1. |
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Blood thirsty
Dust danced around the room
Light came exploding in
We smashed every window in that abandoned house
Before we rode our bikes down to Dylan’s mom’s
She was just a girl when I met your sister
But now she’s breaking up weed with her toenail clippers
She rubs my leg as she talks a big game
About moving to myrtle beach and opening up an arcade
Behind that old bait shop
There’s an old gravel parking lot
Where we used to smash bottles when we were young and bored
But I don’t satisfy that impulse anymore
We were riding our skateboards down jailhouse hill
Speed wobbles and hoping for the best
We loved doing things that could get us killed
Brett:
We were sitting on a filthy fucking mattress
In the sticks of jersey or was it PA?
With extraterrestrials smoking orange crystals
Taking pills with funny stamps we got from a native in Montreal.
We were driving old vans
Across the greater USA
Singing sad songs that we wrote on better days
Taking drugs that got some of us killed
We were to fucking young
To have gotten so deep digging our own fucking graves
But when pain becomes your muse
Well masochism becomes the surest way
Me:
With a blown out tire at the break of dawn
I was doing donuts on the Griffith observatory lawn
Security was coming so I turned around and gunned it
Shooting sparks as I rode away
Speeding through the hills
Somewhere I ditched the car
I hopped fence after fence
Running through rich people’s yards
I scaled that dusty mountain to the Hollywood sign
Spray painted both of our initials in a heart
120 mph down some dirty Texas road
My reality began warp
The further we got from home
From picking fights with total strangers on the train
To getting excited when we start to hydroplane
I think there’s something deeply wrong inside my brain
I get a little bit of pleasure from the pain
Hooked on adrenaline
And a repetitive use of sedatives
I don’t mean to make you worried
But I’m blood thirsty
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||||
2. |
|
|||
Bad idea after bad idea
That’s how I got myself here
I’ve been unemployable for all these years
It’s enough to make a man get weird
One more beer - it’s always “one more beer”
After a dozen, you best steer clear
I’ve been writing all these songs that bring me to tears
It’s enough to make a man get weird
I took a little walk to the liquor store
Told an old man there with a beard
empty out the drawer he said I’m fresh out of dough.
It’s enough to make a man get weird
Bad idea after bad idea
That’s how I got myself here
I’ve been unemployable for all these years
It’s enough to make a man get weird
Out the door and on the street
Everybody’s still living in fear
I guess we’ll pop some pills and drink ourselves to sleep
It’s enough to make a man get weird
Walking through a parking lot
Keying cars as I walk alone
there aint no reason for my actions
I’m just causing putre destruction
I’m just bored and a little drunk
I’ve always had this problem since I was a kid
No thought for consequences for the things that I did
They locked me up more than once
when I went mental for that whole month
I was bored and a little drunk
Bad idea after bad idea
That’s how I got myself here
I’ve been unemployable for all these years
It’s enough to make a man get weird
James Steinle:
This is bad this is bad this is bad this is bad
I’m kinda sorta thinking what I did it makes me glad
Yeah it makes me sad
But I guess I just don’t care
That’s the reason that I’m here
And that’s the reason that we’re there
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3. |
She Framed Roger Rabbit
03:02
|
|
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Man I’ve been everywhere
I was born in Florida
Went up through Georgia
Up towards North Carolina
I stayed there for a while
When I got bored I headed out to LA
Looking for gold
They brought me to a head doctor
Said I had a screw loose
There ain’t a man on earth that’d do the things that you do
Well I seen ghosts all my life
But every time I swung at one
It was just bedsheets and lights
Flipping rocks - hopping fences
Been looking for something but been coming up with nothing
If I’m addicted we’ll, guess I’m addicted to loving
I just wanted to do something someone hadn’t
So I burned down houses just to peak in attics
They called me a cowboy then they called me a savage
Then they locked me up once I start causing all that damage
I was driving fast as hell when I hit Wile E. Coyote
Right about then they diagnosed me as a rabid addict
Said whatever he had, that I had had it
So I cut off his tail, sewed it to a hat, and used his stomach as a welcome mat
And once I had it up to here
Well, I’d always fucking had it
If you walk my way or you speak to me
Well, I’ll be laughing
Hollering ha ha ha god damn it
That woman, she framed Roger Rabbit
She’s got a mean right hook but she ain’t underhanded
And she knows I’m true because I’m always candid
But it’s hard to trust a man that’s broke and branded
When he wakes up where Marvin the Martian landed
If you walk my way or you speak to me
Well, I’ll be laughing
Hollering ha ha ha god damn it
That woman, she framed Roger Rabbit
I laid traps with rope - dropping anvils
When she looked my way, I’d stutter and stammer
She might hate my stunts, but she loves my banter
Cause she stuck around when I wrecked that town and I smashed my head with that rubber hammer
If you walk my way or you speak to me
Well, I’ll be laughing
Hollering ha ha ha god damn it
That woman, she framed Roger Rabbit
With a single look and a mean right hook
She had me shook then she had me laughing
That woman, she framed Roger Rabbit
|
||||
4. |
||||
There's this woman that lives with me
she leaves her lights on night and day
when I peak in, she's deep in thought
and far away
building worlds inside her mind
she is stoned most of the time
but God damn,
that gal can paint
building narratives I couldn't think up if I tried
Making references to artists she admires
She believes that art is something sacred to hold dear
that woman, painting the world on fire, over there
Her food is no good she don't do math
but she works hard and she hones her craft
making everyone around her
look like hacks
she's got an astounding intuition
for conflict and composition
if she aint in every major modern art museum by
the time she dies, the world has gone mad
She paints through the day
she paints through the night
that woman has eternity
in her sights
She believes that art is something sacred to hold dear
that woman, painting the world on fire, over there
She believes that art is something sacred to hold dear
that woman is making history while I'm drinking beer
|
||||
5. |
||||
It's a sorry sight, an empty lake
no fish no boats no summer break
not a thing to do but sit and wait
for an act of god or a drop of rain
when an empty hole thinks it's a lake
I walked back and fourth through an open door
I gave you everything you wanted and a whole lot more
but putting up with me became a chore
when you found rock bottom was below the floor
hate to say it darlin, but you alway's were a fucking bore
Yeah I know that I
kick around my feelings when I'm feeling down
I paint em then I scream em real quick real loud
so what if they get me into trouble
because when I'm in a pinch they get me out
Seems like everyone I meet has some spiritual advice
being one with the universe, well, it must be nice
but I'd rather grapple demons and lose the fight
then play tricks on myself to get through life
Evil Black:
You've been left out in the cold
wrapped up in your superstitions
you don't know what you've been missing
if you were there, you'd know
life is much more sweet in person
except for those that you've been hurting
Buried right up to your lips in mud and shit
you couldn't even tell me what the difference is
your money earned is money spent
a few more years of recompense
and you might start to put a dent
in every check your mouth has written
after that I say good riddance
cause I can't see what I'm not shown
But you can't preach what you don't know
When I went right
you said no
when I got high
well you got low
if it ever made sense
well it don't no more
when you said stay
well I had to go
When you sat tight
I hit the open road
drove through the night
then I put it in a song
if it ever made sense
well it don't no more
when you said stay
well I had to go
|
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6. |
|
|||
There ain’t nothing left for me in Los Feliz now
I burnt every bridge I crossed on that side of town
So I’m packing up my things and I’m Atwater bound
Nothing left for me in Los Feliz now
I used to dream of piles of gold
I guess there’s some nights that I still do
But it ain’t half bad - writing songs and making art
Right here beside you
I guess I’m still writing songs and I’m still making art
A couple years have past since I totaled that car
Had my ducks all in a row, now they’re falling apart
But I’m still writing songs and I’m still making art
I used to dream of piles of gold
I guess there’s some nights that I still do
But it ain’t half bad - writing songs and making art
Right here beside you
Everywhere I walk I trip or stumble
Every word I speak I slur or mumble
Getting drunk off my ass on cheap wine
It’s the Atwater Village Shuffle
I used to dream of piles of gold
I guess there’s some nights that I still do
But it ain’t half bad - writing songs and making art
Right here beside you
|
||||
7. |
|
|||
Man, you’re dumb as hell, but i love you till the end
Breaking the terms of your probation again and again
Jumping that truck into the ocean
A local legend for sure
You were at times a tragic figure
A loaded gun with a hairpin trigger
Born trash, always gonna be trash
You can’t have a future because you’re caught up in your past
Born trash, always gonna be trash
I used to have high hopes
The ones I had a slipping fast
Brett:
Some luck you make but that’s some luck you had
The junk was good the fentanyl was all bad
The ones inside watching the world burn out
Won’t shake your hands - afraid to get germs on them
It’s crazy how quick shit gets normalized
One day you’re burying your friend
the next you’re fearing for your life
You were at times a tragic figure
Your band got big, but your habit got bigger
Born trash, always gonna be trash
You can’t have a future because you’re caught up in your past
Born trash, always gonna be trash
I used to have high hopes
The ones I had a slipping fast
Me:
King of the world
Top of my game
That’s how I felt
There’s something deeply wrong with my brain
Big plans gone up in smoke
I started pawning off everything that I own
Watching momma hold back tears as she learned
Her son was a criminal
I was at times a tragic figure
A loaded gun with a hairpin trigger
Born trash, always gonna be trash
You can’t have a future because you’re caught up in your past
Born trash, always gonna be trash
I used to have high hopes
The ones I had a slipping fast
|
||||
8. |
Rotten Luck
02:26
|
|
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Rotten luck
You said living like that would only get me in trouble
I tried to be a gentleman, but I can’t get my mind out the gutter
I’m lowdown and broke if you know what I mean
I was reduced to stealing gasoline
I ain’t getting in fights with strangers on public transportation anymore
I ain’t passing out blackout drunk on the bathroom floor
I guess I finally got my act together got my ducks in a row
Now let’s watch them all fall apart - that’s the way that it goes
We been smoking bowl after bowl
Watch the tube while we’re getting stoned
There ain’t nothing going on in my life right now, I know
I spent everything I had on a game of chance
Now I’m sitting here on this curb with my head in my hands
Grew up dumb and oblivious
To all the trouble that is always seem to end up in
And I don’t want to go to jail I just want to make a buck
Have you ever seen a criminal with such rotten luck
I might miss a lyric I might miss a beat
But there ain’t a man alive that can talk like me
I got a mouth full of rotten stories right behind my teeth
I see you crossing to the other side when I’m walking down the street
|
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9. |
Crime Spree
03:04
|
|
||
Here we go again
The drugs are finally kicking in
I was catching a buzz
Now I’m borderline belligerent
Stealing statues from my neighbors yard
Spray paint both of our initials in a heart
Kicking mirrors off as I pass by cars
And I’m so sorry baby
But I’m on a crime spree
You’ll have to forgive me
For living so recklessly
She was tough as nails
She had daggers in her eyes
Yeah, she was around
And I was killing time
I heard she’s down in Texas
Bending neon signs
She was once a love of mine
Here we go again
My life is just a long weekend
I tried my best, but it don’t amount to dog shit in the end
I ain’t afraid of death
I guess that’s how I got this far
Man, why’d you have to go and steal such a beat up car?
And I’m so sorry baby
But I’m on a crime spree
You’ll have to forgive me
For living so recklessly
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10. |
|
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Stumbling down the street
It’s barely afternoon
But I’m Black our drunk
On fountain avenue
It’s a swing and a miss
That’s how it always goes
What’s a guy gotta do round here
To get stoned?
We just got started it’s the end of the line
It was short but sweet it was a hell of a ride
You’re here for a second
Then you die
Writing songs and making art
That’s how I choose to spend my time
The streets are paved with gold
And lined with mansions
When No one’s looking this whole city dances
The palm trees sway - it’s a big parade
Moving and shaking in LA
And I fell for it like a child
Those neon lights will drive you wild
Writing songs and making art
That’s how I choose to spend my time
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11. |
Going Wrong
02:19
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|
||
Not a whole lot going on
Everything that is, has been going wrong
You say that I’m a bad seed
Little old me
I’m playing solitaire while I watch tv
I’m losing every game I play and it’s fine by me
Well I’d hate to bother you, but I’m in town again
And I can’t remember where we buried those necklaces
“It’s been a while, how ya been?”
