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.

Laugh On Me

by TaughtMe

/
  • Streaming + Download

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

      $7 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Translucent "Deep Purple" vinyl in a beautiful gatefold sleeve, printed "Reverse-board" for a matte finish. Lyrics printed on sleeve that houses the record. Limited copies. *Final product doesn't look identical to the above mockups*

    Includes unlimited streaming of Laugh On Me via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited opaque "Grimace Purple" record housed in beautiful gatefold sleeve with lyric sleeve.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Laugh On Me via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Minimal promo CD in printed sleeve. No lyric insert.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Laugh On Me via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 20 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

1.
(Invitation) 00:46
2.
Laugh On Me 04:07
Wonderful
 Awful spirit
 Tell it all 
Announce my secrets I don’t care what mine 
I don’t care what me Happening 
Funny spirit 
Laugh on me 
That I might hear it I don’t care what mine 
I don’t care what me Beautiful
 Blinking spirit 
Hurry though 
I want to feel it I don’t care what mine 
I don’t care what me Let out the bottom sorrow
 Beauty as it spills
 Sudden and surreal
 And as I’m taken I’ll go
 Willingly I’ll go
 Horribly I’ll go
 Winking at you though
3.
You twist an apple = the ditches dry up
 You turn a stone = the farm ignites
 You lay in the brush until morning 
You hide in the thicket through night, scared stiff 
But aren't you fleeing imaginary crimes?
 You lay in the brush until morning 
You hide in the thicket through night
 Sure, but aren't you fleeing imaginary crimes? Come on shatter that picture
 Come out as a beautiful child
 Another innocent body
 Glowing under the generous sky You scuff the meadow floor = the earth opens up
 You shrink and block your eyes while it divides
 You flee as it swallows the horses
 You flee as it swallows the pines
 Sure, but aren't you escaping imaginary crimes?
 You flee as it swallows the horses
 You flee as it swallows the pines 
Sure, but aren't you escaping imaginary crimes? Don’t orphan a kid inside
 Don’t let him dim in the failing light Bless a hole and dance him through 
Spilling over you Hold hands through the noise
 Leap over the bitter voice This beauty now
 you’ve always been
 Loved and innocent
4.
In The Body 04:02
All the other boys sit on me 
On my belly
 All the other girls rest with me 
All the other kids huddle me
 At the body
 All the other girls laugh on me Body don’t let me check out
 Don’t let me numb the feeling now
 Gladden the blood
 Arouse
 Surround me
 Body I’m so afraid 
Let up a mood that I can brave 
I wanna be awake Hover easy song over me
 Over the body
 Bellow and belong beside me
 When I carol too 
I improve 
I am better
 So let the singer happen to me Body go big and bright
 Open the treasure on my life 
Suddenly realize
 Promise of breath come true 
Loosen the love and pull it through
 Happen to me so soon A chorus of mothers
 hold me as I open up
 Several others there watching Body parade me through time
 Marry their voices into mine 
I think I’m willing to try!
 Scatter a smile on me
 Every touch a tambourine
 Every face is sweet Don’t hold back tonight 
Spill every bell against my life
 Treble into me and move Like streams giggle through
 Spangle my chest with happy dew
 Flower into me and bloom C’mon wake me up
 Pull my blood quick enough 
How many trys until I get to move? Don’t leave me stuck in here
 Tangled in time
 Stiff with fear
 Muscle into me and plume Dance my body through the noise
 Cheering my friends as they join
 Laughing into me they move
5.
Cuddle 02:59
Lost cuddle found while kitchening So shutup and get in Nervous needer known, now caressing Kiss busted up  Cops rush in But then calm at the huddle A cuddle of carols The caroling easy All easily settled Allay. ally. cuddle. Ally. okay. sure. Caught sharing under kissing bag Sudden hands are kid glad Much wobble Much too tickling Blankee tugged, fort falls in So tease in the tumult A tunnel of tickle The tickling easy All easily funny Allay. ally. cuddle. Ally. okay. sure. Mellow and coo All calming down Weeper and carolling And bless allways And wept all the way out Body mellow bloom and simplify Honey do the glad eyes Tummy purring Teaser tunnelling Hush Alright 
