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1. |
Pulling Teeth
03:23
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There’s one thousand things they’ll teach you
Just before they turn to leech you of your soul
And all your time
And they’ll be “so pleased to meet you”
And to know if they can treat you to a meal,
They’ll pour the wine.
Then they’ll tell you that you want it,
And they’ll show you how to flaunt it
At the same time as you climb
When you’re so wowed by all the glamour
You can’t even feel the hammer
As it shatters through your spine.
But I didn’t get the words they said
And I never learned to write between the lines
Before you read.
And they tell you you’re alone.
Now you’re drowning in politeness
But you start the sense the tightness
of the rope you walk or hang.
They’ve got eight fingers in your pies
And the last two in your eyes
To hide the glistening of their fangs.
But we could hear the words not said,
Slip between their grinning teeth
To make their way inside your head
Then they tell you you’re so close.
Yes, there’s ten thousand things they’ll teach you
To facilitate the breach into your head
Your heart, your mind.
And if you dare not meet projections
You find - despite your best objections -
They will cast you from their side.
But I didn’t get the words they said
And I never learned to write between the lines
Before you read.
And they tell you you’re alone.
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2. |
Global Citizen
03:47
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Oh, All day long
I think about the ways that I have been
Brought up to be
By my parents by my friends,
By that sweeping camera lens,
By my own will and by societies
Now I know that there are different homes
And a billion types of different folks
And that for each one there's a different way to be
Oh, still I can't escape the feeling that, oh
Despite us having different maps
That the people need a community
(Chorus):
But I've been watching that fall away
I've been watching that fall and we're still breathing
But we'll go belly-up!
I've been watching that fall away
I've been watching that fall and we're still breathing
but we'll go belly-up!
[Bah-Dah Dah Bah Bah-Dah 3x… Woah ohhh]
Well, if there is one thing that's been known to wedge
us back between the walls of hedge
in our backyards in the scorching summer scene,
Oh, it's the way we treat our brothers' need
as an impedance, to what we perceive
as necessity, but it ain't that, it's greed.
(Chorus)
Now it's a simple fact that we react
from our egos long before our tact
because selfish sells,
you're just doing what you've seen!
but in that waving flag that all you hold
there are millions and millions of little holes
where the rest of the human race is meant to be…
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3. |
Hats Off
02:43
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So I guess I must confess
I seldom call and often waste my time,
around you
and yes it's true I'm not the best
at singing songs and all the rest,
but at least this ones about you.
When we started playing shows,
backyard parties we had thrown when no one else had come,
Yet you're the ones we sing to.
Hats off you've made
my every day and I can't lie…
I know I don't deserve your dedication,
Still you serve it with elation in your eyes
This one's for mom and dad - you know I love you guys.
Next I'm talking on my phone
Or I'm on the bus and you're all alone,
You pay my way but still you're waiting
I still ain't got a real job,
I'm a full-time unemployed musician,
And the evening light is waning.
But when I get to hold your hand
I'm the luckiest damn man I get to say "See her,
(yeah) she's the one I sing to..."
Hats off you've made
my every day and I can't lie…
I know I don't deserve your dedication,
Still you serve it with elation in your eyes
This one's for mom and dad you know I love you guys
In the early days, all the hell we raised,
for parents and our neighbours,
Who are they to say, "you'll never see the day.."
(at last) the practice beats the paper.
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4. |
Sun And The Stars
03:12
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Don’t turn on the stars ‘cause I’m not quite ready yet,
I’ll take their bet that we can’t make it through.
And when you come to me and tell me all the things you’ve seen
I’ll wonder what we could have been, that’s true.
But I believe things are better than they seem
And when I find you’re beaming,
I see their bet and think I’ll raise it too.
Now don’t turn off the sun cause I think I’m over that,
You’ll take my hand when there’s nothing else to do.
And when I think of all the places I’d have rather been,
They’re drowning in a sea named after you.
But I believe we can find relief
And when I find you dreaming,
I see their bet and think I’ll raise it too.
Yeah I believe we can find relief
And when I find you dreaming,
I see their bet and think I’ll raise it too.
But there’s still so much more for us to do.
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5. |
Shut My Mouth
03:00
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I never knew my father
when I grew up as a child
after ten years in the wilderness
he never shook the wild
I took the chalice from the arc
and I threw away the harp
filled my overflowing grin
with a toast to myself again.
Well maybe if I shut my mouth...
Maybe if I SCREAMED ALOUD
Maybe if I let you love me
Maybe you could break me down
But for now...
On my best behaviour
and in the best of days
I'm beating down these demons
but I can't escape their cage
it's not so much the piety
in answering the call
but the bittersweet humility
that I was never king at all
Well maybe if I shut my mouth...
Maybe if I SCREAMED ALOUD
Maybe if I let you love me
Maybe you could break me down
On the brink of my extinction
could you spare a prayer for
all the space I've put between us
and every pace across the floor.
Could you spare a second glance
from the soldiers at my door.
Or at least a second chance
to be the man I was before
Well maybe if I shut my mouth...
Maybe if I SCREAMED ALOUD
Maybe if I let you love me
Maybe I could make you proud
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6. |
Olé
03:28
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Olé! Olé! Comment ça va ce soir?
Je sais Je sais, qu’il se fait tard.
J’en ai marre j’en ai marre, de te voir assis là.
Dans le noir.
Allez! Allez! Je pense qu’il est temps qu’on redémarre!
Tu sais, tu sais, qu’il n’a pas tort!
Faut le croire, faut me croire,
Pour que tu cesses de boire
Écoute ton cœur sans mensonges
Tes frères, tes sœurs et tes anges
Écoute le vent qui change et il te changera
Assez! Assez! Ce n’est pas un hasard!
T’a laissé, laissé ta peur et tes dollars.
Je pense qu’il est temps, je pense qu’il est temps
Pour un nouveau départ.
Olé! Olé! T’é encore dans les bars?!
À trinquer, trinquer, ta bouteille de fort,
Pour avoir, pour avoir, juste un autre
Cauchemar
Olé! Olé! Comment ira demain soir?
Je sais Je sais qu’il n’est pas trop tard.
C’est la mort, c’est la mort, de te voir assis là.
Dans le noir
Allez! Allez! Yé temps qu’on redémarre,
Tu sais, tu sais que je n’ai pas tort
Faut me croire, faut me croire
Pour que tu cesses de boire
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7. |
Your Son
02:51
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You weren’t around to see the kind of man I’d grow to be
No you weren’t around to see your son.
I knew I’d scrape my knees along the road you paved for me,
But I never asked to be your son.
I know the game was fixed, and I know the factors in the mix
Yeah I know the game was fixed, but not who won.
I’m sure you did you best with the tools that you possessed
Yeah I’m sure you did you best with your gun.
But now I’ve come to see that in this two-tiered tragedy
We play our parts in blindness ‘till the curtain call’s complete.
And if the tension gets relieved, all the patrons who’ve come to grieve
Will learn the feeling trumps the plot.
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8. |
Bounty On His Head
03:56
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In all the time that I’ve been here
I never dreamt I’d see
The millions of people live so casually
And the airwave’s voice bids that we rejoice
Because the answers are in our tests
And the T.V. screens (at least the one’s I’ve seen)
Will demand a pound of flesh… a pound of flesh.
In the short time that I’ve been here
I never dreamt I’d see
The millions of people die so causally.
And the contract between life and death
Seems stained into our skin
So the contact point of our first steps
Will confine us to our kin… to our kin.
And the bomb-safe’s gate swings way too late
As the killing blow is dealt
And when the lips of men from their beds repent
It’s not really how they felt.
Because the keen ones know that the rich ones owe
Their fortunes to the dead.
And that the cash that flows from the dead mans bones
Is twice the bounty on his head
The bounty on his head.
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9. |
Generations
02:57
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Her son was raised by sitcoms,
Her daughter brought up in a Disney fantasy world
Father’s on to a new one,
Mothers secrets they pound at the back of her lips.
Her daughter’s getting lonely,
No time to think of the reasons we act in spite
Down for generations,
She’s finding the secrets they pound at the back of…
Her dreams were so much better.
She could pretend to be anything,
We can’t be all but empty faces,
Pretending we’re anything but
What our parents have been
He’s prone to advertising
Despite the fact that he hasn’t bought anything.
He’ll man up with a pitcher,
He’s coming back home now
His hands tightly balled up as…
Fists are so much better
He can pretend to be anything
But he can’t be all but empty cases,
Pretending he’s anything but
What his parents have been.
Mothers nest has depleted,
That’s not to say she was raising them anyway.
None-the-less she feels empty,
She’s screaming her secrets
They’ve blown out the back of her lips.
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The Cardboard Crowns Toronto, Ontario
The Cardboard Crowns, a band creating a mischievous maelstrom of adventure from the raw tenacity of punk, the majestic
swagger of ska and not forgetting a very healthy dose of pop. High-energy entertainment is what they deliver and they're not afraid to show it!
Joel "The Rat" Kuehn, Matt "Googs" Megannety, Francois "Mystery Skunk" Cuningham, and David "Dubs" Winstanley
... more
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