Musee Mechanique

One Album

In the basement of a small Victorian home on the banks of the Willamette river, five young gentlemen have been busy crafting lushly orchestrated pieces of music.  The notes and lyrics that seep through those low windows is a kind of music-box folk, acknowledging a past rich with mystery and wonder while grappling with a future filled with the chill of the digital age. This is a band of fierce friends and musical artisans named Musée Mécanique.
The anchor of the band’s sound can be found in the melodic and lyrical wells of Micah Rabwin and Sean Ogilvie (Tristeza).  The wisps of accordions, musical saws and pedal steel; the clangs of glockenspiels, pianos, and garage sale synthesizers; the swells of trumpets, woodwinds and strings all compliment and complete that solid foundation with delicate and intricate attention.
Their namesake, a museum of antique coin-operated mechanical music boxes and novelties located on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf., whose artisan-crafted machines embody a symbiosis between humanity and technology, is perfectly suited to the music swimming in their heads.  Like the towering piles of vintage National Geographic magazines scattered in their Portland, Oregon basement, the museum itself has served as a compass for the group’s arrangements and lyrical subjects.
The members of Musée Mécanique hail from both coasts and places in between.  Rabwin and Ogilvie began writing and performing music together as boyhood friends and, after founding the band in 2006, they enlisted the talents of Matt Berger (drums), Jeff Boyd (bass) and Brian Perez (keyboards, lap steel) to actualize their orchestrations in a live setting.  Since then, Musée Mécanique has toured extensively throughout the U.S., enjoying the company and talents of Great Lake Swimmers, Wye Oak, Horse Feathers, Eleni Mandell, Laura Gibson and Michael Hurley among others.
Their debut full-length album “Hold This Ghost” was completed with the help of Producer/Engineer/Mixer/Sorcerer Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Laura Veirs) and was released in September of 2008.  The band has spent the last two years touring the US and Europe in support of the record, bringing their accordion, lap steel, 2 glockenspiels, musical saw and 7 keyboards to new listeners across the globe.

Music

10 songs
Song
Length
Actions
1
Like Home Hold This Ghost
More: Lyrics
03:48

Lyrics:

Take precious things away, With clouds and tape, Strike up the bell to play, And walk down to the lake, Hold this ghost, Sweet unknown, Hold this ghost, Feels like home, Pack all your words in case, We take them all away, Find us the darkest space, In time can't quite taste, Hold this ghost, Feels like home, Hold this ghost, Sweet unknown...
2
Two Friends Like Us Hold This Ghost
More: Lyrics
03:32

Lyrics:

Stained glass and telephones, Trace the edges of these creaking bones, Where sunlight dares not go, Shadows now where once our fingers wrote, Along you arm, Little kisses in the dark, Strangers like us, Pacing the floor naked, Wrapping up in blankets as you said, You're not like other men, Strange we've never met before and then, The lights went out, Smoke comes curling from your mouth, Tangled like us. Reading your letter I, Hope that we could meet some future time, That we could stroll the park, Drinking wine and talking until dark, And then we'd part, Seems to me that it's a start, Two friends like us...
3
The Propellors Hold This Ghost
More: Lyrics
05:38

Lyrics:

December seventeenth, nineteen-hundred three, propellors turned to wings. The age of air and hand, besides the bicycle man, set unknown fates to spin. Let high the waits spun round, let the engine sound. And show her skill take crowd. Lieutenant Selfridge cried, over maker flight. The hand's been open wide, and helped his life and flight. Got fate to wreck and land, tangling constantly. In bloodied coffins send, wherefore fills arm in sling, he dreamt of curious things. Of terrible flying machines with wings under their wings.
4
The Things That I Know Hold This Ghost
04:27

Lyrics:

She wraps her letters up with finger nails, And reads them only to herself, She hangs her walls with bits of cellophane, What a perfect day, And as she sleeps beneath her sheets, Made up like canopies against the wind, She holds her plastic boxes through the night, Never see the light, These are the things that I know, She creeps outside to watch the trains go by, And rides her bike out in the rain, I saw her once and thought that she might smile, So I'll wait a while, These are the things that I know, The winter came and passed away, She tried to speak but nothing came out right, And then she sent her letters far away, They arrived today, These are the things that I know, These are the things that I know, These are the things that I know, But these things are mine to hide, In a place that I'll, Never find...
1
The Things That I Know (Instrumental)
Instrumental
04:27
5
Fits And Starts Hold This Ghost
More: Lyrics
05:56

Lyrics:

These postures are cold, Seems that I'm fine to not to do, Anything, Then again, Who's looking? This scene's getting old, Yet I can't seem to take the fact, I might, Just give up, So it goes, Who's for it? My eyes have gone numb, What's the use when I can't see a thing? Anymore? Poor, Tired, And lonely, It's what I hear when I'm lost, And alone in the dark, This is my song, It comes in phrases as, it fits and it starts, This simple last song, This town is erased, Maybe it's just me but all it's spark, Are all blank, Who forgot, To write them? The wilderness taped, Shut in back with two bikes and a cigarette, Machine, They are all, Deserted, It's what I hear when I'm lost, And alone in the dark, This is my song, It comes in phrases as, It fits and it starts, This simple last song, This wall was condemned, Thought it might decide to fall on a man, In the night, To sad, To notice, The pieces fall in, Shattered bricks like the sound of an old, Dixie band, Those holy waters, It's what I hear when I'm lost, And alone in the dark, This is my song, It comes in phrases as, It fits and it starts, This simple last song...
6
Somehow Bound Hold This Ghost
03:47

Lyrics:

I hear you laughing through the wall, It's been two hours just one call, Talking on the phone with some guy that I might know, Hoping I don't know, But it's too late to take offence, I can't shake off this lovely past, Cause it still lingers on but I hope it moves on soon, I hope it moves on soon, Sweet sweet love of me, Please please leave me, Broken dreams that brought us down, Are still hanging 'round this house, Polaroids of hands and arms still hanging somehow bound, No I can't understand your plan, Take a love from the next man's hands, What was innocently seen now seems obvious to me, The glows we sort of seen but once not so deep, Not so deep, Sweet sweet love of me, Please please leave me, All the moments that we had, Circle 'round me in my sleep, And what was fun and what was seen, Well we fucked it up complete...
1
Somehow Bound (Instrumental)
Instrumental
03:48
7
Under Glass Hold This Ghost
More: Lyrics
03:47

Lyrics:

She can say so easily, Rat me out, Wait and see, What a verse of silent rhymes, We can see, Just can't speak, I had already gone, She was on her way home, Never should have said, Take what I can get, Take a breath and keep it in, Close your eyes, Keep them still, Rainy day inside your sheets, Rat me out, Stay with me, I had already gone, She was on her home, Never should have said, Take what I can get, Strung across the space between, Strings of glass, Shuddering, Who are we imagining? In our chests, Fluttering, I had already gone, She was no her way home, Never should have said, Take what I can get...
8
Sleeping In Our Clothes Hold This Ghost
More: Lyrics
04:22

Lyrics:

Three cheers for romance, Standing in her robes, Out on the highway side tonight, She'll pass a side glance, Tracing with her fingers, Words that I forgot to write, Off we go, Sleeping in our clothes, Waking up to find no where to go, Rain and snow, Pacing to and fro, Waiting for the spring to come, Every garden grows, And we'll find a place that we can call our home, Centered or bested, The letters that we write, To our offices down town, Good luck she sends back, Cases full of stationary, Don't forget to write, You might be in luck this time, Off we go, Sleeping in our clothes, Waking up to find no where to go, Rain and snow, Pacing to and fro, Waiting for the spring to come, Every garden grows, And we'll find a place that we can call our home (x2)
9
Nothing Glorious Hold This Ghost
05:01

Lyrics:

Nothing And nothing's where you're at When you ain't got something You'll never get it back It's coming on like a drug The universal power of one But it don't mean nothing If it all comes undone (uh-huh) Fly away If you fly away You might die today If you fly Fly Gimme some love Gimme some skin If we ain't got that then we ain't got much And we ain't got nothing (repeat) You're left with nothing And nothing's what you've got When you ain't got no-one, no-one You could have had the lot And if it's over today You'll never get that thing you had together, no way You only get it once Fly away If you fly, If you flyimme some love Gimme some skin If we ain't got that then we ain't got much And we ain't got nothing Gimme some love Gimme some skin If we ain't got that then we ain't got much And we ain't got nothing, nothing We ain't got nothing A day's a number Don't remember how you found it You will never feel the same And forever have to take It for granted, don't remember our mistake We ain't got nothing A day's a number Don't remember how you found it You will never feel the same And forever have to take It for granted, don't remember our mistake Gimme some love So gimme some skin If we ain't got that then we ain't got much And we ain't got nothing, nothing (x4)
1
Nothing Glorious (Instrumental)
Instrumental
04:58
10
Our Changing Skins Hold This Ghost
04:43

Lyrics:

Once if I remember well, The days were filled with sun and wind, It came to dusk the lights would flicker on, Fortresses of pillows hanging sheets from all the bookshelves, We were kings and queens of our own little lands, Spinning in our changing skins, We'd walk through walls with dizzy heads, Fortune told us angels fear to fly, Secrets that we held inside, Thin the child who wonders why, Wonders why a laugh sounds like a cry, Who wonders why a laugh sounds like a cry, With fraudulent identities, Polaroids and mystery, Smiling faces two dimensionally, Tooth by tooth and leaf by leaf, With other hands and other feet, Our mothers frowned as arms grew out of sleeves, Adulturing was just a thing to be...
1
Our Changing Skins (Instrumental)
Instrumental
04:38
2
Our Changing Skins (Instrumental)(:60)
:60 Cutdown
01:02
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