1. |
On Life And Death
05:17
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There is no beyond
Life’s a light switch that’s off or it’s on
and you won’t be there for the next part
Where the rest of us fumble in the dark
And how very odd
For some it’s perfect and others it’s flawed
There’s no wrong or right, it’s just a roll of the dice
You get one shot, nobody lives twice
or maybe that’s not true
When we break down to
Carbon and calcium, oxygen, too
Puzzle pieces that’ll outlive you
Rearranged into
something we once knew
Back in the here and now
A whole universe ignored somehow
We’re all so stuck
but no one seems to give a fuck
mr. meteor we’re dying to be struck
I guess until it hits
I think I’m a bottomless pit
But no one’s thrown much at all into me
I can’t know with any certainty
Maybe I’m not to say
We’re just synapses anyway
A brain in a skull, eyes locked right ahead
Colliding with chaos when we run through that red
Iron rivers we’ve bled
life will tear you to shreds
When I was fourteen
My throat closed up on me
And that’s when I knew
Just because something means you no harm
Doesn’t mean it can’t kill you
we all learn to see through life’s charms
Farm to table, cradle to grave
And no one to punish us when we misbehave
Carbon, calcium, oxygen integrate
Create and enact the definition of brave
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2. |
Gutter Gospel
03:38
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I beg your pardon
What did you say to me
That’s what I thought I heard
And, man, I just don’t agree
I’m gonna walk this way and
You better not follow me
Words can hit you where it counts
Just stay with me, hear me out
Salvation’s just another block away
Give yourself unto the asphalt
And wag those knobby knees
Translate the traffic babel
For the answer to your pleas
Let the street light be your halo
And, angel, live at ease
Oh, what to do when life gets rough
You better toughen up
Salvation’s just another block away
Don’t you worry about it
Dogma is dog shit anyway
And don’t you listen to a word they say
From the armchair soaked with piss,
To the alley’s lovers tryst
Salvation’s just another block away
Just another block away
Another block away
The sidewalk chalk says
Don’t just chalk it all up to fate
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3. |
Plateau
03:10
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There’s a constant ringing in my ears
Since I gone and fell, square on my head out here
No crater, no deep depression
Just this plateau, flatlined progression
That stretches out for miles
with no indication of a rise
Just blue, blue, blue sky
Plateau, not much to see
Nothing to show
Plateau
Nothing grows, and no water flows here
Since they dropped the bomb and razed the rugged frontier
it’s now an endless avenue of neon dive bars
Each one with frames hung of long dead rock stars
and sure, Pavement’s on the jukebox
But even Stephen’s words can’t help me shake off
The feeling that this is a poor use
Of the clock’s ticks and tocks
Plateau, not much to see
Nothing to show
Plateau
Oh I’d kill for a hill or a bluff to climb
But you know me, deaf, dumb, and blind
Never thought I’d be on this
Plateau, not much to see
Nothing to show
Plateau
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4. |
Hostess With The Mostest
03:36
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I’ve been traveling a bridge to nowhere
Well, not nowhere but you know what I mean
No I don’t want to meet so and so and so and
So I think I’ll leave
Everybody’s got their own question mark
A closed door #3 without a key
So unless you can bend just right
I’m trading you for a mystery
Off the coast is where the hostess with the mostest lives
And I gotta be there yesterday
She sells solace sans a sermon so the smartest thing would be
To be somewhere that way
Love is chemistry in more than one way
Serotonin and dopamine
And the bonds that we make tend to break or atrophy
So we split the scene
I’ve been finding it quite perplexing
Between the leaving and the living dead
Who to be when you’re beat and bees
have made their hive up in your head
Off the coast is where the hostess with the mostest lives
And I gotta be there yesterday
She sells solace sans a sermon so the smartest thing would be
To be somewhere that way
Now don’t get me wrong
you got a good thing going on
But my head's a compass for the unknown
Now don’t get me wrong
But my heart will be moving on
It was never yours, it was out on loan
Off the coast is where the hostess with the mostest lives
And I gotta be there yesterday
She sells solace sans a sermon so the smartest thing would be
To be somewhere that way
I’ve been traveling a bridge to nowhere
Well, not nowhere but you know what I mean
No I don’t want to meet so and so and so and
So I think I’ll leave
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5. |
Your Powers
04:00
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You’re so weird
You’re giving night terrors to nightmarish fiends
You gotta know that you’ve got powers
peering through the unseen
It’s all so far beyond my understanding
And though I might shake
No, please don’t take
It as a strike against you
No one’s against you
no one but you
You’re so many steps above
To us it’s not worth the climb
You’ve gotta know that all your powers
just flip the paradigm
You’re growing ever stronger with time
And though I might shake
No, please don’t take
It as a strike against you
No one’s against you
no one but you
Big big tremors shaking the streets
and all the cars sound alarms
While culprits cop to defeat
Big big feelings overwhelm me
And all my thoughts are for naught
When my head’s in apogee
All your powers impress upon me
All that’s good without the hyperbole
Big big tremors shaking the streets
and all the cars sound alarms
While culprits cop to defeat
Big big feelings overwhelm me
And all my thoughts are for naught
When my head’s in apogee
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6. |
Don't Meet Your Heroes
03:24
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Don’t meet your heroes
They can only disappoint you
It’s pretty clear, though
that all signs point to
a shit-brained ploy to
Cast off your good sense
‘I challenge you
To find another person
so worthy so true’
You can’t fault them anything at all
Don’t meet your heroes
Don’t you know that gods were meant to be killed
Knocked back to zero
Doomed to live a life among the unfulfilled
Golden age actor beat his wife
The wall of sound that took a life
Build them up to watch them fall
You can hang on every word they say
Spin like a top
Don’t come to me when eventually
you start to rock
In a back and forth sway
‘cause no matter which way
I will let you drop
Don’t meet your heroes
The surface lies, the beast it hides below
It lives in fear, though
And with prying eyes it only grows
Funny man with a fistful of surprise
The athlete that peddles in dope and lies
Flip the switch and watch the visage fall
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7. |
Sinking
03:29
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Using smoke from your cigarette
To obfuscate your secrets
A piercing gaze more dangerous
Than that vice of yours is cancerous
Or the words and slurs you choose to injure us
The most bent of question marks
That I’ve failed to straighten so far
And if we both feel that we’re one in the same
we both must admit our boredom’s not pain
And I love that you’re sinking
‘Cause I’m sinking too
And if I gotta go down
I’d rather do it with you
I truly think, even if just a bit
We both tend to choose to wallow in it
Co-dependency's an awful bitch
Made that much worse by self-righteousness
we use twigs and straw to build up that edifice
And I love that you’re sinking
‘Cause I’m sinking too
And if I gotta go down
I’d rather do it with you
you walk around with a brown paper bag
in your hand all day
faded and fazed in sunshine
It ain’t worth a damn
‘Cause it always makes me tired
I’m already tired all the time
And I love that you’re sinking
‘Cause I’m sinking too
And if I gotta go down
I’d rather do it with you
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8. |
Plans
03:16
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I’ve been staring at the waitress too long
Brown hair and bright pink lipstick on
And she forces a laugh
As she lifts the carafe
I’m wearing mismatched socks and a black eye
Feeling wrong but the customer is always right
I’ll live that lie for a while
And believe in her smile
I would say my plans have gone astray
I would say my plans have gone astray
Stacking houses of cards to watch em fall down
Frantic treading while pretending that we won’t drown
We’re a-ok, just fine
While withering on the vine
In my dreams there’s no success unless I stand tall
Spanning chasms of sarcasm while the rest fall
Oh man, I put up a fight
Then comes the morning light
I would say my plans have gone astray
I would say my plans have gone astray
Your plans
Are nothing
Just some junk
That you’re lugging
Up and down the stairs
Who cares?
