of Montreal lyrics for dummies

Coquet Coquet*

2009-05-21T16:52:00.003+02:00

Coquet Coquet
You know I won't forget
How you kissed me strange to prove you were mythical
Oh my Coquet you use my voice as your earthly vehicle

Coquet Coquet
You know I won't forget
How you hurt me twice to prove you were cynical
Oh my Coquet, you are the death, you are the pinnacle

With you I can only see my black light constellations
And other shit I don't think I have the language to say
I don't want to catch you with some other guy's face under your eyelids
Something must be wrong, you give me emotional artifacts

That can find no purchase

Coquet Coquet
You know I won't forget
How you sold me out to prove you were typical
Oh my Coquet, you're Herculean, you are so miserable

Coquet Coquet
You know I won't forget
How you made me cry to prove I was dutiful
Oh my Coquet, my teenage lust for you is so pitiful

With you I can only see my black light constellations
And other shit I don't think i have the language to say
I dont want to catch you with some other guy's face under your eyelids
Something must be wrong, you give me emotional artifacts
That can find no purchase

* Lyrics transcribed from the WTMD acoustic session.

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* Herculean : from the Roman mythological hero Hercules. Usually used to emphasize strength.

Teenage Unicorn Fisting (Like A Tourist)

2009-05-05T20:31:00.003+02:00

I saw your movie tonight
I thought you were pretty good
I'm so happy that you're doing what you want to

You go to your favorite dark place
Think about the auto-da-fé
Unicorns eating baby meat
There's a dragon rape if you want one
One's the loneliest number
Smoke hood Melion
Female erection
(She was the archetype)
You fetishize the archetype

Don't treat me like a tourist
Let's stay high on a negative wave
And paint it black just like the good times

Don't treat me like a tourist
Let's stay high
They break our hearts like its our birthdays
Soak us in animal blood

I want somebody to frisk me
I want this night to distort me
But I didn't come here just to see you dancing
I came to see you ride my bike
Well that's the you I think I really like
Anyways, I'm crippled inside

Don't treat me like a tourist
Let's stay high on a negative wave
And paint it black just like the good times

Don't treat me like a tourist
Let's stay high on a negative wave
And paint it black just like the good times
When we were passengers

Don't treat me like a tourist
Lets stay high
They break our hearts like its our birthdays
Soak us in animal blood

(thanks to LikeElectric at the Townhall and everyone else who filled in the blanks!)

Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer (Polyvinyl - 2007) and Icons, Abstract Thee (Polyvinyl - 2007)

2009-01-27T12:00:00.024+01:00

Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Suffer For Fashion
Sink The Seine
Cato As A Pun
Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse
Gronlandic Edit
A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger
The Past Is A Grotesque Animal
Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider
Faberge Falls For Shuggie
Labyrinthian Pomp
She's A Rejector
We Were Born The Mutants Again With Leafling

Icons, Abstract Thee

Du Og Meg
Voltaic Crusher / Undrum To Muted Da
Derailments In A Place Of Our Own
Miss Blonde Your Papa Is Failing
No Conclusion

Photo Credits

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We just want to emote until we're dead
I know we suffer for fashion or whatever
We don't want these days to ever end
We just want to emasculate them forever

Pretty sirens don't go flat
It's not supposed to happen like that, not like that
We've got to keep it physical

When our tellies are six hours away
Please call to say that you miss me, feel me, or whatever
Vicissitudes are boxing our heads
Like they just want to emaciate them forever

Pretty sirens don't go flat
It's not supposed to happen like that, not like that

We've got to keep our little click clicking
at 130 BPM, it's not too slow
If we've got to burn out, let's do it together
Let's all melt down together, together
Let's go together, let's do it together

Forever, forever
Pretty sirens don't go flat
It's not supposed to happen like that, not like that

We've got to keep our little click clicking
at 130 BPM, it's not too slow
If we've got to burn out, let's do it together
Let's all melt down together, together
Let's go together, let's do it together

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130 BPM is indeed not too slow – almost anything over 100 beats per minute is enough to make your heart race. 130 bpms means that there is 2.166 beats every second. It's fast. Try to keep up.

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You're no different from the prints that crease the wires
Or mosquitos that now operate on your brain
Thought that if I sank the Seine I might find you
I'm no different from the claw they mic from the stair
Or fake diamonds that are glued to eyes of plastic crows
Thought that where the planters go, you might find me

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The Seine is the river that flows through Paris. Yep, “the” Paris, in France. It is, as most rivers, totally unsinkable.
Thanks to Jeffrey for pointing out that a seine was also a fishing net (no, not fishnets!!! a fishing net!!!), which you actually sink to encircle a whole school of fish, and then you drag them up. Seine fishing is in some ways the wet equivalent of lamping so it totally makes sense.

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Cato, play with my head.
I won't know the difference
If we're living in the novelist or statistician
Cato, mess with my concepts, my inner vision
Like a strobing light
Please confuse my every decision
I can't even pretend that you are my friend
What has happened to you and I?
And don't say that I have changed
Because, man, of course I have
Are you far too depressed now even to answer the phone?
I guess you just want to shave your head, have a drink, and be left alone
Is that too much to ask?

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* There were several Cato in Roman history, and it is pretty hard to say whether this is a reference to Cato The Younger or Cato The Elder. I tend to think of the later, who seemed more like a manipulative politician than the former. A Roman senator, he is mainly renowned for ending all his speeches on a booming “Carthage must be destroyed!” - a claim that led to the Punic Wars.
This being said, it may not be a reference to ancient history at all. Click here for a list of what or who Cato could be alluding to.

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I'm in a crisis. I need help
Come on mood shift, shift back to good again
Come on, be a friend

Nina Twin is trying to help, and I really hope that she succeeds.
Though I picked the thorny path myself,
I'm afraid, afraid of where it leads

Chemicals, don't strangle my pen
Chemicals, don't make me sick again
I'm always so dubious of your intent
Like I can't afford to replace what you've spent

Nina Twin is trying to help, and I really hope she gets me straight
Because my own inner cosmology has become too dense to navigate

I'm in a crisis. I need help
Come on mood shift, shift back to good again
Come on, be a friend

Chemicals, don't flatten my mind
Chemicals, don't mess me up this time
Know you bait me way more than you should
And it's just like you to hurt me when I'm feeling good

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* Heimdalsgate is the name of a street in Oslo. See Oslo In The Summertime for more information.
* Prometheus is a Greek mythological hero who was sentenced to being tied to a rock and having his liver eaten by eagles every day (and it would grow back every night) because he had given the secret of fire to men (though other stories differ).
* Nina Twin refers to Kevin Barnes's wife.
* A reference to the neurochemicals that are responsible for our moods and emotions. The slightest imbalance in the chemical composition of our brain chemistry may lead to severe depression.

Climb The Ladder

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The surrealists were just nihilists with good imaginations...

I am satisfied, hiding in our friend's apartment
Only leaving once a day to buy some groceries
Daylight, I'm so absent-minded
Nighttime meeting new anxieties
So am I erasing myself? Hope I'm not erasing myself.
I guess it would be nice to give my heart to a god
But which one, which one do I choose?
All the churches fill with losers, psycho or confused
I just want to hold the divine in mind
And forget all of the beauty's wasted

Let's fall back to earth and do something pleasant
We fell back to earth like gravity's bitches
(Physics makes us all its bitches)
I guess it would be nice to help in your escape
From patterns your parents designed
All the party people dancing for the indie star
But he's the worst faker by far
But in the set, I forget all of the beauty's wasted

I guess it would be nice, show me that things can be nice
You've got my back in the city
You've got my back, because I don't want to panic

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* Yet another reference to Oslo, Gronland is the name of a specific area in the Norwegian capital.
* Surrealism is an art movement from the Xxth century. It's too intricate to explain in two sentences so click on it.
* Nihilists believe nothing has value and nothing matters. At all. Ever.

Climb The Ladder

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I spent the winter on the verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway
I felt the darkness of the black metal bands
But being such a fawn of a man, I didn't burn down any old churches,
just slept way too much, just slept...

My mind rejects the frequency,
It's static craziness to me.
Is it a solar fever?

The TV man is too loud, our plane is sleeping on a cloud,
You turn the dial, I'll try and smile
We've eaten plastic weather, this family sticks together,
We will escape from the south to the west side

My mind rejects the frequency
It's just verbosity to me

I spent the winter with my nose buried in a book
While trying to restructure my character
Because it had become vile to its creator
And through many dreadful nights I lay praying to a saint that nobody has heard of
And waiting for some high times to come again

My mind rejects the frequency
It's static craziness to me. Is it a solar fever?

Dirty old shadow, stay away, don't play your games with me
I am older now, I see the way you operate
If you don't hurt me then you die

Climb The Ladder
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*Kongsvinger is a city in southern Norway, located 62 miles away from Oslo.

* In this interview, Kevin explains that the saint that nobody has heard of is an uncle of his who died a long time ago.

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The past is a grotesque animal, and in its eyes you see
How completely wrong you can be
The sun is out, it melts the snow that fell yesterday
Makes you wonder why it bothered
I fell in love with the first cute girl that I met
Who could appreciate Georges Bataille
Standing at Swedish festival discussing "Story of the Eye"
It's so embarrassing to need someone like I do you
How can I explain, I need you here and not here too
I'm flunking out, I'm flunking out, I'm gone, I'm just gone.
But at least I author my own disaster
Performance breakdown and I don't want to hear it
I'm just not available
Things could be different but they're not

The mousy girl screams, "Violence! Violence!"
She gets hysterical because they're both so mean
And it's my favorite scene
But the cruelty's so predictable
It makes you sad on the stage
Though our love project has so much potential
But it's like we weren't made for this world
Though I wouldn't really want to meet someone who was
Do I have to scream in your face?
I've been dodging lamps and vegetables
Throw it all in my face, I don't care
Let's just have some fun, let's tear this shit apart
Let's tear the fucking house apart
Let's tear our fucking bodies apart
But let's just have some fun

Somehow you've red-rovered the gestapo circling my heart
And nothing can defeat you
No death, no ugly world

You've lived so brightly, you've altered everything
I find myself searching for old selves
While speeding forward through the plate glass of maturing cells

I've played the unraveler, the parhelion
But even apocalypse is fleeting
There's no death, no ugly world
Sometimes I wonder if you're mythologizing me like I do you
We want our film to be beautiful, not realistic
Perceive me in the radiance of terror dreams
And you can betray me
But teach me something wonderful
Crown my head, crowd my head
With your lilting effects
Project your fears on to me, I need to view them
See, there's nothing to them
I promise you, there's nothing to them
I'm so touched by your goodness
You make me feel so criminal
How do you keep it together? I'm all, all unraveled
But you know, no matter where we are
We're always touching by underground wires
I've explored you with the detachment of an analyst
But most nights we've raided the same kingdoms
And none of our secrets are physical

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* Georges Bataille was a highly influential (but one of the few that never got to the mainstream even after his death) French writer/sociologist/philosopher. He evolved from surrealism to materialism, creating a body of work that is (to say the least) thought-provoking (and nausea-inducing).
*The Story of the Eye is George Bataille's best known work. It is downloadable here. This is Not Suitable For Work or School, and you probably don't want to leave it lying around kids either. You've been warned.

* “Violence! Violence!” - A quote lifted from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a play by Edward Albee.

* The Gestapo was the nazi secret police.

-----

The Linguistics Lounge has posted an interesting piece on the metaphorical content of the song. Check it out!

Climb The Ladder
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Saw her at Go! kissing girls, what a shock
Said, "You must be an artist"
She muttered her reply, I was judging her friend
As the DJ played a dead jam
No one wants to dance, they're outside smoking cigarettes
Matthew was there, yes, he gave me the eye, saying,
"It doesn't kill to try" then blue lights all around
Eva, I'm sorry, but you will never have me
To me you're just some faggy girl
And I need a lover with soul power
And you ain't got no soul power
She lead me outside to the church with the swing
There I was, her confessor. Her come-on made me blush
Was her crush for the night?
Until I screamed:
"Stop! Hey! You must be aware I'm not alone...
I've got a tigress back at home...
And besides, you wouldn't know what to do with me"
And under the blue lights because because...
Eva, I'm sorry, but you will never have me
To me you're just some faggy girl
And I need a lover with soul power
And you ain't got no soul power

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* The Go bar is a nightclub in Athens, Ga.

* Obviously there are about 30 million Matthews on Earth, but there seems to be only two in the extended of Montreal family, namely ex-bass player Matthew Dawson and child-psychologist/hairdresser/performance artist/sexy surfer boy Matthew Wheeler. For a better idea of how sexy Mr. Wheeler is, take a look at the cover of Skeletal Lamping, he's the one pointing at the sky. Thanks to Dottie for the information.

* Eva also is a real person. As a matter of fact, she's the blonde girl in that picture. She doesn't look faggy to me. Kevin explains it all in this interview.

Now you can't tell I haven't been researching the hell out of this.

Climb The Ladder
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Those with the golden Xs have tried to tell me
(What they say?)
That the bird in my chest was dead
But that's never, never, never
She ain't my thug no more, ain't no kind of killer
And she can break them off if she damn well pleases
Just as long as she brings it home to me
And it's still hot
Can you touch what I'm saying?
It's like, ooh, did Shuggie do it yet?
No, not yet, wait
Those with the golden Xs have tried to tell me
(Tell you what?)
That the sex in my walk was cotton soft
But that's never, never, never

With question marks in my eye
And your strange name pressed to our lips
We arrived at number eleven
So charged and ready for slavery
I won't take the stage straight, understand
Under capes with druggy cock dragons
I want to put out so bad
But something bad says the kid's probably right
Are you deflating at the question?
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know... OK.
Now that the parachute has opened, well,
Don't it make you feel good?

Be careful how you touch me
My body is an earthquake, ready to receive you
Mind's making glaciers, metals for my soldiers
Let's be like strangers touching for the first time
Skeletal lamping, the controller sphere, false priest

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* Fabergé was a Russian jeweller, famous for his eggs.

* Shuggie Otis is a American soul singer/songwriter. His most famous song, Strawberry Letter 23, is also mentioned in St. Exquisite's Confessions.

* There are a lot of clubs, bars, restaurants called the #11, but none of them seem particularly relevant to the of Montreal geography.

Climb The Ladder

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How you wanna tag my style, when I am so superior?
How you wanna hate a thing, when you are so inferior?
How you wanna mess, how you wanna mess my spotless interior?
Let's just say, you are not the destroyer
Let's just say, du er ikke den som ødelegger fitta

I've got my bright girl near me, she's so much taller
Wth a crisp endorsement from the C.C.A.A. Booty Patrol
She's so meta, references Stendhal
Shares my strange urge to smash a window in every house on our block
Delinquent days are here again

I've got my Georgie Fruit on
He's my dark mutation for my demented past time
Giving replicators somewhere to go
But we're authentic
You can test my talons against your cursive body
But the controller spheres have disappeared
And it hurts
It's like to disappear forever, but I'm not afraid

There's two gods for everyone,
one, two gods for the beasts
An hour dead deflects our eggs on latitude 0,1 degree
I trusted you, no, don't explain
Moving in clipped tempos
Making sad dreams of the flags appearing
Crazy how the symbolism works, don't look at them

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* Apparently “you are not the destroyer, pussy” in Norwegian. More or less. Quite possibly less than more.

* The C.C.A.A. Booty Patrol is (unfortunately) not a tribute to our blog. It seems to be some kind of code for everyone who is directly involved with the band. Like every secret organization/cult, joining of Montreal involves a lengthy and elaborate ceremony during which you agree to (a) never wear clothes that match, (b) spend at least 20 minutes applying different layers of glitter make-up before each show, (c ) never complain about the fact that you are touring 365 days a year and hence shortening your lifespan dramatically, (d)
kiss Kevin's middle finger, left calf, right shoulder, and ass, (in that order), (e) never ever ever reveal what C.C.A.A. stands for.

* Stendhal was a French realist writer.

* Georgie Fruit is/was one of Kevin's alter-egos. More information filed under “For Our Elegant Caste.”

Climb The Ladder
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My, my, you busted me like a Robocop
Strike me with your riding crop
I'm forever going celibate tomorrow
But tonight, like success, knows no shame
Oh no, she's a rejector. I must protect myself.
There's the girl that left me bitter
Want to pay some other girl to just walk up to her and hit her,
But I can't, I can't, I can't

My, my, this demon heart of the master's hand
Crush me, why, I don't understand
And I know you're not her
Because the girl of my dreams is probably God
Still, I want you

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*Robocop is the über human policeman from the 1987 blockbuster of the same name.

Climb The Ladder
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She says I'm boring her camera
It takes more to delight the cadaver
Night eyes on icy patrol
Yours were not so Nazi feline
Mine were as dead as monks
And our particles are in motion

Night eyes producing ashes
We love to view unfortunate passions
Still, she takes my photo to bed
No mere limp verse could incite identity destruction
Our particles are in motion

Sometimes we're not legible
But we're the same strange animal
Let them say our love is peculiar, don't care
There's only now, no ever after
We won't let it end in disaster
You are my twin, no I will never go there

Climb The Ladder
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She fell in love with a boy who spoke a second language
And who lived across the ocean in the evil empire

He awoke her sleeping heart and swept away the darkness
An acute fear of flying couldn't keep her away

She landed on her feet and joined his fledgling rock group
As they toured the evil empire, selling t-shirts at the shows

She taught him what was real, she taught him he was okay
That his thoughts were not just rubbish, that he had something good to give

Still his heart was so ambivalent and hopesick
Of her he wasn't ever sure
But she gave in so sweetly that the spirit said
"Boy, you better go run to her”

So when she split, he hopped on a plane
With his parents and his brother
He told her that he loved her
They were married in the summer

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* Du Og Meg means You And Me, in, you've guessed that right, Norwegian.

Climb The Ladder
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Voltaic Crusher/Undrum To Muted Da

I write a thousand songs for you a day
But I never run out of things to say
You're my Ulysses that I'll never end
Now that I fucked up, lost you, sweet friend

Everything is in the trash, and it's my fault
I've destroyed us, I know, it's unrecoverable
If there's a God he will repair your heart
If there's a God, send her an angel
Make him handsome and clever and not crazy
And you notice something wonderful
Someone to love her volcanically

And please, please, please God, don't be a bastard
Christ knows she deserves something nice for a change
Christ knows she deserves something nice for a change

I am a flaw, I'm a mistake
I am faulty, I always break
I tried, you don't believe me, but I did
I tried to mature, be responsible, dot dot dot
But my heart is juvenile
And my character's not so hot

You gave me your hand, I gave you a fist
Please don't lose any sleep over me, baby
I hardly exist
You gave me your hand, I gave you a fist
Please don't lose any sleep over me, baby
I hardly exist
You gave me everything, still I resist
Please don't lose any sleep over me, baby
I hardly exist

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* A reference to Ulysses, a novel by James Joyce. It is one of the most influential novels of the XXth century.

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So she's depressed and I am losing my mind
It's so difficult now
Yes, everything has changed
As we struggle against some impossible current
How can we make things light again? How can we win?

Is happiness even possible?
Don't say you don't believe anymore
Don't say that you are lost to me now
It's a free fucking world, you can go where you want
How can we make things light again? How can we win?

It's a mad free fucking world
You can do what, go where you want
Leave me, don't leave me alone
Leave me, don't leave me alone
It's a free fucking world, you can go where you want

Climb The Ladder
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Miss Blonde Your Papa Is Failing

Little friend, what ever happened?
You should know I went down so hard
Trying to keep the family together
The family together

Sweet friend, know I love you
And I've been struggling so hard, so hard
Trying to keep the family together
The family together

When I look in your eyes, I see me looking back
It's kind of creepy how you own my heart
Yeah, you own my heart
Let's stay together

Sweet friend, was I born to give you a name
And then be erased all because
I couldn't keep it together
Couldn't keep it together?

Little friend, I know I've made it
So, so much harder on us
And lost you because
I couldn't keep it together

When I look in your eyes
I see me looking back
It's kind of creepy how you own my heart
Yeah, you own my heart
Let's stay together

Climb The Ladder
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Tonight I feel like I should just destroy myself
Tonight I feel like I should just explode myself
Myself

Tonight I feel like I should just destroy myself
Tonight I feel like I should just explode myself
Myself

There's someone calling my name
But there's nothing to respond
I lost so much in our collapse
Man, what little hope is gone

The voice said, "Don't worry, friend
The darkness is just a suggestion
No, don't worry, kid
The darkness is just suggestion
No, don't worry, Kevin"

Tonight I feel like I should just destroy myself
Tonight I feel like I should just explode myself
Myself

There's someone calling my name
But there's no one to respond
I lost so much in our collapse
Oh, what little hope is gone

The voice said, "Don't worry, friend
This darkness is just a suggestion
No, don't worry, kid
This darkness is just suggestion
No, don't worry, kid"

Tonight I feel like I should just destroy myself
Tonight I feel like I should just explode myself
Myself

I’m allergic to the world when we are separated
There’s nothing in my heart that’s worth a beating
Feeling like a Styrofoam prop ennui is eating
Oh, sure, we talk and talk and talk
But nothing worth repeating
I feel defeated
I feel defeated
I feel defeated

Now I’m OD’ing on your cocksucker blues
You make me uptight when you just don’t work right
You painted my prison, now something’s wrong
And I never, ever, ever wanted to write this song

I’m killing myself but it’s not suicide
I’m killing myself
I’m killing myself but it’s not suicide
I’m killing myself but my friends will never know
Because I’ve never been
Because I've never been honest with anyone

Always pulling faces from the unprepossessing places
Of the universal mind

I’m crippled by the world when we are divided
There’s nothing in my heart that’s worth the creaking
Feeling like a Pamplona bull that's finished kicking

Although we try to break the loop, it’s always stuck repeating

I feel defeated
I feel defeated
I feel defeated

Now I’m OD’ing on your cocksucker blues
You make me uptight when you just don’t work right
You painted my prison, now something’s wrong

And I never, ever, ever wanted to write this song
I always thought things would change somehow
And we would start getting along but it’s hopeless
Hopeless

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* A reference to what is possibly the stupidest tradition in the world (along with the dropping of a donkey from a church spire, courtesy of our sub-pyrenean friends too). Pamplona is, of course, a city in Spain.

* Cocksucker Blues is the name of an unreleased documentary film about the Rolling Stones.
It is also the title of the 4th part of Don DeLillo's "Underworld."
Again, thanks to Jeffrey for clearing that up.

Climb The Ladder
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Photo Credits

Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse, Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider, She's A Rejector, We Were Born The Mutants Again With Leafling, No Conclusion : Mike White.

Suffer For Fashion, Labyrinthian Pomp : Alan Bee.

The Past Is A Grotesque Animal : Josh at sciencevsromance.net

Sink The Seine, Cato As A Pun, Gronlandic Edit, Fabergé Falls For Shuggie, Du Og Meg, Derailments In A Place Of Our Own = Townhaller Adrigu

A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger : yours truly, I Rule The School.

Climb The Ladder

Georgie's Lament

2009-01-17T17:04:00.007+01:00

I can only get it up for you
It doesn't work for any other girl
I can only get it up for you

Introduce a demonic symbol : a bayonet to the ear - yes that's perfect
Make me over meta human
You asymmetrical editors to fantasies of slave uprisings
I'll try and match your enthusiasm for Franco diversion

I put down my book at a disturbing chapter
It put the feather in my mind but it's not what I'm after
I'm just looking for some mystic inspiration
Caution flag, accident ahead

The tape in my visionaries blocked out half the sound
We are blind to our pillars still they lift up our independence
Caution me if I'm going back to the minor keys
Still I await your long exposure

I had you pricks in mind when I was having this dream
If you really cared about me
You wouldn't flirt with my parole officer
No, you wouldn't scratch my Isaac Hayes
My cock is so torn up about it
I had you pricks in mind when I was having this dream

If you really cared about me
You wouldn't hide my stash
No, you wouldn't flush my Billy Dee Williams
My cock is so torn up about it
I had you pricks in mind when I was having this dream

Sold my favorite kid into slavery
Sold my most beloved child to the street
Everybody hated me for it but they don't even count
Why should I care how they feel
When they're not even cool to me

It's a party
There ain't nobody here but me
All my friends are sick at home watching tv

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* Franco was a dictator who ruthlessly ruled Spain for almost 40 years. Let's just say he was as bad as Hitler and Mussolini.
Since you guys are very clever and you know all the lyrics by heart, you can put this line into perspective by comparing it with An Eluardian Instance's "the Himmlers of our parabola." It is beyond me to explain what a Franco diversion is.

* Isaac Hayes is (and shame on you if you didn't know it) a soul singer/songwriter and actor who recently passed away.

* Billy Dee Williams is an afro-American actor. Here, it is likely that the name is used as a reference to the alcoholic beverage Williams was advertising for in the 80s. And this, by the way, is an antonomasia.
(thanks to Jeffrey for the Colt 45 reference)

SKELETAL LAMPING (2008 - Polyvinyl)

2009-01-09T23:19:00.024+01:00

Nonpareil of Favor
Wicked Wisdom
For Our Elegant Caste
Touched Something's Hollow
An Eluardian Instance
Gallery Piece
Women's Studies Victims
St. Exquisite's Confessions
Triphallus, To Punctuate!
And I've Seen A Bloody Shadow
Plastis Wafer
Death Is Not A Parallel Move
Beware Our Nubile Miscreants
Mingusings
Id Engager

Photo Credits

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My lover I’ve been donating time to review
All the misinterpretations that define me and you

I’m thinking about you in my secret language,
Cause I know you’re the only one who can help me take it easy.
Now I’m happy in the head knowing there ain't no sucker in the world that’s a threat to us
and we’ve become material
It’s like hey you were always there just on the tip of my tongue
and I needed you to happen
And now that you’ve happened, I mean really really really came true
I feel like I oughta thank somebody, so I’m gonna thank you
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So I’m calling your ass up at like three in the morning saying “wake up young dragon let’s go get compromised”
You'll be my little ally and you can have it which way you choose
Now I’m so bombed out by your paradigm kisses,
How I’ve hacked at our southern hemispheric eleven gods
Now I’m cracking my sweet love

I couldn't fall asleep so I punished myself by thinking about how this feels...

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* This could be a cultural reference, or just some junk coming out of the dude's brain.

climb the ladder...

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I’m the motherfucking headliner bitch you don’t even know it, process it!

Why is it white girls don’t ever have any ideas
And they don’t even know what’s on my channel
But that is true for almost everyone, everyone but you,
My goat my crab my scorpion, you’re my icons cause you’re different

All my wicked dreams have turned my head to wet concrete,
Don’t send me no more evil visions they just stab my heart

I’m just a black she-male and I don’t know what you people are all about,
(My chalkie people, you’re made of chalk)
I just know how to make it (peanut butter) like this

Just to look at her is god, can’t you see it baby?

When we get together it’s always hot magic,
When we get together it’s always we are the champions my friends
(We gonna hit what we got to work with)

You got such super wicked style
Show it to me baby, let me see it baby, show it to your baby

All I care to hear, all the scuttling grey insects inside the house machines,
Know what comes next, some contemporary reference for they’re off our side
All I care to hear, elitist commentary about some Phaidon press limited edition,
I hear the toy ball bouncing on cheap hardwood through their elegant conceit
All I care to hear, you have such power to destroy,
No time to process that now, you’re so iconic in my mind

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* Phaidon Press is a publishing company which specializes in visual arts.

climb the ladder...

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We can do it softcore if you want, but you should know I take it both ways
We can do it softcore if you want, but you should know that I go both ways

Georgie said romantic love is flat, only for people with no real ambition in their lives
But List Christie disagrees, she sees into the core of my poor machine
Let me tell you what she sees, frightened cornered Gemini Tactics and attempts to crack the party code and there’s one more thing

Our bodies became one and then we so really turned on,
Became a freaky permutation, something like Voltron
Then i was wrapped in discourse with a magazine reader,
The mutual conclusion was I’m not worth knowing cause I’m probably dead.

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* Georgie Fruit is a recurring character first introduced in 2007's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
According to Kevin Barnes, Georgie Fruit is a black transvestite, former singer in a freak-funk band called Arousal and has quite an impressive criminal record.
Georgie Fruit will also be remembered as one of Kevin Barnes's doppelgangern, but Kevin now dismisses the very idea of alter-egos.

* List Christie is another fictional character. She is the nice, romantic side of our psyche and a bit of a Joni Mitchell impersonator. (still according to Kevin Barnes, of course, the booty patrol never makes shit up)
List Christie also serves as Kevin Barnes's DJ name.

* Norwegian for that wonderful wife of mine.

* Voltron is a Japanese animated television series which aired in the USA in the 80s – each “robot” was made up of different objects – cars for feet, metal tiger head for hand... Basically your typical split personality disorder.

climb the ladder...

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Why am I so damaged, girl?
Why am I such poison, girl?
I don’t know how long i can hold on if it’s going to be like this forever
Why am I so damaged?
Why am I so troubled, girl?
I don’t know how long I can hold on if it’s going to be like this forever

climb the ladder...

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Does she know? you should know that I am not just searching for some first time high,
I know it’s all about perceptions and I accept you as my very first mover

I remember riding bikes on Koster island
Plotting midnight raids on the Swedish plum trees,
that summer it was too cold to swim
So we climbed upon the rocky shore and freaked out on the mountain goats
But they were not impressed or scared of us
Do you remember our last summer as independents?

I was a foreigner when you appeared from the shadows at the Mono club
I was a hater in the depths of an emotional hibernation
You sat me down we had some drinks and you told me all kinds of insanity,
I asked your friend if you were available
She answered “no, but yes, oh well oh well, yes and no”

Now I’m viewing my memory reel in reverse,
Scrolling back to come to feel your weather then
Now I’m noting the Himmlers of our parabola,
To predict the points of “thou shall not return”

This inbreeding of ideas is intolerable, I wish David was here,
I can’t take your persecution complex and I’m not going to absorb your stress output anymore,
Don’t you pimp out my heart, don't you pimp out my heart

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*Paul Eluard was a French surrealist poet.

* Koster Island doesn't really exist as such, since it actually is Koster Islands (note the plural) – so whether Kevin is referring to South Koster Island or North Koster Island is up to interpretation. What you need to know is that these islands are basically located between Norway and Sweden.

* The Mono Club is one of the main alternative club/bar/venue in Oslo.

* A very evil guy. Himmler was one of the most loyal and influent of Hitler's followers – he was mainly in charge of the Gestapo and almost single-handedly organized the holocaust.

* David Barnes is Kevin's little brother. In the of Montreal family, he is in charge of most of the artwork and a lot of the stage antics, especially when they involve bananas.
“I wish David was here” is a line Kevin stole from disappointed fans when they realized David had stayed Stateside for the European tour. We should have copyrighted it.

climb the ladder...

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I wanna be your love I wanna make you cry and sweep you off your feet
I wanna hurt your pride I wanna slap your face I wanna paint your nails
I wanna make you scream I wanna braid your hair I wanna kiss your friends
I wanna make you laugh I wanna dress the same I wanna defend you
I wanna squeeze your thighs I wanna kiss your eyelids and corrupt your dreams
I wanna crash your car I wanna scratch your cheeks I wanna make you sick
I wanna sell you out want to expose your flaws I wanna steal your things
I wanna show you off I wanna tell you lies I wanna write you books
I wanna turn you on I wanna make you cum two hundred times a day
I wanna dry your tears every time you’re sad I wanna be your what’s happening
I wanna be your only friend

I only go all the way, this time I’m not pretending,
I can’t take the trash your trashy friends are spreading about us,
They’ve got like V.D. personalities, oh girl they’re so messed up
You see that sculpture on the hill? that’s where she queered me out, forever
They’re monitoring my subconscious massacres I know,
Bringing it closer to the surface so it’s easily pervertible

I wanna be a beast I wanna make you proud and play with your head
I wanna take you out make you feel adored buy you everything
I wanna hurt you bad make you paranoid and say the sweetest things
I wanna help you grow, and for eternity, I wanna be your what’s happening

Can you clap your hands? (clap clap)
Can you sing it?

I see car bombs in your eyes
I hear angels apologize

climb the ladder...

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They had painted her face like a man’s mistake,
Gang banging a sad return to the eagle shaped mirror,
I’m the kind of mannequin that cheats and opens its eyes to the ladies of the spread

She took me home and spit in my drink,
she spoke of Germaine Greer and Friedan
I didn’t know what to think
I took her standing in the kitchen ass against the sink,
She draped me in a stole, what kind? I think Malaysian mink
Then threw me out into the snow I waited for the bus,
Up comes some values voters screaming “are you one of us?”
I said “of course man, can’t you see I’ve got syntax reconstruction?”
What does that mean? no clue, must be illicit pentagram

I check my shutter speed, my aperture, my domino
Can’t focus, can’t stop staring at the face I used to know,
This life is not a prison we are always free to go at anytime
Chinese stars Chinese stars Chinese stars, my cousin had the rawest Chinese stars

I’m trying to interface,
You met me at such a dismal point on the arc,
I think I understand what you were saying about the smiles of the skulls
The spastic face was the last one, our luck was white,
I read it with my head open, I only slightly cracked,
Somebody else will have to close it when I’m done
And make the most out of the visuals
While walking through the wood I noticed someone had built a house for no bird in particular
They wanna destroy us, it’s time to penetrate their fantasy

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Germaine Greer = Australian feminist writer : she was an advocate of sexual liberation and gender equality in the 60s (The Female Eunuch) but has since then reconsidered her position and now preaches for a separation of men and women in society (The Whole Woman)

Betty Friedan = American feminist, mainly remembered for her book The Feminine Mystique, which deals in the condition of the housewife in western societies.

Illicit pentagram = a five-pointed star, symbol of satanism when pointing downward, as graffitied on the back of Cardinal Barnes's chair during the Ninjas Prove It tour :

climb the ladder...

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I’m so sick of sucking the dick of this cruel cruel city,
I’ve forgotten what it takes to please a woman but that’s all going to change
Now the freaks wanna take me home to see if the rumors are true,
So I kick open the doors and windows to let the world hear,
Sure there’s so much anger and pain,
But come and see there’s still some gentle people fucking to “Strawberry Letter 23″

My bitch, now we’re both laughing
Maybe I’ll blow you whatever kind of kisses you want
Because you’ve got so much in common with my peacock creator

We function on the lowest human level but still somehow keep living
I thought it was over but it all still hurts the same, it still hurts the same

I only photograph my fascinations till the stress of the flash makes them fade
The danger is real but I’m mute to the feeling,
We started by giving each other interesting new sobriquets
Seduce the dream back to the surface, clarify my empty elephant of some beautiful death
It’s time to get to know the article that you’ll be stripping,
Ladies of the spread, you better keep my secrets in that perfumed poodle head
Now it’s so come on to the replacement Dong Fang she retrieved from the bottom of the hotel pool
The lion leaked out of his pendant and then we talked about “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders”
e-v-i-l she loves to eat beautiful things

Feeling voices again, not good,
Look the sky is pregnant with maggots
Cause something happened in the parking lot
I’m searching for the context, not finding it,
Don’t make it real for me, some things are better left victims

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* A song by Shuggie Otis, on his 1974 album Inspiration Information.

* Dong Fang = here, an ancient Chinese sword. It is also a Chinese city, the name of countless hotels and museums and whatnots, and if you had Hong to it, it becomes the name of the first satellite made in China.

* Valerie & Her Week of Wonders : 1935 gothic horror novel written by Czech author Vítězslav Nezval. It was made into a movie in 1970 Jaromil Jireš)

climb the ladder...

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She sang “we wear the party all over our bodies and faces”
But allows me to speak in wild abstractions
The senseless killings gifts god gives us have no one to love them
It’s the kind of thought that kills you twice on the way down,
(mystical instant witch) you might forget them but your nightmares they don’t forget about you
How they claw me in my false or foster reflection, is that my reflection in the Damascus blade? No!
How they claw me in my foster or false reflection, who am I to defy my Wicken master?

“you should call me sometime, I won’t answer but at least I’ll know you care”
“how will you know it was me?”
“what do you think, I ain't got caller id?”

Guess I should be happy for you, for your success and all that,
But your fame ain’t got nothing for us
I supported you kid back when no one else did,
You know I waved your flag back when no one else did
I just want things to be the way they used to be, when you only set a place for me

The Greek chorus of my skull is choking on their dulcet tones, ten lashes on the ass of anyone who even tries
And heaven’s patients glaring down at us filling your womb with black butterflies
You don’t have to try and steal no nothing from my heart because for you, anything you want, it’s always free free free
Texting your freaky fantasies to my phone, black condoms on vanilla ice cream cones
Now that I’m not a virgin to you, you’ll never walk alone
Far beyond a self abuser shame I live to make you call my name

Guess I should be happy for you, for your success and all that but your fame ain’t done nothing for us
I was your booster babe back when no one else cared
You know I celebrated you, I hollered for you girl, back when no one else even thought to
I just want things to be the way they used to be,
When you only saved a seat for me
Come back! Come back!

I’ve been so abused by this black karma
I think I know where I got it from

climb the ladder...

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* Triphallus (or a triphallus, I couldn't figure out if this word could be used as a noun or just as a qualifying adjective) is, in Greek mythology, a character which has three penises - I leave it up to you to decide how many testicles that makes, because the stories apparently never say...). Interestingly enough, Priapus is (a) triphallus but only has one (huge and constantly erect) penis, and he is, quite understandably, the god of male genitals and fertility. They really had gods for everything and everyone in those days.

* She = Alabee Blonde gets the credit for this line.

* Damascus blade = medieval middle-eastern steel sword – Damascus steel blades were rumored to be the sharpest and strongest swords at the time.

* Wicken = a wild guess, alternative spelling of “wiccan” - neopagan and polytheist religion based on the respect of nature and all forms of life – previously known as witchcraft.

* Greek chorus = in Greek theater, the chorus (usually made up of 13 actors/singers) acted as “subtitles” of the play, emphasizing the emotions the characters could not show.

* Karma = in Indian religions, karma is the belief that everything you do (or did in previous lives) had/has/will have a consequence. Hence, if your life sucks, you had it coming so stop complaining.

climb the ladder...

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Turning tricks on the hood of Jasmin’s car,
That whole summer was really just too peculiar
You know I would have given it up to almost anybody who had a little bit of money and was sweet to me
Yeah I was down to give it up to almost anyone who was sweet to me

It was rough we had to crawl down to the basement for to hide from this digital wolf
He had no eyes but he could see using electrical wind

Biting the prick that feeds me in my sister’s bathroom,
How can I function man, in the face of all this butchery?
My mind is exploding with sloppy murders,
They’ve really poisoned my sexuality
How can I function, there’s no more Apollonian* beauty to behold?

Lille venn, the heart is not dead, it’s just bad weather in my temporary head
Mamma my heart’s not dead, it's just really bad weather in my temporary head.

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Apollo : Greek God of sun and light and truth – he was the epitome of male beauty and took it both ways.

* Lille venn = Norwegian for little friend, usually refers to Kevin and Nina's daughter, Alabee.

climb the ladder...

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Lover face, I view you as the revolver introduced in my play, act one
Lover face, wanna make you ejaculate till it’s no longer fun
I confess to really being quite charmed by your feminine effects,
You’re the only one with whom i would role play Oedipus Rex

I want you to be my pleasure puss I wanna know what it’s like to be inside you
I want you to be my pleasure puss I wanna know how it feels
When I give you that ooh la, ooh la la

Lover face how your ass is pumping sweet licentious songs
Lover face, you’re a scandal, your body is so wrong
Bless my lips with your Sunlandic kisses
While our hands explore each other’s human vessels,
Oh, you know, like four excited spiders?

You give me such a rush, make my whole body blush,
I don’t care if they say you’re just my crutch I know you’re not,
You’re the only good thing I’ve got
Everything’s so much more complicated over the phone

You are such a fucking star, oh you know you are,
I just awoke broke through today,
Had the mind to call your name internally,
Through my seventh sense that’s hallucinating
Anyway, we’re artifacts of demigodly zero logic denizens
Oh, I just came in your arms tonight,
You and I are friends not some polemic to be puzzled over,
Listen, they set my wings so randomly
When you’re dead I’ll search for you,
Like Orpheus, I’ll find you some way
You are such a fucking star, oh you know you are,
I’ll tell you one thing I know,
You want my kisses in your Narcissistic collapse
Cause it’s so painful when they amputate the ego

See all the pretty corpses lined up along the beach,
They’re ringing the bells of the church to drive everybody insane
As the patina lips of the fountain stallion vomits water on this shirtless little brat
I can’t get all those moving lights off her face
so i went out to the country, sat down on some straw
But I’m not putting for god tonight, I'm keeping my legs shut
It’s a mistake lighting little white candles to make him love you,
He’s cold by any city’s standards and they wanna turn you down, it’s messed
“how bout I wilt your plantations?”
“you know the nightmares, they don’t forget about you?”
GOD DAMN THE CONCIERGE TO A DREADFUL REINCARNATION!!!!
I think I can do it by myself, I’m just trying to get healthy

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* Oedipus Rex = Ancient Greek play by Sophocles, it tells the story of Oedipus, who (to cut a very long story short) ends up killing his father and sleeping with his mother and poking his eyes out in despair, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Delphic Oracle.

* Sunlandic = Sunlandia is where Kevin and Nina “live” in dreams.

* Orpheus = Greek mythological hero, represented as the chief of poets and musicians. After his wife Eurydice's death, he managed to find her in the underworld thanks to his musical talents.

* Narcissus = Greek mythological hero who falls in love with his own reflection hence experiencing unrequited love (otherwise no-one could resist him!).

climb the ladder...

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All of my thoughts come from a foreign host, now I feel just like a ghost

Don’t be afraid, lille Venn, of violence,
I’m only poisoning you, not going to stab you
Don’t be afraid, lille Venn, of my troubled mind,
I’m just poisoning you a little with my gloom

There’s far too much light and noise,
It happens to be not so nice,
I must numb I must shatter I must defuse
This fractured consciousness, this soft abuse
The identity I composed out of terror has become oppressive now
I must deny defy defeat this dark assignment, I’m over it now

Don’t be afraid, lille Venn, of violence,
I’m only poisoning you, not going to shoot you
Don’t be afraid, lille Venn, of my troubled mind,
I’m just poisoning you a little every day

climb the ladder...

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You only like him cause he’s sexually appealing
But I read his journal, it was very revealing
He fucked your sister in an elevator junior year,
And let your brother suck him, but then beat him
So he could prove he wasn’t queer
So what do you think he has in store for you, my dear?

You only like him cause he’s sexually appealing
But I’ve seen him work and I am getting the feeling
He has some serious predatory domination issues,
He goes to climax alone, his heart beats a busy tone

He’s the sort of guy who will leave you in a k hole to go play Halo in the other room, remember?
While you were bereaving Michael’s death,
He was over at Rachel’s cooking crystal meth,
Oh don’t you remember?

You only like him cause he’s sexually appealing
But his psychic’s prediction has him hanging from a ceiling fan in 8 months

All our wizard dreams are still not impossible,
All our wizard dreams are still so possible,
All our tough little dreams, you know, they’re still possible,
And this goes directly to you

I don’t know what it is that you want from me but you cannot have it,
If you could read my mind, know what I really feel,
I wonder, would we still be friends?

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* k-hole = a side-effect of ketamine (a powerful anesthesiant both used in surgery and as a recreational drug), which prevents the user from moving at all

* Halo = a popular science fiction video game

climb the ladder...

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Boy, I wish you weren’t such a paranoid actress,
And I, the assassinated candidate,
I feel like an accidental species, some mutant love child, never meant to be
No motion dancing, I feel like we’re an impossibility,
Trying to keep the heart in the head,
But I was so down on the closing night, couldn’t even fake a smile,
Wanting to fire all my friends and just start over again

Sisters, don’t you know, our shit is only going to get better?
I feel like the last time is going to be my final collapse
Sisters, don’t you know, our shit is only going to get better?
I feel like that last time is going to be my final collapse

I know from past experience, he never takes it easy on his readers,
And you become a foreign substance lying in your familial bed

Technology makes such an ugly mother but no lessons does it offer, only chaos scenarios
And the dream that we’ve inherited, look, it’s just random numbers
Still they love you at the office cause you’ve been the subject of countless masturbation fantasies

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* Mingusings is (maybe, who knows?) a reference to Charles Mingus, a jazz musician. I'm From Barcelona also named one of their songs after him, so I'm guessing he's quite an important guy, but how or why he is relevant to this particular song is probably better left to your own interpretation and/or imagination.

climb the ladder...

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He’s just a slutty little flirt and sister he’s only going to hurt you, watch yourself,
Ladies, I’m screaming out to you from the depths of this phallocentric tyranny
My self-concept is awaiting your invasion clumsy penetration punishment,
When the hope of another wet nightmare is all we have to live for

Can’t help it if it’s true, don’t wanna be your man, just wanna play with you

He predicted the 8-bit empire, now he occupies the blur as well
When asking why the kisses are sorrowful, remember the howl of our first verse
(my memento, “little star”)

Ninjas, prove it!!!

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* 8-bit empire = the technological platform for early videogames.

climb the ladder...

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PHOTO CREDITS :
Nonpareil of Favor, Wicked Wisdom, Touched Something's Hollow, Women's Studies Victims, Fuk Cherch, St. Exquisite's Confessions, And I've Seen A Bloody Shadow, Beware Our Nubile Miscreants --> I Rule The School, shot in various locations all over the globe.
For Our Elegant Caste, An Eluardian Instance, Gallery Piece --> courtesy of Nicole Kibert, shot on December 8th, 2008 in Ybor, Florida.
Mingusings & Plastis Wafer --> shot by Julie Cotter in Ybor. Thanks Julie!
Death Is Not A Parallel Move & Id Engager --> pictures by the incredibly gifted Mike White (Atlanta, 2008-11-08). Be sure to check his site out.

climb the ladder...