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.

Serpent Umbrella

by The Gravel Pit

/
  • Streaming + Download

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

    Download includes the 10 track album plus The Serpent Extrackaganza, four bonus songs of equal or greater value than the other ten. You'll also get PDFs of the lyrics.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    The Compact Disc version of Serpent Umbrella, which includes the "Extratrackaganza"(4 songs that are not on the LP version).

    Includes unlimited streaming of Serpent Umbrella via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    The Serpent Umbrella Limited Edition Vinyl LP! The first record by The Gravel Pit to be issued on wax. These limited edition, individually numbered LPs come with a CD as well so you can enjoy the additional 4 songs on the "Extratrackaganza" that we left off of the album. NOTE: This is a "pre-order"as we will not have LPs until September of 2015.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Serpent Umbrella via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 200 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    Revived from the 90's: The Classic Gravel Pit Pick & Shovel T-Shirt. Black Shirt w/ White Ink
    LIMITED SIZES AVAILABLE:

    Men's: S, M,
    Women's: S
    Toddler: 3T, 4T
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 60 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • The Gravel Pit Refrigerator Magnet
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 10 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $5 USD or more 

     

1.
Hungry Fox 05:33
The hot spots are getting hotter Burning with the business of the day Still you dream of tick tock From your great-grandfather’s clock In grandmother’s afghan In your father’s rocker as you rock In your Quiet cabin in the snow Full moon moonlight lights the sights below Ivory blanket on your bed And the road ahead Through your pipes runs Elmer’s glue White mouse in the flour shoo, mouse, shoo Then the cardinal in the tree jumps excitedly Ruby skin burgundy cotton Chewing on an apple turning ripe into rotten Crawling like a lobster through the foam To the front door of your home Hungry fox stares at the hens Through a lens that makes it all make sense One is hunted one is catched one is Springly hatched Wrapped up in blood red leather Sticky purple sweater in the wet Summer weather Licking a vanilla sugar cone Near the front door of your home As you slept the storm grew great Like ’77 or 1888 Six feet deep and five states wide Stop light sunlight starts glowing outside Five a.m. is morning walk But today it’s time for morning shock Now you’re moving like a dream Through a pool of cream Dream of elephants standing in a trance On your natural piano keys As your lamplight bleeds the story of a whale You will be that stuff, a jewel in the rough A feather on the seas Keep your mind at ease because The way is steep, the gate is narrow Shooting like a sparrow through the air like an arrow Crimson shadow spreads across the floor Near the front door of your Quiet cabin in the snow
2.
Listen and you’ll hear the song The wreck of the triple one And if you come Feel the collision As we pull away from Stolen play station Suicide message from the wreckage of the 111 222 passengers and crew From Chatsworth to The medevacuation of 197 from the 111 Could the engineer have known That the words on his phone were The wreck of the 111? One, just one, thy will be done Or trouble comes Through tunnel twenty eight eight Rolling like a freight train Something like a hundred tons Did he see the red or the text in his head? The wreck of the 111 Now that train is gone and this song is done Until the next one
3.
Stingray 03:07
Open umbrella Moves like a mop through the ink Like an on fire Shoulder-length wig in the sink Like the red sun as it Sank to the mud only yesterday The day before today Ivory titanic Like a white ship through the ice Like a gigantic cat In a room full of mice Serpent of flame on the Hindenburg hanging up On display Burning like the sting of the Stingray Darkening darkness submarine light Fire hose colossus mountain of white Twisting around around in the sound As one swims up another floats down 20,000 down Broken umbrella sinks in a cloud to the ground Caught in a bottomless dream of the sea while The stones stay Where all the bones will lay A day after today The day after the sting of the stingray
4.
Angry Words 03:50
Say no angry words the 13th to the 12th Say no angery words every morning to yourself Don’t just float like a moth To a flame of gold And don’t advance like an ant To the sugar bowl When every breath fights to the death Breaking the neck of no one Take the A far, far way Rock rock away with someone Say no angry words to those angry teens Say no angery words on your Internet machines Don’t take the lemming way out Sinking in the sea And don’t just jump from tree to tree Like a monkey When every breath fights to the death Breaking the neck of no one Take a train named A far, far way Rock far away with someone Say no angry words the 13th to the 12th Say no more; say no more, every morning to yourself Don’t just float like a moth To a flame of gold And don’t advance like an army of ants To the sugar bowl When every breath fights to the death Breaking the neck of no one Take a downtown A far far way Rock far away with someone
5.
Someone shut the shutter as Someone else kicked your ass And it stuck to you like white on trash Bumper to bumper until at last The pinball ball broke the top glass And thirty years on you’re looking for Anyone, Anything, Everything The lucky sons with the quick thumbs Forgot to thanks their sugar moms as they Aimed and shot for the highest score In the city like a freed man Hungry like Duran Duran And twenty years on you’re looking for Anyone, Anything, Everything Down on the floor A chewed apple core In hot apple cider “Say, can you play?” Said the fly to the spider In the cabin 444 Something shoots through the front door It’s the early bird and he knows the score He saw what knocked you off your feet Made you sweat purple in the summer heat And years from now he’ll be searching for Anyone, Anything, Everything Did the brain in your head make your head ring ring? Did the thoughts in your brain make your brain sting? Till everything blew apart everything everything
6.
Monomaniac 04:13
I’m the serpent in your orchard Whispering near your head Wrapped around the wooden branches Making the green ones red After afternoon of napping, it is me you see I see r-e-d Fuming at a traffic stoplight Swaying tauntingly Underneath the burning top light: rose and burgundy Seven sevenths of the rainbow scarlet as can be I see r-e-d The setting sun, vermillion, sinking out of view I walk that red brick road that leads me back to me Girls walk by me dressed in ruby In the street tonight For the summer it is here and the time is right Monomaniac you call me, I do not agree I’m not anything it’s just that everything’s r-e-d Alizarin or Orenthal Crimson Sunrise by Maybelline Martian explosion turning the ocean food color 17 Springtime transfusion, cherry profusion Throughout the esplanade Look, everything is red as anything, is it not? Like Lennunn or McCarthy In the last century When the flag I love is passing In my reverie I’m saluting just one color The one that I can see I see r-e-d
7.
Mr. Baby 03:19
Listen Mr. Baby there’s nobody home No one in the branches or on the phone Well now you know, you know Just how wrong things can go Sorry Mr. Baby, no one in the house No one in the mousetrap but one white mouse And now you know how wrong Things can go And just how low is low Things were meant to leave us Things were meant to go When they leave us It should grieve us less Each time, you know Truly Mr. Baby, no one anywhere Was someone, was something ever there? Well now at least you know How wrong Things can go And just how low is low Things were meant to leave you Things were meant to go When they leave you It will grieve you Less each time, you know Yes it’s so Less each time, you know
8.
Who drew from the brink That boy, do you think, Moses, big Mr. Moses? Who made him so much, A prince and a judge, Moses, big Mr. Moses? Follow him because he’s great Mighty as the Empire State Who found us the bread, Who drowned in the red, Moses, big Mr. Moses? Who listened and heard And acted the word Of Moses, big Mr. Moses? Follow him because he’s strong Pray he does no wrong Who stretched forth his hand? Who made thick darkness in all the land? Who smote the rivers until they stank? Who fed the serpent at the bank?
9.
There, in the fog I saw you, underdog Red and blue and white Making things with light Is your speed Thunderous, lightening speed 33.333333? Tell me, what did I see? Seeing as I did see Glimpses of a picture of a moment of an echo of A story of of the glory of of the underdog How would it be If I had simpley Shot you with my phone Fossilized your bones? What would I have to have To have what I have had? Glimpses of a picture of a moment of an echo of A story of of the glory of of the underdog
10.
No no no don’t you do it No don’t you do it No no don’t do it Don’t do what you’re dying to do No don’t do it Oh no no no don’t you do it Oh no no don’t you do it Don’t you do what you’re dying to do I can see it as you both decide To ride a ride you can’t afford to ride Coney Island on the Southern coast Don’t look now but your friend is a ghost No, don’t do it Oh no no no don’t you do it Oh no no no don’t do it Don’t do what you’re dying to do One, just one, thy will be done In a world of doubles Two, it’s true, it will not do When a sea of troubles drinks you down No no don’t you do it Oh no nuh no nuh no don’t you do it Oh no don’t you do it You should not do what you’re dying to do I can see it as you both decide To run the red and the yellow lights Photograph you with your apple phone There’s no one home; you’re standing alone No, don’t do it Don’t do what you’re dying to do

