1. |
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When I go forwards you go backwards
One step further down the ladder
Can't believe just what they're seeing
Hedonistic souls and heathens
If there's no hell let's all go apeshit
No apologies for saying it
There's a marker on the horizon
Don't know from which side it's rising
In the water in the air
All the same to you without a care
If no one's watching let's get greedy
Two for you and none for me
It doesn't matter what you speak
It's on your conscience, everyone can see
We’ll all get married in a church
Anything that burns will work
Would you let them see you wince
When your devil waves his hands to make you flinch?
Phantasmic geometry
Find the door and open without risk
Fighting over desiderata
But they're not needs, they're only things you want
Now the storm has come and gone
Don't know which side I crash landed on
An odyssey for another day
Finding, spending, losing, saving face
What has risen might just sink
What has sunken might just rise
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2. |
Forward Psychology
03:42
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Don't do it you will
There's no need for regrets
Enter the house of horrors
And you'll feel electric
There's a counterculture
Can't this be one of those times
That I say what I think
And you don't read between the lines
So come to me if you want my advice
For all the ways that you could break the ice
And become familiar with this forward psychology
Are you suggesting that I should ask questions
Like "what is your favorite Clint Eastwood film?" to fit the build?
Well I'll tell you honey, it's Good Bad and Ugly
The way that you want me to wear cuff links like an afterimage
I'm not that crazy but if you could say to me
Exactly what you would like me to do we'd save an hour or two
So turn back the clocks get ahold of your moxie
Ready aim fire the poison dart at the heart
I was really into me until I saw you and the horse that you rode in on
Quadruple positives
And a chance to relax
Go for the jugular
Come on let's make a pact
Seems like we're never on
The same piece of the paper
You can say that again
And I'll save it for later
All the ways that you could break the ice
I'm not a poet but it must be nice
To become familiar with this forward psychology
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3. |
December 1969
04:24
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Turn the months by page, the book named after you
And its day by day, remember what we choose
Words of innocence we cannot pronounce
With due diligence we could be like that now
Tessellated rooms well-read but misinformed
In the lightened moon we crave and we are torn
Motives ulterior, keep your glasses on
Hard to feel superior, victims of contretemps
But I've been trying not to get much worse (how am I to phrase that?)
If I do it would not be a first (I’m not supposed to say that)
Take a picture and go back in time (it could take us way back)
To December 1969
Skip ahead some time, wait for Saturn's return
So we ossify after what we've learned
Ten questions from someone who doesn't know a thing
This delirium marked like a coffee ring
Late to the party, subtle escape
I think I liked me better that way
After all this time away show me what you learned
Twenty thousand times around it feels like I have turned
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4. |
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What are you smiling about?
I'll bet you think you're smart
With all your knowledge of conquerors, history, sixteenth century art
What are you smiling about?
You'd better put that away
Save it for another appropriately bad day
What are you laughing about?
May I ask what is funny?
The notion that I'm charming you isn't persuasive honey
What are you laughing about?
I must have missed the punch line
You're having a riot right in front of the police lights
The day I pushed through the spinning door
Saw you behind the desk
A buzzard sings and a saga begins
Can I guess how it ends?
What are you dying about?
Can't even catch your breath
I make myself vulnerable and subject to utmost regret
What are you dying about?
Front gate won't let me in
Making the rest of us always seem like plebeians
The day I pushed through the spinning door
Saw you behind the desk
A spider sings and a saga begins
Can I guess how it ends?
When it's gone it's like tooth decay
The enamel of your smile
I think about it for the rest of the day
It fades after a while
Never staying white
But lasting through the night
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5. |
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When he went back to the black lagoon
No one was surprised
Cause he was mad and you were too
A combination most unwise
Pissing off the world means two separate things
When you're on the edge
Stuck in cubicles; put all our thoughts in bins
That crease the middle and tear the ends
What I'll say is that I didn't see it all that night
The universe will still be fine
Somewhere between the observations and blocked memories
Your guess is as good as mine
The flowers were screaming his favorite compromise
But some days it's not enough
He was caught dreaming of tempers on the rise
Sounds like ugly stuff
Like a rigged shotgun that didn't know why they were there
I wasn't listening that night
I came to my wit's end but I was well within my rights
And your guess is as good as mine
What I'll say is that I didn't get to bed that night
All my dreams were much too real for that to be
There's a special place in hell for chupacabra eyes like his
But your guess is as good as mine
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6. |
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Fog on the bridge
The clouds in the sky
I know a place where the air is grey
And troubles multiply
It must be nice
To go home like them
Please close the door, but not from this side
This house is condemned
You said please don't give up on me when I had my doubts
Now all of that is off of the table and the lights are out
Fingertips together
Lips in an arc
Yanked off the stage with a cane around my neck
A commemorative mark
Now you've said a mouthful
A nefarious plot
Until the end I'll remain doubtful
'Til the blood underneath my sutures coagulates and clots
It slipped through the cracks in front of our face
The ones that we saw but just couldn't wait
To fix and repair, it's as good as new
'Cause all that I wear is the straight jacket gift from you
(You said you'd be happy if you looked like that)
The straight jacket gift from you
(But I know you'd only be happy if the sun turned black)
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7. |
Hourglass
04:17
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You saw me today then looked left and right
Something so different that didn't show by night
Staring at your laces you don't recognize these faces
Scraping my words off the bottom of your shoe
Into one ear and the other they come through
Some people would feel vexed but I know what happens next
You can't begin to imagine the things as they happened last night
Where saying is doing and playing is using but it still seems right
I don't know you but the question that I've gotta ask
Is this all true?
I turn the hourglass over and I start again
In time I’ll see that there's no game to win
Just a hundred ways to lose, always nice to pick and choose
Confidence is arrogance, arrogance is bliss
I look in the mirror but I surely always miss
A simple rearrange or how things have so much changed
Besides the red marks on my face, the rest was pretty tame
I saw you today but you held up the moat
Looking at me through a kaleidoscope
I saw you today but when I looked in your eyes
Nothing reflected, I was not surprised
Now that you've shown me how cruel that the world is I'll see you tonight
If there is intent then I'll leave an imprint where the sand is white
I don't know you but all I see is broken glass
Is this all true?
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8. |
Murder Mystery Movie
06:01
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I watched a film today
Set in the strangest place
I though it looked like fun
But I was three years late
They all had schizophrenia
Nervous wrecks I'm tellin' ya
They thought it looked like fun
To be the next black dahlia
In this murder mystery movie
Where all my friends are gone
I could scream and shout
The only ones who would hear me now
Would make sure I don't stick around long
The actors looked familiar
Their characters peculiar
They got me interested
Then disappeared to nowhere
Investing too much
Fears and phobias
It got them interested
And got me all worked up
He says he hates it when I'm right
It doesn't happen anyway
She'll probably fall for the type of guy
Who ties his shirt around his waist
Why would you wear a raincoat
When you could put on a tux?
Whether it's bad or worse
At least I think I know that much
On screen they see
Us complete the autopsy on the joke that was to be
But no clue what to do
We'll lay down instead of move but still wish for something new
In a murder mystery movie
Where the crime is never solved
They can close their eyes
To try to take a look inside
But the history's in the walls
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9. |
Say It to My Face
06:19
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Hide behind the wall
Kicking off ladders and throwing stones
To hit them on the head
Silence the climbing and creeping moans
With contrails all around
Is it impossible that you're not thinking clear?
Bats in the belfry stir
But the air is much too heavy here
We should be above this
It's not like we're new to this game
If I'm a dime a dozen
Why haven't you forgotten my name?
Spending my time reading your ten dollar words
Making me feel like I'm the king of the worms
If you hit send when you could've hit erase
Hell, well then why don't you say it to my face?
Panoramic views
Of wind-blown trees and lighthouses
A place of no surprise
Where the days of the week have no consequence
Standards set aside
And tragic figures put to sleep
Sarcastic back and forth's
Never ended with an angled cut so deep
We should be above this
Looking down on crowds in the rain
Instead we're getting colder
Until whatever tact is left wanes
Play the game, check my phone
Feeling like being alone
Isn't quite the worst fate
Nothing thrown in my face
Dominos in a line
Black jacks in the night
Lose it all, I don't care
What I had buyer beware
(you, you’re trying to say?)
I've had almost enough
Fifteen sixteenths and I'm calling your bluff
If none of it matters it shouldn't be tough
What's on the other end of your handcuff?
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10. |
Alternate Reality
04:09
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I heard that I was beautiful today
But I can't stop the violence or the grimace on a face
She was feeling ugly and it made me stay awake
That's not salted caramel that's just tears over a cake
Now everybody knows just like I'm dying on the outside
The conflict of interest, inability to confide
But in an alternate reality
One in which she says to me
I want you trust that it's true
I wanna hear it everyday there's no one for you but me
If after midnight all this shit turns into pumpkins
I'll live without the moon, without stars, let me have this one thing
Until I build this contraption to take me far away
I'll refamiliarize with the terrestrial and mundane
But I wait for a reality
One in which she says to me
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Modern Instincts Syracuse, New York
Modern Instincts is an alternative rock act consisting of Jason Tuori (vocals, guitar), Sam Roux (drums), Tom Powers (guitar, vocals), Ryan Cogswell (bass), Emily Ormsby (keys, vocals), & Jesse Gillenwalters (vocals, keys, synths, drums)
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