1. |
Red Morning
03:25
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Sunrise
Red morning dawns
We open our eyes
The light hits Olympus Mons
The pilgrims roar
Crossing the valley floor
The rovers rise
And my people soar
Our ships
Have carried us from distant Earth
We carry on our lips
The song of a nation's birth
Our hands
Plow through the dead sands
Our ladies' hips
Carry our children 'cross the promised land
Green things
Arrive in dust
The summer harvest brings
A great bounty unto us
Plum trees
Horses and honeybees
Red Mars sings
For the ending of the freeze
Machines
Erect our giant city
We make our world green
We keep it wild and pretty
Every sunrise
We turn toward alien skies
And Mars dreams
Of beginning in the blink of an eye
(Morning...)
The future is heavy
Thick with discovery
Our rocketships parade in the sky
For all that we have left behind
I am standing in the desert
Waiting for the sunlight to uncover me
We're all waiting
The world is an empty mind
(Morning...)
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2. |
Something Evil
03:19
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I used to wish that you were dead
For the sake of sympathy
I'd picture your blood running red
And tender faces turned toward me
I wished you'd suffer dark misfortune
Go down drowning on the river bed
You'd lose your shape to wet distortion
And they'd find my broken mother dead
I think it was some summer morning
Lightning struck your naked mind
And overwhelmed your body—storming
Through the circuits in your spine
Somebody spoke with something lethal
Someone dreamed that you would die
Somebody summoned something evil
With no great notion why
Chorus
Something evil
Start the fire
Conjure devils
Turn higher
I've never seen a person like you
So sad and pale and kind
And no one hates my head like I do
Though it's been a very long time
I used to live in savage places
I built my savage heart
'Til Mother burst and left no traces—
Tore the Earth apart
I like to think you would forgive me
For the things I used to feel
I wish that I could tell you every
Single sin one could reveal
I hope you're living somewhere pretty
I hope you have a flower bed
Between the spires of your city
And the gathering dead
Chorus
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3. |
Mr. Squishy
03:37
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Good morning, Focus Group A!
We've all been dying to hear what you've got to say, 'cuz
Candy bars don't sell themselves, and
We've got a lot on the shelves, so
Focus Group A—take it away!
T'anks, boss.
Well, so, we'd like ta sorta
Talk about what happened last quartah.
I don't mean ta bore ya, but here's some data fo' ya:
Da pwofits fwom da quartah—in ordah.
As you can see, dere's a downward twend--
It gets pwetty gwuesome dere towards da end--
And we're t'inkin' if we wanna fight dis twend
We gotta become da consumah's fwend—again.
Toins out da popuwation
Is no wonger as susceptibuh to manipuwation.
But we've done some calcuwation and pwepawation
And we t'ink it's gonna win us back da sawivation of da nation!
Chorus
We'll rape your mind
Stick you in the skull and pull
In and out—in and out
The burning that you're learning
Happens when you're very very full
In and out—in and out
Hello, Focus Group B!
I hear you're cooking up some stuff we'd really love to see, so
When you're good and able
Come over and sit down at the table and
Spend some quality time with me...
Well, thanks, guy.
Let's talk about the power of irony, and
Pay attention—this is why you hired me.
It's the ultimate tool for the liar, see—
And if that's not true, well—fire me!
It's not enough to say it tastes great--
They've heard that one! Seen it before! It's too late!
It's over! Done! Now, for fun, instead contemplate
Ridiculing the product—there's the bait!
If they're in on the joke, they feel smarter;
It's them feeling dumb that makes our job harder.
Irony is our armor! We need not be torn apart or
Broken by the public—be their martyr!
Chorus
Focus Group C couldn't be with us today.
(They all froze to death.)
This verse is missing.
Chorus
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4. |
Kill The Emperor
03:16
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I hope that when you were younger you fell
And you split your head open and howled like hell
And the cut was as deep
As the scar on the Liberty Bell
I hope your grey matter sputtered out warm
And you watched yourself spilling and forfeiting form
And you'd never felt this kind of pain
Since the night you were born
I hope you felt terror
I hope you healed poorly
I hope you missed what was missing
And dreamed of it
Seeping down into the road
I hope you still wake up hurting
And I hope you feel lonely
I hope your bedsheets
Are stained with your sufferings
None of which you can decode
The Emperor spits hurricanes from his lips
White and bellowing over the sea—wrecking ships—
Laying waste to proud nations
And summoning the final eclipse
He calls for his children to lick up the sweat
From his frame as he straddles a white parapet
Gazing over his fields
Feeling nothing resembling regret
And he screams out his hunger
And his daughters provide him
Bloody birds with coarse feathers
That twist in his throat
As he swallows them whole one by one
The girls cradle his belly
And the boys kneel beside him
Lay their hands on his breast
As he breathes loud and ragged
And sickens them under the sun
I hope that when you were younger you schemed
You would conquer the castle of which you had dreamed
And it seemed like a place
Where these people could hear what you screamed
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5. |
Excelsior
04:00
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I am superhuman
Strong and powerful
Wise and generous with my wisdom
Deeply sympathetic to the pain of mankind
Seven feet tall
Boiling with muscle
The sight of me sets the most evil of men
To sucking his thumb
I am the last best hope for this planet
And mine
Look up--I'm standing in the sky
Arms folded across my chest
Astride the wind--blowing west
Gamma ray vision
The ability to fly and
Shoot yellow fire from my fingers
My enemies cannot shoot me down
Nor can I drown
I endure
Pursuing justice
The ancient morality of my homeworld lingers
And virtue finally comes to this town
Plummeting down
I soar--blue cape billowing out behind
Mask affixed and red shoes laced
A cheeky smile smeared 'cross my face
Chorus
Oh, it's frightful being this
Every single moment bliss
The strength of ten gods in my fist
Not a single damsel left unkissed
By day I am human
Mild-mannered
Totally ordinary middle-class creature
I have no traits in particular to
Distinguish me
Face dull
Body shapeless
Clothing nondescript--utterly without feature
As if the world had tried very hard
To distinguish me
Nothing hurts
Nothing gets past steel skin
I have never bled or burned
This is the life that I've learned
I smile
I am smiling as I fly
Flying in a smiling sky
Smiling hard enough to die
Chorus
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6. |
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Circle 'round and 'round the pine tree
At the corner of the soccer field
Remove yourself from games of
Four-square--hopscotch--half-court basketball
The movement soothes your sweaty body
Spiral out and spiral in
And spin your mind into nothing
There are bones beneath the big slide
And under the monkey bars
Waiting under grass and
Wet mud--woodchips--children's footprints
Indecipherable writing
On the stones beside the bones
Nothing speaks to you when you're nothing
When you're nothing
You're too young to see what's next
Too lonesome and perplexed
They say this town is hexed
You've been walking here for centuries
Under the canopy
You know these roots as they were your bones
Still and slow and out and down
Among the skeletons of children
Patient in the ancient earth
Stretching out into nothing
We're not dying nearly fast enough
For the ground to gobble us
But I have seen these fissures forming
I have heard the bodies
Rising to the surface of this playground
Fields full of sightless skulls
Staring outward at nothing
We are nothing
You're too young to see what's next
Too lonesome and perplexed
This whole fucking town is hexed
We see you singing under your tree
Quiet and high
Rubber-voiced and clumsy
Fumbling for your pitches
In the branches
You are dancing--laughing--chanting
'Til your body falls away
What could hurt you when you're nothing?
When you're nothing...
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7. |
The Wicked Man
03:20
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The wicked man
Loads up the poison in the caravan
The little children scurry away as quick as they can
Nobody stands a chance against the wicked man
The wicked man
Travels the Earth to carry out his evil plan
Though even the wicked man doesn't know why he began
And nobody would know better than the wicked man
The wicked man
Once upon a time had a wife named Marianne
And better than anyone else in the world, she could understand
The loveliness hidden within the wicked man
But Marianne
Never deserved the burden of opening wicked man
So taking their child into the wild, she ran
And ran and ran and ran--poor wicked man!
See him with his razor blades
His lollipops and daisies
London Bridge is falling
And the streets are full of crazies
Roses rise before our eyes
And all good children praise these
The wicked man
Will kill you if he sees you--that's the master plan
Or place you with the living in the caravan
The sad-faced servants of the wicked man
The wicked man
Will do things to you you cannot understand
Making you shiver and quiver beneath his wicked hand
Poor little plaything for the wicked man
See him smiling with his bloody jaws
His eyes are hungry
London's streets are burning
Set to blazing by the young breed
See him rise inside their eyes
He'll never set their tongues free
The wicked man
Knows you better than your father can
He's studied you forever, and he understands
All the ways that you resemble wicked man.
So remember, Stan:
Keep your head clean--eat your Raisin Bran
Do your chores and wash your hands
Or you'll fall under the command
Of the wicked man!
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8. |
Nemesis
02:54
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I've always been your enemy
As long as I've known you
It's robbed me of energy—wasted years of my life
It'll kill us both before I'm through
Your shape waits in the bottom of every cup
You're the first thing on my mind when I wake up
I study every move you make
I sample what you taste
Commit to memory your speech and clothing
Let no data go to waste
I hate every inch of your life
I'm sharpening my knife
You are gonna die...
I'm building a machine
Deep underneath the sea
Outfitted with laser cannons
Running on nuclear energy
The bearings shriek—the lasers hum as they buffer
I've put years of my life into making you suffer
I will utterly destroy you
Erase you from the map
Decapitate your children
Imprison your widow in my laser trap
I will watch the bloody sun rise inglorious
As I emerge victorious
You are gonna die...