Your plans
Are nothing
To the cold
Unloving
Existential dance
Sheer chance
I would say my plans have gone astray
I would say my plans have gone astray
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9. |
Bottom Feeder
04:48
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It’s a long shot what you got to lose
That you haven’t already lost
It’s a pill pop acid drop freak out
in the grocery store
go on and set in stone, put your foot down
But it’s lava hot
When you’re up to your shins, looking up to your friends
Wondering when they got so tall
Running fast again against the pull that you’d rather not know
Running out of time to make things right
Wind the hands back to the time well before yours were tied
Plenty doors just begging to be walked through
But you’re sat on the floor
In a tail spin, acting quite convinced
That there’s a fire behind every one
Sometimes the best action is inaction
gets offered up by the smug
That’s not progress, that’s just a flailing press
of the alarm clock waking your ass up
Running fast again against the walls that are coming down hard
Running out of breath, you can’t draw more
When it’s stacked on your head, and any light’s an eyesore
It’s a bad rap, your little speed trap
You’re low hanging fruit
no wonder that when trawling crab
They find the bottom feeders finding a leader in you
Running fast again against the pull that you’d rather not know
Running out of time to make things right
Running fast again against the walls that are coming down hard
Running out of breath, you can’t draw more
When it’s stacked on your head, and your heart is just a heavy stone
Wind the hands back and take a hard look at your own
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10. |
It Comes Back
03:57
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In that old house I left it
i don’t know, I just guessed it
Would waste away all alone in those empty rooms
then out one night, without warning
Its pale form stretched out before me
completely enraged and betrayed, it had come right on back
I’ve been accused
Of harboring an ugly muse
But if they only knew
What I would do
To lose it
For a time I tried to forsake it
But every time it just wouldn’t take
it read all of my moves and just laughed in my face
Tried to leave it on a trip to the coast and
Tried to leave it by crossing an ocean
It shudders and shrieks, makes a fool out of me when it comes right on back
I’ve been accused
Of harboring an ugly muse
But if they only knew
What I would do
To lose it
Last night I tried to drown it
In the bath but when I held it down it
Found its gills and just swam down the drain
Up it came now oozing
With new sludge to abuse me
I should have known ‘cause it always comes right on back
I’ve been accused
Of harboring an ugly muse
I’ve still got no clue
What I should do
To lose it
To lose it
Or kill it dead
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11. |
Shapeshifter, Pt. 2
02:45
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The shapeshifter rears its head
And shuffles through its piles of dead
Making its way down to the water
Wondering if it was something it said
Or perhaps the licking flames that sprang from its breath
No it can’t be that
No it can’t be that
No it can’t
I truly loved you
Before I tore you apart
Ate your still-beating heart
And though I enjoyed it
I can’t say that it lasted
the moment it passed
and faded away
And I changed my face out of shame
A pale reflection staring back
A head case always on the attack
Leaving its claws drawn at all times
To be sure of what’s yours and what’s mine
I have to do some things I don’t want to sometimes
No I can’t be that
No I can’t be that
No I can’t
I truly loved you
Before I tore you apart
Ate your still-beating heart
And though I enjoyed it
I can’t say that it lasted
The moment it passed
And faded away
And I changed my face out of shame
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12. |
Fixer Upper
03:10
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Wake up, wake up, you slept for too long now
Everyone is marching ahead
and you’ve fallen out of step
You don’t, you don’t, you don’t have to worry
I’ll be the bearer of bad news
I’ll shoulder the blame
what’s the difference when it all feels the same to me
As long as you’re doing better every day than the last
Shake now, Shake now, Shake off all the ashes
your feathers aflame signify the dawn of a brand new day
you don’t, you don’t, you don’t have to worry
worry’s a malignance, a disease
that I’ll cut away
I’m surgical in my ways
I’m making sure that you’re doing better every day than the last
You gotta love a fixer upper
But I’m banking on another’s
Will to recover instead of my own
You gotta love a fixer upper
but I wonder if it struck her
just how much tougher
she is to have suffered
And let some silly fucker believe
She couldn’t do it on her own
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13. |
Bury The Hatchet
04:42
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When it’s time to bury the hatchet
It doesn’t count if you do in their back, kid
When you’ve lost, you’ve lost
Still you cling to defiance at what cost?
There’s plenty more to go around
But go ahead and set yourself off
Not saying it was right, what they've done to you
But what you got there is a short fuse
And you bark all night
Your head burns bright
Like hellfire let loose
You just pass on the abuse
We’re all trespassers in hallowed ground
It's just a matter of how often we come around
Try to live a life less jaded, you’re three sheets to the wind
You might find the things you hated were lost on you to begin
you stake your sign
you bide your time
your fireworks draw a crowd
But your anger’s not profound
We’re all trespassers in hallowed ground
Just a matter of how often we come around
it’s come time to bury the hatchet
Bury it in the back in the woods by the stream
It’s past due to see that you ain’t hot shit
another short straw in a field cut clean
it’s come time to bury the hatchet
You’ll come to know what compromise means
It’s past due and soon you’re gonna catch it
the new contagion is complacency
But you keep swinging
When it’s time to bury the hatchet
It doesn’t count if you do in their back, kid
When you’ve lost, you’ve lost
Still you cling to defiance at what cost?
There’s plenty more to go around
But go ahead and set yourself off
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14. |
Islay
03:52
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I hear relief in my sigh
Every time I try to tell you
And you just get bored
I feel the need to share
Though I couldn’t care
Any less if it stirred you
Or where you’d prefer to go
I already know
It’s not where I see myself
Oh no, not right now
I need solace and something to drink
I won’t need a partner
You must have missed the part where
I vacate my life
At least for a while
I’ve been pining
for an island
Where it smells of peat smoke
And the scotch whisky flows
To my troubles and drags them away
With the white-clad homes
And those old graveyard bones
And a light that shines through the grey
Oh, Islay, Islay
I’ll be there one day
I’ll come back renewed
And the things that once proved
too much to take, I’ll obliterate
A confetti of cares
Blown into the air
I’ll be standing outside
When a friend drives on by
saying “Hey. Man where you been?”
And I’ll say
Where it smells of peat smoke
And the scotch whisky flowed
To my troubles and dragged them away
With the white-clad homes
And those old graveyard bones
And a light that shined through the grey
Oh, Islay, Islay
I’ll be there one day
I’ve gotta get gone
To where it smells of peat smoke
And the scotch whisky flows
To my troubles and drags them away
With the white-clad homes
And those old graveyard bones
And a light that shines through the grey
Oh, Islay, Islay
I’ll be there one day
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15. |
Sick Day
05:22
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Coffee mugs with aggro phrases
Drink your sludge and sing its praises
Close the account, bring it all down
Give all the big wigs their million dollar raises
Tammy was a little strange
Larry told the boss she’d been stealing change
now she’s got a grudge, she’s selling her blood
Gonna spend all the earnings and do something truly deranged
(Take a sick day)
Everyone sees
(Take a sick day)
This thing is diseased
All the introverts working freelance
Can’t shake the feeling that there’s no real chance
that they’ll find success, they have to confess
They should have changed all their majors and got some cushy job in finance
All the bootstraps and elbow grease
And all the other shit the boomers believe
Can’t change a thing, the carrot and string
Are so far ahead now, who the fuck you calling naive?
(Take a sick day)
Everyone sees
(Take a sick day)
This thing is diseased
yeah it’s easy to see the degree to which we
play along without a sense of really knowing
All I know is that I’ll know it when when I see it
is a shitty excuse for the life that you’re sowing
Water cooler torture
Take a sick day
Everyone sees
This thing is diseased
Everyone sees
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My Neighbor Kellan Austin, Texas
Kellan played a driveway show for his neighbor's party. The act was listed as 'My Neighbor Kellan' on the invite. People assumed it was a band name. Now it is. Influenced by the sounds and lyrical stylings of Stephen Malkmus, the riffs and weaving guitars of Built To Spill, and the emotion and vulnerability of Elliott Smith, Kellan makes bedroom music. Often in his underpants. ... more
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