LYRICS
From Souvenir
MODERN SHAKES
when I woke up, saw the sun had passed me by
it was rainfall, in a red wine colored sky
was right there, but moments disappear
where are you? do you know that I’m still here?
you blew through, said I never fit in nowhere
I miss you, but you know I hope you get there
on your rooftop, drunk in the springtime
we got so high, above the fault line
you just stared out, saw through the stop signs
I’m trying but I’m falling down
walk along the tracks westbound
listening for the fading sound of you
EFFIGY
I watched the sun cut through your bedroom
and make its way across the floor
I drifted off to somewhere and back to where you are
the lights are up, we made it through the bars
like a lost stray, I’m coming home again
try to fly straight, but every now and then
life becomes grey and it takes a lot of sin
to feel alive on the streets here at night
but nothing’s ever lost forever
I’ll find my way up off the floor
but even on my best days I’m half of who are you are
I fucked it up and I can’t wash away the scars
I know I/we won’t break but if you want take all I have and burn it up in effigy
It’s been a tail spin, It’s been a/I’ll reap the whirlwind
all I have we’ll burn it up in effigy
I’ll play a new part, I’ll make a new start, all I was we’ll burn it up in effigy
It’s such a long war, but what I want more is you and me, the rest can burn in effigy
DEAD TRACKS
greet the night with cheap wine
lose the sun behind the skyline
fucked up, with a shattered heart
we were halfway there when it fell apart
now I’m half drunk almost half the time
if you need me I’ll be down on this decline
walking around, feeling the wind blow
over the freeway out my window
here in the dark watching the moon creep
over a sleeping town but I keep
waking up tonight here on my own
I’m having one more drink before I slip to the unknown
I’ve made a few mistakes along the way, I know I’ll make a couple more
I washed up on the streets I’d pass before
haunt the dives along the dead tracks
drift away but always float back
fucked up, so it ended wrong
me and all these ghosts have been up too long
in the half light where it’s hard to see
why I let you go I know what that makes me
hope has burned away, I’m still on fire
It’s all just ash and memories now
floating around, try and remember something good that I forgot
spin in retrograde with all the lost
waiting for the end of night
counting it down, but when tomorrow comes around
I’ll still be here in the dust, I did it all myself
it’s cold without you
I want a day I wake up as someone else
it’s cold without you now
HEAT RASH
wake up I found a way out
here at the bottom of a dream I had tonight
there’s not much that I remember
went down a rabbit hole and up the other side
I can walk with broken legs
I can crawl my way up sinking ground
from the bottom of these dregs
to an empty track outside of town
where I shed a weathered skin
and I leave an empty shell behind
with tomorrow closing in
I know now’s the time to take this moonshot
right now it’s summer somewhere
if I can scrape this god damn winter off my feet
then this curb could mark a new start
divide the past from everywhere I’m going be off this concrete
wall of sky at 2 AM I’m idling outside below
standing on the edge of this plateau
the crows will sing my victory song
cawing all the way until I’m gone
and I know there’s never been, a better time to take this moonshot
FIREPROOF
hungry on the porch at night
but these lean days haven’t broke us yet
stronger by the struggle right?
remind me on the days that I forget
put your hand inside of mine
it feels electric every time I hold you
outside the sky has turned a lighter blue
and there’s not a lot I’ve got but I can promise you
that we can still be happy even if we fall
in certain light it’s kinda like we have it all
the city lights above this street
they’re so blue and white and red and green
breathing in the world at dusk
it’s like every one is glowing just for us
LETTERBOX
are we still young?
have we been everything that we’ll become?
some escape, the rest get stuck
and find it’s easier to fall down than it is to keep on climbing up
now you’re the king of all this dust. outside alone collecting rust
where every turn and every scar
can all make sense if you don’t think too hard
every day becomes a blur
and though you can’t remember last week, I can still remember who you were
And you’d never settle for this dirt. you’d run ‘til you ran outta earth
who’s gonna walk you home alone tonight
who’s gonna pick you off the floor and
who’s gonna find a way to let you in
when you’re out there knocking
and maybe this is all there is tonight
and maybe this is it forever
or maybe this/now is when you start to fight
and you don’t surrender now
caught in waves you drift along
the days grow shorter and the nights go wrong
hit the streets and choke on air
with all the people on the outside
looking for what probably isn’t there
face down and drowning with these sharks. drunk in defiance of this dark
here’s where tomorrow starts, here’s where the midnight wipes it clean
on the outside in between
the moon struggles out and sighs, hung in a cold and empty sky
throws down some light for you
we’re miles out at sea, we’re miles from where we want to be
SHORELINE
drinking alone outside of town at night, staring out
trying to tune in to a ghost
it’s all become static now
when everything good burns out and fades away
leaves the dust, all the ash and all the smoke
got so close
but/when it’s raining like it always does, fills the sky
tired of waiting here alone in this wayward life
How much shit can one kid take before he’s had enough
every street light burst to life, make dead eyes open up
walk the shoreline try and stop this rust
feel so disconnected all the time
so afraid this might be is all there is
how long does it take to feel alive?
swing at the wind that blew the hope away
left you here waiting to stare into the sun
see if it burns ya down
see if it softens everything too hard
lights it up, and maybe something good’ll come
get so numb
a shadow world outside
COLFAX
watch the feathers fly up from your coat
you’re like an angel, I need an angel
I get so weighted down somehow you float
across the pavement, across the pavement I’ve been stuck to so long
and/where an ugly world suddenly seems almost beautiful now
every drunken word is poetry and weeds turn to flowers somehow
up against the wind, you and me, it don’t matter where we blow to
even in this dark I can see everything I’ve lost inside you
now splashing down every street I used to bleed in
with every doubt dripping out, this is where it’s all been leading to, tonight
tonight I say it’s like this city’s ours
you say it’s nowhere, I’m fine with nowhere
smile as you exhale up toward the stars
And blow the dust out, and blow the dust across a sea of concrete
and there’s no place I’d rather be
than on this sidewalk, you and me
we could have it all
soaking in a summer night while you’re biting at rain drops
HOLD FAST
starlight is streaming down a dead end streetlead our way back to something good
It’s high time we turned around this lousy luck
you know tonight I think that we could
raise my glass to starting over
knock on wood, we’re getting warmer now
it’s hard to read the street signs
in these dim lights and soft reflections
no dead ends, just new directions
say, that I think we’re on an incline don’t you
I lose myself sometimes on these broken streets
but I still dream, I cough I breathe
so beat me down, I won’t ever leave
and even though I bruise myself somehow on the same concrete
and lose some skin, this world we’re in
can do its worst, it’ll never win
we float away like fireflies in city night
across the park where the flowers end and the nothing starts
‘til we’re half dead and scheming here in your backyard
find some truth in the wine we spill
fell short tonight but we’ll keep coming back
we always have and we always will
but right now I don’t care
your smile’s like a cure to my poison luck
in pitch black we lay back
and laugh ’til the sun comes up
and we hold fast
SPRINGLESS
so long since you caught the sunrise
living in the dim light there inside your bedroom
no fun, never any fireworks
somehow everything blew up and made your heart burst
wound up but going nowhere
it feels like all the world is pushing down
outside it’s starting over
and weeds like us are rising off the ground
spring from a cracking sidewalk
there’s still time reinvent yourself
we all fall apart here sometimes
we all want to be from somewhere else
come down, everything is brand new
looking like a sandbox we could run our hands through
so green, and the river’s so blue
I’ll be on the west side bank here waiting for you
and I know that you’re too good to go through what you’ve had to
but I don’t know what to say now, I wish I knew how to make you okay
MATCHSTICK
you’re a match on fire
I’ve got all this time to burn
blowing smoke ‘til I see all of you
before the night expires
and the ashtray overflows
we’ll find ways to end up black and blue
wayfaring somewhere west of Rome. not tied to anywhere we go
out on a blurry night, laugh at the passersby
we torch these streets outside
lit like a broadway light, burnt like an autumn sky
we walk outside their lines
never sand ‘em off
you’re abrasive but ya know
your rough edges are my favorite parts
staying wide awake
when the whole world falls asleep
we keep moving like some ragged sharks
I’m so good aiming at what’s hard to miss. Throwing rocks out at the road.
there’s the empty days I don’t exist, and then there’s the nights when we explode
and I don’t know if we’re just two bums or poets now, in a dive bar down the road
with you I’d be ok with either one, raise a glass to a mad mad world
SUMMER ASH
the sky across this dead town bled into the west left one dim light
we’re shadows on the sidewalk. we float along the cracks most of the time
crash down on streets that lead to nowhere
there days I do and days I don’t care
that our story’s set in dark graywe always let the truth get in our way
but we could write another. where this couldn’t keep us under anymore
city blocks dissolve away, we slip between the bars
I don’t plan too far ahead, so I’m not sure where we are
far away, where it’s air and not the poison that we breathe
iron and rust disappear and miles of concrete turn to sea
crash down on streets that lead to nowhere
cast off and drift away until there’s
nothing of ourselves here anymore
they’re just some characters we were before
so turn down all the dark days kill this night
new page, all the blue skies we could write
walking home through the catacombs
we almost got there, we almost got there
we come alive in chapter two, you and me without these scars
where I’m stronger than I am, where you’re braver than you are
where it’s sun, not the coats and all the drinks that keep us warm
but tonight it’s you and me against the backdrop we were born
if all we are we are tonight
and there some things you can’t rewrite
and I’m still reaching for a dream that broke away
and our tomorrows ends up more like yesterday
then/just hold on to me, cause I rely on you, you know
I can’t remember how we got here
I can’t remember there been all these twist and bends
I’m not believing this is it now
I’m not believing this is where our story ends