#raspberry seeds

raspberry vines by petite league, from their album no hitter (2016).

“raspberry seeds

stuck in between your baby teeth

blueberry juice

staining your tulip cheeks

baby’s first steps, holding onto my two legs

and i was only 21, your mother was only 18

and i’m trying, trying harder than i’ve tried before

oh baby, i’m trying, trying harder than i’ve tried before

oh, oh, ohhoh

down with the training wheels

this family learns by scraping their knees

you have your mother’s eyes but your face looks a lot like mine

we only take video of memories

your mother is 21, and i turned 25 today”

petite league is a musical duo of singer lorenzo gillis cook & his roommate and drummer, harry schoonmaker. it was lorenzo cook’s introduction to american fuzzy lo-fi basement music upon moving to syracuse that gave him the inspiration for petite league’s eventual signature musical style. petite league on their website describes themselves as, “blending the sweet, bubblegum qualities of bedroom pop and the snot nosed fuzz of garage rock, petite league is swinging for the fences.” one music blogger writes about raspberry vines, “although a stripped version of this same track was released on the sophomore album no hitter – an equally beautiful version – there’s something about this one that feels exponentially more vulnerable, the way that frontman lorenzo gillis cook’s pained, raspy, lo-fi vocals come close to colliding with the walls of thick, impenetrable guitar nearly every single time they coexist. it sounds grainy, out of focus, but coveted, cherished like an old photograph, the narrative expressing those specific images in the form of a father and his child.” petite league has four other albums, slugger (2015), rips one into the night (2017), and rattler (2019).