughter of twentieth century trench warfare. That's not to say that the album is depressing, somehow singing about these inner demons is cathartic, and overall we hope the album will leave the listener uplifted rather than depressed.

credits

released August 15, 2012

The Drain On The Balcony are:
Gary - Bass, Guitar, Vocals
Gordon - Guitar, Vocals
Gran - Drums, Programming, Vocals
Martin - Keyboards, Vocals

With The Drainettes:
Caitlin - Vocals on tracks 04, 05*, 08*, 09, 10, 12
Eira - Vocals on tracks 03, 04, 05, 09, 12, 14
Emma - Vocals on tracks 02, 03, 04, 05, 08, 09, 10, 12, 14

Plus guests:
John Slattery - Violin on tracks 05, 07, 09
Sas Payne - Flute on tracks 05, 13, Vocals on tracks 03, 13*
Simon Birchall - Violin on track 06
* Lead

Produced and engineered 2011 - 2012 by Rocker at StAR Studios,
Bristol, UK, on his trusty AKAI DPS24 and a Mac running Reason.

All songs written by The Drain On The Balcony.

Sleeve design by PS I Love You.

All songs ℗ and © The Drain On The Balcony 1977 - 2012

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Local Underground Bristol, UK

Eclectic music label based in Bristol, UK. Specialising in short run limited editions that nevertheless shift very few copies. Local Underground is Rocker's baby, baby.

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