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Hard to Break

by Cannonball Statman

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  • Streaming + Download

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

      £10 GBP  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 17 Cannonball Statman releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Hard to Break, Icepick (9th Anniversary Remaster), Miracle on Neon Clown Avenue, Rhinoceros Crossing, Interdimensional Ice Cream Cake, Modern Elephants, Playing Dead, Outa / Orda, and 9 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      £60.50 GBP or more (50% OFF)

     

  • Limited Edition Valentine's Day 2024 CDs (signed)
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Until the 7th of February, you can order your CD of Hard to Break with a special handwritten note on the back of the jacket, as a Valentine’s Day gift for your partner, your crush, your mortal enemy, and/or yourself. Just include a message with your purchase detailing what you'd like Cannonball to write on the back of the CD, and he'll do it.

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

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition "Single" CD with 10 rare bonus tracks (signed & numbered)
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    This is not a CD of the album. It's a limited edition CD of 6 songs from the album, and 10 rare bonus tracks (4 live recordings from the early 2010s, 5 songs from an unreleased 2019 album that will be released later on in remastered form, and 1 acoustic demo from 2023). The reason it costs a bit more when you buy it on BandCamp is that you'll also get a download of the full album when it comes out if you do it that way, so you're getting over 20 songs in total.

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

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  • Dogs vs. Straws September 2023 UK Tour poster (signed & numbered)
    Poster/Print

    Poster from Cannonball's September 2023 UK tour with The Grasping Straws, designed and numbered by Mallory Feuer, and signed by both Cannonball and Mallory. Mallory has some of these in NYC, so you may be able to get one from her at a Grasping Straws show if you're local and don't want to spend a ton of money on shipping from the UK. Apple not included.

    Sold Out

1.
Sparks! 03:25
There is a spark; a peculiar electric charge, in everything and everyone. All those lonely years, day by day, the blinding men came to turn it off, 'till we forgot to turn it on. Oh, we got lost in the saddest place. My sister from Mars used to sing me songs; sometimes, I would see her in everyone, and we went laughing like we were crazy (and we are; that is why they locked us up when we got caught). They've been living off the hidden part of you.
2.
Ghosts! 02:25
Ghosts are living in the gas stations of America. Ghosts are living in the gas stations. Ghosts! Ghosts! Don't go to the public park today. Even if you haven't been outside in years, you'll see the Sun shooting through the December sky like a drone bomb; he brings Democracy and says, "Liberation is Tyranny!" and "Freedom is Slavery!" and "War is Peace!" And you'll say, "Mr. President, I refuse to take part in your dinosaur fossil death cult!" And the Sun, he just stares down at you and says, "baby, I refuse to leave you be. I refuse to leave you be, Ghost! Ghost! Come to live inside my gas station, Ghost!"
3.
Walking home from Far Rockaway always felt like a million miles. Followed the silhouette of the train tracks under the moon; oh, honey, I remember. He came up from the East River, golden clouds in his hair. He dissolved on Delancey; now his whereabouts are unknown. He said, "I'm easy to love, but I'm hard to break; I am easy to love, but I'm hard to break. If you ever break me, I'll be broken awhile. Oh, and when I return, I will tear you apart." The year is 1996; Maria's reading the newspaper. Sips a coffee, fresh out of the pot, and her world is on fire. I am out of my body; you are on a motorbike. We're in hiding on that stairway again; two boys from Brooklyn, lost in something way over our heads. You said... There is power in a union. There is power in a mountain. There is power in the empire that took you; but it goes out, as all, in the end, go.
4.
Lee dee dee...
5.
Pennsylvania 04:44
Midnight, out in Pennsylvania; and you know, I sure miss ya. Tonight, I dreamed you'd run away from home; you set out on your open road alone, screaming, "see you never! You say you know me, but I don't know ya. You don't wanna know what I'd do to ya, if you put your hands on me or my family again." Jester, don't cry; big girls, we don't cry, except today, and tomorrow, and every time someone we love dies. I never knew how much I'd hurt ya. Now you're living on the water; you are drifting off, like sirens in the trees, snow in windy March, and fire hydrant sprinklers. So long, like forever. It's been awhile since I've seen yer sleepy parking lot and sibling drowning in beer; it's been a horrible fucking year.
6.
Still living in the park, always working after school; somewhat hated. Still protecting her old car, still can't drive it anymore; never hopeless. Still trying to get out of Brooklyn; still avoiding relationships. 'Cause you might only get one life, you know, that's the thing that scares her. Still on the F train over Brooklyn; still thinking about her life. Still stuck inside the piano; need to find some way to breathe without screaming. Still avoiding her old friends, but she found some new ones, and on the F train, they're living the life; sleeping on the F train, really living the life. And on the F train over Brooklyn, struck by the sunlight; on the F train over Brooklyn, at the beginning of her life.
7.
He is a water man; he lives between two worlds, on the rusty train. You see him in the parklot of the mallmart, in a light snow, under the moon. You take off your whole shirt at once, and you say you'll take his ashes with you in your cup. It's cold tonight (it's winter), so he takes you in a boat to his apartment, and defrosts you with his hands. His serpentine body pulls up to you undercover, and you're resting in the branches of a tule tree. He teases you with a window into your living eyes, or a guided tour of the sleepy port city in the middle of the night, where he lives. He takes off all his clothes, he puts on a suit and tie; he takes off all his clothes, and kisses the clouds in his window, with his lavender lipstick on, and he laughs. He takes off all his clothes, except for a pair of his turquoise colored underwear; they match the ocean, the sky sometimes, and the rims of his glasses he left on a pillow by your right cheek. He makes a fresh pot of coffee for everybody, and screams in sacred fractals and New York City subway train hallucinations; his neighbors are all synesthetes, and they can see everything, while they're sleeping. His body is cold, until it's not; he places his face under the sheets and licks your legs with his hot tongue, bathing in black coffee fresh from the pot. He kisses you gently with his tongue in your mouth, and yours in a river; he made it, before he was born, in his sleep. He dances around his apartment to the song of the lonely streetlamp. He files his nails like shaved ice melting on pink sand on a beach in Gemini season in the evening; and he takes you to see the shipwrecks. His body is cold (it's winter). He says he wishes there were a 24 hour diner you could walk in, together, have a fresh pot of coffee, watch the local politicians scream at television with their brains off, and you might even have a chat with the waitress about psychedelic drugs and life; but you're going to the shipwrecks. You say you saw your father through a window in the local morgue the other day, staring, lobotomized, blankly, near the corner of a wall; you were surprised to see anyone you knew in this town, except your water man, who you always see, wherever you are. He holds his hand with his hand, in the palm, and takes you to the shipwrecks. You can see his breath like a rainbow under a bossanova street lamp on the ground. You take turns sipping his purple hot chocolate mug, with English tourist accents on deck in case a cop spots your open container. The mug is all painted with black lipstick stains from his past life. He says he still does magic with it sometimes, but only for good. You crawl into the ship together and stare through the clouds in the window at a waxing moon, next to the skeleton of the captain. You say you saw the captain through a window in the local morgue the other day, staring, lobotomized, blankly, near the corner of a wall; you were surprised to see anyone you knew in this ship, except your water man, who you always see, wherever you are. He holds his hand with his hand, in the palm, and you're warm again. He takes off all his clothes and his glasses, and stares through the clouds in the window into the water. He sees Sedna's fingers faintly swimming around down there, and he cries. You embrace him with your body and your arms all around him, and you kiss him on the lips three times, and you whisper in his ear, with your saltwater soul spilling down your cupbearer heartroads into the infinite black: "It's almost over."
8.
You're living on the Mercury line, from Gemini Street to Hermes Road. Dreaming on the Mercury line; loving the dream we all know. Meet me; the coast is clear now. The coast is queer now (the coast of love). You'll find the water bearer (the water bear bearer). He's not drowning anymore; he's in the air. You only need about a half of what you're paid to get by, around there; you only need about two strong cups of coffee to get high, all night. You're living on the Mercury line; loving a beautiful woman. Living on the Mercury line; loving a beautiful soul. You need to breathe, you need to live; you need to lie some of the time, but not for long. You found the water bearer (the water bear bearer). He's not afraid anymore; he's in the air.
9.
Wooooooosh Ahhhhhh
10.
Grow 02:03
In the morning, you grab a coffee, and you never know what it does to you; gone to workin' on the mornin' train alone, your body's quakin' like a broken engine. It's time to grow your hair out against the wall that you've been drawn inside. There are pieces; there they are. There are pieces inside your head! There are pieces! And there you are; and there you are! In the evening, we tell the story about that special someone who is falling through the system, and all the people who are there just to remind you to take your medicines at night, so you forget you.
11.
Find Someone 03:53
Find someone to care about; someone who cares about you. Sometimes, you have to go searching through the secret streets at dawn, and sometimes, they just come in, out of the blue, on these cold, cloudy days! Find someone to scream about; someone who screams about you. Sometimes, you have to go searching through the secret streets at dawn, and sometimes, they just come in, out of the rain, on these cold, cloudy days! Find someone to dream about; someone who dreams about you. You don't have to go searching through the secret streets at dawn; tonight, they just come in, out of the cold, on these sad, lonely days!
12.
There is a spark; a peculiar electric charge, in everything and everyone. All those lonely years, day by day, the blinding men came to turn it off, 'till we forgot to turn it on. Oh, we got lost in the saddest place. My sister from Mars used to sing me songs; sometimes, I would see her in everyone, and we went laughing like we were crazy (and we are; that is why they locked us up when we got caught). They've been living off the hidden part of you.
13.
Midnight, out in Pennsylvania; and you know, I sure miss ya. Tonight, I dreamed you'd run away from home; you set out on your open road alone, screaming, "see you never! You say you know me, but I don't know ya. You don't wanna know what I'd do to ya, if you put your hands on me or my family again." Jester, don't cry; big girls, we don't cry, except today, and tomorrow, and every time someone we love dies. I never knew how much I'd hurt ya. Now you're living on the water; you are drifting off, like sirens in the trees, snow in windy March, and fire hydrant sprinklers. So long, like forever. It's been awhile since I've seen yer sleepy parking lot and sibling drowning in beer; it's been a horrible king year.
14.
Walking home from Far Rockaway always felt like a million miles. Followed the silhouette of the train tracks under the moon; oh, honey, I remember. He came up from the East River, golden clouds in his hair. He dissolved on Delancey; now his whereabouts are unknown. He said, "I'm easy to love, but I'm hard to break; I am easy to love, but I'm hard to break. If you ever break me, I'll be broken awhile. Oh, and when I return, I will tear you apart." The year is 1996; Maria's reading the newspaper. Sips a coffee, fresh out of the pot, and her world is on fire. I am out of my body; you are on a motorbike. We're in hiding on that stairway again; two boys from Brooklyn, lost in something way over our heads. You said...

