now it seems what you wear is a cotton ideology
or a homespun philosophy from a grown up autonomy
but you are not alone like a festival line-up
with claws to find a tree that they want you to climb up
I'm not hung-up on thrift stores but I feel a little better
spending cheddar on a used-button upper sweater
I won't say stop buying cause it isn't realistic
you're caught because you wanna
make your own damn decisions

"30 Seconds"
Cadence Weapon
Breaking Kayfabe

Dead man, dead man, don't cry
Dead man, dead man, don't cry
When you die it ain't the end --
it ain't the end when you die.

Dead man, dead man, be brave
Dead man, dead man, be brave
You shall be saved, by and by --
by and by, you shall be saved.

Dead man, dead man, believe
Dead man, dead man, believe
You're a free man at last --
at last, dead man, you are free.

Dead man, dead man, don't cry
Dead man, dead man, don't cry
When you die it ain't the end --
it ain't the end when you die.

"Dead Man"
M. Ward
Transfiguration of Vincent

I forgot, then reconfirmed, that
life can be fine if you make it sacred
...
a little bit of melancholy
never really did hurt anybody
even if it's a sickness, I'm oddly convinced
at least it's honest
when life gets so tragic, comic
a mattress with no sheets on it
the fact is you have it
the task is to want it

"Sadie Hawkins"
Doomtree (Dessa)
Doomtree

The snakes always wanna put your name
where their tongue's split.

"They Call It"
Atmosphere
Say Hey There

Through our bleeding
We are One.

"Strength Through Wounding"
AFI
Black Sails In The Sunset

Action must be taken
We dont need the key
We'll break in
...
Yes, I know my enemies
They're the teachers who taught me to fight me
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite
All of which are American dreams.

"Know Your Enemy"
Rage Against The Machine
Rage Against The Machine

You aim for the highest peaks, the brightest streets
Gonna be a star
With a beautiful voice, you're such a pretty thing
But Marianne, what good is a corpse if it cannot sing?

"Marianne, You've Don't It Now"
Vandaveer
Grace & Speed

This oak sleeps in the acorn
That ghost sleeps in the newborn

"A Hundred Fathers"
Doomtree (Cecil Otter)
False Hopes

In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
...
Put a smile on your face
Don't bring everybody down like this
Don't worry, it will soon pass
Whatever it is

"Don't Worry, Be Happy"
Bobby McFerrin
Simple Pleasures

Never fell in love
until i fell in love with you
Never know what a good time was until i had a good time with you
If you wanna get the feeling and you wanna get it right
Then the music gotta be loud
for when the music hits i feel no pain at all
...
When i got the music
i got a place to go

"Radio"
Rancid
Let's Go

Every baby cries the same -
It doesn't matter if they're big
It doesn't matter if they're small
If they come from the city
Or from those places rural
It doesn't matter if they're lonely
Or taken care of, yeah
It doesn't matter if they're mad
Or if they're happy or glad
Baby, everywhere i've ever been
All around this world
I've seen all kinds of babies,
Both boys and girls
But baby one thing that i've definitely seen
Is that, at least to me,
Every baby cries the same
It doesn't matter if they're rich
It doesn't matter if they're poor
Doesn't matter if they're sophisticated
Or if they're all country
at least to me, at least to these ears
every baby cries the same.

"Every Baby Cries The Same"
Make Up
I Want Some

I believe in miracles...

"You Sexy Thing"
Hot Chocolate
Hot Chocolate

I'm a person just like you
But I've got better things to do
Than sit around and smoke dope
'Cause I know I can cope
Laugh at the thought of eating ludes
Laugh at the thought of sniffing glue
Always gonna keep in touch
Never want to use a crutch

"Straight Edge"
Minor Threat
Minor Threat [EP]

Curiosity, Kitten,
Doesn't have to mean you're on your own
...
Open up your eyes
You can see the flames of your wasted life
You should be ashamed
You don't want to waste your life
I walk along these hillsides In the summer 'neath the sunshine
I am feathered by the moonlight falling down on me
Change, change, change

"A Murder Of One"
Counting Crows
August And Everything After

I don't care whatever you do,
I just care that you'll be true.
If you want to be a cowboy, then that's what you do.
There's a horse somewhere waiting for you.

You can be what you want to be.
You can be whatever you see.
Whatever in this world makes you happy.
Don't listen to them listen to me.
...
go my dear and believe you me,
its not so frightening to be free.

"Be"
The Tossers
Agony

This is the time that we all should live as one, brothers.
This is the time that we all should live as one, sisters.
We must live as one,
Coz two wrongs can never make a right.
Look into the age that we're living in today, brothers.
Look into the age that we're living in today, sisters.
So come along brothers,
And come along sisters.
U-N-I-T-Y
Is Unity.

"Unity"
Desmond Dekker
Action

when you dance, dance
fall on the floor
it's an unusual move.
it's better not to think
to plan, or design
move however you move.

"An Unusual Move"
Karrie Hopper
Unusual Move

Well I know what's right, I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin' me around
But I stand my ground and I won't back down.

"I Won't Back Down"
Tom Petty
Full Moon Fever

You know it's nothing new
Bad news never had good timing
Then the circle of your friends
Will defend the silver lining

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No it won't all go the way it should
But i know the heart of life is good

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
Fear is a friend who's misunderstood
But i know the heart of life is good.

"The Heart Of Life"
John Mayer
Continuum

The time is near!
So near, it's stirring the blood in their veins
And yet beware
Don't let the wine go to your brains!
For the army we fight is a dangerous foe
With the men and the arms that we never can match
It's easy to sit here and swat 'em like flies
But the National Guard will be harder to catch
We need a sign to rally the people
To call them to arms
And to bring them in line.

...

Red - The blood of angry men!
Black - the dark of ages past!
Red - a world about to dawn!
Black - the night that ends at last!

"Red and Black"
Claude-Michel Shonberg
Les Miserables

they can torture my body
break my bones
even kill me
Then they will have my dead body
not my obedience.

"God vs. Science"
Botch
Unifying Themes Redux

Kindness will find you
When darkness has fallen
Round your bed
Kindness will follow
Children will wander
Till the end

"Emergency Exit"
Beck
Guero

You wasted Life
Why wouldn't you waste Death.

"The Ocean Breathes Salty"
Modest Mouse
Good News For People Who Love Bad News

I don't like this air
But that doesn't mean I'll stop breathing it.

"Center Of The Universe"
Built To Spill
Keep It Like A Secret

You plan and execute with speed,
Your moral code is all you heed,
It's agony to lose loved ones, I know,
But an eye for an eye makes everyone blind

"Not Forgotten"
The Tossers
Agony

If you see my daughter,
don't tell her I'm scared.
Forty days without water.
Feel my hands on her hair.

"Fear"
Low
I Could Live In Hope

Don't let the sun go down on your grievances
Respect love of the heart over lust of the flesh
Do yourself a favor: become your own savior
And don't let the sun go down on your grievances

Don't let the sun go down on your grievances
Start each day with a clean slate
You'll feel better if you can shake off all that hate
And don't forget to forgive and forget
Don't let the sun go down on your grievances

"Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievances"
Daniel Johnston
Yip/Jump Music: Summer 1983

Death is just a door, Blake said it first
It's just another room we enter, it's a threshold that hurts
Birth is just a chorus, death is just a verse
In the great song of spring that the mockingbirds sing
We come and we go, a-weeping and a-wailing
Our heads in the hands of the nurse
Well, put your head on my shoulder, baby, tell me where it hurts
You say you lost your one and only, could it get any worse?
I said, "Death is just a door, you'll be reunited on the other side"

Birth is just a chorus, death is just a verse
In the great song of spring that the mockingbirds sing
We come and we go, a-weeping and a-wailing
Our heads in the hands of the nurse
Well, put your head on my shoulder, baby, tell me where it hurts
You say you lost your one and only, could it possibly get any worse?
Death is just a door, you'll be reunited on the other side
Yeah, death is just a door, you'll be reunited on the other side
Yeah, death is just a door, you'll be reunited by and by

"Blake's View"
M. Ward
Hold Time

That's right, I did two M. Ward songs in a row. Deal with it, because he's awesome.

I sailed a wild, wild sea
Climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met a old, old man
Beneath a weeping willow tree
He said now if you got some questions
Go and lay them at my feet
But my time here is brief
So you'll have to pick just three

And I said
What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
And how can a man like me remain in the light
And if life is really as short as they say
Then why is the night so long
And then the sun went down
And he sang for me this song

See I once was a young fool like you
Afraid to do the things
That I knew I had to do
So I played an escapade just like you
I played an escapade just like you
I sailed a wild, wild sea
Climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met an old, old man
He sat beneath this sapling tree
He said now if you got some questions
Go and lay them at my feet
But my time here is brief
So you'll have to pick just three

And I said
What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
And how can a man like me remain in the light
And if life is really as short as they say
Then why is the night so long
And then the sun went down
And he played for me this song

"Chinese Translation"
M. Ward
Post-War

When I'm lyin' in my bed at night
I don't wanna grow up
Nothin' ever seems to turn out right
I don't wanna grow up
How do you move in a world of fog
That's always changing things
Makes me wish that I could be a dog
When I see the price that you pay
I don't wanna grow up
I don't ever wanna be that way
I don't wanna grow up

Seems like folks turn into things
That they'd never want
The only thing to live for
Is today
I'm gonna put a hole in my TV set
I don't wanna grow up
Open up the medicine chest
And I don't wanna grow up
I don't wnna have to shout it out
I don't want my hair to fall out
I don't wanna be filled with doubt
I don't wanna be a good boy scout
I don't wanna have to learn to count
I don't wanna have the biggest amount
I don't wanna grow up

"I Don't Wanna Grow Up"
Tom Waits
Bone Machine

Get out your measuring cups and we'll play a new game
Come to the front of the class and we'll measure your brain
We'll give you a complex and we'll give it a name

"Measuring Cups"
Andrew Bird
The Mysterious Production of Eggs

You can fake it for a while
Bite your tongue and smile
Like every mother does her ugly child
But it starts to leaking out
Like spittle from a cloud
Amassed resentment pelting ounce and pound

"Turn On Me"
The Shins
Wincing The Night Away

Expensive vitamin pills and
Wheat germ on your windowswill
Your schedule's hectic and you got no time to kill
You're earning money and you're spending it the right way
You're just in such a rush
You don't know if it's night or day
5:30 get up - run, run, run
Then you work eight hours slaving underneath the gun
Your little world's based on lies lies lies
Always rushing but you're never ever satisfied...
Healthy body sick mind
You're working overtime
Healthy body sick mind
Too hectic, too hectic
Healthy body sick mind
It's just a matter of time
Sick body sick mind
The money you spend on running shoes could feed me for a week
Your plans are laid so well that you can't even sleep
Pursuit of happiness got your life locked under martial law
You got everything to lose so you're paranoid about some fatal flaw

"Healthy Body"
Operation Ivy
Energy

All you need is Love.

"All You Need Is Love"
The Beatles
Magical Mystery Tour

Let's dance to Joy Division
and celebrate the irony
everything is going wrong
but we're so happy.

Let's dance to Joy Division
and raise a glass to the ceiling
because this could all go so wrong
but we're just so happy.

"Let's Dance To Joy Division"
The Wombats
A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation

I kinda loved two girls, and now
I kinda lost 'em both.

"Distraction #74"
The Avett Brothers
Four Thieves Gone

To live boldly, and to
walk the shining path
of Righteousness!

"Love Is A Bull Market"
The Nation Of Ulysses
13-Point Program To Destroy America

Never trust a big butt and a smile.

"Poison"
Bel Biv Devoe
Poison

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds

"Redemption Song"
Bob Marley
Uprising

Great words won't cover ugly actions.
Good frames won't save bad paintings!
....
We dance to all the wrong songs
We enjoy all the wrong moves
We dance to all the wrong songs
We're not leading!

"New Noise"
Refused
The Shape of Punk To Come

All I ever wanted
was to pick apart the day
and put the pieces back together
my way.

"Daylight"
Aesop Rock
Labor Days

Introduction

Music is a lot of things for me - an aural balm, an emotional outlet, ambient noise, an experiment of soundwaves. But music is so much more than a melody and a string of words linked together to create some inane message (although sometime that ends up being the result). So this blog stands as a place for me to document some of the things I've learned by listening, be they songs I love or songs I loathe.