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1. |
Hang Out or Die Trying
04:07
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You’ve gotta know when to regulate
Know when to dominate
Know when to demonstrate
Know when to compensate
When to de-escalate
You’ve gotta know when to hold it down
Know when to get out of town
You’ve gotta know when to knock it down
Know when to turn around
When to put boots on the ground
You’ve gotta know when to understand
You’ve gotta know when to lend a hand
Know when the ship’s unmanned
Know where it’s gonna land
Know when to break up the band
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out or die trying
Annalise married up
Craig drives a pickup truck
Matt’s a Republican
Arnie is way too thin
He looks like a skeleton
Meghan’s a state senator
Jen raises alligators
Kara, she died in India
I didn’t make it to the funeral
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out or die trying
Do you remember the Masons hall?
I think it’s got enough room for us all
I set up a backline
Flyered the Main Line
Stocked up on box wine
Now it’s almost 9 o’clock
And no one is showing up
But damnit, we’re doing this
Because I am an optimist
I am an optimist
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out
This is the thing that that song was about
That song that we heard when we were 20 years old
That predicted how this was all gonna turn out
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
Hang out or die trying
This is the year that we’re gonna hang out or die trying
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2. |
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Jessica and Dan and a cat named Bolt Thrower
Living in a house with the heat turned off
Next year they'll have the wood stove working
Right now they're just sleeping with the dryer on
And every day is like January
And every night is like a Thursday night
They don't wanna go out
They probably shouldn't go out
But they might
Jessica and Dan in a cargo van
With a dropped transmission
They set out for Oakland
They made it to Bridgeport
A homeless tabby they found creeping around
A Sunoco parking lot
Jess named it Bolt Thrower
Right on the spot
But when the springtime comes
Everything will be cool
When the springtime comes
They'll have paid back Dan's brother
When the springtime comes
They'll both be working full-time
At the Norristown Zoo
And every day this winter's like a couple of days
And every week is like two or three weeks
Nobody knows that they've peaked until after they've peaked
Jessica and Dan have a cat named Bolt Thrower
They use paper towels as coffee filters
Walking to work in the morning, arm in arm
The radio in the break room plays "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo"
Dan hates the song, of course, but he still thinks of his mom
In the backyard at the old house
With her boyfriend at the time
Drinking Genesee Cream Ale
Quietly singing along
Jessica and Dan and a cat named Bolt Thrower
Putting one foot in front of the other
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3. |
Arms
03:13
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Don’t make it harder than it needs to be
Just throw your arms up in the air
Don’t make it horrible
Don’t make it sorrowful
Don’t give into despair
Just say “I don’t really care about material things
When I’m hungry I eat and when I’m tired I sleep”
And when I’ve had enough of something I just walk away
I just leave it on the ground and walk away.
Don’t make it harder than it needs to be
Just watch the sun rise on the Delaware and think of me
Still there will never be people like the ones that would be
At a party in West Poplar in 2003
They all said “We don’t really care about material things
When we’re hungry we eat and we’re tired we sleep”
And when they’d had enough of something they just walked away
They just left it on the ground and walked away.
Don’t make it harder than it needs to be
Just throw your arms up in the air
It doesn’t have to be such a catastrophe
You don’t have to be scared
For whatever reason people tend to die at night
They put out the light and then they put out the light
We’re all going to the same place
Some of us get there faster
Not everyone goes down without a fight
Don't make it harder than it needs to be
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4. |
We Don't Cry
02:34
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You can have a little bit
You can have some of it
You can have half of it, you can have all of it
If you need it
You can have anything
You can have everything
You can have the good things, you can have the bad things
You can have the crazy things
Everybody’s walking around saying one thing and doing another
We don’t cry, we don’t cry, we don’t cry, we don’t cry
We just fight until we win or we fight until we die
We don’t lie, we don’t lie, we don’t lie, we don’t lie
Unless we have to
If we try, if we try, if we try, if we try
To carve out a little place in the world for you and I
Then when we die, when we die, when we die, when we die, when we die
Well that’s the part I haven’t figured out yet
We can play it as a mystery
We can play it as a comedy
Let it descend into parody
Either way apparently
It ends up as a tragedy
Everybody’s walking around saying one thing and doing another
And everybody’s playing it close to the vest, looking out for themselves
Everybody’s walking around saying one thing and thinking another
And everybody’s walking around looking sideways at everyone else
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5. |
