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Gold Dust

by Gold Dust

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  • Cassette + Digital Album

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    Cassette version of the self-titled full-length on orange cassette.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Gold Dust via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

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  • Streaming + Download

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  • Gold Dust LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Vinyl of the full-length, limited to 100 copies on black vinyl with silkscreened cover art on chipboard sleeve with obi. Manufactured by Softwax Record Pressing in Philadelphia, PA

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  • Limited Second Press LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

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    A second pressing of the vinyl of the full-length, limited to 100 copies on purple vinyl with inverted silkscreened cover art on chipboard sleeve with obi. Manufactured by Softwax Record Pressing in Philadelphia, PA

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

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1.
2.
Oh Well 04:24
If I’m here, I’m nowhere Somewhere strange & free Ease into a second summer, Or just an early fall Pretty sure though, I’m not where I belong Like a light cutting through early-morning fog All the sun in my eyes takes it’s time When the winter finds you, Like you know it will, You can fight it tooth & nail but It’s nothing you can change Pretty sure though, I may not make through. If the first snow’s the last one I ever see Let it all come down & swallow me. Like a birch, brittle-barked and shallow roots, Hollowed-out but alive, as far as we can see Beats a heart under leaves buried deep in white Out of sight, out of mind, but stubbornly survive If there ends up time left, & if I find my voice, I hope I find profundity & words to say That mean something That’s greater than (At least equal to) My time here, It’s time overdue. All the words we write & the shit we read Is the time we waste, a paralysis Am I counting down? What am I counting on? It’s a hazy mist I thought I’d never miss. But I wanted this, At least I thought I did, Well it’s too late now, seasons they pass.
3.
Cosmic Joke 03:44
Lost track of life somewhere halfway between A waking nightmare & feverish dream Can’t find a reason to hold on anymore Hasten toward some inevitable end If life’s a season, I’ll be around again In the first snowfall in the winter of our days Ran out of words, found I’m stuck with my tears The last few months seemed to age me ten years It’s like a joke with no punchline or release From slate grey sky comes a blanket of snow A fleeting beauty in a broke, ugly world Covers the fault lines, buried like landmines Put out of mind but in waiting for a last misstep. How earnestly can I try and fail before I pack it in and say goodnight? Been waiting for a fog to lift for ten months now, I don’t have ten more And maybe letting go will free myself to embrace the void I don’t wanna be the column left standing when the roof caves in and the walls Come tumbling down
4.
There are days where the fog burns off straight from the morning & we’ll see for miles There’ll be some that slip by unaccounted for, vanished Like your breath on cold glass There’s another world Not much like ours Close your eyes, guide me there. The time is now, It’s all around, Everything at once & whole. We always knew that our days were all numbered & counting down Not long for this world There’ll be nights when our thoughts ricochet into darkness, Embraced by some sound Your echoed name Cascades down Verdant hallways back home Reverberates From outstretched hands A billion small fires explode Will your body remember the shape that we made? Will you save me some corner, will you hold me some space? The leaves that came down In early fall Won’t know the chill A flash of light That’s there then gone, Pin a wish onto it’s tail We’ll meet again, I’ll see you there. Some things ache greater than love & I guess this is it
5.
Cat Song 03:10
Can I really be that bad if the cat follows me around? Oh, I don’t think I know me like you do. If I’m holding out for change, but things tend to want to stay, Well, I can’t think of a better place to wait It’s a place to be in from the cold, Some kinda home It’s the cracks in our stories where the light comes pouring in It’ll wash away in the light of day Is it cuz she needs a friend and I’m the only one around, Or does she see something in me I can’t see? Would you look me in the eye, at least when you say goodbye? No, I don’t think that you owe me anything The songs I sing, no surprise, they sound the same It’s the cost of doing business when you hate your clientele Can’t please everyone, much less yourself To be the only one around, To not need to make a sound, I’ll try to be the good you see in me.
6.
Anywhereing 04:27
Gone & chased myself off again Can’t think of a brighter sun Than the one over the place you thought you might forget This place looks better in the rearview, Set to singing some lonesome tune, “Well, they can’t be all sad songs” I sang it through the tears. It’s over now Try to sleep a while Anywhere you can be distant from yourself I’ve never felt any stronger wind Than the one blowing at my back If I stay planted, it’ll rip me from my roots Have you ever heard a tree come down? There’s no way you can forget the sound The creak before the eerie calm preceding that unearthly thud It’s over now Kinda always was If I think that I could sleep awhile When you think you’ll finally get some rest Anything can make a good mattress A van, a floor, a railroad overpass These are songs you thought you’d never sing & there are thoughts that I’m ashamed to think, There’s a place nothing matters, no one stays. Like a ghost, abandoned & afraid, What I need, it changes day to day Not sure it’s really mine to find Some have a home, some stay alone, Some of us were made to move around Well, is it because or despite A brighter moon and a blinding light That I don’t think I’ll be sleeping easier tonight? I’ll spend a little more time alone, Got nowhere else to go, But I’m still thinking there’s a chance for me to finally get it right.
7.
When sadness shows the door Will I kick it down, or barricade behind it? Should I show myself out now Or dragged reluctant, kicking & screaming? This depression feels like home It’s fridge is empty, I’m all alone, It’s perfect. I know there will come a day Can’t just trust the worst will pass me by Might move in & stick around, If they get unpacked, I’m stuck with them, uninvited I’m always on the run But can’t outpace the mourning sun, It sneaks up on me. I’ll turn away from the light, It burns too strong, it’s blinding bright, But it’s always present. Defined by mistakes beneficial By melodies implied As much an absence of a “something” As a “something” of it’s own A blurry midnight memory Been wondering where do I go Those times I’ve outsmarted shadows & darkness can’t claim me Do I burrow under evergreens In root systems & shallow streams, Stay hidden under fresh-laid snow, With frozen leaves packed tight below While on the surface, overhead The world still turns, I heard you said, “All’s well that ends” Well, all’s well that ends.
8.
I guess I don’t really care if there’s another world Kinda bored with the one I’m in And whether or not I come to like it or not, I’m stuck with what I’ve got It’s not budging, so get settled in Can’t remember how I got here anyway Eventually your friends will leave you alone Or at least assume you're not around Well, it’s been half a year and if your friends are still here, There must be something wrong with them It’s not forever, we’re here & then we’re gone Can’t remember how I got here anyway They’re all just normal nights Asleep-on-the-couch nights Drunk but somehow lucid crying nights, alone With lowered expectations matching lower stakes, In mediocrity’s embrace, I don’t doubt the wonder within, just think I’m better without Or maybe too dumb to even see I’m chasing something, fuck if I know what Would I know it if I saw it, would it know me? They’re still just normal nights Freeze in the headlights Drunk but somehow lucid crying nights, alone Maybe my prayers were answered when I wished for death And like some joke, this is what’s next, Donkey Kong off the screen and re-emerge where you’ve been, Resigned to face it all again I’m chasing something, fuck if I know what Can’t remember how I got here anyway Yeah, I’m chasing something, but can’t say for sure That that something isn’t also chasing me
9.
Write it down, read it back, and start to second-guess yourself The words that you wrote out no longer seem good enough Seemed profound in your head, take a breath & cross it out A book full of nothings in their impermanence. Things I know (& some I don’t) start to make their way to page They’ll sort themselves out, or else stay loose ends Trace the dots, string the lines, try to find a thread to connect These half-thoughts & fragments, buckshot ideas. It starts to feel hollow As words fall lazy into place & maybe tomorrow, It won’t seem so stale & meaningless Want it to be profound, I don’t want to seem so down. Eternal sigh. Keep it vague, blur the lens, & know just where your limits lie & you can face up with whatever it is that terrifies Know by name - at least by feel - those self-destructive tendencies So you can let go of them, or truly lean in I’m not proud of how close I’ve come to some everlasting dark, Some strange culmination to countless songs unsung If you spend your time under clouds, eventually you’ll end up right, Wrong and misguided, and numb to the end It comes for us all, though That hard rain seems bound to fall & maybe tomorrow What words come, if they come all It’s always some stupid line, It’s always sung out of time, And true to form Cross it out, turn the page, maybe start on something new With every passage, a growing disconnect Write it down, read it back, attempt to understand myself Like some apparition from some other time Maybe tomorrow I’ll work until I get something right & maybe it’s not my fault, I’ve been up all night Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up somehow better at all this But likely tomorrow, I’ll put it off, more of my same old shit Don’t wanna leave alone, Can’t help but feel let down Oh well, one day.
10.
I lost my way trying to find my place in Brooklyn Without a plan, nothing was found What I found were endless ways to fuck up, Whether broken-hearted or fucked-up drunk When the bottom falls out from nothing & you realize nothing’s real While you’re in some far-off city you don’t know With your past at yr heel It’s a thorny path trying to beat it back to Hampshire It’ll tear you up if you can get unstuck I’ll leave a breadcrumb trail, I’ll mark the turns off, So if you want, you can remember me & you may not follow straight away, You don’t have to come so soon But I’m hoping I’ll be seeing you in time. Take your time, I don’t mind. Hey, we just want to be found Somewhere for some time & I guess I hope it’s with you Somewhere down the line
11.
Small Song 02:26
What you're running from & what you're headed for Tend to look quite the same Start to strain a bit to remember better times, But they seem to escape you tonight You lived a good life Between the things you can’t change Maybe you're running from some sorta feeling That might be here to stay If it’s you yourself, not sure you’ll pull away, But who knows, who can say? Who can say? It’s a big world And the wind, it’ll blow all the same You could write a song to close the distance Between the night & the day & If you sing that song til you believe it, Pretty sure you’re ok. You’re ok.

