Get all 13 Joseph Airport releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Vector 23, Looks Like Tacoma Down There (single), C O S M O S I S, Diorama Pt. 2, Cancelled Flights, Curators of Earth, The Teetotaling Lime EP, Joseph Airport Is Reeling 'Round The Punch Bowl, and 5 more.
1. |
Picnic at Tena Bar
03:16
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When everything
Washed onto the beach
It was cozy and comfortable
Afternoon rays slanting
Through the great watchers
The conifer kings
“I switched my world
Digging in the sand”
When meaningless movement
Brought on the curse
There were winters and losers
Transcription was risky
The serial numbers matched
But the location made no sense
“Your lives will change”
He sent his own father to prison
“I told you that money was cursed”
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2. |
The Gent in 18-C
02:40
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Uneasy in loafers
Five-foot-11
Dapper sunglasses
Bourbon and 7
The gent in 18-C
Is not named D.B.
One-way trip and
30 minutes in the air
Sunglasses folded
Eyes in mid-40s
Lit a smoke for himself
But nothing for me
The gent in 18-C
Lightweight black raincoat
A dark-hued suit
With a white shirt
And distinctive
J.C. Penney clip-on tie
“Can you describe the guy?”
Collared dress shirt
Crisply pressed
Mother-of-pearl tie clip
Pinned hard to the chest
The gentleman
In seat 18-C
Sat in the back
By the jump seat
Where Flo Schaffner
Sentried the aft stairs
“You better look at that note” he advised
“It’s not my phone number inside”
She sat down beside
As he cracked ope’ the case
Showed her eight red cylinders
Four on top of four
The gentleman in 18-C
The gent
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3. |
Take Me To Reno
01:39
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The red brigade is
Waiting in Cuba
But I want you
To take me to Reno
Marching band
With a busted tuba
I want you
To take me to Reno
Round up the chaps
Lower the flaps
We’re steadily descending from air
Lower the stairs
Relinquish your cares
There’s just no other destination
Just take me to Reno
Where the ladies dance
Where I’ll spend all my winnings
That came with my chance
That I took
Just shut up and take me to Reno
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4. |
Bourbon and 7-Up
02:40
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It’s l’intégrale
Black J.C. Penney tie
Like Albert Weinberg’s
Ode to the sky
Owed to this guy
It’s a shot of good corn mash
With ice and Uncola
Give him another glass
Excuse me, miss
I have a bomb in this bag
I’m of the opinion
Evil occasion is brewing
False expectations eschewing
It’s fin de siecle
End of the world
Come sit beside me
How’s about a refill?
And another cigarette
My pet
It’s a shot of good corn mash
With ice and Uncola
Give him another glass
One final score to ease up the pressure
Two hundred thousand more
To know he’d never catch her
Leapfrogging nations and diverse economies
Laundering bills in astonishing quantities
I’m going out the back door
Have you got one on this plane?
Reno is not my destination
I have a soul in declension
Hijacker’s moral dimension
It’s a shot of good corn mash
With ice and Uncola
Give him another glass
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5. |
Alice, Tina and Flo
01:19
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Alice
Short
Coral red
Mandatory cap
On her head
Tina
Blonde
Loneliest
Miles of oceans
In her eyes
Flo
Wigged
Career girl
Stewardess
Went to South Carolina
To become anonymous
Find her an alcove
Find them an answer
Alice, Tina and Flo
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6. |
Incident on Flight 305
00:50
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Johnny cash-and-carry
Flew like canary
A page gone white
If wishes are fishes
They feed on flesh
Pick the bones clean
It’s like a cipher
There’s a shroud
O’er Flight 305
Northwest Orient switchboard
Lights up like a tree
Full of clues for me
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7. |
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I. Cabin Oscillations
Are you serious, Flo?
You left him alone
With a quartet of parachutes
And 200 thousand
Where is the twist?
It’s barebones plotwise
Air stairs descending
Into the tempest of
Cabin oscillations
Gold-plated stations
Cash reaction
Why am I short
Of one morning snort?
Seeking a more secure archive
So we clasp palms with the
Hand from the void
II. SEA-TAC Getaway
It’s a getaway
It’s a mystery
He vanished between
The pages of history
Into books not yet made
Books so new their pages were
Still locked
Inside the pine wood
III. Vanished Between
They found a placard
They found a few bills
But no Dan Cooper
And no goddam D.B.
He lives in between
All of the lines
Of books not yet written
Future heartthrobs
With whom we’ll be smitten
It’s a getaway
It’s a mystery
He vanished between
The pages of history
IV. Necessary Symmetry
Necessary symmetry
Resisted unimposed
One stone for two
Palpable
Opprobrium echoing
In the halls of government
A half-assed job
Costs half your ass
In the end
Nowhere to stand
V. Disturbed Equilibrium
When air swallows sensorium
Disturbed equilibrium
Now nothing remains
No suspects are left
And hardly anyone remembers
One stone for two
Leaves no stairs to descend
Disturbed equilibrium
We are bucking that trend
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8. |
The Missing Minute
03:19
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8:01
He wants the lights out
Wants the curtains drawn
He’s got a grudge
He’s no one’s pawn
8:02
He cut the guidelines loose
Lashed the cash to his ass
All those meals they prepared
Dashed against the bulkhead
8:03
Call in the interceptor jets from Boise
Helicopter time
Sleet and hail and rime
They cannot contact the plane
Something else to blame
Besides the rain
8:05
Hydraulic lifts are down
He is flying free
In the darkness
Drawn into a negative plane
The Washougal awaits
But call it back
The missing minute
8:04
No one is on the floor
Reno in view
Himmelsbach on the horn
Mystery unsolved
No suspects absolved
But roll it back
The missing minute
(Key to the drop zone
Assumptions all unknown)
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9. |
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Agents await your arrival
Marching men
Poxy fens
Circling the drop zone again
Outflanked
Outfoxed
Pine trees mar the horizon
Agents await your arrival
Messages tendered to HQ
Himmelsbach in the brush
Marooned north of Merwin Lake
Hoping the local law can’t be found
Rendezvous with Sheriff Moss
Agents await your arrival
Bullets fall like rain again
Pacific Northwest a devil’s trial
Agents await your arrival
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10. |
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Pertinacious pursuit
The historymonger
Saved it for the air
Couldn’t cut it much longer
His intuitions resumed
Their interior clamor
Antenna channels
The bureau dropped a hammer
Chicanery practitioner
Mystery insider
’Cause Himmelsbach
And his name means trouble
Himmelsbach
Gonna be trouble
Seeking his truth
In a conspiracy bubble
Portland 1980
Nearly one man’s testimony
Secures indictment
New scrutiny on the bounty
Himmelsbach
Gonna be trouble
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11. |
Vector 23
01:42
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Victor’s vector is 23
Pacific Northwest tree canopy
Keep it under 10,000 feet
Lower flaps 15 degrees
Of four collected chutes
He chose the fateful two
Back there alone
Up to no good
Up to his old tricks
Fouling the hydraulics
On course and locked in
Over evergreen canopy
The chainsmoking gentleman
On vector 23
Fighter jets
Intercept course
Rain red hail
Of Pacific North
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12. |
Textbook Accomplice
01:40
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She was positively textbook
In a hardcover kind of way
Scarlet dress
Scarlet scarf
The plane’s delayed today
Textbook accomplice
She was absolutely notestruck
When he passed the slip her way
Clear words
Plain threat
Bourbon and 7 on the seatback tray
But she sat
She talked to him
Some folks swore
She walked with him
She was positively textbook
She was grounded
Stunned and notestruck
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13. |
Cooper Vane
01:29
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Aeronautical triage
Keeps paddle perpendicular
To fuselage
When the craft is in flight
Aft stairs held tight
Not to be opened en route
(If not simply bolted outright)
Crew is grounded for the
Cooper vane installation
Spring-loaded ventral stairs
Designed for hijack cancellation
Aerodynamic wedge
Mandated by the FAA
Denying it would be obtuse
You have to embrace all reports
Submitted by the experts
Go and train the vane
Reform air travel with your refrain
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14. |
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Wrinkled green
Blanket terrain
Thrown across the below
He knows it
He studied it
He Braille-touched the contours
Palpated pine pips and alpine ridges
He says
“It’s only a 20-minute drive to McChord”
He’s pacific and reserved
His ebb and flow
Even out in the riptide
Mr. Cooper only wants what’s fair
“It looks like Tacoma down there”
Not of all the dollars
Just a few
He says
“Bring extra meals for the crew”
He waits ten extra minutes
For the sake
Of not ending up drowned
In Merwin Lake
In the end
Left with no option
But freefall in air
“Looks like Tacoma down there”
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15. |
Abbe Wants, Cugie Gets
00:55
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Bombproof
And crowded with oxygen
Terrace Volcallure at Casa Cugat
What Abbe wants
That’s what Cugie gets
And what Abbe wants
Isn’t something you can guess
It’s a blind side-road
Through matchstick forest
Abbe wants what Cugie gets
On the terrace at Volcallure
And what Abbe wants
That’s what Cugie gets
16-foot-thick concrete
Security terrace
Volcallure at Casa Cugat
With oxygen
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16. |
9,000 Foot Freefall
01:27
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Wind grip
It’s a knife whip
Bloodied his fingers
Tore down the placard
Spinning free
In the jet stream
Plunging blind
Frozen in the tempest
122 miles per hour
Aimed into Washougal forest
9,000 feet in 70 seconds
Freefall’s a bitch
When the chute’s sewn shut
I’ll be there
In exactly four moments
These FBI puritans
Are the biggest sticklers
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17. |
Vector 23 (Reprise)
01:32
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Victor’s vector is 23
Pacific Northwest tree canopy
Keep it under 10,000 feet
Lower the flaps 15 degrees
Of four collected chutes
He chose the fateful two
The chain-smoking gentleman
Cutting guidelines now
And he’s back there all alone
In the passenger compartment
He’s up to no good
Up to his old tricks
He’s fouling up
All the hydraulics
On course and locked in
On vector 23
Fighter jets on an intercept course
Through rain and hail of Pacific north
Along the vector called 23
O’er an evergreen canopy
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18. |
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Duane O Duane
All you’ve brought me is shame
Come here Josephine
I’ve got something to tell you
I’m Dan Cooper
The hijacker is me
178 in the bucket
Maybe 173
Let it die with me
Yes I’m Dan Cooper
My name was never D.B.
Josephine O Josephine
I’m an ex-con and a con man
Arrested in El Paso for burglary
But I had a smooth way with old ladies
Met J. E. Roy in Jefferson City
But I damn sure never met
Jack Ruby
Let it fucking die with me
Duane O Duane
All you brought me is shame
Come here Josephine
There’s 178 in the bucket
Maybe 173
Let it die with me
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Joseph Airport Cincinnati, Ohio
"Vector 23 is full of driving post-punk ... Bowie-inflected art rock ... and, at least to one listener, shades of Syd
Barrett-era Pink Floyd." —MAGNET Magazine
"... An eccentric, zany little album whose catchy tunes and peculiar lyrics can put a grin on your face." —The Fire Note
... more
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