• Lyrics: play full screen play karaoke
• The Joke - Arrivals
• Open-faced - Arrivals
• I'm Sorry For Saying I'm Sorry - Arrivals
• I Got Bit - Arrivals
• Why You Talk All Shitty - Arrivals
• White Hero Type - Arrivals
• Drill Baby Drill - Arrivals
• Dar La Luz - Arrivals
• Two Years - Arrivals
• Toni-i-ight - Arrivals
• Dangerous - Arrivals
• Water Water Everywhere - Arrivals
• The Power Won't Be Staying On For Long - Arrivals
• The New Gold Standard - Arrivals
• The Last Testament - Arrivals
• The Dilemma - Arrivals
• Fat Of The Land - Arrivals
• Simple Pleasures In America - Arrivals
• Quiet American - Arrivals
• Pull Down The Willows - Arrivals
• Positively Wall Street - Arrivals
• Phyllis - Arrivals
• Frontline - Arrivals
• Envelope Song - Arrivals
• Company Of Salt - Arrivals
• Children's Crusade - Arrivals
• Born With A Broken Heart - Arrivals
• Blood Hits The Ground - Arrivals
• Blank Slate - Arrivals
• Ballad Of Lon Stokes - Arrivals
• Analee - Arrivals

Thinking back on Catholic school, the pleasure I'd avoid
Taught sex a precious treasure, not a thing to be enjoyed
I'm a fool and I'm a sinner
Oh, the dignity destroyed
It's amazing that I'm standing here at all
Now thinking of the parents who will misinform their kids
Raise them as consumers just to set them on the skids
Lie about a moral that with their generation fled
It's amazing that we're standing here at all
Now thinking of a government with a promise to be fair
A right for common people and a means to pay their share
When I look into the mirror, the promise isn't there
It's amazing that we're standing here at all
Now thinking of the memories and the music that we'll share
The twinkling of the starlight and the movement of the air
To know that we'll be dead someday and someone might have cared
It's amazing that we're standing here at all.

I don't want fancy chains
To dance
Bang
A bucket is fine
Humility seldom lies
It's a good sign
In these gang of four days
Tailored hair pays
Belt buckles we'll shine
Pictures, picture tubes set the minds
It's the industry line
Cheap's a word I learned in second grade
A daily dose, we're wrung from grain to grave
Bands and fans change
Rearrange frames
Find, exploit what you've found
"Man, they borrowed the New York sound
They're breaking new ground."
No, I don't want fancy chains
These old reins were driving just fine
I was born in a basement blaze
That's where I'll die trying
Good bands wake you
Feel with heart again
No one's saying play your part again
It's just a social role in fashion
Another rope hung from the brass ring
Don't; don't believe it; don't
No; they don't need you; no
I don't want fancy chains
To dance
Bang; a bucket is fine
Humility seldom lies
It's a good sign
I can sing by kerosene light
Bring on the whiskey and wine
I was born on an empty page

When I was nine years old I was singing and broke the Polish lamp
Thought maybe I should just run away
They'd never have to say 'Christ he could have been better than this.'
They'd never have to see my awful rotten face again
But someone caught me as I was heading for the door
And soon I was tangled in their arms
The shame shame
Shame shame shame
Shine everyday
Shine everyday
Shine everyday
There's no hope when you're dancing in a steady wind
I've crunched more toes than I can count
And just when you think that you might have crossed the worst of it
And just when you can't possibly do yourself in again
You're caught a bad way
You're feeling stupid and small
Or you're only feeling human again
Fuck break then mend away

i got knocked back
and i'd start to perspire
sunglasses black
so you can't see the fire
she put up the walls
so i pulled down the shades
then i got bit
but the joke's on you
i'd get so bored
so i'd start me a project
you were all but ignored
man, i got me a soul to protect
i saw the daily grind
from a steep incline
they wouldn't take my mind
no they couldn't waste my time
she wrote me a letter
so i'll come back with a number
i'll call it i got bit
and the joke's on you
i hope we all bounce back
if we're all so grounded
i hope you'll always go back
to where your spirit got pounded
i'll be there calling bullshit
i grabbed my back
then it put out the fire
sunglasses black
so you can't see the wire
she put up a fit
surrounded by my shit
oh honey, i got friends
so what the fuck are you?
i got friends

That botulism makes you pretty
Why you talk all shitty
I think I got a sun tan (at night)
On Western Avenue (that's right)
And if I see another predatory loan INSTITUTION
I'm gonna do what I have to do
And I know 'tox is all the rage
But those wrinkles show your age
Don't you know that makes you a liar
Though it stops the perspire
That botulism makes you pretty

Who are you to break when you've been the rock
It's a shock, alright
It seems to me you backed down
You backed down
You backed down
And you folded
You called yourself the big white hero type
With a gripe
Oh right
It seems to me you backed down
You backed down
You backed down
And you folded
We've got a way of weeding you out
We've got a way of bringing you down, way down
Where they'll never hear a sound
The egg on your face will crack through your hide
And you'll know

Back in the age of the natural air breathers
When oxygen was still almost free
Before chemical foods
And pharmaceutical moods
And there was chance
one could die of disease
They say the earth had a smell
And the sun it shone well
Stars broke the night’s field of black
There was no money in that
I heard once you could drink the rain
Straight as it fell from the sky
Without hair growing thin
Or irritation of skin
And redness and swelling of eyes
I heard once the plants could be eaten
Grown with the sun’s energy
Talk about luxury
Cease the day
I heard that once people were worried
About survival of species and such
They thought life won’t subsist
We’d cease to exist
When earth lost its natural touch
But the gang’s all here
To say hey ain’t it clear
We made it
The humans pulled through

Hello
This is my birthday song
Hello
This day I’ve been born
So Glad
To find I was wrong
Life’s more then a womb
I found my breath today
Untied
Eager to say
A wonderful fight
This breath I have made

We got two more solid years
Before the bottom drops out
and the slate has been wiped clear
The craft girls will make it through
They're gonna know just what to do
The Mayan phantoms spoke!
It just seems like that when even your old man's broke
You know he'll make it through
So how bout you?
Wrapped in a shroud that sucks out loud
What a shame
Waking up and rinsing off the night in acid rain
Again and again and again
We got two more years of bliss
Before we lose our legs in a final cleansing piss!
There's a book on what to do
And here comes part two
Through this precious joke
We'll laugh ourselves to sleep in clouds of smoke
And talk of what we knew
When it don't come true
Wrapped in a shroud that sucks out loud
What a shame
Waking up and rinsing off the night in acid rain
Again and again and again
Again and again and again

This ball is getting crowded and the stretch marks show
As the masses scatter trying to find a hole
I feel them tugging harder now
I'll just let go
It could be tonight
Come what may I'll have to take it at its face
I'll keep a huge reminder in a special place
There will be a day when I'll be laid to waste
It could be tonight
You can't save this world with your joie de vivre, babe
Tonight is the first and the last for me
While I sleep they gouge my necessities
And at a discount price they're selling hell to me
Once you kill the host, no more disease

Citizens
They want the fine print on your flag
It says:
You must wear one hat in service
And another that shows you're committed to serving
Repatriation
Won't evade you
You'll have to prove that you can take the beating
Oh my
It's getting dangerous
It's getting dangerous
They want to teach the kids
That there are traditions to defend
They'll see that old guillotine functions
Just fine on the spines of the counter cultures
Cleaner Christians
Polished buttons
All of us
We'll have to bleed each other
Oh my
It's getting dangerous
Fuck Child
It's getting dangerous
My Grandpa told me what they served him when young
In defense of the state
A fight for Shuri
Weeks, months covered in mud
A ride through China by freight
And does he speak of any glory in blood
A steadfast patriot's faith?
So pray to win
If you follow confident men
But know it was never about your own survival anyhow
Just the coin in the trousers of the people in power
And that won't help you
That won't help you

You said “The hardest time is when I’m alone”
Then you sighed a goodbye and hung up the telephone
And me in the noise with a glass half full of beer
I’d have to admit it was really quite nice
To be out with the people and lights
Then the band asked how we were doing tonight
Just at the point that I’d been feeling fine
Then they played an ordinary song
Outside it rained an ordinary rain
Then this guy tapped my shoulder, he said he liked our show
We sounded just like some band from a decade ago
And I smiled as he spoke, and I think I shook his hand
But I certainly don’t remember his name
For a moment I thought that the right thing to do
Would be to quick call you back, say, “I’m struck by loneliness too”
Though that sounds like an awful lie
When there’s scores of people around
So I ran to the drugstore
I bought a postcard instead
And I wrote these words beneath the letterhead
Love, we all do struggle with loneliness
Love, I am often very afraid
That the best times that we’ll have are somewhere in the past
And it’s all fool’s gold

I used to stand so firm with little give
Like a skyscraper, now I’m flash paper
I used to think I knew how we could live
But now everything’s a question
Sleight of hand and misdirection
Now I see, the forest for the trees
It’s timber falling down without a sound
Talk to your mother ‘cause the power won’t be staying on for long
I used to think that life was what it seemed
With our time stable, with our minds able
We digitized the beauty that we’ve dreamed
Now a generations’ history
Floats like ghosts in my periphery
Now I see, the forest for the trees
It’s timber falling down without a sound
Talk to your brother ‘cause the power won’t be staying on for long
Talk to your father ‘cause the power won’t be staying on for long
Talk to your mother ‘cause the power won’t be staying on for long
Talk to your sister ‘cause the power won’t be staying on for long
Talk to your mother ‘cause the power won’t be staying on for long
Talk to your brother ‘cause the power won’t be staying on for long
Talk to your neighbor ‘cause the power won’t be staying on for long

Is the party nearly over? Wonder who stole the bread
Like a beggar on the corner with a price on his head
Does it get worse than people thinking that you’re already dead?
And I feel
Bought at a distance
Cut in the shade
Son, don’t learn to write a song, it’s just a modern disgrace
When some can write an algorithm matching music to taste
It’s a culture coliseum putting art in its place
And I feel
Born at a distance
Wrought in the shade
Maybe Kafka was right
You’ll be found dead where you’re standing
The hunger artist’s life is just too demanding
As they all line-up to hear the new gold standard
The weak and injured will be last on the train
In fact, we’ll leave them all behind and keep more money that way
As they all line-up to hear the new gold standard
The prince dressed as a pauper - Oldest trick in the book
The good will work for nothing so the rest must be crooks
No one’s got a conscience, kids, quick, go take a look
And I feel
Bought at a distance
Cut in the shade
Gather boys and girls, you’ll want to catch the next show
It costs, well, almost nothing, except for checking your coat
Four gentlemen will synchronize the slit of their throats
And I feel
Bought at a distance
Cut in the shade
Maybe Kafka was right
You’ll be found dead where you’re standing
The hunger artist’s life is just too demanding
As they all line-up to hear the new gold standard
The weak and injured will be last on the train
In fact, we’ll leave them all behind and keep more money that way
As they all line-up to hear the new gold standard
It’s absurd
It’s uncaring
It’s at its worst when the public is staring
See ‘em all line up to hear the new gold standard
No goals
No innovating
Just one sound: and it’s the bleating of mating

You may wait until the end to know your story
You may find this final trip quite mundane and boring
You can wait until the end for any celebration
Of the short life that you’ll live
Or the good that will endure
You may wait until the end to ask what love’s for
Hold out to the end in hope of some great encore
You may wait until the end
It won’t be long
You may anticipate the end with great devotion
You may worship and defend a source to every motion
You may bargain and pretend that all the little favors
Will be worth the trouble then
And promise something more
You may wait until the end to count your blessings
Hope until the end that the work was worth investing
You may wait until the end
But then you’re gone
You may plot right to the end with careful measure
Grasp tight to the end, preserving all your treasure
You may curse at what you’ve had to do
Regret what you’ve been missing
Be bound to what you’ve done
And ask for nothing more
You may wait until the end to say you were mistaken
Hate right to the end to accept the path you’ve taken
You may wait until the end

I can hardly believe, is that you there in the picture?
Well, that’s your tattoo ‘cause I see it right there on your arm
Was it the same when you were my age?
Was it a great ride, living through a golden age?
Well, some only knew looking through the wrong side of the window
Some ruled the world while others were handed a gun
Some of them planted in fields with no rain
Some of them toiled in schools just to fight to take a factory wage
The problem of women and men
Is they have to keep food in their jaws
But while swallowing most must pretend
They haven’t helped another block up the wall
[x2]
When I left our home it was done with great trepidation
But so I was told I could do more if I earned a degree
So with a great deal of work for low pay
I earned a place in a powerful and grand machine
Have you ever grown tired? Have you ever felt keen on resistance?
Have you plenty to eat, but you still thought enough is enough?
It was the same when I was your age
It was the same there living in a golden age
The problem of women and men
Is they have to keep food in their jaws
But while swallowing most must pretend
They haven’t helped another block up the wall
[x3]
Have you ever had the sinking sense
Of wanting less than you’ll need?
The problem of women and men
Is they have to keep food in their jaws
But while swallowing most must pretend
They haven’t helped another block up the wall

I add it up
I count it out
Consider all the figures
To realize that I've been cheated
I've seen their clothes
I've seen their cars
I've stepped in park-side mansions
Enough to know I've been mistreated
But then I take the bus from Cullerton to 95th Street
I take my daughter to their parks
I take the medicine the state provides for healthy workmen
Better on their stamps than in their cart
Did I smell anger, anger
Don't let it be my undertaker
No, thank them, thank them, for keeping me alive
They're welcome to their dollar
They'll have their cake and we'll have ours as we drink on their dime
I walk among the glass steel towers
I borrow books and records
I glean the excess entertainment
And though I'm fine to pay for mine, not if it keeps my hands bound
I'm all for work, just not containment
I'll praise a god who gives a dirty hand a worthy living
I'll praise a mother who feeds her child
I'll thank my lucky stars the rich will waste what they're not giving
Then gladly take what's rightly ours
Did I smell anger, anger,
Don't let it be my undertaker
No, thank them, thank them, for keeping me alive
They're welcome to their dollar
They'll have their cake and we'll have ours as we drink on their dime
Did I smell anger?

A friend came up to me
And she said “Why’s it always gotta be
Just a sad sad song,
Someone’s falling apart,
It’s always not enough money and too much heart.”
And right away I could see
That’s sometimes how it seemed
And I don’t wanna be a bitch
And I don’t wanna just hate on rich folks
Though that’s
Kind of how we have our fun
Still just for her
This is a positive one
[Isaac]
I like the bill of rights and I like to ride my bicycle
And everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
Yeah everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
[Dave]
I like to go that extra mile to turn your frown into a smile
And everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
Yeah everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
[Paddy]
I enjoy speaking my mind
And blaring records late at night
And everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
Yeah everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
[Ronnie]
I just wanna drink some whiskey
And hang with good company
And everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
Yeah everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
For the rest of our lives
We’ll probably work for someone else
So for tonight
We are
HAVING
PARTY
Here’s to Montrose beach and Chicago public library
And everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
Yeah everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
I like not having to worry about rationed electricity
And everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
Yeah everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
And access to uncensored news, cheap booze, OH AMERICA!
And everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
Yeah everybody get’s their little piece of the pie
Simple pleasures in
Simple pleasures in America
Simple pleasures

Bullets chase down colored feet
This is where the red rain flows free
The children
Wild
They chew concrete
Trying to feed a false dream
But on the street where the new fruit sours
They sell solace by the hour
Just lay me down
Alice is coming
Now I'll finally get some sleep
Alice is coming
Alice is coming
Bringing medicine for me
Alice is coming
The gods must love this smoggy air
Hiding all us ugly orphans
The parents, brave, who shipped us here
While opening up our coffins
Now it's kill to stay alive
While they sell honey out of the hive
I can't go back
Alice is coming
Now I'll finally get some sleep
Alice is coming
Alice is coming
Bringing medicine for me
Alice is coming
Dear sirs, to those concerned, must
Please send us back to Europe
There's nothing here to cure us
We smoke
While smoke rolls down
Alice is coming
Now I'll finally get some sleep
Alice is coming
Alice is coming
Bringing medicine for me

