Art for Blind

Lyrics

Clarity with Distance

don't you look back
at what could have been
tourists live in safe houses
we live in broken homes
and you'll know when you've reached us
because we'll be the ones with no faces
letting time pass us by
this is our occupational hazard

when homes become houses
where will we go?
fuck apprehension,
what we need
is a little more romance
just call it civility

count up the profits
from return trips to fresh starts
and when you're back in black let me know
from clarity this distance
comes meaning of charity
you won't need a receipt to let me go

so it reads from your gospel:
"the younger they are,
the harder they fall"
no more second guessing,
the older they are,
the further along.
there is no other end to this
so take what you came here for
but there's nothing left you don't have

solve these mistakes
with the same thinking that caused them
define your plateaus
with white-flag facades
here is now and we are free
to do as they want

Substance Abuse

you always sound good
when the words coming from you
are recited so clear
that you'd think they were new.
rock your single portrait
for all it's worth
i've rocked mine too.
this is substance abuse,
deny it,
derive it.

contrived words need explanations,
forget about me
what does that say about you?
confined to expectations,
far be it from me
to teach you to dance.

You wanted to hear
but you're not listening,
so you put up the act
and hold us to task
because the things we think
don't matter to you
but when all is said and done,
you're just an army of one.
so shout your slogans
and we'll shout them with you
and sing your protest
and we'll play along.

don't need to explain just do it,
we've heard just about enough.
you see only what you want to see,
you hear only what you want to hear.
how many words spoken
have led to actions?
silence,
the noise hear is deafening.

this is substance abuse
passed as the truth.

broken records need fixing,
we're in this together.

MRB

we used to be so close you and i,
but now they've gone
and so have we
nothing else mattered
but the death of us.
they cannot take us
they cannot leave us
it's up to us
i was born in '84
and you died in 2001
and now i'm left
to pick up the pieces.
they told us there'd be room for us,
so we called their bluff
over and over and over.
at the edge of the world we fell together,
you said i said,
we'd never forget.
and nothing else mattered
but the death of us.

off and on and
on and off and
off and on
just like we liked it
on and off and
off and on and
on and off
just like we left it
and i don't know
where to look for you now,
because i've lost my shadow
then you lost everything
they gave you
and you've never looked so good

and now they've got me
where they want you to be,
amor fati
if you could do it all again
what would be different?
would we even have met?

you couldn't break us down
in our part of town,
this time around
we've been found
out of place
out of time
a love story
with only one character
the truth is out.
i've lost myself.

have you never wondered
why riots don't bloom in july?
when we lose the winter blues
spare time doesn't seem such a rare commodity

this time i think should be able to remember.

Dance Dance Dance

we will dance as they dance,
sing as they sing
until our words lose all meaning
and all that is left will be echoes of their sound.
it's all over
you play both sides
you see who wins
and you compromise.
lost between the well studied lines,
so went the dream we passed on through.

no latecomers.
cultivate and assimilate
the words the actions the heart
of yet another
bastard subculture.
destroy every page until they all tell the same story.

you sing words you don't understand
you drop names
to impress the ones you lied to
to impress the ones you danced to.
tonight let's dance our own dance,
tonight let's make this our last.

refuse the refuse,
ascertain knowledge
from all forms of hate.
shake off the fake out rhetoric
and ditch the copy and paste:
references only spoken here.

rebuild the city
with new walls
with open doors
on both sides.
rebuild ourselves
with new ears.

for every sun
that sets to return
every ship that sails must be allowed to sink.

the seed is sewn
for a minute we're reborn
for a minute we're free
to think
to drop the act
to never let them consume us
so that our strength
may no longer be hidden.

all words must be confronted
and nothing taken for granted
except our impressionability.