more from
Take This To Heart Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Kicking

by ness lake

/
  • Streaming + Download

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

      $5 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Snazzy little digipak

    Includes unlimited streaming of Kicking via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Kicking via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD or more 

     

1.
Sitting 03:09
A starched pressed shirt It's black, buttoned up to the neck You mourn the loss of the things you can't get back Make sure the lighting is right in the frame by the box Your hair is tangled and taped up in archetypical locks And you mourn the loss of your equivocal self You're resting past refrains of hope you get well You shred the cards You hum melodies Of songs that you’d heard before The familiar lines of forgotten words Of dying young, your brother’s songs Caesura, vertigo, and counting wrong But this doesn't feel like falling This doesn't feel like falling Until you're face up in a smaller bed Surrounded by friends that you've never met Who talk about food and the places you've been They ask have you found god Have you seen him I'm sure He will love the stories you tell You're resting past refrains of hope you get well You shred the cards You hum melodies
2.
Kicking 01:05
Forgive me, I am kicking At your windows, with both feet Forget me, I am kicking At your windows, with both feet
3.
Cut down the trees except the ones by the road You spent a whole summer trying to sweat out the drugs You said that “there's new patches on my jacket And on my skin, with names and brands, I can't tell where denim ends or begins” There's this journal that i have Where I write when i can Little things I should say But I can't understand They go line by line, Pretend the grammar is fine Cut down the trees except the ones by the road I spent a whole summer trying to perfect my throw You coached quietly You rolled up your sleeves But all along I knew your words were final The membranes and fulcrums of perfect spirals Arrange my fingers on the spine Calculate my release, make sure it's on time
4.
I think it's terrifying I think it is quite scary That as the seasons change my breath it goes to menthol cherry I’ve got an IV of black coffee and my throats too sore to smoke Yet I romanticize the two because it makes me feel composed I’m power washing paint To prepare for new coats I’m buying salt to season pavement I’ve been layering my clothes The winter’s harsh on warm bodies My heart's still pumping heat I want to watch Fight Club with your dad again on dvd And he’ll say that I want you to hit me as hard as you can I want it to hurt I want to feel like the man That my father intended on taking his name Creating a family and filling his frames I’ve got paintings on the wall with artist's names I can't pronounce You know that when I write these songs I get caught up in the pronouns It's the way that I write these things that I feel that lets me step back and say that You’re being dramatic Misanthropy is trite Write a happy song for once Well I think that I might I’m putting postage on bad poetry I’m too afraid to send You know that i want to watch Fight Club with your dad again I want you to hit me as hard as you can I want it to hurt I want to feel like the man That my father intended on taking his name Creating a family and filling his frames
5.
Forgot 03:19
I’d never seen Someone burning effigies Like destroying The parts that work would help forget what else broke off Would help you forget, the things that you forgot You thought that you could burn pictures like your schoolwork in june A shot of us, by your pool Smiling for a flash -- before you were through Sharing how expensive polaroid film is online Sharing how expensive it can be to invest your time You thought that you had found someone who's fine At my very best, I am okay, alright You said that I don’t want anyone to know But sometimes it brings me down
6.
I’ll make your bed like a grave and I’ll be in your basement Tell me when your friends die I can come replace them I’ve been next to nothing Or at most adjacent I have never changed I have always stayed complacent
7.
Microwave 03:33
Taking time, watching cars Everything you’d wanted, for too long Rewire your brain, shuffle the cards Deal a hand that won’t fall apart You said everything was easy Turn off your brain Trust your body to work Perfect me, turn me on a lathe, Get creative, turn my skull into a microwave And turn me around Till I can’t think straight Till il I feel safe Something simple, small, so nondescript You start to stumble, stop to trip Over brevity, you closed your lips and said Nothing more will pass Nothing more would pass for a sad excuse, You said you’d stop It started for attention, Till everyone forgot When they should intervene They left you all alone In the threadbare remains of your favorite clothes You said everything was easy Turn off your brain Trust your body to work Perfect me, turn me on a lathe, Get creative, turn my skull into a microwave And turn me around Till I can’t think straight Till I feel safe
8.
Ellipsis 03:17
There's a journal inside your mattress You write things down, lie spine to spine You close your eyes pull covers up They're unfleshed, they're unrefined You play with syntax Try to design An honest rhyme, articulate Try to link together lines Pretend the grammar is just fine But there's no subject verb agreement You say sleep, you stay up You're not concerned with passive voice When actions were enough To exact by me Exact by her Reach out to your muses, your dreams deferred and hope for Holy hoped for Angels passing bloody doors You disrespect connected dots Now they're crawling across your floor
9.
Varicose 03:01
I’ve come to terms with the fact As things turn green i turn black and blue Suffering from a lack of a tact when I talk to you Hoping that one day you’ll understand just what I mean But there’s good lighting in your bathroom I can hear you through the vent You’ve been talking to my mother wishing I’d stop the arguments With the mirror on the wall As I thought about you bathing Hoping water against tile won’t drown out your singing And I’ll hear Take my hands please hold me close I’ll love you till our veins grow varicose
10.
Salt Stains 04:58
Salt stains at the bottom of your shoes Reflect your good intentions and the things you meant to do When you'd walk through the slush and you'd walk through the snow Just because you wanted me to know That you cared Probably more than me And I guess that that is fine, I think I led you to believe That you were overbearing and you care too much i guess that show how much i know about Being in love So I’ll crush a word between my teeth To keep the thoughts from coming out Ever since you said you were going north My thoughts have been heading south But everytime I digress I put myself in a place, and if I stay there too long You know that I can't erase, The words that you wrote across my wrist and my chest That say that you're all I need, I don't care about the rest And everytime I digress I put myself in a place, and if I stay there too long You know that I can't replace The hole that you left Inside of my rib cage, it is a symbol, a reminder of my heart and your spade

about

Life can often feel like you’ve been stationary for decades, only passively interacting with people and things, and like you’re watching the most drawn-out stop-motion decay. Places and people that used to make you feel alive will eventually become dull, hollow reminders of memories tainted by age and nostalgia until your brain inevitably decides to weaponize them and you get paper cuts from the stills trapped inside your head. The toll taken from living with the emotional turmoil that comes from seeing your whole life turned inside-out that bleeds through the full scope of the label-debut from Ypsilanti, MI’s Ness Lake; a war-torn white-flag called ‘Kicking.’

Where previous projects of Ness Lake mastermind Chandler Lach felt like a vibrant celebration of all the highs and lows of life, ‘Kicking’ feels like a dark room that’s lit only by the specs of light that sneak past the blinds. The songwriting on the record pays close attention to the minutiae of life; opting to make the small moments that we often overlook feel more like the most grandiose and life-altering interactions of Chandler’s young life. “Cheery Menthol” sees his struggling with traditional concepts of masculinity, and hides a little bit of its “too meek to look you in the eyes” attitude with one the album’s scarcely earworm-y vocal melodies, and sees Chandler longing for the smallest of memories that he’s chosen to cling to, practically begging to “watch Fight Club with your dad again on DVD.”

‘Kicking’ is life on the longest exhale; it’s shallow breath and the muddy thoughts that fall out of your mouth like loose teeth. It’s losing touch with things that once made you feel like yourself and coming to terms with the way the world seems to keep spinning even when you feel like you’ve been at a stand-still for years.

‘Kicking’ is out June 15th on CD/CS/DIGITAL on Take This To Heart Records.

credits

released June 15, 2018

Ness Lake is:
Chandler Lach: songs/vocals/guitars
Kristofer Lane: synth/robot noises
Alex Sorenson: percussion
Jack Parsons: bass/robot noises
Victoria Hamilton: trumpet

Special thanks to:
Nick Diener and Oneder Studios for the mixing, production, and engineering of the record.
You, and your family’s generosity and patience contributed directly to the creation of this record.
Jay Maas for mastering the record.
Joe Urban and Take This to Heart Records for believing in the songs,
(even though some of them don’t have choruses!)
Matthew Ryan Johnson for the fantastic art and design.
It is my utmost privilege to pair our art with yours.
(matthewryanjohnson.com)
To Kris, Alex, Jack, and Victoria, y’all are spectacular. Thank you.
To our friends and family, thank you for your unfaltering support.

Thank you for listening to the record.
Keep improving, keep believing, and keep kicking.
Everybody’s building.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

ness lake Ypsilanti, Michigan

i lean in
n3sslake@gmail.com

@n3sslake on twitter/insta

contact / help

Contact ness lake

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like ness lake, you may also like: