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Leaving California

by Jack O' the Clock

supported by
Tom Landon
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Tom Landon This rather astounding record can't really be categorized - musically, it's so full of everything and so original that a short description is impossible. It is superbly played. The words are FANTASTIC and I would have chosen The Butcher as my favourite if the app had allowed me to ;-) Favorite track: Leaving California.
Spacehog
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Spacehog I have already this in CD. It's so great that I want it also in my Bandcamp collection. And it's in HR quality!
Carsten Pieper
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Carsten Pieper Very nice, this Cuneiform Records' weekend special comes in shiny 24bit quality. As I had this self-labelled majestic junk folk outfit on my wishlist for quite a while, this was a very welcome reminder to finally get some...

Steinar Borve
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Steinar Borve Once again, Jack O' the Clock manages the near-impossible task of balancing folk and avant-garde. Impressive. One of my favourite bands these days. Hopefully, more people will discover this modern gem.
Kevin Lanigan
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Kevin Lanigan This is by far my most favorite cd of 2021… it reminded me of Big Big Train just get it!!!! You won’t be disappointed
Michael Lieto
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Michael Lieto Might be the best album so far by this truly brilliant and unique collective! I think there are few groups that even come close to being THIS musical and THIS heartfelt. LOVE IT!
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1.
Jubilation 02:49
Jubilation Once in my life, came a heat across my chest: I dropped everything and followed her laughing fire, fanning west through the grassland and up into the foothills, the massifs breathing into midday, where we lay down and wept for joy. I want to tell you that whatever it is, it is possible. Sky-blue, she steps out onto the breezy, old front porch where I hang my tacky thoughts to dry, beaming quietly over me. She’s beaming right through the anvils of the afternoon— jubilation! ----- Damon Waitkus - lead and backing vocals, mandolin, electric, acoustic, and baritone guitars, piano, percussion Jason Hoopes - bass Jordan Glenn - drums Thea Kelley - backing vocals
2.
You Let Me Down I was wrong to expect. I know you’re a sensitive filament. I was a sensitive filament and, blown-out, I could have used your light. You let me down. Death came up like a bubble in the night and it popped in my face. What a mess. No picnic! Do you want me to tell you how I cleaned it all up? Well, I can’t! You missed it! You let me down. Did you fear a drowning man? Did you fear that iron grip? You know, all you have to do to free yourself is dive deeper. Christ, you’re older than me: it’s coming! When you going to look at it? Life is one big solid mass of connections and you let me down. ----- Damon Waitkus - lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, guzheng, harmonica, keyboards, hammer dulcimer, percussion Emily Packard - violin Jason Hoopes - bass Jordan Glenn - drums Thea Kelley - backing vocals
3.
The Butcher 08:39
The Butcher Point the gun at the X above the eyes, pull the trigger, pull the trigger, slit the throat of the carcass where it lies, pump the foreleg, get the blood out, cut the head and the balls and then the feet, keep a sharp blade, keep a sharp blade, peel the hide, top to bottom, from the meat, clear the offal: this is God's work. Split the trunk down the center, front to back, hose the stone down, hose the stone down, hang the halves seven days upon the rack, keep the flies out: this is God’s work. Take your kill to the butcher, he will cut you a deal, he will weigh it and wrap it in paper. You will know from the moment that you look in his eyes: everyone else lies I have a heart that sings to me of all the things I will not see: the sob of laughter in the street, the very ground beneath my feet. Before the prophet, before the lamb, slips the blade of Abraham: stabs the pain of contradiction, burns the heat of inner friction. Place your trust in the butcher, he will cut you a deal, he will weigh it and wrap it in paper. You will know from the moment that you look in his eyes: everyone, everyone… ----- Thea Kelley - lead and backing vocals Damon Waitkus - baritone electric and acoustic guitars, lead and backing vocals, electric taishogoto, psaltery, music box, percussion, pianet, melodica, slide whistle Emily Packard - violin, viola Jason Hoopes - bass Jordan Glenn - drums, accordion Ivor Holloway - clarinet
4.
A Quarter-Page Ad Looking for a quiet man, preferably long in tooth, to live out his simple life alone among the shadows of our garden between the sundial and the stars and tend a fire in the offing. Must appear to have resigned to the heavy hand of fate and to live from day to day in humble contemplation of his last breath. Must never talk to any guests, or leave the premises, or publish. For the qualified applicant: hedge clippers, hovel, and a burial plot behind the birdbath provided. ----- Thea Kelley - lead and backing vocals Emily Packard - violin, viola Josh Packard - cello Jason Hoopes - bass
5.
Leaving California I want more than I can rightly take. The form of hunger is awful hard to break. It's hypnotizing, watching the almond trees go by. It's a long, long valley. I drove through it all day and passed my likeness going back the other way. All my ambitions, like a carapace, cracked and fell away. I'm leaving California. I never meant to get so drunk— I meant to pass the cup. And with her sails so full of wind, I thought for sure I'd live to see a passage open up. Almond leaves dusty to the touch. Sunlight reigns here— water, not so much. Pine beetle blight: copper upon the Western slope, aching for fire. Rifles and gas stations, In-N-Out and Nation’s— the future's never been a blanker wall, and I miss my people, even in depravity. They're not saints but they have a certain gravity. All of this craving and what is it for? Switch on some tunes, I ain't talking no more. I'm leaving California. I never meant to get so drunk— I meant to pass the cup. And with her sails so full of wind, I thought for sure I'd live to see a passage open up. ----- Damon Waitkus - lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, piano, percussion, electric taishogoto Emily Packard - violin Jason Hoopes - bass Jordan Glenn - drums Thea Kelley - backing vocals Myles Boisen - pedal steel
6.
Fascination 08:13
Fascination When you’re away, I soften myself for you. It takes some time, but not too much, to uncoil in the sun of separateness like I’ve come shivering from a lake: September’s end, the breeze is edgy, but this stone warms me for a while. Then the blue tracks of your inwardness shunt me on the stairs and end in a tangle of books by the bed where you sigh into my failures. Or is that just your breath? Went to a shop to kill some time: hands chase in circles antique phases of the moon. “Look out!” comes an old voice. “You’ll stare for fifty years!” Fascination. I kiss this axe that tears me through doubt and intention to the ground of molten heart where a beaming stranger stands. I wake in the morning with our bird pecking my eyelids before she lifts and the day self-assembles so fluently around your given light, I blaze into the present like a child. Fascination. ----- Damon Waitkus - lead and backing vocals, acoustic, electric and baritone guitars, keyboards, recorder, melodica Jordan Glenn - bass drum
7.
Narrow Gate 11:49
Narrow Gate Dress men in black, women in white, no jewels or frills, and stand with us in clerestory light until your mind stills. Our altar's plain, its angles are right, our backs are straight. The star of grace burns clean at night through a narrow gate. Square your shoulders now: you are God's own hunter. No more will you go cowering through the day. Bones of rectitude pass privately through a public door. Come crows and thieves, open your hand and He will fill it, but you must not talk of owning the land: you do not till it. You must not talk of sex or of prayer: you will be lying. The politic man, asleep in the square, is quietly dying. Square your shoulders now: you are God's own hunter. No more will you go cowering through the day. Bones of rectitude pass privately through a public door. This is my life. My life. What is the baseness before which death is preferable? I think it is that of the man who has put his hand to the plow and turns back.* A fingering wind sightlessly reads December’s last rites, and candles bolt in windows like weeds to seed the long nights. Her breath in clouds, billowing past, brushes your cheek, and desire runs, broader than fast beneath the frozen creek. Enter from the West —whispers in the architecture— no more will you place idols at her door Eyes upon the work, clasp hands and stand together to your full height. (* E. L. Ennis, 1908) ----- Damon Waitkus - lead and backing vocals; acoustic, electric, piccolo and baritone guitars; hammer dulcimer; percussion; tin whistle; keyboards; electric taishogoto; mandolin Thea Kelley - lead and backing vocals Emily Packard - violin, viola Jason Hoopes - bass Jordan Glenn - drums, percussion Ivor Holloway - saxophones

about

“One of the most original and compelling groups I know playing some amazing compositions that seem to tread effortlessly between Van Dyke Parks and folk music from an as yet unidentified culture, while making all the things you've always thought of as difficult sound as effortless and natural as breathing...Amazing production. Extraordinary compositions. You need to hear it.” – Fred Frith

"Each of these compositions is a magnificent example of how truly “progressive” music can bridge musical gaps and expand its audience. Even though these seven songs unfurl over 45 anxious and dramatic minutes, the album still feels too short. It also feels like a candidate for record of the year." – Michael Popke / Shepherd Express

Jack O’ The Clock’s Leaving California is a highly-detailed musical adventure that reveals new layers with repeated listens, from the opening strums of “Jubilation,” which introduces the record with whimsical folksy fanfare, to the angular harmonized violin lead on the closing track, “Narrow Gate.” Throughout, the songs of bandleader Damon Waitkus recall artists such as David Sylvian, Fairport Convention, and Elliott Smith, while creative musical arrangements showcase the band’s high-level compositional and instrumental chops. Upon first listen, Leaving California offers plenty of hooks, but this is music that truly reveals its depth upon the scrutiny of repeated spins.

The band have referred to themselves as 'majestic junk folk' and that's a pretty funny but not inaccurate description for a band who blend folk music and experimental music together in a unique way.

“It’s like hearing some of my favourite 'Old Timey' fiddle and guitar records...updated with compositional ideas worthy of a Stockhausen or a Boulez.” – The Sound Projector

credits

released May 28, 2021

Damon Waitkus – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, keyboards, hammer dulcimer, etc
Emily Packard – violin
Jason Hoopes – bass
Jordan Glenn – drums
Thea Kelley – vocals

Ivor Holloway - clarinet on track 3 and saxophones on track 7
Josh Packard - cello on track 4
Myles Boisen - pedal steel on track 5

Produced, recorded, and mixed by Damon Waitkus in Alameda and Oakland, CA and at Orchard Hill Studio, Brattleboro, VT, 2018–2020.

Mastered by Myles Boisen.

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Cuneiform Records Washington, D.C.

Cuneiform Records is an independent record label releasing adventurous, boundary-bursting music by artists from around the world.

Founded in 1984.
Based in Washington D.C.

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