6.
I try to make it all funny 
As we’re getting undressed 
I can’t stay in a feeling
 (Fire in the garden!)
 But can we try again?
 Breathe against my chest
 Cause we are more than just friends
 Wake this motionless lover Move into me
 Don’t move into me
 Place your lips upon me
 Put a medicine there
 Every kiss I take I’ll make another to share
 Look into me
 Don’t look into me 
Honey yes of course
Take the time you need to open up
 Your body is yours! Seven men with their hands upon my chest
 Drawing pictures on me
 They didn’t have my permission 
(Robbers in the temple!)
 When I woke there were stones around by bed
 And where my body had been
 An indescribable hollow Move into me
 Don’t move into me 
Cuddle up my belly 
Make a medicine there 
But every time I catch an eye 
I’m suddenly scared
 Look into me
 Don’t look into me 
Honey yes of course
 Take the time you need to open up 
Your body is yours! Your body is yours 
Your body is yours 
If only for a moment Your spirit is yours
 Your spirit is yours
 No one can control it
7.
Shutter Up 04:12
I don’t wanna be tough Among all these subtle feelings
 But I just shutter up
 So I’m sneaking the lane Holding this momentary calm
 Cause I’m honest like that So I beg at my life
 My mouth a cussing muscle
 Cause I’m hungry like that
 I don’t wanna be scared
 I hear children on the lawn And I cower and fit When I enter my life again I clutch along the edge 
Cause I’m stable like that
 But I don’t wanna be tough
 So I soften up
And topple awful in Okay Alright
 I can be in my life
 Okay Alright Let me feel it my life
 Okay Alright Here it is My life Alright
8.
Settle 05:19
I pull at my prayer 
I struggle to
 Undo the olden wound So I’m pacing the porch
 I weary the stoop
 And I beg my childhood too I try
 Bosom loin mind and gut To settle My heart That’s the only way 
To settle My heart
 Holy hollering
 To settle my heart I straddle my prayer
 It muscle me Hold fast steady
 Bear the swelling grief
 And I cradle
And talk to my mystery 
Don’t shut me out Don’t deceive
 Don’t embarrass me I try
 Despite the furious mind and gut 
To settle my heart Buck shudder cuss hiss and shake
 My early mysteries 
Veil dull weakening
 Holy roarer wholly hollering
 C’mon settle me down
 Pit clench cuss piss and sing
 My heated prayers collide
 Wreck that throat tattering
 You pulled the honey out while I was inside the belly C’mon settle down
 Holy horror wholly hollering C’mon settle 
Hold me down
9.
When I calm down
 A feather falls through my chest
 The veil is opening 
When I calm down
 Great mothers purr into the earth into the earth into me 
When I calm down
 Mellow hands they cup the dirt beneath the room where I’m sleeping
When I calm down
 Halo above protect my bones protect my breath protect me I shook my pain
 Over the ancestral well
 Nobody came No echo down the family line
 No answer from inside I cuss and shake
 Hungry as I was
 Don’t make me wait Bawling at the temple door\ 
Crawling on the floor
 No singing fills the chapel there
 No one felt my prayer
 Hungry as I ever was
Hungry as I was
 Hungry as I ever was
Hungry as I was Did I grieve all my honey out?
 Lay your hands upon me
 Put the blessing back into me
 Don’t ask me to go without I cuss and shake
 Hungry as I was
 Don’t hesitate Pry open my unwept life
 Pour me out as wine
 Soak the veil and pull me through 
Press me into you
 Hungry as I ever was
 Hungry as I was
 Happy as I ever was
 Happy as I was
 Hungry as I ever was
 Hungry as I was
 Hungry as I ever was
 Hungry as I was
10.
I find fear in the home when I wake up Do I love my beautiful friends enough?
 Help me open up Give me time
to know my luck Did I leave a beauty on you?
 Did it come true?
 I know my love’s not easy to use
 But did it reach you?
 Say so
 Let me look
 Trace my hand
on your book Did I make a problem for you?
 I didn’t mean to
 Don’t erase it Go angry at me And I will agree Let me Clear that up
 Rinse my name in your cup As I walk under loving eyes I brighten and pretty At every gift you pour inside I giggle like streams
 My pleasure, though, is double
 To see you laughing back at me You’re laughing here with me

