Human Inhuman Records: Artists

First Fifteen

2009

in no particular order

Livin on the fringe

Livin on the fringe

Livin on the fringe

Not payin much attention to the hype

Unusual body type

Watch me work it

uh huh uh huh waaw yeah

Watch me work it watch me live

Mmmmm livin on the fringe

Listenin to music from times bygone

Not knowin what road I’m on

Cool seems dorky when you try too hard

Individuality’s its own reward

Livin on and listenin

Listenin and livin on

Livin on and livin on and listenin

Oooh whuuuoah

Whuuoh oh

Aaah aaah

Aaah ah ah

Aaah aaaah aaaahhh

wwhoooooooooahh

Shyin away from where the people gather

Why am I

Shyin away from where the people’d rather gather?

This isn't livin

Really Awake

I was drifting on the R5 train

How do shifting landscapes get processed by the brain?

Something in the motion’ll kind of force you to reflect….

I sat behind you all those Devon to Stafford miles

Long dark hair, quarter profile

Was in the window there a meeting of our eyes

Or were yours deep-focussed on the Philly skyline?

Was it only I who was thinking about how people intersect?

Sometimes I wonder if I’m really awake

Or just walking around with my eyelids forced open by my thumbnails

That leads to the question,

“Why can’t I be normal? Any kind of normal?

Why oh why?”

That’s when the man slipped up and off the steps

I guess nobody told him that the weather’d gotten wet

If I had any uptake we coulda shared a laugh

But I was feeling down-sized

And woulda blown my opening line

The city’s full of strangers and I’m remaining quiet

I’m so tired of my sick mind and sick of being shy

I wonder whatever happened to the slipping man’s spine…

I’m glad we didn’t laugh at his expense or on his behalf

Sometimes I wonder if I’m really awake

Or just a corpse whose soul is coaxed conscious by the sunshine

That leads me to question if anybody’s normal

My kind of normal

Oh me oh my

Me and my friend were riding in his car when I asked him,

“Why’d you go and die?”

He made a sharp left. He laughed a short laugh; said,

“If I knew, I’d be a really rich dead guy!”

We looked at the sun. He pointed and he smiled at what he thought looked like the falling dark sky. It was a hot air balloon: black with a neon sign. As we read it and sang, he sighed:

“One day, perhaps, the sky will collapse.”

(And this is what the sign said):

Welcome to the Bemusement Park

WELCOME TO THE BEMUSEMENT PARK!

ONLY OPEN WHEN IT’S COLD AND DARK!

EXCUSE ME, SIRS, DID YOU READ THIS SIGN?

YOU CAN ONLY RIDE THE RIDES IF YOUR SELF-MALIGNMENT

US ABOVE THIS LINE:

Above this line…    Whoah.

We got to the gate. We met our guide who said,

“You’re welcome, but your friend can’t ride.”

I looked to my friend as he stabbed in the back and said,

“It’s only fun while you’re alive!”

Next ride: the Throat! It’s a chandelier and a rope!

Welcome to the Bemusement Park. Would you like to ride the Pinto bumper cars? The crowds are small, and that’s by design. The secret is simple: it’s that the lines are of the firing kind. The firing kind…   Whoah.

Been Worse

it coulda been worse

you coulda died in the middle

of the chase scene or before the punchline

it coulda been worse you coulda

died in the middle

CHORUS

be sure to thank 'em for the needles

be sure to thank 'em for the needles

return the favor scar foe scar

be sure to thank 'em for the needles

it coulda been worse

you coulda died in the middle

of the chase scene or before the credits

it coulda been worse you coulda

died in the middle

REPEAT CHORUS

REPEAT CHORUS

Disappointed People

Perfect People and Happy campers need not climb up and enter here

This isn’t fiction these are the facts and the artifacts found accidentally:

A prescription for Prozac, some lines of cocaine and poetry

An axe whose handle had some candlewax upon it lying in a section of the woods that had been cleared

Nobody felt the slightest tremors in the ground the day some disappointed people disappeared

If I could help you to forget your woes, whoah whoah

If I could help you to forget your woes, whoah whoah

If I could help you to forget your woes, whoah whoah

I’d help you to forget your woes.

The head detective announces case closed, strengthens his ties to his family.

It’s the first time in his career he’s indifferent to the makings of a mystery

Nobody saw no storm clouds approachin and nobody’s cattle started actin weird

Nobody dreamt about them or saw any roadside ghosts the day some disappointed people disappeared.

Repeat chorus 3 times

I would help you

I would help you

I’d help you to forget your woes

Repeat chorus

Quasimodo

The neighbors carried torches when he moved into town

They feared his taste in patio furniture would bring property values down

They told their wide-eyed kids to be in each night by six

When he tolled his bell, moms and dads yelled dinner quick

He was forced once again to relocate this time inside his head

That’s where he keeps a picture of a girl he knew from grade school by his bed

No heat, no warmth, just fuel for the fire, coward, dead man, failure, fraud

He had a dream last night that his grade school girl became unframed

She called him handsome, she beckoned him by name

You’re gonna find a million tear stains on his brain

He’d kiss her picture, but he fears someone might be looking in

No heat, no warmth, just fuel for the fire, coward, dead man, failure, fraud

Sincere

When you’re sincere,

I just learned you get laughed at

And laughed about around here

When you’re sincere when you’re sincere

And when you’re direct

It just hurts all the more, the rejection

Might as well use your poetry as your protection

When you’re direct when you’re sincere

And when you’re up front

Not givin the people whst they want

You end up the brunt of everyone’s jeers

When you’re up front when you’re direct

When you’re sincere around here

When you lack pretense

You leave yourself wide open

with no defense

When you lack pretense when you lack pretense

When you’re matter of fact

You give up something

you can’t get back

When you’re matter of fact, when you lack pretense

When you’re free of guile

The world will think

you’re still a child

When you’re free of guile, when you’re matter of fact

When you lack pretense, when you’re sincere

No one wants to hear you think the world has passed you by.

When you’re sincere

I have learned you’re gonna get laughed at

and laughed about

When you’re sincere, when you’re sincere

Wnen you’re free of guile

The world will know your heart n soul

are those of a child

And if you are a child

God help you God save you child

Forgive your parents’ falters,

please stay sincere

No one wants to hear your fear the world has passed you by

No one wants to hear you fear the world has passed you by

Everyone knows the world can pass them by

No one wants to hear you fear the world has passed you by.

Bye.

Xenophobe

When I went over there to that foreign land I liked the way they smiled

I liked their candor and their customs were pretty cool

They played, prayed, ate and bathed

They could skip as many classes as they pleased

But there was one thing I cannot stand

I just can’t stand the way they breathe

When i went over there I met a pretty girl

Well, we held hands a lot

Didn’t know a word of each other’s language, but well we got by alright

In fact, she’s the perfect girl for me I know

But there was one thing I can’t stand

I just can’t stand the way she breathes

Partycanonplay!

On the umpteenth day the music died, I

Watched as a parade of girls and guys thundered by

Some with careers that lasted lives, got them by

Some who one-hit wondered “Why?”

With Kate in the kitchen cookin lobster pie

And Michael standing by our side

David stuttering psychopathic lies

And the Johns handing me a child’s nightlight, I

Play!

Play!

I don’t need nolight!

I got a light!

Don’t need no smoke made from no ice (Nice!)

I got a light

I got a light

If Rivers ever should run dry

I got a fool-proof way of preserving fire

Spin these discs on a holy spire

Come over, watch my PartyCanon getting higher

And higher and higher and

Play!

Play!

I don’t need nolight!

I got a light!

Don’t need no smoke made from no ice (Nice!)

I got a light

I got a light

On that umpteenth day, I found something to say

That something to say got said whenever I

I

I

Played.

Too Loud the Laughtrack 2000

Hey boys I got a great idea

We’ll get a girl another girl and then a guy ee uy

Put em in all in a 3 wall house

They look alike they don’t know why they don’t know why

And of course the nosy neighbor

He knows it all he knows it all he knows it all

Goes around with his hidden camera and

Every other week there’s another close call

CHORUS

And we will be on top of lists

Lists are those which make us large

Large is what we want to be

Being large I hear is rather nice

Hey boys I got another idea

We’ll get a mom

And then a dad and a kid

Two will be black

One will be white

And they’ll all make soup

On Saturday nights

The three ring binder

Three ring circus

They will watch us as we go

As we go-o-o

They’ll repeat all our key phrases

And they’ll use the inflections

That they know

That they know-ow-ow

REPEAT CHORUS

And the theme song gooooes

Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

How should we send our ideas out

Over air, or undergound

Underground

Should we show the penetration

Or just suggest it by its sound

REPEAT CHORUS

And the theme song gooooes

Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

Annihilation

Picture this on a page so thin

you could see right through my headcloud rising

with question marks, ampersands, number signs,

square jaw, pursed lips,

staring down at the phone at the desk

dashes make it clear that

now I don't know what to do with my fingertips

now I have lost all my staples and my paperclips

and there's no device in her house which talks back, I know and

she and her dog catalogged bit by bit oh shit

CHORUS

she said i was lookin in the face

of my piece of annihilation

REPEAT CHORUS

annihilation annihilation annihilation

I saw it straight I got it right

they gave her a full page panel

from fingernails to calloused hands

tried 7 times this 7 part poking

these heroes paid to be in here

it's thicker than their normal household

now i don't know what to do with my fingertips

now i just stare at my bottles of sinking ships

oh what i'd do to her with a a common kitchen whisk and

put the footage on a 650 meg data disk

REPEAT CHORUS

REPEAT VERSE ONE

REPEAT CHORUS

Annihilation 2: Neddy, Echo, Shot and Me

We're on a pilgrimmage

Here in my new ride

We'll hit the tooth museum

Out in the daylight

That night we met and I

Just gave Tina the boot

I got to thinkin I'd

Already seen you?

CHORUS

uh huh

that's right

she said i was

uh huh

that's right

she said i was

I saw with my own eyes

My port was empty

The screamin trees flew by

as you all left me

Those cops and crashers

On the attack

I knew you didn't think

That I'd be back

REPEAT CHORUS

she said i was

she said i was

all right all right all right

all right all right all right all right

THE BASTARD’S ANTHEM IS ON...

(…MAN, IS THE BASTARD’S ANTHEM EVER ON!)

You’re either in or on my way

You’re either in or on my way

I was on that bus to the Milky Way

I would not settle for Piscataway

You’re either in or on my way

‘Cause it takes practice to make precision

When there’s no group there’s no group decision

You’re either in or on my way

You’re either in or on my way

I’ve turned depraved ‘cause I’ve been deprived

Takes a living nightmare to keep a dream alive

Let my middle finger show you how a phallus is

Feels good to be covered up in callouses

I’ve broken bread with you and called you my friends

All the while seeing you as nothing more than a means

A means

A means

A means to an end?

But the end is a very big end

The end is a very big end.

Fear of Heaven (instrumental)

Voices from the Grave

There’s a blank canvas in an ornately carved frame.

Till a dog get drawn and wash that blank away

Sniffin at bones buried by a catatonic cave

There his master’s in but has gone Aregone’s way.

Madness’ margins funny as a faiyh,

Solitude’s as sweet n sour as the limelight is lame

I can’t hear you, I’m afraid

Cast of thousans in my brain

Have cast off fear and shame

Maybe I’m just hearin voices from yje grave

I can swing from double helix vines of grapes,

Eat from an elemental table – but wait.

The vision of, say, Dali, of, say, M, C, Escher are at stake.

And how was that frame so carved?

Uhoh, yje dog has run away.

I ‘ll nave my own universal way.

Cast of billions in my brain

Have cast off fear and blame.

After all we’re all just voices from the grave.

From the grave

From the grave

From the grave

From the grave.

Artists:

Band 20 BBH Funeral Inthemirror Headflap Kermit Hell Lyman McCabe Boys mikingmihrab Thee Nb's Pinkstone B. Satinover Salsa WNDFLL StS Slmlrd PHILA. Vilebred WALLY
Artists:

Band 20 BBH Funeral Inthemirror Headflap Kermit Hell Lyman McCabe Boys mikingmihrab Thee Nb's Pinkstone B. Satinover Salsa WNDFLL StS Slmlrd PHILA. Vilebred WALLY
Artists:

Band 20 BBH Funeral Inthemirror Headflap Kermit Hell Lyman McCabe Boys mikingmihrab Thee Nb's Pinkstone B. Satinover Salsa WNDFLL StS Slmlrd PHILA. Vilebred WALLY