Strange Currencies: A Podcast For Songwriters

It always starts with love Before the reality of hate Neon halo over your head Under the fire escape The night’s grown late And our ambition turned to mud The purity of your intention Ending with a sniffed-up drug And your mentor’s a slug Slurping the university She said you getting high’s empowering It sounded like an alibi to me No one is ever free But you can’t get that through your head Just like you can’t get over Someone else is always prom queen instead My fury must be fed I dance for those I’d rather destroy An instant armchair analysis Of your most complex boy toy Metropolitan witch Do you even exist? Metropolitan witch We should above this Dirty city On broomsticks Well its only bad luck If you put faith in coincidence If you believe in better angels Assigned to unwashed miscreants The respect unsent By people who can’t be true Daddy incorporated See, I can be psychoanalytical too The values aren’t new Culture catalyzed by guilt Light a fire then cash your check Noth

Another savage night Camouflaged in neon You could use a friend To lean on The stranger inside Is a white-veiled bride Sinking in the altar she’s standing on And the upside of numbness Is that your conscience Has become Teflon Van Ronk doesn’t live here anymore And the avant garde in the record store Philosophize about being reborn In a time more pure Once was, but nevermore Nevermore Chorus: The holy water and vodka, circle the same drain In the name of a sadness never given a name The paralysis is an expression a shame Some sadness never given a name You wish there was a face That smiled just for you Brighter than the Broadway lights Illuminating eighth-avenue But you aren’t meaningful in the machinery A tuxedoed guitar, praising the secular god And methods to justify the thievery Rebel or Machiavelli What revolution do you want to sell me? The bones of a skinned fish Glitter above the avenue And it only took a few drinks To accept it never mattered what was true When nothing

My newest tune.

Life in the empire /The sentries sing at sunrise/ Their Gods are deader / Than the sadness in their eyes / And I am tethered / To the awaited surprise / The turn in the narrative / The truth in the lies / Where all will make sense / Be at last contextualized / Alone in their own reality / Where no one may hide Life in the empire / Culture is an old bag / Accusing you of having / Things you never had / And some tin-eared pawn / Celebrates the new hit / While another gatekeeper / Decides if your copper slipper fits / They danced in the street / Because they thought they won / But nothing is stopping / The next flood The songs inside me must be born / Like the clothes outside you / Must be worn / And the seawall constructed / On the cusp of Babylon / When there still were matinees / In days halcyon / Such a feat of engineering / A true union job / But praying in high-water / Bought me closer to god / May the old become new / And life continue on / We are but the remnants / Of a world that is gone Life i

Goodbye Forever Dream Please dream Your vivid dog dreams Chasing the prize Down the hill Securing a kill ‘Tween your teeth Days Cold days Alone under The burnt-out Sun Undying and unwilling to Stay We can walk eternal An endless jaunt together Find a new face of earth Its never gonna be Goodbye forever But you always knew There was a chance I wouldn’t make it Back to you Anguish where you lie Cause it could be goodbye forever And we never knew What those passing days Would do Treats Here’s another treat You’re too damn fat But Hard old life Has me Beat In summer Liminal summers Hosing you down With the backyard hose Before you shook Under nature’s Thunder You can go free No more polite society Make an alpha your bitch Start a family Its never gonna be Goodbye forever But you always knew There was a chance I wouldn’t make it Back to you Tormented cries when we die Cause it could be goodbye forever And you never knew What those passing days Would do

A life in a mirror Of someone’s design With a fleeting interest In my own mind New, improved rules Assimilated inside Genuflect and pray Before your mobile device There’s a new boss in town Polarized from the other guy Queens is quiet tonight I hate when bands make me wait For something I’ve already seen With survival less guaranteed It matters less what it all means Falling through the seasons Of my dreams Observing the fire hydrant ejaculating blood On my $100 jeans It’s hardly apathetic Noticing where we no longer align Queens is quiet tonight The urgency of yesterday Becomes an uneasy today In a broken contract with safety Which used to account for the price paid And the poets always miss The sunset’s indifference And the politicians equate a vote With a kind of spiritual deliverance The Internet has fallen And now there’s nowhere to hide Queens is quiet tonight My notebook’s privilege Might be something you forgive In the mad dream of culture Where we both live Somewhere a p

Streetlight Oh streetlight Under starlight Guide me Home tonight Stranded On 1st Avenue And my only way to 8th Is on these old shoes Just passed Beth Israel I’m not convinced I’m completely miserable Bought your EP And there’s a tinfoil pizza In Queens awaiting me Third draft In too deep But when I get home The neighborhood’s asleep And who needs a life raft When you’ve got a good buoy? I can only live the life Which feels true to me If there’s no time There’s no time Which is yours or mine By sunlight The streetlight Is godlike From its omniscient height And the stage in The Map Room Is occupied by ghosts That could never breakthrough I take Attendance Circle a bubble To confirm a child’s existence Tell me How to reach you While minding deliverance Is beyond my purview Everyone wants An answer As if it would be the same For each and every one of them And who needs innocence Compared with the variety of Experience I’d bet your life stays the same Wheth

A Moment or Two Upon your balcony You see me Tender evening’s intimacy Embodies mercy In a servant’s disguise you flee Into me These sad things Killed our passion with love A quelled candle in a sleeping tomb Where flies one lost dove For a moment or two Our warring families Write no treaties Caressing in summer’s heat Down our dark streets Lovers have privacy When the city sleeps These sad things Killed our passion with love A quelled candle in a sleeping tomb Where flies one lost dove For a moment or two Returned to your property Because you have to be An appointment with an apothecary He charges a flat fee There should be two moons above the sea Like your eyes are twin suns to me These sad things Killed our passion with love A quelled candle in a sleeping tomb Where flies one lost dove For a moment or two

Sunday Planes Sunday planes Flying low Through your hair Soft and slow We are alive Let’s take a ride Absurdity Sing to me There’s still an ambulance Waiting for me Beyond another Dreamt summer And should we part Without a goodbye Know you were more than enough For a reason why My faithful skeptic For the rest of it I’ll find the sweetness between Optimism and delirium In an empire on its knees No longer high on helium Without an identity Beyond the taught and bought Upon the cereal stained textbook page Describing the battles we fought Sunday brain Power-saving mode I’ve stopped seeing birds Flying alone In the blue Queens sky Of our collective mind Ghosts in the street Serenade me I’m only writing prayers No more prophecy Of the mercurial light Only redefined night Ambitions fade Seasons leave The flowers grow again Before the dirt can grieve In a clearing by the sea Where you once held me I’ll lean on the abstract read Of my most contradictory components I have

The Show Do Tell Reading Series made a one-day return at Governor’s Island for the New York City Poetry Festival. I’m definitely hoping to get the series going again in a more consistent format by 2022 (or before!). But until then this lovely summer day with three extremely talented readers and my amazing fiancé recording the reading will have to do. I could not have done a facsimile of our standard format without Brendan, Amy and Aaron being awesome collaborators. Hope you enjoy! Brendan Lorber is a poet, prose writer, and editor who lives in a little castle on the highest geographic point in Brooklyn, across from the Green-Wood Cemetery. Over two decades in the making, his first full-length book just came out. It’s called If this is paradise why are we still driving? and is published by the Subpress Collective. He’s also written several chapbooks, most recently Unfixed Elegy and Other Poems (Butterlamb) He’s appeared in the American Poetry Review, Fence, McSweeney’s, Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. Amy B

My Inner-life’s centered Like a good conspiracy My back was turned overlong Toward some memory Where I was who they wanted to be Faded photograph Wrapped in a robe outside The church I wrote these words Corporate daddy Told me their worth It was dignified work Contaminated future bats Taking selfies in a cave But drink up your idealism And think positive thoughts Today Cause someone will Pay Riding out the rain In my mind Underground Guess I could’ve been someone else If I weren’t so proud To make this sound I need an intruder Nothing is not wrong I’ve serenaded this brick wall Through seven cycles of dawn Internally rage at betrayal While grinding up the seaside fortress It’s a strange trip for a Catholic kid Uncovering what the secular worship The downtown world, the better future The hijacked producing an exception Couldn’t understand their lesson How home should be a weapon Well this guy from Queens Don’t self-destruct Because fate disobeyed I walke

The Show Do Tell Reading Series and Art review returns with an in-depth review of Bob Dylan's latest album 'Rough and Rowdy Ways.' Matt also sifts through his feelings about his nonexistent personal essay about life during the pandemic, the subliminal appeal of film noir and gangster movies, and the state of the New York Yankees, who resigned venerable outfielder Brett Gardner during this episode's recording.

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Fre

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Fre

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Fre

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Fre

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Fre

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Fre

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Fre

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Fre