more from
Polyvinyl 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.

Eye On The Bat

by Palehound

/
  • Streaming + Download

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

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Eye On The Bat via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $21 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Eye On The Bat via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD or more 

     

1.
Good Sex 01:41
On your birthday last year I Secretly put on a corset and Fit it under a bathrobe To surprise you But you ended up talking on the phone With friends for an hour so I sat stiffly just hoping You wouldn’t notice But by the time that you hung up The wire and the clasps had dug Canals and dried water ducts Like a sex map of my chest And I mimicked all the movie stars As I let the terry cloth slip off and As I did I imagined what This would look like if it weren’t us and I started laughing at myself Pretending to be someone else In that tiny dusty living room Full of candy wrappers and dirty shoes And our cat licking his ass and looking confused And your face contorting with amuse and I Shared shortness of breath with you I shared shortness of breath with you cuz Bad sex makes a good joke That anyone can get But good sex makes a bad joke That’s only funny if you were there
2.
We broke up on Independence Day Crying while the next door neighbors raged Flashes of color on your face The bass thumping the chanting names Our cat running under the bed with his tail between his legs Can of soda shaken up With every truth the sky erupts And we’re still pulling on the tab Foaming sugar in our laps Sparkler in my throat can we just take it all back Join the neighbors and go dancing With a rocket and a six pack I am living life like writing a first draft Cuz there is nothing to it if I can’t edit the past and Even if I could it would kill me to look back No I don’t wanna see the other path I don’t wanna see that other path Oh to think a couple weeks before Night driving headlight corridor That deer ran straight into your door Who hit who I’m still not sure But we both made sounds I’d never heard us make before Oh what if we hadn’t been running late? Oh what if I forgot to hit the brakes? What if that beast had sealed our fate? Dug us both a single grave? Yeah well I thought it’d bring us closer yeah I thought it was a sign But all it did was drive the point home in my body and my mind That I’m living life like writing a first draft Cuz there is nothing to it if I can’t edit the past and Even if I could it would kill me to look back No I don’t wanna see the other path I don’t wanna see that other path I don’t wanna see it Living life like writing a first draft Cuz there is nothing to it if I can’t edit the past and Even if I could it would kill me to look back No I don’t wanna see the other path I don’t wanna see that other path I don’t wanna see it I don’t wanna see that other path
3.
I didn’t wanna see that bloody hand on your stomach that night Snake head tunnels out the earth glares at the light I didn’t want you to see me naked in that Photo where I’m laying down and Staring at the sun I didn’t wanna talk shit and find more reasons to keep this up You’re driving me with every limb My face in the glove and If you release the clutch we’ll both come to a screeching halt It’s a punch in the gut I didn’t mean to hurt you You didn’t mean to show me how Sudden wind drags the goal up throws it far out the bounds and I’m glad that you know better now And I’m glad that you found yourself But you didn’t need my help You didn’t need my help
4.
What causes you to tremble? No chill could shake your will of bone Broken wing ails a standing bird She sings a gravelly call But flightlessness is nothing new For an ostrich after all Wind turbines and overpasses Thirteen hours on our asses Now the tank is good on gas So we pull off a random exit And make sandwiches out of the trunk They’re cold and dry but so’s our luck We piss behind the van Compare the puddles in the dust Cuz suckers will all tell you to keep Watching for the ball But we know better than that Keep your eye on the bat What brought you to that shaking fist? No chill could rock my will of bliss Black Sabbath as the sun goes down Cuz I like heavy metal now We’re the only people for miles around And we’re head banging to “Paranoid” Cuz suckers will all tell you to keep Watching for the ball But we know better than that Keep your eye on the bat
5.
You want it you got it Liked this shirt on me so I bought it You want it you got it Handed me your gun so I shot it You want it you got it You’ll plant it and I’ll repot it You want it you got it You got it you got it Oh Dandelion crushed under your toe Spray the weeds so something else can grow And I’ll be dead by the time you get home Plant in me your fantasy now You want it you got it I wash my back so you can eat off it You want it you got it Urge to collapse knelt and fought it You want it you got it Said forget it so I forgot it You want it you got it You got it forgot it Oh Dandelion crushed under your toe Spray the weeds so something else can grow And I’ll be dead by the time you get home Plant in me your fantasy now Plant in me your fantasy
6.
Route 22 03:50
“Keep it down my father’s home” Punch my arm too hard I know you meant it Be sure to text when you get home It’s after ten no way you’re hitting traffic Speeding You come for love To call my bluff To tell no lies And keep me wild I come to play I come to bleed We come to laugh You come to see the good in me Would you mind if I get stoned? Don’t wanna bore you with my teenage habits Be sure to text when you get home Going 80 stomach doing backflips Shrieking You come for love To call my bluff To tell no lies And keep me wild I come to play I come to bleed We come to laugh You come to see the good in me Oh what good’s the good in me If you can’t see? Oh what good’s the good in me If you can’t touch me? Touch me You come for love To call my bluff To tell no lies And keep me wild I come to play I come to bleed We come to laugh You come to see the good in me
7.
My Evil 02:24
I’ve become the person I’d wanna punch in the face If they ever treated you this way A bitch that grows like hair from my tongue cracks the egg we share and Scrambles us in open space I waste time with it Pour wine with it Bake bread with it Give head with it Make lunch with it Make love with it and Share a skull with it It’s my evil I didn’t notice I had blood on my hands til it dried and Flaked off staining all our clothes I’ll clean it up I swear I’ll drag it to the laundromat and Watch it turn the washer black I waste time with it Pour wine with it Bake bread with it Give head with it Make lunch with it Make love with it and Share a skull with it It’s my evil
8.
My head like a pot of thick soup Stirred and tasted I live to fill you up And I burn unwatched Holding your body like a paperweight Heavy glass resting in my hand Changing something in me And I am trusting Invite me to your home and Greet me kindly My shoes off at your door I roam your halls Holding my body like a dinner plate Warmly balancing in your palm Feeding something in you And you are trusting I live to fill you up and I burn unwatched I live to fill you up and I burn unwatched Holding your body like a tiny clock Ticking brass resting in my palm Keeping me in time and I am trusting
9.
Cold water breaking at our feet I pull up the ankles of my pants and you laugh at me We came down here to see the sunset But we’re in a bad spot and I can’t see it But its shimmer’s reflecting like blazes Melting the floor to ceiling windows of Great big houses on a beach In northern California and you Point out the dark of the trees and You were right about it scaring me and I was right about you scaring me too Cold feeling rising in my throat Flying down Blood Alley with one hand on your phone And you point out the danger of this street and You were right about it scaring me and I was right about you scaring me too I was right about you I was right about you scaring me too
10.
Fadin’ 02:57
Shaded inflated Tent that you pitched under my ribs just swaying Through seasons changing the stakes stay grounded in glue Devoted devoted Apple that you pitched in my pond just floating Through days collapsing since I last talked to you Fadin’ fadin’ fadin’ fadin’ There’s nothin’ I can do to keep from fadin’ to you I’m fadin’ fadin’ fadin’ fadin’ There’s nothin’ I can do to keep from fadin’ to you Dribble it rock it Kick it in the sky so you can see it So you can see it and know it’s meant for you Watch it spinning Falling to the Earth with an empty spirit But your back’s been turned and missed all that I could prove Fadin’ fadin’ fadin’ fadin’ There’s nothin’ I can do to keep from fadin’ to you I’m fadin’ fadin’ fadin’ fadin’ There’s nothin’ I can do to keep from fadin’ to you There’s nothin’ I can do to keep from fadin’ to you

about

Palehound’s new album Eye On The Bat charts something that divides you into “before” and “after” – the danger of fantasy, of heartbreak, and the pain of growth. How we can surprise ourselves. It’s a documentation of illusions shattering, both of yourself and of others. A tangle of raw nerves coming undone amongst swelling, propulsive instrumentation, it’s the biggest – and best – Palehound has sounded on record.

From Palehound’s critically-acclaimed debut album Dry Food (2015) to A Place I’ll Always Go (2017), and Black Friday (2019) and then, Doomin’ Sun (2021) by Bachelor (a collaborative project with Jay Som’s Melina Duterte), El Kempner’s songwriting has always been generous and personal, dispatches from a deep inner world. On Eye On The Bat, though, we meet Kempner anew: a guttural howl; white-hot and blistering catharsis; a feverish and visceral and painful present.

As Palehound, Kempner’s guitar playing – their sinewy and off-kilter riffs – has always been front and center across the project’s discography, like smoke unfurling around anxiety-laden lyrics. It’s cerebral, trying to make sense of grief in a grocery store or an argument in a parking lot, plumbing the anxious depths of the interiors. Introspection, retrospection, whatever you’d like to call it, has threaded together Kempner’s songwriting, the bruising aftermath of trying times, since the very beginning. Here, though, we’re trapped in the immediate: witnessing the tiny details that build or break a relationship, and the flood that comes after.

“It’s about me, but it’s also about me in relation to others,” Kempner says of the album. “After hiding for so long – staying inside and hiding your life and hiding yourself from the world – I was ready. I think I flipped.”

Recorded in brief stints across 2022 at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskills, the space between each session gave Kempner more time to breathe, to revisit the songs after time away. Kempner co-produced Eye On The Bat alongside Sam Owens (Big Thief, Cass McCombs), who was also crucial to the process -- lending assistance yet allowing Kempner to take the reins on producing, to call the shots on the session and step into their own as a producer. Kempner also credits multi-instrumentalist Larz Brogan, who they refers to as “their platonic life partner” and longtime member of Palehound since the Boston DIY days, as a vital part of making the album come together the way it did. They make Kempner feel seen - allow them to be vulnerable, to experiment, to push themself in the studio. After playing together for so many years, Brogan and Kempner both wanted to push themselves to make a record that sounded less produced, one that simply captured the raw energy of Palehound live. Stand-out track “U Want It U Got It” was almost entirely self-produced by Kempner at home, save for Brogan’s drumming, the first time anything of the sort has made it onto a Palehound record.

“In the past, I’ve taken myself really seriously in the studio, and I’ve ended up with really serious-sounding records,” Kempner explains. “This one – it’s a break up record. I wanted it to sound raw. I wanted it to sound like I was feeling – very much in control, and out of control, at the same time.”

Opening track “Good Sex” charts trying to make a relationship work, the desperation to recapture something, in searing detail; before dissolving into “Independence Day,” its chaotic counterpart, where you realize you can’t and find yourself breaking someone’s heart in the glow of fireworks. “The Clutch” flies by red flags, plunging forward even though it shouldn’t, even though it’s speeding toward heartbreak; while “My Evil” is about being the heartbreaker, hurting someone you never could have imagined hurting. Accepting that, even if unintentional, we all act as villains in someone else’s story.

The poetry is still present – full of aching and shrine-building to minutiae – but it feels genuinely diaristic and authentic. In the past, Kempner admits to hiding behind poetic notions, burying the hurt in metaphors. But here, El’s at their most open and vulnerable. “I was trying too hard to figure out who I am - what kind of musician I want to be, what kind of person I want to be,” Kempner explains. “And now I’m just embracing my instinct, and bucking what other people’s expectations are. These songs are truly just for me. I was really intentional in processing every detail. For my own sake, frankly.”

Eye On The Bat is not a hopeful record in content, but it’s immediately recognizable as the sort of totem you come out clutching on the other side of profound change. It feels like a promise to yourself – if you made it through that, you’ll handle whatever comes next.

credits

released July 14, 2023

All songs written by El Kempner
Produced by El Kempner and Sam Owens
Mixed and Engineered by Sam Owens at Flying Cloud Recordings
Mastered by Heba Kadry, NYC

Knitted artwork by Gaudmother
Layout design by Chris Chew

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Palehound Brooklyn, New York

New album 'Eye On The Bat' out July 14. Preorder now: palehound.ffm.to/eye-on-the-bat

shows

discography

contact / help

Contact Palehound

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Palehound, you may also like: