Wednesday, August 14, 2013

A-HA – Angel In The Snow

Angel, angel or so
Wherever you may go
Hmm, yeah…
I’ll follow
Wherever you may go:

And always will I be there
Shake worries from your hair
Hmm, yeah…
I’ll be there
Always:

Angel, angel or so
Wherever you may go
Hmm, yeah…
I’ll follow
Wherever you may go:

You’re my angel in the snow
You’re my angel in the snow

A-HA – Analogue

Come back, my darling one
I’m calling on you
The road ahead is long
And I must warn you

I wonder
Where did she go?
If I failed you
I tell you right now

All I want you to know; I love you
All I need is the time to show you

Come back, my fallen son
Don’t let them fool you
Cos when the day is done
They’ll never move you

Lay down your senseless pride
(Got more than you)
Put out your mournful tones
I tell you right now

All I want you to know; I love you
All I need is the time to show you how I feel
Feel

(Lay down your senseless pride
You travelled once too often, yeah)

I tell you right now
All I want you to know; I love you
All I need is the time to show you how I feel

All I want you to know I love you
All I need is the time to show you how I feel

(Come back, my analogue
I hardly knew ya
the high end sloping off
a thing of beauty
take hold, my little ones
my minor key sonatas
show forth your looping grace
no one here can take your place)

A-HA – And You Tell Me

Please don’t hurt me
I have told you
All my love is all I’ve got
And tomorrow is the day
When I for your sake
I’m coming back

And you tell me
That I don’t love you

I’m trying hard to make you jealous
Trying harder to make you stay
Days are longer
Nights are crazy
It’s so strange when you’re away

And you tell me
That I don’t love you
Because I love you I will show you
All the faces my love can have
So please
Let me come to you
And stay this time

And you tell me
That I don’t love you
Oh you know
That it’s just not true

A-HA – A Little Bit

And it will take a little bit of extra time
To make it shine, to make it shine
And it will take a little bit of extra care
To bring it where you think it’s there

And there’s no one else around
This is what I’ve found Anyone you see
Anyone you meet
Some one at your feet
Anyone could be that one
Anyone you know
Anywhere you go
Some one in a show
Could be that one

And it will take a little bit of all you’ve got
To get a shot, get a shot
And it will take a little bit of extra care
To bring it where you think it’s there

And there’s nowhere else to go
This is what I know
Anyone you see
Anyone you meet
Maybe down the street
Anyone could be that one
Everywhere you look
Pages of a book
All the years it took
Everything got you down

And it will take a little while to get back home
The road is long, the road is long
And it will take a little work to get it back
To mend the cracks, to bridge the gaps

Anyone you see
Could be the one
Anyone you meet
Could be that one
Some one at your feet
Could feel the same
Maybe you’d complete
Could share your name
Anywhere you look
Pages of a book
Everything she took
Never let it keep you down

Holding out for used
Broken up and bruised
Losable to lose
Anywhere you go
Anyone you know
Think it doesn’t show
Everybody knows
Anyone you meet
Maybe down the street
(And it will take a little time to get back home)
Some one at you feet

A-HA – Afternoon High

The sunlight hits the corner of your eye
As it bounces off the morning sky
The summer in the 70s fly by
Bye
Daylight hits the corners of your mind
Steals the thought you thought no one could find
Close your eyes and it will rob you blind
Blind
Incidental memories collide
Sentimental reveries abide
Afternoon high

Daylight hits the corners of your mouth
Steals the words that filled you up with doubt
Open up and let them all fall out
Honey smoothes the wrinkles from you bed
Gone are the indentations of your head
Leaving just the frown upon your forehead
Incidental memories collide
Sentimental reveries abide
Afternoon high

Worry works a wrinkle over time
Open eyes and let it rob you blind
Incidental memories collide
People tell me you’ve been blinded by
On afternoon high
On afternoon high
On afternoon high

AGAINST ME! – You Must Be Willing

Let there be a volume that cannot be denied.
Let there be an emotion that you cannot fake
The greatness unanimously acknowledged.
A lie that you just cannot tell.
Let them know hatred, fear and war. Let there be peace for us all.
With our goals one day met, let us know a feeling of great accomplishment.
With our failures complete, let us learn to survive.

Your body will know if it’s not the right way to go,
just listen closely to your heart and follow
You must be willing to abandon it all.
You must be willing to starve.

Let us challenge the wait for a day of reckoning.
Let us deny shame and guilt.
Let us know with absolute certainty that we were fools to ever second guess ourselves.
Let us know a feeling of invincibility, as real as our fragile bones.
There’s a truth to be learned, I’m sure of it,
just like I know there is nothing at all.

Your Body will know if it’s not the right way to go,
just listen closely to your heart and follow.
You must be willing to abandon it all.
You must be willing to starve.

A-HA – A Fine Blue Line

Take a look and see
What’s become of me
Remember how it used to be

People that we’d meet
Were falling at your feet
You didn’t eve see it

Time marches on ahead – enough said
There’s only one way through it
Time marches on ahead – one day we’ll see it
How there’s a fine blue line
Running through it

We read each other’s books
We gave each other looks
Like we couldn’t trust ourselves
And we knew it

So tell me where you’ve been
And I’ll show you were you’re going
You can shout, you can scream
Your way through it…

Well time rushes an ahead – enough said
That’s just the way we blew it
Time marches on ahead – one day you’ll see it;
Love is a fine blue line

Time races on ahead – enough said
That’s just the way we blew it
Time marches on ahead – one day you’ll see it
Love is the fine blue line
Running through it

AGAINST ME! – You Look Like I Need A Drink

In the closest alley,
in the first doorway,
he pushed up against her
and closed his eyes.
He said, “this is probably
the worst decision that I’ve ever made.”
She laughed and smiled.
she said, “I’m sure you do this all the time…right, right, right, right, right?”

And the morning came, and the city woke
into the building, people all went to work,
as their rides out of town came they parted ways
she said, “do you know when you’re coming back again?”
Dig it deeper, deeper, and farther still,
bury it up, over and into the ground,
all these lies will grow in ways that we never thought possible.

Quiet down, down, down
so soft of a sound,
you can hear it all coming back after you.
Quiet down, down, down
so soft of a sound,
you can hear it all coming back after you.

Now you want to take it back, you think you might have fucked up.
Waking dreams of concrete, deafening panic, cracked skull,
there is yelling all around, get up, get up please start breathing
and the moment will come when you finally realize
the results of decisions and choices in your life,
can you hear it all coming back after you.

Down, down down
so soft of a sound,
you can hear it all coming back after you.
Quiet down, down down
so soft of a sound,
you can hear it all coming back after you, you, you

AGAINST ME! – Y’all Don’t Wanna Step To Dis

Four sins past sainthood,
It’s like I’m dying to forget
All the sleepless nights,
Lying perfectly alone and still.
I can drink ’till victory,
I’ll drink to the mighty,
Drink until I die,
Or at least until the sunrise
When honesty,
As popular as a plague,
Comes to remind me
The dead’s winning the race
With me going nowhere.
Right down the street,
A prostitute is selling
The closest thing to love
That this country has to offer,
And Alachua still sleeps tonight,
And Alachua still sleeps tonight,
And Alachua still sleeps tonight…

So we fought for the republic
While the Catholic sun filled every eye.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean,
We drank to the mighty.
We died for oil,
We died for borders,
Killed for democracy,
Still believed every platform.
Can you handle the death,
Accept what we create together?
I still know every politician
Is a fucking monster.
Culture kills bureaucrats
And all other undesireables.
History said we died for freedom,
But today no justice was served,
And America still sleeps tonight,
And America still sleeps tonight,
And America still sleeps tonight,
And I hope it doesn’t wake up tomorrow.

So we boasted that we were champions,
Each country singing it’s own praise.
Like a rock thrown into the ocean,
Humanity was rising to the top.
Two world wars later,
Countless “military interventions”,
We erect monuments to history
And give apologies to the dead.
All that was fought for the living
Is quickly forgotten.
We don’t remember the dates,
We don’t remember the reasons.
We have no idea what’s going on,
Building histories of western corporations.
It doesn’t even turn my stomach
To see the pictures of atrocities anymore,
Going numb in the new order
Of the new century.
And Alachua still sleeps tonight,
And America still sleeps tonight,
And the world still sleeps tonight…

And Alachua still sleeps tonight…
And America still sleeps tonight…
And the world still sleeps tonight…

AGAINST ME! – White People For Peace

East and West could not agree
So their generals gave a call and gathered troops at the border
With guns ready, drawn and aimed
each side was praying to a God
to bless them with strength and courage
it was in His name that artillery lit the sky on fire
the people sang protest songs to try and stop the soldier’s gun

Protest Songs in a response to Military Aggression
Protest songs to try and stop the soldier’s gun
But the battle raged on……

Sirens filled the air and the ground shook with war
Civilian casualties has been a cost that was predetermined
when interviewed for report victims pleaded in frustration
Their claim: That this was a war without reason
Bureaucrats engaged in debate to try and reach a resolution
the people sang protest songs to try and stop the soldier’s gun

Protest Songs in a response to Military Aggression
Protest songs to try and stop the soldier’s gun
But the battle raged on……

The Broadcast like their prayers went unanswered and ignored
god, like the rest of the world, just watched in silence
There was purpose to be served, there were fortunes to be earned
before a peace could be called to stop the fighting

Protest Songs in a response to Military Aggression
Protest songs to try and stop the soldier’s gun
But the battle raged on……

AGAINST ME! – What We Worked For

Lost the confidence to write a song,
So I found three simple chords
And held them together with my weak voice
On an out of tune guitar
My father gave to me.

And may Elvis turn in his grave
And Les Paul kiss my dirty, calloused fingers
And may the likes of this song never make
One fucking dollar,
leave it for a demo tape
To be played until it’s broken,
Then remembered only for what it was.

That we gave them hell
That we gave them hell
That we gave them hell

That we gave them hell
That we gave them hell
That we gave them hell

To my friends and enemies who could of been anything,
Titans and heroes who found survival in cause and effect.
Behind counters,
Behind windows,
Striving just
To be people
With bitter ideals of justice.
Do we only need to keep working because it pays rent?
Sleeping under plastic stars glued to ceiling,
Muscles burning alcohol and nicotine
Every morning.

But we gave them hell
But we gave them hell
But we gave them hell

But we gave them hell
But we gave them hell
But we gave them hell

There’s a height beyond skyscrapers,
There’s a distance beyond the freeway,
More than pictures in a magazine,
More than tragedy in a rock and roll song.
It’s more than the actions you know are safe to make.
It’s more than money could ever buy.

Are we living to work and die in American cities?
And working to live and die in American cities,
And dying for what we worked.

AGAINST ME! – We’re Breaking Up

This is the only voice I know.
These are the only words I have.
This is the only way I know how to say, we’re not in love anymore.

It’s the same way that it’s always been,
the dynamic to the relationship never changes.
It’s the same way that it’s always been,
the dynamic to the relationship never changes.

We used to like all the same bands.
We used to have all the same friends.
What do we have left in common?
Just shared memories of good times long since past.

It’s the same way that it’s always been,
the dynamic to the relationship never changes.
It’s the same way that it’s always been,
the dynamic to the relationship never changes.
You can’t get what you want from me, and I can’t get what I need from you.

This is the only voice I know.
These are the only words I have.
This is the only way I know how to say, we’re breaking up.

It’s the same way that it’s always been.
It’s the same way that it’s always been.
I’m not giving up on us.
I’m not giving up on us.

AGAINST ME! – We Laugh At Danger (And Break All The Rules)

It was a birthday gift
of a Mexican Telecaster
And from this day on I will play along
to all my young pioneers records
And there will be a poetry
spoken silently between me and the stereo
I’ll work mornings
and you can work through the night
Mary, there is no hope for us
If this GM van don’t make it
across the state line
we might as well lay down and die
Because if Florida takes us
we’re taking everyone down with us
Where we’re coming from (yeah)
will be the death of us
And I cannot help but hold on
to a handful of times
when what was spoken
was a revolution in itself,
and what we were doing
was the only thing that mattered
And how good it felt
to kill the memory of nights spent
holding your shirt for the smell
I heard you used to cry
when you made love to him
but this band will play on
Because all we can do is what we’ve always done.
And on and on and on…

A-HA – Barely Hanging On

I used to be so sensible on my own
Now I’m so sensitive it’s a joke
I’m getting by on decibels like a drug
And greet every brand
New day with a shrug

I’m barely hanging on

I used to be so comfortable in a suit
Almost presentable next to you
I used to be so confident in a crowd
Now I can’t say my own name aloud

I’m barely hanging on

And now I guess you’re
Wondering why
We never could see eye to eye
Oh but never mind
And now I guess it’s hard to see
What has gotten into me
Oh but never mind

I’m barely hanging on

AGAINST ME! – We Did It All For Don

Please tell me why we couldn’t stay
Don’t let this feeling ever go away
Let this memory forever be inside of me
Through every hour of every day
It’s with the company of these friends
That we drove on through the night
We were carried by the wheels of armageddon

We’re gonna force ourselves to live
Thankful it’s hurt more than we’ve ever felt
It’s just our means to an end

Please tell me why we couldn’t stay
Don’t let this feeling ever go away
Let this memory forever be inside of me
Through every hour of every day
It’s with the company of these friends
That we drove on through the night
We were carried by the wheels of armageddon

And honestly we were armed with our best intentions
Maybe those intentions alone
are just enough to get us anywhere but here
In the middle of America
Six cylinders will take us further than any president
The same promises that we forgot the last time
There’s no difference between staying and a bullet in the head

So fucking tell me why we couldn’t stay
Don’t let this feeling ever go away
Let this memory forever be inside of me
Through every hour of every day
It’s with the company of these friends
That we drove on through the night
We were carried by the wheels of armageddon

Maybe it’s gonna come from the radio
Or the next 8 hour day
Driving to the next town
A collect call home to your best friend
We are the company we keep
We could live off of dumpsters if we have to
Sell our blood by the pint to make rent
This kind of dignity doesn’t come easy
But you’ll never find it for sale

And that’s why we couldn’t stay
But never let that feeling ever go away
Kept to memory, inside of us
Through every hour, through every day
Until we die
It’s with the company of those friends
We drove on through the night
Behind the wheels of armageddon

AGAINST ME! – Walking Is Still Honest

Dear mother,
This is just survival.
Cannot promise your children everything,
But you would lie so they can sleep tonight.
Defeat tasted nothing like you said.
Still 22 days left till the end of the world.
My legacy was making you a man
For a justice I could not change.
This is one voice not to forget;
“Fight every fight like you can win;
An iron fisted champion,
An iron willed fuck up.”

Can anybody tell me why God won’t speak to me?
Why Jesus never called on me to part the fucking seas?
Why death is easier than living?
You can be almost anything
When you’re on your fucking knees.
Not today,
Not my son,
Not my family,
Not while walking is still honest,
And you haven’t given up on me.

Dear shithead,
This isn’t happening;
The sky is really falling,
The paint’s all made of lead,
There’s asbestos in the walls,
Hell’s coming to rip off the doors
To your priveleged heaven.
Do you want to love and feel it?
You can look but you can’t taste it.
You can reach but you’ll never have it.
We are untouchable;
Untouchable is something to be.

Can anybody tell me why God won’t speak to me?
Why Jesus never called on me to part the fucking seas?
Why death is easier than living?
You can be almost anything
When you’re on your fucking knees.
Not today,
Not my son,
Not my family,
Not while walking is still honest,
And you haven’t given up on me,
And you haven’t given up on me,
And you haven’t forgotten me…

AGAINST ME! – Wagon Wheel

Headed down south to the land of the pines,
I’m thumbin’ my way into North Caroline
Starin’ up the road,
Pray to God I see headlights

Oh, I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Pickin’ me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I’m a hopin’ for Raleigh
I can see my baby tonight

So rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama anyway you feel
Hey mama rock me
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a south-bound train
Hey mama rock me

Runnin’ from the cold up in New England
I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time string band
My baby plays the guitar
I pick a banjo now

Oh, the North country winters keep a gettin’ me now
Lost my money playin’ poker so I had to up and leave
But I ain’t a turnin’ back
To livin’ that old life no more

So rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama anyway you feel
Hey mama rock me
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a south-bound train
Hey mama rock me

Walkin’ to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly
Had a nice long toke
But he’s a headed west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee

And I gotta get a move on fit for the sun
I hear my baby callin’ my name
And I know that she’s the only one
And if I die in Raleigh
At least I will die free

So rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama anyway you feel
Hey mama rock me
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a south-bound train
Hey mama rock me

AGAINST ME! – Violence

Lock the door, to your room.
Pray they don’t find us, pray they don’t kick it down.
Oh you’ve been keeping secrets,
and these kind of lies have consequences.
So many possibilities for this to all end badly.
It’s almost guaranteed.
Nothing but shame and paranoia.
A slightly desperate feeling to calm you to sleep.

What could we have done to deserve the violence like this?
What could we have done to deserve the violence like this?

And we’ll watch the light, coming under the door.
Listen for footsteps coming down the hall.
Are you gonna wake up screaming through a slit throat?
Young flesh searing on a twin mattress.
But it doesn’t have to be, the way things end.
We don’t have to give up just yet.

What could we have done to deserve the violence like this?
What could we have done to deserve the violence like this?

AGAINST ME! – Up The Cuts

I can’t sleep.
Dry red eyes wide open.
Stare at the white stucco ceiling.
I turn on the TV,
watch music on television.
Have I heard this song before?
Did this already happen?
Derived influence in style of dress.
Similar trends in camera technique and editing.
Sync up the cuts to the bass drum kick.
All the taste makers drinking from the same glass.
Is there anyone thinking what I am?
Is there anyone thinking what I am?

Are you restless like me?

All the insiders rumor over the decline in sales.
All the buzz is happening in the new digital market place.
FBI warning printed on the flipside.
Under penalty of law piracy will be prosecuted.
In MRR someone asks the question,
“With the instant availability of information
and content so easily obtainable
is the culture now a product that’s disposable?”
All the punks still singing the same song.
Is there anyone thinking what I am?
Is there any other alternative?

Are you restless like me?

AGAINST ME! – Untitled

You tell me actions all that I, could ever do or say,
And me and my jealousy have stole your songs and passed them off as my own.
As much as I would like for it not to show,
You can smell the stink on my breath and in my clothes, its so obvious.

If I could only be, half the things you write about in your songs,
If I could only mean half as much to anyone.

And in my arrogance I write, pages of anger, hate and spite,
All of the reasons I have to trust, absolutely no one.
Today I heard you on my stereo, and it shamed me, and it shamed me to think,
That I could be so unoriginal.

Well I could only be half the genius that you are.
To feel such honest one, to show love. I would show you love.

Well if I could only feel half as resolute in my beliefs.
If I could only sing with such bravery.
I cannot explain how much you mean to me.
Without your words I would be lost.

AGAINST ME! – Un-thought Of Heros

Where are we going to be? It’s getting so hard to remember to feel. Struggling more and more to recall six minutes worth of a dream, you forgot when you woke up. Died-in-the-wool to last, for the sake of Christ you ask,”What am I to do?” Who is there to trust with one leg already six feet deep? Fighting the current of man’s existence of the conciousness you can’t fucking grasp. To give, or to take for yourself? Another night spent in silent rage, set against. Set against yourself.

Un-thought of heros.

Poured out and flowing over, at the same time bottled up, then pissed out. Company of misery; introspect of the fool, to your dreams you shed a distant effort. While you rid the sense of mobility and shatter all that could set you free. Never could set your hands on comfort in the wars end being your own personal revenge. Yet escaping every sense of consequence. No this is nothing personal; this is just who I am. Another night spent in silent rage, set against. Set against yourself.

Un-thought of heros.

AGAINST ME! – Unsubstantiated Rumors Are Good Enough For Me (To Base My Life Upon)

[Spoken:] It’s getting warm.

I don’t wanna talk about it,
I don’t think you’d understand,
How things can get so fucked up
With such good, good intentions.
And if roofs turn to sky,
Held by the gravity of nothing,
An ironic and literal making of a bed.
You can walk away~,
But there is a reason to stay.

They make bad, bad jokes, it’s okay not to laugh.
For every push forward, you get the same fucking push back.
You had nowhere to go,
So you found someplace,
You had nothing to say
You start lying

What the fuck were you thinking
I’m not sorry
I’d do it all again.
All the lines between hate, love, and revenge
It’s just dead, it’s dead, it’s dead, they’re just dead feelings.

AGAINST ME! – T.S.R. (This Shit Rules)

The party’s over
A CD skipping
It’s the same hook repeating
Grows more grating with each passing second…

And the walls contain a resonation, laughter, and conversation.
It was fun while it lasted, but now we should be going.
I hope everybody had a real, real good time
The hospitality’s partaken, my head is flying my heart’s racing to keep up.
And I hope I haven’t overdone it nooo…
I hope my body can take it. I hope I make the occasion.
It’s only this fucked up.
I start realizing all this living is just dying
and if these are my friends, if this is my home,
if this is how i spend my nights, how I communicate, and demonstrate a love of life.
My eyes roll into the back of my head, if these are the last words that I’ve ever said
No I’m not ready to die just yet.

AGAINST ME! – Unprotected Sex With Multiple Partners

Everyone’s a critic, but hey they really respect your talent.
Have your manager call my manager, and we’ll make records together.
At this level of success in entertainment, there are certain connotations.
It’s a “you give we take” relation.
No the kids wouldn’t understand it.
Come on now, how long do think this is really gonna last?
How long can you hold their attention before they move on to the next band?
On the inside.
On the inside.
On the inside.
Do you wanna know how it feels on the inside?
On the inside.
On the inside.
On the inside.
Do you wanna know how it feels on the inside?

Coordinate the marketing, label, publicity, touring.
Consult on, timing and presentation.
Go ahead put this in context.
It’s 3 points on production, 15% to management,
10% to the agent, 5% to legal representation.
We call it our insurance plan to stretch the inevitable as far as we can.
Gotta make your money while you got the chance,
do whatever it takes to sell it.

On the inside.
On the inside.
On the inside.
Do you wanna know how it feels on the inside?
On the inside.
On the inside.
On the inside.
Do you wanna know how it feels on the inside?
(Let’s go)
Just how desperate can we be?
Go buy our record and see.
Just how angry can we seem?
Go buy our record and see.
Just how fucked up can it get?
Go buy our record and see.
Just how much can we bleed?
We’re completely irrelevant on LP and compact disc.

On the inside.
On the inside.
On the inside.
Do you wanna know how it feels on the inside?
On the inside.
On the inside.
On the inside.
Do you wanna know how it feels on the inside?
On the inside.
On the inside.
On the inside.
Do you wanna know how it feels on the inside?
On the inside.
On the inside.
On the inside.
Do you wanna know how it feels on the inside?

AGAINST ME! – Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists

Sleep on pillows made in Singapore
Wrapped in comforters
Sweating through sheets
Drinking coffee in the morning
Floating on Airplanes across the vast seas

And your house is made of wood
Central air, central heat
You got your furniture of particle board
Your doors are locked for, for safety

And you walk in leather shoes
Pants of denim, a black cotton sweatshirt
And you do what you do
because doing can start to form a habit

And you drink all night long
And you sleep through the morning
And if something doesn’t break
I’m just gonna go, go fucking insane

And you sweep up the floor when it’s dirty
You do the dishes, when the sink’s full
And when the refrigerator’s empty
well it’s time, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time to go the store

You put your books on a shelf
Clothes arranged in the closet
You hang the things on the wall that you don’t wanna be so easily forgotten

I hate these songs
I hate the words
That the singer is singing to me
I hate this melody
I hate this stupid fucking drum beat

But I’m not gonna tell anyone
What I’m really thinking about
Keep them conversations on the surface
Just keep on smiling
Just keep on saying
Everything’s gonna be alright
It’s gonna be alright [x2]
Alright [x11]

AGAINST ME! – White Crosses

I wake up in the morning and I drink from the fountain.
I wake up in the morning with the same unanswered questions.
I don’t know what’s going to cure my unsettled stomach.
Street kids collect spare change in a conch shell on the side walk;
their teeth are yellow, their hair is tangled.
Their minds are vapid and they laugh wild in their depravity.

I’ll make my way back home to you, head north on San Marco Avenue.
White crosses on the church lawn, I want to smash them all.
I want to smash them all.

Pony tails swinging back and forth behind beach blonde college girls out for a jog.
Saint Augustine, shine your light down on me!
Pop hits from the 90′s echo out of tourist filled bars.
I am met with arms crossed under dirty looks, I am treated like a common thief.

I’ll make my way back home to you, head north on San Marco Avenue.
White crosses on the church lawn, I want to smash them all.
I want to smash them all.

Eaves-dropping in on conversation, I wander aimless leering at strangers.
Strung out on the amphetamines that you gave to me.
Eye-balled with suspicion by a pencil skirt in high heels,
you realize that you’re talking to yourself.
Cannon fire explodes out over the bay.

I’ll make my way back home to you, head north on San Marco Avenue.
White crosses on the church lawn, I want to smash them all.
Looking for context and perspective, looking for some kind of distraction.
White crosses on the church lawn, I want to smash them all.
I want to smash them all.

AGAINST ME! – Tonight We’re Gonna Give It 35%

We drank bottled water together and talked business.
I think I played the right moves.
You were lookin’ over my shoulder,
as I went through the motions of another night,
And it was alright,
’cause I thought I knew who everybody was just by lookin’ at them.
My heart is anywhere but here,
and how tired I was from the past couple of weeks,
From the past couple of years.
Well, it hit me all at once,
On a balcony overlooking nothing,
With snow falling all around,
Well I, I called just to say “Goodnight”.
And you hadn’t done anything wrong,
And know, really, really, it’s me not you.
I can’t believe how naive I was to think things could ever be so simple,
And can you live with what you know about yourself,
When you’re all alone, behind closed doors?
The things we never said, but we always knew were right there.
It’s got me on my knees in a bathroom,
Praying to a God that I don’t even believe in,
“Well, dear Jesus, are you listening?
If this is the one chance that really matters,
Well, don’t let me fuck this up.
If you’d told me about all this when I was fifteen,
I never would have believed it.”

AGAINST ME! – Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious…

We’re all presidents, we’re all congressmen,
We’re all cops in waiting,
We’re the workers of the world,
There is the elite and the dispossessed,
And it’s only about survival,
Who has the skill to play the game for all it’s worth,
And reach an obscure kind of perfection,
Let’s try and keep as much emotion out of this as possible,
Let’s try not to remember any names,
We’ll do it for a country, for a people, for a moral vision,
United, we’ll make them remember our history,
Or how we’d like to be told,
How we’d like to be told…

And we rock,
Because it’s us against them.
We found our own reasons to sing,
And it’s so much less confusing
when lines are drawn like that,
When people are either consumers or revolutionaries,
Enemies or friends hanging on the fringes
Of the cogs in the system,
It’s just about knowing where everyone stands.
All of a sudden,
People start talking ’bout guns,
Talking like they’re going to war,
‘Cause they found something to die for,
Start taking back what they stole-
sure beats every other option,
But does it make a difference how we get it?
Well do you really fucking get it?
No, no, no, no,
No, no, no, no….

AGAINST ME! – This Is Control

I can envision your perfect nation, your plan to sedate intellectual pacification. I have to believe that there’s more that this. The truth in my hands, that I am not sick, I don’t live in sin, that this is all wrong, the reality prison, dreams of human liberation.

Beating a dead horse with fear in your eyes accepted a battle with a war in mind. Singled out the target, big brother in the rifle sights. So you shoot to kill, death just to feel, thunder to fear, rain to know tears. Hide in the image the armor of cowards, hidden in vices just to deal, your elitist faction fueling the flames. In wonder of this revolutionary standstill.

Lifestyle choices, never in struggle? Short sighted goals, this is not freedom, this is control! The prisoner plotting his escape exclusive anarchy a joke in bad taste. Did you offer solution is that why he turned his head, or insult his ignorance, in experience, blindness. You cry for the satisfaction before you put in the work, accept possibilities as a dream, what the fuck’s the fuss for? Is this sincerity or is this a joke?

AGAINST ME! – The Price Of Freedom

Is it too much to ask that you die for the cause? Rather die free than live a life in slavery, Better a martyr than a prisoner. I’ll always have what’s inside of me. I’ll always have my memories. Never surrender identity. Is it too much to ask that you die for the cause?

Freedom

All the while my mind’s been free. There’s places in me they never could reach. Is it too much to ask that I die for the cause? I’d rather die free than live a life in slavery. Is it too much to ask that I die for the cause? Better a martyr than a prisoner. Is it too much to ask that I die for the cause? This anger is sadly a part of me. If that’s what it takes then I’ll die trying. I’ll die for the cause.

AGAINST ME! – Thrash Unreal

If she wants to dance and drink all night, well there’s no one that can stop her.
She’s going until the house lights come up or her stomach spills onto the floor.
This night is gonna end when we’re damn well ready for it to be over.
Worked all week long now the music is playing on our time.
We do what we do to get by, and then we need a release.

You get mixed up with the wrong guys.
You get messed up on the wrong drugs.
Sometimes the party takes you places that you didn’t really plan on going.
When people see the track marks on her arms she knows what they’re thinking.
She keeps on working for that minimum,
as if a high school education gave you any other options, you know.
They don’t know nothing about redemption.
They don’t know nothing about recovery.
Some people just aren’t the type for marriage and family.

No mother ever dreams that her daughters going to grow up to be a junkie.
No mother ever dreams that her daughters going to grow up to sleep alone.
[x2]

She’s out of step with the style.
She don’t know where the actions happening.
You know the downtown club scene ain’t nothing like it used to be.
You reach a point where there’s not a lie in the world
that you could use to make the boys believe you’re still in you twenties.
But they keep getting younger, don’t they baby?
She’s not waiting for someone to come over and ask for the privilege.
She can still hear that Rebel Yell just as loud as it was in 1983, you know.
There ain’t no Johnny coming home to share a bed with her and she doesn’t care.

No mother ever dreams that her daughters going to grow up to be a junkie.
No mother ever dreams that her daughters going to grow up to sleep alone.
[x2]
No mother ever dreams that her daughters going to grow up to be a junkie.
And if she had to live it all over again you know she wouldn’t change anything for the world.

AGAINST ME! – The Ocean

If I could have chosen where God would hide his heaven,
I would wish for it to be in the salt and swell of the ocean.
Carried by the currents to all continents’ shores.
Reaching into depths where the sun’s light has never shown.
Mixed with algae and coral.
Breathed in by sharks and dolphins.
Sailed by tanker ships, private yachts, swam in by tourists.
Working its way up through inlets, lakes, and rivers, swamps, and estuaries.
Down through limestone into the aquifer.
Purified by the county, pumped through pipes and out faucets.
Filled into a glass to meet the thirst of our children.

If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman.
My mother once told me she would have named me Laura.
I would grow up to be strong and beautiful like her.
One day I’d find an honest man to make my husband.
We would have two children, build our home on the Gulf of Mexico.
Our family would spend hot summer days at the beach together.
The sun would kiss our skin as we played in the sand and water.
We would know we loved each other without having to say it.
At night we would sleep with the windows of our house left open.
Letting the cool ocean air soothe the sunburned shoulders of our children.

There is an Ocean in my soul where the waters do not curve.

AGAINST ME! – The Disco Before The Breakdown

If you follow the jaw line down over the heart,
the curves of your bone and muscle that make up your head to toe…
It’s just skin and thread, stitches and ligaments,
words that we spoke only to regret.

And I know they’re going to laugh at us
when they, when they see us out together “holding hands” like this.
They wouldn’t understand it if we told them all the reasons,
not that I think this deserves any kind of explanation.

And we’ll, we’ll make it up so we’ve got a smile painted on all the time,
no matter what it’s like on the inside.
We’ll keep this, keep us like a secret,
cause if my family and friends ever found out about
the things we could never be,
haunts we’ll all keep, so fucking bittersweet.

And I know they’re going to laugh at us
when they, when they see us out together “holding hands” like this.
They wouldn’t understand it if we told them all the reasons,
not that I think this deserves any kind of explanation.

AGAINST ME! – Tearing Down The Walls

Mind game after mind game for the head-trip after all the shit. One step in advancement, numb to everything. Searching for the result, striving for resolution, offering no solution just more dogma for confusion. Fill you full of promise with your back against the wall; interpret a hopeless freedom where chains liberate the soul. Answers to silent questions from the idols of the dark. First present solution then we’ll see about tearing down the walls…

Health all alone you find there’s nothing left to fear, with the one exception of the message they conceal. Face placed on the master you find the mirror brings disgust. From the confines of this entrapment you can justify anger as lust. Blatant disregard to the feelings within, selling your own soul condescending nature flowing within. You can hate the system search for bricks to smash the state, but what’s the point of revolution when no one can relate? For the finger falls one person short, the crosshairs turned around and you cry war. First present solution then we’ll see about tearing down the walls…

AGAINST ME! – Take Aim

There is no anger, just growing exhaustion and disgust.
No longer difference between.
A cynicism has been writing itself into my skin,
and I am sick to death of it.

So let it burn in the front yard,along with everything I own.
Piled up and sprayed down with gasoline,
Soak the embers in the broken heads of my
guitars as we dance around in circles, torch ourselves in effigy.
Everybody jump up live, love longer

So are you really listening?
I don’t want any part of it.
I was worried and upset about what I’m gonna do without your genre acceptance.
Then it came to me:
You gotta turn your back and abandon it.

I’m taking aim at you; as a focus and recipient of judgment.
Well your politics are easy to remember,
especially when sung along to beats like this, so:
It’s a dirty little secret about money?
It’s a dirty little secret about poverty?
It’s a dirty little secret about hunger?
Another little secret about war and brutality.

There is no romance, no glamour in reality.

What!?

There is no romance, no glamour in reality.

AGAINST ME! – Suffocation

We were young heartbreakers estranged from our wealthy parents,
doing key bumps in a handicap bathroom.
Stoned complacent, ambivalent, mass communicating with shared subconscious.

Suffocation.
Modern life in the western world.

Homosexual sons of unfulfilled fathers.
Divorced from reality, free and young.
We were bashing our brains out on a kitchen cabinet.
It was a televised crucifixion.
Suffocation.
Modern life in the western world.

We were star-crossed, we were destitute.
Our words spoke mass destruction.
We watched the sun rise in the morning.
Daughters in arm, we all are orphans.

Suffocation.
Modern life in the western world.

In the western world.

AGAINST ME! – So Much More

No you’re never gonna be anything more than just another punk band
It’s never gonna be anything more than rock and roll
Let’s play our song, it’s been so many times before
But you keep on listening because you wanna believe that it’s possible
Abandon artistic integrity
Drop all pretensions and just lock into the beat
We can have some more in a solid melody

Means so much more than the city and state
Means so much more than fame and adulation
Gonna prove that we’re more than our father’s sons and daughters
That we’re meant for so much more than the future could ever offer
So here we come gunning for revenge
It’s a little too late for an apology
Means so much more than they could ever give to us [x2]

I’m not asking for your acceptance
I’m not waiting for you to understand
Means so much more than a lover
Means so much more than the actor
So much more than your complete devotion
So much more than you could ever give to me

And Maybe we’ll never see our efforts indicated
Maybe we’ll never amount to anything
We’re not looking back
We’re not making compromises
We are willing to dare
We are willing to believe
If I only had more time
If I only had more words to explain

So much more than the world could ever give to me [x6]

AGAINST ME! – Stop!

Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
You’ve got to make a serious decision.
[x2]

It could be me up there in stage lights.
It could be me on the TV in you living room.
It could be me jet setting with my band all across the world.
Appearing live in concert one night only, tickets sold out.

Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
You’ve got to make a serious decision.

There I am giving candid disclosure to press in interview.
There I go on my way through the crowd up to the podium.
On behalf of our fans we’d like to accept this award.
Smile for the camera boys, gold record in hand.

Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
You’ve got to make a serious decision.

All of our lives in waiting.
All of our lives traded for their roses and applause.
All of our lives dedicated to shoving it right back in their fucking face.

Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
Stop! Take some time to think, figure out what’s important to you.
You’ve got to make a serious decision.
I said you’ve got to make a serious decision.

Stop! Take some time to think.

AGAINST ME! – Spanish Moss

You just need to find some place to get away.
You can forget your name.
And there’s no need to apologize.

It could be a good life.
It could be such a very good life.
We could find a place for just me and you.
Need some place to stay safe, need some place to stay safe and warm.
Why don’t we deserve the same?

You just need to find some place to get away.
You can forget your name.
And there’s no need to apologize.

Look into the Spanish moss.
Let your mind conjure up old ghosts.
Ride you bike through lost Florida streets.
Everything we’ve said and done, can be so easily forgotten.
You can always change who you are.

You just need to find some place to get away.
You can forget your name.
And there’s no need to apologize.
I caught a glimpse of this life, it could be such a very good life.
We could find a place for just me and you.
But it’s not yours to keep.
Yeah, the truth will tear your heart out.
In a world run by gangsters you’re stuck standing in a bread line.

You just need to find some place to get away.
You can forget your name.
And there’s no need to apologize.

AGAINST ME! – Slurring The Rhythms

There was cameras brought for pictures to hold all the small details.
We left them all behind, we left them all behind.
There was a place for there was a time for, we arrive to leave again,
there is no point in a keepsake when you run from collections.

I know one day there will be a book or a song line to remind me how much it meant to me hungry, exhausted and alone.
Direction is a point, direction is a purpose, destination is a reason to live…and this makes a heart beat.

This could be any day, this could be any year.
This could be any stage, this could be any city.
All that matters is we’re moving on.
The roadside graveyards pass and we escape,
we escape, we escape, we escape repeating.
And this construction of a nation building up
and the destruction of a nation tearing down to build again.
Trailing taillights like the ghosts of the past to escape those pasts, en route to arrival.
We’re never going home.

AGAINST ME! – Sink, Florida, Sink

Not one more word tonight
between here and there
We’ll put a distance the size of the ocean
so now this heart can beat a skipping rhythm
As the cadence carries me
I almost drift away
far enough to forget
but when it comes you cannot hesitate
and when found i will write
an account and seal it in an envelope
addressed to your last known residence

Whoaaaa.
whoa – oh – oh – ah – ohhh
woah – oh – oh – ah – ohhhhh
woah – oh – oh – ohhhhhh

And we sink, and we drown
and what is lost can never be found
well these arms did swim,
until the lungs pulled in
panic was lost in a deep understanding
that you will see what is wrong with everything
what is wrong with you and me
they make all the right reasons to fuck it up
you’re gonna fuck it up

Whoaaaa.
whoa – oh – oh – ah – ohhh
woah – oh – oh – ah – ohhhhh
woah – oh – oh – ohhhhhh

[Whisper]
(That sounded pretty good to me)
(I thought it was pretty good)

AGAINST ME! – Shit Stroll (Nah Nah Nah)

Nah, nah nah nah nah, whoa-oh, ohhh
Nah, nah nah nah nah, whoa-oh, ohhh

Street lights
Shed the light of vision to the calling plot
You remember every moment
Was there ever a time?
Or has it always been like this?
Tonight the bottle offers no answers
These were the decisions you said you could handle
This was the moment you said you were ready for
So the unexpected doesn’t appease me

Nah, nah nah nah nah, whoa-oh, ohhh
Nah, nah nah nah nah, whoa-oh, ohhh

All day I saw around you
Construction of lies
Tear apart your insides
They’re whispers
Not suggestions
Liar icons
Too full of sense of direction
Blind, miracle cures
Offer to sedate the friend of the flesh
Seizes the benefit
The words of the charade
Save our companions
Will there ever be a time?

Nah, nah nah nah nah, whoa-oh, ohhh
Nah, nah nah nah nah, whoa-oh, ohhh

Spent a lifetime in order to realize
What place I did it in
The material in each and empty thoughts
The standards of beauty
Look straight fascist
Save our social expectations
Or are you just so far gone to realize
Too close up to understand
Human nature versus man
Disorder!
To understand anarchists
Still annoyed by us anarchists
Sell our shit to all the kids

Nah, nah nah nah nah, whoa-oh, ohhh
Nah, nah nah nah nah, whoa-oh, ohhh

AGAINST ME! – Searching For A Former Clarity

No the doctors didn’t tell you,
that you were dying.
They just collected their money,
And sent you on your way.
But you knew all along,
went on pretending nothing was wrong,
you said I will keep my focus, till the end.
And in the journal you kept,
by the side of your bed.
You wrote nightly in aspiration,
of developing as an author.
Confessing childhood secrets,
of dressing up in women’s clothes,
Compulsions you never knew the reasons to,
Well everyone, you ever meet or love,
be just relationship based on a false presumption,
despite everyone, you ever meet or love,
in the end, will you be all alone?
As the disease spreads slowly through your body,
pumped by your heart to the tips of your arms and your legs,
your greatest fear was that your mind wouldn’t last,
your coherency and alertness would be the first things to fade,
as your hair thinned, as the weight fell off, as your teeth blackened,
as the lesions spotted your skin,
as you fell to your knees in the center of the stage,
as you offered witness to mortality in exchange for the ticket price,
as the lights blended into the continuing noise,
as all hope was finally lost.
Adrenaline carried one last thought to fruition.
Let this be the end.
Let this be the last song.
Let this be the end.
Let all be forgiven.

AGAINST ME! – Scream Until You’re Coughing Up Blood

Everything
You got to hold on to
Everything
You relied on to be there is completely fucked
There’s a skeleton of loyalty hanging in the gallows of your heart
(no one wins this one)
And where are your friends?
Please help me through these years ahead.
Are we just drinking buddies
Playing with each other’s deepest vulnerability?
That this is all we know?
So this is how it’s gonna stay?
I think I
Would rather
Remember how it was and go our separate ways.
I don’t feel anything
Unless we are living and dying for each other
Every second of our lives.

Everything
You thought that it would be,
Everything
You thought you were living for is completely fucked.
This is no place to be.
If we don’t get out of here right now,
We’re just gonna end up drunk, fucking,
and fighting and working machines.
If I have another cigarette,
If I drink another beer,
Sit quiet another time when I should’ve said
“Oh, this is too much.
There are things I never wanted to be.”
This ship has sprung a leak
And I’ll be damned if I’m going down with it.
Still breathing at any cost.

AGAINST ME! – Same Old Song

I’m sick of hearing the same old song. The same old heartbreaking story about some poor shit whose life sucks dick thinking he’s gonna change the world through another angry song. Well I don’t see progress just repetition same old songs about oppression. Another band that will break up in a year because no one in it really cared. Just in it so they could say they tried to their kids when they wonder why, why they let the world get to the point that it is.Yeah we’ve all tasted oppression but still we stand on division letting fashion taint our vision and thinking that our clothes alone damage the system.

I’m sick of hearing the same old songs.

We haven’t even made a dent but the system’s not going to let us forget that every time we make a stand Whitey smashes us back down again. Yeah I know we all got problems and I don’t think that this song’s going to solve them. Why can’t you find your own inspiration instead of sponging off last year’s condensation. It’s unfortunate that you’ve got no solution to the problems of oppression, pollution, abuse, death, self-sacrifice. Sometimes reality is an ugly thing. Oh yes this world is still a mess, but you still have one more complaint to add on to this list. Just one more dead weight to help pull down this sinking ship.

Same old heartbreaking story.

AGAINST ME! – The Politics Of Starving

It’s time for some real world politics,
economics, history, math and English.
Born and raised and bred walking a thin line,
between lost and succeeding and don’t ever care about.
The rules aren’t changing it if you really tell it like it is
Threats always been there, terror always happens.

For all the fights, for all the songs, all we said.
All we have is these pictures of us.
If it doesn’t matter now then it never really did,
And without this we might as well be dead.

They’re all black and white people,
and that doesn’t have anything to do with us.
After all these years it’s still an arms race,
after all these years they still don’t fucking get it.
Lives and cultures matter more than capitalist interest.
It’s the FBI; it’s the CIA; it’s the ATF, the IMF, NBC, CBS. Fuck you.

For all the fights, for all the songs, all we said.
All we have is these pictures of us.
If it doesn’t matter now then it never really did,
And without this we might as well be dead.

When you are so hungry that you’d believe anything.
Well they’re selling you the politics of starving.
And what the fuck does that really mean to us?

AGAINST ME! – Rice And Bread

How can you not find everything you need in all of this? potatoes, rice, and bread, we’ll burn it as we take it in. sing your heart out, sing it like you mean it, you’re gonna sing everything you’re thinking, and you’re gonna sing it until they’re listening. cause if it really brings us all together, I’d say that settles all arguments of difference, surviving just by questioning, can you imagine if we all started demanding? I can play along to every record, front and back every song, and every word means as much to me as every word means to you. they can make an industry selling people the things they want to hear, if this is worth anything, we will sell it for humility, it will take us farther than the posture you’re fronting.

Against Me! – Re-Education (Through Labor)

To the sound of a heartbeat pounding away
To the rhythm of the awful rusted machines
We toss and turn but don’t sleep
Each breath we take makes us thieves
Like causes without rebels
Just talk but promise nothing else

We crawl on our knees for you
Under a sky no longer blue
We sweat all day long for you
But we sow seeds to see us through
‘Cause sometimes dreams just don’t come true
We wait to reap what we are due

To the rhythm of a time bomb ticking away
And the blare of the sirens combing the streets
Chased down like dogs we run from
Your grasp until the sun comes up

We crawl on our knees for you
Under a sky no longer blue
We sweat all day long for you
But we sow seeds to see us through
‘Cause sometimes dreams just don’t come true
Look now at what they’ve done to you

White needles buried in the red
The engine roars and then it gives
But never dies
‘Cause we don’t live
We just survive
On the scraps that you throw away

I won’t crawl on my knees for you
I won’t believe the lies that hide the truth
I won’t sweat one more drop for you
‘Cause we are the rust upon your gears
We are the insect in your ears
We crawl
We crawl
We crawl… all over you

We sow the seeds to see us through
Our days are precious and so few
We all reap what we are due
Under this sky no longer blue
We bring the dawn long over-due
We crawl
We crawl
We crawl… all over you

AGAINST ME! – Problems

An inventory has been taken of every belonging
An estimated value sold in event of emergencies
The only backup plan in case it doesn’t work out
In losing all semblance of coherence to a former self
You know I am becoming the choices we’re making

No problems,
problems with everything
Problems,
problems with everything
Oh God No…

Sometimes it’s like conversations are a waking dream
A third party perspective
An audience to themselves
You can almost hear the sound traveling
It’s caused a feeling of anticipation
When all of the sudden you know what’s gonna happen
They saw the paranoids, they rebuild your world
They neither eat nor sleep they have no name you know..

Here in the worst, I will become, the best of them all

No more problems,
problems with anything
No more problems,
problems with anything

AGAINST ME! – Rapid Decompression

How much is too much?
I’m tired of predicting to lose.
But before you point your finger,
before you cast your stones,
take a look at yourself.
How can you expect from someone what you won’t do yourself?

There’s no bottom to your reality.
Your desperation is utter and complete.
What you can’t love about yourself you have to steal from someone else;
and what you can’t steal you have to deny.

Rapid Decompression.
Sometimes it feels like your whole world is coming to an end.

AGAINST ME! – Pretty Girls (The Mover)

What are you gonna say when she picks up the phone?
Should you leave a message if she’s not at home?
I wanted to know if you’d like to see a movie or get a drink.
It would be cool just to be in your company.
But if she says yes know what intentions might be.
If one thing leads to another and there’s some chemistry.
You cannot lie, you have to tell the truth.
You have to explain why this could never be, because

There are things that cannot be undone.
There are mistakes that will never be forgiven.
Sometimes at night, I pray to wake a different person in a different place.

Maybe we could just be friends.
I’m being a bit presumptuous.
The stomach churns, the mind starts to race.
You nervously start to exaggerate.
I just want to be young, I want to live.
I want to be healthy,
I don’t want this problem.
You wouldn’t think something like irresponsibility,
would complicate something like asking for some company.

But there are things you must accept as said and done.
There are truths you must learn to confront.
You can pray all night and day.
You’ll always wake the same person in the same place.

Drunk mouth ruined it again.
Sometimes I say the dumbest things.
Baby it’s not you specifically it could be anybody.
I gone and built this up in my head and now it’s already over,
It’s already over, it’s already over before it started.

AGAINST ME! – Piss And Vinegar

I’ve heard the hype about your band, Ive seen your video playing on the TV.
Publicity photos in magazines, no none of it makes me feel anything.
I would be lying to you if I did not say something.
That would make me feel like a politician.
A middle of the road opinion that no one finds offensive or challenging.
I’m not interested.
The stage is not a pedestal.
I don’t think your bad people I just think that your aesthetic is horrible.
Please treat me with the same respect and candor.
I would appreciate the honesty.
A little less professional, a little more upfront and confrontational.

Just say what you’re thinking.
Say what you’re really thinking.

AGAINST ME! – Pints Of Guinness Make You Strong

Evelyn sits by the elevator doors
It’s been 37 years since James died on St. Patrick’s Day in 1964
But she could not hold it against him
There were times when there was nothing she could do
But lie in bed all day beside a picture of them together
A picture of better days

And just like James, I’ll be drinking Irish tonight
and the memory of his last work week will be gone forever
Evelyn I’m not coming home tonight!
If we’re never together
If I’m never back again
Well I swear to God that I’ll love you forever
Evelyn I’m not coming home tonight!

In all the years that went by she said
She’d always love him
and from the day that he died
She never loved again

And in his wallet she kept in her nightstand
an a.a. card and a lock of red hair
she kept secrets of pride locked so tight in her heart
it killed a part of her before the rest was gone.

She said, “If I would have known just how things would have ended up
I just would have let myself die.”

And just like James, I’ll be drinking Irish tonight
and the memory of his last work week will be gone forever
Evelyn I’m not coming home tonight!
If we’re never together
If I’m never back again
Well I swear to God that I’ll love you forever
Evelyn I’m not coming home tonight!

AGAINST ME! – One By One

I feel the ground moving under my feet,
all I know is where I don’t belong.
I’m not interested in sticking around
just for the sake of a good time.
Houses rotting from the the inside out
and everybody’s pissed out of their fucking minds.
Are you seriously talking to me about community?

One by one, shoot off my fingers one by one.
Where do we go from here? Where do we go from here?
When the rebels lose the spirit of rebellion.

You’ve got nowhere left to go.
But I know I’m not alone.

We are defined by what we stand
against and the weight of unfulfilled expectations.
This culture that threatens to engulf you,
is this anyway to go about fighting it?
I don’t want to be born again,
I don’t need anybody to speak for me.
I’m not interested in humoring illusions
or apologizing for the sake of sentiment.

One by one, shoot off my fingers one by one.
Where do we go from here? Where do we go from here?
When the rebels lose the spirit of rebellion.

You’ve got nowhere left to go.
But I know I’m not alone.

AGAINST ME! – Once Pure

I opened my eyes to find my world enslaved, my brothers and sisters rendered mindless, with no desire to free themselves of their own chains. A potentially beautiful existence had been rendered meaningless. Set on a course to worldwide annihilation. But first the destruction and abandonment of everything sacred. Anything with any real meaning, any real chance of evolution. Yet they say I’m the one who’s blind, cursed with this fucking insanity. When all this time we could have been free, in the name of Anarchy.

Once pure, once clean, once natural, the water was once strong and free. Once pure, once beautiful, once healthy, the air once breathed life. The land that sustains our existence has been locked in shackles and chains. Then raped by the flags and the tyrants. Poisoned by the power trips of the insane. So you look around, and you pick your plot and you dig your own fucking grave. Or you take your stand and you wage your war, in the name of Anarchy. A simple objection is not enough, prove your disgust. When all this time we could have been free, in the name of Anarchy.

AGAINST ME! – Nuclear Cowboys In An Age Of Drift

This is the dumbest movie that I’ve ever seen
The outcome is predictable
And the casting is so obvious and transparent
Acting for transparent politicians
And with out without your vote, well the election’s going to happen
I know it burns in your stomach to feel so cheated
It burns in your stomach to feel there’s nothing you can do about it

So we laugh together in the same cynical way
And we’ll talk about it in the same beaten down way
And nothing changes

These are the same choices that we’ve always had
It’s the same rhetoric
It’s the same campaign promises
Oh, you don’t have to buy what they’re selling
‘Cause with or without your vote, one of these candidates will take office
And everybody’s praying to go numb
Everybody’s got the same excuses
There’s nothing they can do about it

So we laugh together in the same cynical way
And talk about it in the same beaten down way
We laugh together in the same cynical way
We talk about it in the same beaten down way
And nothing changes
Nothing ever changes

AGAINST ME! – New Wave

We can control the medium.
We can control the context of presentation.
Is there anybody on the receiving end?
Reaching out for some kind of connection.

Come on and wash these shores away.
Come on and wash these shores away.
I am looking for the crest,
I am looking for the crest of a new wave.

We can be the bands we want to hear.
We can define our own generation.
Is there anybody on the receiving end?
Are you ready to brave new directions.

Come on and wash these shores away.
Come on and wash these shores away.
I am looking for the crest,
I am looking for the crest of a new wave.

Let breathe new dawn this art is dead!
No signs of original thought in the mainstream.
Is there anybody on the receiving end?
We can eclipse all that came before us.

Come on and wash these shores away.
Come on and wash these shores away.
I am looking for the crest,
I am looking for the crest of a new wave.

AGAINST ME! – National Myth

All your glorious battles, what did they amount to, what did they prove?
All for your pride of country, all for your sacred democracy, rival national myths.
All for your rich ancestry of warmongers, you hailed as heroes.
Don’t believe in your jingoistic pride, that fuels your imperialistic genocide.

When all I cry for is Anarchy.
When all I plea for is to be free.
Their slavery will never get the best of me.
Their restrictions will never imprison me.
Their poisons will never disable me.
Love is the force that binds me.

A better world will emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past.
Considering tens of millions lost their lives in conflict, is that too much to ask?
Wars of religion, nationalism, made all the more devastating by advances in perverted science.
Led the innocent to early deaths, soldiers to shallow graves. How can you sleep at night?

When all I cry for is to be free.
When all I plea for is Anarchy.
Their slavery will never get the best of me.
Their restrictions will never imprison me.
Their poisons will never disable me.
Love is the force that drives me.
Hatred will never overtake me.

AGAINST ME! – Mutiny On The Electronic Bay

It’s an into the sunrise aesthetic, let’s pretend this is an informed consent. that class division doesn’t make an infantry, there is no incentive, no franchise opportunities. and the magazine spreads of fashion models gas masks in hand, it’s ok, it’s all right, these are situations we learn to live in. when an invasion can bring a country its freedom then unconsciousness is true happiness, no, i don’t know what to say.

AGAINST ME! – Rock n’ Roll Bullshit

The chorus to this nights song is a predicted disgust. A bootstrap appeal to the light of the T.V. Rock n Roll shit, predicted hits, repeat and justify. Token tantrums fight the good fight and reflect, this is what’s spoken regardless of what’s real. It’s the sound of a generation strumming to rebellion, at the drumbeat of the bandwagon. Sing to the crisis. Sing to the hope. Tomorrow’s 8-track art in advert integrity. Pedestal flag waving, industry tricks for a soundtrack of suffering. My place in the sun, common legacy to learn, common hate to fear and cash in. Another anthem to the airwaves so raise your fist and sing. Is this the peoples music, or a pop songs lesson in freedom. Sing to the crisis. Sing to the hope. The next move the next direction the next prolific profit. New vibration to an era’s institution. Rock n Roll bullshit, play it up again. Sway side to side and repeat dance the night away. Sing to the crisis. Sing to the hope.

AGAINST ME! – Miami

We charge into danger.
No guarantees or safe places.
No one can be trusted,
everyone is a suspect.
All the money’s worthless.
The talent is trite and exaggerated.
The food is turning and the water’s fucking poison.
And it’s rotting your teeth right out of your head,
sight and hearing are quickly faded.
Your gut’s expanding, your hairline’s receding.
The sores are opening and the cancer’s spreading.
And the antibiotics aren’t working,
All the drugs are just strangely sobering.
And the skeletons in your closet have opened the door and
they’ve started talking.

Just like Miami!
Miami!
Fucking Miami.
Miami!

Sharks circling for the feeding.
All hope has been abandoned, like ballots drifting into the ocean.

Just like Miami!
Miami!
Fucking Miami!
Miami!

Sharks circling for the feeding.
All hope has been abandoned, like ballots drifting into the ocean.

Hey!

They’re in your room while you’re sleeping.
They’re in your car behind the seat waiting.
All the rifle sights are on the back of your head.
They’re slipping it into your drink when you’re not looking.
And they’re selling it to you as art.
It’s every other word in movies and songs.
All the public is buying,
it’s business as usual,
and the business is capitalizing
on your fear, your greed, your perversions and vices.
They say you’re guilty, they’ve got the evidence to prove it.
The mistakes are obvious, the faults are glaring.
The plane is on fire, the fucking ship is sinking.
And you’re swept away in a hurricane.
You’re buried in the rubble of an earthquake.
It’s terminal,
inoperable,
they’re amputating!
Massive hemmorrhaging,
major fucking complications!

Just like Miami!
Miami!
Fucking Miami!
Miami!

Sharks circling for the feeding.
All hope has been abandoned, like ballots drifting into the ocean.

Just like Miami!
Miami!
Fucking Miami!
Miami!

Sharks circling for the feeding.
All hope has been abandoned, like ballots drifting into the ocean.

Miami!

AGAINST ME! – Mediocrity Gets You Pears (The Shaker)

Foul play! There’s a target on the audience
Vampires! We’re only in it for the money.
Diluted! We took the movement to the market.
So fuck us! We totally sold out the scene.

Excite me, excite me.
Nothing really excites me.
There’s no connection at all.
There’s no connection at all.
Excite me, excite me.
Nothing really excites me.
There’s no connection at all.
No connection at all.

Co-opted! There’s vultures preying on the underground.
It’s packaged! It’s just fashion and rebellion.
Mainstream! It was better in the basement.
Lynch mob! Tar and feather the pretenders in the streets.

Excite me, excite me.
Nothing really excites me.
There’s no connection at all.
There’s no connection at all.
Excite me, excite me.
Nothing really excites me.
There’s no connection at all.
No connection at all.

AGAINST ME! – Justin

They’re advertising on the TV.
“Become a soldier,”
It’s still high school politics, you know.
Nothing’s changed, jocks and assholes still don’t know shit about aesthetic.
I think I smell a rat.
We sold our revenge, now we’re working for them.

Where’s the divide?

You know Justin? Well, Justin’s dead.
And Yahoo won’t let his family have access to his e-mail account,
The news reporter said:
“I feel so bad for you, it’s so awkward.
There’s really nothing I can say,
[Cut to commercial break]
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays from network and its affiliates.”

So where’s the divide?
Where’s the divide?
Where’s the divide?

AGAINST ME! – Jordan’s 1st Choice

Tell me how could you compromise
Yourself like this?
Tell me how could you blame anyone else
When you aren’t really committed?
Tell me where was your head
When you broke that promise to yourself,
The one where you don’t forget
Every life lesson that happend before your eyes
So you don’t wake up to regret she’s gone years away?
You had hopes and dreams of a day
Where everything, everything, everything would come together,
You wouldn’t have to be so scared.

Are we just working till a day we decide we’ve had enough?
All along
We were strong enough
To be sick of it,
And put them back in their fucking place.
we never asked for this responsibility
We were never in this…
Together.

The reality that you know
Is just behind your idea
Of a society, security, and self.
Am I just fucked up?
‘Cause I can’t remember
The last time any of this made sense,
The last time I
Could stand up to myself.
Street faces all blend into one,
They ask for spare change.
Am I forgetting
What it looks like
From the other side?
Have I forgotten where I’ve come from?

Are we just working till a day we decide we’ve had enough?
All along
We were strong enough
To be sick of it,
And put them back in their fucking place.
we never asked for this responsibility
We were never in this…
Together…

AGAINST ME! – Joy

All’s quiet, except for this song.
So maybe while I’m not together I can feel like I’m not alone.
And somewhere off in the distance, rapidly advancing, is an onslaught of sorts.
Young sirens wail in a skewed sense of glory.
And the lions in the cages roar at the memory of fight.

And there’s a joy, a joy in all I can see.
A joy, in every possibility.

And all around us is a great, great failing.
American rockets red-glare in a most
disgusting triumph.
And in passing I am asked “Do you believe in a God?”,
I shrug off the answer, continue to get high
in this terror of no explanation.
I am looking for a faith.
My panic is an only reason.

There’s a joy, a joy in all I can see.
A joy, in every possibility.

AGAINST ME! – I Was A Teenage Anarchist

I was a teenage anarchist, looking for a revolution.
I had the style, I had the ambition.
I read all the authors, I knew the right slogans.
There was no war but the class war.
I was ready to set the world on fire.
I was a teenage anarchist, looking for a revolution.

Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?

I was a teenage anarchist, but the politics were too convenient.
In the depths of their humanity all I saw was bloodless ideology.
And with freedom as the doctrine, guess who was the new authority?
I was a teenage anarchist, but the politics were too convenient.

Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?

I was a teenage anarchist, but then the scene got too rigid.
It was a mob mentality, they set their rifle sights on me.
Narrow visions of autonomy, you want me to surrender my identity.
I was a teenage anarchist, the revolution was a lie.

Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?

I was a teenage anarchist.

AGAINST ME! – I Still Love You Julie

Last night,
A room full, drunk,
Sang along to the songs I never had
The courage to write.
Given the chance
I’d stay in this chorus forever,
Where everything ugly in this world
Is sadly beautiful
In our desperate memories.
No, we’re not
Gonna call everyone on their shit tonight,
Even though the half of you won’t even smile
The next time we pass on the street.
Maybe somehow
This scam will still save us all…

Still save us all…
Still save us all.
Still save us all…
(Will save us all.)
Still save us all.

Then I saw you
Dancing at a punk rock show
And for a moment
We walked the streets that everyone else
Had given up to 4 AM,
‘Cause promises
And spray paint marking
Everywhere we went
And every direction
Only going as far
As we let it.
There’s so many things
We try to do truthfully.
By the time it’s through with us,
It all falls apart.
Maybe somehow
This scam will still save us all.

Still save us all…
(Will save us all.)
Still save us all.
Still save us all…
(Will save us all.)
Still save us all.

AGAINST ME! – In The Name Of What?

Here nothing grows. Here nothing lives. Do you dream of the future or do you live in the past? Are you out for humanity or a gender, race, or class? Are you dilligently fighting with the movement, or fighting the blind cause? If you were given freedom would that be an end? If you were given the means would you use them to your benefit?

Could you survive in this world without your fucking technology? Your conveniences that have cowardly carved a brilliant way of life, dependent on oppression of the way of nature. Pollute the environment for a cheap fix of flexing useless capabilities. All in the name of what? Our arrogance, this need for dominance. Well I am not so blind.

Despite our belief we are not the greatest species in existence. We are not the missing link, this is not advancement, the turth remains the same. As we push forward searching for our destiny, which we know damn well is death, I sing a song in desperation for the dying, those who could all be helped so easily. Those who fill your fucking plate. All in the name of what? Our arrogance, this need for dominance. Well I am not so blind.

AGAINST ME! – Impact

IMPACT!

I’m the Disco fucker of the new generation,
I’m in line with active invention.
Here’s a fist to forward your fucking evolution,
Head full of ten o’ clock education.

Military action gives me justice and American solution,
It’s the headline of the baby in arms.
Hand to hand darkness that shuts the curtain on this week’s call to arms.

IMPACT! [x4]

Running runway operations, turning the machine,
It’s another vote of confidence to booming world war economy,
Television ethic of crisis on demand.
This is advancement, this is entertainment.

IMPACT!

Was it Iraq, or Kosovo, Korea, or Japan,
Panama, Vietnam, Great Britain, or the Father Land?
Can you hear the dream at night falling in the sky?
Marching with God, throwing stones across the ocean.

It’s this week’s topic of discussion, a headline of the past.
It won’t make an impact unless it’s fucking Armageddon.
Nine shots to the head my God, I’m still fucking breathing.
Coming at you live on T.V.

IMPACT! [x4]

Running runway operations, turning the machine,
It’s another vote of confidence to booming world war economy,
Television ethic of crisis on demand.
This is advancement, this is entertainment.

IMPACT!

AGAINST ME! – I Am Citizen

Christ we were dying in the streets running one last anthem through your heart. Swearing life on liberty I’ll take a dream an ideal die sound in a lonely death. Pass this compromise on…… My regrets to Columbus (GA) and nothing more when Reagan became the final word. Just one month later they shot Lennon dead, will anybody cry for me? All nations claim until they day that I die, I am citizen. We’ll let music rule our life, celebrate shortcomings. If it’s not angry young and beautiful, I don’t want any part of it. Who do you have to cheat to get what you want, who do you lie to, to get what you need? You deserve everything you got coming to you…

AGAINST ME! – Holy Shit

I am oh so fascinated,
I am oh so entertained,
Standing here like a comedian,
I repeat what I say, again and again and again
until the meaning has become an imitation of itself,
An impression of an original defeats the fucking purpose.
I don’t know where this is going,
but it’s looking more and more like the same place that we started.

Oh good God, holy shit, the joke’s on us, not on them.
Kids pretending to be astronauts, police officers, and firemen.

Oh good God, holy shit, the joke’s on us, not on them.
Kids pretending to be astronauts, police officers, and firemen.

And everybody’s watching the lead singer in the band.
The guitars exploding to a drumbeat that’s driving.
It’s pretty fucking boring, oh don’t you think?
And of all the things we’d ask,
of all the ways we’d like for it to be,
they’re just drunken conversations,
song lyrics sung at the top of our lungs so desperately.
Like I believe in a power that is of and by the people?
I believe in an art that cannot be compromised.
I believe all will endure, and all will overcome.
And I will sing it until I no longer remember the reason.
What was the reason?

Oh good God, holy shit, joke’s on us, not on them.
Kids pretending to be astronauts, police officers, and firemen.

Oh good God, holy shit, joke’s on us, not on them.
Kids pretending to be astronauts, police officers, and firemen.

AGAINST ME! – How Low

Now I wake up around 4 or 5.
Eat, shower, and get dressed in about an hour’s time.
Take my vitamins, check my messages, and call around to some friends,
make plans for dinner and drinks sometime after 9.
Oh we’re definitely going to call it in early tonight.
I need to dry out and take some time to clear my mind.
But before you know it here I am again, fucking 2 o’clock in the morning,
standing in a bar, with a drink in hand.

How low can you go before you can’t turn around?

Now seriously, this is my last and final time.
Well I’m making some big, big changes in my life.
No, you won’t catch me down here again, waiting to score sweaty money palmed in my hand.
What are you cutting this with anyway?
‘Cause I have got some really big plans.
And today’s the day I’m putting them into action.
But before you know it, here I am again, fucking 6 o’clock in the morning.
Rolled up dollar bill in my hand.

How low can you go before you can’t turn around?

I’m sick of feeling like I’m losing my mind.
Sick of doing the same things most nights after night.
Sick of self-loathing and self-absorbtion,
self-destructive narcissism.
I’m sick to death of being constantly fucking sick of.

I don’t know who I can trust.
Thought there was us, but no, there is no one.

AGAINST ME! – High Pressure Low

There was a high pressure low developing off the coast of Africa,
uplift in the atmosphere pushed waves
across the ocean towards Antilles and Bon Air.
I paced in Agitation. I drew the curtains closed.
I turned the air conditioner on.
I pressed a warm wash cloth to my face.
Somewhere out there a hurricane was coming.

There’s just no future left for us to dream of,
living in an era of instability.
So caught up in the culture of their rivals,
fear breeds in honest men.
It’s a high pressure low.

7 missiles flying over the sea of japan.
Tales of feral children sleeping in wolf dens.
And the pious preacher commands.
I hold my breath in anticipation.
Into the shelter of the jungle noble savages run.
Vestal virgins triumph over life long inhibitions.
And I wonder, what is real? What is fiction?

There’s just no future left for us to dream of,
living in an era of instability.
So caught up in the culture of their rivals,
fear breeds in honest men.
It’s a high pressure low.

Would anyone forgive Robert McNamara?
In retrospect he had to admit;
there was mistake in going to war without first asking all the questions.
Yes, Robert Strange McNamara,
there are those who just cannot forget.
And I wonder, have I lost my own compassion?

There’s just no future left for us to dream of,
living in an era of instability.
So caught up in the culture of their rivals,
fear breeds in honest men.
It’s a high pressure low.

AGAINST ME! – Gypsy Panther

Coming home feels like surrender, feels like we’re giving in.
When the shows are over, is there any other reason to live?

My brain is moving with a nervous energy.
It starts in the back of my head, carries down through my stomach,
legs and feet.
Nobody to call, I’ve got no real place to be.
You know I haven’t been home in such a long time.
I’m just looking for a little bit of home right now.
I’m just desperate for a little bit of home right now.
I’m just grasping for a little bit of home right now.

Tomorrow we’ll celebrate the coming of the New Year. They’ll be
drinking in the bars around downtown.
You know I’ll probably end up down there myself. Nobody to call, I’ve
got no real place to be.
You know I broke all my resolutions this year. Let’s not make any
promises this New Year.
I just want to make it through this coming year.
No, I don’t want to feel the same way next year.

Oh, but don’t you know?
Did you think the world would bend for you?
Did you think that you could really change yourself?
Oh, before you know, it’s already time to go.
It feels like you just got back into town.

Coming home feels like surrender, feels like we’re giving in.
When the shows are over, is there any other reason to live?

Coming home feels like surrender, feels like we’re giving in.
When the shows are over, is there any other reason to live?

AGAINST ME! – Graceful Concession

Your talent outshines all that I could ever do or say
and me and my jealousy, I stole your songs and passed them off as my own
As much as I would like for it not to show
you can smell the stink on my breath and in my clothes, it’s so obvious
oh if I could only be half the things you write about in your songs
if I could only mean half as much to anyone

and in my arrogance I write pages of anger hate and spite
all of the reasons I have to trust… absolutely no one
today I heard you on my stereo and it shamed me,
yes it shamed me to think that I could be so unoriginal
oh if I could only be half the genius that you are
to feel such honest want, to show love
I would show you love
I would show you love
I would show you love
oh if I could only feel half as resolute in my beliefs,
if I could only sing with such bravery
I can not explain how much you mean to me
without your words, I would be lost.

AGAINST ME! – Haste Killed Creativity

The days blow by in agile moments of clarity and blind despair. With rage so thick it’s bittersweet to see a smile come through here and there. You put your faith in living, but youthful idealism is no longer welcome here. I’m not dead yet. Hopes not dead yet. A hero’s march down scorn filled halls defeats the charity of last years hell. Your vain eyes show no respect, just loss of recognition broken spirit burnt out will. Sing a song of cynicism a foul smell of shit decay and degradation in the midst of celebration. I’m not dead yet. Hopes not dead yet.

AGAINST ME! – Lehigh Acres

Whoa-oh-oh-oh

Vacant lots and boarded up windows
Garbage piled up at the curb
There’s a bank foreclosure notice taped to your front door

Who else is to blame for your own short sighted fate, kid?
What you could afford was never enough. You had to have more.
And now you’re facing this new reality
You’re learning lessons that can only be taught through poverty.
Florida Dreaming.
Easy money in the sunshine state.
Florida Dreaming.
The life you always wanted.

Whoa-oh-oh-oh

Million dollar Leigh rise condominiums
Look down over gold coast streams
While Harrietta Hughes makes the President bore a hole
Yeah, there’s no end in sight, just a tropical third world
Has the volume of wealth ever excused such abhorred gluttony?
And now you’re facing this new reality
You’re learning lessons that can only be taught through poverty.
Florida Dreaming.
Easy money in the sunshine state.
Florida Dreaming.
The life you’ve always wanted.
Florida Dreaming.
Florida Dreaming.
Florida Dreaming.
The life you’ve always wanted: Cut me offs.

AGAINST ME! – From Her Lips To God’s Ears (The Energizer)

Regime change under a Bush doctrine of democratic installations.
Constant war for constant soldiers.
What are we gonna do now?
De-escalation, through military force.
Increase the pressure, Oh Condoleeza
What should we do about the situation in Iran and North Korea?

Condoleeza.

Democratic election under Marshall law.
An Iraqi president out of control of our choices.
After all this death and destruction
Do you really think your actions advocate freedom?
The presidents giving a speech in Georgetown
To remember the voice of a slain civil rights leader,
Do you understand what the martyrs stood for?
Oh Condoleeza do you get the fucking joke?

Condoleeza
Condoleeza
Condoleeza
What are we gonna do now?
Condoleeza
Condoleeza
Condoleeza
What are we gonna do now?

AGAINST ME! – Exhaustion

There is no anger, just growing exhaustion and disgust.
No longer difference between.
A cynicism has been writing itself into my skin,
and I am sick to death of it.

So let it burn in the front yard,along with everything I own.
Piled up and sprayed down with gasoline,
Soak the embers in the broken heads of my
guitars as we dance around in circles, torch ourselves in effigy.
Everybody jump up live, love longer

So are you really listening?
I don’t want any part of it.
I was worried and upset about what I’m gonna do without your genre acceptance.
Then it came to me:
You gotta turn your back and abandon it.

I’m taking aim at you; as a focus and recipient of judgment.
Well your politics are easy to remember,
especially when sung along to beats like this, so:
It’s a dirty little secret about money?
It’s a dirty little secret about poverty?
It’s a dirty little secret about hunger?
Another little secret about war and brutality.

There is no romance, no glamour in reality.

What!?

There is no romance, no glamour in reality.

AGAINST ME! – Even At Our Worst We’re Still Better Than Most (The Roller)

You can have it all, I ain’t got the heart to fight, no.
Total exhaustion, complete breakdown. For the asshole I am,
apologies in full, please leave me alone.
Pull over the van, let me out.

And we’ll give the money back, to the record label.
Fire the agent, fire the manager.
We ain’t got what it takes, to make it.
We got indifference, got no respect for them.
Feels like you already said so much,
feels like you can never say enough.
Let someone else take our place,
let them be your entertainment.

You know they’re waiting,
(you know they’re waiting)
You know they’re waiting,
(you know they’re waiting)
You know they’re waiting,
(they’re just waiting)
To tear us apart

You know they’re waiting,
(you know they’re waiting)
You know they’re waiting,
(you know they’re waiting)
You know they’re waiting,
(they’re just waiting.)
To tear us apart

AGAINST ME! – Ed Is Sexy

And if the water dries, the ground shakes and the sky turns black
If it was all over this minute, this second, is there something that you’d regret?
If we were written as a story, actors portrayed us in a movie
Our lives sung in a song on the radio
Would it make you want to sing along?
Would it show us all a reason to stay strong?

Alright…

And if I could change all that I have become
If I could take all the anger and the hate and just give it right back to where it came from
I know somewhere I’d find an audience; I know I’d still find a stage
That would make me want to sing along
That would show us all a reason to stay strong

Do an audience and judgment replace this ticking like a mine?
I look stage left and I look stage right
This is our same move, just a different night
And it goes…

I have lost it all and I have found again
All of my reasons
It’s trickling to an end
Let the saints with me be taken as self-definition
Am I getting through to you?

America
Oh I’m not sick searching in America
And in this we celebrate all that is not okay
I don’t know what I believe in
I don’t know where I belong
So I scream at the top of my lungs and I run in every direction

AGAINST ME! – Eden Quest

Someday accepted as you for you.
Someday accepted as me for me.
Someday blind eyes will plainly see.
Someday all walks of life will be free.
Someday the meek will refuse boundaries.
Someday the blessed will be the deserving.

Land of burning vision, the nightmare before my eyes.
The sore of the truth attacking the body of lies,
the light of the proof overcoming jaded minds.
You can lie to yourself, you can abandon the world,
you can pray on the cure nature’s judgement still stands.
Pray to the stars, cry to the sky, demand an eye for an eye,
do you save sight, or ease minds?

Land of burning vision, the nightmare before my eyes.
Eden Quest for proof, Eden Quest for light,
quest for explanations to the suffering of life.
Never been a night so cold; never been a day so bright.
Spit in the face of the courteous oppressor
like a slap in the face from the do-good master.
Till the last bite, till the last breath, till everything is free.
till you accept me for me

AGAINST ME! – Don’t Lose Touch

You’re coming off kinda contrived and pretentious.
You’re not saying anything we haven’t heard before.
You’re caught up in an argument.
Oh, oh you’re so lost in modern art.

You will lose it all.
And you will find again.
Don’t lose touch.
Don’t lose touch.

S.O.S. texted from a cell phone?
Please tell me I’m not the only one,
that thinks we’re taking ourselves too seriously,
Just a little too enamored with inflated self-purpose.

Talk is cheap.
And it doesn’t mean much.
Don’t lose touch.
Don’t lose touch.
I’m losing touch.
I’m losing touch.

Constant entertainment for our restless minds.
Constant stimulation for epic appetites.
Is there something wrong with these songs?
Maybe there’s something wrong with the audience.
Manipulation in rock music, fucking nausea.

I’m losing touch.
I’m losing touch, and it’s obvious.

AGAINST ME! – Disgust

It’s not just my imagination that I got a gun to my head. Cause I can feel the cold metal and I can smell the gun powder. I know they got their sights on me and its not just paranoia that makes me think this way. I know they got their plan for me. I know they got a grave for me. They want me to admit defeat. They want me to show my fear they know their system’s going to break me. It’s crushed countless before me.

I stand here and try to look out into the dark vastness that is my future. Unfortunately I can’t see shit. There are clouds and there seems to be layers to the sky. It’s all just too unknown. I waste time wanting to know what will happen. How will it end. But I never want to reach that day when I no longer have a need for that curiosity. I don’t want to know the end to this “movie”.

Shouldn’t I be living yet? Shouldn’t I know where I’m headed by now I have millions of dreams and things I want to do with this life. But I barely have time to do the little I do now. It’s not satisfaction I get relaxing at the end of the day. It’s escape from the stress. Disgust that I’m already in bed waiting to go to sleep again. Wasn’t I just heere? Didn’t this just happen? I can’t say I know what will happen tomorrow. The higher meaning that I’m looking for did not show itself today.

AGAINST ME! – Does It Make A Difference?

What if I don’t recognize their holidays, or pay respect to those who died in wars?
What if I refuse to resort to violence to solve my conflicts, and if I don’t leave it up to their democracy to decide what’s best for me? What if I won’t beat their cross anymore?

What if I don’t want anything to do with their fucking system? And if I refuse to give myself to the beast that’s brought death to millions, killed of countless cultures and raped my earth. If I denounce the system does it make a difference?

When I turn off the T.V. does it really change the agenda? When I open my mind does it make me any better? What if I refuse to take one drink to sooth the stress, and recognize it for the crutch that it is? Because I won’t subscribe to their death does it help to stop the slaughter?

AGAINST ME! – Cliche Guevara

And we’ll keep ourselves in a place where it’s easy to hold onto.
And as the last threats came and went; this is the way that wars are played.
Always heading for a front, heading for a front, headed we go.
Into the obscurity of an easy to pass on feeling
Objection is so cliché.

A new way on.
A new way on.
A new way on.
A new way on.

So can your pop sensibilities sing me the end of the world?
Turn gunshots and mortar blasts into a metaphor of how we are all the same.
Well there’s a lot of things that should be said, said, so we’re hammering six strings.
Machine gun in audible voices, this is the party we came for.

A new way on.
A new way on.
A new way on.
A new way.

We stand in amazement of motion in a world that is constantly revolving.
With plans of invasion and arms races racing, yeah we rock, we rock, we rock, we rock to the new sensation.

A new way on.
A new way on.
A new way on.
A new way on.