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We don’t have to pay for all this content although it isn’t free
Putin’s playing Moses splitting populations up like the sea
Got us hook, line, sinker – pour the Kool-Aid I’m a drinker
Are we none of us free thinkers? – Swinging high without a net
Look within, examine, that would be my singular plea
Make a list of what you missed when truth wasn’t an optional thing
Once we all had empathy but it was just a casual fling
Now I can’t feel anything at all – Here clawing at the wall
Here underneath a pall – at all
The fact of the matter is that facts don’t matter no more
Baking bricks, intolerance the fire that hardens every one
And every one cemented in the wall ensures it won’t be undone
You can’t believe anything you read – Too prideful to concede
Now even as you bleed – Indeed
The fact of the matter is that facts don’t matter no more
Is this all a waking dream? Discourse devolved to a meme
Ink stains on a yellowed ream will fade fully so it seems
Masses robbed of dignity feel hate and preternatural fear
They’ll agree with anything as long as it’s what they want to hear
The media’s there but to exist and keep us in the mist
They’re slashing at the wrist – insist
The fact of the matter is that facts don’t matter no more
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2. |
Unknown Painter (live)
04:15
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Like an abstract painting, just can’t understand
Sketched out on the canvas, along with best laid plans
Converted Oakland warehouse, unfinished pencil lines
Last works of an unknown painter, gone before his time
Manuscripts and pages, strewn around the floor
Songs that lay half-written, don’t know who they’re for
Pushed aside the tables, set up the microphones
Played his last confessions and headed out alone
You don’t know why, you don’t know why
And who are you painting for?
You don’t know why, you don’t know why
You keep painting anymore
In that lonesome valley, laid him down to sleep
Keys are in the mailbox, nothing left to keep
Hanging on the wall, unfinished paintings framed
Loved ones hanging on to the unknown painter’s name
You don’t know why, you don’t know why
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3. |
I'll Be Gone (live)
03:02
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Pack it in and head for the coast
Lost summer running from these ghosts
Oceanside might be the place for me
Empty bottles floating out to sea
I’ll be gone
Maybe I’ll grow out my hair
Show the world that I’m not a square
Spend my days like a beatnik on the road
Walk around with wine stains on my coat
I’ll be gone
Give up work and head for the hills
Build a shack and tend to my stills
Waste your life just driving around
and around and around
Want a way to stick it to the man?
Sell your crap and live in a van
Waste your life just driving around
and around and around
I don’t want to hang around no more
Never ending summer’s such a bore
Chasing down those Walden dreams
Not as glamorous as it might seem
You’ll be gone, but you’ll come back home
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4. |
The Gall (live)
03:18
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I want to go back in time, ego circa 1994
Sit myself down and list all the errors that I made before
Would I listen at all?
Nod politely and stall
I want to go back in time to all the options that I had at 10
Travel back so that I could make all of the same mistakes again
Savor all of the falls
The nerve, the fire, the gall
Learn to live for the now
The past is what you allow
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5. |
We've Arrived (live)
04:22
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One of these mornings we’ll wake up and find we’ve arrived
We’ll look around us and see the hard times behind
Shower head washes away the feelings of dread
We’ll sleep at night without tossing and turning in bed
One of these mornings we’ll wake up and find we’ve arrived
Pounding the pavement, sitting alone in your room
Used to rise early, but now you’re sleeping past noon
Out on a limb and your prospects just keep falling through
Feeling invisible, everyone's looking past you
One of these mornings we’ll wake up and find we’ve arrived
Sit all alone waiting for someone to call
Great expectations are slowly beginning to fall
Struck out again, everyone says to come home
Struck out again, but at least we struck out on our own
One of these mornings we’ll wake up and find we’ve arrived
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6. |
Forward Now (live)
04:39
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In the darkness of the night
The reel’s turning and I can’t control the light show
That illuminates my mind
Lighting corners cast in shadow by the morning light
In the small hours of the night
The files empty out repeatedly before me
And with 20/20 sight
Ad infinitum it’s my history in black and white
It takes my life
And I lied and I know and it tears my heart out – Forward now
And I can but I won’t and it tears my heart out – Forward now
And I can’t let go and it tears my mind out – Forward now
All I need is to sleep – peace of mind I can keep – oh I’m in too deep
Hit the reset
In the early morning light
A weight is lifted with amnesia an accomplice
It could take a little time
But with a wind that’s strong enough to clear a path I might
Walk this line
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7. |
Some Day (live)
03:59
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I am free on a tipping sea
Of gold and blue, both old and new
Head in the clouds, I can’t hear a word you say
But I promise you this, I’ll come back here some day
We walked at night, our coats pulled tight
The giants slept, the angels wept
Moonlight unveiled the ships anchored in the bay
And I promise you this, I’ll come back here some day
Next to love and to friendship, this don’t make sense I know
Power lines rising and falling, head on the cold window
But I have no explanation, offer no consolation, no
Only ask that you keep the light burning warm and low (and low)
And so I wait, the hour late
Follow me back to the place where our bodies lay
I promise you this I’ll come back here
Aloft on a vessel I can’t steer
Promise you this, I’ll come back here some day
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8. |
Richmond 1925 (live)
04:04
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Richmond, VA, 1925
Tunnel collapsed, but he walked out alive
Fled toward the James, hid in a grave
Railroad said “sorry, he could not be saved”
Ain’t no employers dying for me
Ain’t going down like Engine 143
Baby, if this train buries me down
Coming back as a vampire, gonna haunt this whole town
Mama said son, why do you roam
Building those tunnels, family at home
Lungs turning black, smoke in your face
Die in the tunnels, you just get replaced
Ooh, when that tunnel came down
Ooh, when that tunnel came down
No survivors were found
They’re just bodies in the ground
Put on your boots, life on the line
Stick out your neck for the boss man’s dime
Suck out your blood, drain out your life
Orphan your children, widow your wife
Richmond, VA, 1925
Tunnel collapsed, did he walk out alive?
Mausoleum door fell off its hinge
Coming back to Richmond to take his revenge
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9. |
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I’d like to take the high road but all this chatter don’t bode
All that well, seems everybody’s lost the plot
And at this intersection, turn the wrong direction
And any chance we had for meeting up are shot
Oh, now we’re driving with no headlights in the dark
Oh, keep on squeezing on the trigger but we’ve got no mark
Mirrors down a long hall, a snapshot of a free fall,
A prison where the murderers and thieves are guards
Thoughts and prayers and god bless, but you’re who made this damn mess
And you ain’t walking barefoot all across the shards
Oh, now a valley opens up between our kin
Oh, build a bridge or follow all the other lemmings in
Hey, how do we stoke the hate?
There ain’t no better kindling than fear
But wait, don’t reciprocate
Spectators on the new frontier
Oh, now we’re picking up the pieces of a dream
Oh, reassembled as a nightmare and a pyramid scheme
Hey, how do we stoke the hate?
There ain’t no better kindling than fear
But wait, don’t reciprocate
Spectators on the new frontier
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10. |
The Last One (live)
02:35
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In a patch of suburban woods
there’s a quaint little doomsday shack
White cross on a plywood door
and sheet metal painted black
If you think the plague won’t find you
When it comes to the end of days
Crossbow’s gonna run out of arrows,
but who wants to be the last one anyway?
Acid rain on a metal roof
is such a glorious sound
Fingernails on a plywood door
someday we all get found
If you think the plague won’t find you
when it comes to the end of days
crossbow’s gonna run out of arrows
but who wants to be the last one anyway?
We walled our cities in
but the rats dug underground
We turned off all the lights
but they burned our city down
If you think the plague won’t find you
when the dead have all been raised
It’s all the same when it’s said and done
the plague is coming for everyone
and who wants to be the last one anyway?
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The Yardarm Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Alternative rock with a distinctly North Carolina twang. The Yardarm combines the songwriting and singing talents of Jason Bales and JJ Westfield, with Palmer Smith on bass and John Cowan on drums.
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