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1. |
Prayer
02:17
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Oh Lord
Please make me
Punk as Fuck
And help me live life
One mistake at a time
I've got no money
Not much luck to give
So Lord
Please make me
Punk as Fuck
The City's gone plastic and prim
Halls are swept hourly by minimum wage
The Jakes raise their bats on a whim
While the poor people rage
I keep one eye firmly set wide
Keep my back straight
My lips wet
Swallow the bulk of my pride
For the love of my sweat
Oh, Lord
Please make me
Punk as Fuck
And help me live life
One mistake at a time
I've got no money
Not much luck to give
So Lord
Please make me
Punk as Fuck
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2. |
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We argued plot in the hot South Ferry sun
And the garbage trucks on Water street
Tilted all their filth away
You cut your hair in a fit of frantic grief
But you mutter soft and slow, "Don't Worry.
It'll all grow back someday."
My jawline swept the floor
I worried about my health
I was feeling fine before
"Til I realized
I'd been screaming at myself
Honestly
I can't see
How the tide turned the other way
I'm staring out my back door
Wondering how the sky
Turned from blue to grey
My tongue lays flat
My lips burst red
And thoughts of you run water through my weary salts
But every wink and nod I throw the aether's way
Gets muddled by the foggy brine that's clogging
All my cracks and faults
Tan lines kiss the sky
Dreams confront the day
Eyes burn hot and dry
As my ghoulish pride
Throws its weight into the fray.
Am I wasted?
Can I lean on these fibrous, crackling nerves
Beneath my skin?
Keep it simple
Keep it clean
Wash the memories from your back so you can
Stand another day
So if, by chance, my breathing breaks the dawn
And the River Skai runs black
While all the phantoms hide their teeth til noon
I'll point my battered nose toward the briar's edge
And hum a few more bars
Of some old dirge
That I learned far too soon
The taste of heliotrope
A wistful touch of breeze
I deconstruct the scope
As the sun-drenched soil
Shoots a shock straight through my knees
Honestly
I can't see
How the tide turned the other way
I'm staring out my back door
Wondering how the sky
Turned from blue to grey.
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3. |
Art is Never Free
03:34
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Sara takes notes
Learned to watch and fix
Taught herself piano at five
Mastered all the notes by six
Daddy beats her mom
Screams "It's for your own good!"
Trapped in her cage
Learns to bottle up her rage
Like a good girl should
Seventeen comes
She shows a rockin' tune or twelve
Now the kids all know her name
"Play it, Sara!" The pulsing throng
Is laughing, dancing, singing along
"Who gives a shit how your life went wrong?
All we want is another free song!
All we want is another free song!"
Little Sara sings
Teenage Sara screams
Grown-up Sara belts and holds her own
Working hard to keep it alive
Now that all her fans have grown
Billy runs the show
Seasons wounds with his salt
Says, over brunch
"Tuck your tits up in a bunch."
Tells her "It's your fault."
Out on the stage
She calls for change to even the score
But the crowd barks out again
And again
And again
And again
"Shake it, Sara! You talk too long.
Back to poppin', where you belong!
We're glad to pay for a peak at your thong!
But all we want is another free song!
All we want is another free..."
OH, leave 'em, Sara! Shout it out strong!
Don't waste your life on a lazy, dumb throng
They think they're smart
But they're doing it wrong
'Cuz all they want is another free song.
All they want is another free song.
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4. |
New Song
03:01
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On the day I collapse
I will catch your eye
And kiss your quivering palm
And I will know you by your scent
And you will know me by my psalm
On the day I collapse
The rattling sabres all shall lose their boast
And I will write you letters
Penned with just the words I like the most
On the day I collapse
I will laugh at every thump beneath my shirt
And every time I stood in awe
At sultry shapes beneath a skirt
The wind will fail, the earth will crack,
The sea will shuffle to its grays
Yeah the day I collapse
Will be the boldest of my days
And I'll wake like I never slept
Lips frothed and pale
From promises unkept
On the day I collapse
I will see you dancing solo on the porch
Your sun dress spinning through the fog
With just a smile for your torch
And you'll go on and on
'Bout how the world still loves me
In its own dark, twisted ways
Yeah, the day I collapse
Will be the lightest of my days
Will be the lightest of my days
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5. |
Moonlight
02:34
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There's a lack of focus in the Sun
It don't quite crisp the way
That moonbeams settle on root and vine
Her stems stand soft and sweetly spun
She lays her breathing next to mine
And as the stars align
Dragging light through the flotsam
She reveals herself
Like pollen in the blossom
And sinks her hooks down through my fertile soil
My veins gape wide
And thoughts print bold
You and I will run these mazes of old
'Til the sun cuts through the night
Fresh as babes and thick as thieves
Splashing nocturnes over the wildgrass
And through the leaves
Catch my heartstrings on the thorn
And grit my teeth as her branches sway in time
And I have lost my way with words
Crippled by the day-to-day
Air grows stale
And my insides turn a pale
Withered gray
But as the stars align
Dragging light through the flotsam
She reveals herself
Like pollen in the blossom
And sinks her hooks down through my fertile soil
My veins gape wide
And thoughts print bold
You and I will run these mazes of old
'Til the sun cuts through the night
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6. |
I Never Told You
02:49
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You're right beside me
I can hear your sighs
I can feel your fingers kill the itch behind my eyes
I'm watching songbirds settle
Into fine-tuned rows
Holding back the urge to kiss
The dirt between your toes
Funny, I can't recall the day
Funny, I don't remember which cool thing I had tried to say
Funny, it's never gone quite this way
You whisper, through the radio-play
"Hold me.
Just hold me.
Just hold me for a while."
Hold me.
Just hold me.
Just hold me for a while.
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7. |
Pretend
02:36
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Work up my courage
Drain a bitter pint
Drum out a confidential prayer
She's radiating rum
And warming up the light
I'm trying, poorly,
Not to stare
Let me come clean
Let me be bold
It's been an age since I've been sold
But if you can bear with the ebb and flow
We can pretend your scars don't show
And if I can prove my stories are true
We can pretend I'm
Pretty enough for you
I'm ripped up, torn apart, and breathing free
I've licked my wounds and I've tallied the marks
And I have lost my patience with lust and bad poetry
The rusty metal still casts sparks
But you've got some grace
You've got some nerve
You've got that shattered skin
Promises to keep
And guts to preserve
So
If you can bear with the ebb and flow
We can pretend your scars don't show
And if I can prove my stories are true
We can pretend I'm pretty enough for you
So if you can bear with the ebb and flow
We can pretend your scars don't show
And if I can prove my stories are true
We can pretend I'm pretty enough
Yeah, we can pretend I'm pretty enough
We can pretend I'm pretty enough for you
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8. |
Middle Child
04:53
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Bobby's got his daddy's eyes
But missed out on the
Nihilistic point of view
Gets his smile from the curls around the corner
And a stubborn streak that pushes him through
Well, did you ever notice?
Is it plain and clear?
How every time September rears its head
It musses up your year?
It's a long, cold march back to square
But I guess it's worth winter
It's worth the heartache and the crawl
If it means I have you in the fall
These country nights
Muddle up my head
And keep me from my sleep
And everyone keeps asking why I never call
The look in your eyes
Makes me aware of the probable outcome
But you say they'll beat me down
Before I'm even three-foot-small
Well, Bobby, fuck 'em all
Yeah fuck 'em all
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I say fuck 'em all
I say fuck 'em all
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Marisol, singing sweet down the road through Carolina
Mama's blowing up her phone
Brother don't quite get her style
Blazing past the exits
Cuttin' through the drear
And every time the mirrors flash her gaze
The blessing beats the fear
My belly burns fire through my chest
'Til I am fused, 'til I am whole
She says I barrel through minefields
I say "I do the best I can.
If I had a hope, I'd have a plan."
These neon lights peel away my calm
And blister through my cheek
And every withered scripture drags into a drawl
The blue in her sighs
Makes me aware of the bruises she's hiding
She tells me 'bout the shattered glass,
The judging eyes, the punctured wall
Well, Mari, fuck 'em all
Yeah, fuck 'em all
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I say fuck 'em all
I say fuck 'em all
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
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9. |
Skin
03:21
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I won't worry 'bout the damage
North Korea
Or the past
I won't worry 'bout the women that I've met
They'll eventually
Forgive my stupid ass
And I will not be scared of satan
Or his brother, jesus, with the fish tattoo
I won't fright if I lose my mind tonight
Yeah my skin
The skin will fail when it do
I won't worry 'bout the good friends
Or the bad friends
Or the friends I'll never meet
I won't worry 'bout this fever in my head
Or the bloody footprints that I leave
On the gritty-city concrete
And you can't make me fear the ocean
Or the folks who see it from a different view
I won't pray
If my heart gives out today
yeah, my skin
The skin will fail when it do
And any sense I had, I've lost
And any plans I've laid got tossed
But sense will come someday
And my plans, they never turn out worth the cost
So take me down to see Miami
I swear I will not fear the rising tides
I won't be afraid
Of the enemies I've made
I have long since given up
On choosing sides
And I still will not be fearing satan
Or his brother, jesus, with that fake tattoo
I won't fright when I lose my mind tonight
Yeah, my skin
The skin will fail when it do
The skin will fail when it do
The skin will fail when it do
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10. |
When The Time Comes
04:22
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AC on
Sunlight dripping 'cross the floor
Shoes untied
Socks are hanging
Cat paw scratching at my door
And I
I've torn through my sheets again
Coffee black
Sweetener here and there
Toast and eggs
Pretend to straighten up my hair
And the air is rich
The ground is sure
My hands are restless in their bones
And you can't hurt me anymore
Screaming my way down Glen Cove Ave
In a sea-green, eighty-six Taurus
Wondering 'bout what I would not have
And if we made the right choice for us
But I
I couldn't have chosen a better one
So I ran all the stop signs
I hit all the curbs
Flipped off the cops
Struck a fire through the 'burbs
Cut the wires of the city
Blurring the lines
Disregarding the gutless
And ignoring the fines
And the air is rich
The ground is sure
My legs are stronger than they were
And you can't hurt me anymore
And everybody's out to lunch
Out to get ahead
Thinking they can't be seen
Pretty, snarling little bunch
Sucking plasma red
And turning putrid green
So
Bring on the dayjob and empty hands
Mask a lie with good intentions
And the one thing nobody understands
Is what everybody mentions
But you
And I
And all of us
Are gonna run wild through the night sky
And they will strike at our senses
They will heave at our woes
They will stuff our heads with their tired judgments
Smack our jaws as our hunger grows
And though their lashes split our hides
Their curses plagued and pure
Our gaping maws will insatiably roar
You can't hurt me anymore
You Can't Hurt Me Anymore
You Can't Hurt Me Anymore
You Can't Hurt Me Anymore
You Can't Hurt Me Anymore
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theythem New York, New York
BOOKING:
Chris.theythem@gmail.com
facebook.com/theythemrock
"This is not your average Folk radio. The sound that [theythem] creates is pure gold, and Notes to My Blood is a charming, artistic record, that will draw new and old fans alike."
- No Depression, The Journal of Roots Music
"Tasteful and refined, Chris Norwood’s 'Year of the Bear' represents the future of folk."
-Skopemag.com
... more
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