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Natural Internet

by Will Sprott

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Needle to the Groove exclusive version on YELLOW vinyl with 11" x 11" full color insert & lyric sheet with full color artwork & labels. Items are shrink wrap sealed. Only 50 available online! 150 pressed total pressed on yellow wax and ask your local shop to carry it! Blue & green vinyl versions are also available. Collect 'em all!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Natural Internet via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    edition of 150 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Needle to the Groove exclusive version on BLUE vinyl with 11" x 11" full color insert & lyric sheet with full color artwork & labels. Items are shrink wrap sealed. Only 50 available online! 150 pressed total pressed on blue wax and ask your local shop to carry it! Yellow & green vinyl versions are also available. Collect 'em all!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Natural Internet via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    edition of 150 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Needle to the Groove exclusive version on GREEN vinyl with 11" x 11" full color insert & lyric sheet with full color artwork & labels. Items are shrink wrap sealed. Only 50 available online! 150 pressed total pressed on GREEN wax and ask your local shop to carry it! Blue & yellow vinyl versions are also available. Collect 'em all!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Natural Internet via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    edition of 150 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Limited Black Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Needle to the Groove exclusive version on black vinyl with 11" x 11" full color insert & lyric sheet with full color artwork & labels. Items are shrink wrap sealed. Only 100 available online! Other copies are only available on tour & in local Bay Area shops.

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

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1.
Touch Milk 03:34
2.
Following the strange lines Down the alley ways Out of the glow of streetlights Into another place Going to the next phase With the gleaming eyes Fading off of your face Into another life Outside of space Outside of time too I'm there with you I'm there with you Getting into trouble Like I always do Leaving a pile of rubble Trying to tell the truth Calling on the strange lines With a voice that spoke Setting up the punchlines To the eternal jokes Outside of space Outside of time too I'm there with you I'm there with you
3.
Bumblebee Bumblebee Whiling away the hours Flying through the flowers Bumblebee Floating on the breeze Winging through the weeds Growing from the seeds Beneath the trees It's important that you understand I don't intend to sting your hand I'm only working for the queen Royal jelly smeared over my eyes Controlling when & where I fly Greasing the wheels in the machine Bumblebee It's important that you come to know I don't intend to let you go I could stay here inside of this dream I was never looking for a home I slept in clover all alone Thought that I'd always be out in the breeze
4.
Osceola 04:20 video
Osceola It sure is good to know ya It sure is good you found the door Into our world It's a funny, dirty, weird one You crossed a starry ocean to the shore Now you can feel the sun is warm Shapeshifted into human form Osceola In the time there was before ya I had no idea you'd come around Into our world It's a slippery station A mysterious creation that you found You already made it through a storm Shapeshifting into human form
5.
But I was a fool I was so wrong I shouldn't have hurt you Now I'm sorry But I never knew I'd live in a borderland At the edge of the world Haunted by memories Crying the tune: That is what you wanted to do That is what you wanted to do That is what you wanted to do Back when I lived in the city That's when it all slipped through my hands Now I sit in my lonely room Hiding in shadows Cast by the light of the earth Haunted By things that we'll never do Tracing your memory Through craters of the moon Crying Tiny teardrops for you In the back of my mind always hearing the tune: That is what you wanted to do That is what you wanted to do That is what you wanted to do
6.
Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien At your grandma's house Watching Mickey Mouse When we were boys That was when We chased around the ice cream man & we played with toys Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien Down at the creek Catching crawdads with a bag of meet Where the homeless sleep While they were out You & I poked around & read their magazines Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien Those days are hazy in mind From a planet that I left behind We rode downtown Stole some candy & ripped around & tried on our disguise In freedom's teeth We swallowed up our grief & it swallowed up our lives Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien Illegal alien
7.
Tear Gas 03:48
Out in the open They do all of their crimes Mash up my brains & mess up your minds Old slime Clogging the lines It's an odd time In the sunshine I cooked a potato Then went online I was afraid to go outside Red-blue flashing Cloud of tear gas In the sunlight washing The crowd in their masks Rocked by the motion My boat in the night Out on an ocean Of words & of light Drifting further Into the blur Of the witches water They stir & they stir
8.
Hazy Eyes 02:32
Hazy eyes Are we gonna get through this Curvy life Holding hands? Is it wise for me to try to break through to you? Will you try to understand? Starry skies Hanging over our nights A billion eyes Looking around A world of lies I always try to tell the truth You've got the prettiest eyes That I have found We see the world through strange eyes We see the world through strange eyes
9.
We live in the cracks of every city & we live on the outskirts of everything that's known Gee whiz, isn't it a pity To be everywhere & all alone Like rats in the subway Or a man asleep by the side of the road Like a spiderweb inside of a skull Like a doorway at the end of a hall It all adds up To a natural internet Spilling out From the veil of the infinite I've been chewed by the teeth Of time A life could be so brief Oh, you could be mine When time is up At the end of our little trip We all go back Through the gates of the infinite
10.
Lazy hours Oozing along Those slugs in the flowers Deadly & dumb With my time I mean to waste it Before it wastes me I want to this beautiful dream: Being a human circling the sun Goodbye, Goodbye I'll be riding a slug on my way Goodbye, Goodbye I'll be taking my time
11.

about

Will Sprott says this of his latest solo effort: “To me the record is about death and birth.” He’s always had an economy with words and his emotionally perceptive writing shines on Natural Internet, a solo project Hairdo & Needle To The Groove proudly present this coming July.

The Mumlers, Sprott’s first band, was a memorable bright spot from the early 2000s out of San Jose, California. Their melodic, jangly songs helmed by Sprott produced two albums on Galaxia. This gave way to solo albums before joining Shannon and the Clams as a keyboardist. After six albums, three EPs, and two decades perpetually touring the world for one project or another, Sprott’s landing on his latest independent work, Natural Internet, an easy-going opus made during unnerving times.

Explaining the project, Sprott says: “My childhood best friend was shot to death in an unsolved murder many years ago. After not seeing him for a long time and wondering what was up with him, I did an internet search of his name and found a local newspaper article about his murder. Death was already looming heavily in my mind before Covid shut the world down. People’s lives veered more heavily online. Where I currently live seemed to be perpetually on fire and shrouded in smoke. The George Floyd protests were happening. QAnon weirdos were ascending the ladders of power. Everything felt very tenuous and whenever I stared into the portal of the internet, I felt like the whole world was cracking up.”

Natural Internet isn’t as dour as it would seem. Bound with bright tones, it’s vulnerable to be sure, but never wallowing—a range of mystical ballads to spaced-out country rockers and sci-fi cruisers, touching on liminal states, mysteries, jokes, and beauty, all told through Sprott's singular worldview. Synths, harmonica, drum machines, steel guitar, and bowed upright bass all orbit his words, giving the songs—and project as a whole—so much color. Friends that assist Sprott’s dedicated memento mori include bass and pedal steel by Luke Bergman (who plays with Bill Frisell) and Kristian Garrard on drums and percussion. Subtly striking appearances by Abbey Blackwell (of Alvvays) and Shana Cleveland (of La Luz) are also part of the program.

In 2018 Sprott and his partner, the aforementioned Shana Cleveland, moved to the small town of Grass Valley in the foothills of the Sierras in Northern California from Los Angeles. The extreme shift from megalopolis to living on a dirt road surrounded by weed growers and wild animals was another force that informed his writing.

Plenty of things were made during Covid but this feels extraordinarily earnest—a vulnerable effort assembled during a true transitional life stage of a musician that carries elements of catharsis and celebration that never overstep or feel forced. “I meant for these songs to be soothing and helpful—a psychic balm,” he quietly says.

Death imbues the project but so does birth, says Sprott: “My son was eight months old when lockdowns began. I was grateful to get to be with him in those early days of his life while he bloomed into consciousness—so much joy taking him on walks every day, seeing him notice the moon for the first time, be awed by pinecones, flowers, snow and eventually start attaching words to the world.”

Sprott’s a soul-man at heart, with a range of influences from Bobby Bland to Shuggie Otis, to Mort Garson and early doo-wop, even hints of Arthur Verocai. His subdued yet punctuating voice guides every song except the albums two instrumental bookends; "Touch Milk" and "Airplane With Lights On" are based on phrases uttered by his then one-year-old in reference to breast feeding and blinking lights shuttling across the night sky.

Sprott, who plays guitar and keyboard, and whose vocals are the lead instrument on the experience that is Natural Internet, lists some of its impetuses thusly: “While thinking about mass trauma, nature, climate catastrophe, gun violence, racism, cops, power, vivid dreams, murder, information, misinformation, homelessness, the city, the country, global interdependence, media and language… the title, Natural Internet, appeared.”

credits

released July 5, 2023

Will Sprott: guitars, keyboards, dulcimer, bells, vocals
Kristian Garrard: drums, drum machine, harmonica, percussion
Luke Bergman: bass, pedal steel, guitar, synthesizer
Shana Cleveland: guitar
Abbey Blackwell: upright bass

Dedicated to Osceola Cleveland & to the memory of Shakari Calvin, Lake Calvin, Andrew Pejack, Jesse Erickson & Joe Haener

Recorded & mixed by Johnny Goss at Dandelion Gold Studio
Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering
Cover art by Will Sprott
Insert photo by Kristin Cofer
Songs by Will Sprott (c) 2023

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Will Sprott Grass Valley, California

Will Sprott is a song & dance man from California, currently living in Grass Valley.

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