more from
Cercle Social 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.

Dead Kids, R​.​I​.​P. City

by Soft Kill

/
  • Streaming + Download

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

      $8 USD  or more

     

1.
There’s no room to rest I saw the cracks you’ve been slipping through Fell into the mouths And swallowed up The stories shared between fools These dreams they have no meaning This misery Remembered in hot floods A secret love Roses all around Living out these dampened schemes Clipping death Slipping in between A failing light burns bright Explore the mask you’ve been peeking through Dwell upon the crowd That gathered up The truth that’s bleeding through These dreams they have no meaning This misery Remembered in hot floods A secret love Roses all around Living out these dampened schemes Clipping death Slipping in between
2.
Wanting War 03:36
This is our world What are you waiting for? I spent a day watching I guess I was just wanting war Not single thing that I adore A single thing that keeps me wanting more A single thing worth fighting for A single thing that’s worth wanting more The things she said, those words have left my head A single thing worth dying for This is our world What are we fighting for? i spent a day watching I guess I was just wanting war But here I was just wanting more A single thing thats worth fighting for
3.
Sitting in my room Watching both our endings planned Landing on the moon The world is full of water No wonder lovers drown Like gods pulling us down But it’s the pills we’re fed That pull us up tonight It really made It really made us wonder 
 He’s in trouble now Standing on the banks Feet are getting colder We’re all just getting old He’s in trouble now The city growing colder He’s in trouble now Whispers in our ears Cannot strangle fears Cannot hold back these tears It all just bleeds This shame that makes you shiver 
 Made a shallow tomb Haunting his own head at night Leads this way to sleep It felt like practice I had a brush with sin It all got lost in play No use for happy songs The words they just felt wrong It all just made It all just made him wonder
4.
These words they wash over me I peer from underneath a thousand dreams A voice that follows free Of all the things I deemed were down to punish me I lay broken on the ground These are the things they say Please don’t make a sound Just broken here, here on the ground If the world would turn, just turn away Don’t start though These are the things they say This flood has taken things This god has grown tired Of loving me This voice This voice just leave it be Of all the things I deemed were sure to bury me Lay here underground
5.
Crimey 05:48
Free of any mention They came to wonder why We stood in both directions We both commit the crime I called it each time Get caught get tossed away We came to cross a line These were the harshest days We both commit the crime stalling for time 
 Never realize till you’re pushed away The course that changes in certain ways The peasants locked into the play The course that changes a certain fate But you act sly I looked up at the light You aren’t right We both commit the crime stalling for time 
 You can pretend that you changed Ignore all the mistakes that we’ve still made You held me down to fight the pain I can tell what we bled can’t wash these stains
6.
Pretty Face 02:31
Relax your pretty face Fall in the shadows from afar We roamed around these streets from the seats of stolen cars The man who took the high road Serves the low to a troubled few Cuz it’d be pain and suffering if I suffered without you 
 You laid there on New Years Your lips were turning blue I screamed and prayed and swung my fists To beat the life back through I never thought on different paths we’d cycle back around I never thought I’d see you fall and stay there on the ground 
 Relax your pretty face boy
7.
Ducky 04:19
It was stated as a question But they never really mentioned it before The bliss of piled cash It tumbled to the ground As we were changing Shoveled into the bags Handed to crowds who waited Such a simple task Hid behind the trash that we created You can feel the ache The hands that choke the life away I aimed my gun today And shot outside the frame, And loved the taste Go ahead and remain distant Blistered skin from the second you came exposed It built and boiled over Tucked under the covers Flailing We groveled at the feet Of a life beyond our reach So draining This oh so simple task That ripped it us both in half We created You can feel the ache The hands that choke the life away I aimed my gun today And shot outside the frame, And loved the taste So hand over your worth Exposed your very worst every day I aimed my gun today And shot outside the frame, And loved the taste
8.
Inverness 05:29
What’s in a name?
 Familiar sores exposed
 Spread open again
 But what do we gain? 
I stood outside their home
 And off the top I dove
 Caught by the hands of god
 And placed back in the sky

 The traveling boy who kept me well for two days,
I slept with on the floor of a house on Interstate
 He preferred to sleep up top, under that same sky
 Nodded off the roof, four stories high

 He never walked again and I wonder why
 He never walked again didn’t bother to try
 He never walked again and here I wondered why
 Felt like the time of our lives 

To those I loved who drowned
 Consumed by their escape
 The water filled their pores
 And they sunk to the floor
 We drifted on the lake
 The cold will crack your bones 
In dirt we dug a tomb 
That tomb we made our home

 The shyest boy I knew
 We filled our world with hurt
 The calm of the morning set, the days they were berserk
 Can’t trust where you cop they don’t care if we die 
He nodded off again and all I did was cry 

He never walked again and I wonder why
 He never walked again didn’t bother to try
 He never walked again and here I wondered why
 Had no hold of our lives
9.
Oil Burner 08:23
The man I met at Hooper Had a noose around his neck He was fed up Before the drugs had took him He was not afraid of death No What scared him the most We’re all those beautiful children Jumping rope All around, the desert by the road All the children, running home When he is ready he’ll come back for me I will not be afraid But now is not the time 
 You were my least favorite person Woke up in a pool of poison Still next to you Dreamt I jumped from the building Landed on the ceiling Still next to you 
 The day I left Milam Had a leash around my neck No longer fed up Before the doors had opened Laid tangled by a death So close What scared me the most Was being born Felt like a child finding home All around the desert by the road Just a child, running home When I’m ready I’ll finally feel free I will not be afraid But now is not the time
10.
Boots in the dirt We were stalling For the buzz to take us We’d already paid 
 Here’s to coming clean I want to lie to your face when it’s playful We’re already saved 
 Can you trust your mouth To know that it’s bleach We’ve been drinking Cause we’re running out 
 It’s just mixed with the mud That’s holding us down As we’re sinking In small amounts 
 It’s true the few I’ve loved keep haunting It’s something that never will change The news of those I loved passing It’s crushing but I needed the pain 
 Sorry mom I’m a flirt Always brushing Against the stable Down in the dirt 
 They begged for truth They weren’t able To trust like demanding They be hurt 
 Watch animals scream As they're pulled apart By something higher Up In the chain 
 Tried to save them all They got lifted Up to a heaven Put an end to the fall 
 It’s true the few I’ve loved keep haunting It’s something that never will change The news of those I loved passing It’s crushing but I needed the pain I’ve lost more than most Surrounded here by ghosts It’s something that never will change The news of those I loved passing It’s crushing but I needed the pain

about

A story odyssey of sorts told in ten parts, ten songs - each track essentially a character - “Dead Kids...”, produced by David Trumfio (Built To Spill, Wilco, OK Go) and mastered by the legendary Howie Weinberg (The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana), explores, through a beguiling mix of personal memory, allegory, and narrative structures by turns both poetic and stinging, a long and complicated relationship with a dark version of Portland OR. It’s songs that tell of the fractured and fragile legacies of those lost during the city’s last couple decades as it moves from soggy backwater to unheard of growth and tech-fueled transformation.

Two years in the making, desperate, redemptive, its contrast of  light and shadow favoring the latter, Dead Kids, R.I.P. City is like no other album in the genre, a kind of doom pop Drugstore Cowboy featuring the brave and abandoned, the tender and the afflicted, all teetering in memory on the edge of the city. For all the sadness and pain of addiction haunting it, however, the record, by its very existence, proves that hope doesn’t necessarily win but that, even if at great cost, it can. It’s what makes Dead Kids, R.I.P. City so powerful beyond just the scope of its dark luminous sound and indelible melodies, and is one of the many reasons you’ll carry it with you.

This is Cercle Social 023.

Physical copies available via the link in our bio.

credits

released November 20, 2020

Conrad Vollmer: Electric & Acoustic Guitars
Daniel Valadez: Drums & Percussion
Tobias Grave: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Bass, Synth, Vocals & Lyrics
Owen Glendower: Bass on 2, 6, 9 and Piano on 10
Adam Klopp: Backing Vocals on 3
Tamaryn: Vocals on 4
Dave Trumfio: Synth & Percussion
Nicole Colbath: Additional Lyrics

Recorded at Kingsize Sound Labs & Chateau Trumfio.
Engineered by Celso Estrada.
Mixed by Dave Trumfio.
Produced by Dave Trumfio & Soft Kill.
Mastered by Howie Weinberg.

Cover photo by Megan Tvedt.
All art and text by David Rugh.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Soft Kill Chicago, Illinois

shows

contact / help

Contact Soft Kill

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Soft Kill, you may also like: