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Battle of Flowers

by Buttercup

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vinkyul07
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vinkyul07 Saw the legendary Buttercup last week on a full moon on a bill w Garret T Capps& Nasa Country. It was magical. They played 68 Play Mate and everyone danced! I'm still singing Champaign in Spain. as a puro Leftist I love Henry B Gonzales. What a great band:) Favorite track: Henry B. Gonzalez.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Collector's 12 song vinyl record with lyrics insert and photos. Pressed by Bedlamb and Palo Santo Records. Pressed on ultra juicy black vinyl for the best possible sound quality.

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    Comes in a lovely jewel case, with special colorful original artwork by Chris Sauter. The interior of the CD art is different than the LP, by the way. FREE SHIPPING in the US!

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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 11 buttercup releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Grand Marais, Morrissey for Company, Opening Band, Specks, an Autobiographical Record, Battle of Flowers, The Weather Here, The Head Sits Upside Down on the Top of the Head, Living Again, and 3 more. , and , .

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1.
Let It Drop 01:37
Plenty of drunks, damaged souls have cried into their beers over a song sappy and way too long, but it still works, so pop a top and position your tear duct over the neck hole and let it drop
2.
let me sing like turning a wooden ring we spent nights toiling by twilight by the river’s edge i pounded my drums’ heads until they changed the locks on and on this acting through music on and on this dying inside on and on and on i won’t speak i won’t sing i won’t write i won’t fight i won’t act i won’t lie i won’t pretend that we won’t die on and on this acting through music on and on this suicide on and on and on on and on this acting through music on and on this gang of five on and on and on
3.
Gud Gurls 03:46
hot flash it’s time to get some air mid flight through recycled stares take it don’t fake it can you carry one more? doubtless you’ve been through this all once before i know good good good good girls good good good gud gurls of the summers past it’s perfect news flash are you looking back? rehashed fights did your mommy cut you slack? all your divorces put you in daddy’s shirt but feeling fine you look good as you were in college good good good good girls good good good gud gurls of the summers past they’re coming back it’s perfect gud gurls uh huh oh yeah it’s perfect
4.
will you pay me close attention? of course you’ll see how much i like you i like you very much i need to be loved right here right now i need your soft touch don’t say you don’t don’t say you won’t i know that someday oh i’ll be quite quiet my mouth shut still but for now i am happy oh i am so happy on that hill on the pasture’s hillock you gave me a kiss i see your scar under the makeup is it so bizarre to feel this shaken up? we are wasting time i need to be loved right then, right now i need your soft touch don’t say you don’t don’t say you won’t over the pasture my cattle were grazing but i fell ill my scars were small talk oh i was so giddy the sky grew chilled i know that someday oh i’ll be quite quiet my mouth shut still but your arms around me your lips were upon me on that hill though it was temporary you said yes yes oh yes q: why won’t you love me? a: sex q: why won’t you love me like you did before?
5.
i was living half deaf and dumb to beauty just speechless what would i have said if the shore was in fact beach-less? no where to swim with arms made of lava i was de facto dead until you came with a glass of cava you fed me like a baby bird champagne from spain i was living half dead where would i be be if you didn’t come to save me? god only knows the truth no i’m not religious you broke through the ice would i be dumb forever? no! you gave me my tongue you used it to kiss me you fed me like a vampire champagne from spain
6.
Swallow Fly 02:16
tragically slipped into what people call a flippin' rut you can’t out of it you can’t get out of it you can’t you’re stuck coin a phrase on a dime time to pay the man clammer up shimmy down hide your soul offerings on a plate rot when left alone pick it up take a bite swallow fly away home sun is up again you get another chance and then rev up a million r.p.m’s but need a tow and then some limbs you’re fucked dollar up market down build for quick release nothing comes frictionless ask the greeks you’re all this pound on that always ill at ease stand erect buy up front swallow fly away home fly away home find a way home find a way home
7.
i can’t hang around for the truth you found open up the door i see a pleasing light but then i shut the door is it dark inside? these cloudy thoughts consume my worthless mind open on/shut off hey it’s time to go it’s time for the next show i know that you are not all shut off open on/shut off
8.
i know you can feel the weight of all this world today it’s ugly and unfair but you will not now be stayin’ there it’s like a vicious dream in a high school where you’re trapped and the students know how to stab you when you turn your naked back oooh, ahh so go home to your tv where the screen light blinks out clean and the fear you felt back then is morphed into the new hierarchy of a co-worker with a gun
9.
darlin’ how could you ever love a wreck like me? the castle is burning now the ship’s sail is all in tatters but you believed in me now every song that i sing is all the same tune called “i love you” is this just a limp? or am I really lame? if I believe i’m hurt am I as good as damaged? will i shatter? but you believed in me now every song that i write is the same song titled “i love you” wanna hear it? i wrote a song about it it goes like this: I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU yeah I do it was a dark, dark day when i thought that you’d been taken there in your empty house your purse your keys your cel phone was there but you were not but you we’re actually ok but you were actually safe but you believed in me now every song i sing is the same tune called “i love you” i’m going to sing it again like this: I LOVE YOU but you believed in me and now i do too
10.
gonna be a long time coming gonna be away from something you love gonna be a lifetime coming it’s gonna be a waste if you go it alone don’t go it alone ooh don’t go it alone ooh let it be a lifetime coming let it be the last thing to prey on your mind let it be a lifetime coming let it be a chance not to go it alone don’t go it alone ooh don’t go it alone ooh the little the small they’re everything now gonna be a long time coming gonna be away from something you love gonna be a lifetime coming it’s gonna be a waste if you go it alone don’t go it alone ooh don’t go it alone ooh
11.
a tiny boy got pushed the bully gave him hell the bully ripped his shirt but this story’s got revenge it’s got justice it’s got something even sweeter this tiny boy grew to take on bullies in washington this tiny boy grew to be henry b. gonzalez henry b. gonzalez he stood on the congress floor he’d fillibuster or he’d try to block a racist bill he would desegregate he was so sick of it he had had his fill for twenty two hours he read the bible for twenty two hours he read the san antonio phone book henry b. gonzalez when did liberal become a bad word? when did liberal become a curse? on henry b.’s tombstone it says liberal it says fighter democrat soul henry b. gonzalez
12.
68 Playmate 05:23
i went shopping at the salvation army store looking for some hip duds maybe I could make that retro grade buy a pair of bellbottom pants and a polyester shirt it was yellow tag day but nothing would fit and i still look like i shop at the gap just when i was walking out of the store with nothing in my hand a pretty, pretty picture did catch my eye a glossy magazine was taking me back i was going back i was going way back to 1968 and for two dollars i had me a date my 68 playmate she had big blonde hair with beehive flair red stockings in the bowling alley she’s my succubus on a yellow love bus in the flower generation i wanna hold her i wanna feel her false eyelashes against my face but alas at the time i was only negative three i would do anything i would do anything i’d wear white pants white shoes pinstripes turtlenecks double-breasted polyester british wool-twill all semester i’d drink high class top shelf whiskey in a glass like peter sellers at the party my 68 playmate so where oh where is my little twiggy? where oh where where could she be? is she a hula hooping down to a psychedelic beat? if i get my math right i add it up i count it down one! two! three! and four! you’re back it seventy-two you add a score and some more and she’s sixty four my 68 my 68 playmate i want retro i wanna erode i wanna go i wanna go back

about

Priced low, but you can pay more if you want to share your largess with Buttercup. Buttercup priced this record so low, so that poverty or dire financial situations will not be an impediment to you enjoying this music. Buttercup simply wants you to have this record, our very best yet.

THE PRESS WEIGHS IN:

“Simply perfect pop… Buttercup have delivered a total package. Highly recommended” – Popdose

“like Lou Reed fronting a great Psych Band…. may be their best ever ” - I Don’t Hear a Single

“Satisfying our urges, Buttercup spares nothing, and allows us a look at everything.” – Impose

“the best thing Buttercup has ever put out, dynamic and bursting at the seams with pure rock and roll bliss.” – San Antonio Current

“bawdy but beautiful, reverent but rambunctious, savvy yet saccharine, knowing yet naive…. full of off-kilter pop splendor” – San Antonio Current

“pops and crackles with wit” – A Pessimist is Never Disappointed

“Battle of Flowers takes the listener on an open-ended eargasmic adventure” – SATX

“Texas pop-rock vets return with sharp riffs & sharper wits” – Darryl Sterden

“every song has a strong hook” – Colorado Springs Independent

-------------------------------------------------

Buttercup's newest (2017) 12song recording, Battle of Flowers, was mixed by Larry Crane (Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney) in Portland Oregon. The cover art, inspired by the Beatles’ Revolver, is a 6ft x 6ft line drawing on cloth by international artist Chris Sauter (www.chrissauter.com).

Brothers Emilio and Diego Navaira played drums and guitar on Battle of Flowers, but just as the record was finished, the Navairas’ other music project, The Last Bandoleros, was chosen not only to perform on Sting’s latest recording, but they were also asked to provide direct support for Sting’s spring 2017 US/European tour. The sons of Tejano music legend Emilio Navaira Sr., the brothers added some South Texas muscle and musicality to the Buttercup sound. Sting just wanted a little bit of that too, and the band is okay with it.

Erik Sanden, bassist odie, and Grammy award winning guitarist/producer Joe Reyes have spent over 15 years as members of Buttercup, at once a full-on rock machine and a performance art collective. Over the course of 6 albums, a documentary DVD, and countless genre-bending live shows, they’ve remained current and vital despite shifts in music tastes and technology. Battle of Flowers is their first recording to consist totally of live takes recorded in the band’s rehearsal studio. Guitarist Joe Reyes says “with the extra guitar, keys and vocals, expertly played and sung by Diego and Emilio, this was the first time we could actually perform and record all of the parts of a song live. And then, like The Beatles, I’d turn one of the monitor speakers towards us and we’d sing all our parts together on one mic. We worked fast and had fun and you can hear that on the record. Larry Crane did a great job mixing what is essentially a live record.”

Bassist odie adds “It’s how recording should be done. Just push record and go. For us it’s the most organic thing.” Sanden agrees wholeheartedly, “Headphones are like a barrier: it feels so much better when you take them off. A band that is free from care is the best possible band it can be.”

Already, folks are saying this is Buttercup’s best album to date.

credits

released April 14, 2017

buttercup is:
joe reyes
odie.
erik sanden

featuring:
diego navaira – guitars, keys, percussion, and voice
emilio navaira iv - drums, guitars, keys, percussion, and voice
the navaira brothers appear courtesy warner bros. records

produced by buttercup
recorded in the summer and fall of 2015 and spring of 2016 at gud'eenin studios, san antonio, texas 
mixed by larry crane at jackpot! in portland, oregon
mastered by garrett haines at treelady, pittsburgh, pa

all songs written by erik sanden, kindfrankenstein music (ASCAP) 2016
except “how to think more about sex” by sanden/reyes
and “don’t go it alone” written by joe reyes, bullock befriending music (ASCAP) 2016
and “swallow fly” written by odie.

art and layout by chris sauter 

bedlamb records/palo santo records copyright 2017

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burnished super melodists from Texas

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