The Picton Killings

by Second Storey Teller

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

name your price

lyrics

We made jokes about the Picton killings – like they were an event: The Picton Killings. I mean, there technically was that awful event, that time. A part of the dark history. But we weren’t even referencing that. This was fiction masquerading as fact, say it enough times and you’ve created your own alternative truth, right?

The Picton Killings – a devious plan that started in the queue for the ferry, a guy on his phone in the car next door, speaking loudly. He was the ringleader. He was coordinating the cooled storage at the other end, the guys would drive up in trucks and take the containers that held the bodies. That’s as far as we got. Time to board. The 5m swells meant that the Picton Killings story ran out of steam almost straight away.

We would cling to the rail to order a slushy, we would stand on the deck to soak in some spray. To hope to see dolphins. To be taken away.

We would later kill time in Picton by wandering the streets, looking at the strange signs outside shops, laughing at how this go-nowhere, house-anyone-for-a-night port was trying to be a tourist trap.

It had all the bedside manner of a dog in heat.

The guy on his phone – the one ‘ordering the chilled storage’ was first in line for a coffee that next morning. Probably needed it to stay awake on the road to Kaikoura after being up all night sawing through bone in a bathtub with a hacksaw you said with a laugh to no one at all.

Your coffee tasted like shit. And it was time to leave. Enough time killed. In Picton.

credits

released November 12, 2022
Music and lyrics by Second Storey Teller

license

some rights reserved

about

Second Storey Teller Wellington, New Zealand

Second Storey Teller is a spoken-word project with original music.

offthetracks.co.nz

contact / help

Contact Second Storey Teller

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Second Storey Teller, you may also like:

Bonjour Mon Amour
by Camille Bertault

featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 6, 2023
go to album
Hope/Currency
by rPH and Kins of Spade

This album by Kenyan electronic producer rPH and poet Kins of Spade reflects on the impact of religion in their lives and society. Bandcamp New & Notable May 12, 2023
go to album
Playing with Esu / Where will Ogun Live
by Neo Griot & The Afrocentric Prince

featured on Bandcamp Radio Jan 25, 2022
go to album
Fodder
by Douglas Kearney & Val Jeanty

Poet Douglas Kearney and composer/producer/drummer Val Jeanty link up for a a compelling LP that feels like the written word come to life. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2021
go to album
Nekomata EP
by Mikado Koko * o g i v e

On her new EP, Japanese producer Mikado Koko deconstructs the traditional, mixing avant-garde vocals and glitch breaks with koto. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 15, 2020
go to album
aint about me
by aint about me

In a lane all his own, aint about me lays moody spoken word over rippling soundscapes on songs that feel cinematic in scope. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 23, 2020
go to album
This Is Madness
by The Last Poets

featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 23, 2020
go to album