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Carbon Footprint

by Sister City

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1.
Hit Too Hard 04:14
With a steady stance and a weighted walk I set out at dawn in a drought of explanation And the sun cast shadows, which obscured my face And my head was pounding for the human race To find a cause to base my carbon footprint on I stopped to breathe and I realized that I had to leave It took half a million years, but I figured out what will not save me I ran off like a petty thief Trying to feed my family with finger foods So fittingly I folded I dropped to my knees I declined to ask the time or date or towns I'd passed I relied instead on all the things that I'd been handed I met a man and I shook his weathered, hardened hand I avoided blame as I hid behind my passed down last name I had a choice to make I had a risk to take So I drew a line and I set a foot on either side And I stood as long as it took the battle to be won The past and future raged along while nature's nurtured privileged pawn Stood timeless in the parking lot of the local suburban shopping mall I dropped to my knees and I put my faith in the concrete And I saw complete as the secret became clear to me With a spit-shined sheen: alive, prepared for anything I signed a lease; I am older than I used to be I got to my feet With a pregnant pause in the ending I was dreaming of I'd admit defeat rather than defer to something I can't see I parked my car in a place that I had been before I am still the same, but different in so many ways I dropped to my knees I am stronger than I used to be I got to my feet I am farther than I used to be I dropped to my knees I am smarter than I used to be I got to my feet The same, the same, but differently
2.
20 02:24
I woke up to regret and, silver-spoon-fed Acknowledged existence, remained insistent On self-flagellation, on syllable placement On determination, on education How to eat and sleep, and not to choke On the vomit my reflexive thoughts evoke The white noise in between the erosion of our dreams Plotting destruction of reasonable options Of fixed employment, of all enjoyment So much time spent on pure resentment The only air to breathe is recycled heat From our wasted words, the crippling comedy I can see the end drop from the sky like it's a bomb And I can't hear the difference between our nervous tics And a semi-automatic gun Subjectivity Is all the rage in the first world countries All the top percents Abide by sacred documents And I'll sing till I can't talk But I'll still toe the line between explained and lost What listless liberty So I sing happy fucking birthday to me
3.
There are times when I am happy Smiling in and out of phase My teeth are stained But I am not embarrassed There certain things to say To any doubting Thomas I meet Lick my wounds and feel my breath I am alive I have not seen Nor do I believe And I suspect if blessed Is just a test you pass Then I am failing There are times I am a child Armed with chalk and endless blacktop But we both know I'm not cut out to be an artist More and more I am an adult Living life like you can win Or with false profundity Like it's something you can lose What a story We will have to tell Our children's children all the things We actually felt But they won't see it There's a formula I follow Perhaps it's possible you've picked up But you should stick like glue To what or who you know But Who am I to give advice? What bears repeating Isn’t something I am sure I've got a good grip on So what right do I have to put a chorus in my songs? But sing along, sing along With egos proud and voices strong Sing along, sing along, sing along
4.
IMPERATIVE 04:15
I did not go outside today It's just as well my desk is by the window So I can tell if there's anything I'm missing There is not There is not I did not think that I'd be in this place If you'd asked me. No one asked you But I am so there's no reason to believe I'm different than 2000 of me I am not But I want The things I want are simple things Like love and trust and sanity And I am on my way What holds me back are awful things Like apathy and lack of sleep Sometimes I can't catch my breath So I sit with confidence Because it's easy Thou shalt not covet what thy neighbor's got But my god is a jealous god What he wants is what his neighbor's got What I want What I want The things I want are simple things Like love and trust and sanity They are not out of reach What holds me back are awful things Like apathy and lack of sleep Sometimes my throat gets so sore That I don't want to talk anymore Sometimes I can't catch my breath And my heart is beating wildly; I can feel it through my chest Sometimes I smell the scent of blood It's pumping overtime to try to keep up Sometimes I swear I see People shift across a room there's no one in but me Sometimes I taste defeat So I force my tongue as far as it will go into my cheek
5.
Poland, 1845 03:15