I wish I could cut that rot out of you
Your crimson face a-falling
Then that’s what I’ll do
I’d turn these ships ashore
Just so I could give you more
And I ain’t captain of this crew
But that’s what I’ll do
Pull down the willows!
There ain’t no weeping in this home
Unless I’m sitting here alone
I’m Pavlov’s dog
Every time that you cough
And my aim’s so simply true
That’s what I do
Here I come, ripped and shot
Give you all that I’m not
And I’ll save you from this zoo
That’s what I’ll do
Pull down the willows!
There ain’t no weeping in this home
Unless I’m sitting here alone

Let me tell you about the beast boys make
Can you see your fate?
What’s the devil man who could stop this hot disgrace?
‘Cause I don’t wanna
She don’t wanna
He don’t wanna see your face
Pop your head up from its grim dark base
Enough to plead your case
Launch a satellite, bounce the message back to space
‘Cause I don’t wanna
He don’t wanna
She don’t wanna leave a trace
Why? - Coulda got the whole thing right but you’re so wrong
Why? - Would we make you so damn strong?
Don’t wanna hear about the status quo
Sad I need to know
Sick of lies, where’s the prize when it’s all for show?
I don’t wanna
He don’t wanna
She don’t wanna let it go
Let me tell you about the beast boys make
Look into my face
We’ll chop your tower down, we can lay it all to waste
I don’t wanna
She don’t wanna
We don’t wanna be replaced
Why? - Coulda got the whole thing right but you’re so wrong
Why? - Would we make you so damn strong?

Phyllis before you were dead
I'd hoped you'd see some thread tightly connecting it all
The cosmos unfold
Is there light? Does it shine brightly?
Forming a beacon, exposing hope for us now?
You said: Nitsa's a beautiful girl
Hooray for the living
Boo that my back is so sore
Curse when I'm gone
If there's a light, not in gravestones
Go start a fire
Quickly, go burn what you find
Phyllis before you were dead
You mumbled and sputtered
Exploding a body for us
Ancient indeed
Shake the dead
Shake the dead
Wake them and tell them

They lined up all us school boys
And they asked for volunteers
And when no one don’t say nothing
They said: YOU!
And they handed me a rifle
And they called me infantry
And they put me on the front line
Yeah, they put me on the front line
Hey, dead boys
We’re the motherless bastard sons
To the life not worth a match stick
Waste of oxygen
Say, dead boys
So your prospects are almost none
Well, they still might teach you something
Yeah, I’m sure they’ll teach you something
To the bosses and teachers who won’t know my name
Now there’s a monument where it’s engraved
A parade
To celebrate the brave
And everybody came
Well, they kept me full of cocaine
And they taught me how to fuck
And they made me feel like I’d fear almost nothing
And we killed all through the daytime
And we killed them in the night
And they put me on the front line
Yeah, they put me on the front line
Hey, dead boys
We’re the motherless bastard sons
To the life not worth a match stick
Waste of oxygen
Say, dead boys
So you prospects are almost none
Well, they still might teach you something
Yeah, I’m sure they’ll teach you something
And here’s to the parents who won’t know my name
Now there’s a monument where it’s engraved
A parade
To celebrate the brave
And everybody came
To the senators’ daughters who won’t know my name
Now there’s a monument where it’s engraved
A parade
To celebrate the brave

I wrote this note on an envelope
A due date from long ago
It said
“Don’t be scared, just do your thing”
Then it tugged at my shirt till cracked white letters filled my chest
Yet, no one near my favorite stool left the house depressed
I think if I keep my routine
And play for the team
I’ll make animal

In the company of salt
There was a burning in his arm
He said "I'll kick it anytime."
Like a shot
His final warning
And though the tissue remained unharmed
Somewhere, a hole, it was forming
In the company of salt
In the company of salt
Between the golden hours
No more waiting for the call
A colony of veins
Squarely bared the assault
And though the candle's not worth the game
He'd solve this mystery somehow
In the company of salt
The company of salt
At seventeen years old
There's no fast track to salvation
For a kid that's filled with holes
There's no special rights
And though society's not to blame
Really, could we have saved him?
In the company of salt
The company of salt
For some it's just another taste
Unfolding in some time to waste
It surely missed them
For him it seems a sullen pride
Unfolding every time he lied
To friends dismissing:
"We weren't the ones
To put the gone in his hand."
And now there's no one here
Who wants to kiss him
No one here will really miss him
In the company of salt
The company of salt

The men and their mysteries do promise a proud grave
The gods to preserve
The bounty of souls to save
Telling kids this life, it’s not important
Telling them this life, it’s not important
Saying “Boy your life, it’s not important”
So he will carry their bomb
A novel idea:
There’s a market for life, say
And young men will die in proportion to what we’ll pay
So we wait for the golden time
Yes we wait for the perfect time
To spread a great lie
Rewards of holy kinds
Telling them this life, it’s not important
Telling them this life, it’s not important
Telling them this life, it’s not important
Telling them this life, it’s not important
Telling them this life, it’s not important

Just let me slip inside this cherry wine
So we can talk about those done-me-wrongs
I was born with a broken heart
Help me understand
Put me on my knees
Please, darling cut me with your diamond tongue
So I can lick the wounds of sacrifice
I was born with a broken heart
Help me understand
I miss the wanting in your evil eyes
I’ve been done
There’s been no smiling in these lonely thighs
I’ve been alone
You can touch me
Anytime at all

Now through the grades
The state paid aides when they were done with me
A tailored mind
The kind resembling fine machinery
The heels click ten times a day
He'll process seven days a week
Assign a tax ID and set him on his feet
Now obligations have your hold
We have those roles we must fill constantly
His star's on the rise
We'll plan the burial in his factory
That's when the blood hits the ground
I read a book
It had a plot about a government
That met untimely ends and left folks to fend their own
We did not drown
We did not starve
To our surprise
We did not carve ourselves into ranks
of task-fulfilled damned expedients
Not a paradise for all
But better than the promise laid to me:
Pot to piss in
And a national prosperity

Moderation is a lucky friend
Out of trouble, straightened lines
Clean your teeth and get to bed on time
Can’t recall why I’ve been so afraid
Of the dim and quiet life
Head in the clouds and both feet in my grave
Bang, bang goes the little clock again
It will want you always
Troubles, troubles
One can’t comprehend
Why every game you play is rigged
Did young John Mellor ever lose a day?
Found himself in bed and like a car crash wonder how he’s walked away?
I declare the past the enemy
Things much better left unsaid
Are dead and gone and they can’t bother me
Bang, bang goes the little clock again
It’ll haunt you always
Co-conspirators and sordid friends
Have we another round to give?
Precious rites
Hapless call
Lost in the magic of it all
Know this feeling, feeling on the mend
Know the promise, know the lie
Know the fall and never question why
Light a candle to that solemn saint
Patron of the turning leaf
On and on and on forever
Bang, bang, bang goes the little clock again
It’ll haunt you always
World of wonder one can’t comprehend
Why every game you play is rigged
Precious rites
Hapless call
Lost in the mystery of it all

I've surrounded myself with bastardized logos
They help me get to sleep
I've been searching the horizons for the scapes I find dearest
And I think it makes me weak
Over time, I've realized
That the comforts I most prized
Will all clean my bones
And circle like flies
Now I'm feeding myself away from the table
And I don't care if we speak
I've gotten a bit nervous about paying lip service
But I'm sure that you won't weep
Over time, I've realized
That the comforts I most prized
Will all clean my bones

I can still remember without pretty face
The girls you thought were laughing behind you
Analee you’ve nothing to prove to yourself
Better off to do what you know than to live in their hell
A girl of sixteen should find some looser jeans
Don’t tell me this is teenage survival
Analee believe me things look better with time
This is not the healthiest way for these bounds to be tried
I thought I heard you messing around
Are you laying down Now he’s leaving proud
And you’re a bloody wreck, girl
This hurt
I can see
Okay
We don’t have to say the word regret
Analee there’s no time till these memories fade
Never any reason to lie in the bed that’s been made
Analee
You disappoint me
With your men
We’ll find a better one
I can still remember with a pretty face
And your smile
Analee you’ve nothing to prove to yourself