The Early 2000s
03:48
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In the early 2000s you were living alone
In a very strange city, In a very strange country
Less interested then in what might have been
Than what might be in the early 2000s
In the early 2000s you were over punk
But still suspicious of quote-unquote indie stuff
So you settled on mod, it was good enough
Good enough for the early 2000s
And what comes next is never quite what you'd expect
In the early 2000s you were listening in
On Arabic, French and Italian
The Manu Chao song that drew everyone in
To the room in the early 2000s
In the early 2000s things kept blowing up
Much more so than you remembered, growing up
It made your problems seem small, not like problems at all
Getting real in the early 2000s
And what comes next is never quite what you'd expect
In the early 2000s something subtle had changed
Some small part of the world had been rearranged
You couldn't quite place it, but something seemed strange
Kind of strange in the early 2000s
In the early 2000s you were all alone
Everyone from your old life was moving on
But you'd been away just a little too long
To ever ever really fit in at home
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6. |
Black Metal Yoga
03:49
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Whatever keeps you out of the academy, man
Just grab it and hold onto it with both hands
It doesn't have to make sense
It doesn't have to be good
We're doing black metal yoga in our neighborhood
Whatever keeps you out of a cubicle, girl
Just hold onto it like it's the end of the world
It doesn't have to be cool
It doesn't have to be green
Black metal yoga's a legitimate scene
I spent 2009 through 2012
locked up in a Martian mining colony jail
I had nothing to read
I slept on a bench
About 50 miles south of the Marianas Trench
Me and Philip K. Dick and Father Divine
Doing sun salutations, just passing the time
The dishwashers were Finns
The cooks were Norwegian
We heard Bathory songs blaring out of the kitchen
The miners went on strike and attacked the police
So the governor gave us all early release
I arrived back on Earth
Wearing fingerless gloves
Preaching black metal yoga
And a message of love
Black metal yoga and a message of love
Black metal yoga and a message of love
You don't have to be cruel
You don't have to be tough
Just black metal yoga and a message of love
Whatever gets you out of the hospital my friend
Just grab it hold
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7. |
Drunks and Stoners
04:19
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Drunks and stoners living together
Drunks and stoners making it work
Time will tell whose problems are bigger
Times will tell whose memory is worse
Drunks and stoners talking in circles
Drunks and stoners getting confused
Packing their bags from the Garden of Eden
Making their way to the Temple of Doom
Drunks and stoners, drunks and stoners
Drunks and stoners, hippies and punks
Drunks and stoners, drunks and stoners
Drunks hate stoners and stoners hate drunks
Drunks and stoners trying to work it out
Drunks and stoners just making it worse
Two different ways of navigating the darkness
Two different ways of ending up in a hearse
Drunks and stoners trying to hold it together
Drunks and stoners getting out of control
Drunks and stoners despising each other
This way of doing things is taking its toll
Drunks and stoners, drunks and stoners
Drunks and stoners, hippies and punks
Drunks and stoners, drunks and stoners
Drunks hate stoners and stoners hate drunks
I don't want to play by the rules anymore
Or suffer the company of fools anymore
I don't want to play by the rules anymore
Or suffer the company of fools
Or suffer the company of fools
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8. |
Randall Commander
03:36
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She played a lawsuit SG
She ran it through a Randall Commander
The locals seemed to like her and they spared her all the usual slanders
She used to book shows at a bar off of the 134
That didn't have a stage so the bands would just set up on the floor
She had a head for business
She never let owner scam her
She played a lawsuit SG
She ran it through a Randall Commander
Kim tended bar on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights
She'd leave her son, David, doing homework in the booth on the right
As you've probably guessed, that kid was way too young to be in a bar
When the bands started up, she'd say "David, take a nap in the car"
But David loved the music like a navigator loves the stars
If you read between the lines, they will always tell you where you are
He'd say "Hush now Kim, the band's beginning to play"
She played a lawsuit SG
She ran it through a Randall Commander
She liked a good time though she simply wasn't going to pander
The band was called Rash
They chose it arbitrarily
Sitting in a gas station parking lot in the IE
They played six shows
Five were in the bar I described
The sixth was in Fullerton, opening for D.I.
As an adult, David can come off as a nebbishy guy
But he's got this hidden edge
He's got this strange anarchic side
And when he feels weak, he can't sleep, in a hotel bed
A couple of those Rash songs still play in his head
He took it all in, even if he didn't really understand her
She played a lawsuit SG
She ran it through a Randall Commander
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9. |
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If I'm being honest, well I have to admit that Brooklyn's been good to me.
I know I said unfavorable things about it
Please accept my apology
Come on, show a little mercy to me
If we're being real I guess that I should acknowledge
That Brooklyn's done alright by me
Its doors swung wide whenever I'd drop by
And it never asked nothing from me
And at times took me seriously
I once wrote on the wall at the back of Muchmore's
"Philadelphia's full, maybe try Baltimore"
But that wasn't right
That wasn't fair now I see
Because Brooklyn's been good to me
If I'm being honest, well, Philly's a mess
And I'm not getting out alive
Still I cringe at the thought, I freely confess
Of Philadelphia, NY
Zip code 19125
But that's not Brooklyn's fault, or mine
If I'm being honest, Boston's boring as hell
And the people who live there know that very well
If I'm being honest well, Pittsburgh's much more
Much more than it ever gets credit for
Still, New Orleans is the best damn city in the world, I believe
But Brooklyn's been good to me.
If I'm being honest
Then I have to admit that Brooklyn's been good to me
I know I've said unfavorable things about it
Please accept my apology
Come on, show a little mercy please
Goodnight Brooklyn
Love,
Me
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10. |
The Third Floor
02:45
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If I can get my act together
If you can get your act together
If I can get my act together
If we can get our acts together
My friends Jen and Matt have a couple of cats
And 60 days sober as a matter of fact
And they just signed a lease on a five-bedroom house in Baltimore
Matt's folks used to beat on him every day
And Matt said "I'm never ever gonna be that way"
And they just signed a lease on a five bedroom house in Baltimore
And if we get our acts together
They said that we can have the whole third floor
My friends Jen and Weez had a couple of keys
To drive up to Atlanta from New Orleans
And they said I could ride along and pitch in on the driving
The cops in Alabama took one look at me
And they knew right away that I was the weak link
And it only took them about an hour and a half to break me
I've never told that story to anybody
Jen did a year but it was only in county
And I have no idea what happened to Weez
I picked Jen up on the day she got out
And she was just as high as the day she went in
I dropped her in Ohio at some weird house
And her and Matt met the very same night
And one week later they checked into a clinic together
They just signed a lease on a five bedroom house in Baltimore
And if we get our acts together
They said that we can have the whole third floor
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11. |
Don't Go to College
02:49
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Somebody wrote “DON'T GO TO COLLEGE” on the wall in the green room
You saw it when you were cleaning up after the headlining act
Maybe you just shouldn’t go to college
Maybe you just shouldn’t go to college
Maybe you just shouldn’t go to college in the fall or at all
A bonfire, mostly townies, in the woods before the Fourth of July
He was quiet, slightly older, slightly damaged
In all the ways that you liked at the time
You said “Maybe I just shouldn’t go to college"
Maybe I just shouldn’t go to college
Maybe I just shouldn’t go to college
Maybe I just shouldn’t go to college in the fall or at all
You’ve got to choose something
You’ve got to choose something
But no matter what you choose you’re gonna lose, you’re gonna lose
No matter what you choose you’re gonna lose, you’re gonna lose
No matter what you choose you’re gonna lose, you’re gonna lose
You’re gonna lose
Maybe you just shouldn’t go to college
Maybe you just shouldn’t go to college
Maybe you just shouldn’t go to college in the fall or at all
You’ll be out the door and on the bus tomorrow morning before daybreak
With as many clothes as you can fit in your brother’s old army rucksack
You'll be widely understood as a catastrophe
But your grandmother would have understood completely
She had scars from an industrial sewing machine all over her hands
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12. |
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You've got that darkness inside of you
That darkness inside of you
And I can tell because I've got it too
I can tell because I've got it too
Your father was the manor lord
Your mother scrubbed the kitchen floors
Her death was ruled an accident
But the servants knew just what that meant
You've got that darkness inside of you
That darkness inside of you
And I can tell because I've got it too
I can tell because I've got it too
When you were old enough you ran like hell
And I was on the run myself
From the La Familia cartel
When we met on Cozumel
You've got that darkness inside of you
That darkness inside of you
And I can tell because I've got it too
I can tell because I've got it too
Swapping passports in Belize
Now we're hiking through the Pyrenees
We're dressed up like the household staff
We'll be trampling out the grapes of wrath
We're in it for the long con
We'll be giving them their Vietnam
Now we're driving on the Autobahn
We're driving on the Autobahn
It's very scary stuff
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13. |
Black Irish Goodbye
03:37
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We could've tie-dyed the sky in reply to a lie
But we're not gonna try anymore
We got cut up and scuffed and roughed up and left on the moors
Make up or brake up or shake up, pull stakes up?
Just wake up, just don't even try
All that you get in the end's a black Irish goodbye.
Black Irish goodbye
Black Irish goodbye
All that you get in the end's a black Irish goodbye
An Irish goodbye's when you sense that it's time
And you quietly slip out the back
A black Irish goodbye's just like that but you never come back
Because silence is sacred and silence is strong
and it's steeped in it's own kind of proof
If you're doubting the power of silence
Well here is the proof:
Black Irish goodbye
Black Irish goodbye
All that you get in the end are black Irish goodbyes
God woke up one morning alone in the garden
And called out two names to the sky
A lonely and cavernous echo was the only reply
Their names were Adam and Eve, I believe
And both of them started to cry
It was the first penance, the first black Irish goodbye
Black Irish goodbye
Black Irish goodbye
All that you get in the end's a black Irish goodbye
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14. |
Stories of Adam
03:51
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All these stories of failure
They keep us warm like old blankets
Or sweaters out of a freebox
At 4 in the morning
When the fire is dying
When the fire is dying
All these stories of failure
Of guys who said “Fuck it.”
Of girls who said “Who gives a shit?”
And walked away with their dignity
Walked away with integrity
Yeah, I kind of call bullshit on that
Or at least some of it
All these stories of Adam
You know I saw him last weekend
At the Huntington El stop
And he asked me for money
And I was like “Are you kidding dude?”
Do you even know who you’re talking to?
Remember, I used to do this too
Shit, once or twice I even did it with you
But he just kind of looked through me
So I got on the subway
All these stories of people
People like me and you
You know that I kind of like you
I get the sense that you like me too
Tell me, what are we gonna do?
Tell me, what are we gonna do?
With these stories of failure
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15. |
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You found a marbleized notebook in the garage
Of fan fiction about Nicki Minaj
And a mixtape labeled “Songs About Margaret Thatcher
(And Ronald Reagan)"
And a wedding ring with an amethyst
Inscribed “Here is a list of things that exist”
And a picture of your grandmother with Edith Piaf
After the war
And all of sits atop a a wooden chest
And inside of that there's a soot-stained vest
That belonged to some guy who lived and died
Like it was no big deal
I can’t concentrate
Waves
It comes and goes in waves
Sometimes it goes away
Sometimes it stays
I can’t concentrate
Keep the small rules, break the big ones
Keep the small rules, the small rules are the easy ones
For the people who will tell you how to live
The small rules are the only ones they care about or understand
I can’t concentrate
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16. |
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In the morning, in the evening, I can picture Margaret Stackhouse
I can picture Margaret Stackhouse and she’s reading and she’s thinking
Of monoliths and obelisks and skylines full of minarets
A bricolage of languages, assemblages of meaning
And she’s reading in the morning, and in the evening
In the morning, in the evening, I can picture Stanley Kubrick
I can picture Stanley Kubrick drinking coffee on a soundstage
And he’s sifting through some paperwork and finding it distasteful
Then he happens on a letter, it is postmarked from New Jersey
And he reads it, in the morning, in the evening
In the morning, in the evening, I can picture Margaret Stackhouse
I can picture Margaret Stackhouse on a narrow bamboo bridge between
The empty spaces in between the platitudes of history
She hears the rumblings of mythology
In the morning, in the evening, in the morning, in the evening
I can picture, I can picture Margaret Stackhouse
In the morning, in the evening, I can picture Margaret Stackhouse
I can picture Margaret Stackhouse in the morning, in the evening
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17. |
Votive Candles
02:22
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Those jackboots are made for marching
And I’m afraid that’s what they’ll do
One of these days they’re gonna march the length of Woodland Avenue
To a half empty bodega that is staffed by an old man
Whose most deeply held belief is that
Life never gives you more than you can handle
Where are all the votive candles?
Repainted and refurbished now, the house we used to rent
We tried soundproofing the basement but we barely made a dent
The nights were pricked by sirens and the days went on forever
And we never called the cops
When the substation was torn apart by vandals
We lit our rooms with votive candles
Life never gives you more than you can handle
Where are all the votive candles?
They never stopped the violence or reversed the wear and tear
But the mariachi’s silent now like it was never there
We marched in just like fire ants and burned out just like fireflies
And the flux goes on forever
But life never gives you more than you can handle
Where are all the votive candles?
If life ever gives you more than you can handle
Look at all the votive candles
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