Sick Boy

from The Red Brain by Wax Mannequin

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + 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

      $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

    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

      $56.10 CAD or more (15% OFF)

     

lyrics

SICK BOY

One kid threw up in the classroom
While the other kids were laughing
The sick boy’s face got all twisted
As he spun around and yelled it ain’t funny

But I guess that the rest of us thought it was
Yeah, I guess that the rest of us thought it was

First, they murdered the teacher
Next, they butchered the lesson
And then they chewed up the language
And last, they swallowed the world

This one kid threw open the shutters
While the other kids lay gasping
The window kid said, “We should leave here
And escape the choking fumes together!”

But I guess that the rest of us chose to stay
Yeah

First, they’ll cut down a mountain
Next, they’ll churn the wide ocean
And then they’ll brew up a poison
And last, last they’ll probably learn

First, they cut down a mountain
Next, they churned the wide ocean
And then they brewed up a poison
At last, they were ready to learn
At last, they were ready to learn
At last, we were ready to learn
We were ready to learn

credits

from The Red Brain, released April 14, 2023
Sick Boy
Lyrics - Raghu Lokanathan
Additional Lyrics - Chris Adeney
Guitar, Vocals - Wax Mannequin
Accordion, Octave mandolin, Bass, vocals - Corwin Fox
Percussion - Jake Jenne
Cello - Naomi Kavka

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about

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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