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Car Country

by KAN-KAN

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1.
Eternal youth like a baby’s tooth you ain’t ever gonna get this wisdom tooth out of me Shy away from the altar call i’m still reeling from my fall Brother’s dead, sister’s ill what am i supposed to do Just take it for what it is Whatever you do i’ll take the blame A minute of ecstasy can be a lifetime of shame We’re afflicted in all of the same ways i’m charmed by everything that you say You kiss me with hands so familiar on freeways where angel sightings occur Bored by the radio we never felt the same We traded our youth for a lifetime of pain Why don’t you just tell me that one story so that you don’t ever forget I met the patron saint of april fools, she said life is a game you must learn to break all the rules and not a single soul comes out unscathed but that’s the price we all pay If you ask me to run i’ll run with you If you ask me to drive i would drive till the road was through
2.
www 02:19
I do not collect dust I have no appreciation for life’s rust If you can’t find me in the wild you know where i’m at In my safest place you can call me by my internet name When i am surfing the internet with you i know just what to do Stare into the screen and watch it stare back at you I was born on the edge of a millennium I was born in 2002 I was born in the very right time if i want to spend all of this time on the line Living life, life online When i am surfing the internet with you i know its all i was born to do Riding the www i don’t feel so blue Its all i know how to do
3.
Nasty am 01:30
I want to crawl into your head see where the AM radio gods live in your ears You take every word they say as truth letting them guide your white fears You fell for the ad trap, conspiracy passed down as fact and one day all you’ll be left with is a stack of coins and catheter to match You don’t always have to believe everything that you hear The world isn’t as scary when not always listening to a mirror The world is brighter place when you’re not living in your silly fears
4.
Do you feel as though in this life you are living under a microscope well do not be afraid nobody these days really takes the time to look up close no one is checking the facts no one is doing the math there’s no more face to face contact these days no one’s got a penny or cent a nickel or dime they can lend to you so can go on spillin that selfish useless little rhyme scheme oh come on who can waste anymore time But if you need a hand to pull you out of what you are sinking in I’ll be around I’m not going anywhere soon i am glued to this town and the strip malls the sidewalk scenes too I know the way it stacks up too much for one to take Let help you out I'm by the phone I’m not afraid to pick it up I’m living life by the phone I’m not afraid to pick it up I know we’re living life by the phone so why don’t we try to save the world with it Home is a phone and home is where I am going Home is a bone that a dog will never stop chasing All of this life all in one night All of their light, they shine so bright When I wake in the morning I can hear all the light I can see every voice at the same time I know that's the way things will be for the rest of our lives
5.
I am the same age you were when you died you know I would trade places with you but how could I? I can hold myself together but the feeling won’t leave you alone Now i’m living for the both of us to prove to you how much i’ve grown I could muster up all my strength but still have nothing to say I have the will but I give myself away Please don’t let me sleep through the day I want to be up and at em’ I want my legs moving I want to live for another in the present tense Nothing wrong will be left standing People have to pick up what is left of their lives They move to another country leave the rest behind You are the same I was back then You were here for a while, i’m sure i’ll see you again I could muster up all my strength but still have nothing to say i have the will but i give myself away Please don’t let me sleep through the the day it all ends I want to be up and at em’ I want my legs movin The kids don’t care if the banks are burned to the ground
6.
215 01:26
Everyone you know is on the boulevard You don’t got to go looking too far They slide pass you like a shooting star I didn’t realize the grass was dead where i was standing Till i got my education riding the bus down on the boulevard I was so late for class but i could see so far I didn’t realize who’s ground i was standing on Till i got my education riding the 215 down the boulevard Open a book be on
7.
Curbee 05:19
Curbee hangs out on the island of the street He hung his flat screen to a tree and he plugged it straight into me I am boxing in a bus stop pushing a bag full of weight Waiting on a 215 Why don’t we pick up the ones who need it most It is easier to be driven than to be waiting on a bus to get us down life's one way road Back to where we all must go I am grilling out in the bus stop now Pull up a seat, crack a drink, tell me a story I don't care if its true Who paved these streets only to be driven on and walked all over too, in a city ruled by kings and queens, some red some blue, some right most wrong who holds the key to all of this truth Why dont we pick the ones we love It easier to be driven then it is to be waiting on a bus to get us down lifes one way road Point a to point b, ive got nowhere to go nowhere to be, I just dont want go there all on my own In our little plastic cars tripping down the road, joe said take it easy and if it's easy why not just take it slow
8.
Can you hear me through this mask I am wearing? Is the conversation strong enough to keep this going? Mr. can you hear me now is changing tunes Nothing last forever you know exactly what I mean I’m not saying you can’t do whatever you want Just know that these actions have reactions whether we like them or not No I don’t want to pick any sides I just want an easy ride I don’t want to sit around and watch each other fight Some of my favorite tv shows have been canceled once or twice No I don’t want you to have to hold back I want all of you but not if you’re talking all that trash if you dirty mouth keeps getting you caught you don’t have to open it these words they hold weight so be careful about what we say
9.
Greyhound 03:59
Ended up in a greyhound station Smog covering the sky sin city full of transient star chasin Ignorance is bliss when she is his queen young love is splitting the seems all over himself He let his guard down the bad luck is coming swinging back around your stuck in the wrong nowhere town In a sanctuary city up on a hill he checked them in at the front desk and the man upstairs wrote the final will in the city of west los angeles We let our guard down whos know what is coming swinging back around your stuck in another southern california town
10.
Missing Sign 04:34
would you help me find my owner she is about yay tall My face now resides on the community cork board i live stapled on a telephone poll I will fade with each passing sun After my roadside deployment I went strolling through suburban canyons to feed the frail body I walk around town nothing like what was waiting for me when I opened your door I have bitten the hand that has fed me love I know not what is enough I was ditched in a ditch on the side of the road I dont mind which the way the wind will send me when it blows After my royal disownment I went scrolling on endless pages just to fill the empty mind I boast nothing like nothing at all I can hear the warm bodies through the telephone waiting to take my call I will pay for the wasted minutes Hung up on these hanging minutes
11.
I was going to put my feet onto the ground I was going to right my wrongs I was gonna turn it around but I fell into a hole and a distraction is what I found you would be so sad if I told you what I found I scrolled for days and days I was so lost I could not be saved and in the darkest hour of the deepest night a little blue distraction held me so tight Living in the days the age the years of distraction If I am ended on a super highway and my distraction is the fault You must know that I mean what I say I am not distracted for us If I am ended in a ruberneck clusterfuck and my lack of attention is the cause you must know that when I was with you when i was with I had my eyes on the road I am not distracted for us I was going to lift myself up off the ground but i fell victim to a distraction again a little reality is all i'm asking a little bit in front of me is all i want all i need can't get much more free
12.
Time Manager 03:14
Am i wasting your time You have never wasted mine I'm good at losing time never know what's really mine Until i need more time Time to sit time to learn time to observe Will I ever be as good as what you deserve
13.
Hotel Circle 04:08
He started off telling me a long winded story about how he ended up in this corner of the country a big little small town where the interstate ends and the zonies come to play His family left him so he lives in cast of rotating dream homes he'll never have and that's ok Here the weathers so nice you could spend the rest of your life sleeping in a car park its oh so taboo Ill tell you this country will break your heart You may never be as free as you were with that old map your truck you made it so far Further than i've ever gone before I'll never make it to the stars I'm stuck in this hotel circle where i'm from He traded in his lazy boy for a lawn chair Hung up his nine to five blues Ex wife took the dog, she was thelma and louise all wrapped up in one, taking baths in red wine just for fun I'll tell you no multi family home is safe from being perverted into a hotel in this state turning homes into hotels whos that all for
14.
be like you 02:24
He would run if would see her coming this way, its a sick game boys like to play Avoiding all the past never facing up to the facts We hold these habits in our hands and they walk us like a dog walking its best friend I cannot escape them Have you heard of the new way It's a freeway a highway They always say you do nothing what is something I know this isn't much i am trying to keep on learning So why don't you teach me to be more like you
15.
sunday song 04:39
There is no reverence for the past Something to hold but nothing to grasp So you fester in the light Do you think its wrong or right That my love for you is waning Why are you crying i’m still staying So impatient its frustrating So complacent but i’m not complaining Are you coming back for me Or are gonna wait and see The writings on the wall Those who leaves or stay thats it for us all Nobody knows what weve been through Wondering what are we going to do It was never easy but you had to stay Forget who we are and leave without a trace Let oceans separate you away from the scene And you’ll visit me in someone else’s dream And someone else’s dream can be ours too Another city with nothing to gain or lose I never really thought of it through Always wondering what am i gonna do
16.
untitled 04:45

about

Car Country might not be the best album to ever come out of San Diego, but it is the best San Diego Album I’ve ever heard.

Kan Kan did it because Kan Kan knows the city. They know that:

Someone living in a double-wide in Lakeside with a 99 Civic and someone living in two stories with a tesla in Del Mar see themselves as the same.

Someone in Santee sees themself as working class on account of a lifted F150 (new, 2021) & construction job (parents own company, salary 350K).

Someone lives in a culdusac off the Boulevard in
1)El Cajon, 2017 Camry (Uber Owned & User Leased)
2) La Mesa, 2003 Corolla (250k miles+)
3) College Area, 2011 Odyssey (broken down, bike only)
4) Talmadge, 2004 3 Series (check engine on)
5) City Heights, 2009 Accord (300k+ miles)
6) City Heights, 2011 Frontier (coolant smoke blows thru ac vent)
Speaking Arhamaic, English, Oromo, Spanish, Vietnamese, & more

Slacker savants somehow in lineage of a goon like James Joyce, Kan Kan made a whole album about one long street in San Diego, El Cajon Boulevard (ECB/The Boulevard), and about what its like to have a car & phone. In these topics they captured that combo of universal and specific that makes you cry listening to it in a motel room, smelling ghosts of your smoking room’s past.

Kan Kan are what a boy band would be if they never found a manager. All members (current and past) have dedicated fancam accounts. Get deep enough into DIY-SD-Tumblr and you’ll find the quiz “Which Kan-Kan Are You?”
Kellen (drums)- destroying irony asshole gravitas and staring furrow-browed through CA’s thickest glasses.
Joe (bass)- asking questions so direct, while looking at the tree just out of frame, that people respond by speaking words until they’re at the truth of matter.
Cameron (guitar, vocal)- finding revolutionary praxis by being late to every job and poetry in the sweat stain on the bus cushion.

But you can’t be Kan Kan. You’re not gonna make a song under 90 seconds that encapsulates the forced alienation of the middle-aged with the kind of empathy they do (Nasty AM). Nor make another song under 90 seconds that tells a better coming of age story than Linklater (215). You’re not gonna make such an honest song about tragedy (Pretty Horses). Nor accurately define a whole city by poetry (Hotel Circle). Make an outro as natural and essential (Car Audio Heaven). Write a riff or melody thats such a true fucking classic (Time Manager & Freedom Guitar).

Kan Kan knows what they’re doing and they do it perfectly.
- Reoh Darwell

recorded between 2018 and 2022

credits

released May 27, 2022

recorded by Joesph Hoang and Erick Garcia around San Diego
mixed and mastered by Erick Garcia
album cover by Alex Cruz

Dedicated to El Cajon Blvd

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KAN-KAN San Diego, California

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