If we could skip the small talk I just need to know where to dig
So tell me where they is. I’m in a pinch
I got a key to that old motel across from the beach
That should keep me out of trouble for at least a week
Man, I ain’t never got nothing done when I wasn’t in a rush
Seems like half of these metaphors don’t hold up when I’m not on drugs
Now it feels like I lost my touch or I’m running low on luck
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12. |
||||
You said ambition would bring me harm
I guess that's twice now I broke my arm
You watched me beat myself to death
then I put it in a song
Benny aint the same since he left the joint
Susan wants to start an art space in Detroit
They won't shut up about the politics of art
man, them fuckers lost the point
You can take it you can leave it
I spend most my time daydreaming
call it a colossal waste of time
but that aint the way I see it
Fiddling with words
Pushing paint around
nothing else matters
when I'm getting the new one down
Sofia Wolfson:
You said you're thinking of moving west
your bedroom makes you feel on house arrest
can't help but feel it's so ironic
because you always hate it here
Maybe Benny will come around
then all of us can find some common ground
everyone will sign my cast
these shallow wounds gotta heal
You can take it you can leave it
I spend most my time daydreaming
call it a colossal waste of time
but that aint the way I see it
Fiddling with words
Pushing paint around
nothing else matters
when I'm getting the new one down
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13. |
Lazy
02:44
|
|
||
Lazy
Well, don’t count on me now, baby
I don’t know how I got so lazy
I ain’t worked a job in seven years
Sold that necklace to the cash for gold
Owned off every other thing I owned
Sting together a couple pretty words
Then I carve them in stone
And I could probably mellow out for a little bit
If I wasn’t always hopped up on Ritalin
Always looking for a fix time to take another hit
Just something to get me through another boring magic trick
We drank beer and we watched the waves
We talked about the worst case taking place
And all the hoops I’d have to jump through to save face
We walked a block then another block
Hit a shady bar then another bar
While we walked we smoked cheap cigars and I listened to you talk
About the boys that you had left
And the way that you treated them
How you wanted to be a dancer
But ya ain’t got the right feet for it
I went looking for experience
So I moved around
But the novelty always wore off
And it brought me down
I went looking for money
And that’s what I found
I got everything I ever wanted
And I’m still let down
|
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14. |
|
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So I found myself in a parking lot
Lying my ass off to a swarm of cops
While my buddies destroyed some evidence that would land us in jail
In that river behind john’s house
Seems like every game I’ve played I’ve lost
I’m still thinking the same old thoughts I think when I was 17 in that Carolina town
Seems like everything’s a swing and a miss
Well, ever since I was a kid it feels like I could never grasp the trouble I was in
I was never the bright one
Can’t accuse me of that
But I got good at fighting
And talking out my ass
But I’m making paintings of the devil again
What an awful shape that I’m in
Oh the Devil cant stop laughing
At all the things that happen to me
Got a whole world in my head
Got my woman in my bed
And I don’t know how it happened
But I got love for both of them
And if you’re cool with that
We can waste away for months
Or we could just chill out
We could do what you want
Oh the Devil cant stop laughing
At all the things that happen to me
Wrong time wrong place
That’s where I always happen to be
|
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15. |
||||
Seems like the rent is always due
I can't hold onto any cash
wish I was huffing exhaust
praying my next breath would be my last
I couldn't get it to work out
always seem to let you down
but it sounds a lot worse
when you say it out loud
Darlin, I was a train wreck
way back when we first met
that's true
but I've gotten a lot quicker
a lot more put together
since I met you
She said I'm a bad apple
that I'm spoiled rotten
that I'll get what's coming to me
You can be careful as you cross the street
but these things happen in threes
there's this girl that I dream of from long ago
that I hardly ever knew
I put her up on a pedestal
then she broke my heart in two
You can take me to hell in a hand basket
I won't complain even a little bit
it's so insane
watching the debt get paid
I got one foot on a banana peel
I got the other in the grave
I got one foot on a banana peel
I got the other in the grave
|
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16. |
|
|||
You can keep it up, but don’t slow it down
What happened to the kid that always used to hang around
I heard they broke his legs because he was counting cards
I can’t recognize a single person in this bar
I tried my best, but I still fell short
I fall off the wagon every time I get bored
They say the best revenge is living well
But everywhere I go, it’s just a living hell
You were a lot more fun before that car wreck
And I try to understand because I know you can’t help it
Feel real bad about all you’ve been going through
But everything is different and I know that you know it, dude
I lost my mind about a year ago
I thought the FBI was talking through my telephone
You’re hard to understand when you’re talking fast
You try your best, but you always seem to come in last
The things I couldn’t say, well, they were written on my face
But how’d you ever know when you’re a million miles away
You don’t call my phone when you’re in LA
I ain’t qualified to do almost anything at all because I never finished school
And I could never hold a job
You don’t call my phone when you’re in LA
I used to tune it out, but now it’s keeping pace
There are parts of town where I still can’t show my face
I spent all I had, just getting drunk or stoned
I ain’t got nothing left to sell to the cash for gold
The things I couldn’t say, well, they were written on my face
But how’d you ever know when you’re a million miles away
You don’t call my phone when you’re in LA
I ain’t qualified to do almost anything at all because I never finished school
And I could never hold a job
You don’t call my phone when you’re in LA
|
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17. |
Big Rock Candy Mountains
01:55
|
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18. |
LAX Vs. Route 66
03:49
|
|
||
The streets are paved with gold and lined with mansions
When no one’s looking this whole city dances
The best of it was built with brick and romance, slight of hand, and second chances
The pictures look as good as the theaters
They play em back to back as double features
Well, hard work hold up and cutting corner don’t
I don’t know who built the pyramids, but I know who won’t
All the bars in this town go on for days
While the drunks inside go on in the same way
Woulda shoulda coulda shared the same name
Because no one’s got a bone to pick with fourth place
The real killers, well, they hide in the hills
When they see perfect symmetry, they fire at will
It ain’t hard to make it look easy
When you’re only picking limbs off of daffodils
If it looks good, but it don’t look evenly
Well, it was probably made by boring people
If I wasn’t dead serious about this love
Well, it’s cost a lot less if we just lost touch
If the money wasn’t passed down to some dumb fuck
Well, it was stolen by a broke one who knows what’s what
If I’m going to hell in a hand basket and all I see is trash, this shit ain’t built to last
Well, in the same spot a whisper gets real loud
A license to kill is given out
The roughest and dumbest are born into thought
So an eagerness to do it, well, it can’t be bought
They’re full of love for life in the middle
Fourth fret, third string, second fiddle
But if it can’t be sold and it can’t be bought, they’re all cold and broke at the bottom and the top
Every waitress on the road back home has a dream, a couple kids, and a song to sing
There ain’t a trucker in this country that cares where he’s headed, they’ve always been running from the same damn thing
And it’s far from easy looking into hearts so broke and eyes so tired
Clothes so tattered and brains hard wired
But I put my faith in the defeated, honest woman
And I put every single cent that I still got to my name on that delusional rambling liar
So if the clouds are really bullet proof
Then let the rest be cleansed with fire
If you’re really gonna bother pushing that rock back up that mountain, you better do it with style
If you drive until you’re tired
All you’re gonna find
Is a whole lot of nothing
Protected by a thin barbed wire
So take your time
Don’t cross that line
Because if you do
You’ll lose your mind
|
||||
19. |
Pretty Pictures
00:52
|
|
||
Well, I wasn’t good at nothing for a long long while
But I could draw a pretty picture pretty quick
Yeah, I sold the ones I made I guess a couple got me laid
But I could never figure out what they all meant
Well, it’s painfully weird
To put your heart into something
And have it come out all wrong
You’d be better off with nothing
But when it hits, well, it hits hard
There ain’t nothing in this world like making art
|
||||
20. |
||||
Well, I wasn't no good since I was a kid
I got in heaps of trouble for the things I did
I put both my parents through hell
Well, I've gotten worse at guitar since I moved out here
you can blame it on the weed or the drinking beer
but I never needed much to get the job done
I play these three simple chords
I've done it for years and years and years and still aint bored
I sing some awful honest words
but I'd be mortified if you ever heard
I got this buddy
his name is Mason
He takes the songs I write
and he makes them halfway decent
He's the best session player
this side of WEHO
He uses Gumby playing guitar
as his alter EGO
I play these three simple chords
I've done it for years and years and years and still aint bored
I sing some awful honest words
Then Mason plays guitar and makes it work
|
||||
21. |
||||
Man, you aint no fun to drink with
since you started making art
There was a time that I'd dispute that claim
then I crashed my car
Those manic episodes
well, they landed me in jail
I got sober for a year
then I started drinking beer
then it's back to my old ways
Man, I aint no good
there's some truth to that
look it up in a book
you'll find my ugly mug
just looking back
Man, the songs don't rhyme
when I aint smoking grass
so if I buy a dime to write a couple lines
you can kiss my ass
I came here looking for glory
now I'm looking for a fix
there was a time that is was clear as day
but now I don't know the difference
|
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