"So-So Gigolo"
 
If you've got the looks
And if you've got the goods
I suppose you can make it
Anywhere you wanna get made

And you wanna get made...

My model agent says
You've got to get paid
You've got a special gift
You can't just give it away

For free... Don't give it up for free

And when my daddy calls
Asking how it's going
on them streets
All I can say is

I'm not exactly a salesman
Sure there's a product I'm selling
Guess you could say I'm an actor
Though acting's not what they're after

No, not quite

Sure this service
Is a popular year
More popular than my acting
Or my modeling career

This city
Has quite the service industry

Small town Adonis
Hits the Metropolis
Is brought down to his knees

Guess I'm a so-so gigolo
Guess I'm a so-so gigolo

Every audition
my agent commissions
Isn't so much an audition
So much as a job

I guess a job's a job

I thought that if they saw
How bad I wanted the part
The very least
They'd have to take pity on me

A word this city's never heard

So-so gigolo [x6]

I'm not exactly a salesman
Sure there's a product I'm selling
Guess you could say I'm an actor
Though acting's not what they're after

"Bad Science"
 
Moms and dads break up their gangs,
take away their roller skates
Give them algebra and trig
raisins, dates, or figs
But take away the gingerbread and cake

Every husband, every wife, every cop, every teacher
everybody do the taking away
every law, every curfew, ever Bible-branded textbook
watch the kiddies do the breaking away

Moms and dads say,
"No more bands
no side projects, no solo careers
no young love
no kissing fish
no pets at all
no fun
and
I think we've had enough art, Mr. Marks."

Every molecule, every atom, every single particle
down to the quark

Do the breaking apart!

No skateboard no swimming pools
until you've finished your state approved chemistry,
kid!
Break it down to the electron and quark
and please tell us what happens when the particles spark

Every molecule, every atom, every single particle
down to the quark

Do the breaking apart!

"Into The Fold"
 
The Shepherd:
I cat't say I've always been honest; you can't say I've done a disservice.
The girl, she's just a child. She's got a lot to learn, and I'm helping out.

Your deceit is under your wing. You won't let her go.
You know it's not appropriate. Into the fold, into the fold.
But all that hair...and porcelain.
You swear it's more than mere lust. Into the fold. Into the fold.
If she knew what you do, the pristine routine to fool the rube.
The gentle gentlemen, the loathed Lothario.
You feign you've changed your ways, but we know, yeah, we know.
Can't you quell this need for submissives?

The Shepherd:
Oh, such lovely girls. To lead each other tender little lamb into the fold,
into the fold. And you, my pet, "The Sweetest Yet"-I'll hold you closest to my heart,
into the fold...

Into the fold, into the fold, into the fold, into the fold!

The Lamb:
I was in the student union studying for an English quiz;
he came up and asked direction to the new auditorium.
We walked up and down the campus, no one had ever heard of it.
He was so embarrassed when he realized he had the wrong college,
he offered to buy us coffee for the time and effort wasted.
We drank and talked for so long, we started making plans for dinner...

The Shepherd: She was young and impressionable; I pretended to need directions.
She led me all over the campus. All the while, I'm asking her questions.
She agreed to have a cup of coffee-that's when I started to lay it on heavy.
Once she learned I studied Dostoevsky, it was in the bag.

"Rise Up!! Rise Up!!"
 
dear preacher, thanks for making time for me today
hope you don't mind if i hide behind the curtain
it's been fifteen years since my last confession
by your good book's standards, i've sinned like a champion
but that book seems a tad bit out-dated

please forgive me, for questioning divinity
it's an ugly job, but i think i'm up for it
i'm not saying who's right
i'm just saying there's more than one way
to skin a religion
there's more than one way
to explain our existence

reverend, sir, i don't want to seem malevolent
my teenage angst is far behind me
but father, certainly it's troubling to see
all these people kneeling, instead of dealing
with the fact that we are all we have

so, rise up! rise up!
there's no one to worship!
but plenty of life to lose!
i'm not saying "let's burn down the church"
but do you want to hear my confession?
it's my greatest sin..

okay, here it is:
i wasted half my life on the thought that i'd live forever!
i wasn't raised, to seize the day, but to work and worship
'cause "he that liveth and believeth" supposedly never dies

rise up! rise up!
and live a full life!
'cause when it's over, it's done
so rise up! rise up!
dance and scream and love!

[barely audible outro]
you're not the chosen one
and i'm not the chosen one

"Hymns For The Heathen"
 
Night has draped its cape of stars
Over our small town
From the campus and the tavern
To the chapel and infirmary
We've seen their dreams
We've found the goods
The fables and folly
Of the residents residing in...

