This page is a secret. Don't tell anyone. I've finished an album. It's called "Picture of Health." I don't know when it'll be out. Everything by me except additional vocals on tracks 2, 4, and 10 by Max Creager-Roberts, hi-hat and shakers on track 4 by Jack Holston, and (of course) photography by Pat Swanson. Hosted by Peter Hoover.
A
Ryan on the Corner
Saturday, Union
Love in the Time of Trump
B
Pressure
Oh! Luna
New Regional Dialects
Paper Plates
Ex-Florist
Ryan on the Corner
You can take this how you may
Whoever's counting cop-outs anyway?
Well, I haven't slept the whole night through
Since you told me about the things you do and don't
You know that Ryan's on the corner, about to run
Training for the test
Overworked and underdressed
When I show up to your door
We can sit together more
There's not a thing that I could just ignore
I heard you bought a picture frame
And tried to hang the heights the same
I know you know that anywhere you go, we'll make a show
Smudges on a CD case
We won't talk about it, anyway
When I show up to your place
You can take this how you will
How you may
Well, I'd do anything to know you better
And there's a lot going on, yeah, that's so true
Whether or not you fail your safe environment training
Your phone call burned a hole in my pocket
DoorDash territorial disputes ignore you
Everyone wants to know you
Everyone is so in love with you
Take this however you will
I can't keep shuttering windowsills
You're breaking off to hold a spot
I'm breaking off your Mardi Gras
They ask for a photograph
You're coming to tear me down again
Reservations? I've got some
But long as I'm under your thumb
I'll keep heading for your door
I guess I've got some explaining to do
Saturday, Union
We could walk together past cell towers and townhomes
Past bulletproof pharmacy windows
And every drug under the sun
Past gated communities with no bonfires on weekdays
Where squirrels still go to town in bushes all the same
We woke up at the same time
We woke up at the same time in the same bed
The crows were freaking out again
I have work in an hour
I had popcorn for breakfast and coffee for water
Would you believe me when I'm wrong?
I've been boxing myself and I've been knocked out for too long
I watched you lose all nuance on a Tuesday
Skipped to Saturday's mindset
Reaching for the palm of my hand
Your stereo broken and your energy stretched out
The ambition of theatre
The opponent of let downs
Your home remedies on my skin
Would you believe me when I'm wrong?
I've been hurting myself and I've been knocked down for so long
You shouldn't believe me when I'm wrong
So long
Jeans
Said you’re giving it time
To break the young mind
It lives in your words
I can see it now, sticking out
How a sore thumb arrives
Left so high and dry
Lives on in your words
I can see you now, sprawled in the backyard
A baby blue smile and the perfect pair of jeans
Snuck out again
To lie to your friends
Lives on in your words
Buying it never was hard
And fate has a way
Of making me stay
Covered in burns
When they had you left in the dust
A baby blue smile and the perfect pair of jeans
Love in the Time of Trump
I know my name brings laughs for your loved ones
Family reunions of silver limbos in the shade
Coordinated separate date nights
Couldn't keep your childhood bed
I would've took the guest room
We got high and threw darts at my bulletproof Murphy bed
Smiled and laid down instead and went over things
I need advice and you love to talk
You say you've got a plan
I couldn't grab anything by the reins if I wanted to
I work for the man and he doesn't give a shit about me
Doing everything we used to do
Couldn't capture flags in front of you
In a treefort of service
I don a hairshirt of purpose
Because the surfaces you smirk around are making me nervous
While I'm holed at home again, trying to figure out these words
Time and time and time again, you try to pick yourself up and you stagger
Time and time and time again, I try to run into you
You'd reach out if you wanted to
We've spent the day in separate beds, anyway
Someone's in your corner, I know
Someone's in your corner again
Something's in the water with your cardboard friend
I woke up and felt dumb
Time and time and time again, you try to pick yourself up and you shatter
I've got great expectations for you
I see you now, you're coming around the bend
Great expectations for you
I see you now, you're coming around the bend
Great expectations for you
I see you now, you're coming around the bend
Great expectations for you
I've been waiting for you
I see you now, you're coming around the bend
Pressure
Walk past the pharmacy, two steps
Cold coffee caught in the storm drain
Union powerwash the weekend stains
I'm in love with a love that never finds me
And I'm tired of it
I'm tired from all this
Now, every song's about you
I'll try to smile a bit
Your friends reintroduced themselves
I guess I'm going where you tell me
I guess I'm going where you tell me
Why don't you tell me something I don't think I know yet?
Pushed aside from all this
And now every song's about you
I'll try to smile a bit
I'll try to smile a bit
I'm in love with a love that never finds me
And I'm tired of it
I'm tired from all this
And now, every song's about you
I'll try to smile a bit
Could you smile a bit?
Oh! Luna
What a mess
It's a guess with you every time
It's the pain that's weaving through you
At the table, unstable, and waving to the neighbors as we talk about hometowns
If you're there, then I'm there for the taking
Walked you home
Skipped a stone
Blew the birthday candles out
There's a lot of lies to tell you
Collecting objections and heading for the sentence to the time of your lifeline
If I'm there, then just don't be mistaken
What you want's not looking next to chance
But I'll always catch your second glance
Cut out, carsick
What you want's not looking good at all
What's the blood on your hands?
Is it still the second plan?
It's the weight that burdens on you
And the runner on the corner has stopped to take a moment just to fall for his hometown
And you're there
New Regional Dialects
I've been counting on your wasted time for so long
You threw your arms around my waist, I tried to take off
Living around the cabinet crutch
Lighting every candle that I should've thrown up for good
They don't build things like they used to
You say you want to know what I'm thinking at all times
Every time we take a step, it seems we toe the line
On the inside, outside, you know that it can't be right
I've dumbed down everything I've heard for days, but kept it true
Every time we try to sleep, it seems we're passing through
They're all drunk in bed, I was diving under baseballs thrown from you
We do our sashay around the room so solemnly
Cut out, carsick, they're cutting every budget now
I'm early for the plane, you're late for everything
I've spent half my life waiting outside for something lame
They're out testing storm sirens, my hairline lives another day
You say you want to know all thoughts that I skim across
First communion from your kitchen walls, my God's been wrong
If I boxed myself, I'd get the wind knocked out of me
We do our sashay around the room so solemnly
Cut out, carsick, they're cutting every budget now
Uptake every shame
Cut out, carsick, they're kicking out the neighbors now
Don't take every blame
Cut out, carsick, they've thrown it out the window now
She doesn't want anything to do with me
She never sticks around
I've been counting on your wasted time for so long
You threw me all over the place, I tried to take off
Living around the way it was
Lighting every candle that I should've thrown out for good
You don't use the slang that you used to
Dry Spots (Wash)
I want to know what you've seen
Where you're going
What you want from me
Here, take my hand, make it ring
Let it wash all over me
Baby, I've been restless, too
Oh, we could stick around
Hey, take my head, make it sing
Let it wash all over me
Hoping you could hold me down
Wrapped around me as we sleep
So take my hand, make it sink
As you watch all over me
I've been on your own time, now
You can always count on me
Babe, take my head, make it think
Let it wash on out of me
I want to do what you want to
I don't want room to breathe
When it's dark outside (So take my hands)
When it rains, it pours (Pull me near)
When it rains, it pours (As you wash all over me)
Paper Plates
It's gonna be four long years
Every agency holding you down
Lost it all in the carpet
It must be worth it when you smile now
Crashed your kinship convention
Introduced as a friend
The "Where the hell have you been?"
And "What'd you do to yourself?"
Someday, you'll raise your least favorite
And they'll just call you Mom
Long for the calm of a hotel bar
Your new personality hire
Brought in with a push and a shove
With Febreeze in his armpits
And a moss-covered gun
We could've tried out the good life
When everybody gets home
They'll start a fight all the same
What could ride on your everything?
Funeral potatoes on paper plates
I'll go learn how to cry
We should've gone for the good life
Ex-Florist
You were breathing down my neck to meet up
Now, the hours left your day
There's hardly a place for haven here
You always hated this song
Bathroom stall graffiti brought me back to your arms
Too much coffee to get through the day
Had to lay down and shake
You're always speaking in song
I'd lay it all out on the table, but explain for too long
Wish we could get out this place
Here, the air sticks to you
Even winters are wrong
I thought it was fine
It's either a reason, a season, or lifetime
At least that's what you said
But there's hardly a way to hold me down
And I can't give you a route
I can't even find a way to figure me out
Sunday morning, encased in my bed
With fiber supplements
You weren't a saint for my stomach
Knelt down, hellbound, dearly beloved
I threw us up in the street
I've had enough of your industry
I guess I'm fine
Guess I'm going where you want me to go
Guess I'm going where you want me to go
If I wanted to, I'd tell you no
I can't sit this one out