Recorded almost entirely on a broken 4-track on cassette tapes purchased exclusively at the dollar store, All The Diamonds You Can Eat is a bumpy ride through the lo-fi part of town. From the soaring, cracked-out "A Beautiful Place," through the original recording of "California Hills," to the morbidly sentimental "Peace & Contentment Blues," All The Diamonds You Can Eat is a dirty and frightening thing. Proceed with freaking caution.
When you get to the end, you will realize you never had any future at all.
Living day-by-day in the Baja, praying underneath the angel drones, walking through the danger bones, squinting at the super-natural forces, the roaring diesel
Horses talking
Into telephones of
Gold, shuddering at the memory of those mountains in Colorado, the horror there, the weirdness, marveling at the unexpected smallness of America, the spiritual and intellectual
Drop ceiling of sadness I experience there, even in the
Mountains. Vegas is a truckstop, California a conveyor belt. Kerouac didnothave freeways, didhe? I donut think so, not when he was
Riding, staying in the moment, making whatever effort is necessary to remember that we are not alone, God will never leave us stranded, and not to be afraid when our grip begins to
Slip; faith is, indeed, a
Trip.
The preacher wasn't making sense. He was speaking in a foreign language. My linguistic brains were
Scrambled; Eggs of tangential midnight
Rambles were cracking in my mouth like Pop Rocks of
Caffeine, or an unrelenting
Dream; pearls from a rusty vending
Machine.
I am a foreigner with a tongue of unpolished
Marbles; When I am in the States, I speak better Spanish than all the other gringos in the
Tomb. I don't like being the best Spanish speaker in the
Room; To whom shall I address the need to be perpetually
Grooving? Myself? It means I'm not
Improving.
One more night, shopping for coffee under the
Stars, invisible though they
Are, behind the wall of
Sunlight,
Crashing down on all of us.
The carniceria guy is always singing. He is the happiest carniceria guy I have ever
Seen. I christened my vibe with the cheapest coffee
Queen that I could
Find; The stars are storming the wall of light inside my
Mind; They are undocumented astral
Migrants, my heart is an empty fire
Hydrant in which I have somehow managed to actually
Drown; The moon is balanced on a
Knife; The wall is falling
Down; The shadow of our former
Life has been diced; the living
Die have been raptured,
Captured,
Cast; The dark ages of the day have begun
Finally, at
Last.
Living day-by-day in the Baja, there's no way to go any farther at the
Moment, no way to escape the neverending
Now: That strange, fleeting crossroads of Whatever and the
How, the neverending birthday
Present; the wannabe
Wow.
We never had a future
Anyway.
Living day-by-day in the Baja, one burning school bus in the highway away from
Bliss, at any given
Moment.
I don't care about the
Beach, but I'm not
Against it.
Postscript: The songs in this article are from my album All The Diamonds You Can Eat; the video above gives some of the backstory behind the writing and recording process of the album. While it remains unclear whether or not I will be giving free English lessons in this town, or leaving on a dime very soon, and while I appreciate the legally-irredeemable thoughts and would-be support these virtualistic platforms offer, if you really want to help me, head on over to YouTube or Bandcamp, peruse the discography at your leisure, and consider buying an album. I died and was buried on that hill a long time ago. At the very least, please do feel free to share the songs and videos with your constituency. Also, consider joining the American Migrant Patreon; free and paid subscribers alike are appreciated.
The entire discography remains up for sale at a 75% discount on Bandcamp, and I am frankly very happy to offer it at that price.
Thanks for listening,
NP
