WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE HAVE DONE

CD available July 20 2008

Click here to order the CD online!

• About the CD
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    Jessi's upcoming album is called, "Who We Are, What We Have Done" and will be available for purchase on July 20, 2008. The instrumentation includes loops and keyboards, resulting in music that is far different than Jessi's live guitar/vocal performances. To balance this, the second half of the album is composed of the same ten songs, performed live with acoustic guitar. The second half will be available exclusively online. MP3s will be available for download in the coming months.
    
    The CD release party will take place July 20th at Rockwood Music Hall on the Lower East Side, 9pm. Admission is free. Special guests include Rob Shapiro of No Lindsay, Jim McNamara, Andy Mac, and Misty Boyce. Kelli Rae Powell performs at 10pm. There will be an after-party at Matchless in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

• Album Artwork
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    View/download CD Cover (4.19MB)
    View/download CD Insert (3.58MB)
    View/download CD Tray Card (954KB)

• Free Live mp3s
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    More downloads are coming soon! "Atlas Shrugged" and "Foolish Dream" were recorded live in Brooklyn at Galuminum Foil Studios as part of the P.S. 318 Warehouse Songs Vol. 2 compilation series. Rob Shapiro of No Lindsay accompanied Jessi with piano on "Atlas Shrugged".
    
    Download Atlas Shrugged
    Download Foolish Dream

• Tracklist & Lyrics
  • 1. The Geometry of a Heavy Heart

    • I can fit the puzzle pieces together without a picture
      I can solve equations with letters representing the numbers
      I can draw us as two points, measure out the line
      Plot our position through space and time
      But I can't find a way to chart the geometry of a heavy heart
      
      I can sketch the pattern of stars in the heavens, a perfect replication
      I can still remember your depth and dimension without hesitation
      I can map the site where our paths meet
      And guess at the angle of our defeat
      But even Euclid and Descartes can't solve the geometry of a heavy heart
      
      I can rewrite the rules till our problems are solved
      I can fake the proofs till you don't trust me at all
      And it all just falls apart with the geometry of a heavy heart

  • 2. The Weather

    • You seem set on eroding my trust
      on battering my mountain down to a pile of dust
      I lie pliant as you pound me until nothing's left
      Your face grieves for my loss, then laughs at the theft
      
      You want to be the weather, driving clouds above my brow
      It makes you feel electric to see me shiver and bow
      but your wind can't whip forever and your thunder is silent now
      
      You seem hell-bent on breaking my will
      holding down my fluttering heart until it lies still
      I welcome your claws as they slowly sink inside
      Your smile keeps your secrets but your eyes reveal the lie
      
      You want to be the weather, driving clouds above my brow
      It makes you feel electric to see me shiver and bow
      but your wind can't whip forever and your thunder is silent now
      
      I am ageless and tired
      I've lived the same life a thousand cycles now
      
      You want to be the weather, but your wind can't whip forever
      and your thunder is silent now

  • 3. Papers & Magazines

    • Remember when we couldn't sleep
      cuz the nightmares were real and their shadows stretched deep
      I'd say think of a beautiful dream
      
      We'd get together when we got older
      you said I was your savior but you were my shoulder
      and we shared the myths of the past
      
      We don't need our faces in the papers and magazines
      We don't need our names in the annals of history
      cuz we know who we are and what we have done
      the monsters we fought and the battles we won
      We don't need anything from anyone
      
      Remember when i met you at the train
      we drank beers on my stoop without saying a thing
      then we both laughed and took a breath
      
      We were naïve and broken and sad
      I still thought i could save the world
      when it went bad
      
      We don't need our faces in the papers and magazines
      We don't need our names in the annals of history
      cuz we know who we are and what we have done
      the monsters we fought and the battles we won
      We don't need anything from anyone
      
      but if you need to breathe I will help you to breathe
      if you need to believe I will help you to believe
      if you need to break free I will help you to break free
      you always did the same for me

  • 4. Lighthouse Keeper

    • We talk oceans into being between us
      with stinging words that taste of salt and rust
      then you climb the winding stair, up to the mirror
      watch your breath form a mist and let it clear
      snuff out the little flame and leave me in the dark
      oh lighthouse keeper
      
      There's nothing to guide me, when you're out of reach
      but why should you worry when you're safe on the beach
      I threw a line out to the shore
      but you severed the cord
      oh lighthouse keeper
      
      I am a vessel on the sand, stranded and dry
      said you can't give me what I need, but you didn't try
      I will trace my sightless path across the fathomless span
      I will make my way alone just to prove that I can
      keep your little flame, and leave me in dark
      oh lighthouse keeper
      
      There's nothing to guide me, when you're out of reach
      but why should you worry when you're safe on the beach
      I threw a line out to the shore
      but you severed the cord
      oh lighthouse keeper

  • 5. Atlas Shrugged

    • I'm at the dead-end street
      I'm in the darkened alley
      It's like it's calling for me
      It's like I know it wants me
      
      There's no escape
      no escape
      
      When you told me not to be afraid
      I smiled at your innocence
      When you told me not to be afraid
      I said the world is on my shoulders
      If I let it fall it might crush us all
      
      I buy human misery
      For two new shiny quarters
      Ink runs in the rain
      My hands are black and stained
      
      There's no escape
      no escape
      
      When you told me not to be afraid
      I smiled at your innocence
      When you told me not to be afraid
      I said the world is on my shoulders
      If I let it fall it might crush us all
      
      There's no escape,
      no escape

  • 6. It gives

    • I keep running up against the wall
      Like this time it will change, like this time it won't be there at all
      And it leaves red grit and blue bruises
      but it never gives
      Then I begin to give up and I begin to let you go
      
      I hate the way hope makes me hold up my head
      When I know it will betray me, it will slay me and leave me for dead
      It leaves gray doubts and yellow scars
      but it never gives
      Till I begin to give up and I begin to let you go
      
      The wind tells me to smile, this is for the best
      Don't fret for what you can't have, put aside your unrest
      And it leaves pink cheeks and pale skin
      and it begins to give me
      The strength I need to give in and begin to let you go

  • 7. Mayday

    • I know what I'm doing, I won't get hurt
      Walk off with my heart and I'll steal the shirt
      Off your back, look behind and I'll laugh
      I'll beat you in the end. Baby, pretend
      
      It's mayday, mayday
      
      Baby pretend
      I'm your friend, the jukebox charlatan
      quarter for my dreams, dollar for my skin
      for all these things that roll into and out of my head
      Like it never happened. Baby, say when
      
      It's mayday, mayday
      
      Baby, say when
      I can stop tiptoeing around what I want to say
      Rehearsing the lines to my own play
      It might be ok to soften in the sun, a little
      Then you'll understand.
      Baby, take my hand, it's mayday

  • 8. Foolish Dream

    • I can't explain why I do what I do
      I wake up from dreaming with music in my head
      I remember singin' the blues every time I felt bad
      Somehow it got me through
      
      Maybe you want to make loads of money
      Your face on glossy pages, your voice on the radio
      I just want to survive the only way I know how
      You can keep the fortune, honey
      
      We always argue and I never see it your way
      You always start but I always have the final say
      
      The thing I do, I know it doesn't make sense
      I could take the easy road to a charmed life
      But I'll never belong with the successful and strong
      I just want to pay my rent
      
      We always argue and I never see it your way
      You always start but I always have the final say
      
      I remember singin' the blues every time I felt bad
      Somehow it got me through... foolish dream

  • 9. Broken Thing

    • When I couldn't take it anymore
      I'd go in the bathroom and lock the door
      and think of the choices before me
      what the cabinet holds
      but I always did as I was told
      am I a broken thing?
      
      When the fight began I had nowhere to go
      so I closed my eyes and turned up the stereo
      The way a voice can tell stories
      it's not supposed to tell
      I keep my secrets and keep them well
      am I a broken thing?
      
      But I pretend everything's ok
      the bruises are under my clothes
      and only the mirror knows
      am i a broken thing?

  • 10. City / Country

    • The sky is turning grey as I walk down 4th avenue
      but it's blue above the highway, looming above the roofs
      and the statue with her green arms and gold flame is standing guard
      How can it be so beautiful and so hard?
      
      I thought of moving to the country when I missed the hills
      and the sky spangled with stars, the creek's ripples and rills
      to walk along the old rail trail under a green canopy
      to disappear slowly and quietly
      
      But I took the G train north on Sunday to see a show
      and I sat at the bar, in the candlelight glow
      Heard the voices and the guitars bleeding out their tones
      This place is so foreign but it feels like home
      
      The rain fell on my face this morning in Manhattan
      I'd forgotten my umbrella but I didn't care
      I straightened my shoulders and waited for the light to change
      And thought, "I'm really happy to be here"
      

• From Jessi
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    I made these recordings alone in a tiny eggshell blue painted Brooklyn bedroom. Sometimes there are weird little clicks, muffled thumps, and occasionally the distant sound of traffic. Over the course of 6 months I relearned piano and engineering, and I snatched the minutes and hours of relative quiet where I could find them. For ten years I've wanted to make a CD, and though I never imagined this would be the end product, I'm very proud of this strange, glorious mess that I made all on my own.
    
    The name of this album comes from my song Papers & Magazines: "We don't need our faces in the papers and magazines. We don't need our names in the annals of history, 'cause we know who we are and what we have done, the monsters we fought and the battles we won. We don't need anything from anyone."