only the song you sing
leaves a hole
in the wall where a photo once was
all the things
you ever had
are piled up in the dumpster downstairs
and the noise
is closing in
from the street below an open window

holding a coffee cup
to your lips
as the neighbors throw things at the wall
see the gate
close and open
to the grinding and whining of gears
call your mom
say you wanted this
as her tears fall out an open window

look closely
you can almost see the gears turning
city boy asked for drama
look what he got

fill up the grocery bag
mesmerized
by the eyes of a random cashier
furtively
eye the ass
of the guy next to you in the lift
better yet
take a running jump
at the ghosts outside an open window

put your hands to your ears
stops the sighs
of your life as it passes you by
smile at jokes
wash your hands
practice hard at not giving a shit
just to find
in your bed at night
that your mind went out an open window

fix me another one
if you can
i spilled the last one all over your shirt
accidents
monuments to my misshapen crumbling ideals
i'm surprised
that you haven't yet
jumped screaming out an open window

i feel like the oldest man
in the world
i feel 273
and am still
figuring out
the logic of your arguments
it would age me beyond belief
to see you jump out an open window

(no one knows
who you are
nameless drone
broadway star)

look closely
you can almost see the gears turning
city boy asked for drama
look what he got

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

all sounds by various artists

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing | production | recording

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments

composition/production:

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

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

michael ambro: guitar

paul ambro: guitar

dennis harvey: keyboards

composition/production:

jason harvey: composition

michael ambro: composition

paul ambro: composition

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

performance:

paul ambro: guitar

composition/production:

paul ambro: composition | recording

extra performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

dennis harvey: drums

extra composition/production:

jason harvey: composition | recording

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing | production | recording

performance:

matthew mccrary: guitar | voice

dennis harvey: drums

composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing | production | recording

This track is a live performance or was recorded in one take.

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

michael ambro: guitar

paul ambro: guitar

dennis harvey: keyboards | noises

composition/production:

jason harvey: composition

michael ambro: composition

paul ambro: composition

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

notes:

... My patent leather shoes echoed against the smooth walls of the dark corridor, leading down, down. This place brought the memories back into my head, smashing against the sides of my skull like a pinball the size of a planet. Robo-hood, the robots of C.R.A.M.P., the mysterious storytime dream, the training session gone wrong, the spider-witch Shesha and the fight at the robobar, Multi-Mouth's emissary inside the chalupa vortex, Rastanefarious, the drive-by, the carnival and Clown Nein, Shesha's human form, the bum on the street. And suddenly, the memories even further back were clear, memories of a life I'd lived beyond what I'd considered time, my life in another dimension. The ring getting the finger in Mount Doom, the long journey avoiding Mordor Florists, Shesha née Galadriel, the bum née Gandalf, my glorious space saga, getting down with the elves in the Rivelhizzy, memories going all the way back to dear old uncle Invisibilbo. I was a hard-boiled detective, fired for insubordination, chasing shadows in a dirty, run-down town, and my name was Baggins. The memories were all there, complete. I had ascended to the enlightened plane of Asskickagon. ...

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

paul ambro: guitar

michael ambro: guitar

dennis harvey: keyboards | noises | voice

composition/production:

michael ambro: composition

paul ambro: composition

jason harvey: composition

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

notes:

... And Sauron. He's like a translucent cloud all around me, a seeping darkness that's impossible to see, much less fight, but I fought, and I still do. He was suddenly here when my memories become complete. He welcomed me and said he'd been expecting me, said my name. I knew who I was, knew I'd transcended dimensions just like he had and possessed just enough mystical power to take him on. He taunted me, thinking those cheesy diabolical threats would still have some impact, but I'd lived through the slime and grit of the city I'd just left, and I could take that jazz and slap it right back in his amorphous face. We sparred. To fight me, he had to materialize some kind of physical form and even summoned some of the dark riders my friends and I had so easily dispatched in the other dimension. They didn't last long, and I countered the dark lord's spiny jabs and deep, crushing hammer blows until we were both worn out. We panted in exhaustion, and I knew what I had to do, waiting until the moment was right. Rastanefarious had spliced something into me, a carrier for the chalupa vortex, and Sauron's ridiculous plan of embedding me with the power to open a transdimensional wormhole was going to be his own undoing, and my own. We rose against each other again, his physical hammer form launching out of the shapeless void above me. I closed my eyes, feeling the chalupa vortex burst from my chest with a simultaneous contracting and expanding sound, like all the air in the world had contracted and exploded outward with a deep "ketwehhhhh" sound. I grabbed the dark lord's screaming physical form as he plunged through the vortex. We both tumbled into oblivion, fighting and clutching at each other in a balance of power that was to keep the universe in balance forever. He realized his mistake. His rage shook the fabric of reality. The epic Battle of Æverwar had begun, kids. ...

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

paul ambro: guitar

michael ambro: guitar

dennis harvey: keyboards | noises

composition/production:

michael ambro: composition

jason harvey: composition

paul ambro: composition

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