"The Same Person"
 
You want prosperity
For yourself, but not for me
Somehow you just can't see
We're in this collectively
You think that freedom is
A drastic severance
From your past relations
Just a quest for new bargains
We're not the same person
We're not the same person (Don't even wanna know)
Wooohhh
Don't need no good advice
Nor shoddy merchandise
I'm the suspect device
Beaten down, unable to strike
We're not the same person
We're not the same person (Don't even wanna know)
Wooohhh
And the sun comes over us again
We lament, we pine, and we rescind
And we ask for understanding
But arent't we the stingy ones indeed
When it's needed from us in the end?
We watch the days go by
Compete and then we die
So few ever ask why
But so many just abuse the design
We're not the same person
We're not the same person (Don't even wanna know)
Wooohhh

"In So Many Ways"
 
I can see the shadows on the wall
Drifting as the leaves start to fall
Unfazed by rugosity, the objects yield to gravity
And depict the destiny of us all
No one really knows why we die
No one gets a break so we try
Ignoring mortality, we worship mediocrity
And wait to see what happens up on high
In so many ways we live to follow the sun
In so many ways we exalt and fail as one
In so many ways we want so bad to be done
In so many ways we show our pain in unison
Something in you is busy counting the days
Catapulting you trough the haze
Blind to virtuosity, ignorant of your sanctity,
Revealing you, in so many ways
In so many ways we live to follow the sun
In so many ways we exalt and fail as one
In so many ways we want so bad to be done
In so many ways we show our pain in unison

No Substance (B-Sides) (1998)



1.   Universal Cynic
2.   Markovian Process
3.   News From The Front
4.   Leaders And Followers
5.   Dream Of Unity
6.   Tested
7.   The Answer / Live
8.   The Dodo
9.   Follow The Leader

"Universal Cynic"
 
Catch a shooting star and put it in your pocket
And your pants will start on fire
One bird in the hand, or two birds in the bush
Neither do you any good, when you're stuck in the quagmire

Show everyone you're not sure that they're telling the truth
Then you can be known as the universal cynic too

Benefit your fellow man with good deeds for the day
And you'll serve your life away
Pennies saved today are pennies still tomorrow
Strewn upon the desk, piled up in the paper weight

Show everyone you're not sure that they're telling the truth
Then you can be known as the universal cynic too

Wipe your opaque eyes and restore your crystal vision
Turn another cheek and exalt in your decision
A bit of exercise for the universal cynic in you

Early to bed and early to rise
Precludes you from seeing the most brilliant starry nights
Sticks and stones can break bones, words can't really hurt
Unless you carry guns, and are hungry for a fight

Challenging the standards, or questioning the established rules
Trying to understand how they can benefit you
Showing everyone you're not sure that they're telling the truth
Just a bit of exercise for the universal cynic in you
The universal cynic is you

"Markovian Process"
 
You will all say that I am surely crazy
Only an unrepentant pessimist whose thoughts should be detained
But facts are sterile, not vulgar nor sublime
And they're not religion, they're for everyone and signify the times
Today is a window, tomorrow the landscape
All you need to do is take a look outside to know what we're bound to face

The level of disparity, the common man
The manner of destruction of the native land
The poverty of reprisal from all involved
And the scathing trajectory from the past

Markovian process lead us not in vain
Prove to our descendants what we did to them
Then make us go away

"News From The Front"
 
Blood is a river,
Flowing darkly amidst the tangled roots of the tall shining city
Crazy flowing mantide migrations
Engorge the big ventricle of heartbroken America
So many heaven hoping, hopeful groping breathers
All tap together quietly and desperately in unison
Hey, hey, hey, is anybody listening?

News from the front
News from the front
We're living in troubled times
So many fighting for their lives
Why do the troops despise the news from the front?

Ignorance is the root of fear
Fear is the kindling of anger
War is the bringer of shame
But never has the burden lain so heavily upon the victim
Rage and desolation
Pain and loneliness
Isn't it all alarmingly familiar?
Hey, hey, hey, silence is a killer

News from the front
News from the front
Yeah these are troubled times
How many more will have to die
Before the governors can't deny the news from the front?

Break down the barriers, ally the carriers,
What is your motivation? Take a good look in the mirror

News from the front
News from the front
So many are fighting for their lives
How many more will have to die?
Why does the government decry the news from the front?

"Leaders And Followers"
 
There's the image of a man
Who commands a high opinion
And he hides his hatred with a sheepish grin

And beside him flanking closely
Are the boisterous hollow masses
Who lap up whatever trickles in

This intercourse of nature
This vulgar social pastime
Reflects the lowest mark of our progress

And the few who ride peripheral
Maintain subtle advantage
Fighting hard to abstain and redress

Do you know your place
In the big charade?
Are you more than they?

Leaders and followers
Leaders and followers

Recognition by proximity and a brand new face
Just a smidgen of success pie and a pinch of social grace
You can play with the big boys or you can tell them what to do
But sooner or later there's another one like you

The voyeuristic public
Of which we're all a part
Maintains perspective on the human play

And while many have desires
Of joining in the show
Many turn and go the other way

Tell me do you know your place
In the big parade?
Are you fear and shame?

"Dream Of Unity"
 
I had a dream of Unity
Where we would work side by side
But today I see that it's only me
Just trying to get by

Sometimes we strive, undeterred
To walk as one toward our goal
But as people stray toward more selfish ways
We see we have no control

I had a dream of Unity
Where we would work side by side
But today I see that it's only me
Just trying to get by

Just trying to get by

"Tested"
 
Yeah, they say there's a place free of trouble and care
And you have to pass a test for to make it there
It has something to do with a road that's straight and narrow
And the only way to go it is by being right and thorough
There's always one more hill to climb
There's always one more hill to climb

Bombarded by multiple choices 24/7
Navigating your tangled web of logic and passion
Guided by subconscious voices, astute and sharpened
Tested, Tested, Ooohh

Often times we're made to wonder what we're supposed to do
Stand and deliver or see the conflict through
And as we long and proceed to build our castles in the sky
Our plans get confounded and determination dies
There's no preparation and no guide
Just what you've done before here with your life

Bombarded by multiple choices 24/7
Navigating a tangled web of logic and passion
Guided by subconscious voices, astute and sharpened
Tested, Tested, Ooohh

Acting on will, the test is the reaction
Opening your heart, the test is the emotion
Rolling the dice, the test is the agility
Burning out your mind, the test is the recovery, watch-o

You can play by the rules, or bend them to your needs
But the test isn't over 'til you've reached your dark eternal sleep
There are no absolutes, no big wheels in the sky
You don't have to be first, you just gotta somehow get by

Yeah, bombarded by multiple choices 24/7
Navigating a tangled web of logic and passion
Guided by subconscious voices, astute and sharpened
Tested, Tested, Ooohh

Tested

"The Answer"
 
Long ago in a dusty village
full of hunger, pain and strife
a man came forth with a vision of truth
and the way to a better life
he was convinced he had the answer
and he complelled people to follow along
but the hunger never vanished
and the man was banished
and the village dried up and died
at a time when wise men peered
through glass tubes toward the sky
the heavens changed in predictable ways
and one man was able to find
that he had thought he found the answer
and he was quick to write his revelation
but as they were scutinized
in his colleagues eyes
he soon became a mockery
Don't tell me about the answer
'cause then another one will come along too
I don't believe you have the answer
I've got ideas too
but if you've got enough naivete
and you've got conviction
then the answer is perfect for you
an urban sprawl sits choking on its discharge
overwhelmed by industry
searching for a modern day savior from another place
inclined toward charity
everyone's begging for an answer
without regard to validity
the searching never ends
it goes on and on and on for eternity