Warning Lights

by Mons La Hire

/

  • Streaming + Download

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

    Includes a digital copy of the liner notes.

      $5 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Limited run of 100 compact discs in dual-pocket wallets, featuring block printed artwork by artist Rebecca Watkins. I don't know how we convinced her to do this, she put in an enormous amount of work in carving the blocks and printing each panel by hand.

    The CD includes a folded poster insert with lyrics and a block print by Daniel Watkins (the insert was duplicated, not made individually like the CD case).

    Includes unlimited streaming of Warning Lights via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 100 

      $8 USD or more 

     

1.
04:40
lyrics
buy track
2.
02:58
lyrics
buy track
3.
03:34
lyrics
buy track
4.
05:21
lyrics
buy track
5.
03:41
lyrics
buy track
6.
03:59
lyrics
buy track

about

Mons La Hire is excited to announce our new EP, Warning Lights. Consisting of six original songs written over the course of the last two years, the EP presents a portrait of where we've been, artistically and personally, and where we are going.

Songwriting for the EP began with the song Warning Lights, with a first draft of the song being written in February of 2015. Parallels and Timothy Everett have their roots in late 2015 and early 2016. The Garden appeared in a more subdued form on Ad Hoc Ecosystem; this is a complete rerecording and re-imagining of the song more in line with the way it is performed live. Rumors is the newest song on the EP, and was conceived in a jam session with Daniel on guitar and his then-three-year-old son Milo on drums. Moriah just suprised us by arriving during a jam session -- the main riff and groove at least. The lyrics took a long time.

Lyrics are always extremely important in Daniel's songwriting. Although there has been an attempt to keep the lyrics at least somewhat general, they represent deeply personal concerns, fears, and experiences. We hope that you can relate to them too.

But mostly, we just hope you enjoy these songs.

NOTE: Colors on the compact disc vary from the picture. There are red, pink, purple, blue, and yellow versions. If you REALLY want a specific color, just message us when you order.

credits

released May 19, 2017

Daniel Watkins - vocals, guitar, drum programming on 1, additional keys on 1,3,4
Suzanne Watkins - vocals, bass guitar
Patrick Beesley - drums
Matt Cornelius - keyboards

Recorded and engineered by Daniel Watkins.
Mixed and mastered by Josh Couvares
Cover art by Rebecca Watkins

Track 1 contains samples of percussion from the LA Bass Connection and Track 7 (CD Only) contains samples of percussion from Aaron Steele. All samples came from the Converse Rubber Tracks sample library.

tags

tags: alternative art rock indie rock Corvallis

license

all rights reserved

about

Mons La Hire image

Mons La Hire Corvallis, Oregon

Mons La Hire is an art rock band from Corvallis. Because we're pretentious like that. Also, fuzz pedals are our friends.

contact / help

Contact Mons La Hire

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Track Name: Moriah (in the Land of Milk and Honey)
Burning bridges in the land of milk and honey / Don’t wait for the alarm to take off running
Relationships confused for hunger / No one knows just what it’s like
Little wonder when the story doesn’t turn out right

Forty years in the desert leaves you shaken / I need a revelation to keep from breaking
Take a trip to Mount Moriah / Hope the angel’s hand will stop the knife
Cover up the candle when it burns too bright

Searching for the answers in a stone / Can’t accept any creed but your own
When the moon is bright we’ll start the hunt / Don’t let the treasure sink too deep
We’ll bury the book before you sleep

Forty years in the desert leaves you shaken / I need a revelation to keep from breaking
Take a trip to Mount Moriah / Hope the angel’s hand will stop the knife
Cover up the candle when it burns too bright
Track Name: Parallels
What I’m thinking I can’t put my finger on
Go through the motions but the motion is wrong
Flip the pages until the book falls apart
Carrying on is an art

There’s a place that I’m looking for
Where all the parallels converge
Where I can square the circle with the flick of a wrist
And all the solutions merge
But it’s not here