 When I’m making funny or mean Don’t worry Let my kids come summering through every room Join them
 Share our luck
 Use this time To open up
11.
Sorry Maybe 02:36
Sorry maybe Sorry someone if I lie I get honest too Like me still
 And I will maybe
 Bring you flowers
 Bring you mothers
 I know I get annoying too Like me still You will I know you I cover my blemishes I peak through my disguise I pretend to be beautiful Under other eyes Now that you see me... what?
 Now that you know Holy Moly My shit is phony
 I know It got instilled in me
 As a kid They got me early Holy scripture
 I used to kiss her Now I know It wasn’t safe inside Some of us got out just in time All of my friends They learned to keep it all inside I thought I was the only one I didn’t realize Now that you see me… what? Now that you know Sorry brother Did I give you cover enough? I get tangled up Staring down that tunnel maybe Will we stay good? Even maybe honest? Who knows But I will like you still Like me too And maybe maybe

about

“Laugh On Me” by TaughtMe
Built in Oakland, Iceland and Finland
Words and Music by Blake Aaron Henderson

Preface.
As a little Mormon kid I thought my sins were uniquely bad. So ugly they had to be hid. I thought I was the only one. After growing out I learned that every one of us was secretly bearing that burden, each convinced they were the one baddie in a chapel of goodies. We weren’t! We were innocent bodies. They had us walking and talking in lines when we could have been singing the mystery. But we shatter the picture. We come out beautifully, coloring off the page. Even so I wake afraid, terrified that I’m blowing it. I worry that I’m gripping near the edge of life while the treasure spins onward, that I’m sitting out the dance. I don’t wanna be scared or stiff. I don’t wanna be numb. I wanna go big and bright despite the danger. I think I’m ready to try. I just need time to open up. Time with my beautiful friends. Under their love I brighten and pretty, I am better. Let’s stay together. Stay tender though it’s hard. Let’s stay awake during the one precious dream.

Thanks.
Tenderness toward Úlfur Hansson. This album exists because he lured me to Iceland in 2022. He nourished these songs while also sharing his home. Úlfur’s creative impulses are magnetic. The spirit moves through him in special ways. I’ll never forget how he subverted “In The Body”, solving a puzzle that had eluded me for 10 years. An alchemist!

These tunes, they sound like this because of Samuli Kosminen. He’s not a “drummer”. He’s an audio sculptor, an animator. He translated my imagination into sound, taking prompts like “make it feel slow-motion but aggressive, like 2 giants fighting each other sluggishly.” The collaboration left me giddy and inspired and I’ll be forever grateful for his diligence and profound musical gifts. What powers!

credits

released October 6, 2023

Blake Aaron Henderson: Sounds, Words
Úlfur Hansson: Spirits, Synths, Acoustic guitar (Laugh on Me, In The Body, When I Calm Down, My Beautiful Friends)
Samuli Kosminen. Much more than drums (all but Laugh On Me, Shutter Up, Settle)
Robert Shelton: Piano, Synths, Engineering (Laugh On Me, Cuddle, Shutter Up, Settle)
Alabaster Deplume: Saxophone (Invitation, Laugh On Me)
Gyða Valtýsdóttir: Cello (Invitation, Laugh On Me, My Beautiful Friends)
Andrew Maguire: Drums, Magics (Laugh On Me, Cuddle, Shutter Up, Settle)
Michelle Moeller: Piano (My Beautiful Friends)
Piero Perelli: Drums, Percussion (Laugh On Me)
Tom Monger: Harp (Laugh On Me)
Mateo Lugo: Guitar (Cuddle, Settle)
Michael Sempert: Pedal steel (Cuddle)
Sonya Cotton: Voice (Imaginary Crimes, My Beautiful Friends)
Gabe Dominguez: Voice (My Beautiful Friends)
Doug Stewart: Bass (Shutter Up)

Precious artworks by Sylvia Fernández (“Heridas De Luz”, “Apoyamos” and “Despedida”)
Mixed by Phil Hartunian and Blake Henderson. Robert Shelton mixed Shutter Up and Settle
Mastered by Dave Mcnair
Layout by David Stith

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

TaughtMe Oakland, California

words and sounds by Blake Aaron Henderson

contact / help

Contact TaughtMe

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like TaughtMe, you may also like: