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Simple Songs For Dangerous Times

by Number Prophets

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    The CD includes a 4 panel foldout with original collage art on one side, lyrics and credits on the other. The packaging is earth friendly: paper & cardboard certified 100% green forestry practices, at least 10% post-consumer recycled content, all vegetable ink. Even the digipak tray is made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, so every disc keeps a bunch of plastic out of a landfill.

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1.
Under American rules you gotta drive to be cool You gotta keep up with Jones or they will brand you a fool I need a job to buy a car to drive to work Getting credit making payments by the first So I got me a job at the weapons lab I simulate explosions and the pay isn't half-bad They say there is no ceiling to how high I can climb So I'm gonna climb It's an American dream They say there is no ceiling so I'm gonna climb Now it's a tudor on the green an expectorant wife That I'll refi for a Hummer and a shot at the good life We'll be living on the cover of a lifestyle magazine All neat and clean An American dream To be living on the cover of a magazine A highway paved with dollars stretched as far as I can see My recurring dream An American dream A highway paved with dollars far as I can see
2.
trash can glitter (free) 02:06
Wipe out what's under the sun (shoot a flash bulb picture of the trash can glitter baby) Wipe off the blood from your gun (wash your hands like Pilate but let me remind you) You may not live to see the damage done But you'll be changing your story till the day you're gone Slow down you'll avoid the wreck But you know we got rubbernecks Just the thing to keep us occupied while you steal it You been scratching your finger since the day you were born Now you could be an honest man and lay down that gun A once in a lifetime chance But you won't give a second glance To faces of the people you will shoot in the back
3.
What I saw I will not tell, it's a secret I'll be keeping for a while The blindfold is stained with saltwater and the cuffs kinda cut my wrists Are you sure that you haven't confused me with somebody else? Draw milk from my veins when you want to You know that drink is outta site Wire my brain when you have to do anything to get through the night But what I saw I will not tell, it's a secret I'll be keeping for a while You can bind me in chains if you want to You can break my bones as well Because whatever you do to me you just do to yourself You jump on my train when you want to You know I won't put up a fight The leash on the chain when you have to do anything to get through the night But what I saw I will not tell, it's a secret I'll be keeping for a while
4.
You used the credit card to buy the groceries and a cash advance to pay for your lease And the paper said that your neighbor came home in a body bag - oh no You grit your teeth, swallow nails and think 'what a good waste of a life' Driving home you see a homeless vet whose shopping cart just capsized - oh no Now you don't believe anything you read you can tell what's real from what's on TV And it's no surprise when you dig the roots intertwine After all you should've never spent so time believing all the lies The press, their bankers and the government live to pull the wool over your eyes And do their crimes right in plain sight What they said is never close to what they meant But as long as you believe it most of the time It makes it that much easier And they deceive you And do their crimes right in plain sight After all, what did you expect when trust is in such short supply? Even priests have lawyers, guns and PR hacks to craft their alibis What do you have? What don't you have? After all, what did you expect?
5.
guns don't kill people people kill people when people pull the triggers bombs don't kill people people kill people when people give the orders to drop bombs why? we have no answer... we have no way to know why lies don't kill people people kill people when people start wars by telling lies why? we have no answer... we have no way to know why but it seems to happen every time an echo chamber for the party line an invocation of divine intervention for our side but god won't help people till people help people and people stop the killing for their god
6.
The heart is a machine. Machines stop when they're broken. We say "it died" when a machine stop working, and we die when our hearts stop working. In the end, everybody dies with a broken heart. It's more than a machine, it's part of the connection to every life and everything that's living. And it starts to die when it stops forgiving. In the end, everybody dies with a broken heart. In the end, everybody dies with a broken heart.
7.
So of this situation what sense can one make? Is everyone condemned to such a lonely fate? Does nothing that we do here reverberate? If love always ends in heartbreak, is it even worth the price? Why not a life of luxury, hard work and sacrifice? Is everything disposable, is the point just to sell high? Or are we being tested for some kind of afterlife? Some say that's right But right here tonight I can feel the light Burning hot white So of this situation what sense can one make? Perhaps we're not condemned to such a lonely fate. What if the things we do here reverberate? But secret accounts and warheads, and banks of satellites? Whoever owns the echo chamber is now patenting the light. But we're blind so they're boldly doing all of their crimes right in plain sight. So would you rather boil slowly, or drown putting up a fight? Tonight's the night, the fire's burning bright. Boil or fight? Or does might make right? Don't hesitate, don't hesitate. Why wait? Don't you know you're surrounded, And you're already drowning? Don't hesitate, don't hesitate. Why wait?
8.
You immediately regret ninety-five percent of what you do. But you do not repent, for you will not relent when it comes to you. If you could see you'd know you've got it made - you can join the cosmic grand parade! That's what at night before I fall asleep I pray. You'll learn how to forget every wrong that's yet to be reviewed. You've got to look inside and get rid of the things you never use... the prejudices that tie you down, that imitation thorny crown that you wear but know would feel better if you throw away. I know what they say about the next world, I'm only talking about this one. I don't know what you think about the next world but we're all dying in this one. What do you think about the next world? Now sit still for a while, close your eyes and empty out your brain. Submerge yourself in water and watch your fears go washing down the drain. All the things that you should not have said, every bad thought in your head will form a circle of doubt you can walk right through today. I know what they say about the next world, I'm only talking about this one. I don't know what you think about the next world but we're all dying in this one.
9.
Everybody's looking over everybody's shoulder The atmosphere in here is many degrees colder Than a prison yard where the inmates rat on one another To buy them some time On the outside Where trust's also a lie Everybody's trying to resurrect a feeling Or preserve some precious moment they recognize as fleeting But they never will accomplish with their bargaining and scheming The freezing of time And it's just suicide Even to try Everybody's living only for their small selves Enthralled by the illusion they live in their hells Everybody's praying for some moment in the future Of redemption or reunion or some other kind of rapture And they overlook the fact that it is always now, forever And then they start to die Because they're living in time In time, everything dies
10.
There's a man with half a leg in a wheelchair rolling up a hill In an hour he'll be lucky if he makes a mile He has a sign that says 'Smile' There's a man with half a tongue in his briefcase chewing on a kill He gets paid by the hour just to conceal He thinks he earns what he steals And each is part of some big strange equilibrium I can't explain But to each the other is numb just another bum like you see each day There's a man with half a heart and a broken will rolling around in his head In a lifetime he'll be lucky to glimpse what's real He is consumed by what he fears Everything is part of some big strange equilibrium I can't explain You could wrap around the sun if end to end you laid out all your DNA

credits

released November 11, 2008

Produced by Mark Erickson and Miles Loretta
Recorded by the genius Eli Crews at New, Improved Recording in Oakland, Calif.
Add'l recording by Miles Loretta, Mark Erickson, Jerome Rossen, David Henning

Mixed by Eli Crews with Miles Loretta and Mark Erickson at N,IR
Mastered by Myles Boisin at Headless Buddha Mastering Lab in Oakland, Calif.

(c) (p) 2008 one bad apple recordings all rights reserved
all songs by Mark Erickson (c) 2008 Wild Asparagus BMI


Mark Erickson: vocals, guitar, piano, electric piano, glockenspiel, synthesizer, bells, organ, megaphone
Miles Loretta: percussion, drums, additional drums, backing vocals
Peter Canton: bass & baritone guitar, beat box, baritone guitar & vibraphone arrangement
Micha Patri: drums & vibraphone
Lisa Redfern: vocals
Nicole Summerwood: vocals
Tom Griesser: baritone saxophone
David Henning: bass guitar
Jerome Rossen: organ, string & horn arrangements


collage art by Mark Erickson
some illustrations courtesy of George Campise
design & layout by Su-Yun Paik/Hand Eye

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