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Whole Sun

by PigPen Theatre Co.

/
1.
Choir 04:42
Choir sing like an iris See what I’m in need of Sing like I’m crying Sing like we’re family When it comes it goes again When it goes we begin To wait away until We fade away and still We grab ropes that pull up Shiny things from the mud We were born to Choir sing like the sirens Show me my harbor Make me row faster Love me strictly When it comes it goes again When it goes we begin To wait away until We fade away and still We grab ropes that pull up Shiny things from the mud We were born to Bad things happen In St. Louis If I’d seen ‘em Boy I’d lose it Oh I would lose Oh I would lose Oh I would lose my mind Oh I would lose my mind Choir sing like an iris See what I’m in need of Sing like I’m crying Sing like we’re family Born in a choir
2.
You woke, I waited You stood, I stood by You judged the distance Examined the decline “But why would you, a diamond” I say, “Run away from the sun” Cause we could keep a tally With each stretch we stretched to reach The why, the why, the who, the how, the me, the you Oh I could die some When we are older, we’ll hear our bodies say “Oh” And we’ll find the mountain survived I could be wiser If I could speak stranger This house will crack like This mountain we reside “But why would I” in silence I say, “Run away from the sun” Cause we could keep a tally With each stretch we stretched to reach The why, the why, the who, the how, the me, the you Oh I could die some When we are older, we’ll hear our bodies say “Oh” And we’ll find the mountain survived
3.
We Won't 03:20
Tied up like a noose we were walking On the edge of a canyon me and my darling Who should stand and stare and whistle The air of a cannon the wind of a pistol Should they make us fall again Northern Southern Western I don’t care Oh oh, oh no, we won’t, we won’t All my drawers opposed to closing Gotta air out their teeth, their tongue, and their clothings But who could blame them oh in this heatwave It’ll melt your heart, your skin, make you crazy Should they make us melt again Summer Spring or Autumn I don’t care Oh oh, oh no, we won’t, we won’t Oh the martyr inside it comes back and tells me, Oh the way the mind goes Oh the way the mind goes But the wonder inside it comes back and tells me, Oh the way the mind goes Oh the way the mind goes Like a setting sun But we’ll go home No we won’t No we won’t No we won’t Tied up like a noose we were walking All my drawers opposed to closing Tied up like a noose we were walking All my drawers opposed to closing Tied up like a noose we were walking
4.
Sister 04:32
Sister, Sister, quite a child I’m told Found outside with your bag of bones In that bag your family With a note to help and keep you please Believe our love will new sister grow We’ll tell each other all Oh Oh Sister, Sister, you smell of fine perfume Rubbed off letters sent to you Italian wrote, Italian danced and sung Sister stole my Italian love Will our bond now, sister, hold Til jealous hands throw jealous stones Oh Oh Time goes by, I grow old You grow up Wrap black round my hands Around my tongue And curse the word, and curse the word, and curse the - Sister, Sister, soon We’ll be mothers too And with each own’s leaf We will, we will teach Now sister sister will you tell how we did grow apart Or rather sister will you tell the truth of our war That love is gold and you did steal my children will learn But they won’t be sure of me til you’re dead and gone
5.
Let Me Go 04:12
I don’t know, which hand to hold Could you keep me in your mind Would you keep me in your mind I don’t know, which hand to hold Could you keep me in your mind Would you keep me in your mind And save my dreams like wine Don’t lose em Guide my goals like signs Just let’m go But don’t let’m go I don’t know, is it my time to go Could you help me change its mind Would you help me change its mind I don’t know, is it my time to go Could you help me change its mind Would you help me change its mind When I go, I’m gonna miss it so, Can you help say goodbye Would you help me say goodbye I was a hell of a kid I was a mess of a kid I was a hell of a kid I was a mess of a kid Save my dreams like wine Don’t lose em Guide my ghost like a child Just let’m go But don’t let’m go Just let me go But don’t let me go
6.
Well I stared at a bear Listening close, nose up to the evening “Won’t you share your thoughts with me Oh the thoughts you seem to thinking” He said “I dream I dream I dream That the leaves the leaves the leaves They don’t ever stop their changing, no, Changing for me But it seems it seems it seems That the trees the trees the trees they don’t ever stop their changing, no, changing their leaves But when they die I won’t leave this world unknown When they die I won’t leave this world unknown” “I could teach you” I said “All the ways to live with them forever” “Don’t you coddle me boy, oh I know All too well how to remember” He said “I dream I dream I dream That the leaves the leaves the leaves They don’t ever stop their changing, no, Changing for me But it seems it seems it seems That the trees the trees the trees they don’t ever stop their changing, no, changing their leaves But when they die I won’t leave this world unknown When the die I won’t leave this world unknown” Tell me, have you seen Love dry, love cease to grow (X3) I’ve caught fish so I know The sound it makes when you let them go It’s the worst sound that I’ve ever known Then came the snow And the ice Over the water Over the water Over my water
7.
Over 02:43
8.
Teeth 03:55
All my teeth in my mouth All your tongue can shout Give us a bite of that whole sun Give us the pulp and the peel Give us a bite of that whole sun Give us the light in the wheel Straighten out your spine And I’ll straighten out mine Give us a bite of that whole sun Give us the pulp and the peel Give us a bite of that whole sun Give us the light in the wheel Cuz the signs they were aligned Just like our eyes And they told us look up Yes they told us look up Oh they told us look up All the while a sigh from your mind says stick it out Hard to say, hard to do, harder now in the moonlight Picture yourself as a child in the love of the morning light Make a cup of your own, that's a cup that will stick around Stick it out All my teeth in my mouth All your tongue can shout Give us a bite of that whole sun Give us the pulp and the peel
9.
All’s well with José No need to worry his mind No need to phone Although his mother’s dying slow All her lessons they Went in one ear And then they ran astray In his brain Until they all became Something he believed in Carla and Charro Lying down inside that bed Surrounding their mother Older now but babes instead All her lessons they Went in their ears And then they ran astray In their brains Until they all became Something they believed in They cried Mother our stone Mother our stone In came José Seas and roads led him home Rushed to her side now Brother sister brother close All your lessons they Went in one ear And then they ran astray In our brains Until they all became Something we believed in They cried Mother our stone Mother our stone
10.
Weathervane 05:07
I am the weathervane I never said anything strange But those in storms who lost their way Seem to give me all their blame Oh well Like the gallows Or the weapons Or the red nose Or the rose with the thorn How I lost those days So I started pointing my own way Not the way the wind came I brought a spring without rain But unlike blame received no praise Oh well Like the teacher The good mother Or the writer Or the bough for the bird How I made those days Oh I won’t lie I’d take my word for it now Oh I won’t like I’d take my word for it I’d take my word for it now So look up to me before the sun If you dare to know what’s to come I’ll give you what’s given me Of news from far and in between Clouds that hear the unheard Storms with face, arms, and words It’s enough to make you say Oh my god

about

This is the STANDARD EDITION of Whole Sun. A Deluxe Edition which includes three additional songs and exclusive digital content (100+ photos, alternate artwork, lyric sheets, and more) is also available on Bandcamp.

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“Choir / Sing like an iris / See what I'm in need of", calls a voice in "Choir", the opening track of PigPen Theatre Co.’s sophomore folk-rock album, Whole Sun. “I think that sums up my relationship with music in general”, writes lead singer Ryan Melia. “Whether you're listening to or writing music, you want it to be a medicine. You want it to make you feel good, teach you, watch over you, wash over you.”

The “Choir” lyric continues, “Sing like we’re family.” And they do. The band, seven male 20-somethings (Alex Falberg; banjo, Ben Ferguson; guitar/banjo, Curtis Gillen; bass, Matt Nuernberger; guitar/keyboard, Ryan Melia; guitar/banjo, Dan Weschler; accordion/keyboard, and Arya Shahi; percussion) who met in college and began writing together in 2007, function as a tightly knit unit. With a lush array of vocal harmony, at times culminating with all 7 singing at once, PigPen Theatre Co. often shifts in scale from the personal to the epic. The band of multi-instrumentalists trades off an eclectic collection of instruments, a banjo for a Telecaster, an accordion for a woodwind, that gives PigPen’s story-driven songs their wide-ranging, but always evocative, atmosphere. Whole Sun was written while the group was on the road cultivating its rapidly growing fan base.

Their debut album, Bremen, was named #10 album of the year in The Huffington Post’s 2012 Grammy Preview sending PigPen on tour playing to sold-out crowds at The Music Hall of Williamsburg and The Bowery Ballroom in NYC, Lincoln Hall in Chicago, The Echo in Los Angeles, Hill Auditorium and The Ark in Ann Arbor, amongst many others. Special appearances have included SXSW, The Ann Arbor Folk Festival, Dayton Folk Fest, and Milwaukee’s Summerfest, where PigPen Theatre Co. were winners in the Emerging Artist’s Series in 2013. They also performed a series of concerts that became one of the best selling residencies of the past decade at the legendary Schuba’s Tavern in Chicago.

While it is unusual for a band that’s been together nearly 8 years to only be releasing their sophomore album, that’s because this group has been making headway in other arenas, too. In addition to their work as musicians, PigPen Theatre Co. is a fully functioning (get this!) theatre company. The moniker isn’t just for the ironic hipster street cred. They’re a real multiple-award-winning theatre company. Their music-driven plays (written, composed, and performed by the band) have played Off-Broadway and to packed houses across the country, earning critical praise from The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, Time Out New York, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and more, winning a myriad of awards for their original music, playwriting, and dynamic as an ensemble. The group’s theatrical appetite is healthy, too, with three new plays slated for development over the next three years. In 2012, The New Yorker called them “a perfect combination of original music, stunning shadow puppetry, and vigorous physical comedy. It’s like watching child geniuses at play.”

“The goal this time was to write songs that belonged to us, not our plays”, said Melia. Whole Sun was written over 18 months, many of which were away from home as the band members gave up their New York City apartments and performed all over the country. Weschler remembers, “we were kind of isolated for months, with a lot of time to think about the loved ones we'd left behind. Those first few songs had a lot to do with looking at our relationships and the ways they were changing, sometimes growing, sometimes dwindling. “Weathervane," "You Woke," “Mayfly" and “Shailene" (an unreleased track), are all songs addressed to someone important who's on the other side of a great distance.”

They were surprised to find large crowds in cities they’d never been before, and in some places, Gillen recalls, “people were singing the lyrics, and we could hear them from on stage. It was amazing.” More exciting for the group, though, was that the new material began to take over as their collective sound grew.“These new songs were more vulnerable and, in a way, the audience became our partner in composition. Our parts became a direct result of the conversation we were having with them night after night” noted Shahi.

They had amassed nearly 30 songs by the summer of 2014 when suddenly Melia’s father, a close and beloved mentor to the group, passed away without warning. Weschler recalls, “We all reacted differently, but the same inevitable questions arose for all of us - what were we doing? What were we trying to do? Why did it matter? How could we move forward?”

The answers started to come as they began writing again. The band entered an eight-month period of recording demos in their Brooklyn apartment. "We focused on each song as it stood on its own, and developed the world that each song lived in,” said Ferguson, “we wanted to step back afterward to see what kind of album we were making.” Then they moved to the recording studio, adding a number of new sounds and textures. “I think everyone is playing at least one new instrument on this album that they didn’t before”, said Nuernberger. “We used a lot of new instruments like flute, mellotron, hammered dulcimer, a Wurlitzer, organ, fiddle, saxophone, trumpet, melodica, accordion, and even a vibraphone.”

“Many of the songs were about growing up” Weschler said. “They were about moving through different phases of your life with open eyes and acceptance. Which led us to the title, Whole Sun, a lyric from “Teeth”, 'Give us a bite of that whole sun.' We see the world in different degrees of focus, sometimes the picture is small and highly focused, but every now and then it gets big and all encompassing and we feel ourselves as part of something infinite. That's the way the sun is all the time. It shines down on everything and it’s always full, always a whole sun. It doesn't go through phases like the moon, it’s just there, all the time, seeing everything and casting light on everything. In some ways that's the ideal way of being. Shouldn't we all be like the sun? But that would also require us to be on fire. So we settle for focusing in on our lives and the people in them, with the occasional bright, fiery glimpse into the infinite - often in the aftermath of a great loss."

credits

released July 7, 2015

Written and Performed by PigPen Theatre Co.
Produced by Ron Robinson Jr.
Engineered by Michael A. Judeh
Mixed by Jesse Lauter
Mastered by Alan Silverman
Recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios
Featuring Lee Harrington on Flute
Artwork by Derek Eads

PigPen Theatre Co. is:
Alex Falberg
Arya Shahi
Ben Ferguson
Curtis Gillen
Dan Weschler
Matt Nuernberger
Ryan Melia

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PigPen Theatre Co. New York, New York

PigPen Theatre Co. met as freshman at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in 2007. Their debut LP, “Bremen”, was named #10 album of the year in The Huffington Post’s 2012 Grammy preview. Their follow up EP, “The Way I’m Running”, was premiered by American Songwriter and released on Oct. 8th, 2013. Their sophomore album. "Whole Sun", was released July 7th, 2015. They're cool. Pinky promise. ... more

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