1. |
14th Street Ritual
04:21
|
|||
Never for a breath of my invisible life
Have I held ‘sacred’
as a ritual through these criminal nights
7th Street February bleeds pitiful sights
Bar-hoppin’ clear over these continual fights
Anything might help a brother in/brother out
Cigarette hanging like a fish hook in my mouth
Brother can’t walk how he walk
when he’s walking down the block when it’s dark
‘Cause he look like a suspect
Give me everything you Got- to get over
I drink to the straight edge that can’t think sober
If yer guzzling gasoline/ pet the machine
Or spread-eagle out in some Arizona ravine
Fire painted on your eyelids instead of your dreams
Well it’s
Nothing that the Congress Hotel ain’t seen
Working-class-queen wears her hairnet crown
Full of rubies, gold lace, sapphires on down
Pennies in the tip jar make the same sound
As the mop and the dustpan that harmonize now with
Excuses from them useless two-bit clowns
Ain’t nobody laughing at a sad, sad joke
‘Cause a bent spoke ‘round here will keep us all broke
I’ve sat with a pole waitin’ for somethin’ ta bite
But never
for a breath
of my invisible life
Have I spoken with venom or ended a sentence with:
“I ain’t the replica that you’re used to doing business with!”
Shuffle the deck I'll give you 52 chances
To pull five aces from my hands quick I'm
Only good for a cheap thrill
cashing in refills or
killing my heat bills
Suckin’ on smoke
Runnin’ on free meals to
conquer these steep hills
Let’s see how between feels
Busted and broke
Rusted and old parts; antennas and bear hearts
Grease for the axel rod and keys to the cattle prod
Slangin’ fish bait on the corner like mix-tapes
With Bow-legged Eddie so faded, can’t piss straight
…Six days in car
Don’t know how many more or
where the fuck that we are
Got them stars in your eyes like a Hollywood doubtful
Dreamin’ ‘bout fame while they get paid by the mouth full
Household of patient’s
Household of living patient’s
Out go the vagrants
Out cold, you people waitin’ for what?
A pat on the back, a kick in the shins?
A trick or treat with no costume?
a Thanksgiving grin?
Drank rooftop gin while New York had no lights
Something ‘bout the red rain ain’t rubbing me right
|
||||
2. |
The Big Sleep
04:40
|
|||
In walks the bellhop snow blind and shell shocked
One step from none left and six ways from cell blocked
The wheel well rots in the pivotal year-Nearly fell off
Your fears fall deaf on the criminal ear
Subliminal steer of static sounds clear
Now turn it louder than the panic ‘round here
Plastic frown smeared on the presidential portrait
It represents the portion of those hesitant to worship
Blue and red lights scream louder than the sirens
Cower in the silence or be showered in the violence
Sour from the time spent counting fallen angels
They ain’t dead, just tangled in the web wit all ‘em strangled
Damn right the freaks come out at first faded light
So hit me with your high beams or get out of my sight
Apologies were stricken from the record ‘cause the quality was measured
Peep the tall obscene that falls between the letters
Bathed in a haze of the opiates we crave
Save us from ourselves and our appropriated ways
God bless the chemical rain
I’m praying for the big sleep to lay me down easy
Swing low, sing sweetly
No pulse, pale eyes, can’t reach me
With blurred vision, mouth full of fire, slurred diction
Muffled sounds coming out the trunk via curb kissing
Earth splitting bass shakes the neighbors awake
You hear them car alarms barking like they been through an earthquake
Go chase the demons to the riverbank
Baptize ‘em til they stop movin/ it’s either swim or sank
I seen a shimmer faint glimmer of light
But that was way back when and now its only the night
I swear that they talkin’ ‘bout me/ I hear them voices
From the next room over/ good thing I ain’t sober
Throw that chain lock on the door turn off them lights
And pray to god that you stay outta mind, outta sight
Radiator from hell shaking, spittin’ up steam
Drunk cops on the rooftop blowing shots at the stream
Caught in between the crosshairs and walking the plank
And now I’m lost in the haze of the fog of the dream
A single white rose slides under the door
And we both bolt lightening while it thunders and pours
Hunger for more its empty and you wonder what for
Number the war and figure you can’t comfort a whore
Dirty kitchen floor epiphany no color included
The others abused it specifically so love it or loot it
Suffer the music/ interrogation room with a view
Sit quiet while we figure out a new day of ruthless
|
||||
3. |
Spare Parts
04:49
|
|||
On the banks of the river where its rank make you shiver when you see what washes up another unidentified figure/ Go figure that n’ slither back
To where the hell that you came from then try to picture blacked out backgrounds Stackhouse burned down/ Turn ‘round
Daddy needs a new pair of shoes and a new paramedic for this bruise scared pathetic from the news/ who’s that
Looking in my mirror/ close your eyes, hold your breath and he won’t hear ya
The dead take a few steps nearer to the animated afterlife
They bled their sacrifice while alley cats
Round up scraps of dead rats n’ pass the dice; disaster strikes
Have a nice never no more/ tonight’s the night the light severs cold wars
Like staletto’s so pure
Rollin’ with a stolen cart hold my cards heavy cause I know them sharks in the oceans dark
Waiting for some fresh meat to pull apart
Watching the souls depart from the old folks home to children on the boulevard nothing but new bones to scar/ Face down, get down they
Race ‘round the playground like greyhounds how you keep ‘em safe and sound? The day drowns in bulletspray sounds/ Walking on needles, pins,
Syringe for the ego’s end/ you don’t need no friends/ I watch evil sins blend with the people’s trends/ The heat rolls in
Ain’t a goddamn thing you can do about once it get in/ better make it your best friend
You rock a shit-eating grin
Now what’s so funny ‘bout a man that gotta choose between what’s right and money? Go hug tight your honey/ up-right and grumpy
Bloodtype is touchy nocturnal up nights avoid sunlight I’m hungry so I’m hunting
One thing done lead to a big
Brickwall fuck a pitfall how’m I gonna get stuck and sit stalled with nothing but a rickshaw
Five wooden nickels in my tip jar
They throw me change for banging on a guitar while rollin’ by in big cars/ they must think that its hard/ But its no harder than
rats chasin’ cheddar with go getter’s who know better n’ roll clever go stroke the gold lever
Might hit the jackpot but
Most likely I’m a see you back on the blacktop thinking you never seen a sweeter thing than asphault/ That’s all fine
If you don’t mind walking a line between visionary and blind man holding up signs
That’s not the wind blowin’ you down
And out, you down the line/ you bound to find what they diggin’ out down in the mines
Come rain, come shine, come hell or highwater
I think I oughta but they tell me why bother/ might find me when the tide wash up
Can’t think straight
Walk with a heavy heavy heart
Broke with the same old spare parts
|
||||
4. |
Walk On Water
04:15
|
|||
5. |
Rock Bottomless
03:34
|
|||
It was a real butcher job how they opened up my flesh
And removed anything that moved in my chest
At best the surgery was just an educated guess
Segregated text documented regulated mess
Classroom watched as they peeled back my stab wounds
Under Fire light, Spanish moss and a black moon
A half-hearted-healer sold me patience for a penny
I was not in the right state to be in this city
Whoever wrote the chapter on the digital disaster
Must’ve smoked up something deadly from the dark side of the pasture
Its captured its cornered don’t feed it or face it forward
Just keep promising tomorrow while today is last weeks order
Feel the fakeness slide through you like drive-thru food do you
Yeah I watched it choke, man, I watched it croak what’s it to you?
Speak up! My ear’s peaked;
What you got to fear these
Days are full of gear grease peddlers and low end theories
Rock, rock on to rock bottomless
Gangrene metropolis, Mainstream anonymous
Rock, rock on to rock bottomless
Empty out your pockets quick and tell me what the problem is
Rock, rock on to rock bottomless
Just cuz they talk that shit don’t mean you have to swallow it
Extra, extra, the headline will cost you extra
Truth costs even more cheddar; arm, leg, et cetera, et cetera
Next up the rest of the festival of freaks
Hear Capitol Hill confessions from a vegetable that speaks
Trade your still-beating heart for a pill-eating mule
Than thank the academy for forty acres and a pool
Rise above, look out below when its time to flood
Don’t try to hide the cuts now that the stars are lining up
Boy these times are rough! Got rich men singing the blues
In front of sold out stadium concerts full of the billionaires they blew
Who knew that the day you agreed to eat a quarter-
It’d rattle like a BB in a tin can and your eyes would roll back out of order
Stagger; fall back; fade to black in the corner
The day you sell the former the darkness will be waiting for ya
California breathes gold dust as she slips into unconsciousness
Exhaling fallen idols faster than she finds a god to kiss
|
||||
6. |
Cherish My Disease
05:41
|
|||
Signal to the brain interrupted; stutter, pull yourself together
Flutter in my eye from the burning sky; toxins can’t be measured
Watch what I say ‘round who ‘round here ‘cause nope, no you
NEVER know intentions of the faceless, wasted replacements
I CELEBRATE another day spent hunting footprints on the pavement
Leading to the CAVES where the slaves went grabbed sharp rocks and engraved it
Thank god that SOMEBODY saved it to pass it on to generation XY the fuck flex MUSCLES Underdeveloped and immature see the chest swell up
TELL ‘EM I’m all gone no good to you now cash your chips and be out
READ THE sign all wrong lit a smoke at the bar they started pushing me out
No wonder got storm clouds the people been warned now but they was never
TOLD HOW, and we was never listening- oh child didn’t mama tell you ‘bout the
DAY when you’d have to man the fuck up stop being a punk what, what was that
SPIT it up or give it up forever hold your peace; do yourself a favor and
RELEASE cancerous teeth cramping your reach
Keep ‘em spinning in their graves, tell ‘em
Cherish my disease/ who’s first to be the last of a dying breed
If thunder had no name you’d know it just the same ‘cause fear is in your VEINS
And a thorn is in your side and a cramp is in your brain
‘Cause now you can’t DECIDE
Whether to wrong your rights from the longest night
Play it honest, right? Place it on your life
SEE NO evil? Yes, evil do I see, hear, smell, taste, touch
COMING from my own people? Yes, justice locked away until the gates rust
But ’TIL THEY PLACE US where wild things bust and we buried face up
I’m KEEP digging my way my way up out the dirt up out the hurt
ABOUT TO BURST with a thousand words on the tip of my tongue and a song unsung
HERO living out a shopping cart wouldn’t be so bad if you ain’t mock him hard
Shed Dead Skin I’m a Shed Dead Skin I’m a Shed Dead Skin
IN THE Red West Winds where you go to scatter ashes and you end up scattered past it
Without that glimmer in your eye , without that limp in your step
Without that blemish on your pride, without that whiskey on your breath
I count steps from my government options Black suits, red ink, white ties
Brown bags speak louder than the toxins, I’ll take my chances with a one-sided die
Sunset smeared on my unchecked fears now my blood sweats tears
That’s one less gear that my brain gotta grind
And one less problem on my mind
|
||||
7. |
Crow Feathers
03:19
|
|||
8. |
||||
Manic mindstate pills feed
Panic crime rate kills
Eyes dilate; planet vibrates ‘n sits still
Why wait ‘til the thumbs up greenlight?
Dumbstruck, don’t seem right
Still tryin’ to get they dump truck unstuck each night
Cheap life sex sells half price damaged goods; beat wife
Three strikes; caught you one mo ‘gain with that peace pipe; sleep tight
Dirt bags are we; had me hooked from the first drag; I’m free
Sold my birth tags now I curse at the street; lurk past the scene
Work fast as thieves; bloodhounds turned loose after me
Heard the news didn’t know which words to use; stashed the key
Gravity shakes now/ broke loose, atrophy breakdown
Point at what ain’t there/ blank stare, passively make rounds
7 mile pile-up; sitting ducks single-file; Stuck
Car wreck; scarred flesh; the hard rest has defiled us
Garbage in the wild dust blowing halo’s round the angels
Harvest moon plays us all like puppets ‘fore the day folds
Brain doesn’t work right/ trust what my gut says
Sleep every third night/ search lights and suspects
Our hands have earned stripes/ ‘X’s’ marked blood red
Bonfires burn bright/ search lights and suspects
Second hand smoke corodes the minute hand stroke
Congested and broke/ orphans pray while the timid man chokes
Mildew fills through black lungs/ shilouette still moves where the hats hung
Tennants don’t last long here/ they all live amongst the last ones
Marie tiptoes through the windows/ nightgown and oil lamp
Tempting all the widows with symbols of the tinfoil tramps
Suicide kings movin’ by/ even the bluest eye blinks
Who am I? Thinks the fool/ wise man takes a drink in his stool and sinks
My photographs are figures framed and fading
I figure fame is waiting center stage where they got niggers chained, parading
The liquor stains the painting/ old maids faint, arms flailing
Look in the cage, winter fades/ Our daydreams are derailing
The train goes sailing past with gray ghosts scaling back
They feed the furnace hellfire/ well wired boxcars trailing last
Reminds when the church bells first fell down into the nursery
The earth swelled/ heard yells then silence was our virgin piece
Rain-soaked paper read that the day closed with another plain-clothed cop holding heads over bridges by they ankles ‘til they drain cold blood from the same hole that he put in they frame where’d his aim go?
Bleach in the shot glass watch me walk past/ talk trash/ down the hatch reach for the cash damn he shot back draws fast for a off-cat landrymat hustler with his mom’s name tatted on fat
Stuck with a stiff hand ‘bout to fold in the face of the devil waiste deep in the quicksand
Hit me with a proposition said I got to listen/ I’m a let you live and throw in a pot to piss in
Ain’t a damn thing free what you want from me/ I already know it sure as hell ain’t gonna be cheap
No alarms no surprises when he say that he want my soul even had the nerve to throw some dough behind it
Up to my neck not much time left thinking ‘bout how the devil ‘bout to watch my death
So what’s its gonna be light’s out or life now? I can give you anything you want if you run with me
I said I made my mind up take my hand get me out this jam// don’t just stand there help me climb up
Devil reached down/ pulled him in/yelled see you in hell/ watched him drown/ let him sink down
|
||||
9. |
Heat of the Night
04:42
|
|||
10. |
Burnt Offering
03:25
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Kill the Vultures, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp