sonora - gauge, january 2000
words: bonner/smith
music: bonner

giants were playing here and left
careless wander through the fallen trees
distant streamlined stainless steel
indifferent chrome
inconsequential yearnings
tugging at my better judgment
sun burned through to the stronghold

the other reasons that i had are all forgotten
bereft of shallow fears i stand alone
mountain green the newborn wind
on my way home
unchain the phoenix let the battle unresolve
one eye lost in the fire’s cold

sonora got swallowed by the road
happened just a couple weeks ago
endless woven strands of gold
still entrained
inconsequential yearnings
tugging at my better judgment
smoldering ash of a dream too old

sonora was debuted live at williams college at the end of a truly weird gig that was played in a kind of library or anteroom at a formal event whose nature and purpose wholly eluded the band. the audience was uptight and disinterested, some of the girls danced in a big circle like at a high school cafeteria dance, and others kept walking in and out of another room where something else apparently was going on. the band got spectacularly drunk as a kind of reflex action and was too impaired to make it through any of the chord changes. the same night also saw the debut of the 'blinking alarm clocks' stage gimmick.

a first version of sonora, recorded in connecticut in the early 1990s, is reported to exist somewhere in non-digitized format.