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Soak Up The Gravy

by emperor penguin

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    Get all 13 emperor penguin releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Gentlemen Thieves, Sunday Carvery, Corporation Pop!, Barbed Wire and Brass E.P., Palaces and Slums EP, Taken For A Ride E.P., Talk To Me, Soak Up The Gravy, and 5 more. , and , .

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1.
The men of fashion gather in the bars Drinking absinthe with the avant garde Red of cheek and black of hair Waving their revolvers in the air Hello Picasso, Hello Picasso, Hello, Hello I saw you in the windmills of Montmartre Making others suffer for your art Love affairs and suicides Everything bohemia provides Hello Picasso, Hello Picasso, Hello, hello G-G-G-Gauguin left the city for Tahiti now He’s smoochin’ with a South Pacific sweetie, now Where love is free Love, love, love, And it's green, greener than your eyes And it's sweet, much to my surprise Alcohol will numb the pain While the wormwood rots your brain And it's sweet And it's green When I see you When I see you passing by Hanging out with Gertrude Stein, I cry Hello Picasso Ca va Degas Monet, Manet Bonsoir Renoir, au revoir!
2.
Speeding through space, in search of tunes That need the twang of a million moons Green sapphire plectra, poised to attack Fenders aflame, Gibsons to stun, a pentatonic miracle from the Rickenbac-ac-ac-ac-ac-ker Cosmic riders on a pedal board that so-o-o-o-ars... Go go go Guitargonauts, whammy bar bending, augmenteds descending screaming through your darkest thoughts, plucking the pleasure from every measure Hand picked from across the bands of time Warriors battling musical crime Strings bent through Warp Factor 9, listen to the sirens from the Telecast-as-as-as-as-ter Cosmic riders on a pedal board that so-o-o-o-ars... Go go go Guitargonauts, whammy bar bending, augmenteds descending screaming through your darkest thoughts, plucking the pleasure from every measure Slash Gordon, Kid Hendrix, Captain Clapton, The Red Ronson, Queen Bass and The Fantastic Fuzz - BEWARE THE VIRULENT MOOG Go go go Guitargonauts, when someone’s in trouble we’ll come at the double creating space-age perfect chords, through countless millenia they’ll never forget ya Guitargonauts are Go!
3.
Saint Thomas Aquinas Can't help me now. My virtue's a virus That's going around MY power is perfect My nature is free I don't know what's come over me. She was in armour I was a shield Nothing could harm her I wouldn't yield She was a fortress Surrounded by sea I don't know what's come over me And there's a strange sensation A queasy agitation and now you're near It's very clear the nature of my malady I used to believe in the natural laws Discovered by reason Disproven by flaws Frailty's human On that we agree I don't know what's come over me
4.
She was the one on my screen Popping up every minute She was the one in my dreams For a moment in time She’s at the heart of the scene If it’s on then she’s in it. I thought that love was never ending I thought that we would carry on I found that Katie’s only trending In a moment she was gone. Time flashes past every hour Every minute and second Time goes so fast every day See another one fly Nobody’s got staying power When mortality beckons I thought that love was never ending I thought that we would carry on I found that Katie’s only trending In a moment she was gone. In a moment she was gone. Someone else will come along.
5.
Keep your blood cool in the mud pool Give yourself to yourself, don’t be somebody’s fool Stay in the dark and the weeds, don’t stray where the stickleback leads You don’t need what they need, use the ooze Wrapped in the batter, behind over matter Rolled in the crust like a toad in the hole Dive in the deep end, dig out a new friend Together you’ll weather the hole in your soul Be a true friend, earn what you spend Give your time til it hurts, it pays dividends Tell me you know what I mean, pump up your kindness machine Give your existence a hug, then spread it around Scream to go faster, join in the laughter Make sure there is no hole in your soul Go kiss a Grandma, that’s what they’re there for Give generously and do as you’re told Cry like a baby, soak up the gravy You’ve got to burn the coal in your soul Give way to wonder, get out from under You’ve got to earn the whole of your soul WORK HARD, BE NICE, LOVE LIFE, LA LA LA LA Open the latches, undo the catches Can’t win a match unless you score a goal Don’t let disaster damage the plaster That is surrounding the whole of your soul Celebrate babies, stop and smell daisies You have to patch up the hole in your soul Abandon your armour, examine your karma Avoid the dirt when you’re digging for gold Shout to the rafters in the hereafter Build a cage round the hole in your soul Amplify truth and locate the proof of The universe breathing inside your soul
6.
Feel free to slap me, it’s all I deserve. After all the times I let you down you must think I've got a nerve. And if we’re being honest, I’m the type you should swerve. The last dice are thrown - I’ve cashed in everything that I own. So I went and I bought you a brand new yesterday To replace the one I ruined for you the day before today. And I’ll make sure it’s better in every single way. What do you say?
7.
Flaming June 04:21
On a panel in a cupboard in a hidden room In a mansion, a forgotten family heirloom The lustre of the loss adjusters can’t dispel the gloom She slumbers in a swoon Flaming June He’s coming in She’s going out She gives a shout She’s like a lion. He’s like a lamb Can’t understand Bird in the hand He can’t stop crying As they sat down to breakfast one day The butler served divorce on a tray Forgotten in a Battersea flat He keeps the asking price in his hat Flaming June Sleeps ‘til noon Calls the tune Flaming June Uniformed staff Crystal carafes No riff raff Nothing could be finer. Gone to the dogs She popped her clogs - Stuff catalogued. Monogrammed china. Thank god it isn’t me, say the neighbours She hated sympathetic strangers He didn’t mean to start an adventure She locked herself away from the censure. I don’t know much about art but I know what I like Nothing abstract that a child could have done The portrait of a lady with not a lot on No-one comes to call on all the endless afternoons She slumbers in a swoon Flaming June
8.
He gave her up for forty days, but soon reverted to his ways Sometimes he comes but never stays, It wasn’t meant to be And through the rain-streaked window pane, she watched him drive away again She knew the answer there and then, there’s more to life than me You were the one, with cinnamon and tarragon You can’t decide, if any kind of promise will provide With hairspray set in harmony, you want all the world to see But you only have ‘til half past three, you’ll be the death of me As you move from place to place, the lines get clearer on your face Standing still at second base, prepare to strike for home And through the rain-streaked window pain, I watch you walk away again It’s never easy to explain, the damage that you’ve done You were the one, with vinegar and valium You can’t decide, if any kind of compromise is right. With hairspray set in harmony, you want all the world to see But you only have ‘til half past three, you’ll be the death of me You’ll be the death of me With every last and laboured breath I know that you will be the death of me
9.
I left a life in London For service by the sea I found a job as a classics teacher With the boys of the Lower Five B Persistent perpetrators Malignant agitators We lick your frigid fingers All your frigid life We give your teddy to the Oxfam shop Coca-Cola to your waiting wife Paradise for the blessed But nothing nice for the emotionally repressed Modus Vivendi When do we start to live? They’re not so friendly And something’s got to give. Everywhere that I go Aggeridge, Blisterine Unman, Wittering and Zigo Everyone that I know Bungabine, Cloistermouth Unman, Wittering and Zigo The college bells are ringing, ringing in my ears The angel voices singing, I can hardly hear Orris, Root and Lipstrob, follow very near. Ankerton and Borby can make you disappear. The whole world is ending Brittle bodies peel We demand the impossible We insist that the dream is real We overthrow the bastards We have become the masters now.
10.
It’s not there, apart from one single photograph where I swear that I see myself there - running in late again White and fair, design an unusual and minimal prayer To childhood and all that’s found there I reach right back ‘til I’m five here’s where this place can survive Memoria Magdalena Could’nt care, for what was outside our own atmosphere Inside was where it was clear - it felt like another home Beyond the veil, a secret quadrangle’s treasures appear Flora to draw in our stare, was everywhere I reach right back ‘til I’m five here’s where this place comes alive Memoria Magdalena Take me back to hide Amongst that grace I reach right back ‘til I’m five here’s where this place can survive Memoria Magdalena, I hear your voice.
11.
Stranger Danger Be careful on the road Think once Think twice Follow the country code Nightmares you’ll find In your tiny mind Public information That you scorned You’ve been warned Paedos In speedos Wait in your swimming pool It’s scary Be wary Follow the golden rule If you’re home alone You’re in the danger zone Public information Comes for free On TV That branch won’t take your weight Says the reaper by the lake Went to play by railway tracks Now he’s never coming back You can’t escape your fate You will asphyxiate In an abandoned fridge Under a railway bridge
12.
Another Saturday Another game to play The one you underestimated Drinking by the river wall You start to see it all Twelve hours of daylight won't be wasted. And from that moment on You found the puzzle gone In Marlowe's tavern where you reckoned Because you know it's true Her eyes were speedwell blue The future changes in a second And, oh, wasn't it so nice to get away And wind up driving north to watch the sun as it went down And though it might take twenty years or more to say You closed your eyes and wished that it would stay
13.
There is a house of pleasure with a Dragon in the Hall On sixteen miles of fertile land enclosed within a wall Adrift in clouds of opium reflected in a stream A man from Porlock came to call and wiped away your dream Mr Schubert’s symphony we call it number eight Was dealt a heavy beating by the fickle hand of fate A break in concentration and the nasty French Disease What would number forty seven say to number three? You can’t always finish what you started You can’t always make it to the end A stone gets thrown into the pool and on reflection who can see the fool? Like all tomorrow’s parties this one’s speeding to an end You talked for half an hour and you thought you’d made a friend The enemy of promise is a beast of chase and game Drinking from a pleasant fountain, failed to catch her name
14.
Burning Man 04:59
Raced his way to rich man passing beggar man and thief On the day she left his hair turned platinum with grief Twice around the harbour, once around the dock Blue diamonds in his pocket that keep all the doors unlocked Here comes the burning man, and he can see for miles Asking you to school him with a strap across his back Slide between the hotel sheets dressed in your plastic mac Nice work if you can get it, if I may be so rude Your mother might be proud of you but you always end up screwed Here comes the burning man, and he can see for miles

about

Emperor Penguin are back with new album Soak up the Gravy, available on CD via Kool Kat Musik and to stream and download here on Bandcamp.

"Your album is dope - love Hello Picasso..." - Jody Porter (Fountains Of Wayne)

"It's brilliant! Hats off!" - Brian Young (Fountains Of Wayne)

‘Simply irresistible… I haven’t had this much fun listening to a record since Blockbuster.  If Andy Partridge had wandered into the Beatles sessions at Abbey Road, this is what I imagine the results might have been.’ PowerPop News

'Emperor Penguin is hitting on all cylinders with their new album’Soak Up The Gravy’. Quirky, warm, fun and eminently catchy, the album will be a treat for pop music fans of every stripe!' David Bash, Founder/CEO, International Pop Overthrow Music Festival

'Simply bursts with delightful melodies.' Poprock Record

'This is a hugely enjoyable and varied album, one which fans of guitar pop should really check out. A superb listen.' Colours Through The Air

'Throws together the best of late 60s psyche-pop with power pop. The band is firing on all cylinders with Soak Up The Gravy. An early nominee for my top album list of 2020.' Powerpopaholic

'Unique and exciting, Soak Up the Gravy pushes the envelope in all the proper places.' Something Else Reviews

"The best album I've heard in the power-pop/guitar pop arena so far this year is 'Soak Up The Gravy'. Of the album's many virtues, let's start with its musical range, which takes in everything from hyper-speed rock ('Katie's Only Trending') to fanciful pop ('Memoria Magdalena') to deliberately paced classic-sounding pop ('Hole In Your Soul') and a host of points in between. What's also apparent is the frequent originality in the songs, a talent for crafting memorable hooks, and some witty lyricism."
The Morning Call

"I expected good things from Soak Up the Gravy. But I wasn’t prepared for just how much of an earworm songs like the opening track “Hello Picasso” would be. This music has all of the energy and sassiness of prime ’70s-era rock crossed with ’90s alternarock. It’s nominally in the powerpop idiom, but honestly, Emperor Penguin has about as much to do with that subgenre as, say, Cheap Trick. In other words, yeah…but more."
Bill Kopp @ Musoscribe

'A panoply of styles encompassing Supergrass, The Cure, and XTC, incorporating mad pop science and hyperactive guitars, that starts out rocky and gets progressively sweeter as it proceeds... Inventive melodic flow and super dynamics. Who can resist a band called Emperor Penguin, or the title?'
Mike Baron @ PopGeekHeaven

The album comprises 14 original tracks and the new songs are as eclectic as ever, with inspiration ranging from Japanese kids' cartoons to the philosopher Thomas Aquinas. There are noisy guitars, catchy tunes and some more elaborate arrangements and productions than on previous EP releases. The album opens with art rocking pop tune 'Hello Picasso', features a live brass section on the anthemic 'Hole in Your Soul', has a guest lead vocal from 'Queen of Power Pop' Lisa Mychols on the jazzy 'Speedwell Blue' and closes with curry-flavoured psych-pop epic 'The Burning Man'. It’s a selection box of delights with something for everyone.

The Zetor Super 50 Tractor is powered by a 4.2L Diesel engine. It was manufactured in Brno, Czechoslovakia between 1960 and 1968
“Youth to the tractors, smite lazy workers, forward to victory, soak up the gravy!”

credits

released January 10, 2020

Written, performed and recorded by Emperor Penguin at Highbury Fields Forever, The Wire Factory and at home during 2018 and 2019. Mixed and mastered by Bill Sherrington at Crown Lane Studios, Morden, London. All songs © Emperor Penguin 2019

Emperor Penguin Are:
Neil Christie – Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards; Nigel Winfield – Guitar, Vocals; JT – Bass, Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards, Harmonica; Richard Wilson – Drums, Piano.

Guest appearances:
Burning Man - Keyboards by Ross Hunter
Hole in Your Soul – Brass by The Smite Lazy Workers! Brass Band (Trumpets: James Aylmer Hall & Ed Smith; Cornet: Ruby Thorne; Logic Trumpets: Mikey Wilson)
Guitargonauts are Go! – Backing Vocal by Kaede Ose
Speedwell Blue – Vocal by Lisa Mychols

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emperor penguin UK

Savage Frenzy Productions is proud to present those peerless purveyors of powerful pop: EMPEROR PENGUIN.
Nigel: guitar, bass, vocals
JT: guitar, bass, vocals, harmonica, ebow
Rich: drums
Neil: guitar, vocals, keyboards, computer stuff
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