more from
Take This To Heart Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

We Can Live Here Forever

by Barely Civil

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $5 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of We Can Live Here Forever via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    Custom shirt designed by Heather Amendola
    ships out within 3 days
    3 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of We Can Live Here Forever via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 60 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of We Can Live Here Forever via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 60 days
    2 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Limited Edition Cassette
    Cassette + Digital Album

    Snazzy cassette tape

    Includes unlimited streaming of We Can Live Here Forever via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
I’ll take my time, but you won’t take mine. These are the strings that connect our bones and they’ll break if we can’t keep to ourselves at night. Well, these are the wires that connect our brains to our hearts. They’ve been shorting every night and I’m tired. This is the house you grew up in with leaves in the gutter and a fresh coat of paint but you swear that it’s yours. You said, “we’ll live here” but the windows are shut and the mailbox is full to the brim and oh god, am I tired.
2.
Lost//Found 03:53
I feel lost when you stand too close to me. And I swear, you care too much for me. I feel lost on what I’m supposed to be. So I ran. Where am I supposed to be? Will I be found? I’ll be found when there’s nothing left to see. And my friends hate too much of me. So I’ll cave in. Let the waves break down on me. I’ll be found where I’m supposed to be. I’ll be found. And my death rattle will be this song. To the swans I call my best friends just floating along: This is nothing. And if we’d never speak again I wonder what I would say cause I’ve been stuck in a corner just wasting away: I mean nothing. Will I be found?
3.
When I first saw you on the union square you were waist deep in a bag of your books and your hell. The look on your face said, “Someone please save me!” I was just there to take in the air. And all of this time, well, I’ve lost my head in Eau Claire. The first night I spent at your house you were such a delight. Your voice never raised up once except for at your dog. When everyone left and it was just me, I found my place, I felt at ease. And all of this time, I’ve still lost my head in Eau Claire. So pour the champagne, pour the champagne for the lost lovers. I’ve lost my head in Eau Claire.
4.
You threw down an old pack of cigarettes saying, “I quit” for the third time. As you left I couldn’t take it, I was distraught for the first time. You threw down an old pack of cigarettes saying, “I quit” for the fourth time. And I guess you couldn’t take it I was just not right the last time. It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright, you're saying, “It’s alright”. It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright. No it’s not. You threw down an old pack of cigarettes saying, “I quit” for the fifth time. And I guess it’s just the air but I felt sick for the first time. And I guess I couldn’t take it, I was not fine for the first time. You came back, touched my hand, pulled me back, said it would be alright. It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright. You’re saying, “It’s alright”. It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright. No it’s not. You threw down an old pack of cigarettes saying, “I quit” for the sixth time. As you left I couldn’t say it. I was content for the first time. So I left, walked out the door and I won’t be back for a long time, till I find in myself what I want and it will be alright. Yeah I will be just fine. (You threw down an old pack of cigarettes, these bones will break and I’m tired. Well I guess it’s alright.)
5.
I overheard a conversation of people holding out for what they like. Your mom, your dad, and how you’re patient, Jesus Christ and blues riffs run your life. A broken glass, no motivation. Where has all your glow gone? Are you fine? You’ve broken off from all temptation. Something’s feeling wrong, but you’re alright. Live your life. Just live your life. I wrote a note to all your close friends, asking if they’d heard from you at all. From no response I cut my losses, and told myself when you could, you would call. Your mother came with a note that you’d left. A note you used to clear up what’s going on. And in that note was only three words. Three words that you’d never said at all. They were “live your life.” Just live your life. Live your life. Please live your life.
6.
I get uneasy when I stress over your mouth. I break the ceiling when I can’t see through you. I think I’m bleeding from the times that I said, “I know, I need more than you.” I’m trying to fix myself. I’m starting to feel brand new. I think I like myself. Fuck, I’d never say that to you. I think I’m being all the things that I can’t stand. I try to make up for the shit I’ve been through. I keep digressing on why I can’t sit still but I know, it’d be lost on you, well. I’m trying to fix myself. I’m starting to feel brand new. I think I like myself. Fuck, I’d never say that to you.
7.
Stark 04:26
When I was a young kid, I was keeping to myself. Never looked out the window. Never yelled out the window. Well when I was a young kid, I was keeping to myself. Never looked out the window. Never yelled out the window. Take it back to the street walks. Take it back to the good days. Take it back to when we were, back when we were the young ones. Well when I was a young kid, I was locked in my bedroom. Never opened the blinds up and I never came out. Take it back to the street walks. Take it back to the good days. Take it back to when we were, back when we were the young ones.
8.
Kent 04:49
So it goes. Off in a second, you’re gone and I’m just a lost soul. My body is breaking. I cannot feel my legs. So I go back and forth in my bedroom, breaking my back on the things I thought I lack. So it goes. My mind is made up, I’m just an asshole backed up on my hope. As I keep my hands down I will follow my brother, and make my mark through the people I love and I’ll hold onto you. So who will keep our hands clean when we are the old ones? And I’ll go off on my own, just make up for my low esteem in what I create and what I’ll become when I’m old. I know I’ll never be more than my father and I’ll be better off for that, at least I hope. So who will keep our hands clean when we are the old ones?
9.
So we run, we run, we run, we run. In turn, in turn. Staying at a Super 8 motel, I feel alive. My heart drops, whenever I’m around with you. Staying at a Super 8 motel, I feel dead. My heart stops, whenever I’m around with you. So we run, we run, we run, we run, we run. In turn, in turn. (Super 8. Marathon.). Staying at a Super 8 Motel, I feel in line with what I lack in who I am. So we run.
10.
I swore I saw you in my house, drinking red wine. Tracing circles out of my backyard, biding your time. And I’m stunned that you’d show up. And I’m stunned, so I woke up. I will sit on the edge of my bed and turn on all the lights so I will never fall asleep again and hope I’ll be alright. But when the floorboards break, underneath’s an ocean that pulls me down so I never breathe again. And I am drowning, but I’m not fighting. When the floorboards break, underneath’s an ocean.

about

It’s easy to get lost in Wisconsin. Metropolitan centers might anchor to the Midwest, but patches of sprawling wilderness and bitter weather make for an American outlier. Barely Civil was built from this backdrop—four different dots on the state map. Despite this, their debut full-length We Can Live Here Forever plots a journey home, whatever and wherever that means. Stopovers across genre and structure keep the pace measured and lean, while Matt Riefler’s layered production explodes any breathing room into powerful statements.

Vocalist/guitarist and primary lyricist Connor Erickson leaves plenty of signage trailing to his home base. “Eau Claire? Oh, Claire.” marries Wisco landmarks with a portrait of cautious twenty-something love. “Stark” and “Kent” — a pair of slumbering guitar tracks in the back half — gain their names from his and bassist Ben Forst’s address lines. There’s also an outward mobility as the tracks grow in magnitude, cataloging sleepless nights in Super 8 motels, in others’ houses, in the scattered silence carried through cigarette smoke and whispered confessions. The nomadic scene changes match the record’s morphing between indie-rock’s straight-laced and stratospheric ambitions in minutes.

For Barely Civil, home isn’t really a place. It’s a collection of things—tones, conversations, milemarkers—that will ultimately find a home for you too.

"We Can Live Here Forever" is out March 2nd on CD/CS/Digital via Take This To Heart Records

credits

released March 2, 2018

All songs written by Barely Civil
Produced by Barely Civil and Matt Riefler with assistance from Chris Kelsey in July 2017
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Matt Riefler in Fort Wayne, IN
Artwork and layout by Corey Purvis
Barely Civil is:
Connor Erickson
Ben Forst
Alex Larsen
Isaac Marquardt

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Barely Civil Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Management:
James Cassar | james@rumblepak.co

shows

contact / help

Contact Barely Civil

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Barely Civil, you may also like: