Red Brain

from The Red Brain by Wax Mannequin

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    Wax Mannequin - The Red Brain - Album Guide

    The Red Brain begins with “The Obelisk,” as Adeney’s deep, inviting voice is trailed by the steady strum of a guitar, jangling riffs, and the warm glow of an organ. Struggling with a Brian Wilson-esque feeling of not being made for the times, he sings about how “we turn a blind eye to looming existential threats in order to maintain chaotic, quasi-functional
    domesticity.” In its choruses, the song travels to a far-distant future where obelisks are constructed to laugh at humanity’s plights, highlighting Wax Mannequin’s fantastical, sci-fi world building.

    ”Wrong About You” is inspired by Adeney’s experiences as a student and elementary school teacher of language, arts, and drama. Barreling ahead with a soaring guitar solo, triumphant piano melody, and chorus of multi-tracked vocals, he turns his focus onto a student that is alienated for not appearing to thrive. Yet once the child returns home, they are able
    to deftly model the consciousness of those around them using metal wires found on the floor. “Sick Boy” (originally written by Raghu Lokanathan) completes this thematic trifecta with Adeney’s additional lyrics about “kids, classrooms, and noticing our mistakes a bit too late.”

    The album embraces a wide range of stylistic forms with the stately strings of “The Red Brain” colliding with the corrosive folk of “Even Then,” where Wax Mannequin sounds like Neutral Milk Hotel with an extra dose of psychedelic fuzz. “Reasons We Came” turns its spotlight on the tumbling drum fills of percussionist Bradford Lambert, as its rhythmically
    chanted lyrics discuss the action and energy needed during times of transition, warning how blind optimism can cloud our vision. “Love Is A Hunter” is Adeney’s dramatic cover of a song by Coax Records founder Rae Spoon, while “Things to Do With Rage” reworks an empowering anthem about channelling frustration into constructive acts of creativity, originally appearing on Wax Mannequin’s debut album 23 years ago.

    “Not The Worst It Gets” drops Adeney’s electronically processed vocals into a sparse pool of echoing pianos and subaquatic beats. While closing the album with a message of hope, it maintains the melancholy realism at the heart of his lyrics. “For me, the end of a depressive cycle is tranquillity,” he says. “Concepts that were incredibly burdensome become
    objects you can set down and contemplate before they pass into dust.” Yet in moments like these when we are bogged down by our own problems, he reminds us how easy it is to ignore the challenges of everyone else around us. “There’s a peaceful numbness at the end of that turmoil,” says Adeney. “Eventually you deny your own pain and the pain of others,
    so there’s a bitter tranquillity in that.”

    - Jesse Locke

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Red Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
    ships out within 5 days

      $14 CAD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Wax Mannequin - The Red Brain - Album Guide

    The Red Brain begins with “The Obelisk,” as Adeney’s deep, inviting voice is trailed by the steady strum of a guitar, jangling riffs, and the warm glow of an organ. Struggling with a Brian Wilson-esque feeling of not being made for the times, he sings about how “we turn a blind eye to looming existential threats in order to maintain chaotic, quasi-functional
    domesticity.” In its choruses, the song travels to a far-distant future where obelisks are constructed to laugh at humanity’s plights, highlighting Wax Mannequin’s fantastical, sci-fi world building.

    ”Wrong About You” is inspired by Adeney’s experiences as a student and elementary school teacher of language, arts, and drama. Barreling ahead with a soaring guitar solo, triumphant piano melody, and chorus of multi-tracked vocals, he turns his focus onto a student that is alienated for not appearing to thrive. Yet once the child returns home, they are able
    to deftly model the consciousness of those around them using metal wires found on the floor. “Sick Boy” (originally written by Raghu Lokanathan) completes this thematic trifecta with Adeney’s additional lyrics about “kids, classrooms, and noticing our mistakes a bit too late.”

    The album embraces a wide range of stylistic forms with the stately strings of “The Red Brain” colliding with the corrosive folk of “Even Then,” where Wax Mannequin sounds like Neutral Milk Hotel with an extra dose of psychedelic fuzz. “Reasons We Came” turns its spotlight on the tumbling drum fills of percussionist Bradford Lambert, as its rhythmically
    chanted lyrics discuss the action and energy needed during times of transition, warning how blind optimism can cloud our vision. “Love Is A Hunter” is Adeney’s dramatic cover of a song by Coax Records founder Rae Spoon, while “Things to Do With Rage” reworks an empowering anthem about channelling frustration into constructive acts of creativity, originally appearing on Wax Mannequin’s debut album 23 years ago.

    “Not The Worst It Gets” drops Adeney’s electronically processed vocals into a sparse pool of echoing pianos and subaquatic beats. While closing the album with a message of hope, it maintains the melancholy realism at the heart of his lyrics. “For me, the end of a depressive cycle is tranquillity,” he says. “Concepts that were incredibly burdensome become
    objects you can set down and contemplate before they pass into dust.” Yet in moments like these when we are bogged down by our own problems, he reminds us how easy it is to ignore the challenges of everyone else around us. “There’s a peaceful numbness at the end of that turmoil,” says Adeney. “Eventually you deny your own pain and the pain of others,
    so there’s a bitter tranquillity in that.”

    - Jesse Locke

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Red Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
    ships out within 5 days

      $25 CAD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    10
    releases

    Get all 10 Wax Mannequin releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Red Brain, The Obelisk (single version), No One Ever Dies (Free Download), Have A New Name, No Safe Home, Saxon, Orchard & Ire, The Price, and 2 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

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lyrics

RED BRAIN

At last you got back home
As the car broke down
In the cold
Noone came around to greet you
Or help
But a Red Mind
Through the clouds above you
Hovered in the night sky then
Swirled around
Around, around

Speaking thought to thought
That shining brain told you stuff
Said your friends and folks and everyone
Were gone

All compressed down into tiny seeds now
dorment for the winter time but the spring comes
Whoah whoah….

Which ones will you water first?
Which ones will you leave to die?
Which ones will corrupt the earth
The plant ones
Or the weedy ones?

Red Brain gonna scorch the earth
Red Brain will consume the sky
Red Brain way before your birth
Made you like your mother did

This one took a wizard curse
This one gave a stifled cry
This one tries to 'scape to run and hide

Speaking mind to mind
That fuckin’ brain gave you stuff
Like a bunch of seeds and plant food…and juice
But as the spring comes
So, so many souls need planting
You got one chance to make it
But you got things to decide...
Like

Which ones will you water first?
Which ones will you leave to die?
Which ones will corrupt the earth
The plant ones
Or the weedy ones?

Which ones would you keep up caged?
Which ones would you set to fly?
Which ones would you bake & save
The fat ones
Or the meaty ones?

Red Brain gonna scorch the earth
Red Brain will corrupt the sky
Red Brain way before your birth
It made you like your daddy did

This one gives a wizard curse
This one gives a stifled cry
This one tries to 'scape and run and hide

Someone's honest work is someone else's lethargy
Brambles wrapped around and scrambled
Your mind

It's hard to know just what they want from you
And who to trust
There is so much silent language gets lost

But that Red Brain
Gonna keep a channel open
Gonna make all your decisions
So just lay back
And let it go (Take it slow)


Red Brain gonna scorch the earth
Red Brain will consume the sky
Red Brain here before birth
It made you like your daddy did

Which ones will you water first?
Which ones will you leave to die?
Which ones will corrupt the earth
The plant ones
Or the weedy ones?

Red Brain gonna scorch the earth
Red Brain will corrupt the sky
Red Brain way before your birth
It made you like your mother did

Which ones will you keep up caged?
Which ones will you set to fly?
Which ones will you bake & save
The cut ones
Or the meaty ones…

credits

from The Red Brain, released April 14, 2023
Vocals, guitar, synth, piano - Wax Mannequin
Guitar, synth, piano, Cymbals - Corwin Fox
Cello - Namoi Kavka
Percussion - Bradford Lambert
Bass - Evelyn Charlotte Joe

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Wax Mannequin image

Wax Mannequin Hamilton, Ontario

Adeney's music veers from scrappy prog oddness and distressed folk to absurdist stadium metal, all with a dark humour that borders on outright Dadaism.
Beneath the unsettling imagery and musical left turns there is a steady questioning of life’s inherent strangeness and his own neuro-divergent experience.
He has appeared on thousands of pub, gallery and festival stages worldwide.
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