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Smiles at You in the Dark (2023 Mix)

by Alix Bocis

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1.
so here’s where the fun begins and where the falling comes in here’s where the tally marks end but i cant tell you where to start but dontcha wanna hear about my day but dontcha wanna know which of my visions are my way but dontcha wanna know a couple things that i probably shouldnt say i find that sometimes im a funny guy tell a quip and then work the crowd its all a bit on the fly then its finally on then its finally finally on then its finally finally on till words fly that are just a little hold on wait just a fucking second was it just something i invented, had you really meant it but dontcha wanna know a couple things i find that sometimes i just cant sleep right a bitch needs to get some rest on this long flight its been a week since its been a week since its been a week since its been a tough time to head to the beach to leave no trace thank god that theres still some life in your face i worry sometimes where have you gone i’m not myself but you’re still displaced a glass of water to cool my nerves oh i got her you think you’re clever i figured you out but i got nothin to do with it but thats all a long long time ago at least by my schedule gone till the dawn the song for the yawn if i heard correctly but dontcha wanna hear about my day but dontcha wanna know which of my visions are my way but dontcha wanna know a couple things that i probably shouldnt say but dontcha wanna hear about my friends but dontcha wanna know which of my long lost fears remained but dontcha wanna know a couple things that im not gonna say
2.
fading colors catch your eyes no use crying over them tonight find your place to run and hide fall asleep wake up dirty inside the sunset glows in a natural light all of us laying on the grass tonight find your place to run and hide youll never get the nerve to go outside and what about those things you do and what about that pile in the corner and what of it i have no idea what im doing a funny little whisper a funny little friend a funny little event you cant see again its all down in the hollow its so far far far away now youve lost your color its all in the sand all innocent and bright but this isn’t a caution this isn’t a warning sign you still got a smile on your face and thats just fine fading colors catch your eyes no use crying over them tonight find your place to run and hide fall asleep wake up dirty inside the sunset glows in a natural light all of us laying on the grass tonight find your place to run and hide youll never get the nerve to go outside i’ve got an idea, that’ll make your eyes pop out fading colors catch your eyes no use crying over them tonight find your place to run and hide fall asleep wake up dirty inside the sunset glows in a natural light all of us laying on the grass tonight i’ve got the nerve to go outside
3.
tv makes its own melodies for me twenty makes for a feeling on my knee nothing in the center its just a cutout youre kicked out back of the room panoramic scene i thought i was cold i forgot what was cold the water drippin down on the inside of my soul please i got a feeling please please i need meaning two more steps to too late but at least im breathing tick tock i keep feeling how the clock stops make a log of how the monster in the pot flops feeling short winded in a big world but my vision stays tinted with a swirl its a great new expedition where the least is my ambition at least thats my mission at least im not bitching truth is its just too heavy the skin feels like sparkles im not very fleshy please dont get startled big day you may see prey look in the mirror and see its face, not safe with a little of your least favorite things mixed in just to make your mind say make your mind say make your mind up i dont need a lecture from you i dont need your mixture of an unsafe worldview i dont need you to poke through my brain to look through my things but maybe, you’re not doing anything surrounded on all sides by an idle force im outnumbered by the soldiers of the white horse nobody here’s looking though they cant see my skin singing in the night i thought i was cold i forgot what was cold the water drippin down on the inside of my soul please i got a feeling please please i need meaning two more steps to too late but at least im breathing i thought i was cold i felt a new feeling that wasn’t the cold a chilly night makes the drops feel like they’re falling but none on my face when i think that im bawling i wipe them off but theres no more i ran out a long time ago theres not a key to this door im putting this bowl on the floor cause im just a little messed up girl ive gotta fess up this is a test but i follow you i follow you im scared of you im scared of you but only because of the view im perfectly wrong looking through my only q is i dont know how you knew but you really didnt know anything did you? i melt into the couch and all i find is mildew finally off the shits but im just back into my queue face is freezing solid i get icy looks a blankets not enough i look like meat up on a hook documentarian crack open a book the fountain still drips drip drip drip drip i thought i was cold i forgot what was cold the water drippin down on the inside of my soul please i got a feeling please please i need meaning two more steps to too late but at least im breathing would you still love me if i felt a lot would you still love me if i was snowed and taut would you still love me if my limbs fell off would you still love to hold my hand and rot wouldnt you just love to see my crying win im telling you see my frostbite made me thin is this just a chill or did my body shake is this just my head or did you give me sake wouldnt you just want a little bad taste wouldnt you get mad to see a figure pass your face would you still love me if the truth stings would you still love me if i see things
4.
woken by a light but its forever night a new world has come but you won’t see the sun there was a moment i had felt just like the world was on a shelf swish swish swish i got liquid in my head who knows if we’re all dead but i gotta feeling im still in bed but its been centuries so many memories floating above all the ruins with chimneys smoke pours out of the old places i went carries the dirt as i breathe in its in me everything i recognize is all already spent seeing the ground below covered in flowers while people are trapped up top in their towers the ground turns alive at the start of the showers for oh so many hours you travelled opposite of me we tried to speak but couldn’t see what are we trying to say why do we try anyway i was a heart i couldn’t help you had a frown that wouldn’t melt there’s no forgetting that we’re never ending until we break down the whole town until we find out what’s going on in our world now for now just feel fine in the moonlight ill come out tonight when the clock strikes five million am woken by a light but its forever night a new world has come but you won’t see the sun there was a moment i had felt like there was a hand i had been dealt the gears started turning my mind was returning with all my friends we hit the road there were just things we had to know past all the markets off into the darkness driving around the old patches of concrete forgot our old names so we use old legends now connections we made guide the visions we complete a mark on the map where the info is found but when we arrive theres no secret that’s hidden just a dusty old frame with a picture of me but who else is here that my mind finds forbidden and why has my face contorted many degrees so please lets break down the whole town until we find out what’s going on in our world now for now just feel fine in the moonlight ill come out tonight when the clock strikes five million am i said lets break down the whole town until we find out what’s going on in our world now for now just feel fine in the moonlight ill come out tonight when the clock strikes five million am
5.
theres a shooting pain in the lower left rib and thats real you said you dont know what im talkin about but youre wrong theres a hole in the skull and it all comes out and thats real you said you don’t know what im talkin about but you’re wrong come on down the slide we’ve got strength tonight hold the fire for right now theres a spot in section 44 that might be of interest to you i gotta thank ya bud im off to head for the moon theres a lot thats not going on thats taking me out im stepping out of the car this aint a healthy route ive gotta spring in my step and thats all i gotta say ive gotta go to rest and thats all i did today no denial no denial no denial we walk along dont be mild dont be the end of the sidewalk tonight and set it down lightly now shes falling down slightly now lets find out if the time starts to bring it down
6.
start from the beginning start over from square one find your place that you need look me in the eye, if you’re able to rest easy my baby its a new day found something good in a new way where you got the life happy where maybe the ground gives way
7.
i thought so many things i sought so many things i heard something that i cant let out i had a heart to sing i had a heart to sing there is something in the air that you never wanna see trust me trust me trust me this is dangerous it could be too much please lets not find out
8.
i’ve not talked in a long time i wanted to let you know ive written a story that takes a lot from my life the words flow theres always a name where you’re from and always others that’ll fill in made a wish wont be long when are you gonna hear my song its still spring this is a poem of unforgettable tellings of every story known i dont know if you can hear me sob in quiet silence i figured everything out but i saw too much the meadow the rain the heat where where on earth between heaven and earth there were you there and the deed of them had a dream of words in print take me on a day trip you my friend in the heat indeed again when would you go back to the world holding onto the wing my friend
9.
ive been gone where’d you go its for the best that it didnt carry on ghosts came home but you didnt know just a couple haunted by the lights before dawn my soul soars flying in the sky i’ve got a little info that’ll let you go i finally realized the fault aint mine im just a little too nice and i walked tonight under the cover of sight and i cursed the night then i asked the sun for daylight and i walked tonight covering the canvas with a splash of white and i saw the knife but the chances were only might close close that door its time i get it and make that chapter done you ghosts aint welcome get out from under the floor it took a long time but i think that i’ve won i feel a lot better its hard to be a friend at least when the things that you hate are still fun a stroke of the paint brush but still i’m untouched i forgot all the things that happened except one so i walked tonight under the cover of sight and i cursed the night then i asked the sun for daylight and i walked tonight covering the canvas with a splash of white and i saw the knife but the chances were only might
10.
won’t you call me by our favorite names there’s several i know good but i’ve settled down on whatever you like running at the void with love and love and love and love and love what am i here for when i dont want more i just wanna take a minute to say i get it i just found a sacred analogue and now i what to do i want to fall through you and so far down down around and never ever be found im not off the deep end but the water’s gettin choppy i just don’t know what the future holds but i hope what if we panned out forever of course that’s just a little hard with love and love and love all that i wanna do is learn how to know you and all you love falling down an endless flight of stairs i want to be confused and spiral on won’t you call me by our favorite names which one you ask whichever one i am don’t you let me cry and stagger on home i just know that i dont want anything but you
11.
box of stuff that you never use time spent that you meant to lose its all a piece of who you are and no one can say that you’re not no one its telling you dont know em long time passes in a jiffy its easy when you’re not so busy in the center of the world tell me if you’re gonna go with me and the friends i got around we’re smiling the whole way down the spirits they come out to play when puppets go on parade the memories show their face when the puppets find their place a ruckus on main street slam in the face of 10 feats of strength to win some fun is sure to do you some good watch the puppets dancing on parade
12.
hold me closer theres nothing i cant do lonely explosions theres nothing i cant do only a portion theres nothing i cant do open exposure theres nothing i cant do all of the day time is where you lie down wake up girl its time to see your gown theres a lot you miss out on when you go to move on and the law moves right on and you’re sitting on a blue a new lawn why dont you tell me the falling youre feeling is all of the time you dont know where to go and all of the sudden i feel you and all of the things that we knew are just something to leave all of my vitals are placed in a will and all of my wills are just haggard but ready to go to the moon
13.
I'm Nobody 02:39
you can see right through me i’m nobody there is nothing to me i’m nobody i’m just an expression i’m never aware a visual question mark in the air pass right by or through me i’m nobody i used to worry about it one time i went to see a psychiatrist i said there must be a way out! he said you are a way out he said if you were any further out you wouldn’t be here at all what’s my trouble doc, i said well, he said i think your trouble is my initial diagnosis without resorting to hypnosis finds your letting a psychosis dominate for your trouble is osmosis, even osmosis neurosis i said stop the hocus pocus tell me straight well your osmosis has discreetly quite absorbed yourself completely there is almost nothing left of you, he said your complex isn’t varied but it is complexionary in psychiatry we say holes in the head you can’t analyze me i’m nobody life won’t recognize me i’m nobody whatever i think goes forever unsaid the thoughts dribble out through the holes in my head life won’t recognize me i’m nobody
14.
to the chair whose wheels on its legs are staring me down while a nightmares hangin on to the plastic bag whose monstrous head that i have to turn around to keep from knowing what i know to the skeleton on the wall to the light blinking along to the face in my mirror i smile in the dark and what a sight theres just some things ive gotta fight laying on the bed in the eye of the storm all my fears are still warm i see you lookin at me i feel your eyes in my mind so i’ll laugh it off this time and look back with a smile to the faces to the endless crowds of faces that melt into my world like clues in a game to all the rabbit holes that ive fallen along bumping my head every step of the way to the shadows on the ceiling to the cracks in my wall to the darkness around me i smile and what a sight theres just some things ive gotta fight laying on the bed in the eye of the storm all my fears are still warm i see you lookin at me i feel your eyes in my mind so i’ll laugh it off this time and look back and smile away the dark today the sun came out and shes just shining to stay but ill still have my little world even if only to play me and my friends we just laughed we just laughed we just laughed we just laughed

about

a crisis in toontown

this album is a strange one for us. it was made in response to and directly inside of what was potentially the worst moments and months of our life thus far: extreme family turbulence, mild drug induced psychotic tendencies, graduating college with a degree that's barely worth shit, and near constant unexplained and confusing dissociation. we were having a rough time, and it really comes through on the record. complicated and messy songs for a complicated and messy existence, with fragments and bits and pieces of our comfort music glued in to fill the gaps

but something interesting happened mere days after it was released; we started figuring things out. internally, pieces started to fit together, and we began to understand more of what made ourselves up. with these realizations, came the uneasy feeling that there was more to this record than our spring 2022 selves had even been able to parse while making it. subconscious slips in our own lyrics became warning signs of forgotten past experiences. details of traumatic moments in the present cycled backwards to describing things from years prior. and this record just kept getting darker, and darker, and darker.

i still think there's hope in this record though. even beyond the haze of these unconscious cries for help, the desire for making peace with these horrors is still present. the creation of this album was therapeutic, and i hope that this quality exudes from the record itself. when the abyss smiles at you, all you can do is smile back.

- alix bocis / the bocis system

[NOTE: this is a new mix and master compared to the originally released version of the album! it's not radically different from the original, but it does present the songs in a light that we feel is closer to how the album was originally supposed to sound in the first place. we weren't very satisfied with the original sound of the record (overly clean, technical, thin and tinny), so we've rectified this to get the record sounding like the mindset the vast majority of it was created in, especially now that we're putting it out into a much more public space. the mix on streaming services will be updated to this one soon (hopefully within a week or so of this release), but you can find the original mix at bocisystem.bandcamp.com/album/smiles-at-you-in-the-dark. we might do this for some of our other records as well; i've actually been floating around the idea of doing a proper remix/remaster of Everyone on Planet Earth at some point, so keep an eye out for that!]

credits

released July 8, 2022

alix bocis / the bocis system - production, songwriting, synthesizers, guitar, lyrics, vocals, mixing, mastering
rave.dj - songwriting (track 1, 3, 4, 10, 11, 14)
rose sharon - guitar (track 10)
dani - production (track 12)
jim henson - songwriting, lyrics (track 13)
ed1c24 - album art

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PACOL.

pacol.official@gmail.com

Alix, Noah, Ben, Freeman & Sam

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