1. |
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You squeezed the space
Down to a speck
Now there’s no space
How will we breathe?
Thighs on my neck
Toes in your face
Don't you see
That we need room left to grow
I wish I knew what I know
What was I supposed to do?
I know you're scared
I'm scared as well
Everyone's scared
I know you want
I want things too
We end up ensnared
I’ll admit
Sometimes I feel like a mark
We wandered into the dark
What was I supposed to do?
I had to run away from you
Through nests of red and yellow pink
Maybe someone’s had too much to think
I said goodbye it came out hello
Sometimes I want to cap my night alone
I know you’re desperate
I’m desperate too
Everyone’s desperate
I try to control the way that I think
It’s out of control
Even now I wonder why I’m still here
When I could be in the clear
What was I supposed to do?
Wait till the lies I tell myself come true
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2. |
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Carl Wilson’s corpse rose
Humming “God Only Knows”
And Philip Marlowe brought gin
I’d rather live in
The LA in my mind
Winding down Mulholland
A sea of lights ‘round the bend
Hugging every hairpin
I’d rather crash in
The LA in my mind
Facing west on Sunset
The setting sun getting wet
And drowning our corruption
I’m going clear in
The LA in my mind
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3. |
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I've been panicking a bit the past few days
Some psychosomatic fun
I would calm myself down
But the mirror has a gun pulled on me
And everybody knows the mind controls the body
Everybody knows the mind controls the body
The Greeks sung out from a chorus in the lobby
The more you desire, the more you worry
Wish you would understand
Nothing’s really all that bad
But you see what you don't have
And you want it all
Just think of all the folks who fought
And made it out of hell
Just to rant about their lives in Hallandale
While I look straight down at the back of my own skull
A higher consciousness wasn't there
It was more like a road
Leading down to god knows where
Nothing’s really all that bad
But you see what you don't have
And you want it all
Just think of all the folks who fought
And made it out of hell
Just to rant about their lives in Hallandale
Graduation day I found the Tao Te Ching
At a yard sale it was spring
And though it seemed a bit naive
There is something lingering, guiding me
And everybody knows the mind controls the body
Everybody knows the mind controls the body
The Greeks sung out from a chorus in the lobby
The more you acquire, the more you worry
Wish you would understand
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4. |
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It caught you by surprise
Rolling with the cargo as the interstate winds
In the trunk of a Chevrolet
And you can't tell the time
You call into the darkness but you get no reply
And realize that you're speeding down the interstate blind
Something else is steering the way
Leading to a destiny that waits for you
Where your path is free to stray
But as you retrace your steps
It always ends the same way
In the trunk of a Chevrolet
Well you can still decide
To roll with every tumble like a carnival ride
Or claw into the lining knowing you've been shanghaied
Into a role that you can't even explain
Give into the noise that's surrounding you
Or shut it out and open up another view
And there you are inside a film cell
The pictures cast a deep spell
With all the lies they tell
Can't believe a thing
We took the Myers-Briggs
But we cheated from their sheet as well
Now your hands are just blank space
Directly in the pathway of your dumbfounded gaze
The lighter in your hand provides a flickering flame
Still tumbling in the same Chevrolet
Are you glad to be alive?
Not waiting for the moment when the help will arrive
Or fearing for the moment when it all takes a dive
Because either is a possible way
The fork splayed
All that you can do is follow the flame
Shining out through every frame
But while you play the scene,
The camera dollies back on the big screen
And when your scene is through
You can fly off to a cape that curls round like the moon
Be buried in the sand beside an ocean of blue
The answer's always one step away
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5. |
The Darkest Mountain
03:15
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The darkest mountain always stands in the way, it’s a shame
you can barely spot a glimpse of open highway
So you try to catch up to that glimmer ahead
But with every step somehow it’s further instead
And vultures are circling high over you
As they try to survive out here too
And I remember how we climbed up the canyon and stood
Looking out over all the stars under Hollywood
And noticed the stars in the sky dying too
As they try to survive like we do
And if we put it to a vote we could change everything
No need to stage an outright revolution
Cause I get the impression a wheel is involved
Would it be idling while we watched it revolve?
Endlessly spinning but failing to move
Well we could coalesce and invite
Every shill on the take on the right
Every last demagogue parasite
To that mountain as dark as the night
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6. |
Triage
02:43
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With the TV on all night and me asleep
The pundits mobilized and oozed out of the screen
And climbed down from the shelf
And crawled across the floor
And with the utmost stealth
Slid into my dream
And I was back at school
The gun was on me
I heard the trigger snap
And fell down to my knees
And through the paper floor
And through the blackest black
Into the lecture hall
And back into my seat
I heard they set up triage
At the Domino's right down the street
i awoke and caught his name
His life is now complete
And the cycle will repeat
Man, I’d kill to be on TV
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7. |
Austin Millbarge
03:25
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High school doesn't teach a class on how to trade
Your grades for cash, no
High school doesn't teach a class
On conflict resolution
That’s your family's task
Between the knife attacks
Now I’m filing my taxes
It’s quite advanced
But I am on the brink of financial collapse
Maybe I should've been listening
High school doesn't teach a class on career mistakes
Indentureships, no
High school doesn't teach a class
On how to make the good times last
When money slips
Through fingertips
Catcher in the Rye
Torch the manuscript
Damn if I can find any good in it
Maybe I should've been listening
I tried to steal my neighbor's cable
The block went dark
I thought that I was Austin Millbarge
Was that just a flaw in my reasoning?
Well I’m somehow always feeling like I’m not myself
and yet I keep on wishing I was someone else
Could that be the reason we're sinking?
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8. |
Everyone's a Critic
07:50
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By the time you go on
You can barely stand upon
Your own two feet
At least there's no more blinding pain, it hides
But when you hear the band, you rise
Your spirit gives a ghostly scream
That’s how you make it seem
But through the curtains who could tell
That you were living in a shell?
No one knew that you would soon be gone away
And from that point began our slow decay
It never was the same, a dream
Projected through a beam
That’s how you make it seem
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Psychic Lines Brooklyn, New York
Psychic Lines is the work of Phil Jacob. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, by way of Kentucky and Virginia. Also
plays in Vague Plot.
Psychic Lines also currently consists of basser Dann Baker and drummer Nancy Polstein.
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