1. |
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Running around with a plunger on my head
It's my hand tugging on the other end
If only the procedure was easy
As suction and some elbow grease
To liberate me from these fleshy confines
Skin liable to erupt with the yellow slime
Hair from chin to groin but a voice that ain't even deep
Oh it cracks it creaks
Shed this pillar of meat instead
Of sheltering weakness held within
Give me a vessel steered by the shit inside my head
Running around on metal legs is easy
Goodbye 12-minute miles dreaded in PE
Plus they've got mini thrusters tucked away in the sides of the shins
Two arms of steel won't get you cut from the tennis team
Kind of control of which Tetsuo could only dream
Plus they've got hidden slits which emit a custom pheromone mix
For anybody lucky enough
To gaze 'pon the face that'd make Narcissus look up
Designed by the ghost of a certain turtleneck-wearing man
(And don't forget the year-round tan)
In 60 years mine will remain the same
Yours will resemble topographical survey
Your organs are failing and mine get a yearly upgrade
Shed this pillar of meat instead
Don't look back on the welter of sin
Give me a vessel steered by the shit inside my head
"Hold my beer" future me will say
Wheeling your chair to the end of the deck
Watch me do liners down into the uncanny valley
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2. |
Asymmetrical Beard
03:56
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My friend's got an asymmetrical beard but who am I to talk shit
He's pinned to his couch cause he threw his back out
Tossing MBS boxes
At the bookstore and after our shift
I help him home with a pack of six
Three for me three for him
For me distraction for him medicine
We talk around his novel
I know it's in the notebook he keeps in the backroom desk
I should go home to sleep but he's hungry
He laughs and he asks if I could grab a couple slices for a starving artist
This guy showed a sepia tone tooth when he smiled
I was reading by the statue at Columbus Circle
And we talked for a little while
He introduced me to his quiet wife
They moved from New Delhi for a better life
Construction management he confided
Would be ideal but e-commerce got them by
He had laminates about Amway
Nodded along but all that came to my mind were trains
Now it's a scam to me but maybe they think the same thing
Maybe it's a means of getting something a little better to eat
Now I've got an asymmetrical beard and an office job
Probation's over I'm burning through toner so I'm gonna grow it long
There's healthcare access but Obama's got me covered
Wish I could lend it to my bookstore brother
See the painter at the canvas
Protesters on campus
Cat in her lab
The city's alive
And there's me
Another wannabe
Fiddling with the speed dials on my old Technics
I'm like you you see
Don't need to be in bed to dream
Two years in the city and I'm still fucking hungry
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3. |
Strange Call
03:34
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An ancient name illuminates your screen
Your closet of a room
The radiator's patient pool
By 6 there will be boiled oats to swallow
There will be boots with salt-crust soles
There will be streets thick with dirt-spit snow
There will be calls missed but the car won't dig itself out
So go
Strange call pulls you backward
To when it was enough to think
Of strange calls pushing you forward
To the future that held everything
Days are ready-made
But this one brings a change
It's a strange call to you
Pull up in the parking lot
Of the Malden Stop and Shop
It's a new dawn it's a new day
So will you return the call
It might be early but it might be urgent
It might be nothing but who knows for certain
Maybe it's a portal to a better place
Or an oracle of portents awaits
In any case
Pushed by the hand of fate
Is better than being held in place
With a phone and imagining
Strange calls pulling backward
To when it was enough to think
Of strange calls pushing you forward
To the future that held everything
Days are ready-made
But this one brings a change
It's a strange call to you
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4. |
Eschaprom
05:54
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High on shoeshine
In the two-bed railroad
Contacts dry
Still up watching videos
Stumbled upon that scene
Where an airplane turbine crashes through the roof
From one of my favorite movies
When I was a shy kid in high school
And I remember the first time
HDMI at Payam's home
Although all my friends were there
I felt it spoke to me alone
Now I know
It was the same selfishness again
Driving out for pizza and cheesy bread
I was lying in the minivan trunk staring at the sky
Vaguely wishing the world would end
They were talking 'bout girls watching out for cops
Cause there were nine of us and some had hotboxed
I was thinking about earthquakes floods the wrath of God
And gathering forces beyond MVLA
Apocalypse is fine
When else would I get to save my loved one's lives
A fifth boardsman swooping in
Stooping on a second-hand Sector 9
Every day changed
No more freaking out about my GPA
NSA's a-calling saying
"We've been watching you all this time
So take this laser weapon prototype
See the invasion fleet make 'em meet their doom"
Flames would rise
Water would fall
Wormholes would open up
I'd score a date to the eschaprom
I was chewing on a burnt bit of crust
The slice was over cooked an extra minute or ten
When the pizza chick left it in the oven
Was the same kind of story playing in her head
When she stepped out
On a smoke break
I was the extra
She'd forgotten my face
I was whining inside
Poking scorched dough
Snapping those plastic fork tines
In my movie she'd probably die
What I mean is a pixel of CGI
Drowned in a digital tide
Guess who's kicking ass back at the storm's eye
Vorpal blade mirrored shades
Hasta la vista yippee ki yay
Bay rearranged like Lombard Street
From SF to San Jose
What say the starving souls in EPA
If it was all for a privileged kid to have his fun
Trading in all of the comforts of my mundane disappointment
Now I know back at Payam's place
We were all hypnotized
Yeah that shit was made for me for sure
And a few other million worldwide
Now I can laugh
At bunny suit prophecies
But that don't keep me from smelling like shoeshine
Watching YouTube after midnight
Terrified
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5. |
If I Despair
04:30
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If I despair now
Take me way way back
I'd ask myself, "What's it like to have lights, you know kid
You ain't got it all that bad"
We'd be out dancing having fun
Two bodies aligned until mine wasn't
Two others beside us to whom we did not exist
His hand light upon her hip
And she touched his hair
So if I despaired
Between four to six beers
Cut me off or pour another
Pint for a lightweight who'd cry when the night was done
But that was decades ago
Now we sit by the fire
Wild with luck we've found
A couple tins floated in
From a ship last night in the Sound
We laugh and remember how we used to get so down
Crooked fingers lift soy paste from metal to mouth
So if I despair now
I know it's only gonna get worse
If I despair now
Remind me of the fight
It might not change a thing
But the friction it brings
Creates its own firelight
If I despair now
On our little barge
Take my hand in the dark
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Glass Tactics New York, New York
Indie/alt/punk-inflected rock n' roll, NYC.
Scott Sugarman
Danny Kearney
Nick Paldino
Booking: glasstactics@gmail.com
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