Listed chronologically
The Metroschifter Capsule (1994)
Slamdek #37
1 Overlap
Shamelessly, I stare into the sun
until blindness takes me under its wing.
I fall, I hurt, I realize what I’ve done.
I distort you, I deny you.
Pretend that you’re wrong.
I’m not crying, I’m not leaving.
Looking at pictures makes me turn over inside.
Sweeping. Watch me do the work.
I realize what I’ve done.
Distort you, deny you, I let you go
2 Marker (lyrics in quotes from “Understand Your Man” by J.R. Cash)
“Don’t call my name out your window, I’m leaving.
I won’t even turn my head.
Don’t send your kinfolk to give me no talking.
I’ll be gone like I said.
You’d just say the same things that you’ve been saying all along.
Lay there in your bed and keep your mouth shut until I’m gone.
Don’t give me that old familiar cry and cuss and moan.
Understand your man.”
I’ve chewed the hand that feeds down to the bone
If you think my mind is just a game, it’s time to play.
Playing link, you got hit in the shin,
I was looking where I shouldn’t look.
My busy eyes are tired.
So what’s wrong with me?
Or does any of this surprise you?
“You can give my other suit to the Salvation Army
and anything else I leave behind.
I ain’t taking nothing that’ll slow down my traveling
while I’m untalgling my mind.
I ain’t gonna repeat what I said anymore,
while I’m breathing air that ain’t been breathed before.
I’ll be as gone as a wild goose in winter.
Then you’ll understand your man.”
My mind’s your marker.
3 Flat (instrumental)
4-a Drive
Who gives a shit what makes the flowers grow?
Every time I come here I feel like this every time.
I can think about you two all I want to.
Do you not think I know where you’ve been?
This song is for everyone else
who knows what it’s like to be held in your arms,
who knows there’s nothing special where there’s nothing new.
There’s no time quite like the time to give up.
I lied when I said the sun shines.
I feel something for you, but I don’t know what it is.
So many times I believed what you said,
just because you said it.
Now all I can do is drive.
5 Shit Harvester
I stop, I’m not going in.
Fire, defiance, let’s drag everybody in.
Making it bleed, breaking the bone,
it’s the only way. Fire.
6 Square
Climb a mountain to find out what’s in my pockets.
Drive a thousand miles to see what’s right behind me.
Connect with someone else to realize that it’s you I need.
Throw it all away.
There’s a part of going on that I’ve left behind
and I can’t pretend.
I can’t look you in the eye and lie and
I can never stop by your house again
and I can’t pretend.
My thoughts, my brain, my mind, it’s snowed in.
My heart, my love, my God, I’ve done it again.
There’s so many of me in my mind,
I’m a square trying to find out
which one’s right for who, and for you.
7 I Heart FF (instrumental)
8 Scoop
When I see you, I don’t touch you.
Don’t go near you.
Don’t look in your eyes.
So young, so what.
So now I don’t smell you.
I don’t touch you.
I just feel you in my heart.
One more time I’ll turn it over.
9 Forward
This time.
I do it every time.
This is one I pulled out from the rest.
Forward.
Uncountable, the times I said enough
and then the next day, did it again.
The pain, the willpower
of commitments and expectations.
What someone else wants from me.
What I deliver on bended knee.
This face, these eyes,
take another step away from being young.
This time, it is the last of mine,
if I can get the nerve to say good-bye.
For the Love of Basic Cable (1995)
Foresight #3
10 Link
I feel less than natural, a total lack of confidence.
Deliver me from my addiction to this game.
Crack of sticks, this sound clears my head.
Helplessly watching, everyone says, “Hello.”
I long for something gone.
I am a dry snail in this race, too determined, too aggressive.
I must be defective.
I know a girl, I’ve got a hockey ball in my hand.
I know a girl, by a field, in my hand.
I know a girl, I hold her room in my hands.
Most of the time I know I’m wrong before I act.
Blue of staunchest friendship’s color, I am out of place.
11 Whatever’s Wrong With Me Is Here To Stay
Can any word I write go unscrutinized?
Are any of these thoughts spoken unrevised?
Something I fight, I may as well fight gravity.
Hope for resolution with a spit of sincerity.
Improbable, impatient, it’s all speculation.
Insensitive, unmoved, and underhanded.
Living on nothing but suppressed desires,
like economic or emotional suicide.
I know nothing that you know nothing that I know only how to resign.
If you were mine, if I had that time, if I was that kind, I would never
decline.
Acoustic (1995)
Split 7-inch with Falling Forward
Initial #11
12 E
Sometimes I feel like feeling’s just for the weak at heart.
Nobody knows exactly what it’s like to be you except you.
This is how many years now?
I’ve thought about you every day.
I’m sure you’ve forgotten all about be.
I know I’ve often been led astray.
But in my heart, I never let you go.
13 Myth (R. Pennington)
A stern-faced man sat on a hill, and with addiction in hand,
he sought to kill.
He fell on the masses, unyielding from above,
and tore away from me the ones I love.
How can I not be angry at what you’ve taken from me?
I see their heads bent low with this affliction.
How can I believe?
Substance makes the man, and substance made me, too.
But I fail to understand why it has such a hold on you.
When I look in your eyes, so strong is the hate for the sickness
that brought you in and the reason we can’t relate.
The Metroschifter Capsule CD re-issue (1995)
Conversion #21
[LP and cassette are identical to the Slamdek version above. CD includes these extra tracks.]
14 I Don’t Like This Anymore
By the power at my hands and the shorted wires in my head,
I’ve come here thinking you care.
In the water that stands before me,
in the depths of the air around me,
I don’t like this anymore.
As I read the words she wrote to me,
and remember the words you spoke to me,
I think of nothing but candy and Cokes.
And falling down, and becoming one with the floor.
And falling down, I don’t like this anymore.
15 Nordberg
While everyone sleeps I take my car across this runway of concrete.
With the steering wheel in one hand, and in the other,
tucked neatly, my list of demands.
I have wondered how things could have been different.
I guess it doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter.
How could it matter.
Now I know, now I feel, how you’d react if I spoke these words.
In my back pocket is a list of everything that I’ve taken from you,
there’s only five gears between me and forever.
16 Moving Closer To the Source of Heat (F. Yingling)
I feel myself moving closer to the source of heat.
Do I reach my hand out?
Could it brun me, or will it be cold on my skin?
Will it burn me again?
I feel it getting hotter, surrounding me.
I don’t know what to do. Do I run?
I feel it surround me. I’m not scared, I like it.
I like this feeling.
Fort Saint Metroschifter (1995)
Doghouse #32
17 Finder (recorded version is instrumental)
Even when I can see,
I just see that I am blind.
Understanding, yet still hurting
Can anything I feel still feel the same?
Even when I can see, I just see that I am blind.
18 Love (C. Osborne)
I want to create something as beautiful as you,
as beautiful as they way you make me feel.
I will miss you when I’m gone from you.
Hopefully it won’t feel too long.
I hope we’re always as happy as right now.
Inspiration comes from many places.
An emotional release doesn’t always have to be anger.
19 Branson
If I had this mouth, if I touched your lips,
if I stood in these shoes how could I lose?
If I swam in this pool, if I touched your skin,
I lived where your shoulder meets your neck.
What did I expect?
If this is a description of things we felt for each other,
and ways we made each other feel beautiful, yet second best.
I can recount a thousand instances in which we expressed our love,
but I just can’t accept that it’s in the past and that it didn’t last.
Is this all to easy to concede, or just too hard to believe?
20 $39.00
My positive attitude works hard,
works overtime to keep me on its side.
I saw your dress in the store.
It was thirty-nine dollars and didn’t have you in it.
It was just a shell.
I’m on a hanger myself.
The way I’m perceived is certainly not what’s on the inside.
I touched the dress, felt close to you for a second,
and knew I had to walk away.
21 Piddle Looper (instrumental)
22 Equation
I fell into bed and, for a second,
breathed and exhaled what was left of your scent.
I built something up around me,
brick by brick with my emotions.
And I built bridges just to have something to burn.
No need to strike a match,
I lit it with the flame that burns inside of us all.
This is a work of art and not an equation.
That’s why it makes no sense to the two of us.
Number One for a Second (1995)
Songs from the film Number One for a Second
Doghouse #34
23 Smart Bomb (instrumental)
24 650 Miles (M. Ronay, M. Katz)
My woman, she came and she left me,
and now I am filled with desire.
The moments she slept there next to me,
now alone I retire.
Now I am north and I can’t come back.
You seemed to tell me things that I have already known.
Time allows me to cripple my mind and cave-in my soul.
Far north I have to go. Far north I had to go.
I’m further away than I meant to go.
Now I am north and I can’t come back.
