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.

HARD TIMES, GO!

by beat radio

/
1.
Hurricanes, XO (free) 03:55
I pulled the pages out of books just to catch my breath I kissed every girl i knew and then i dreamed a dance of death. I was thunder against water as I thrashed around the room I knew the sunset when i saw it Shared my visions with the moon. my letters turn like hurricanes in notebooks filled with coffee stains swaying with the record player never growing old again and if I write a seasick waltz or disappear to shopping malls take refuge from the wind and rain and we could find our way to fall Stardust, fools, and nonsense Some things I want to say to you We meant all the things we said back then Some promises fall through And when we came in from the wilderness and when we stayed awake all night i was the prayer inside a moving car I was the last electric light If I commit the perfect crime make little sounds from broken chimes repeating in a feedback loop to say your name a million times and if i write a melody of ashes in infinity and count the space between the stars then there’s a place for you and me But in between the weeks and days we stumble and we lose our way unravel from the inside out and lose the things we dream about my letters turn like hurricanes in notebooks filled with coffee stains swaying with the record player never growing old again and if I write a seasick waltz or disappear to shopping malls take refuge from the wind and rain and we could find our way to fall
2.
East Coast 03:25
i came in from the east coast now i'm tired and i'm broke and no one here is laughing at any of my jokes got a high and lonesome feeling i've been haunted by the ghost and i feel so disconnected from the things that i love most and i miss you i miss you if i could only tell you everything that my heart wants you to know then we could turn the tides around we could let these hard times go and go back to the beginning and we'll be better that before and you would fall into my open arms just like a wave against the shore and i miss you i miss you
3.
Ive been thinking of that moment my eyes first met yours After hours stealing glances from across the floor then we're talking, standing closer and we're losing track of time when we go i don't think twice before i take your hand in mine and everything i know is gonna change and now it's hard to tell where things fit it but i can feel my heartbeat getting faster and i'm in a state i've never been daylight breaking, we go walking through this sleepy lakeside town feels like dreaming wide away and there's no one else around kiss you in the tall grass underneath the weeping willow tree, put my hands around your hips and I pull you close to me but everything i know is gonna change right now it's hard to tell where things fit in and i cant feel my heartbeat getting faster and i'm in a state i've never been. I was fine before I was stumbling around in the dark and i never wanted anything more but i didn't even know my own heart i was busy making plans there were things i wasn't ready to face but now is the only time this is the only place and everything i know is gonna change and now it's hard to tell where things fit it but i can feel my heartbeat getting faster and i'm in a state i've never been because everything i know is gonna change and now it's hard to tell where things fit it but i can feel my heartbeat getting faster and i'm in a state i've never been
4.
Are you headed for somewhere? Are you running away? Do you call it religion? Or a game that you play? Now the summer is over See the leaves turning brown Do you feel like a failure? Did your dreams let you down? Hard times come and hard times go Its hard to change when its all you know I don't say the things I need to say to let you in I haven't been as brave in how I've loved you As I know I should have been I thought if I kept quiet You might think I was strong And now that its over I can see I was wrong When the parachute opens Is it fun anymore? Are you more scared of falling? Or just being bored? Our love was a promise That we made in good faith And it all seemed so perfect But the circumstance changed So I spend my days in a fever dream In a lakeside town with the kings and queens I don't say the things I need to say to let you in I haven't been courageous in my love the way I know I should have been I thought if I kept quiet You might think I was strong And now that its over I can see I was wrong
5.
my mind is daylight and broken flowers storm clouds and falling silver stars i was the wind in abandoned buildings watching the sunlight fade alone in my car solving my problems with melodies lost in the minor keys waiting around for something new i made my home by the willow tree alone in my revery but all i could think about was you hold on i've been dreaming about this day we'll be ok i know that i'm asking alot of you this time i can see where i need to change i'm not the same let's go we are young and our hearts are true my mind is longing for days like diamonds waiting for weekends underground i went back home with the broken records somehow i'm always getting lost in the sound solving my problems with melodies and lost in the minor keys i try not to worry anymore down on the boardwalk with hazy eyes the band's playing lullabies at sunset we walked along the shore hold on i've been dreaming about this day we'll be ok i know that i'm asking alot of you this time i can see where i need to change i'm not the same let's go we are young and our hearts are true
6.
And in those weeks after the war We tried to walk a million miles To find the things that we had lost And let ourselves go for a while We needed time to make mistakes A chance to change or stay the same To break with what we’d done before And sleep to dream of golden days I wanted all of you You wanted all of me And I was standing still Then I was falling free We stayed awake for 7 days We wrote our names on paper bags People and places fade away And conversations start to drag When we survive the fiery crash Will you say prayers for all the dead? When you put on your lion’s mask And shadows fall around our heads If I have all of you And you have all of me to fill the empty space With strange harmonies And I’ll have all of you And you’ll have all of me Cause we were standing still And now we’re falling free
7.
i'll never let you down, always let you down always let you down, never let you down but it's the simple things that i'll remember in the end how the light bends around your body in our bed i'm sorry for the times when i made you feel second best it's just that sometimes i get lost in my own head i'll never let you down, always let you down always let you down, never let you down it's good to be alone sometimes to settle down your mind there are some things i had to learn all on my own but stay away too long and you'll feel lonely all the time and when you're gone this place just never feels like home you're staring at the ceiling i'm staring at my shoes if we ain't got nothing left we got nothing left to lose wake you in the morning maybe we could start again because you're all i think about baby and you're my best friend i'll never let you down, always let you down always let you down, never let you down
8.
it seems like everywhere i go somebody's asking me what's wrong so i keep saying things are fine and everybody plays along but i remember how it feels pretending everything is new but then i find myself alone i'm wondering who i'm talking to chorus: if it's time to go can we go now? far away from here let's just go now we put our dream into this house you sign your name, you chose your fate but was it someone else's dream? or was it already too late? this is the town where we grew up the stars collided in our hearts we never wanted more than this one day it all just came apart if it's time to go lets just go now cause we're drowning here can we go now? if it's time to go can we go now? far away from here let's just go now
9.
Chasing a Phantom (free) 04:31
September collapses it feels like forever, it’s bringing you down the phantom you’re chasing will bend and retreat into patterns of sound and secret transmissions they’ll make you a crown out of radio wire before you set sail on an ocean of fire Come back and find me, I’m waiting for you Here in the half light, I’m waiting for you Where everything’s perfect and everything’s empty and everything’s fine we’re perfectly empty it’s best that we all try and have a good time the ones who burn brighter will have no ambition for fortune or fame but i know you better because we are the same Here in the half light, I’m waiting for you Come back and find me, I’m waiting for you Come back and find me, I’m waiting for you Here in the half light, I’m waiting for you
10.
the freeway divided our hearts and the neighborhood changed the radio speaks of a love that can take away pain I'm faraway falling asleep to the sounds of the sea I'm thinking of you, wondering if you think about me and love isn't something to hold in the crux of your arms I'd turn all my days on their head just to keep you from harm remember that time when we danced in your mother's backyard? I wanna go back to that place but you make it so hard It wasn't our dream but we played along we followed the rules, but then things went wrong meanwhile, back in the city it feels good to be lost there's freedom in being alone, but it comes with a cost the subway is keeping me safe from original sin the sunlight is opening doors and I'm stumbling in the freeway divided our hearts and the neighborhood changed the radio speaks of a love that can take away pain I'm faraway falling asleep to the sounds of the sea I'm thinking of you, wondering if you think about me head underwater and heavy heart we keep it together to fall apart it wasn't our dream but we played along we followed the rules, but then things went wrong and I can remember why we should stay so head underwater and heavy heart we keep it together to fall apart our senses unravel and fly away

about

Before I explain our new record I should maybe introduce myself. I’m Brian Sendrowitz and I live with my wife Liz and our 3 young boys in Bellmore, NY. Bellmore is a small town near the south shore of Long Island. I’ve been putting out music as Beat Radio since 2005. I guess my music career/family trajectory was sort of backwards. I never wanted to put my life on hold for my art. The lineup for the band has changed a lot over the years, but the latest record has primarily been a collaboration between my drummer Brian Ver Straten and I.

I’ve somehow gotten into the habit of writing songs as lifelines. Last fall when I started working on the material for this album I was in sort of a dark place. The existing band lineup seemed to be dissolving. I don’t remember an exact moment when it happened. All I can remember is feeling a strong urge to start writing and figure out what the next step should be on my own. Liz and I were going through difficult times financially, struggling to make things work from one month to the next. Like so many people around the country we felt trapped and disillusioned. It started to feel like the walls were closing in around us.

I needed a place to put my anxieties about things, and perhaps more than anything I needed an escape. I headed down to my basement studio. In the past I’ve drawn inspiration mostly from artists like Sparklehorse, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Van Morrison. Last fall I fell headlong into a deep obsession with the Swedish pop star Robyn. I listened to her Body Talk album on repeat, hunted down all the remixes, watched endless Youtube clips of live performances. Liz and I would spend long road family road trips analyzing the narrative complexity of her songs. We also started writing songs together, trying to capture a little bit of the brilliance we heard coming through the speakers of our minivan.

The sound of the new Beat Radio album was beginning to take shape in my mind, and my ambition was to work with the rhythms and melodic structures of electronic dance/pop music, but flesh things out with more organic sounds. Lyrically I felt like the stories I had to tell needed to be more focused around the realities of what we were going through. My records in the past have been thematically centered around a romantic escapism and a nostalgia for things past. I wanted the new songs to address real adult problems, in the way Bruce Springsteen had started to do with his records Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska. I didn’t feel like I should hold anything back, and I wanted to be as direct and honest as possible. I decided to follow Robyn’s lead and release a series of EPs the way she had done with Body Talk. My original ambition was to have the entire album thematically correlate with Robyn’s album, sort of in the way that Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville was a companion to the Stones’ Exile on Main Street. That plan ended up being a bit more grandiose than what actually happened.

In the end, we ended up with another Beat Radio record. We challenged ourselves to make it. The songs feel special, and we’re really proud of them. We’re trying to spread the word about our music as far and wide as possible. If you could share with your friends that would be awesome.

Thanks for listening,
Brian

credits

released February 19, 2013

BEAT RADIO IS: BRIAN SENDROWITZ AND BRIAN VER STRATEN

ALSO: BRYAN BRUCHMAN PLAYS GUITARS ON TRACKS 1, 3, 9, 10
MAIA MACDONALD SINGS ON TRACKS 1 AND 8
DAN BILLS PLAYS SYNTH ON TRACK 8
PETE OBERG SINGS ON TRACK 9

TRACK 1 WRITTEN BY BRIAN SENDROWITZ, BRIAN VER STRATEN, BRYAN BRUCHMAN, AND VINCE BAUTERS. TRACK 2 BY BRIAN SENDROWITZ AND BRIAN VER STRATEN. TRACKS 3 AND 5 BY BRIAN AND ELIZABETH SENDROWITZ. TRACKS 4, 6-10 BY BRIAN SENDROWITZ, COPYRIGHT 2013 - MIRACLE FLAG (ASCAP)

PRODUCED AND RECORDED BY BEAT RADIO AT MIRACLE FLAG IN BELLMORE, NY

BIG THANKS TO OUR FAMILIES AND EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED US OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, AND A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR KICKSTARTER SUPPORTERS WHO FUNDED THE PRESSING OF THIS RECORD.

contact: brian@beatradio.org
press contact: awkwardforlife@gmail.com

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

beat radio Bellmore

Singer Songwriter Brian Sendrowitz has been crafting heartfelt, literate pop songs as Beat Radio since 2005.

shows

contact / help

Contact beat radio

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

beat radio recommends:

If you like beat radio, you may also like: