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Reunion

by Scott Schoenberg

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mucho.vato
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mucho.vato I read a great review on some online mag site called BPM and I just had to take a listen. Glad I did! Favorite track: Nightmare Inning.
johndissed
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johndissed Scott has it all: An extremely unique voice, yet familiar in its command of the melodies he sings. Depth in melodic sensibility, musicality and lyrical content - in both the stories he tells and the social commentary. And his guitar playing is exquisite. The ambient production quality is stunning. This album is an important contribution to independent music, proving that corporations are no longer required. Favorite track: Area of Weakness.
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1.
The sun is high and scorching the chaparral Nothing is moving but this lone mountain quail Little bird, I'm lost, will you point me to the trail Can anybody hear my call? Is anyone out there at all? I can’t turn back now after coming all this way I've been going in circles, living up to every cliche And it's getting late and I'm running out of day Can anybody hear my call? Is anyone out there at all? And there it is at last in its captivating beauty Gleaming in the sun like costume jewelry Buckwheat and sage on one side, Locoweed on the other The entire expanse of our journey I finally came upon the Bridge to Nowhere Many times I strayed yet somehow I made it there I would've liked to stay but I had no time to spare Can anybody hear my call? Is anyone out there at all? And there it is at last in its captivating beauty Gleaming in the sun like costume jewelry Buckwheat and sage on one side, Locoweed on the other The entire expanse of our journey And there it is at last...
2.
Burn 06:20
I'm walking through the ruins of the Cold War Looking for a new pair of jeans I cut a crooked path from Walmart to Target As an approaching siren keens The ash is scattering like snow-globe glitter Summer fire season's already here There's the howl and bellow of the engine horns And then the flames suddenly appear Watching it burn Watching the inside turn From the smoke and the flame What's rebirthed will never return quite the same And it's such a beautiful, beautiful shame This Staples here is where they used to build The SR71 Blackbird It could easily do Mach 3.2 And fly so high that it couldn't be heard I mention this to the cashier as she Directs me to Aisle 7C She looks at me for the first and the only time And says, "Sounds like your bird was pretty." Watching it burn Watching the embers churn What will be erased Won't be reconjured and won't be replaced And it's such a terrible, terrible waste The smoke-filled sky is all the colors of violence Murder-red, bruise-plum and drown-blue The radio is playing an old-timey tune That first came out in 1992 They're all out of the printer ink I need And now I'm running as if for my life The helicopters are circling overhead and I just want to get home to my kids and my wife Before it all burns Before the inside turns Before it disappears Like a melody that floats past your ears One you haven't heard in so many years My grandmother's uncle was a Berlin doctor On the wrong side of a genocide After dinner he pulled his wife close And they both ate cake laced with cyanide I'm putting every scrap, every photograph, Every memento I've got into this box I take a match to it and I watch it burn And smile just as big as Goldilocks Watching it burn Watching the inside turn From the smoke and the flame What's reborn will never come back quite the same And it's such a beautiful, beautiful shame
3.
Burbank 03:45
The suburbs fucked us up I licked the crumbs up like a pup The sadists spilled their Bud Lites Right into my outstretched empty cup We drank to classic rock Enough to fill a Scottish loch But who's counting We were just fifteen years old The future's hand lay dead and cold Some of those guys did prison time And some are wealthy now, I'm told The math never adds up But the years always catch up So I stopped counting There was a girl without a name Without a face, without a shame She stripped down to her skin And treated it all just like a game I batted last, I hit it out To a holler, to a shout My first and counting When word got around at school You know the suburbs are so cruel This nameless, faceless girl Was subjected to such ridicule She left without a trace Perhaps took a name, took a face But I wouldn't count on it I wonder where she is today I wonder what she'd have to say If I tracked her down somewhere And asked if I could make it right some way I hope she wouldn't know me I hope she wouldn't show me That it all counted And now the day is almost done I've spent so many on the run You wouldn't guess but I'm as drawn As the hammer of a gun The truth won't set you free The lies won't let you be You can count on it
4.
Reunion 04:48
My father is crying Over there on the grass If only this low-lying Fog would just pass Reunion The suit that he's wearing Came right off the shelf And the story he's sharing I could tell it myself Reunion His hair is all white now Fine silk in the breeze He's looking as slight now As these deciduous trees Reunion I can’t take my eyes off Of you just in case You pull my disguise off And see there his face Reunion We can't stop for long here, I'm sorry But we want to pay our respects Before the long drive And we confess our sins at your bedside Because you can only haunt us While you're alive There's no talking politics With the McKenzie side Might as well toss your olive sticks Into the Great Divide Reunion We say that we love them That we don't get to choose We say it quite often Though it’s probably a ruse Reunion If only we were strangers With no hidden fears With no lurking dangers Behind dental veneers Reunion We know how this ends A mock to the ambitious We take our amends And bury them with our last wishes Reunion
5.
I’m quick to anger and I'm slow to respond I made a billion dollars by waving my wand That billion dollars came and it went Just like the flowers did, or were they ever sent? I spent so many years thinking so much My brain went to mush and I lost my touch Touch, you say, yes, touch if I may But I never once waited for consent to come my way I’ve got an area of weakness At least one or two An area of weakness But somehow I still got you I walk too fast and I talk too loud I'm just another lonely face in the crowd I don't want it all, it's not about that at all But the game is on the line, so I need the ball I always take the biggest piece Hell, you don’t need the extra calories I always stretch the truth just a little bit But I only stretch it just enough so all my lies can fit I’ve got an area of weakness Maybe more than a few An area of weakness But through thick and thin, I can count on you I would shoot someone on the avenue If it garnered me a rave review I’d imprison all my enemies If you let me do just what I please I’d put my name up in the sky For the benefit of all the passersby You see, I don’t mind sharing when it suits my aim Especially when I'm looking for someone to blame Admitting weakness is my greatest strength You’d see it too if you were on my wavelength I’m so weak that I can pulverize Any man alive who’s less than half my size I can't make out a single word But glasses makes me look absurd So I stutter and slip and I spit and I spew Anything to keep me from looking like you I’ve got an area of weakness At least one or two And my area of weakness Well, baby, it just might be you I’ve got an area of weakness Probably more than a few An area of weakness If I can admit it, then so can you
6.
It was a nightmare inning A cool breeze was blowing From the bleachers down To the mound as he was throwing "A beautiful evening" The heads were both saying A beautiful setting For a beautiful beating It was a beautiful night Another awful outing For Darvish, it was slipping Away from him from The very beginning He didn't have his stuff He didn't want it enough Word was out that He wasn't mentally tough It was written in the dirt The third pitch that he threw Hung there for a few And Springer doubled To left right on cue He scored on an error Oh, the horror, the terror I screamed that life's only Unfair and unfairer We were only down one I drank Jack and Coke Inhaled smoke after smoke I squeezed the remote With such force that it broke It was only one run But it felt more like ten And when Bregman then scored It felt like ten again It was still the first inning It was a fitting ending To a season pretending That last season's portents Would not be portending We thought we could escape it Or at least transcend it We thought we could blast it Or maybe we could bend it But we only knew what it wasn't It's true we came out swinging In the bottom of the inning But everyone sensed There'd be no winning For the team, for our city For there was something missing And the nightmare inning Was both ending and beginning I drank another Jack and Coke Pull him out, I was shouting But Roberts wasn't listening When Darvish walked McCann To start the second inning Then when Gonzalez doubled And Roberts was still untroubled I was no longer shouting But just merely mumbled Oh, my god, the fix is in Was he tipping his throws Was he tapping his toes As he threw his pitches To the mighty Astros Was it something subtler When he threw his cutter Which usually cut Like a knife cuts through butter Was it written in the stars Another nightmare inning Even the pitcher was swinging An RBI dribbler Made it three to nothing Now the face of blue murder Stalked down the corridor Springer again At the top of the order Looking like the great god of swat "The great god of stutter" I heard myself mutter As he took the first ball And then took another I hoped he'd get hit By an epileptic fit I wished that he'd just Give it up and quit We all sensed what was coming I didn't wish him ill But I didn't wish him well I wished that he'd get spun By a dizzy spell Or that he'd temporarily Forget how to see Forget how to walk And forget how to swing I was hoping for an intervention Darvish was behind his man After those two in the sand But then he threw a strike Which Springer let stand The two shot the bull Till the count was full And though one was bluffing They both played it cool You can guess who was who He looked at the bench Then went into his stretch I closed one eye As he released his pitch A fat floating fastball Like a gift from the fall To all the Astros fans And to Springer most of all Wrapped up in a bow And he unloaded on it He exploded on it And it went flying over Taylor's outstretched mitt As he rounded the bases Measuring his paces You could see victory Light up all those faces And poor Darvish was done There was now no question That like a lame-duck session The game would go on Without any tension We put one on the board But don't ask me how we scored Don't ask me unless You want to be ignored I drank my last Jack and Coke To the game as it closes To the Bonds and the Sosas To the Shoeless Joes And to the Peter Roses To Mr. Bobby Euker And to that Johnny Rocker Here's to Satchel Paige And Moses Walker Fidel Castro and Marge Schott Here's to Lefty O'Doul And to Chief Wahoo To the Baby Ruth floating In the swimming pool And to that Astros team Who won good and clean On that November night Up in Chavez Ravine Here's to a sport and a pastime
7.
Helix 06:47
I am driving on Virgil Avenue I will only find out later That the helix of otherworldly light Illuming much of the western sky Is one of Elon Musk's Falcon rockets Launched from a hundred miles up the coast It looks so close that I comfort myself With the thought that it's only someone's idea of a joke Everybody has their phones out We're all hoping this is somehow both The defining moment of a lifetime And just a diversion on the way home We all leave our cars in idle We’re staring up at the fish-looking thing I roll down my window and ask Just what the hell is going on but nobody responds I was born the year Richard Nixon resigned It was a lucky time, a lucky place Gunsmoke had been on for 20 years And Kronkite was still in his prime Every wall we put up seemed built to withstand A thermal blast from a Russian A-bomb My parents were still married then And the state kept lumbering on once Nixon was gone My mom took away my cap gun After John Lennon was shot dead She said what is it with you boys You’ve got all the wrong ideas in your head By the time the Berlin Wall fell Their marriage lay in a rubble heap Everything got messy when Neither side had the other to blame nor the other to keep I am lying in the darkness You’re next to me but I feel so alone I know that I'm safe and warm But I can’t shake this shiver off of my bones I've heard all about the rocket And Space X and Elon Musk Still I expect to see that helix Every day when I get off of work and drive into the dusk I am floating on a river Staring up at that blank slate of black I'm thinking about the election Which is now more than three years back My friend Tyler said it well When he said we’re all good and trapped Strapped together in this tin can Lurching up and falling fast, bracing for impact
8.
We all remember Jill Davine And Heather Tennesley There's no forgetting Jenny Roche But do you remember me? Remember how Matt Samson Beat up Tommy Kennedy For besmirching Heather's honor But nobody fought for me Someone was always asking A question posed enviously About prom or boys or college But no one thought to ask me Everybody had misgivings When Jill left for the city Even I wrote her a letter Not that she remembered me One by one the others followed, And not just Heather and Jenny But everyone I ever knew Not that they'd say they knew me I got so used to nothing But the sound of the TV I'd just keep on changing channels But nothing ever changed for me You can rationalize your idiosyncrasies Mm-hmm, and dramatize your life But there comes a time Whether by point of knife Or just the sad dull realization That there's no coming back And nothing to come back from My name's Cassandra Williams I died alone and far too young I was the girl you never noticed Here's my song, will it be sung?
9.
Pretend 04:16
The tinnitus is up at three, it's not me The jeans are worn at the seams, it's not me The steering wheel's trembling but it's not me Because if I can keep pretending That the pit down in my belly is mending This pit that hasn't gone away Ever since I saw the bough was bending Pretending that I'm not pretending Then maybe you'll be okay The blanket's in a cold sweat, it's not me The car's breaking down again, it's not me The quarterback's on his knee but it's not me Because if we can keep pretending That it's all going as we're intending That God's on our side -- it's the American way -- And they'll be with us soon, the angels that he's sending Pretending and pretending and pretending Then maybe we'll be okay It's the baby that's crying, it's not me It's the joke that's getting old, it's not me It's the peephole that's paranoid but it's not me Because if we can keep pretending That all is well and worth defending That the monsters who have seized the day Are monsters we can simply wish away Pretending and pretending and pretending Then maybe we'll be okay
10.
Home Again 07:25
1. It's gotta be somewhere -- Behind the curtains The cushions, the apricots -- In the box of letters You left here. The letters Wouldn’t fit through the slots. (And so they're sitting there unopened…) If I can only find my pen again (Begin again), I’d write a fulsome history: We started out in a garden Of surpassing mystery... Now I’m wide awake at first light, But, Nik, you didn’t come home again last night. No, you didn’t come home again last night. You didn't come home again, Home again last night. I had it in my pocket. In my dream I always held it close to me. I was the Lion, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, And you were always Dorothy. (And now I can’t get back to Manassas… The battles there, The battles there still rattle there The chandeliers.) And you're sitting there In your mohair and Your diamond necklace from De Beers, With Judy Garland’s appetite. But, Nik, you didn’t come home again last night. No, you didn’t come home again last night. You didn't come home again, Home again last night. It was a picture From back when we were The picture-perfect family. If you squint, already You can see the wrecking ball There, behind the tree. (But no photograph of the wrecking…) I'm just a child again, So I don't see the strain You hold inside your smile. I'm an infant now, even younger, And spilling out onto the tile, While you push with all your might. But, Nik, you didn’t come home again last night. No, you didn’t come home again last night. You didn't come home again, Home again last night. 2. You know, I get deja Vu Every time that I think of you Every time I call out into the blue It's such a strange feeling too Oo-woo-oo I got a wife now, you know You remember Sally Jo And two boys constantly in tow They would surely wreck you Oo-woo-oo Time will tell, time will heal Give it enough time and time will steal Time's up now, timeout now Time to go now Time after time anew Oo-woo-oo You were robbed, you were ripped off You were dealt a hand and you were pissed off And if I'm being honest I admit That I also drew from that same loaded shoe Oo-woo-oo But you always carried such a terrible load As if you deciphered some terrible code As if you knew the very moment That it all would explode I can see the future...

about

I wrote the ten songs that make up Reunion between the summer of 2019 and the summer of 2020, a disorienting, tragic, terrifying, and absurd time in all of our lives. There were a few signs of hope, to be sure -- decent people everywhere doing the right thing, hunkered down for months, activated around the idea that Black people’s lives matter as much as everybody else’s. But I’ll never forget the extraordinary nimbleness with which so many people abandoned their reason to chase conspiracies and huff hydroxychloroquine and shotgun the tonic swill of quackery, and, most of all, how so many of my fellow Americans continue to worship a damaged and hateful game-show host as their personal savior, or at least their avenging angel. It’s been illuminating, I’ll say that.

We’d recorded about half of the songs before the pandemic hit, took a significant covid break, and then started working on it again at some point in the lost year. The subject matter is largely personal -- about family, about my dead mom, about the strange place called Burbank where I grew up -- but it also touches on some larger issues: societal fracture, the increasingly inhospitable climate in which we all live, and, of course, the bad man and his acolytes. If this year has taught us anything though it's that society's problems are personal and that our personal problems are society's.

Gavin Ross and I spent a lot of time together at his studio creating the soundscapes for this album, working out little details, and just putting the whole thing together. My old band, The Shotgun Break, also worked with Gavin, and it’s always a pleasure. He’s a relaxed and helpful presence in the studio, he knows what he’s doing but he isn’t pushy, and, most of all, he’s very patient. Ultimately, he wants you to sound like you.

Tino Marrufo played drums on all but three of the songs here. Not only is Tino a fantastic drummer, but he's just an awesome guy. He also sang backup vocals on one of the songs. I always immensely enjoyed the sessions with him.

My wife, Danielle, provided backup vocals on one of the songs, which means so much to me. This was her first time in a recording studio and she knocked out her parts in one take.

I hope you enjoy it.

credits

released February 20, 2021

Words and music by Scott Schoenberg
Produced by Scott Schoenberg and Gavin Ross
Mixed, mastered, and engineered by Gavin Ross
Recorded at Steady Studios, Burbank, CA
Cover design by Scott Schoenberg

Scott Schoenberg: Vocals, guitars, bass, piano, drums, percussion, synthesizers, bicycle pump, sheet pan, socket wrench
Gavin Ross: Slide guitar, synthesizers, sound effects, samples
Tino Marrufo: Drums, backup vocals on "Bridge to Nowhere"
Danielle Schoenberg: Backup vocals on "Pretend"

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Scott Schoenberg Los Angeles, California

Rock-and-roll music out of Los Angeles.

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