1. |
Vultures
01:16
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Whatcha gonna do when the vultures circle round?
You donned your mask but they still sniff you out
The party’s over, it’s a search party now
Torches and pitchforks climb the hill to your house
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you and
Your old friends are turning you in?
What’d you do, to make ‘em come for you, huh?
I don’t wanna know what you done
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2. |
Barricades
03:29
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Life lived with blinders on
Only looking out for number one
Radio’s skewed to his point of view
Of the good old days when the good ol’ boys ruled
Winter came, the workplace changed
They’re not allowed to pontificate
Hate speech used to be “shootin’ the shit”
’Til the snowflakes covered their bully pulpit
Trapped in the ignorance
We’re living in our own prison system
Walls up, keep the wolves at bay — barricades, barricades
White flight, a new estate
They gotta keep their little princess safe
Up in the hills with a long commute
No boogeyman to ruin their gorgeous purview
Round the clock surveillance
Keep an eye on seedy elements
You built a fortress to keep us out
Could you ever be convinced that it’s keeping you in?
Tear down entitlement
Superiority’s a prison complex
Privilege was cooked up by the rich — oh, prisoner
Been a long time on the inside
Been a long time locked in our own minds
This is denial, this is our bliss, to live as prisoners
Been a long time on the inside
Been a long time locked in our own minds
This is denial, this is our bliss, to live —
I don’t know how to break out
I was a middle class kid from the middle west
I was the quintessential, sheltered innocent
I didn’t know what segregation meant —
I didn’t have to know — the world I knew
Was white as snow
And so I look back now at these severed towns
All the hate they spread, simply not spreading out
Fuck this denial, fuck their ignorant bliss
Barricades
Barricades
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3. |
I Am Goddamn
02:51
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Amazed by all these fingers dangling off these calloused hands
Stunned by all these senses I can hardly understand
I can feel your words they taste so loud
I smell them with my own two eyes
Am I Goddamn?
I can’t simply be, there must be more that makes a man
God gave us a soul, he also gave us heart attacks
I could be the savior of all my neighbors —
Dear God, am I your long lost son?
Am I Goddamn?
I could be your savior! Your super saver!
Your soul, on sale at the right price!
Open your eyes…
I am Goddamn
(An instrumental occurs as our narrator contemplates
the dubious nature of this latest revelation)
I am no messiah, I’m just a mess
Oh Christ, I’m just not that complex
I’m no Goddamn
I’m the white devil, I’m marked, I’m cursed
What’s worse; my ancestors were Klan
Open your eyes! Open your eyes! Open your eyes!
I am Goddamned
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4. |
Stranded Satellite
03:06
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I’ve got my troubles
They’re waiting back at home
Up in this bubble
I tend to make my own
This tilted orbit
Dull as a sedative
Someone write my obit,
“Hope he’s happy where he’s headed”
It’s a white rabbit — stranded satellite
It’s a parlor trick — stranded satellite
I’m so full of shit — stranded satellite
I’m up here every night and
I’m feeling less enlightened
What was it I was fighting?
I’ve been abandoned
I do it to myself
I’ve got this habit
Of making heaven hell
This floating flophouse
Keeping me gone too long
Someone tell my spouse
I love her more than Major Tom did —
No, I don’t think she knows
Stranded satellite
In a gilded cage — stranded satellite
In a rolling grave — stranded satellite
I’m up here every night and
I’m feeling less enlightened
What was it I was fighting?
I’m feeling distant
You’re half a world away
These bad decisions
Solidified my fate
I miss you dearly
But I’m not coming home
Yeah, this life is dreary
It’s the only life I know…
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5. |
Marigolds
03:28
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There’s a pond beyond the hospital
All night long I watch the wind ripple
From the windows of the ICU
The warbled mirror of a waning moon
If you can hear me, just squeeze my hand
Everybody is flying in
I keep shooing away the chaplain
Flowers frame the walls of the hallway
I began to learn them all by name
Marigolds can often stand for death
The nurse suggested buying baby’s breath
If you can hear me, just squeeze my hand
Blink your eyes if you understand
Maybe we should call the chaplain
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6. |
Horror is a Human Being
04:48
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I took confession for my sins
The priest received me with
A hint of insolence
Like he’s some fuckin’ saint of piety
I told him things I’ve never told
How I awoke and swore
I’d had the darkest dream
But it was real as real can be:
In the night I heard a scream
I ran out to the street
The moon a bloody yolk above me
I saw the beast with my own two eyes
I saw the beast and it spared my life
It saw something in me
I wish it hadn’t seen
I lived to tell the tale
So I could lead the little lambs to slaughter
“Who of you would care to see
The razor claws, the gnashing teeth!”
Oh please, the beast is near and dear
Your fears, it’s just a hall of mirrors—
Familiar freaks
Horror is a human being
In the night I heard a scream
I cried out for my love
Her nightgown strewn across the bedroom
I heard the beast in the barren night
I heard the beast and I realized
I’d damned myself again,
Unleashed a demon kin
The darkness of a man
Can spread across a village like a virus
“Who of you would care to see
The Hitlers, the Mussolinis!
Fathers and sons locked in arms
Marching down your very street!”
Oh please, just turn on your TV
It’s there — it isn’t history
But soon we’ll be
Horror is a human being
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7. |
Black Hole Town
04:06
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Got a job at the paper mill
Building boxes for resale
Getting a little over minimum
Maximizing all my time
Big thoughts keep me occupied
Daydreams of a different life
Wondering where these boxes go
Filling up some daydream home
A world that we will never know
This town’s a black hole
This town’s consuming you
It’s a vacuum of light
If we just left tonight…
I forget what’s keeping me
From boxing up my own things
This is where I was born and raised
In that regard, I guess it’s safe
Or, is it something sinister
That holds my old bones prisoner
Somedays, I can’t get out of bed
For all the voices tearing through my head
We hang our hats in our own hell
This town’s a black hole
This town will steal your soul
And before you know it, you’re 50 years old
This town’s a black hole
This town’s an asshole
This town will drag you down
It won’t let you get out
We gotta leave now…
This town’s a black hole
This town will steal your soul
And before you know it, you’re 60 years old
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8. |
Look What's Become of Us
02:29
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I keep refreshing the news feed
Entranced by all the insanity
It’s so sensational, and inescapable
Fodder for coddled caucasians
Look what’s become of us
Everyone’s giving up
A country on it’s knees
Will still believe they’re free
Banding together to ban the corrupt
Take down the man, and another two will spring up
A nightmare where you keep waking up
In the same dream you can’t escape from
The world is all a screen
Screaming emergency
Welcome to postmodern living
Look what’s become of us
We used to give a fuck
Now we just stare away
At baubles on display
We never cared much beyond ourselves
Now we don’t care for nobody else - not at all
We bought an oversized suitcase
Filled it with water and cans of beans
So we’ll be well equipped
For the apocalypse
Tell me I’m overreacting
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9. |
Get Fixed
04:27
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This human race must’ve been fixed
Man is a myth
written by men
Man is a monster
Under your bed
Man is a germ
Festered since birth
Man is a virus
Set on this Earth
This human race needs to be fixed
Man was a god
Then God was dead
Man is a migraine
Swelling his head
Man is a concept
I strain to accept
Man is a woman
At his best
This human race must’ve been fixed
What’s killing you, it kills me too
This life can feel like a sham
Man is a scourge
Man is a curse
Still, I’m doing all I can
I’m the man, I’m the man…
I never wanted to be
I never wanted anything
These roles were thrust upon us
We had to go and ruin everything
Tell me we’re worth something
Tell me it’s not all out of spite
The world is turning over
I worry we’ll end up on the wrong side
What’s killing you, it kills me too
This life can feel like a sham
We are the scourge
We are the curse
I’m sorry for what I am
I’m the man, I’m the man…
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10. |
Content Conman
02:56
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When books were written to move us, not units
When films were more than just reboots for tickets
Commerce has turned a corner,
Artistry’s crammed in the backseat
One is content and one’s commercial, I suppose
Which is content and which is commercial? I don’t know
Throwing a guilty party, eating crow out on the balcony
Crying, “listen to me!”
They killed the radio station long ago
They’re killing the brick and mortar nice and slow
We’re slumming in an art form
Based on the three minute earworm
One is content and one’s commercial, I suppose
Which is content and which is commercial? I don’t know
Stuck at this guilty party, struck by a plaque in the bathroom
It quipped, “Art is Pure Shit”
Oh god, to write with no audience in mind
Oh god, to write just because you have to write
It’s a fool’s errand at best
Lest you commit to your base self — art is pure shit
Content conman
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11. |
What's Gotten into You?
05:34
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Down a well, you’re not feeling well
A bobby pin of light above your bottled hell
You can swear you hear your name — that flickered flame
Here’s my voice singing in your ear
Is it a siren song to assuage your fears
Let me buoy you to sleep, my wayward sheep
Cry for help, echoes on the stones
In that tomb inside your throat
It’s all in your head
Blinking lights beeping morse code
High beams through a fog, down this rabbit hole
A semi barrels through your skull, out of control
Here’s my voice singing in your ear
Is it a siren song or a harbinger
Don’t you know they’re both the same, my wayward knave
The forgotten child doesn’t think he’s lost,
He just slowly wanders off
It’s all in your head
It’s a game, it’s like hide and seek
But you keep hiding; no one’s looking
In the recess of your thoughts you’re nodding off
Fight or flight, you pry open your eyes:
A coven crowds around your bed
It’s all in your head — this life —
Your mind is a room
What’s gotten into you?
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Cursive Omaha, Nebraska
Cursive is the longtime trio of Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar), Matt Maginn (bass), and Ted Stevens (guitar, vocals), with Patrick Newbery (keys) and Clint Schnase (drums).
Cursive recommends:
I fuckin LOVE black midi! -TK
go to album
one of Pile's best
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Stuffed & Ready
by Cherry Glazerr
Fun to see Cherry briefly at Riot Fest. We all dig this album!
go to albumIf you like Cursive, you may also like:
supported by 169 fans who also own “Get Fixed”
It's all around a classic Tim Kasher album. But what made this even better, is that we got to see Tim perform some of the songs live during his living room tour. Awesome!
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Springtime and Blind
by Fiddlehead
Melodic post-hardcore from the label that brought us Modern Baseball.
go to album