The blood of my ancestors Flows shamefully through my veins They would cut out my tongue If they heard the things I sing I have a marker And a mind to vandalize Like I did to my desk When I was five What's changed since then Is a deep appreciation For the finer things This side of martyrdom I set a second timer on the alarm clock I've got a busy day tomorrow That I can't afford to miss Countless counter-culture costumes I've got to see which one will fit I've got half a mind to sleep till 3 And opt out of opportunity So fuck it It's not a crime But I think it should be Then again there's always something To be done And boys, no excuse me men With a mythology of justification I may stretch my words But you stretch the truth So hammer out the meaning In a solitary grain of sand And I will raise my hand And swear on sacred writing My allegiance to my country And my god, whichever one you want I will retract what I have said And I'll undo what I have done And our hearts would beat In anti-solidarity Between tradition, coincidence And geography I've got half a mind to sleep till three But fitfully The blood of my ancestors Survives in me That's a hell of a responsibility And our eyes would meet Then avert themselves immediately Between embarrassment, reluctance, and psychiatry I've got half a mind to sleep till three But fitfully The blood of my ancestors Survives in me That's a hell of a responsibility
6.
A mock trial Throw fairness to the dogs Turn it over to the angry men in mobs A stale smile Like everything would be okay If you'd just wait it out a while There are holes in my teeth I haven't shaved in weeks It's been at least that long since I got a good night's sleep The sounds I make are not my own They are affected tones in a temporary home See my clarity Obscure everything I see What do they know that I don't? Is there anything that I know that they don't? Bound and gagged and all tied up Or freely flying with the doves I can faintly hear the marching drum And can't help but tap my feet The things I think Are diametrically opposed A cynic wrapped in polemic's clothes and so It leaves me sour So I'm ringing in the new year By counting out the hours Sit and celebrate Mired in my immense distaste What do they know that I don't? Is there anything I know that they don't? Bound and gagged and all tied up Or freely flying with the doves I can just make out the marching drum That sacrament; our savior's blood There has to be a joie de vivre They put the joy of cooking in a book But the bible doesn't speak to me So I read So one day I'll know what I don't
7.
I have spent all my energy Collecting souvenirs that I can't keep I've got no place for them And besides my life's a mess I have spent the last few months In a semi-constant state of anger Bitterness and self-disgust So don't tell me my just desserts Are waiting when I die Banking on eternity Is no way to live your life I’m running towards what I need But there are tail lights in front of me I am running from what I know There is no place left for me to go So I wander like the ancestors that I've forsaken Where is my respect? If my great-great grandparents had only known That their great-great grandson Would end up turning people into stone Do you think they'd have set a fucking foot onto that boat? I don't, I don't So don't tell me my just desserts Are waiting when I die Banking on eternity Is no way to live your life And I'm running towards what I need But there are taillights in front of me And I am running from what I know There is no place left for me to go Don't tell me my just desserts Are waiting when I die Banking on eternity Is no way to live your life Life is what you make of it And I am on the verge of something big I have seen a sinner's life and death Stuck a finger in god's face and lived So I tell my story, absent glory Sacrificial lamb and nervous twitch I can see myself in celebration Giving what is finally mine to give
8.
Living, breathing human beings Are crowding my periphery In glorious passivity I am surrounded All of them have names and faces Loving friends and close relations Secrets kept in sordid places Don't you tell a soul Living, breathing human beings Are sucking all my energy With coughing fits a eulogy Will be in order With blame alive like crooked teeth The gaps aflame with subtlety And everyone including me Is moving backwards That single seed in soil sprouts and starts to reach A little more, a little faith could explain everything The final two, the count of three, the beat of four I wouldn't ask for more Living, breathing human beings Are walking, running, hurrying On paper routes and studying We're so much smarter Saddling our shoulder blades with Useless facts and information Building our own brand new nation Let my people go Living, breathing human beings Are passed out in pools of anything Drowned in words and cycling Through cartoon movies I remember everything That anybody says to me So I burn CDs to give for free That single seed in soil sprouts and starts to reach A little more, a little faith could explain everything The final two, the count of three, the beat of four I wouldn't ask for more
9.
One thousand songs could turn a person blue Ten thousand hours could do it too And I don't want to think about The countless thousand words that I spit out Every hour Don't let me make it sound like I believe That every second's just some stupid fight through misery Honestly I wonder, if I got my shit together And I left, would I miss my friends? I would never answer that, it's crippling, that’s a heart attack Some things you just don't say I can feel the earth; it's shaking Glass is breaking, people taking stock of what they've done My life has never flashed before my eyes For that I'm glad that I am blind Because what I'd see is a mystery to me And what I've done is nothing to build a legacy on If I may be so bold as to assume that I'll grow old And nothing huge goes wrong and all my threats stay in their songs I hope that I remember how to read And I hope that I still have my memory Cause I'm owned by the extent to which I fear that I'll forget So I'm scared by middle age that I'll have nothing left to say I hope that I remember how to read And I hope that I still have my memory I'll know I wasn't right, so the older me will like To hear reminders of his youth he spent hiding from the truth That opportunity is in everything you can see One thousand songs could turn a person blue Ten thousand hours could do it too And I don't want to think about The countless thousand words that I spit out Every hour Don't let me make it sound like I believe That every second's just some stupid fight through misery
