Say cool kids
Consumers and connoisseurs of cosmic far-out music
How does this groove do for your ear drums?

When the digital bang becomes too crisp to sip
When you need some of that analogue thick
Where do you go to get your fix?

That warm, heavy bass dropping anchors
And chords in your soul
Make you want to reach back for that eight-track
Miss the feel of the reel to reel
The heat of plastic cassette tape ejected from the deck
That crackle in the vinyl
Like a fingerprint
It’s distinctiveLike when the night wind learned to whisper tunes
Into the grooves of your grandfather’s old dusty records
When you had to use those two buttons and two fingers
To get your tape to record
The radio jam spilling it’s hot samples
From that volcano of a boom box

It’s like the wind

Like the music never knew how to stop
Like it was waxing poetic
Seeking to touch the slim of the tape
To the wide of the magnetic
So you can listen to us now
Clear
Effective

So now we wax progressive
Rewinding our downloads to the streams
So they seem to have a message when we play them back
So they fall back into the crate
Into the case
Into the sleeve
Into our soul
Where they live

Because we
We here to push that vintage sound forward
Right here we
We wax progressive

(Hear our rhythm in our soul that’s the way we live
Hear the language that we speak call it wax progressive)

When the evening’s darkest
She arrives and softly whispers
Through the night

Can’t fight
Her light

It radiates and gently soothes
It brings up memories and moves
Me right

Can’t fight
Her light

And when she sings
It grabs hold of me
Sustains the high
Sustains the high

And when she’s gone
All the yearning
Bleeds into life
Bleeds into life

I keep running
(& running)

To escape her icy touch that gripped me
In my darker times
When I’d do anything
To touch the sky

I keep running
(& running)

Bare my soul and leap in faith
My clarity came through my fall
Her hold on me is gone

When you open up the doors everything is yours
A long road full of pain for a little joy
It’s like you brought a baby forth that you couldn’t abort
Just to watch it walk away the moment that you cut the cord
But was it more than an illusion?
Losing or improving is it suffering or soothing?
Now you’re in confusion, trying to stay intact
So you put it on a track, bouncing back from the poison of your choosing
Running

To escape her icy touch that gripped me
In my darker times
When I’d do anything
To touch the sky

I keep running
(& running)

Bare my soul and leap in faith
My clarity came through my fall
Her hold on me is gone

I swear it’s never been a rhythm that I couldn’t ride a melody I can’t design
A memory from harder times that I can’t refine
A flaw that wasn’t mine a tragedy I couldn’t rhyme
Beauty in the deepest struggle that I couldn’t find
So I’m reminded of the vision
You never separate what you create from how you’re living
My life is my exhibit, for life I’ve been committed
So for life I’m gonna love it, ’cause long as I remember why I did it
I’m recovered

•••

Music: Soulganic

Words: Anthony Rodriguez, Ryan McKeithan, Jeff Lucky

Rap: Jeff Lucky

Used to look forward
To seeing your face
Now I’m coming home
Wishing to escape

All the time lying
And pleading your case
I can see right through you, mama
And there’s no mistaking

keep on talking, keep on talking
I’ll be walking
while you’re running your mouth
look in the mirror
cuz you ain’t no paradise

keep on talking, keep on talking
I’ll be walking
while you’re running your mouth
you keep saying it’s me
but you ain’t no paradise

Was on the same team
Ready to ride or die
Thought I didn’t know
About your hustle on the side

Now it’s time to pay the piper
Your bill is on the way
There’s no more excuses, mama
Nothing left to say

•••

Horn arrangements: Matt Giella + Soulganic

Words: Anthony Rodriguez, Ryan McKeithan

Drumline: Marching Cobras of New York

Harmonica: Liam Ward

Trumpet: Matt Giella
Saxophone: Ilia Skibinsky
Trombone: Ross McRae

Lady there’s no rush
The story of our love is drifting far beyond our fears
With every single touch
The beauty of our memories makes our future crystal clear

Cuz in this life
All we have is just time
Your hand in mine girl
We’re just drifting on

And in this life
With our souls entwined
I just want to spend a million days
With you

You draw me like the moon
Gently pull me closer as you comfort and you soothe
And the streets may scar the soil
And men’s power may rise and fall
And we may grow tired and old
But we have now that we can hold on to

•••

Music: Soulganic

String arrangements: Roni Seiler, Nathaniel Wolkstein + Soulganic

Words: Anthony Rodriguez

Violin, viola & cello: Roni Seiler, Nathaniel Wolkstein

Eighteen years ago the choice was made
To take the path of least resistance they
All said that we wouldn’t last
And we didn’t last

The open wounds from the words we said
Drove me to pastures greener and she led
Me to close the door on my past
And look to my future

But how can I give you my all
When I was lost for so long?
How can I give you my all
When before it was wrong?

I’ve struggled for so long to find
A real lover and some peace of mind
And with you here
My life could never be sweeter

But still I doubt that what we have is real
Please be patient mama, I just need time to heal
I know you’re the answer
But I can’t stop questioning

I really want to trust in you
Though I know we’ve got some ways to go
But I’m going to try
So we can walk hand in hand and sing together

•••

Music: Soulganic

Horn arrangements: Matt Giella + Soulganic

Words: Anthony Rodriguez, Adam Jarrett

Trumpet: Matt Giella
Saxophone: Ian Smith
Flute: Ian Smith

I played it over again in my mind
The things you said
Things I said

Thinking he and I are of the same kind
The things he did
I never did

The scars he left in you
The ways I have to prove
For you
To see
Me differently

and when your mind gets to burning
and you think my heart is turning
Though all you’ve known is hurting
Look beyond the pain
I will stay

I know you’re looking for blame to find
I’m not the one who
Chose to leave you

and when your mind gets to burning
and you think my heart is turning
though all you’ve known is hurting
look beyond the pain
I will stay

He was the one who wasn’t there for you
When you needed one to look up to
To show you the things a man should do

And girl I try with you
Cuz this weight’s on you and
Though I can’t undo him leaving you
I’ll be the one to see you through

•••

Try as I might
Can’t wash you off my skin
The sweat of lovers scorned
Digs its heels in

I bury my hopes
Against all that seems right
You’re reaching your limbs
Stretching for the light

And it’s a long way home
A weary road to toe
And whatever seeds we’ve sown
I pray they grow
By the time the morning comes

Try as I may
Can’t wash you from my lips
The words of heroes mourned
For those who can’t come to grips

With how you lock the world away
Listening for a new diatribe
You settle in and watch the play
At home once they kill the lights

•••

Hands up
Can’t breathe
Don’t shoot
Me

Uptight citizens
Say it’s justified
We stay marching on to turn the tides

And if we apologize
Will it stop the fight?

You say we’re the fools
We say look at the proof
Full of fire with no fruits
While you hunt the moon

This is no new truth
It’s reality defined
Need you to hear us crying
And it’s a bitter pill
To take

It’s conquest’s law
Has the world scrolling by
Controlled by fear and
Chasing likes

And if you apologize
Will it stop the fight

We say you’re the fools
For judging us like you do
But the best you can do
Is just hunt the moon

It’s every man for himself
And the Devil for them all
With every man ready to die
For the illusion of liberty

(Tragic actions
Bold reactions
Causing our
Dissatisfaction
Mental spinning
Lives depending
All around us
World is ending)

•••

Music: Soulganic

Words: Anthony Rodriguez, Ryan McKeithan, Cory McClure

Horns: Robbie James

Upon the rise of morning
Exhalations of my yesterday
Evaporate into the worries of
Everything that’s here today
And though I promised myself
To look for the silver linings
They grey of all the what-ifs
Threaten all my happiness

But I’m with you
And time is with us
And I won’t let go

Upon the mist of memories
I see glimpses of your favorite things
Although I can’t be there to show you
I can feel you know it
That if I could I would
Be there to watch you sleep so peacefully
Until the time when you awake
To find you next to me

But I’m with you
And time is with us
And I won’t let go

I count the minutes until
I hear your voice over my telephone
Always hoping, always waiting
For that sound of your smile
I count the days until I see
Your body next to mine
Knowing then we’ll no longer
Be slaves to time

But I’m with you
And time is with us
And I won’t let go

We’ll be together
Once again
It’s what time has told

•••