05-10 · RECORD 1 OF 4

Annual

1990 · Thrust Reverser Recordings · 3 tracks

Their first record. Named for the inspection, not the calendar.

1. 01Run-Up3:25
2. 02Compression Check3:52
3. 03Vibration (B-flat)4:18
   Lyrics (reference only)

   Second shift. Hangar Four.
   Continental on the stand.
   Warming for a compression check.
   Throttle steady in my hand.
   There's a sound beneath the sound.
   Low and even. Going round.
   
   I said B-flat.
   (It was not.)
   
   Vibration! B-flat!
   (It was not.)
   Vibration! B-flat!
   (It was not.)
   One engine on the stand and a week on the floor
   A note is in tolerance or it's not
   
   Strobe tuner from the bench.
   Optical tach from the prop shop.
   Stand says seventeen hundred.
   Prop shop says seventeen-forty.
   Forty RPM between them.
   And a week on the hangar floor.
   
   Vibration! B-flat!
   (It was not.)
   Vibration! B-flat!
   (It was not.)
   One engine on the stand and a week on the floor
   A note is in tolerance or it's not
   
   Marlin finds it on the E string, sixth fret, and holds it low
   Wendell sets a tempo off the tach and doesn't let it go
   Emmett runs a cable to the stand and presses record
   Nobody says the word "band." Nobody says a word.
   
   Four cylinders. Two firings every turn.
   Do the math at seventeen hundred.
   Do it again at seventeen-forty.
   Then tell Roy.
   
   Vibration! B-flat!
   (It was not.)
   Vibration! B-flat!
   (It was not.)
   We did not start a band
   We started an argument, and it had a tempo
   
   Emmett says it is not a sample.
   He says it is a document.