Charlatan brought such quality to the captivated crowd
But all along there were traps under their feet

In retrospect, there were such signs and signals
None of us recognized his photo on the walls
All we knew was that shiny things were so very pretty
Blanketed, choking on jewels in our jaws

Stop chanting and beating your chest
There's no cops
They've been chained in the cells and the stocks
Shut your eyes as the other shoe drops
Give a smile for the firing squad

Photographed, our mouths like open windows
Films and flags fought off the last of our resolve
The charlatan tripped the traps
We plunged feet-first into the gaps
Applauding as the earth collapsed

Pause
Your microscopes yield no fundamental flaws
Fall asleep to the clenching of jaws
When you wake up
Your eyes will be crossed from the blunt trauma of public relations

Charlatan brought such quality to the captivated crowd
But all along there were traps under their feet
Charlatan brought such falsity to the captivated crowd
But all along they were swallowing deceit
Charlatan brought such guarantees to the captivated crowd
But all along they were celebrating defeat
All along they were swallowing deceit
All along there were traps under their feet

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

Will you get better this way
If you make me stay
Erase the chalk decade
You will call and answer the sound of a gun with the beat of a drum
Let's have some fun
You will walk, you will talk
There is a bed waiting under you when you fall
Remain and build up the wall
No one can get over
No one can get under
This time we'll make it better
In metal

We haven't been out for days
The light, the sun, the rays
They come from the store
They're stockpiled in the drawer
You want some more
That's some flavor you pour
Call us to our corners
We shout, we sleep, we fight, we make out
We feign the rest of the bout
Cameras up
Cameras on
This is what I'll remember when you're gone
How seventeen years wasn't long
I'll be back
I'll behave
We'll shut the door, look outside and we'll wave
The walls keep us tight
Low got it right
I'll make everything ok
I'll go back and keep you safe
In metal

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

Polish the memory
Make it all shiny
Leave out the details, the regrets
You're allowed to say you would've done it right
You would've carried him home
That's where you're wrong
That's never coming true
No one is saving his place
Time won't run backwards as much as you want to erase

You had your chance
And it's gone

Find me a physicist
Buy him a drink at the bar and then stay as it bursts into flames
He says call 911
He says call me the one from now on
But everything's wrong
That's never coming true
No one is taking his place
Time won't run backwards
Instead it kicks you in the face

I had my chance
And it's gone

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

When I fell asleep
I dreamed an accident that sent me flying across the road
I dreamed that I died
But I woke up laughing instead

On my way to work
There was an accident in the right-hand lane
I saw a driver's eyes
She turned to me as the airbag deployed
When I got to work
There was an accident involving the coffee machine
People sat on the floor and cried and cried and cried

These are no accidents
These are no accidents
They are messages from the aliens
Saying get your bags, get your people
Get your buns to another planet since this one is broken

There's blankets in the bedroom
There's candles in the bedroom and bottles in the basement
There's launch codes in the back room and androids for replacement

There's blankets in the bedroom
There's anchors in the bedroom, appliances and heirlooms
There's engines in the storeroom, the captain's in the breakroom
We haven't turned the lights out
We haven't done the dishes
The rain outside is razors and everybody's in

On my desk at work
There was an accident with the keyboard plunging through the telephone
They showed me the tape - I swore it was my clone
When they kicked me out
There was an accident with the building bursting into flames
Everyone was screaming
I smiled and hurried home

These are no accidents
These are no accidents
They are messages from the government
Saying everyone's out to get you
Why not get to another planet, since this one is broken

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

extra performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

These initial exercises are all derived from simple proven methods to help us better gather whether you suck at your job
Please agree so we can monitor you closely
In each exercise, place an asterisk where your soul has been sucked out

(See aggressions we eat, they're like a crowbar to the jaw)
In the cage on the stage are the places where the hands fall together
In the lines on the page are the places where the hands fall together

(Why don't you stay and fuck up everything)
When you know it don't matter
If you will or you won't
Endure or cower
There's no sinking the boat

We think that nobody's home
We can assume that someone like you is alone
Didn't you abandon everyone and still expect to be treated like a superstar
The golden behaviors are all derived from number one: be successful
It is placed first because it's something you'll never be
So pay attention
Listen closely
In each exercise, place an asterisk on what might have been

When you know it don't matter
If you sink or you float
Punch a hole in the hull, smash the mast with your skull
There's no sinking the boat

When you know it don't matter
If you win or you choke
Take it out for a ride, tear it up from inside
There's no sinking the boat

When you know it don't matter
If you quit or you cope
Tell yourself it's a trap, make a mess of the map
There's no sinking the boat

When you know it don't matter
If you will or you won't
Kiss the captain goodbye, throw him over the side
There's no sinking the boat

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

I CAN'T BITE
ARREST FEVER

Attack.
Whittled shrumpish laivery ronks eluze boundchop.
Raze stomp siphon...
Maneege corn rapturous owl leg.
Alert stands railfort.
As hatradish will crop?
Admittish stiltedly, you have a fever.
Agrest mawkish subsutoon laivery.
Uh? Wawtoon, amaze you lav a fever, sticking to stops.
Eradish mom hasterry caddish…
Erase, afever, restilt…
Among badcarinth attuned attacks.
Maradical dizonch mah cravick. Gawon? Elish?
Marayall fever saunce in croon.
Around a. Stopstoon minch con gravity, since.
Dutturn? Wail hashcrop mince fever. You once, mishook a fever.
In stanch a radiate? Amance attack.
Astack recrowd in hancefort.
Ray bask in conrescent owlfit. Ray stackint dunce, aworsh retch mozzin.
Acray most stadderunts? Ashield may hollence. Sunce. Fever?
Mawkish railasense.

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

extra performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

Slim
Hug the self inside
Code the shield around the pebble in your chest
Trim
Keep the fake alive
Laugh like that make you any less a dick

I want nothing more than to simply kick you in yo face
But you're too tall
So I'll have my robot army do the dirty work

Pull the skin over the corners that show the evil
Something got caught at the perforation and ripped apart your carefully constructed forehead
Never mind - they make glue for that
That way the demon can get high while it cocoons itself
Disregard the flashbulbs - we're just making sure we never forget who you really are

A stranger
Free radical
Swarm of bees
In the trees
Photosynthesize

Endangered
Metamorphosis
Carbon lifeform
Evolve and devolve

Don't start that again
You might need that excuse for something else
Slow motion running away won't work because I just caught up with you
And it turns out you're not worth the trouble of writing this song

SHUT UP

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

extra performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | mastering | mixing | production | recording

extra performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

My star, bring me space, and if not, bring me luck

Run shut lung rut more beam aisle Bracewell gray mane foul bane steep con script more goodbye Bracewell

Lose me

We shook and spoke
Wrap me in words
Never leave
Be forever, Bracewell

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

Have you got a light
I've seen this door a hundred times
Touched this railing like a hundred hands
Seen these faces rage and fade
And crumble into lonely age
I know what it's like to be a liar
When everyone around you is a fire
I think you know it too, don't you
Let's have a drink or two
We're not rebels, we're not heroes
We're just here, we're just queer
The fuzz can smell our fear
The cameras are rolling when they pull us apart
We didn't know this was how it would start

Break down, silent sister
Look out the bars for the one you lost
All we have are shadows and shame
What's your name
Will you stay
Before they take us away

We saw them throw stones
We buffered our bones
The whip cracked
The jail cell full of queens of all sizes and colors
You weren't there
They dragged you by your hair
This beautiful boy
Taken away in rags
Taken away in bags
The cops went home to their wives and their steak knives
And we screamed for years

We felt the sting privilege had pried from us
We were the faraway boot-crushed boys
We want it us over them
We take the bullets and grin
We saw our faces in films and photographs
We were the martyrs for progress
What was your name again

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

notes:

Samples from "United in Anger: A History of ACT UP" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrAzU79PBVM), Sylvia Rivera's "Y'all better quiet down" monologue (https://videoactivism.net/en/yall-better-quiet/), footage from the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_9OJnRnZjU), Advise and Consent (clip from The Celluloid Closet, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_vrb4-6_0), Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsbrRAgv1b4).