about

Serpent Umbrella is the first album by The Gravel Pit in 13 years. After their last record, Mass Avenue Freeze-Out, the band decided to take a long deserved break, make solo records, start other projects, get married, have children, etc.

The new record was made possible by the band's fans via PledgeMusic, recorded over the course of a year at Q Division Studios, the top notch facility where all but one Pit album have been recorded. The rooms, the gear, the engineers and the band themselves created together a high fidelity experience that provides intense and sustained aural pleasure. This pleasure can even be experienced on your computer or portable device, as all tracks are available in high quality file formats like WAV, AIFF & FLAC.

credits

released November 4, 2014

Jedediah Parish - Singing, Keyboards, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar on "Power Broker Blues","Glimpses of the Underdog" & "Crybaby Vampire", Percussion
Lucky Jackson - Electric Guitar, Snaps & Claps
Ed Valauskas - Bass, Bass Pedals, Background Vocals, Snare Drum, Snaps & Claps
Pete Caldes - Drums

Recorded at Q Divison, Somerville, MA.
Produced by Ed Valauskas
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Pat DiCenso
Additional recording by Matt Tahaney

Even more additional recording by Sean Cahalin
Additional keyboards recorded by Joe McGinty at Carousel Recording, Brooklyn, NY
Synthesizer and Drum Programming (Tracks 6 & 9) by Pat DiCenso
All songs written by Jedediah Parish. (c)&(p) Glassy Essence Publishing 2014 (ASCAP)
Cover by Beth Ashley

The Gravel Pit would like to thank all who pledged towards the making of this record, particularly Andrea Kremer, Michael Mongillo, Len Kasper, Lawson Hancock, Aaron Thurston, Carrie Harvey, Alex Case, Kristen Palma, J. Grimaldi (SCHNOCKERED and Proving Ground Music), David Rose, and Jason “The Pitboss” Finestone.

Thanks to Jayce Varden, Matt Lydon, and everyone at Pledge Music. www.pledgemusic.com

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Gravel Pit Boston, Massachusetts

On November 4th The Gravel Pit released its PledgeMusic-funded 5th album “Serpent Umbrella” on DeeVeeUs Records. A 13 year hiatus followed the release of Mass Avenue Freeze-Out, the follow up to Silver Gorilla & The Gravel Pit Manifesto. The band’s first album, Crash Land, was produced by Memphis legend Jim Dickinson (The Replacements, Big Star). People in Boston and a few other cities love them. ... more

contact / help

Contact The Gravel Pit

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

The Gravel Pit recommends:

If you like The Gravel Pit, you may also like: