Occupational Hazards

by Touching Earth Made Of Steel

Occupational Hazards cover art
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1.
02:35
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2.
02:10
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3.
01:37
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4.
02:21
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5.
04:04
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6.
03:19
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7.
04:35
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8.
03:43
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9.
03:49
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10.
02:38
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11.
04:03
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12.
03:02
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about

The first album by Ottawa's mysterious and mercurial Touching Earth Made Of Steel. Every song tells a compact tale of some profession and some unfortunate related happening.

credits

released 01 February 2007
Everything by Andy Cant, Brian Martin, and Jeremy Latta

tags

tags: alternative complicated concept album electronic experimental rock indie ottawa piano synth Ottawa

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Track Name: I Can See Fine
I’m coughing up blood and my hands won’t stop shaking.
Are you okay? Do you need a physician?
It’s all right, I have a serious medical condition.
I can still drive, I can see fine.
I’ll get you home in one piece tonight.

You’re the only one who believed in my research.
It meant more to me than you will ever know.
All the late nights and early mornings - my time has passed me by.
All the sick days and early warnings - I should have seen it coming.
Track Name: Improbable Crimes
I got your collect call too late, I did nothing at all.
No sandbags, no ditch, no boards on the stalls.
God damn! The dam burst, and God damned everyone.
No way to get away, the road washed out right away, and I was left there by myself to think about everything I’d left behind.
The barn full of animals I’d left behind.

I had a million dollars worth of work there. I’d trained a pig, a horse, and a bear.
They were going to be in famous movies, or maybe pull improbable-type crimes.
I had methods like no one other; I never believed in the lash or mild electrocution.

I should have listened to the city council (I had a problem following others’ advice).
I should have listened to my intuition. I should have built on much higher ground.

I don’t want to know where they wound up...
I don’t even have that much insurance.
I don’t even want to wear my lucky hat or my riding boots anymore.

I’ll find myself another line of work.
Track Name: Throw Me In A River
You can tie me up.
You can lock me in a chest and throw me in a river.
You can tie me up and shoot me from point blank range and still never hit me.

But if you should chop me up into pieces, burn them, stomp them, and curse them I would never recover.

How could anyone believe that it’s anything but an illusion?
How could anyone believe that it’s actually real?
That I actually died six times last summer?

You took it a bit too hard.
You took it a bit too seriously.
You took it a bit too literally.

How could anyone believe half the things that I’m purported to have done?
Track Name: The Worst Weekend
You can count on me.
I’ll never let your town go hungry.
Yes, I drive too fast, but only because I want to come and see you.
No, they still haven’t figured out why I volunteer for this delivery every single week.

I didn’t think you’d make it through!
I’d hoped that good sense would prevail.
I’d heard that they’d shut down all the highways.

It was the worst weekend I’d ever had.
It took me forever to get to your house, the roads were that bad.
It was the worst traffic I’d ever seen, cars piled high.
Stuck there so long that I nearly ran out of gas.

You must have thought that I wouldn’t have made it.
You must have thought that I wouldn’t have noticed.
I looked in your driveway and saw twenty-two wheels, but your Ford only has four.
Track Name: Influenza
Can I chop my way into your heart?
Does your family need any chicken feet?
Does your family need any beef hearts?
Now it’s all over the paper, all over the airwaves...
Some disease, they say it’s a big deal - they say I should board up my store!
But it’s really not much of an option, because I really don’t know any skills or trades.
And I really like being my own boss. I like having enough cash for nights out.
But I know it doesn’t really impress you when I come home with blood in my hair.

I should have seen it from the get-go.
I should have noticed from the outset.
Why were you asking all those questions about my monthly income?

So they’re staying away in droves, and I know you can’t take the uncertainty.
So they’re telling me they’ll foreclose, and you can’t see me bagging groceries.

Are you wondering what became of me?
Have you looked me up? Have you tracked me down? I’m not hard to find.
Are you wondering how it would have turned out if you’d stuck around?

So it woke me up and it got me down...
It was only my business that kept you in town.
You never wrote and you never called.
You never did anything you said you would, at all.
Track Name: Ursus Arctos
There’s a boy’s camp across the lake and I’m meeting someone there tonight.
The kids will all be fast asleep but they never stir or make a peep.
I’m talking too fast, not making sense.
The sun is crawling, it’ll never set.
I should have listened to all my friends.
I should have brought some better clothes.

It feels like I spend my days with my head in the clouds.

Oh my god, I slept too long here in your arms.
Oh my god, what’s that helicopter?
You’re such a bastard for letting me lie here!
You’re such a bastard for everything!

I never knew, thought, or expected to find you in pieces.
I was only gone (and not very far) for two or three hours.

I lost my job, I lost my tent, I lost my friends and so much more.
I lost my bearings and I never saw him again.

Will they hunt you down and make a rug out of your skin?
Will they hunt you down and make it safe out here for us?
Track Name: She Looked Like Someone I Knew
Thought it’d be a great way to meet girls.
Thought it’d look real good on a resumé.
Thought it’d be a great way to get in shape.
Thought it’d be a great way to get a tan.
But I was wrong. Dreadfully wrong.

By the sea, on the beach, watch for sharks, watch the tide.
Flags are up: stay on shore, I won’t save your life if you dive in too deep.
Don’t blow it! Don’t tempt fate! You can’t swim like you think.

How can they leave me like this? I don’t know what I’m doing!
I lost two people this week; I’m not qualified.
I need more training, I guess. I don’t know what I’m doing!
She looked like someone I knew. I can’t go on like this.
Track Name: The Cave In
We’re stuck here like tinned fish, and the air’s running out.
Now’s not the best time to bare you soul: the air’s running out.
Just because I’m underground!

I want to see your fucking heart break. I want to see the look on your face.
I want to laugh at your sorrows.
If I get out of this cave in, you can bet that things will be different.

I hear your heart palpitating. I hear your breath quickening.
I hear you slipping away.
Track Name: A Primitive Skill
Will you wear the coat I’m making you? They say it’s cruel. They say it’s not right.
I baited it with the last of my cornmeal (which I needed to pay for my train fare). There was an unusual snowfall.
I hadn’t made a map or laid down markers; I wandered blindly. It was so stupid.

It’s a primitive skill, within the grasp of an able-bodied / feeble-minded child.
I can’t see the tracks I left in the snow, I can’t see a way out.

I’m going hungry, I’m going snowblind, I should have told you all my position.
I learned to read this summer, just to impress you! Now it’s all for nothing.
Track Name: Distant Early Warning Line
There’s no one flying over the ice cap.
There’s no one coming at all.
I can’t warm up. I can’t get warm.
I can’t get help. I can’t move my hands.

Is someone there? I can hardly see...
My gauge is clear... Please rescue me.

I’m snowblind and I fear for the worst.
This storm won’t let up and my coat is no good.
Track Name: Apollo I
Everywhere I look, and everywhere I turn to this mission is in every paper.
Our plan is on everyone’s lips.
I’ve looked it over. It’s deeply flawed, and I have to say: I have some reservations.

They’ve kept me from my wife and kids for thirteen weeks of pointless training.
I just want to leave this rock so I can come back and end this.
I’ll see my house while completely weightless!

I want to go home and I want to re-enter and I want to parachute into the sea.

I don’t want to burn up. I want to leave the launchpad in one piece.
Track Name: Doing It Wrong
I know a friend of a friend, he could help you out.
I’ve never seen his qualifications, but he’s got a truck with a logo on the side.
It looks very reassuring to me.

This goddamned sewer is leaking. There’s water all over the basement.
It’s leaking into my boxes. I need those records for taxes.
There’s water over my ankles and up to my knees.

Out of the house, under the lawn.
I’m making it up as I go along. Cold on the left, hot on the right.
Shower turns clockwise.

Get out of my house!! Get off of my lawn!!
I’m doing it right, you’re doing it wrong.