THE WANT AND THE NEED

Can’t get out from under the want and the need
Got yourself a vampire habit to feed
I’m sleeping in your gutter, I’m kicking down your door
I’m a terrorist cause I ain’t got the funding for war

Desperate

Diving into traffic for a bus or a truck
Praying on a yellow pages lawyer for luck
Ticket for the lottery won’t help you to cope
At least with Russian roulette there is reasonable hope

Desperate

The man with the purse strings, he’s a cobbler
Took away your wooden shoes, wrapped your feet in air
They make you run faster towards your dream
They don’t stick in the gears of your machine
Don’t you know that there’s no ire in team

Every day is a movie about a cop who’s on the take
You dream of overcoming but you cannot come awake
I’m a sleeper in your conscience, I’m a knife right in your gut
Whispering there’s only one way out of this rut

Desperate


LUMBERYARD

An autumn fell that shook your leaves
Bloodied by the hand that feeds
Hard times comin’... choppin’ down your standstill

A glass half full of emptiness
A candidate’s assured success
Hard times comin’… swallow back the horse pill

The trick is not fooling someone
But hiding out after it’s done

It’s near inspired but not divine
Modeled after Frankenstein
Hard times comin’… lumberin’ down the steep hill

With body parts from criminals
Attack dogs and sentinels
Hard times comin’… this is not a fire drill

Electorates and sealed fates
Are scheduling the wedding dates

These arguments that strip us bare
Leave tatters of what not to wear
Hard times comin’… factor in the wind chill

We never tried to cross our hearts
A lumberyard of wasted parts
Hard times comin’…


KISS ME KATE

I made no promise of unconditional love
These days are taking their toll
Are we demanding more than what we did before
Crushing diamonds into coal

I’m not feeling, you’re not feeling
Charitable anymore
Up the wall to the glass ceiling
Hearts beating under the floor

There is a fantasy that I let come to me
She is every second chance
Her hair is burgundy, her dress aquamarine
She keeps asking me to dance

Oh this feeling that I’m feeling
Spreads like a virulent strain
I keep playing, she keeps dealing
Endorphins to my brain

Greener eyes on the other side
Look at me

You’ve seen my lemon pout, you’ve seen my claws come out
You’ve kissed the scars on my face
When everything I do is repulsive to you
With whom am I replaced

This old feeling I know you’re feeling
We’ve stopped trying to hide
Looking back loses its meaning
Looking back from the other side

Greener eyes on the side
Look at me

Greener eyes on the side
Look at me
Look at me
Look at me
Look at me


LAST RESORT

Why’d you have to break that seal
I’d just remembered how to feel
So pass my scythe and on with the shroud
The sky has ordained me with gathering cloud

The last resort was miles ago
The last report was thunder showers
Static finds the radio
Good for farmers and thirsty flowers
Good for farmers and...

I used to love the sound of the rain pouring down
On rooftops above me
But now it just won’t go away
It chose me

Gonna sit right here til I recover
Gonna sit right here with my tall, cold glass of rejection
The rain she is a jealous lover
Drowning me for my own protection
Drowning me for my...

It’s not your fault, how could you know
It’s not your vault of precious shattered
Find yourself a boat to row
Pitter-patter-pitter-patter-pitter-patter...

I used to love the sound


UNFINISHED PURPLE SKY

I heard you’re getting over no problem
I heard you found someone to help solve them
I’m glad you’re moving on so well

Sometime we should meet up for coffee
And watch the tension roll right off me
There’s really not much to tell

Under an unfinished purple sky
Where yellow stars don’t reach up so high
Under an unseen watchful eye
Don’t be disappointed; I’m lying to you

I heard your work is getting ovations
Truly, you have my congratulations
Nobody deserves it more
I’m bagging at your grocery store

Under an unfinished purple sky
Where yellow stars don’t reach up so high
Under an unseen watchful eye
Don’t be disappointed; I’m lying to you

Well it’s me centre, world spinning round
And it’s me buried deep underground
But I’m you when there’s no one around

I’m lying to you


TREASURE CHEST

Fall down lifeless to the bed
Bad day have your gloating
I have the means to pay you off
Suddenly gun-toting

A cruel brunette, a dirty blonde
A certain pose of which I’m fond
The girl next door we have a bond
We always come together

Oh my treasure chest
You know me best
Sailors are married to the sea
Pirates horde their booty

I tried to curb my appetite
Feeding on correctness
But nothing fattens you like guilt
I need my lean and reckless

A girl on girl, a bear, a boy
Who gives a damn what you enjoy
The yard you spin the tools employed
As long as it comes together

Oh my treasure chest
You know me best
Sailors are married to the sea
Pirates shake their booty

My dear you have no substitute
No rival in emotion
The cards we deal ourselves for play
Could never trump emotion

I’ll show you mine, you show me yours
All tucked away in dresser drawers
The liberty of on all fours and how we come together

Oh my treasure chest
you know me best
Look upon the endless sea
There’s a pirate’s share of beauty


MARS, MASSACHUSETTS

Mars, Massachsetts
Breathable air outside my helmet is artifact rare
Slash of a cat's eye, hollow bone birds
Told me a secret but forgot the words

And all that's left now is a shiver that runs down my spine
That comes with each playing of "How are you doing? Just fine"
I'm just fine

Alien life-forms, marriage and baby
Coming in peace now surrender your maybe
Hey there ex-girlfriend, what do you say
I show you a secret an orbit away

And all that's left now are the Northern Lights blushing red
That call on my wonder only to find it's been bled

Don't you move on, don't you move on
Suddenly someone is calling you out
Don't you move on, don't you move on
Forgetting something that's keeping you round

Shame about peacetime, yeah i told you so
They'll run out of places for money to go
You have the equipment, you have the desire
So invade my nation and make me a liar

And all that's left now is a flag panted into the sand
That flies in a wild dust storm consuming the land

Don't you move on, don't you move on
Suddenly someone is calling you out
Don't you move on, don't you move on
Forgetting something that's keeping you round

Mars, Massachusetts
I don't know where we grew up beathign such breathable air
Hearts like museums where hollow bone birds
Told us their secrets but forgot the words
They forgot the words


MELISSA JANE

I’m the only one who knows you by your real name
Melissa Jane, Melissa Jane
Anybody looking for some action gonna find your game
Again, again, they go insane

Baby, Baby, you two-step with me real nice
Baby, Baby, dancing is my only vice

A man has nothing if he doesn’t got a skill to hone
Something to build, something to build
You said you never met a soul who wasn’t accident prone
A guitar trilled, A man was killed

Baby, Baby, you never had your backs unpacked
Baby, Baby, you’ll beg me to take you back
Baby, Baby, you got me chasing my own cool
Baby, Baby, maybe mama raised a fool

An old friend found in an alley singing out your name
Melissa Jane, Melissa Jane
Brought me to their home and kept me from the pouring shame
That endless rain... Vancouver rain

Baby, Baby, hold me close and dance me slow
Baby, Baby, I have nowhere else to go
Baby, Baby, turn up that old radio
Baby, Baby, that’s someone I used to know


BLONDE HIGHLIGHTS

Brand new mother, lonely Corporal’s wife
Husband shipped off to make war
Coming home now, you want him to see
How much love he soldiered for

Wrote the ladies on the TV show
Would they make you over right, so right?
Let your man and the whole country know
Every dark root has a blonde highlight

Happy couple in the tickertape parade
Like your Granddad had
And if you play it back in black and white
Does the world seem that less mad?

Everybody saw the TV show
They all want to shake your hand, your hand
What’s it like to be celebrities?
What’s it like to shoot another man?

Better world now, safer for your kids
As safe as supermarket chains
Freed those people, fed them chocolate cake
Barter for fewer highjacked planes

Let’s have their ladies on the TV show
Strip their veils and potato sacks
Our very benevolent Emperor
Insists they take the suit right off his back

Tired mother, proud war hero’s wife
Husband living at the bar
Being the braggart, pawing waitresses
Not much different than before

Write the ladies on the TV show
They will get him to shape up, up, up
Do more treadmill, do more push-up bra
Do more Irish in your coffee cup


CATCH AND RELEASE

Little six-legger
Found yourself inside my home
No borrower or begger
Scuttlin’ minding your own

I got a cup and paper
For your catch and release
I am a friendly giant
I grant you harmony and peace

I am your loving God
I am

Little six legger won’t you let me get some sleep
You’re buzzing round my bad day, burrowing in countless sheep

I am an angry God
I am

Magnifying glass shows what is and not what seems
Turns beautiful sunshine to deadly laser beams

Little six-legger spread across my sole
One day I’ll be boxed up and your friends can eat me whole
I could have Mason-jarred you and fed you cabbage leaf
But I couldn’t bear to watch you struggle with your beliefs

I am a lonely God
I am


RECEPTION TO FOLLOW

I’ve got laundry waiting for me
Forgot to throw it in the dryer
Trays of sandwiches to put out
I hope that nobody minds tuna

I can’t take one more kind word
Waiting for this day to end

Look at Steve and Alice, tranquil
Arms around each other, liars
We all know the sordid details:
Secretary, medications

I can’t shake one more limp wrist
Waiting for this day to end

I’m glad that no one asked me to speak
I don’t know what would come out of me
Could anyone know how I trembled
Underneath your bourbon tongue

I can't fake one more weak smile
Waiting for this day to end

When we talked your eyes were tired
I could tell you weren’t quite with me
I pressed you for recantations
You sipped from a tiny juice box…


SOMEWHERE TO CRASH

Fuel tank is leaking, someone cut the brakes
Sparks are flying from the heat of my mistakes
Lord only knows who to thank or to blame
Going up in a big ol’ ball of flame

Coming in hard, coming in steep
Traveled too far on much too little sleep
Emergency exits ahead and behind
But there’s no escaping your own state of mind

I need somewhere to crash
I need somewhere to crash
Some open arms, a riverbed
Anywhere to sever from my head

My spirit guide comes bolting from the woods
Into the headlights and right over the hood
Culling the herd, the weak and the lame
Hang me up on the wall to great acclaim

I need somewhere to crash
I need somewhere to crash
A mountainside, a landing strip
Ejector seat and let’er rip…

I see your face but i do not recognize
Falling and flying similarly organize
Buy me a drink and defend my reputation

Til I can find…
Til I can find some sweet, sweet defibrillation

Oh I need it


SILVERFISH

I found another silverfish
Wriggling down the bathtub drain
I found another curled up wasp
Wings burned into the window pane
Every living thing that ever found itself here
Was trying to escape outdoors
Cut a smile to the core
It’s not funny anymore

You wanna find a better job
Something that might do people good
Make enough to hire a moving van
Smuggle us out of this neighbourhood

Every little penny we were trying to save
Found itself spoken for

Cut a smile to the core
It’s not funny anymore

I read about some socialists
I read about a lovely dream
I saw a businessman in court
Answering for his perfect scheme

Every single theory about saving the world
Leaves somebody wanting more

Cut a smile to the core
It’s not funny anymore
Shield your children from the gore
It’s not funny anymore