Get all 7 The Hempsteadys releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of On The Undercard, Golden Tooth, Séance! Séance!, Live at Cafe Nine, Charlie Dynamite, El Amor De Los Muertos, and Fox EP.
1. |
Rats
03:42
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Auld Lang Syne sung in time for the New Years Baby
Start again right after midnight before we all got crazy
Out with the old and in with the new, toasted like the Gatsby
It all looked nice on the black and white before we lost it on the big screen
For all we lack
There's no turning back
It could all turn black
and we're all just trapped like rats
stick with me, we'll make a rat pack
Holding time is like a champagne sip, it never seeps the savory
you try again to contain it but you know you just can't save me
out with the old and in with the new toasted like the last time
it all feels like it's been done before, follow me for the changes
For all we lack
There's no turning back
It could all turn black
and we're all just trapped like rats
stick with me, we'll make a rat pack
If we're all just rats
let's thrash in trash
If we're all just rats
let's thrash in trash
If we're all just rats
let's thrash in trash
If we're all just rats
let's thrash in trash
Another Rat to the Pack
Another Rat to the Pack
Another Rat to the Pack
Another Rat to the Pack
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2. |
Russian Kola
03:29
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Did time on the marginot line
Searching for an anchor
In lucky strikes and wine
French girls had something in their eyes
Only found in war time
That struck a chord in mine
My hands were on her waist
Lips to lips
Face to face
Only thing that I could taste was a trace
Of Russian Kola
Moscow, Lenin, Stalingrad
The times had changed the war that stayed
Was silent, cold, and long
Russian Girls Could Hypnotize
The way the stick their finger in the drink and stirred the ice
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3. |
East River
03:44
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4. |
Real Life
04:16
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If questioned by law I'd swear on my life
all accusations violently denied
paparazzi relentless, you know that they'll try
and they'll try
Every fake moment in a parallel life
repeated to press with a smile so wide
believing each story we told each time
was a lie
If we're all living a lie
Is it all real life?
Financial decisions, morality clause
hustled through backdoors of our favorite bars
what first was exciting feeling it's wrong
now's just wrong
Always an actor when the camera's on
and there's always a camera capturing all
if there's always a script to followed along
you get lost
If we're all living a lie
Is it all real life?
If we're all living a lie
Is it all real life?
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5. |
666
02:41
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666 is the Number of the Beast
Your wrote it on the bathroom wall
We were 12 years old and we thought it looked cool
on the cover of a record at the mall
We didn't know that it would
open portals up that
Beelzebub and demon stuff could
jump in and out and back and forth from
so we scratched it out and sharpied
"Kill 'Em All"!!!
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6. |
Into The Great Beyond
04:21
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7. |
Lucille
04:14
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I won't come around no more Lucille
Now I know just how you really feel
I never wanted to hurt you or hold you to something if it wasn't real
So I won't come around no more Lucille
Your new girl can take you out on the town
You can go to all the places we used to both close down
and if I happen to see you out
I'll buy us all around but now
I won't come around no more Lucille
Don't think I'm all alone
I've got the open road
and I'm riding off from out the past
I'm riding off from out the past
I'm riding off from out the past
with a Druid on my back
I won't come around no more Lucille
I'm throwing it all between the wheels
There ain't a moment I can keep everyone was born free
So I won't come around no more Lucille
I won't come around no more Lucille
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8. |
On The Undercard
02:52
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Sacremento or bust
leaving Denver in the dust
Poughkeepsie and Portland got nothing on us
The fat of the land
just get in the van
sit in the seat and repeat
THIS IS GUNNA BE FINE
We were kids once
I know you were too
I want to remember how it felt
to think this would could be true
Future seems bleak
moral is weak
but word on the street
IS THE CHAMP CAN BE BEAT
Always fought as The Undercard
The cities they change
Opponents the stage
The lockers the wage
If we even got paid
Always a smell in the air
you can only find there
all I could hear was the crowd
as they yelled KNOCK HIM OUT
We were kids once
I know you were too
I want to remember how it felt
to think this would could be true
My corners alive
Cutman's on my eye
My coach in my ear and he cries
TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT
Always Fought as the Undercard
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9. |
Nihilist
03:15
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You can't keep holding something intangible just let it slip
Every passing moment slips right through your fingertips
If every false conviction
If every half truth wins
I wish you would believe in something
But I know you're a Nihilist
With every forward motion passing seconds bound to end
I still hold a hope that in the bitter end you'll have something left
If every false conviction
If every half truth wins
I wish you would believe in something
But I know you're a Nihilist
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10. |
Hold The Closer
05:11
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The cinema lights on the marque outside
read special appearance for only one night
I used to get by on the streets like a thug
peddling trinkets or the old ball and cup
an ocean of faces to be conned and grifted
always an eye out for past marks I've lifted
developed these skills that I kept to this day
that transferred like gold to the big Vaudeville stage
Advanced from the streets when the carnival came
rolling through town, accepting depraved
from Ogden to Brokway the crowds that we took
almost arrested in North Haverbrook
No cheap carnie freak, no low level geek
no gypsy switch needed, my act was complete
Now I'm on the level, everything is so real
from opening number to dramatic reveal
The Nights
The Nights
The Lights
The Lights
The Love
The Love
The Fights
The Fights
Hold the Closer
Hold the Closer
Hold the Closer
The Curtain Call is calling out my name
Hold the Closer
Hold the Closer
Hold the Closer
The Curtain Call is calling out my name
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The Hempsteadys New London, Connecticut
From their beginning on Hempstead Street in New London Connecticut, to cities across the U.S. and Canada, The Hempsteadys have enjoyed every minute of it. What best sums up the Hempsteadys is lyric is a lyric from their concept album El Amor de los Muertos; "what really matters in this world is here tonight". On The Undercard, their latest release, proves they are much more than just a ska band. ... more
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