about

This album is about coming back to life after a long hiatus.

Check out the music video for "Hard to Break" here: youtu.be/tInd_kGOPGc

…and the music video for "F Train Over Brooklyn" here: youtu.be/wUhY-U3uPaI

credits

released October 22, 2023

Melissa Greener took the photo on the album cover.
Jesse wrote the music and lyrics, played the basses and guitars on all tracks, sang the songs, and designed the album cover.
James Robinson sang lead vocals on track 4, and additional vocals on all other tracks.
Gem sang additional vocals on tracks 3, 5, 6, and 10, and played the drums, percussion, hammond organs, synthesizers, and pianos on all tracks.
Jojo Rita played the melodica on tracks 2, 7, and 10.
Osmar played the saxophone on tracks 4, 6, and 12.
Negrita Yani played the accordion on tracks 5, 11, and 13.
Ben Turner engineered, mixed, and produced the recordings.
Additional mixing on tracks 10 and 11 by Gem.
Peter Fletcher mastered the album.

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Cannonball Statman New York, New York

Known for his soulful lyrics and guitar style described by Bob’s Aural Delights as “the edge of madness”, and a tenderness and playful melancholy that can be called “romantic punk”.

"Statman has made a name for himself in the music scene, sharing stages with Jeffrey Lewis, Days N' Daze, and Sunflower Bean, as well as touring across America, Europe, and Asia." (amNewYork)
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