Cut it down till you’re losing the sense
The grass is brown on both sides of the fence
The mystery is just another empty box
But still we’re drawn to the locks

There’s a place that I’m looking for
Where all the parallels converge
Where I can square the circle with the flick of a wrist
And all the solutions merge
But it’s not here

There’s a place that I’m looking for
Where all the parallels converge
Where I can square the circle with the flick of a wrist
And all the solutions merge
But it’s not here
Track Name: The Garden
I kept the light on late into the night
I am beginning a new life
A new life of discipline
Something more definite
Oh you’ll be in the index
When a housefly flaps his wings
This way to infinity

Come along with me
I was mistaken
Come along with me
We must cultivate our garden

I keep looking out the window for a clue
The low blue hills of the future
Perfectly a strangeness of sunlight
How the morning shone
A strange migration
If this is the best what are the others like?
What are the others like?

Come along with me
I was mistaken
Come along with me
We must cultivate our garden
Track Name: Rumors
I admit there’s a pull I’ve been feeling / Turning circles around
More than one way to go when I’m leaving /Torn apart by the sound

Looking up and the heavens are empty / Vertigo from the view
I feel the floor fall apart right beneath me / And I can see through the ruse
Looks like the rumors are true

I can’t rely on the stuff dreams are made of / Can’t hold my breath till I’m blue
The house made out of bricks turns to powder /Falling two by two
Looks like the rumors are true

I’m a link in a chain that’s been broken / A signal lost in the noise
I am nothing but dust floating freely
I am gravity’s toy, spinning free in the void

I admit there’s a pull I’ve been feeling / Turning circles around
More than one way to go when I’m leaving / Torn apart by the sound
Track Name: Timothy Everett (is Late for Work)
Timothy Everett tightens his tie
Blazing bright blue sharp against the pin stripes
He sips at his coffee and keeps a straight face
Though he burned his lip and he hates the taste

He’s got a meeting at nine and no time to waste
Of course he checked his facts and he’s got a strong face
He looks in the mirror and sets his jaw
He knows his clients and he knows the law

But Timothy isn’t getting any younger
And every day the sun goes down just a little bit earlier
For the past five years he’s been two months away
From partner in his firm

He makes it to the subway with five minutes to spare
Sees Bernadette Kalowski in the red plastic chairs
That were trendy in the sixties, a book in her hands
A traveller’s guide to the cities of the sands

They used to talk about exploring, about seeing the planet
Backpacking to Athens — golden apples and pomegranates!
It must have been ten years ago they broke it off
Must have been about the time he finally got a good job

But Timothy isn’t getting any younger
And every day the sun goes down just a little bit earlier
For the past five years he’s been two months away
From partner in his firm

Timothy you don’t know what you’re looking for
Got a nagging feeling that there’s something more
Oh Timothy you forget what you’re aiming for
And every day is a closing door….
Track Name: Warning Lights
You ever get the feeling -- you’re trapped in a prison without any walls?
The foundation is crumbling - wonder if it was ever there at all.

I look to the heavens
they’re heavy with clouds.
I open my mouth but I can’t make a sound.

You ever get to thinking -- you’ve been living someone else’s dream all along?
And your stomach is sinking. “Seems like everything I thought I knew has turned out wrong.”

Warning lights flicker inside the machine.
The circuit corroded, the skeleton clean.

And I don’t know if I can know. I need to know. Am I wasting my time?
Is there any way out of the discomfort of living with doubt? No, I don’t think so.

And when the structure collapses
no one else can see the fire and smoke.

They look at you like your crazy, you fight the panic and run.
Catching your breath, “Am I the only one?”

And I don’t know if I can know. I need to know. Am I wasting my time?
Is there any way out of the discomfort of living with doubt? No, I don’t think so.

They look at me like I’m crazy, like I’m the one who’s deceived
They call me a sinner and lazy -- well if that’s what you want to believe
And yes I have questions unanswered and that’s all right with me
I’d rather spend my life in a desert than a palace that I can’t leave