1. AMSTERDAMNED!

We're all going to hell,
And I mean that in the best possible way.
For the second time in my young life
I put holes in hopes the size of days.
There's a new scene rising through these streets
And it's got more friends than me
So with a hole in my heart the size of a notebook,
I'll let you see through my for free.
We don't sleep around here anymore.
Don't Sleep. Dream.
Scrawled on every gaze from chain link island street corners
From too familiar liquor stores to these cold wrong island shores.
So let's hear it for living your life until you can't anymore.
Like it's always the darkest before dawn
And I was at my darkest for dawn.
But now it's me and luck, best friends and dunk again
And we're all going to hell.
And what I mean to say is that I mean that in the best possible way
So let's hear it for living your whole life until your dead from it.
But it's worth dying on a steady diet of punk rock, alcohol and friends.
So let's hear it for living your whole life like life itself
Owes you one more night on the town.
Next time I come around
I'm bringing souvenirs
Cause it's pretty clear it's not enough just to write it down.
Don't sleep! Dream!


2. WARNING: PERFECT SIDEBURNS DO NOT MAKE YOU DANGEROUS

So this is what we've all been waiting for?
And to think I almost missed it,
Now there's some things I won't ignore.
Cause every fool with a guitar and a slick haircut called their prediction
They're the next big thing in rock and roll.
But from a basement deep in what's left of our underground
We're compiling profiles on all you creeps
Now we know where you hang around.
Ever since the focus moved from how we sound
To where we signed and what we bought
Our sincerity's been subsidized.
Our culture now has a cost.
So you fuckers say you want a war?
So you fuckers say you want a war?
I've had enough of you fucking up the one thing that I love
And I won't sit back and watch with idle hands and bitten tongue.
I understand the need for magazines and prime-time ads and pop routines,
But you're trying to place an image where a message had once been
Trends fade with time, and that's just fine.
Soon you'll go your way, and I'll go mine.
You waste your days flooding the airwaves,
We spend out nights tripping the dials.
We're throwing up our fists
To calling out the heartless,
Cause I don't think you're fooling anyone but you.
We're toasting up our drinks to fucking up your scene.
(I've got explosives) for every single one of you.
Trends fade with time, and that's just fine
So we'll be alright.


3. PLAY IT LOUD FUCKERS

I hope you find what you've been looking for
Before I find my way to the door.
I hope your pride capsizes from the tears in your eyes
And drown in them like so many before.
I hope you change yourself for the better
And reach the potential we all know we saw.
I hope I dig my own grave with the things that I say.
Let my actions get my point across.
We're missing something significant in the dialogue,
It's not my problem. I choose to be reclusive amongst the sound.
It comes around when I need it most, it's mostly closer to me than anything,
Closer than you could ever be.
The antidote for everything.
I'd give anything to have everything turn out Okay.
I'd give half of every day to have the other half turn out
Half decently apart from all the mistakes we make to break away.
I'd give anything, whatever it takes.
In the wake of the way things will never be again,
It's too dark to read your face through hard times,
So here's my advice
Here's my advice!
Play the fastest record you can find,
Louder than your stereo will allow.
Hotwire your speakers, do whatever you have to.
Smash the mirrors in your house.
Go home and lock your bedroom door,
Don't open it for anything at all.
Live every word, scream every song,
These four chords could save your...
I'd give anything to have everything turn out Okay. Plat it loud!
I'd give half of every day to have the other half turn out play it loud!
Half decently apart from all the mistakes we make to break away. Play it loud!
I'd give anything, whatever it takes.
I've lived my whole life like the only one listening.
It's so sad to say I didn't miss a single one of them
I've lived my whole life like the only one listening.
It's so sad to say I didn't miss a single one of them

Go home and lock your bedroom door,
Don't open it for anything at all.
Live every word, scream every song,
These four chords could save your life.


4. WHAT A STRANGE TURN OF EVENTS

While we were getting up and breaking down and building it up again,
You were mixing weak drinks for weeknight sleep
And holding up the wall with your new friends.
Look, I said it was cool,
Now the air seems fresher on my side of the room.
Fuck conversations, it's just time wasted.
This is me saying that it's cool.
What else is there for me to do?
Sit back and count how many dollar drafts it takes for you to forget we're on our own?
Before you slide back into Johnny Black,
I got some things on tap here just for you
Just to let you know
On the off change we both explode
I don't regret a single day I spent with you.
But what's a few lies for an old friend?
What's a few goodnight's you'll never say again?
Just to let you know
I took a chance on you.
But you would never do the same.
So starstuck you went and fucked things up again,
Now take your undercover friends
And your newfound love for trends
And leave as alone as when you came.
It seems to me the only real surprises are tragedies.
Who thought we'd be here on year later at a wake for your integrity?
I'll cover sparks just to save the dark
And hit six-strings so hard we break apart the sound
I don't fucking need anyone
That doesn't change the fact that I always liked having you around
Oh what a strange turn of events.
While we were down on blowing up and doing it all over again,
You were getting high and breaking out and living it up with your new friends.
Look, I said it was cool. And I said what I meant


5. COMPASS AND SQUARE

What began as a poem is now just a burden,
A vicious song that's mine to keep.
What began as forgetting is now just a prototype of ways to fight off sleep
Arm the thieves with the wings and weights of soldiers to deepen the pockets of the meek
Make mixtapes of other peoples problems
And burn everyone CD's.
Cause they've built themselves some charade
Where a saving grace is hard to find.
What began as a song ended up as a death threat
Addressed to everyone's house but mine.
So far confined into dead ends
With greater love of consequence
And a quiver filled with bad intentions
To let them fall where they may.
So tell them for their own sake
Do your best to stay awake
The burden's are mine,
Contently confined to carve the lines in acetate.
Get the syringe.
Let's see if ink to page brings the same fear as life, love and medicine.
It can break skin
Let's see who feels it.
Things have changed so little from the way I planned it
A ventricle scarred, lined with mathematics.
And an escape to my old best advantage
A savagely serrated pen.

Get the syringe
Let's see if ink to page brings the same fear as life, love and medicine
It can break skin
It can't break me.
Here's your advantage
Things have changed so little from the way I planned it
A scab to heal hopeless semantics
It's all romantics
We're all romantics.
The math is coincidence.


6. IF YOU THINK WE'RE TALKING ABOUT YOU

Without a broken heart, you've got nothing to sing about!
With all those rehashed hooks,
You've got no chance of standing out.
You try to hard and hope the hook sticks.
Where's your sense of inspiration?
I could've sworn, heard this somewhere before.
You try so hard to run this fashion show,
You're so fucking cool,
So fucking cool, yeah.
Well, I wish I'd never heard this at all.
You're so fucking Hollywood.
I want to be Hollywood, too.
You're so fucking beautiful, doesn't everyone wanna be as beautiful as you?
And once our voices were equipped with fast songs and ideas,
We now come armed to the teeth with hair gel and anthems for your ex-girlfriend.
Well no one cares.
There's a difference between genuine heartache
And just having nothing to say.
And we'll all sing along.
We're all singing nothing at all.
And we'll all sing along.
We're all singing nothing at all.
Good luck in Hollywood.
Us ugly kids will stay right here.
Offstage! They ain't got no roots!
Offstage! They ain't got no roots!
Go!
Rock rebel!
Rock rebel!


7. BARFIGHT ON BEDFORD AVE.

I've noticed that you like to live your life
On borrowed friends and borrowed time.
We don't live that way done here,
Those bonds have formed throughout the years
Of the worst times, never the best.
Your superficial smile and two-week old friendships
don't impress me
The best of you couldn't get the least of my interest.
Things change as quick as a hit-and-run
There's a lot of red lights between these days and the rest of our lives.
Tell whoever that was to be careful which ones he runs.
There's nothing left but to put my faith in friends.
So ink up that skin and do your best to fit in.
This is your last chance to hold on to what you've been given.
Cause I don't mind, it's kind of flattering to me
Watching you drown beneath all the things that you wish you could be.


8. IT AIN'T ALL HUGS AND HANDSHAKES

If Saturdays end sadder days,
Pay stubs should bring salvation
Accelerating heartbeats happily.
But these days our day jobs barely cover insurance,
So now we can't afford our dreams.
Skip town suddenly on half a heartbeat
And spark as sweetly as softly it came.
Let the windows transition the night
So we don't miss a thing.
Skip town suddenly cause New York doesn't look the same.
You make it seem like Saturdays end sadder days,
And it's OK to lie dead come the week.
It's just like me to disagree.
You make it seem like Fridays pay will make everything OK,
It's just like me to plan an escape.
Dead broke and happy and sitting in traffic again,
We're down to one lane cause New York is never gonna change
But I can treat lungs black from bad decisions
Over another day of the same thing
Bad food, bad dreams, and Bad Religion.
It's OK cause my way has only got to work for me.
So tell me is it gonna get any easier
To find your way now that you've got a degree?
Cause there sure ain't any jobs for you here boy,
And would you really want one anyway?


9. HERE'S TO THINGS GONE WRONG

With nitroglycerine dripping off our chins
And elbows sliding off the bar,
We speak and breathe and charm our way
Under trains and between cars.
I'm drinking whatever you're buying
If you've got enough left to see it through
I say we soak ourselves to the bone.
I'm not going home unless it's with you.
Kickstart the night
And drown the world facedown in a loud song.
Let's start a fire
And let the scorned drink to things gone wrong.
We won't appreciate these days until they're all gone.
We never recognize what's right.
So here's to thing gone wrong.
I need some kind of savior to pull me from this seat.
From the people, from the smell, from the price, from the heat.
From the way they purchase hope with their last of change,
while they try to look different,
But they're all the same.
I got one more song left on the jukebox
And then I'm all yours.
I got two left feet so tired of standing,
Let's hit the door before we hit the floor.
Kickstart the night
And drown the world facedown in a loud song.
Let's start a fire
And let the scorned drink to things gone wrong.
We won't appreciate these days until they're all gone.
We never recognize what's right.
So here's to thing gone wrong.
I'm not going anywhere where they know me, anytime, anymore.
Sidestep the misspent souls from high school
I spent years learning to ignore.
And the masses of throbbing kids in tight t-shirts packed into this bar.
All praying for half an hour of romance
All half lucky they made it this far
So with a night two years in the making
And a half a mind to run as fast as I can,
Amidst a life spent going crazy.
Come and save me from inside my head
Kickstart the night
And drown the world facedown in a loud song.
Let's start a fire
And let the scorned drink to things gone wrong.
We won't appreciate these days until they're all gone.
We never recognize what's right.
So here's to thing gone wrong.
Kickstart the night
And drown the world facedown in a loud song.
Let's start a fire
And let the scorned drink to things gone wrong.
We won't appreciate these days until they're all gone.
We never recognize what's right.


10. NO GOLD STARS FOR NATIONALISM

Catastrophe!
Now all my happiest memories
Bear distance resemblance
To a nations spent shell casings to me.
It's so obscene.
With guns, germs, and steel we march faithfully into war
Until this one becomes abandoned
Like those on drugs and poverty before.
Two men do not make a world.
If it's for us all, where's the support?
Let's call a spade imperialism.
We're off focus. I bet if I had a gun
And a bullet for every kid I knew around here
whose parents haven't spoken in years,
I could fight these wars myself.
Procure oil myself.
Given half chance by myself
To produce results in foreign lands
I could connect pipelines by myself.
Establish satellites by myself.


11. TERRIBLY SOFTLY

This is the start of the second part
Of a song that you'll never hear.
This is how it felt stealing pieces of hell
To adorn the walls of your apartment with.
This is me with the ink dried on the page,
Taking into account that feelings change.
You think we're better off friends
I got a million ways to make sure we're strangers again.
The perfect end to a train wreck of a weekend.
We've bandaged scars with stolen cars and bottled pride.
And if this song was to be about you,
It would have something to do with who's the ruin of who.
But then it couldn't be more about me too.
This is the heart of crashing cars, breaking down doors And falling in love
It's not caring at all
And taking whatever you can get whenever it comes.
I know if I take my time
I swear to God I burn a bridge with every line.
Steal a piece of hell
And blend it in so well
With this train wreck of a life.
The failing health, the stories
I tell all seem to blend in so damn well
With this train wreck of a life.


12. ARSON AT 563

I guess it wasn't as bad as it sounds.
We wore the embers like a crown,
As a reminder to remember
Things don't heat up until the sun goes down.
From between the heat of passing cars,
Well things got ugly from the start.
We saved some money from some crimes
And use it all to tattoo the scars.
Let the story dilate
Mike stayed forty miles away,
Things weren't getting any better at his place.
Over bail bonds and broken pores,
With solemn hearts and solid boards.
Traversed the stairs to fade the memories,
Closed it up and locked the doors.
So close but still haloed to crash the calm
It's only one night so what's the harm?
This apartment is no more haven than home.
Let's flood the floors,
Come tomorrow we'll all be gone.
I always dreamed but never would've thought
That five of us sifting through the ash
Would be the end result of too great a cost.
We placed the call to Nashville to him
Cincinnati burned us down.
The more I say these things out loud,
The more the words just twist around.
So slowly find it strange
Young men with principles have a way of accumulating debts with ages.
Replace the fiction while the story ignites the scene.
We're thinking it's too much to ask for
While the flames ignite the dream.
We're sinking and they're beginning to jettison the hopeful.
I fear it's what I hoped for.
I willed it and if so
It's from real
And it's my ship to sink with.
It could be the drain of summer heat,
Fourth of July or enemies.
Bad wiring, bad timing.
It could be the weight of gravity.
It could be a story that no one will ever believe.
It could be a million things but please,
Right now we only need a place to sleep.
So close but still haloed to crash the calm.
It's only one night so what's the harm.
Come sunrise those drinks won't keep you warm.
It's up to you I could be here I could be gone
Things don't heat up until the sun goes down.