Generation Rx (1996)
Doghouse #44
25 Welcome to Louisville (instrumental)
26 The Greatest Ballad of All Time
Dropping medals, memories,
and something I lived or anything that I can give.
I gave those people everything
and my heart of gold died in that boxing ring.
Redemption came today on the Second Street Bridge.
27 Why Me? (K. Kristofferson)
Why me, Lord?
What have I ever done
to deserve even one of the blessings I’ve known?
Why me, Lord?
What did I ever do that was worth love from you,
or the kindness you’ve shown?
Lord help me, Jesus, I’ve wasted it,
so help me Jesus, I know what I am.
Now that I know that I’ve needed you
so help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hands.
Try me, Lord, if you think there’s a way
that I can repay what I’ve taken from you.
Maybe, Lord, I can show someone else
what I’ve been through myself on my way back to you.
28 Untitled Hymn for Kentuckiana (instrumental)
29 Nobody’s Favorite Crayon Is White (instrumental)
30 Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (F. di Bernadone)
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
31 I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (H. Williams)
Hear that lonesome whip-poor-will
he sounds too blue to fly.
The midnight tright is whining low,
I’m so lonesome I could cry.
I’ve never seen a night so long
when time goes crawling by.
The moon just went behind the clouds
to hide its face and cry.
Have you ever seen a robin weep
when leaves begin to die?
Like me, he’s lost the will to live,
I’m so lonesome I could cry.
The silence of a falling star
lights up a purple sky.
And as I wonder where you are,
I’m so lonesome I could cry.
32 Muhammad Ali Boulevard (instrumental)
33 Funny How Time Slips Away (W. Nelson)
Well, hello there. My, it’s been a long, long time.
How am I doing? Well, I guess I’m doing fine.
It’s been so long now that it seems that it was only yesterday.
Ain’t it funny how time slips away?
How’s your new love?
I hope that he’s doing fine.
I heard you told him that you’d love him ’til the end of time.
Why you know that’s the same thing that you told me,
well it seems like just the other day.
Ain’t it funny how time slips away?
Gotta go now. I guess I’ll see you hanging ’round.
I don’t know when, though.
Never know when I’ll be back in town.
But I remember what I told you
that in time you’re going to pay.
Ain’t it surprising how time slips away?
34 What Flavor? (instrumental)
35 The Middletown General Store
When I was a boy I rode my bike
up to the Middletown General Store.
They never had anything I wanted to buy,
nor anything a boy could afford.
They just had old stuff and lots of old people
shopped the Middletown General Store.
36 Dear Lord My God
On top of bridges, staring into snowy skies.
Inside of churches, bewildered by another’s eye.
Dear Lord, my God, I listen so well.
I try so hard, but not hard enough.
I know there’s times when I need to go,
when I need to show, and I sit here wondering.
Dear Lord, my God, I feel so much,
but I cannot cleanse this dirty conscience.
37 Last Night While You Slept (instrumental)
38 It Just Means Good-bye
Standing on a moving train, staring straight out the window.
Periodically turning your way, just to make sure I’m really leaving you.
Whirlwinds of thoughts and emotions we share but so little to say,
just two sets of sad eyes, finding comfort in knowing smiles.
It just means good-bye.
Seems like yesterday morning we rode another train;
sleepy, singing country songs as the sun came up.
39 Old Chunk of Coal (B.J. Shaver)
I’m just an old chunk of coal,
but I’m gonna be a diamond some day.
I’m gonna grow and blow ’til I’m so blue, pure, and perfect.
I’m gonna put a smile on everybody’s face.
But I’m gonna kneel and pray every day,
lest I should become vain along the way.
I’m just an old chunk of coal, now Lord,
but I’m gonna be a diamond some day.
I’m gonna the right way to talk.
I’m gonna search and find a better way to walk.
I’m gonna spit and polish my old rough edge itself,
until I get rid of every single flaw.
I’m gonna be the world’s best friend.
I’m gonna go around shaking everybody’s hand.
I’m gonna be the cotton-pickin’ rage of the age.
I’m gonna be a diamond some day.
I’m just an old chunk of coal, now Lord,
but I’m gonna be a diamond some day.
Let’s Get This Party Started (1997)
Initial Limited #1
24 650 Miles (live version) (M. Ronay, M. Katz)
27 Why Me? (live version) (K. Kristofferson)
52 Alphabetical (alternate mix)
4-b Drive (1993 demo with alternate lyrics from the version on “Capsule” album)
Who gives a shit what makes the flowers grow?
Every time I come here I feel like this. Every time.
I can think about you two all I want to.
Do you not think I know where you’ve been?
This song’s for everyone else
who knows what it’s like to be held in your arms–
who has kissed you more times than I have.
There’s no time quite like the time to give up.
You are in my mind.
You’re the itch I can’t scratch and the sleep I can’t grasp.
God, how I wish I was joking.
I lied when I said the sun shines.
I feel something for you but I don’t know what it is.
So many times I believed what you said just because you said it.
These leaves blow across the ground more lightly than I feel.
This knife feels pretty good coming from you.
You’re the only one that matters.
40 Sweeper
My brakes when slowing squeal.
My mind it always feels
like nothing’s ever real for me inside your heart.
Slide–- i’m winding down.
Dive–- instead of falling down.
My brakes squeak in time
with our hearts and minds are out of line.
Give me anything back.
Anything you hold could be mine. Take.
41 Back “A” (instrumental)
2 Marker (1994 demo) (instrumental)
44 Advil (alternate mix)
Metroschifter 4 (1997)
Doghouse #51
42 Inner
I’ve got nothing to get my hands off of.
43 Is This All About Money?
The Las Vegas airport:
I’m a little girl
and my mom and dad are with me
We’re traveling across the country
We’re from Nevada
From the air I see it on the ground
Unfolding
It’s 1997, I’m 27
I have a bad credit report
Banks don’t trust me
Nobody believes me
Why would they?
You are what you drink
You are what you hate
You are what you leave behind
You were nothing on the days
that you threw away with me
Is this all about money?
44 Advil
Something that I thought about
but probably shouldn’t say aloud
Everything we live without
and maybe could even do without
flowers and trees and butterflies
and your smile
Painting lines on a field, or better yet,
laying in bed staring at the ceiling
Something that you’re wearing
something that we’re feeling
Two little people standing on Earth
staring at the stars
Seconds became minutes
minutes became hours
hours became days
days became months became years
45 The Name of a Street
…and preserve it into these words:
Ink on my fingers, facing blank pages
Years of singing of desperation
I find myself now somewhat content
at the price of feeling somewhat uninspired
Trying to savor the precious present tense
and preserve it into these words:
We are who we are
We have done what we have done
Nothing can change the places we’ve been,
the notes we’ve left, or the things we’ve said
Ink on our fingers
Ink-covered pages
Trying to savor the precious present tense,
and preserve it into these words.
46 Know Where You’re Going
I remember the way you looked
One night seems like years ago
I can remember the way I felt
One night seems like years ago
Driving south from Indiana
A shooting star in green and purple
The times were different and we were scared
but so determined to be together
It was so forbidden, holding your hand
Years of ours determination
Know where you’re going
then know who’s going with you
47 Third Party (instrumental)
48 Black Wednesday
I don’t think there’s something wrong with me
or the circles that I’m walking in
My heart skips a beat
every time the telephone starts ringing
If I had only been more awake
I could have seen at least another half-second
of you looking back
Black Wednesday
A pale crescent moon hangs over Louisville tonight
and searchlights reach for the sky
It’s the same sky that blankets Poland this morning
where it’s 7 in the morning.
I’m aware it’s 7 in the morning
Black Wednesday
49 Apple (instrumental)
50 The Torsten Fratzke Story
Scenery always changes when you keep moving
Not enough to stop and stare
into the sun or at the lights
The scenery always changes when you keep moving
It’s not enough to sit and stare
into the lights or out the window
Nothing is not enough unless it makes you happy
like the effervescence of constant travel
or meeting new people and not exchanging names
51 Reverse Stick (instrumental)
52 Alphabetical
Creatively stifled, I’m sitting at the kitchen table
thinking about Kentucky and the look in your eyes
I’m telling you a story about education, unemployment,
economics, communication and transportation, but is anybody listening?
Creatively stifled, I’m sitting at the kitchen table
thinking about Kentucky and the look in your eyes
I’m telling you a story about education, unemployment,
economics, negative net worth and forced busing, but is anybody listening?
53 Nothing I Can Say
Nothing I can say that ever comes out right
Eating meals with silverware stolen from airplanes
Singing songs with the taste of Sprite
and peanut butter in the back of my throat
It covers the driest spot in there
and itches when I try to speak
and my heart makes it so hard to swallow now
Nothing I can say that ever comes out right now
Metroschifter and Shipping News (1998)
Split CD with the Shipping News
Initial #25
54 It Used To Be So Easy
Overextended, sometimes life is less than what I expected.
