← more from
Household Ink Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Numbers Game

by Headless Household

supported by
Ted Killian
Ted Killian thumbnail
/

  • Streaming + Download

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

      $1 USD  or more

     

about

Headless Household, "The Numbers Game" (Joe Woodard)

Recorded live at Center Stage Theater in Santa Barbara, Calif. on December 4, 1995.
Featuring Nate Birkey, vocal and trumpet

www.householdink.com/headless

Due to pandemical and other disruptive factors, the new music outfit Headless Household (b. 1983) has gone semi-dormant in the past few years. And yet the intrepid archivist team at Household Ink Records have rolled up sleeves and gotten busy during this “downtime,” digging up gems--and gems in the roughage--from the in-house vaults, going back a few decades. Plans are now underway to release archival findings of interest and/or titillation, both in terms of singles and longer form collections of would-be treasures.
Unveiling number one: the previously-unreleased song “The Numbers Game,” recorded live at Santa Barbara's Center Stage Theater on December 4, 1995, and featuring the mighty, and mighty lyrical Nate Birkey on vocal and trumpet. Also on the track are Arlene Dunlap (in absentee sampled form, as real-time numerologist), and the usual Headless crew--pianist Dick Dunlap, bassist Chris Symer, drummer Tom lackner and guitarist/songwriter Joe Woodard.
Birkey, who has played many times on Household shows and recordings and has released 10 of his own albums on the Household Ink label, would be relocating to New York City soon after this concert.
As the song says, “that's life, that's math/that's how the numbers fall.”

Headless Household albumography: Headless Household (1987; vinyl), Inside/Outside USA (1993), ITEMS (1995), Free Associations (1999), mockhausen (2000), post-Polka (2003), Blur Joan (2005), and Basemento (2010), Balladismo (2015).

lyrics

The Numbers Game Joe Woodard

In the numbers game, we're adding and subtracting,
Interacting to the end
That's life, that's math, that's how the numbers fall
Don't try to tell me, don't sell me on your all-in-all
In the rhyming scheme, we're dodging and dislodging
Words in search of little songs
You steal, big deal, the best things in life are free
Your own creation, sensation borrowed from the well

What's this song about?
I have no clue what you're about to do
Your guess is just as good as mine
And possibly it's twice as fine

In the numbers game, all educated guesses
Are investments in the truth
That's why, no lie, that's all the hint you get
No meditation, inflation put my soul on ice
So words and numbers are my vices


copyright, 2023, words and music by Joe Woodard

credits

released January 17, 2023
Nate Birkey, vocal and trumpet

Headless Household:
Dick Dunlap, piano
Tom Lackner, drums
Chris Symer, bass
Joe Woodard, guitar, songsmithery

And Arlene Dunlap, sampled enumerating sample

Recorded and mixed by Bruce Winter

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Headless Household image

Headless Household Santa Barbara, California

New music combo Headless Household (b. 1983) slices across genres and pursues better living through eclecticism. Discography: Balladismo (2015), Basemento (2010), Blur Joan (2005), post-Polka (2003), mockhausen (2000), Free Associations (1999), ITEMS (1995, Inside/Outside USA (1993), and Headless Household (1987)... all on the in-house Household Ink label. ... more

contact / help

Contact Headless Household

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Headless Household, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now