01. eyelash
02. old smuggler
03. propanolol
04. addict's song
05. about helena
06. young and dethroned
07. healthy
08. sick
09. murdering chair
10. beat ups
11. slayer bitch
12. slopert
13. heaven and hell
14. when i was young i wanted to do great things

:: cover art (in PDF format) ::


Tyler Whitney is one of these very few songwriters that have the capacity to change durably the way you interact with music, this full length (SiS n°18), the first one on the so far in our strictly mp3eps limited catalogue, was along with the album of The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers my favorite record of the last year, so it’s an unbelievable honor to have the chance to introduce you to this dramatically underestimated treasure.

If you like Carissa’s Weird, early Bright Eyes or Pedro The Lion records, prepare yourself to be blown away again.


Recorded and performed between 2001 and 2004 by: Tong Ly, Tyler Whitney, Mike Musser, Chris Clunk, Erik Sahd, Pascal Troemel, Janet Lee, Emily Devitry, Jared McCoy, and Jon Langseth

For more information or a physical copy of this collection with artwork please email Tyler at: twhitney7***@*yahoo.com (remove the stars)

For other Chauchat releases visit: www.geocities.com/unreadrecords and www.frigitalrecords.com

Eyelash
Yes I understand you know a lot more than I do
Like a teacher you are older
You have asked me not to speak out loud
So for the third time just today they told me to stop making noise
This house shakes if an eyelash falls
Just imagine what a heartbeat does

Somewhere along the way I lost the will to be kind
Half the truth fell down the staircase
The rest is still inside my suitcase
But the only time her hands touched mine was to staple me to the bed
She thinks I’m sick like you do
I swear to god it’s just bronchitis

I had a dream last time I was shot to death
With part of my brain lying in the front seat
Help me find the latent content
Do I really want to lose my mind in a car?

And I can hear your words as you answer me
And reduce it all to a sarcastic call
You waited for me, I waited longer for the absence
But have you ever woken up inside a room
And tried to describe the gloom she cast
It covers the heating ducts and the window frames you thought would keep her out

Sparrow on a broken branch still senses fear
Your Muppet blanket won’t protect you
I stopped making sense

Old Smuggler
Another forced confession
Or have I used that line before
When it’s apparent I just want attention
That’s why I make these things so dramatic
Because a sad kid only drags pots and pans behind him
To let the world now he’s arrived
But let’s be serious for an hour
And just tell me why you let the faucets run
When you know tears don’t sound like water
They don’t sound like anything at all

I never thought you’d see me as clever
I drag sincerity out of the ashtray
With every promise already extinguished
There’s no hope in expecting an answer
You only serve as distraction
Something every boy deserves

So I guess that the farther away you are now
The stronger it becomes
And that’s the song we’ve sung when it was worth our time
Recreating these memories that never happened
So what, I made it up
And I sleep wrapped up in your efforts

Propanolol
I was watching propaganda films
Hoping for direction at least
Because inspiration is a toy
I broke and I was only twelve
I lost my patience several times
Reading choleric reference in rhyme
Renderings of artful lies and they never caught on
I stuck my head inside of a trashcan
And pretend somehow I’m still there
Because everyone has ambitions
So good luck and take care of

And I can’t remember how to spell a name after it’s given to me
Like everyone I place too much on a simple conversation
The difference is slight so I’d rather watch your lips just shape the words instead of hearing them
I misplaced the thought
I was thinking of an earlier time when I was younger

Addict’s Song
Such passionate mistakes
I wanted you desperately to see
Remember me falling off my chair
Asking my head to crack the floor
Next time pour glue where I lay down
Make sure my ears are on the ground
So I can listen sixty years
For the prospect of anyone getting here

And then he came in
And then he stole the last thing that I had from my pocket
And then he came in
And then he stole the last thing that I had so now it’s gone

Endless fractures on the screen can
Separate beggars from their queen
While on the swings we threw out words
To watch them vanish in the branches
I believe they’re stuck up there
Conversations that act as ornaments
Conversations farewell

Give yourself over
I’ve heard she’s never been receptive
Please rooftops grab them
And tell them when it’s time to leave

This thought leads to that other thought
Until it’s time to sleep
That’s a word I used, pasted meaning on top
The problem appears to be solved
Until a voice rings clear and tears me apart
Saying, “everything you’ve ever done is a joke”

About Helena
Go out burning wrists
I drove your trust away
Invest your persuasive care
In concern with whatever I’m hiding
Let’s wed while we’re both afraid
Blast discourse and sudden stops

No actor is betrayed
Get caught as the last one to leave

Your fortune disrupts my claim
That I’m Eastern European
And a kitchen is just for a meal
I’ll drag down your compromise
We’re chasing significance
Our mouths dry and devastate

No camera is betrayed
A snapshot is the last thing you see

Young and Drowned
Working hard, production line
Construct your symbols to be replaced
And broadcast each one standing up
A winter storm since you were born

Inscribe your steps on the roads you walk
Scratching canyons you can’t cross

Transitions fail me, I’m backing down
Brackets break, please give me time
Deny it’s gone means I think we’ve won
The distance measured the width of a door

Laugh to show you understand
They’ll disprove of putting it this way

Healthy
Parading down the low-lit halls
The whole garden’s on fire
The shovel’s been buried
But I’m still in bed distracting cares I had

We crowd around an ambulance
Trying to catch a glimpse of a corpse
My overbite is killing me
It’s meant to show I hate, but my jaw refuses to close

It’s all about fighting off
These sections of life I don’t want to touch
And then you castrate my vocal chords
For my disembodied voice but I failed again, girl

We used a jumprope as a noose
And skip over it twice a day
Kick out the chair for me
It’s gymnastics like potted plants

And each leaf is soaked in ink

Reconciliation
It’s all become so clear
We’ll chainsmoke until we’re both blind

It’s all about fighting off
These sections of life I don’t want to touch
And then you calibrate a tape machine
For my disembodied voice but I failed again, girl

Sick
Andreja and I don’t talk
We just sit there and watch the movies
Sometimes leaning against a board
Or leafing through the news
And if we ever spoke a word
I’m afraid of what would happen

As the rain is making her think
This probably wasn’t a good idea

Andreja and I don’t talk
She just whispers with her hands
Saying, “life has become a mess”
And suggesting we both get sick
Phonetics fuck us up
And writing never seemed sincere

As the rain is making her think
That every problem comes back

Murdering Chair
We lacerate the eyes of a girl you despise
No longer have the willpower to ever disown
I’m caught in the moment to pay the price each morning

A c-section brought to the nurse’s arms
Your veins unwound and we just wrapped you in strings
She’ll change the locks if you ever want back inside

So then why do you always smile in pictures
It’s not like you, I like you bitter
The world is not the consequence of falling over like I thought

So then please elaborate on how you disguise your hands as simple tin cans
And you ran so fast across memorial plans
We’re not quite as aimless as I’d like to believe

Beat Ups
“Morphine blues,” my doctor said
But I’ll be there
Beside you or maybe on top of you
It feels so great celebrating defeat
But for all it’s worth
I can’t be hurt

Slayer Bitch
Regrets form out of unused packs of matches
I was tired and now I’m overjoyed
Although it’s hard even walking in a straight line
I can bend some rules and walk diagonally
Past your questions, past my obvious uncertainty
I can laugh when I’m not looking at you
And you’re not looking at me

The treetops move, the wind rewinds my limbs to where they stood
Before the light just came from fireworks
And in thirty words I thought would bring the curtain down
All I did was prove my arrogance

Oh! Be joyful
It’s morning again and I’m awake
All these knives in my stomach
I remember it had something to do with you
So just string up a couple
I’m sure the devotion you’re looking for you’ll finding hanging upside down
But don’t sing alone
It’s hard to be noticed, it’s harder to be trusted
At least that’s what I heard

There’s still time to find a spoon to feed you with
And trap the pauses in your speech
I count the days that I have seen you in a better mood
A passive inquiry to where you’ve been, to where you’ve been

Slopert
Proclaim the need to judge
And cross me off your lists
In this way avoid my faults
Present them as productive talks
As staring finds a focus
The truth is pushed aside
Now I just see with a flashlight
And sleep through the daylight

Hospice, they don’t feed me
And they preach of invented values
And ask me to tie around
Because emotion is invisible

Proclaim the past a curse
A hunger, not a thirst
Agendas with the alphabet
You sound it out as counterfeit
Imperatives at standstill
Wounds without the blood to spill
That’s an urge you’ll never have to kill

Hospice, they don’t feed me
And they preach of invented values
And ask me to tie around
Because emotion is invisible
It’s invisible!

Heaven and Hell
Rituals and castles, they remain only to help us remember
Who came first and who comes last
And whose sleeves we need to roll up

We lost all momentum to cotton-stuffed dolls and constant irrational laws
These are wooden beams upon which I pile
A phrase like “the first step is denial”

Make room to work

You speak in sighs, you woman of walls
Or so you’ve been rightfully called

Make room to work

fuck it up
(insecure at last)

When i was young i wanted to do great things
Scattered across this country
Deceased but still here
Moving backwards out of fear
Recessions in the phonograph machine
And they blamed me
They blame it on my apathy
But I try so hard to sound concerned and fake this awkwardness
Just to appease you, my love

Brutal honesty
Traits of suffering
Emulate the orphan
Whose task is to write
Descriptions of worlds he tried to fit into

Stencil these tears directly beneath my eyes
I want to be pacified
These pillows are anchors and it seems like you’re still here
But we already went over that
A couple poets are singing as I try to sleep
Forcing couplets from their busted beaks

A coward’s dignity
A closing of closets put my mother through hell
I’m cracking down on contradictions now