1. |
||||
|
Happy days are here again, I’m bleeding out my ass
Apparently food is the new thing, but I’m sure this too will pass
A conoisseur’s palate and $2.28’ll getcha a gallon of gas
So it’s out the cloaca, into the sewer
Out with the older, in with the newer
Ah, hahahaha
I dabbled in mysticism and got lost amongst the runes
Sacred numbers and the zombi cucumber but I never bent any spoons
I can’t shake the sound of the chanting, but I don’t remember the tunes
So it’s on with the kicking out of the jams
But by the pricking of my hams
Something wicked this way wobbles
And it wobbles because it’s lame
And it’s lame because it hasn’t got a leg to stand on
‘Cause the both of its legs are game
That’s game like a zero-sum game
And that sum is the sum of all fears
I can feel it in the hair on the back of my neck
I can feel it in the hair on the back of my ears
But the post-punk-partum depression impresses me less than the message’s failure to move
It’s the sheeple vs. the nanny state - what’s with all the cloven hooves?
I’ll always remember that dope sick beat, but I can’t recall any grooves
So it’s off with the gloves and on with the show
And down with the settling, up with the growing
Oh, hohohohobiminibminibimini…
This is a transaction, not a performance
This is a morpheme, not a word
This is a secret you’ll carry ’til you’re dead and you’re buried
Spoken just loud enough to be heard
That’s heard like a herd that’s immune
That’s immune like immune to my charms
I can feel it in the hair on the back of my neck
I can feel it in the hair on the back of my arms
Happy days are here again, I’m buying local sourced
From a pop-up Mom-And-Pop Op op, but Mom and Pop divorced
So they handed it off to their foolish heirs whose folksy airs seem forced
So it’s out of the blue and into the onyx
Up with the spirits, and DOWN with the tonics
Down with the tonics
Happy days are here again
|
||||
2. |
The Time It Takes
02:08
|
|||
|
Those I look like a liar to aren't going to change their minds now
No bold visions set fire to
No new peaks to aspire to, anyhow
So much you'd never allow
And every voice hissing I was wrong
now swears that’s what they meant all along
All along
That was then
Sing a song
In the time it takes
to be called a liar again
The same as if I had lied like they say I did
But the time it takes…
It could well be there’s no shame in this
Is there any pride?
|
||||
3. |
||||
|
That man’s not talking to himself, he’s running over a comeback to a slight
An imagined one which changes shape just that much faster than he can get that comeback right
He’d like to think he idles in a state of readiness, but experience has taught him that he’s just not that fast
That man’s not talking to himself, those are incantations to protect him from his past
That’s gonna be me one of these days
If I don’t come around and change my ways
And make it right
It doesn't matter that it doesn't matter now, what does is that it did
It informed the opinions I held and the decisions I made and the evidence I went and hid
Now I owe more than I’ll ever see, I’ve misrepresented myself, I’ve stolen from my friends
I’ve played it out a hundred different ways in my imagination, but there’s only one way that it ends
And I’d do it tomorrow if it wouldn’t cause others so much pain
How can someone who hates himself so much be so vain?
See, I was born in a place of relative ease
To parents who loved me In a time of peace
I’ve got my health and I’m fairly bright
I was born male and I was born white
Blessings one after the other in a long long line
There’s no advantage worth having I couldn’t say was mine
So judgment doesn’t land on me from far away
The fault’s not in my stars, not in my nebulae
It isn’t God’s idea of fun
To have me go around disappointing everyone
To have my every undertaking fail
It’s not His finger on the scale
It’s nothing extraordinary anyhow
It’s not anything not telling you so right now
It’s for me the guilt, for me the shame
I guess it’s for me to take the blame
Like I guess it’s for you to wonder how someone with such
a high opinion of himself can hate himself so much
But make it right
Like a fat poison berry that puckers and rots on the vine
Like a kid who keeps selling a treat long after his mom has thrown up her hands and said “fine!”
Like an interrupted vapour seal that creates a fog inside the glass
Like the drone of a mower and the smell of new cut grass
I hear a voice telling me what I know needs to be done
But the voice telling you all about it right now is the louder one
I’ll make it right
Make it alright
|
||||
4. |
On Withholding
02:34
|
|||
|
Oh, great. This again.
The curtain rises on a tired and familiar scene
The philandering chief of the gods takes the patron of fidelity to be his queen
They finish each others’ thoughts and
one is the glory of the other, wouldn’t you say?
I saw your lips moving
And it’s important to talk,
you can use a funny voice, or a confabulation, connotation, denotation, or a gestalt
Or borrow half-understood terminology from science like “aggressive margins” and “loading the fault”
There’s something in there that’s worth hearing, I know
that’d only be made less so
If you would just come out and say it
Is it the point to tell or have the point be taken well or
Have me think it up myself and approach a position from a place I’m not?
Then leave a space shaped like the thing it is you wish I thought
On second thought...
We’re gonna have to agree to disagree
I hate fighting ‘bout fighting and I’m not sure I’m satisfied
that you know what trust looks like
Or understand it’s not useless if it’s broken sometimes
We finish each others’ thoughts and
one is the glory of the other, wouldn’t you think?
I heard those wheels turning
|
||||
5. |
The Dark Women
06:09
|
|||
|
The one with the boots is haughty and fit
She’s got a loud proud voice and a lacerating wit
She moves fast past where guys like me sit
And trails a fragrance of brightly lit rooms
She’s got dozens of friends who all look the same
She eats food made of vegetables I couldn’t name
What I’d see as a trial, she’d treat like a game
I don’t know for certain, but it’s fair to assume
Say, who are these dark women in their caves asleep atop their gleaming hoards?
Who are these dark women, what are they pulling me towards?
The lady downstairs is orange but she goes
She knows things that only an orange goer knows
I could be projecting or something I suppose
But my sense for such things is not the worst
There’s a trick to the blinds is my best guess
‘Cause they’re never ever shut, so you can see what a mess
the place is at all times
Sometimes you can catch her undress
And she’s just a little older than you might think at first
Who are these dark women, where do they go to learn the secrets that they guard?
Who are these dark women,
what makes being one of them hard?
I don’t think about my exes - I guess the sting of defeat is still too recent
I don’t think about the girls I knew when I was a boy - something about that seems indecent
I don’t make plans for the future - I’d only be setting myself up for a fall
I think of all the places I’ll never visit and chart the space between them
and sail past them all
The chick who likes trance is busty but dim
That lummox she’s with, I’m glad I’m not him
Though in a fair fight, my chances would be slim
He’s got height and a good twenty pounds
He’ll look at his phone and he’ll look at her bum
Or past the talk to where he thinks the action might burst in from
Or for someone who doesn’t make him feel as dumb
as she is ‘cause he’s who she wants hanging around
Who are these dark women, when they look at me what is it they don’t see?
Who are these dark women, what is it they don’t want from me?
What is it they don’t want from me?
|
||||
6. |
Donatism
02:38
|
|||
|
If you are frugal and wise,
you’ll find that doors will open
The tally of advancements multiplies
and the gains accrue to you in scope and size
And when they do so,
prepare yourself for calumny and abuse-oh
Like the Fraticelli in the thirteenth century
They’ll tell you how it ought to be
They don’t care how you got it
No being lucky and no being smart
No more vacations or restoring hot rods or collecting art
No point trying to fight ‘em
When a house or an apartment is a luxury item
Good luck finding someone who says that’s as it should be
but to say it isn’t is a heresy
and not a new one either
No more no settling for second best
No more fine oil or lotion to soothe the feet of a special guest
If you think I want to pay top dollar for the things that I most prize
I don’t, but I’ll find a way, just ‘cause what’s life for otherwise?
But when somebody worth ten of me
Can pay triple what I did for a third of what I got
So you think of them instead of me
And there’s nothing I can do to make you believe I’m not
the same as they are
You’re on the lawn with the feathers and the tar
Like the Little Brothers in the thirteenth century
They’ll tell you how it oughtta be
Like the Katharoi
In the third century
Let you know what you ought to be
In the fourth century
Poenitentiam agite
In the fourteenth century
They’ll tell you how it oughtta be
|
||||
7. |
I'll Tell The World
03:07
|
|||
|
What’s something that you’ve always known was true?
The humour of a number or the music of the spheres,
stories told by open spaces that last for years
I’ll tell the world
What you think you are only goes so far
Someone devout with someone to keep safe stands up and utters perjury and the unbeliever kneels and bows his head the night before surgery
I’ll tell the world
Would you want to hide so well nobody could find you?
Could you go on, knowing the worst was behind you?
The ashes of a monster find friends amid the dust
like the grip of the hand of a child who’s never known anything but trust
like the passing of an aeon trades riddles with the tide
like atoms say “I love you” by committing suicide
I’ll tell the world
|
||||
8. |
I Can't See You
06:50
|
|||
|
There’s one or two things about which I’d say I really care
I’ll put up with a lot as long as those few things are there
I bet you’ve got a different list
I know that you exist
But I can’t see you
It’s only fair that there’d be pushback on some things we’re proud of
that you’ve got a problem with and I’ll allow that you’re allowed
It sucks always being wrong
I know that you are strong
But I can’t see you
But I have no doubt if you were to be
But shown the way then you would agree
With all of us over here, with my friends and me
And I’d show you myself.
but I can’t see you
And you can’t see me
And what would you think you were looking at if you could?
Somebody just like you but mean or stupid or just plain no good?
I saw one of your guys dismantled in an interview
How could you watch something like that and think the way you do?
Sometimes I just feel sorry for you
Most times I just ignore you
because I can’t see you
And you can’t see me
And what would you say you were staring at if you did?
An opportunity, a teachable moment, a nagging pain of which you wish you were rid?
It’s like I gave you your comeuppance and you said, “I know”
like I’d just made your point for you in words you would have chosen
Oh, who knows? Maybe you know you’re wrong
You might even hear this song
But I can’t see you
But I have no doubt if you were to be
But shown the way then you’d agree
With all of us over here, with my friends and me
But you won’t and that’s why I can’t see you
And I can’t hear you
And I can’t see you
|
||||
9. |
Bug Out Kit
04:30
|
|||
|
At last the day I always feared would come has come
and come like an avenging gale
And all that preparation, all that doubting it was needed will be called to account
should I succeed or fail
Ah well, sue me if there’s something crucial that I’ve overlooked,
okay, then just believe me, this is new to me
Disconnecting my connections
Detaching from attachments
Refusing to be tied down, be bound by the ties that bind me
I’ll change my numbers and my passcodes and my hours and
Change my name and change my face and leave no trace behind me
But how could I who’ve shown such strict attention to detail in planning my withdrawal
have allowed myself to be unhorsed by something so bush-league?
To be so sloppy as to need to go at all - close call
Truly: can I trust myself to summon the resolve that it’ll take to turn away when that brightness bears down to blind me?
I think so
I think I can go dark, I can go deep, and I can go low
I think
And I can change my colour, change my shape, and leave my pursuers bashing into each other in a cloud of ink behind me
You’ll see, oh there’s not much more to me than this
there’s less than you would think that you will miss, but
True enough, there will be things I’m gonna miss that to recall may bring a tear
And people that I wish I didn’t have to hurt
Bonanzas if certain debentures were to clear
Oh dear
Puny considerations like this are what got me in this mess that now I gotta put to rest
And do it fast and do it well and do it so no one can ever find me
And do it while I’m able
Leave it on the table
Just grab what I can carry
Before I hit a snag
Put it in a bag
Put it in a bindle
Hasten down the wind, I’ll hie myself away
Away across the water, through the woods, and up a hill
and toss the combs behind me
|
||||
10. |
The Last Teenagers
04:08
|
|||
|
It’s almost daylight, farewells have all been said
The last teenagers have toddled off to bed
We like to play hard, though it gets way harder
We’ll hit the hay hard
Hey, but we’re not dead yet
Our instincts don’t fail, our sights were always clear
We blazed our own trail, that’s how we wound up here
Not always flawless, but we take solace
you couldn’t call us anything less than sincere
Like everything for which our generation’s known
We love to sing the old favourites in new ways and make them our own
And when it’s time to catch our ride
We’ll greet each other on the other side
Where we will never be misunderstood again
There is still power moving through us
Even as that hour draws closer to us
It’s almost midday, shouts ring across the floor
The Last Teenagers look like we’ve lost one more
And for a second, the rhythms quicken
then go on ticking same as they did before
We dealt with money, sex, and time in new ways, why not this then?
Someday, so will you
Can’t tell where we end and where you begin
That’s maybe something we can help you through
We weren’t the worst - whatever else we did, we cared
We were the first to learn what we did the way we did and shared
We were generous
With all of you who followed us.
So you would never be misunderstood again
|
||||
Ford Pier Vancouver, British Columbia
Ford: v.t. to cross by wading (Webster)
Pier: n. a disappointed bridge (Joyce)
Ford Pier has a
rock band called The Vengeance Trio and a string quartet called Strength Of Materials. There's ten or eleven albums of this stuff, and more on its way. You just watch.
... more
If you like Ford Pier, you may also like:
supported by 16 fans who also own “Gormful In Maya”
White Stone Eyes is up there with the best Nomeansno songs
go to album
supported by 9 fans who also own “Gormful In Maya”
... Yes 🙆🏻♂️ Fab-Fuckin-Tastic Music 😍 a Great Way Getting Back In Time With Slow's Great 80's Music a 5 Beer 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 Record Out Of 5 Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 ...
go to album
supported by 7 fans who also own “Gormful In Maya”
Sooner or later I'm going to break down and buy the CD.
go to album
Better Lives
by Feral Conservatives
Feral Conservatives specialize in elegantly ornamented guitar pop, centered around Rashie Rosenfarb’s emotive vocals.
go to album
The Woman You Want
by Eliza Shaddad
Haddad returns with cinematic soundscapes that include introspective folk, post-grunge, and indie-pop influences.
go to album
"Dream Within a Dream" b/w "Red Lava"
by tristen
Nashville’s tristen offers two sizzling slices of country-infused rock & roll, full of spirit and fire.
go to album
supported by 6 fans who also own “Gormful In Maya”
go to album
