1. |
Nine Years On
04:06
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When Grampa says don't trust the boys you meet
Mama's always staring at her feet
Say your prayers again
Grampa jokes he'll be around a while
Long enough to walk me down the aisle
Say your prayers again
They say my father died overseas
For medals none of us will ever see
Say your prayers again
At night Mama puts her records on
She dances, cries, laughs, and sings along
Say your prayers again
There's a girl in school, her face is just like mine
When her father picks her up, he won't look me in the eye
I heard a teacher whisper he doesn't seem the type
I heard a teacher whisper he doesn't seem the type
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2. |
Rotterdam
05:01
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All one ever wants
Is to live on after you're gone
Dawn in Rotterdam
Dawn in Rotterdam
Sixteen in your boyfriend's car
You all don't know how lucky you are
Dawn in Rotterdam
Dawn in Rotterdam
Before my body rots
Tell me are we damned or not
My man, he's all of them
The first guy I met on this boat
I said I'm on the pill, he'll never know
I snuck out, no goodnight kiss
The ticking of my clock, like the 1940 blitz
This dawn in Rotterdam
Dawn in Rotterdam
I stumbled to my room
In the fecund lowland gloom
The sire, he's all of them
Dawn in Rotterdam
Dawn in Rotterdam
I'll fly home before I show
Get insured and tell my folks
I'll fix up my old place
He'll never see the face of the man who fathered him
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3. |
Downtown
04:06
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They drive in from Orinda
They drive back to Orinda
It's not the real job
I always dreamed of
Old loft at Sixth and Reaper
Burn books so gas is cheaper
The guilt fulfills me
It's all so filthy here
Cash first you know the deal, man
Don't tell me 'bout your children
It's just a fraction
Just a transaction
Nothing's broken but all is bent
Their wives don't know they pay my rent
They're going downtown again
It's my sister calling
She got knocked up in Holland
She's 38
It seems a bit late
She bought the stroller and crib
He'll make it just like I did
Strange way for life to start yet
He'll learn just how dark life can get
It's never easy
It's never easy
When my nephew leaves the womb
I'll be seeing clients in hotel rooms
I'm living downtown for life
When our heartbeats finally slow
We know where our souls will go
They're going downtown for good
It happened so suddenly
It's just enough of this
Oh, that's my suffering
I'm not an awful man
I'm not that sorry man
I took it in my hands
Trash bags to cover it
Prints hidden under lye
Like diesel under fire
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4. |
The Glow
04:14
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I remember the news talking 'bout NATO ships in the Strait of Hormuz
Really who gives a crap about endangered bats when there's ten dollar gas?
Here comes Peabody into the valley like when Carbon County had coal
Forget Fukushima and Chernobyl, boys we're going back in the hole
I've seen you shining onto the diner register like a bride
Can I take you out? Cold wine coolers in the bed of my ride
Hold my hand until the shaking subsides
It's been three generations since we left the holler, we're not going back
The shifts keep us in Ford F-150s and TVs and out of the shacks
The Peabody man tells us limited exposure is safe
Just a tang in the back of my throat when the tunnel shakes
For the kids I'll do whatever it takes
Our love will grow
Our love will grow
If I curse it's just uranium dust in my brain
If I raise my hand it's just the tailings building up in my veins
Fingers losing grip on the reins
My bones will glow
My bones will glow
Heard a night crew got poisoned by something who knows what the company found
We were back on the job in two weeks hunting energy under the ground
Under the ground
Under the ground
Under the ground
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5. |
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When he was born his father took him to watch the storms
Mapping the transects, gauging wind speed, predicting impact
Sing to me, oh darkened sky
Read the breeze and prophesy
When he was older he went to school to make the forecast
Government bureau, involuntary furlough, mandated cutbacks
Federal disregard
Weather lab in his back yard
The watcher knows our sins
He calculates the wind
Starting this morning, on the scanner, something odd
Radiant signal in the shape of the face of God
Radioactivity
Hades come to make us clean
The watcher knows our sins
He calculates the wind
They said they loved us all along
And they said the weathermen were wrong
And they put us on the cots
And they administered the shots
And they told us God would rise
And they told us we'd survive
And they told us we were safe
When they sent us to the caves
The caves that glow and hum where they mined the uranium
And when he realized the winged policemen were no longer ours
He joined the air force, released the chem trails, poisoned the flowers
And by the autumn he'd forgotten why we fought
The watcher knows our sins
He calculates the wind
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6. |
Susan (Bat City)
02:42
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The year the winged policemen came
He kept our city entertained
When he bought his car with rock and flame
The bats called out your brother's name
Oh Susan, wasting time
Oh Susan, this place is dyin'
Your brother's crew was running loose
From Cedar Falls to Syracuse
The kitchen stove claimed the accused
Bats will tie a sturdy noose
Oh Susan, wasting time
Oh Susan, this place is dyin'
The EMTs tried their best
Burned to ash, his last request
Locked inside the family chest
Bats will lay him down to rest
Oh Susan, wasting time
Oh Susan, this place is dyin'
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7. |
Escape From Bat City
03:01
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I need a ride out of town
My Corolla broke down
I've got bullets and smokes and a couple gallons of gas
Just drive
Just drive
Tires on the road, keep the windows closed
Just drive
Just drive
The skyscrapers turned black
They're breeding in the cracks of the cooling towers
Must be thousands an hour
Just drive
Just drive
Tires on the road, keep the windows closed
Just drive
Just drive
All the leather wings are beating as one
Leave your belongings man we gotta run
That weatherman says they're gonna block out the dawn
I'm not worried 'bout Susan, she's already gone
Just drive
Just drive
Tires on the road, keep the windows closed
Just drive
Just drive
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8. |
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In heaven will the women of the sun still build our televisions
And will their phantom husbands still mow our golden lawns?
Will the blood of Babylon still fertilize our bad decisions
And will angels of the islands babysit our cherub spawn?
In Eden will the heathens like my sibling ever get let in
Will they turn paradise into a hard-knock afterlife?
Will the fallen in Valhalla cut ambrosia with Robitussin
Or if there's no depression will our souls be free from strife?
In the world to come will we be judged for what we've done
To our loved ones, and our livers, and all three of our city's rivers?
If the Pantheon's next session decides the bats taught us a lesson
I hope St. Peter or Justitia sees fit to forgive us, yeah
It's all bath salts and Twilight in the Triangle tonight
I'm glad you drove out yesterday and I'm glad I chose to stay
There's not much point in screaming since the bats can hear the shouts
Ted, I halfway love you, and I hope you make it out, yeah
My father was a miner in Eastern Pennsylvania
And when his shift was over you could see his tonsils glow
When my mother had a shiner, and the street wine sparked her mania
She'd say we were an evil that he brought from down below
Oh those second gen reactors relied on Carbon County
And the families of the valley, we all needed the wage
Now that wind will power our factories, we've given up on counting
How little we yielded from the last atomic age
But when my brother got in trouble or when I'd be unfaithful
To you, or the man before, or the boy who was my first one
I'd think that in my youth, my mother had been truthful
The likes of us were never meant to walk above the surface, no
When at last things get better, and a coroner finds this letter
I know you might feel worse that I never told you this in person
I pray the bats don't take it, sorry the writing's shaky
Ted I halfway love you, I really hope you make it, yeah
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9. |
Repopulation Blues
05:02
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Take it from Chad, take it from 'Clef, refugee camps they aren't the best
But they're often all that's left
I know you're in mourning too, hey if there's anything we could have done
Hey if there's anything I can do
Gallows humor won't keep this encampment safe
But it looks like we're gonna have some time to waste
So turn the sonar scrambler on, sing me some old camping song
There's room enough in this tent for both of us
Pretend it's not the end of time, pour me a whiskey and iodine
There's room enough in this tent for both of us, and what passes for lust
I never used to talk to men
It put me off my dinner when I saw my sister sin
In the parking lot after church with the pastor's son
She's gone now, so is most everyone
Jesus was a good guy I guess
But he never quite prepared me for this mess
So turn the sonar scrambler on, sing me some old camping song
There's room enough in this tent for both of us
Pretend it's not the end of time, pour me a whiskey and iodine
There's room enough in this tent for both of us, and what passes for lust
I knew bats would do us in, on my last church group mission
We all road tripped down to Austin
By the Congress Avenue Bridge, I felt them flying all over me
A hundred thousand of Satan's kids
I know you just lost someone
But if you don't make me pregnant, the bats have already won
So turn the sonar scrambler on, sing me some old camping song
There's room enough in this tent for both of us
Pretend it's not the end of time, pour me a whiskey and iodine
There's room enough in this tent for both of us, and what passes for lust
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10. |
First the Bad News
10:48
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White nose and agent orange fall down like Lucifer
First snow of the season shrouds the dead in October
Gather in the clearing see what rations the choppers bring
Stay away from the waterways, mosquitoes will plague in spring
Seems like folks are leaving the Autonomous Latrobe Frontier
We could move to Cleveland or we could start our family here
Move into a farmhouse where nothing's gonna grow
Forage in the wreckage, melt our bathwater from the snow
Out of the wilderness
Out of the wilderness
Out of the wilderness
Out of the wild
No laws, no shame, no shahs, no pain
No bills, no needs, no guilt, no greed
No rules, no tears, no fools, no fears
No feasts, no poor, no peace, no war
No creeds, no cries, no breeds, no lies
No goals, no sighs, our souls will rise
Out of the wilderness
Out of the wilderness
Out of the wilderness
Out of the wild
So each winter frost erodes the days before they all were killed
Now we live outside the limits of the city Carnegie built
Over time language leaves our tongues and we just talk in sign
Gesturing at setting suns like dumb canaries in a mine
When we run out of the pills we'll have to learn to treat the sores
We shoot warning flares when Air Force planes fly over dropping spores
We're relieved when storms out of the east are merely rain and wind
We believe that silent breezes are the voices of our kin
Damn this world's mean
Anthropocene
Can I say Bradshaw was our king? (oh yes you can)
Can I pray to the aquifers and springs? (oh yes you can)
Can I curse our maker for our fast? (oh yes you can)
Can I lose track of days and labor on the last? (oh yes you can)
Can I blame mom and uncle for my spite? (oh yes you can)
Can I strike a man who doesn't want a fight? (oh yes you can)
Can I take my neighbor as my whore? (oh yes you can)
Forget a farmstead I can grab it from the store? (oh yes you can)
Can I say he fired first? (oh yes you can)
Can I claim his house and wives to quench my thirst? (oh yes you can)
Oh yes you can
Oh yes you can
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The Lonelyhearts Iowa City, Iowa
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