about

Gold Dust’s self-titled debut full-length—the first solo release from Stephen Pierce of Kindling and Ampere—is deeply rooted in discovery, both personal and musical. The album is a confluence of dreamy folk rock and homespun psychedelia that celebrates the universal experience of finding something new in familiar places.

The origins of Gold Dust are tied to this sense of exploration. From the blistering hardcore of Ampere to the towering shoegaze of Kindling, much of Pierce’s work has thrived on sounds that are distorted and loud, a fact that might belie his passion for folk rock. “Psych rock and folk rock were the first detours I ever took from punk music,” the Easthampton, MA-based musician explains. “It never fails to amaze me just how much is out there to find, if you’re looking. I’ve been on this ‘deep dive’ for nearly two decades and I’m still finding out about records that blow my doors off.” Pierce’s interest in the genre spans the globe—from influential Japanese groups like Happy End, to UK cult heroes Richard and Linda Thompson—as well as levels of notoriety—from private press unknowns like Gary Higgins and Hill Andon, to legends like The Byrds or The Grateful Dead. His appetite for discovery is so unending that he’s even working on a book that catalogues international psych and folk rock from the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Pierce’s immersion in the genre eventually led to a desire to push his own music out of its volume-centric comfort zones. “I grew up learning to play guitar on Johnny Ramone and Kevin Shields, I love that kind of playing but it’s a completely different skill set than what’s being used in a lot of folk music,” Pierce says. “I was really impressed by acoustic guitar playing but I didn’t really know how to do it—it was like a different language. So I started trying to unlearn and relearn guitar.” He began teaching himself to fingerpick and play guitar in an unfamiliar way, and with new techniques came new songs. As the Gold Dust record began to take shape, Pierce started recording the songs piecemeal at home. “There’s a challenge to making something that’s literally just you,” he says. “There’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors. I’m not too versed in the art of recording so I approached it as more of a utilitarian thing to document the journey from idea to song.” He eventually shared the songs with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr, The Pixies, Speedy Ortiz), whose mixing and mastering brought out the warmth and depth of Pierce’s recordings without losing their homemade charms.

The result is an album with one foot planted in the moss of earthy folk and one foot stepping out into clouds of otherworldly psych. Gold Dust opens with the lush “Water St, 2am” before diving into “Oh Well,” a hazily inviting blend of winding guitars and layered vocals that introduce Pierce’s conversational approach to existential lyricism. “My aim was to make an honest record, and part of that honesty, in my mind, is looking straight into the void and reporting back,” he explains. “Obviously we’ve all been in a low place the past year and a half and that informs a lot of the record, but I guess one of the silver linings is this weird, bleak camaraderie in experiencing the same collective depression. We’re brought together in a strange way by trying to navigate this thing together and maybe that’s exposed a new sort of compassion or understanding.” Gold Dust may have been written and recorded in isolation but much of the album deals with one’s connectivity to the world around them. Songs like “Brookside Cemetery Blues” or “All’s Well That Ends” sound like J Spaceman accompanied by Crazy Horse, while standout track “Run Into Clouds” highlights the droning, intimate psychedelia that runs throughout the record. On the latter, Pierce describes a fluid attachment to reality. “Some days you feel of this world, some days you feel completely disconnected,” he says.

While rooted in Pierce’s obsessive knowledge and affection for ‘60s and ‘70s folk rock, Gold Dust’s debut has an identity that’s decidedly its own. The musician’s background in punk and shoegaze brings a DIY directness with atmosphere to spare, bending genre conventions and paying tribute to them at the same time. “To me, a lot of the stuff that’s really transcendent has roots in that long folk tradition, but also employs some other element,” he explains. “You can’t be too anchored to history.” It’s fitting, then, that Gold Dust feels like a contented walk through different influences, with Pierce taking the time to admire the sounds that he fell in love with, while still moving forward. After all—there’s always something new to discover.

--James Goodman--

credits

released October 15, 2021

Everything played & recorded by Stephen Pierce
Recorded at home Winter 2020-21
Mixed & Mastered by Justin Pizzoferrato at Sonelab, Easthampton MA, April 2021
Artwork by D.Norsen
Liner notes by Sean Yeaton

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Gold Dust Easthampton, Massachusetts

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