10.
Eff That 03:46
Pens aside, I don't want to write anything I've decided I will improvise I'll save my pride. I don't want to try To fit the pieces of another puzzle Cause if we left it up to entropy Than we could make a symphony Eventually the parts would play themselves If we only spoke of here and now I would never need another town It gets freezing, but I think we could manage Pens aside I don't want to write anything I've decided I will improvise I'll save my pride, I don't want to try To fit the pieces of another puzzle Cause if we stopped to go to sleep I think we'd lose our empathy And lately, I have been adhering To rules of sleep and L.C.D.s And stolen vocal melodies I am perfect, but I am not blameless We could stay up all night long And we could try and race the sun We could see it before it's good and ready We could wrap ourselves in body heat To combat our identities With the lights out It's so god damn peaceful I was a crooked shooter An army recruiter Sending mothers’ sons to scorching desert lands With my condescending conscience In a love affair with death I would throw the whole damn thing away If I was particularly stressed Now I'm a freestyle rapper A sick rhyme crafter Spitting poetry I make up on the spot With my lack of shame outshadowed Only by my lack of fear I’d be the proverbial one With the ticket out of the proverbial here Pens aside this all feels so right Can you deny? There can't be any other time than this Pens aside it might be hell outside But here it's perfect Fuck it, we have earned this
11.
I dreamt that everyone I love was dead And I wept; when I woke up, my pillow was wet I know who is in control I start slow, but speed up as I go But oh no, I don't ever listen And oh no, I don't care enough Sometimes I don’t let myself see past my own skull My eyes closed, I think I see the world in total I know who is in control I start slow, but speed up as I go But oh no, I don't ever listen And oh no, I don't care enough I've come to see the savagery In open jawed hypocrisy With sunken eyes and calloused feet I'm tired and I'm bored I've always known the tragedy Complacent in depravity Catastrophe and apathy And other words that rhyme like that Like cat and hat and sat and fat I am only useful if I'm self-contained But oh no I have always listened Oh no I care far too much
12.
How Much 06:01
On the cloudiest night through a satellite's eyes You can see it The people below throwing stones Sleep in attics and basements There's a war we all know and we're scared That we'll have to go fight it So for several years we've just fought one another to spite it The final frontier has been cleared Now it's closed so we're clinging To what we've got left Our few honest attempts at a living And halfway around the world People are dying And on Birch St. the leaves on the trees Laugh but look like they're sighing I want to know Where you think that you are going And god help your soul If that's what you believe For a couplet I sold What was left of my integrity And I don't have goals But I do have an apartment In a city full of people And a subtle, sinking feeling We're all equals I wouldn't expect to hear those words from you So I bid a fond farewell with this excuse I want to know what I don't know I want to know what no one knows I'll learn to swim so I will float Or I will tread water and gracelessly sink below Like death is a puzzle and I learned where the pieces all go So on every goddamn cloudy night through every eye of every satellite I am foaming at the mouth And with every stone you people throw at bleeding hearts and broken bones I am laughing And that war we'll one day have to fight is as visceral as a synapse fired I am waiting I shook the hand of father time I spit in my own and I looked him in the eye I am not sorry

about

Sometimes called "the 'Chinese Democracy' of music no one has heard of," it's finally here. "Carbon Footprint" exists and it can be downloaded for real. I am almost as surprised as you aren't.

Included in the download are the liner notes, which you will want to read if you are the kind of person who enjoys fun facts, lyrics, and album credits.

Enjoy!

credits

released June 14, 2011

Recorded July 2010-Februrary 2011 in Worcester, Massachusetts and Rockville, Maryland
Sister City is Daniel Abzug (Drums) and Adam Linder (Everything else)
Engineered by Keegan Allen and Adam Linder
Produced by Sister City
Mixed by Adam Linder
Mastered by Adam Linder
Artwork by Jen Cantin and Adam Linder

Lyrics by Adam Linder
Music by Sister City

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Sister City Maryland

Baltimore / Philadelphia tenuous punkish kinda indie rockish

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