14 hymns for the heathen
First hymn, the son of God complex
Second hymn, the prodigal damsel
Third hymn, the tree stump of knowledge
Choking on Adam's apple

This odd lot under the cross
This broken promised land
Of dreamers and schemers
And preachers and predators.
They shall not want
What they've got coming to them
Whether innocent or insolent

14 hymns for the heathen
Fourth hymn, the passion of the chaplain
Fifth hymn, the brute kiss of Judas
Sixth hymn, Sodom falls to ashes
Seventh hymn, the church of doubting Thomas
Eighth hymn, a horse of the apocalypse
Ninth hymn, an immaculate exception
Tenth hymn, the demons of Mary Magdalene

I am a chapel, this is prayer book, these are the parables
God, forgive us, this is our business:
absolving sins of all of these heathens

Eleventh hymn, the Bible Belt tightens
Twelfth hymn, a leacherous Shepard
Thirteenth hymn, hiding in confession
Fourteenth hymn, an afterword

Rocking chairs of disenchantment
Green grass of envy and malice
Our salad days, living in Happy Hollow

Mama, I'm Swollen (2009)



1.   In The Now
2.   From The Hips
3.   I Couldn't Love You
4.   Donkeys
5.   Caveman
6.   We're Going To Hell
7.   Mama, I'm Satan
8.   Let Me Up
9.   Mama, I'm Swollen
10.   What Have I Done?

"In The Now"
 
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know

We’re wearing out our heels
On a road to hell
We’re wearing out our heels
On a road to hell
We’re wearing out our heels
On a road to hell
We’re wearing out our heels
On a road to hell
We’re wearing out our heels
On a road to hell
We’re wearing out our heels
On a road to hell
We’re wearing out our heels
On a road to hell
We’re wearing out our heels
On a road to hell

While history repeats
The present won’t repent
So history repeats
Cus present won’t repent
So history repeats
Cus present won’t repent
Repeat repeat repeat

Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now
Don’t wanna know what I know
Don’t wanna live in the now

"From The Hips"
 
I'm at my best when I'm at my worst
I'm at worst when it's not rehearsed
I don't wanna know the goddamn words
I don't wanna have to spell it out
Don't wanna mumble what i'm trying to say
I wanna scream it from my foaming mouth
Shoot out the lights and ride away

I'm at my worst when I'm at my best
I'm at my best when I'm trying to look
And think and talk and sing and read and write
Like all the rest
We're all just trying to play our rolls
In a play that runs ad nauseam
I hate this damn enlightenment
We were better off as animals, right?

We're at our best when it's from our hips
From our hips we don't give a shit
It just feels good and that's no sin
It's the only way to feel alive
The closest thing to being born again
And when baby comes it's job well done
Roll in the hay, oh roll around the sun

We're at our worst when it's from our lips
From our lips we caused a rift,
And world has fallen in
From babble to ball room brawls
Our words have formed a death sentence
And I wish that we had never talked
Our hips said it all

And I wish that we had never talked
Our hips said it all

"I Couldn't Love You"
 
Love may be man-made
But it must exist
It's what you want the most
And most resist
Love's polluted
No, no, it's pure
It's convoluted
One thing I could say for sure
I couldn't love you anymore

I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore

It's a game of fetch
We'll never win
You throw me out
It brings us back
You throw me out again
Loves an affliction
No, it's a cure
It's a contradiction that harms and heals
Adores and abhors
I couldn't love you anymore

I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore

Love is a tantrum
Love is an interlude
Love is an instinct
Not now, dear, I'm not in the mood anymore

No, no, no, no, no
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

It's no big deal
It's not worth losing sleep
You over-analyze
The simplest things
Love's what you take
But can never give
Love's what you hate
You'll never figure out what it's for
I couldn't love you anymore

I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore
I couldn't love you anymore

"Donkeys"
 
Don't lie, where have you been?
Your teeth are red, your eyes are peppermints
Sailing out to sea with your new best friend
You don't like the way you live so you play pretend
But isn't it time you act your age?
You got a mortgage on your shoulder, got a babe on the way
You shrug it off with a jackass grin
Thinking once you clean up you're going to do it again
He says

Whoa, oh, oh no
I'm going to Pleasure Island, I don't want to come home
Whoa, oh, oh no
The reverend says beware, he swears we're going to hell
We may be donkeys but at least we have a tale to tell

Don't start with the slap on the wrist
I don't need no cease and desist
I ain't fooling around and it ain't no sin
So you best be stepping back because ugly ultimatums
And never you mind what your old maid says
There ain't nothing to complain so long as you're earning bread
She's got a way of getting under your skin
She plants a little seed of doubt, the guilt blossoms
She says

Whoa, oh, oh no
You're going to Pleasure Island, you can never come home
Whoa, oh, oh no
The problem with you, kid, is you can't say no
You can't take a little nibble, you got to lick the bowl

I pushed off, I'm sailing away
And I ain't looking back
I can't look at that face
This just might be my greatest mistake
So when the future turns away for the present's presence
My life was born of pleasure, but it sure wasn't pleasant
He says

Whoa, oh, oh no
I'm going to Pleasure Island, I ain't never going home
Whoa, oh, oh no
I'll make an ass out of myself before I say I'm broke
Yeah, I'll soon be bucking around in the mud

Whoa, oh, oh no
I'm going to Pleasure Island, I ain't never going home
Whoa, oh, oh no
The reverend says beware, he swears we're going to hell
The sheriff says be careful, they're going to throw us in jail

We may be donkeys but at least we have a tale to tell