I’m so confused about which of these pieces I’m supposed to use.
Alone in a voting booth, quietly wishing there was something to live for.
Thinking of ways I can leave my mark,
change the world, or at least my place in it.
It used to be so easy.
55 Now
I say it’s nothing natural
that what performs in life is just the role of a performer,
and I am one of these actors proving everything derivative.
The time is now. The time to act is now.
Moving to the beat, people at traffic lights,
a girl in her car, inside the seat of a Honda Civic,
with twin French braids, singing along to Metroschifter.
Everybody has their own way of living.
56 One Cloud in the Sky
I can’t decide if I’m giving it plenty of gas and it’s not going anywhere
or if I’m just waiting for it to do something by itself.
The sink is overflowing and the water’s still running.
I’m the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Should I tell anyone what I’m doing
or would they even care what I’ve got my hands into today?
I’ve spent so much time listening to the engine
that I’ve got no idea what it’s supposed to do.
One cloud in the sky.
I washed my hands in muddy water.
The alarm is music.
Songs from compilations (1999)
In Native Soil compilation of Louisville artists
Noise Pollution Records
57 Strung Out On Music
Like a dream,
we make it simple,
or so it seems.
Songs for the Brokenhearted compilation
Glue Factory Records
58 Theme from “Songs for the Brokenhearted”
When I look in your eyes, I see nothing. Hey.
You’re just some girl to me. Little girl. Hey.
Why can’t we just go back to before this all started
and stop singing songs, songs for the brokenhearted?
Metroschifter Picture Disk (1999)
Redwood #10
59 Machine Language
Sometimes I feel I’ve got something to say, I can’t help it.
Maybe you never felt the way for me like I always felt for you.
Lifeguard by the side of the pool,
Machine language.
In your living room on the couch,
in machine language.
With your boyfriend waiting outside,
I was always speaking
in some code you just couldn’t understand.
Machine language.
60 Impossible Outcomes
In the sky is the moon
This large yellow circle finds her in the mood.
In her eyes I can see it all.
A short plaid skirt, a white short sleeve shirt.
My dreams aren’t premonitions,
because I’m dreaming of impossible outcomes.
I’ve tried to understand but I just don’t understand
empty signposts seen through large windows.
Late one fall afternoon after school,
in the cool, cool suburban breeze of Louisville.
It’s unaffordable.
It’s unavoidable.
It’s inevitable.
Our eyes, hearts and words are evidence
My dreams aren’t premonitions
Because I’m dreaming of impossible outcomes
I’ve tried to understand but I just don’t understand
Empty signposts seen through large windows
61 Under Pressure to Exist
All alone, above everything,
the world has cast me out and the feeling is mutual.
Leaving text behind for a world of colors.
I immerse myself in pictures,
under pressure to exist.
Continually distracted.
The look of every girl on the street.
Under pressure to exist.
Strawberries (1999)
Doghouse #62
62 L 182
Numbers and letters, letters and numbers.
She’s just a product others make her into.
Picturing you, it’s a printed postcard picture.
You sign your name and you lick the stamp.
It’s a walk out, I’m walking out.
You can’t imagine the days we must play.
I don’t believe in this.
I’m finished working for something I don’t believe in.
Like in a dream you want to move but can’t
You sign your name and you lick the stamp good-bye.
63 Persona (instrumental)
64 Actress
It’s an execution but it’s also a party.
If you can imagine, let it loose.
Years ago in a picture of you and me together.
I knew then it would never work.
All that has happened, the things that we thought.
The taste of your mouth, the touch of your skin.
Actress.
In your eyes, a riddle.
I’ll never solve it.
65 Continuity Piece (instrumental)
66 Forensic Economics
Lips I will never kiss.
Eyes I will never look into.
Cheeks I will never touch.
Two hands I will never hold.
For years I have dreamed
in thousands of colors,
in pictures I have cataloged.
In words I have read.
67 Opaque (instrumental)
68 My Old Kentucky Home (S. Foster)
The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home.
In summer, the people are gay.
The corn cobs are ripe and the meadow’s in bloom,
while the birds make music all day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
all merry, all happy and bright.
By and by, hard times come knocking at the door,
until my old Kentucky home, good night.
Weep no more, my lady.
Oh weep no more today.
We will sing one song for my old Kentucky home,
for my old Kentucky home far away.
Encapsulated (2000)
Album of new and unreleased Metroschifter songs perofrmed by other bands
Doghouse #69
71 Downschifter (originally titled “On the Road”) performed by Cooler
On the road,
I can’t believe that I’m thinking these thoughts.
How we could have gone so far
and when we had the chance,
not gone there if only to see
what it would have been like.
I can’t help but wonder how these unfinished ideas
may never leave me.
On the road, I pull off to the side.
On the road, I can’t believe that I’m thinking this.
60 Impossible Outcomes performed by The Get Up Kids
In the sky is the moon
This large yellow circle finds her in the mood.
In her eyes I can see it all.
A short plaid skirt, a white short sleeve shirt.
My dreams aren’t premonitions,
because I’m dreaming of impossible outcomes.
I’ve tried to understand but I just don’t understand
empty signposts seen through large windows.
Late one fall afternoon after school,
in the cool, cool suburban breeze of Louisville.
It’s unaffordable.
It’s unavoidable.
It’s inevitable.
Our eyes, hearts and words are evidence
My dreams aren’t premonitions
Because I’m dreaming of impossible outcomes
I’ve tried to understand but I just don’t understand
Empty signposts seen through large windows
74 Dear Hilary performed by Burning Airlines
Dear Hilary,
How many years has it been
since you were going off to college
and you wrote me a letter?
After so many years now
I don’t even take the time
to write these words out legibly.
Debating over games
and how nothing is the same,
but I just wanted to drop you a line
The hardest part about
opening up to someone
is that once you have,
the power is in their hands.
72 You Are So Unreal (originally titled “Unrealistic”) performed by the Promise Ring
Scoping straight into this
I realize it’s crystal clear
of this situation.
Tie your shoes, turn your head,
shut your mouth, I’m leaving now.
This is so amazing.
You make me so angry.
You are so unrealistic.
And for me to admit I feel this way.
61 Under Pressure to Exist performed by MT Rhoades & His Lonesome Woods Band
All alone, above everything,
the world has cast me out and the feeling is mutual.
Leaving text behind for a world of colors.
I immerse myself in pictures,
under pressure to exist.
Continually distracted.
The look of every girl on the street.
Under pressure to exist.
69 Burn Lexington Burn performed by the Enkindels
It’s in the newspaper that you read,
and I can taste it in the water.
There’s something unpleasant about it
and I can taste it in the water.
Burn.
It’s on both sides of the fence.
It’s the topic at hand.
How do these words move around?
It’s the topic at hand.
Burn, Lexington, burn.
75 It’s Not the Way I Feel Anymore performed by Rye Coalition
Yesterday went too fast and it left me with only a song.
Now it seems like it’s been a hundred years.
I miss the sound of your voice
and sometimes I miss the pain,
and the jealousy that made this job so easy.
Maybe the way you always looked, or looked at me,
but I know it’s not the way I feel anymore.
62 L 182 performed by Refused
Numbers and letters, letters and numbers.
She’s just a product others make her into.
Picturing you, it’s a printed postcard picture.
You sign your name and you lick the stamp.
It’s a walk out, I’m walking out.
You can’t imagine the days we must play.
I don’t believe in this.
I’m finished working for something I don’t believe in.
Like in a dream you want to move but can’t
You sign your name and you lick the stamp good-bye.
70 Be performed by Music Group
I don’t know what I’ve got
and I don’t know what I’ve lost
but I’d throw it all away
just for the freedom to be.
Commitments among strangers
like the bonds we feel with characters
projected upon a film screen.
You still cross my mind
at the most inopportune times.
I wish everything I own
could fit easily into my car.
I’m not sure who you are,
why I’m on this road
or where it will take me to be.
66 Forensic Economics performed by Joan of Arc
Lips I will never kiss.
Eyes I will never look into.
Cheeks I will never touch.
Two hands I will never hold.
For years I have dreamed
in thousands of colors,
in pictures I have cataloged.
In words I have read.
76 Here In Your Mind performed Jason Noble & Kyle Crabtree
Since we have the time to kill,
I’ve always wanted to sit here by you
and I’m asking you some questions,
but I’m sure I probably know all the answers.
Something I’ve always wanted to know
but now I’m not so sure
that the answers will benefit me more than not knowing.
And so we sit here side by side
as we once were cheek to cheek
and our eyes and hands meet face to face
and I wonder why I always
find myself here in your mind.
73 Isn’t Freedom A Poison? performed by Elliott
Lying on the ground
Knowing only the sound
People screaming
Whistles blowing.
This is the part of the game that I just can’t stand
and it seems that every single year it comes down to this.
Isn’t freedom a poison to anyone
who has been humiliated?
64 Actress performed by Ink and Dagger
It’s an execution but it’s also a party.
If you can imagine, let it loose.
Years ago in a picture of you and me together.
I knew then it would never work.
All that has happened, the things that we thought.
The taste of your mouth, the touch of your skin.
Actress.
In your eyes, a riddle.
I’ll never solve it.
Encapsulated Demos (2000)
I Can’t Believe It’s a Record Company #5
59 Machine Language (sent to Empire State Games)
Sometimes I feel I’ve got something to say, I can’t help it.
Maybe you never felt the way for me like I always felt for you.
Lifeguard by the side of the pool,
Machine language.
In your living room on the couch,
in machine language.
With your boyfriend waiting outside,
I was always speaking
in some code you just couldn’t understand.
Machine language.
66 Forensic Economics (sent to Joan of Arc)
Lips I will never kiss.
Eyes I will never look into.
Cheeks I will never touch.
Two hands I will never hold.
For years I have dreamed
in thousands of colors,
in pictures I have cataloged.
In words I have read.
60 Impossible Outcomes (sent to The Get Up Kids)
In the sky is the moon
This large yellow circle finds her in the mood.
In her eyes I can see it all.
A short plaid skirt, a white short sleeve shirt.
My dreams aren’t premonitions,
because I’m dreaming of impossible outcomes.
I’ve tried to understand but I just don’t understand
empty signposts seen through large windows.
Late one fall afternoon after school,
in the cool, cool suburban breeze of Louisville.
It’s unaffordable.
It’s unavoidable.
It’s inevitable.
Our eyes, hearts and words are evidence
My dreams aren’t premonitions
Because I’m dreaming of impossible outcomes
I’ve tried to understand but I just don’t understand
Empty signposts seen through large windows
62 L 182 (sent to Refused)
Numbers and letters, letters and numbers.
She’s just a product others make her into.
Picturing you, it’s a printed postcard picture.
You sign your name and you lick the stamp.
It’s a walk out, I’m walking out.
You can’t imagine the days we must play.
I don’t believe in this.
I’m finished working for something I don’t believe in.
Like in a dream you want to move but can’t
You sign your name and you lick the stamp good-bye.
61 Under Pressure to Exist (sent to MT Rhoades and His Lonesome Woods Band)
All alone, above everything,
the world has cast me out and the feeling is mutual.
Leaving text behind for a world of colors.
I immerse myself in pictures,
under pressure to exist.
Continually distracted.
The look of every girl on the street.
Under pressure to exist.
64 Actress (sent to Ink and Dagger)
It’s an execution but it’s also a party.
If you can imagine, let it loose.
Years ago in a picture of you and me together.
I knew then it would never work.
All that has happened, the things that we thought.
The taste of your mouth, the touch of your skin.
Actress.
In your eyes, a riddle.
I’ll never solve it.
74 Dear Hilary (sent to Burning Airlines)
Dear Hilary,
How many years has it been
since you were going off to college
and you wrote me a letter?
After so many years now
I don’t even take the time
to write these words out legibly.
Debating over games
and how nothing is the same,
but I just wanted to drop you a line
The hardest part about
opening up to someone
is that once you have,
the power is in their hands.
69 Burn Lexington Burn (sent to The Enkindels)
It’s in the newspaper that you read,
and I can taste it in the water.
There’s something unpleasant about it
and I can taste it in the water.
Burn.
It’s on both sides of the fence.
It’s the topic at hand.
How do these words move around?
It’s the topic at hand.
Burn, Lexington, burn.
69 Down By the River (sent to Wino)
I know I’ll never lose this feeling
regardless of how I say it or how you hear it
Places I wish I’d never gone.
There is no one else I can remember.
Down by the river.
Yesterday was February
and tomorrow is November.
Down by the river.
Unsolicited invitation,
I suppose it was all my fault.
Just me and Miss Jeffereson County
Down by the river.
71 On the Road (sent to Cooler, who named their version “Downschifter”)
On the road,
I can’t believe that I’m thinking these thoughts.
How we could have gone so far
and when we had the chance,
not gone there if only to see
what it would have been like.
I can’t help but wonder how these unfinished ideas
may never leave me.
On the road, I pull off to the side.
On the road, I can’t believe that I’m thinking this.
72 Unrealistic (sent to The Promise Ring, who named their version “You Are So Unreal”)
Scoping straight into this
I realize it’s crystal clear
of this situation.
Tie your shoes, turn your head,
shut your mouth, I’m leaving now.
This is so amazing.
You make me so angry.
You are so unrealistic.
And for me to admit I feel this way.
75 It’s Not the Way I Feel Anymore (sent to Rye Coalition)
Yesterday went too fast and it left me with only a song.
Now it seems like it’s been a hundred years.
I miss the sound of your voice
and sometimes I miss the pain,
and the jealousy that made this job so easy.
Maybe the way you always looked, or looked at me,
but I know it’s not the way I feel anymore.
73 Isn’t Freedom A Poison? (sent to Elliott)
Lying on the ground
Knowing only the sound
People screaming
Whistles blowing.
This is the part of the game that I just can’t stand
and it seems that every single year it comes down to this.
Isn’t freedom a poison to anyone
who has been humiliated?
76 Here In Your Mind (sent to The Shipping News)
Since we have the time to kill,
I’ve always wanted to sit here by you
and I’m asking you some questions,
but I’m sure I probably know all the answers.
Something I’ve always wanted to know
but now I’m not so sure
that the answers will benefit me more than not knowing.
And so we sit here side by side
as we once were cheek to cheek
and our eyes and hands meet face to face
and I wonder why I always
find myself here in your mind.
77 Julie Minuet II (sent to The Rachel’s Band)
(instrumental)
Carbonistas (2009)
Noise Pollition #34
78 Goodbye Narragansett
We’re leaving here the way we came in.
We’re sinking fast in an ocean of irresponsibility.
I liked you better before you dragged me down.
This has gone on forever. It’s just too late to say it now.
Goodbye Narragansett.
Goodbye Hollywood.
Hello to the bottom.
There’s nothing left here for me to lose.
I’ve lost it all and you.
Now you’re leaving town
and it’s too late to say it now.
79 It’s All Fucked Up In Dixie
As soon as I met you
I knew I shouldn’t have met you.
I handed you over and over and over and over.
Here we go again with another round of you,
proving all the rumors true.
I handed you over and over and over and over.
I’m not stopping.
It’s all fucked up in Dixie anymore.
80 Murder
Sometimes I could murder the people who have hurt me,
but I’d hate to stoop down to their level
and show them that I care.
Life is such a fucking waste of time.
Why do I bother getting up in the morning
or answering the phone
if I know it’s never going to be you?
I don’t give a shit about anything.
I don’t want to talk about it anyway.
Why is this so hard for me?
Everything’s exactly like I expected it to be.
The actors are different
but the characters are the same.
The story is old.
How could you have done it again?
It’s never been you,
but everyone else I knew
has done it like this before.
81 06-06-1997 (Der Tag, An Dem Kater Jusa Aus Saarbrücken Vom Balkon Aus Der 5. Etage Sprang, Um Auf Jagd Zu Gehen)
(instrumental)
82 America Is a Prison
It has to be done
but there’s no place to start.
I’ve written down how it’s supposed to be,
according to me.
America is a prison,
the world’s largest ghetto
and all in my lifetime.
I’m picking daisies
and, oh, how they die.
Slowly dying in a parked car with the music loud
as the rain keeps on pouring down.
The air is thin and the Advil is out.
Thoughts of you are in, squeezing my breath out.
A headache keeps on trying to push its way in,
like utilities in a storm want so bad to end.
83 Little Voice
I’m stopping the car and I’m taking your hand.
Do you know why?
I’m running out of miles
to open my mouth and ruin everything.
Ready to fall, ready to dive, ready to ruin everything.
I’m really finally doing this.
This is really happening.
Ready to throw it all away.
I’m stopping the car and I’m taking your hand.
Do you know why?
When I sing these words I hear your voice.
Do you know why?
84 Knob Creek
Laid out on Knob Creek,
face to face with myself,
staring into the emptiness I call my life.
Into one more cold glass of Bulleit and cola,
I thought I saw you pouring it,
but you weren’t even there.
With this bourbon I’ve been everywhere.
This limestone cold-filtered water is mine,
for this time,
I’m feeling so high off the ground.
A cold man walking with no change to jingle.
Just another old soul feeling all alone.
I couldn’t write a love song if I wanted to.
I’ve got nothing but time here,
but no one to show.
85 Flick
(instrumental)