Get all 14 Cheap City releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of BLUE DANCERS, Ten Years Without Rami Holding, Radio Edit / Cue Ball Club, Skyscrapers, Stompin' at the Swamp, Junkluggers, Tanked for Jupiter (Live), Tanked for Jupiter, and 6 more.
1. |
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Two items on the menu
Watered down coffee in Styrofoam cups
And old sloppy joes for a couple of bucks
Two regulars in ‘Nam hats are watching Elimidate Deluxe
Guys in the parking lot are working on their trucks
A narrow hallway leads to the laundry machines
And the cracked concrete floor is moldy and green
There’s a bulletin board that’s littered with ads
A glossy one says, “If you’ve got time – we’ve got cash.”
Wifi cuts in and out at a steady pace
But I’m in the corner dreaming of space
And passing through an asteroid belt in a double length trailer
As I study the text on this help wanted paper
A couple of guys to head into space
A couple of guys met with the absence of their fates
It’s a Jovian trip. It’s a trucker’s delight.
It’s a job for dreamers who stay up all night
How can I explain my brain’s flash of a Grand AM
Stalled out in my mind like an orbiting trash can
How can I explain the paranoia and claustrophobia that comes from insomnia?
I’m tanked for Jupiter.
In order to stoke xenophobic sentiments in Cheap City’s lower and middle class, a SPACE RACE was initiated against neighboring cities. While it’s competitors sought to establish colonies on the moon and Mars, Cheap City set its sights on Jupiter – or at least its moons. But in order to build a colony supplies were needed, so Cheap City sought out long haul truckers willing to take their rigs into space.
There’s a Great Red Spot in my mind and in my heart
And it becomes a storm when my thoughts swirl and start
To spin in my head like cosmic rings
Like stars hung from the ceiling on translucent strings
Every now and then I find I’m staring at the sky
Imagining another place but I don’t know why
Where I’m somebody else in someone else’s skin
And I’m in someone else’s house using someone else’s things
Escape can be nice for a while
As long as it’s not exile
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2. |
Cheap City City Limits
02:59
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This is the sound of me falling apart
As I turn the ignition and the gears start
To churn and spin and the engine sings
And I lift into space on truckers wings
This is the sound of the city limits
Where your life whizzes by in fifteen minutes
Where your truck starts to play with the laws of physics
Where your pupils dilate and your perspective pivots
If I drive one more mile
It’ll be the farthest I’ve been in more than awhile
And when I start to think about the things I lack
I think ‘Fuck the critics. I’m never going back’
Like Trojan asteroids
Like moons getting lost in the void
Like a pile of unpaid parking tickets
You can see my dust at the city limits
This is the sound of the longest haul
Where things are moving fast or not at all
Where strangers always seem to call your bluff
And you’re screaming to the darkness that you’ve had enough
Like Trojan asteroids
Like moons getting lost in the void
Like a pile of unpaid parking tickets
You can see my dust at the city limits
The Jupiter truckers were expected to wear long sleeve paisley shirts buttoned to the neck at all times as a way of saying, “I’m on a mission but where I come from is hip.”
Like Trojan asteroids
Like moons getting lost in the void
Like a pile of unpaid parking tickets
You can see my dust at the city limits
They put us in trucks that take us all over the world
On highways built on black coffee and junk food
And then ridicule us when we don’t look like body builders
No gas stations in space
No rest stops on Mars
No diners on Saturn
Just 18 wheels, the darkness, and the stars
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3. |
Tanked for Jupiter
03:35
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You should know by now that I,
I’m not looking for some cheap thermosphere high
I guess this one’s about distraction
And I’ll distract myself into an endless goodbye
You should know by now that I,
I’m not looking to be some necktie guy
When it’s all about abstraction
I’ll abstract myself into an endless sky
So you keep driving your Grand AM
And I’ll go off the deep end
It’s not a snowplow shooting sparks on an interstate
It’s not forgotten satellites in outer space
It’s not the walkway to your door that we set on fire
It’s not the “get well soon” balloon stuck in the barbed wire
Above your Grand AM
While I go off the deep end
You can fly to the moon in a souped up truck
But the stars still don’t give a flying fuck
I lost my eyes to a wedding in Atlanta
And I left my skin in a taxi in Havana
I drove into a pitch black sky in Central Indiana
And then I buried my heart in the laughing hills of Montana
So you keep driving your Grand AM
And I’ll go off the deep end
I’m tanked for something but I don’t know what
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4. |
Sweetness Falls
03:12
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This is my grand tack hypothesis
That something I can’t name drew me into this
That something I can’t explain pulled me into this
But it’s all the same, I’m driving into the abyss
When sweetness falls on the gumdrop sky
And the licorice trees all bow goodbye
When candy canes melt in morning mountain dew
When I take the job that takes me away from you
I’m gonna choke
This is my grand tack hypothesis
My first mistake was cognizance
And since then it’s been so monotonous
That I’ve begun to lose all confidence
Here I am – I’m coming near
Past the asteroid belt and driving in high gear
And Galileo’s moons now in my sight
And Jupiter glowing bright
Like Io’s tidal flexing
I re-center my direction
When sweetness falls on the gumdrop sky
And the licorice trees all bow goodbye
When candy canes melt in morning mountain dew
When I take the job that takes me away from you
I’m gonna choke
When the truckers began to arrive on Jupiter, reality began to set in. Though they had been warned that the trip would take too long for them to return to Cheap City, they never really believed it. And so they were forced to reckon with building a life on a new planet, whose texture somehow reminded them of cotton candy.
When sweetness falls on the gumdrop sky
And the licorice trees all bow goodbye
When candy canes melt in morning mountain dew
When I take the job that takes me away from you
I’m gonna choke
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5. |
Static in the Sky
04:27
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STATIC IN THE SKY
Welcome to the pass
Stop and savor the taste
Old stubborn legs
Holding up your old stubborn frame
I know it seems so long ago
That you up and left your home
For 18 gears and steel and speed
The call of hyperspace galactic dreams
Well it’s like oil leaked into the place
I stored all my ambitions
Stained the thoughts tied up in knots
And clogged up the ignition
Like the desert turning cold
Like a child growing old
Like a liquid nitrogen sea
I’m swallowed by the galaxy
Like static in the sky
Welcome to the pass
This is where we’re based
How’s it feel to finally
Be on the other side of space
How’s it feel to finally
Take a breath and let go
Of all the anger and frustration that
Made you up and leave your home
That made you up and forget your soul
That made you up and lose control
Well I don’t know but it probably feels pretty good
And it’s like oil leaked into the place
I stored all my ambitions
Stained the thoughts tied up in knots
And clogged up the ignition
Like the desert turning cold
Like a child growing old
Like a liquid nitrogen sea
The moons reflects right back to me
Like static in the sky
Well it’s like oil leaked into the place
I stored all my ambitions
Stained the thoughts tied up in knots
And clogged up the ignition
Like the desert turning cold
Like a child growing old
Like a liquid nitrogen sea
Space flips and turns its back to me
Like static in the sky
Static in the sky
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