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9. |
Steel Fingers
03:59
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So this is what it's like in pain
Without the aid of human language
It comes up into me
Like water up the veins of trees
Or two kids skipping joyous 'cross the same bridge
No one sees me when I wake
Nobody stops the scalpels moving
And I lay under blades
Like flowers in the tender shade
Of trees—tall and green—freshly fruiting
Chorus
It's good to be so alive
The moment that they arrive
And flourish cold crooked knives
Under the skin—
Steel fingers that I've
Invited in—
The hurt lingers—but I'll stay alive
So this is what it's like in pain
Just past the limits of translation
The way I fumble for
My language through the roaring gore
Of scissors and their simple separation
I'll never feel like this again
Like someone switched on all the bright stars
Like lilies pressed between
The pages of a magazine
Or gorgeous forests filled with shrieking nightjars
Chorus
It's good to be so alive
The moment that they arrive
And laying under their knives
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10. |
Spirits
05:12
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The paranormal happening occurred about a year ago
The timing of the happening was curious
It was right about the time when I departed you forever
We had been becoming bitter and furious
That was when the spirits moved in
Right when things were at their worst
To torment and consume us
If we didn't kill each other first
It started with the burning of the wallpaper
Over in the dining room below the wedding pictures
It carried on with screaming in the attic every evening
And the bleeding of electrical fixtures
And the wailing in the walls
And the rearrangement of furniture
And the demon's arrival foretold to us
By the sallow-faced spectral harbinger
Chorus:
Oh—is that your pale fist in my flesh?
Is that your ghastly mouth bellowing?
We haunt this house like nobody's business
The old ghost hunkers useless in his mess
And coming out forward, he gives us his best
But we're already dead and yellowing
Every morning we'd awaken with our bodies covered in blood
Aching from a night of bitter warfare
Skin below my fingernails, bloody and sweet
And the carpeting covered in your hair
Of course the spirits never harmed us
Of course they never needed to
'Twould be hard for any ghost to alarm us
With ectoplasm or a repeated "Boo"
Chorus
Who needs a haunted house to have a good time?
Why settle for less when we're already the best?
We wouldn't trust anyone else to carry out this crime
Nobody knows as well as you
How best to turn my features blue
The killing happened in the afternoon
I was above you in a battle on the carpet
You carried out my body to the car and took me over to the swamp
Where I sunk in a tar pit
And the grieving spirits watched us leave
Pale impotent wretched things
Nobody screams and nobody whispers
Nobody cackles and nobody sings
Chorus
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11. |
After The Fire
04:40
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The house looks different today
The floors are swept and shining
And soft light spills out yellow
Across the carpeting
The things now living inside
Are not things of my designing
They glow golden
With no sign of darkening
They are rising
Unfathomably bright and kind
Through the halls of an empty mind
There are no traces of smoke
Or flaming faces in the chimney
No more bodies
Nor memory of fire
The gyroscopes are spinning upstairs
And soft machines are singing in me
Ancient voices
Growing in their gleaming wire
Soft as starlight
And bright enough to make one blind
Round and round the wheels wind
I am a stranger
The bed is cold and clean and I am lost inside
In the hole where all the blankets hide
The house looks different today
The floors are swept and shining
And things with endless wings
Play up and down the walls
And when I look up I can see
The architecture realigning
To protect me
When the ceiling falls
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12. |
August
04:15
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I'm with you
Under the sheets
We're just two pretty pieces
Of poor perplexed meat
Blazed up and shivering
Numbly we crawl
Hauling ourselves
Toward nightfall
Here's the part
Where I show you my bones
All the pieces of me
I keep secret alone
I know it's disgusting
I know that you're scared
And you're screaming you can't
See me anywhere
Chorus
Come--sit--speak with me of living things
You're worse than anybody ever dreamed
Come August, all the lights are gathering
You'll wait for night forever in the gleaming
You're in here
It's a beautiful day
You are raping me slowly
And I'm far away
It doesn't quite hurt
It's not without love
Oh, it's better you don't know
What I'm thinking of
Here's the part
Where we burst into flame
You're the ugliest girl
Ever given a name
But you've rescued me
And you won't let go
For the rest of my life
Darling, you told me so
Chorus
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13. |
Crow Song
03:51
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I built this world
I built this world
And my world is strong
My world is strong
The light is golden and the river's long
It's a good old fight
I made this world with blood and light
Light enough to see you
Now that you're gone
My world has shape
Beautiful form
Keeps my family safe and warm
Chorus
The world is yours
Your lovers cry
Your children come to the river to die
Old black crow,
Can you spare a brother
A piece of the sky?
You laid love to waste
Laid love to waste
And the silence stayed
But I don't believe
You lost your yearning for another taste
And when I see your eyes
I see your end, and the end is nigh
La-ti-dah!
But it's no secret
That you kept your grace
Nothing hurts
Everything's lost
I've lost count of the rivers you've crossed
Chorus
These are my trees
They grow in white and shining wood
Everything is good
I've done everything I should
I made this world
And you were never a piece of this world
Oh, my crow,
These are not the branches on which you stood
It's beautiful
Feather and thorn
I've loved you since I was born
Chorus
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Pale People Missoula, montana
Missoula, MT’s worst-kept secret.
An eccentric piano-rock quartet with a varied oeuvre, from soft confessionals to howling rants about the lonely and insane.
Better than sex. Cheaper than therapy.
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Titan Agronomist Project Volume 2 - A Juggernaut that Cannot Be Stopped
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Marauding symphonic metal that pairs stampeding riffs with castle-size organ and tremendous blasts of brass.
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