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Rough in the Diamond (A Conversation Between Vesuvio and Specs)

from Playland at the Beach by Great Apes

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  • Digital Track
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  • 12" EP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    An EP about San Francisco's past, current state of flux, and future, inspired by and told from the perspective of different sites and locales in the city.

    1. Rough in the Diamond (A Conversation Between Vesuvio and Specs)
    2. Go Niners (As Told by Telegraph Hill)
    3. Milk: It Does a City Good (By the Civic Center Stairs)
    4. Paint Job (The Lament of 1492 Valencia Street)
    5. Whitney's Playland at the Beach (The Dutch Windmill of Golden Gate Park Speaks)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Playland at the Beach via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Full Digital Discography Full Digital Discography

    Get all 10 Great Apes releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Mill - White Helmets Charity Digital Single, California Heart, Grey Tapes, Playland at the Beach, Live at Thee Parkside 1/4/2014, Thread, Split 7" with Know Your Saints, Atomic Garden Sessions, and 2 more. , and , .

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lyrics

The first track, Rough in the Diamond is sung from the perspectives of Vesuvio and Specs’, two longstanding North Beach bars, who have fallen towards each other to share a drink in the middle of the street well after last call.


I can't sleep tonight
I can't either
let's lean to the street
let's drink some ether
It was all popped collars and stiletto squeals
I like a man with calloused hands and a pen like steel

with friends like these who needs
a writer in the dark
the maritime and reckless
the urchins from the park
they'll cash us out
and drain the swill
but we've got each other
we've got cheap thrills

where are all the Singletons?
where's Barbary Lane?
thrown out with the eighty sixed
but I can't complain
I've got postcards to read
I've got Corso's spite
their stories steam from the storm drains
beneath City Lights

with friends like these who needs
a writer in the dark
the maritime and reckless
the urchins from the park
they'll cash us out
and drain the swill
but we've got each other
we've got cheap thrills

I hear things are worse along the wharf
where it's all regal bows and flying corks
I can hear our friends in the fog stirring
staring down with thirsty eyes and slurring

let's cope until we choke and try not to care
about that arrow's aim as we toast the air it tears
here's to the dispossessed, caught in catastrophe
and new Bohemia, wherever it may be

credits

from Playland at the Beach, released November 12, 2014

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Great Apes San Francisco, California

Insert hype-up descriptors here. Plain and simple, San Francisco's Great Apes are a lyrical punk band. Music, much like a bio, is often at its best when it’s spit out intensely and quickly, with concision and honesty.

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