1. |
Rotoscope Me
03:35
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Rotoscope me
tell me who I am
I must admit
I'm not quite the blank slate that you're looking for
no tabula rasa, but that's not a problem
for someone as clever as you
You'll take me
and take you pen and draw all over me what you wanna see
and babe I will let you, yes babe I will let you
cuz I like how I look in your mind's eye
Rotoscope me
tell me who I am
And I will live
as the clay that you molded and shaped in your hands
your greatest creation is your closest companion
cuz that's the way you want it to be
and even when
I'm outside of your line of sight I will still be
just how you want me, exactly how you want me
cuz it's how I want me too
uh huh
Rotoscope me
tell me who I am
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2. |
Raw Milk is Medicine
03:29
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I park my car 12 minutes walk away from where I live
cause I couldn’t be bothered to pay
I bike down to it in the freezing cold winter
Lock my bike to a pole and drive away
And one time when I was returning to that spot
I saw a sticker on the pole that said
Raw milk is medicine
And I had a chuckle, thinking “only in Vermont”
But I don’t think it is
And the evening casts a long shadow
A long shadow
I spent an hour today just dicking around
Cause I couldn’t focus on anything important
I get this way a lot and so I
Went and asked my friend if they could help me
They said “Phin you’re diagnosed with ADD
So if you wanted to ask for some prescription adderall
To fix what’s going on in your head
They’d probably give it to you and then you’d be just fine
And the evening casts a long shadow
A long shadow
Yeah I could probably do a little bit better
If I doped myself up before I began my day
But I don’t want to do that, I don’t know why
It feels like cheating
So while raw milk may not be medicine
I grew up drinking it cause I’ve got
Earthy crunchy parents
And when it comes to medicine
That kind of shit is more my speed
And the evening casts a long shadow
A long shadow
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3. |
Hillbilly Guitarist
04:15
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Give me
Back my light
When you told me that you thought
That it was time for us to finally say goodnight
Well the seeds they now are stirring
And the summer’s gentle whirring sound
Is floating up from Boston
As the world’s spinning around
You’re to the east of me so you can see
the sun before it rises o’er
The friendly water tower that my
Friend saw as a god when they were high
There’s a simple combination
Of words that you could say to let me
Sleep the the night as easy
As old Tommy wakes on a new day
And he can do that cause he’s got
A gun under his bed
And sixty seven years of hardship
He can laugh about instead of cry
You know I have got a piece of you inside me
And if you know where to find me I’ll say hi
How’ve you been?
It’s been a while
You know things are always changing
But I feel like there’s a moment
Where on one side it’s the darkness
And they other side’s the light
And I try to pay attention so that
when that moment comes I’m watching
But I get distracted
And I miss it every single time
Sometimes I feel as though
this very second is the only one I need
But then I think about
the things I haven’t seen
I know there’s a hillbilly guitarist
With tattoos on her hands
And I know if I could meet her
Then we’d have a fucking killer jam
You know I have got a piece of you inside me
And if you know where to find me I’ll say hi
How’ve you been?
It’s been a while
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4. |
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well you read a lot of books by women
and you like it when they smash their guitars
but many girls I know have a story
about a time you went too far
you say you listen to women
you say it til your mouth falls off
you hear every word that comes out of their lips
unless that word is stop
and you say that god's a woman
but I don't think that's true
cause if she were she'd strike you down
for all the shit you do
you pretend to be an ally
yet you treat treat these girls like dirt
I really hope something gets you
for all the people you hurt
I hate to burst your bubble
but this masquerade ends now
you're a low down dirty self serving creep
no better than a hound
and you say that god's a woman
but I don't think that's true
cause if she were she'd strike you down
for all the shit you do
to the men out in the audience
let this be a lesson to you
respect all the women you come across
not just the ones you want to screw
and you say that god's a woman
but I don't think that's true
cause if she were she'd strike you down
for all the shit you do
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5. |
Robin Snow
03:32
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It was three days and three cold nights ago
That pacing I looked out my window
Looked my eyes to down below
To where I saw a robin lying in the snow
In late september you were healthy and free
Flitting over fields of goldenrod in good company
And I thought you’d head south to find a warmer breeze
But no
Now you’re robin snow
Splayed out on the ground below
I don’t know oh I don’t know why you didn’t leave
But now it’s seventeen degrees
And you and both your pretty wings are froze
Farewell robin snow
I wonder if you saw it coming for a while
If shivering up in the branches you’re resigned or in denial
But you died with your wings spread as if in flight
Maybe you never gave up hope
Maybe something took you in a moment of surprise
It’s scary that a life can end before you realize
I’ve got a list of messages typed up in case I die
In my phone
In case I die like robin snow
Splayed out on the ground below
I don’t know oh I don’t know why you didn’t leave
But now it’s seventeen degrees
And you and both your pretty wings are froze
Farewell robin snow
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6. |
The Rats and the Roses
02:56
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Well, Lopside Manor was a strange looking edifice,
and no one room had a line to reflect
Maybe forty years back it wasn’t quite so treacherous,
but now I wouldn’t go there if you paid
My poor old lady used to have nine children,
but they all moved off to the US of A
Her husband died and only left her with millions, i
t was me and her and the rats and the roses
He arrived from the mist like a vulture to a carcass,
all young and suave and debonair
She was old and weak and didn’t want to seem heartless,
so she said he could stay just for a night
Well, one turned to two turned to three turned to four and soon it
seemed he’d be staying at the manor for good
I kept my rectitude but it was hard to ignore,
they only noticed each other, not the rats and the roses
Well, late one night I heard the kitchen bell a-ringin’
And the dumbwaiter was heavier than ever before
He scampered off and left the servants’ door a-swingin’
And the cops believed every lie that he swore
The moon shone brighter than my lantern’s candle
and the shovel seemed louder than a flintlock blast
Employment can be hard but it’s nothing I can’t handle,
so I left her sleeping with the rats and the roses
Today he’s travelling in Spain or in Italy,
the old woman’s still ‘neath the garden bed
And I’m stuck here in a cell built with symmetry,
and ain’t no one left but the rats and the roses
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7. |
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Little Roxanne well she was born
to a family of ten who the world did scorn
they worshiped a golden eye
that would save them all someday
Little Roxanne wanted many things
but she was married off when she was 16
away she ran, and she never looked back
to that dark day
Little Roxanne, rat runaway would steal the golden eye someday
take it home to her family and blow everything to hell
she knew they'd all fight over it and it would be their ruin
she didn't know when or if she'd find it
but she hoped it would be soon
Little Roxanne found a pirate ship
And worked aboard to earn her keep
She was clever and bright and the captain saw
And made her the first mate
And one day while ransacking an earl
Amidst all of the jade & pearls
Was the fabled golden eye, she saw
and she said it must be fate!
Little Roxanne rat runaway,
Stole the golden eye that day
Took it home to her family and blew everything to hell
They bickered and fought and clawed and screeched
and bit each other’s tails
She didn’t stay to see the cult’s destruction
away, Little Roxanne sailed.
Little Roxanne found a place on the shore
And dedicated herself forevermore
To helping girls she once was like with no place else to go
And now no one knows of her pirate days,
For she’s just known for her char’table ways
And no one speaks of the golden eye which sank beneath the waves
Little Roxanne rat runaway,
Stole the golden eye that day
Took it home to her family and blew everything to hell
They bickered and fought and clawed and screeched
and bit each other’s tails
She didn’t stay to see the cult’s destruction
away, Little Roxanne sailed.
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8. |
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One day after I graduate, I’ll decide to see the world, so I’ll tear
all my ID up, and burn all of my money
Then I’ll drive into the sunset like some twisted modern cowboy,
leaving nothing there behind me, and taking nothing with me
I’ll be travelling by boxcar to see the sights I wanna see, like
Arizona or some bullshit, maybe the Florida Keys
And I’ll be not paying attention to the people who deserve this more
than me, ‘cause it’s America, goddamn land of the free
Thirty to fifty feral hogs, go hunting late at night,
but you see;
I know they’ll never, ever catch me
‘cause I’ll be living, in a small town in New Hampshire, and I’ll
be working at a bakery, but only on the weekends
Just enough to earn store credit, to get my weekly meals, which I’ll
then take back to my campsite, in an empty farmer’s field
And every Saturday I’ll walk to town, past a kind old lady on the
corner with a smile, and a shopping cart of garbage bags
She used to rent a small apartment, ‘til she got evicted, ‘cause her
doctor gave her painkillers, and let her get addicted
Thirty to fifty feral hogs, go hunting late at night,
but you see;
I know they’ll never, ever catch me
If I don’t die in a magic bus in rural Alaska,
then I’ll die inside a dumpster, in Omaha Nebraska
Not a trail that goes to nowhere,
but the parking of CVS, by the traffic cones and
streetlights, and a homeless man who says
My body is a temple, that’s what they always tell me,
but I’m a Spanish colonizer, in the early fifteen hundreds in
Central America, a lone conquistador,
could the metaphor be any more, obvious than that
And I’ll be living off of food scraps,
from all the local restaurants, that they
guard with submachine guns, that I’ll fight past with my poorly trained
Army of raccoons, beneath the rising moon,
until they finally rip my face off and at
long last I’ll stop singing these tunes
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9. |
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The lyrics say "she hopes I'm cursed
to loneliness forever"
but it's less like it's her wish
than like she's forecasting the weather
You don't wish me ill, or anything
but your words predict the same
a cloudy sky until I die
still singing your name
But I'm alright, I'm ok
only a fool wouldn't come with a plan
I've got to get out of this town tomorrow
tonight if I can
Cause no matter what these people do
no matter if I can't have you
I can run til the blood beats hot in my veins
and the cold in the air doesn't bring me pain anymore
You say you're sorry but you shouldn't be
cause I can write nine more passionate melodies
and I've got some fucking badass friends
still looking out for me
In fact let's stop right now and dedicate this song to them
I've written songs about strangers but it's my friends I depend on
to get me through the times when I feel like I'm fucked
and I'll never see the sun again
They know that I'm alright, I'm ok
and none of us even have a plan
and the scariest part of growing up
is seeing we never will
Even though I don't know what's true
Even though I can't have you
I can run til the blood beats hot in my veins
and the cold in the air doesn't bring me pain anymore
On days like these I'm tempted to throw away
every song I've wrote about love
a thousand dorky rhymes about being your guy
and something about the stars above
I wonder how Francis had the strength to keep singing
what life was about even when he kept sinking
into romantic fatigue, that familiar abyss
of the vague idea of a person you miss
I've still got miles to travel today
and the sky is so black and the road is so gray
and I've got that strange gloomy feeling and it's poignant and gross
but it the strangest of ways you were there
when I needed you most
yeah I can still sing that life's about love
even though I haven't got a hand to hold
cause I can look out at the city and the trees and the people and love it all
my whole life long
my whole life long
So you can drink to this, El, if you feel like you can
whether you sit on the floor or you're taking a stand
but I've got to find a way to work with my hands
Cause I wish you the best
but I wrote this song for me
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Tall Travis Burlington, Vermont
We sing about our feelings but we do actually want to overthrow the government
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