Hounds of Hell

(Music by Edward O'Connell; Lyrics by Stephen Crampton)

Darkness surrounds him, everywhere he goes
They might have found him
How can he know?
A man with a conscience would have cried out in the dark
But he just lies
And waits for the bark
Of the hounds of hell

A sideways glance down a rifle barrel
Eyes sharp as knives
Focused on the world
But the anger inside him is turned inside out
His eyes seem dead
But they're looking about
For the hounds of hell

He's living on commission
And he's far beyond contrition
He'd commit suicide
If he wasn't dead inside

A miscalculation made so long ago
He can't remember
How he sunk so low
Fragments of memory, like broken glass, cut
He can't escape the past
And he's looking about
For the hounds of hell

Original Sin

(lyrics by Craig Pinhey, music by Mark Schnitzius)

Eve took the apple
And I'd offer her the same
Man over matter
Mind not who there is to blame

Like snakes and ladders
Only this is not a game
Joan, Nero's madder
Bet he'll still survive the flame

Chorus:
I'd convict myself a million times
With an offer like that from the vine
But why must we suffer again & again
How long must we pay
for our Original Sin?
For our Original Sin?

She's splitting the Adam
And taking a rib from her mate
Now what's the matter
Don't tell me it's something you ate

Bridge:
And it doesn't have to be...that way
Can we change our spots from green...to gray
Must we be proud horses...that bray
Or in other clothes like wolves...at bay

Eve's in the Apple
Seems she's always on the take
It doesn't matter
What's her method or her make

Like this addiction
To what's right and what's at stake
Guilt's an affiction
That speaks volumes but bleeds fake

Chorus:
With an offer like that from the vine
I'd convict myself a million times
Pride and prejudice go hand in hand
I'll take the lion's share and slay the lamb
But why must we suffer again and again
How long must we pay
How long must we pay
for our Original Sin?
For our Original Sin?

Miss Argentina

(Craig Pinhey)

Here she is, Miss Argentina
Why don't u look at her hair?
Or is there something more suitable
Something more pointed than fair

Don't u like Miss Argentina?
Is she just putting on airs?
4 doing something that's natural
Is naturally labelled unfair

Walk this way Miss Argentina
Try 2 avoid jealous stares
Wearing a crown that no longer fits
Is fitting 4 someone so rare

Can u think Miss Argentina?
Oh, did I mention your smile?
Carelessly going to dinner
Didn't u whine all the while?

Bridge:
Miss Buenos Aires
Trapped in the trend
Putting on arrows
Wrapped round the bend

On the make Miss Argentina
Or are u over the hill
Top of the heap is still garbage
Distill the oil from the spill

So u c, Miss Argentina
Or r u blind from the glare?
Now u must know that figures don't lie
It figures now u'll get your share

If You Would Be So Kind

(Mark Schnitzius)

The smell of your lunch money cigarettes still lingers on my coat
And jars unconcious memories of Victor going for the throat
I still can see you drawing hearts and coloring between the lines
So would you give me back my Claddagh ring if you would be so kind

Your second father never proved that he could love your mother still
Your second cousin once removed his only brother from his will
So strip off all your prison clothes and come on in the water's fine
And hold me under for a while and laugh if you would be so kind

We looked good on paper but it never really did unfold
When I asked you for your hand you thought that I meant just to hold

Now as you dissolve into the arms of your new solvent man
And scribble on the tablecloth to pay your restaurant bill again
I'm sorry that I called at this ungodly hour do you mind
Wake up and crawl out on the fire escape if you would be so kind

Here amidst the wow and flutter where you witnessed my collapse
Then you talked me down and said you witnessed my rebirth perhaps
So take the painful memory and turn it over in your mind
And find the sharpest edge to cut me with if you would be so kind

The King of Anti-Charisma

(Paul Inglis)

He was the King of anti-charisma
The Baron of bad behaviour
His given name was Neville
And he could have been a devil
But instead he became a saviour

And he said: "Slaves won't tell you your breath smells
And money can't buy you brain cells
Don't wait for a sudden reversal
This is not a rehearsal
(And what's more) don't sleep with your sisters
Don't sleep with your mothers
Or you'll have seven brain cells
For seven brothers"

He was the King of anti-charisma
The Baron of bad behaviour
His given name was Neville
And he could have been a devil
But instead he became a saviour

And he said: "Nothing normal can make me sane
And nothing eases the pressure on my brain
And no amount of leisure
Can turn pleasure into pain
(And what's more) the first time I heard The Beatles
I thought: 'That isn't bad'
And the first time I heard Nirvana I thought
'There's a good time that's never been had' "

He was the King of anti-charisma
The Baron of bad behavior
His given name was Neville
And he could have been a devil
But instead he became a saviour

There he is ma
The King of anti-charisma

From Day to Day

(Paul Inglis)

I just can't imagine you
Telling a joke
You're morally bankrupt
Intellectually broke
Your personal hygiene's
A public disgrace
But it's still more attractive
Than your excuse for a face
There's no excuse for your face

I despise you
In a very amiable way
My disgust for you is a living thing
And it's growing from day to day

Your puerile discussions
Thrill me to sleep
You've got the body of a viper
And the brain of a sheep
You sell drugs to children
Steal food from the poor
You're a sexual leper
An industrious bore
And a pain in the arse what's more

I despise you
In a very amiable way
My disgust for you is a living thing
And it's growing from day to day

I hope my reaction here leaves you convulsed
I'm affectionately repelled
Sentimentally repulsed
By you

I despise you
In a very amiable way
My disgust for you is a living thing
And it's growing from day to day
And it's growing from day to day
And it's growing from day to day

Make Up With Me

(Michael Dare)

The day I saw you outside
I tried to confide
but I never knew I would fall
And now I look like a jerk
This ain't gonna work
My mind needs an overhaul

Now every day seems like weeks
The weeks seem like years
You never pick up when I call
You took my heart in your hands
So now I've got plans
to tear down your Berlin Wall

Hitler made up with Stalin
Yoko made up with Paul
Why can't you make up with me
cause our love was sweetest of all

Amos made up with Andy
David made up with Saul
Why can't you make up with me
cause our love was sweetest of all

I never pictured you going
I grew up knowing
Nothing could keep us apart
So you could see my surprise
That look in your eyes
was starting to melt my heart

Taylor made up with Burton
Lisa made up with Bart
Why can't you make up with me
cause our love was pure from the start

Lewis made up with Martin
Lonnie made up with Burt
Why can't you make up with me
cause nothing will heal the hurt

Hitler made up with Stalin
Yoko made up with Paul
Why can't you make up with me
cause our love was sweetest of all

Small Favors

by michael dare and martin kibbee

You let me pay your rent
I lost track of the money you spent
You let me sleep on your living room floor
I don't know if I can take any more

Sometimes you let me take you out
But darling, I'm still in doubt
I feel like you're out on loan
When you let someone else drive you (it?) home

Don't you do me no small favors
I get the message that I just can't win
How come I feel so much better when
I know I'm gonna lose again
Small favors
it is your small favors
it is your small favors
that are doing me in

Hey honey, I think it's a crime
The way I get it from you one piece at a time
I can't watch you when you give it away
But then you still got it the very next day

Your favors keep me hanging around
Your favors are the sweetest I found
Any minute I'll go out of my mind
How can you bear to treat me so kind?

Don't you do me no small favors
I get the message that I just can't win
How come I feel so much better when
I know I'm gonna lose again
Small favors
it is your small favors
it is your small favors
that are doing me in

(I Need You) Now And Then

(Linus Gelber)

I know the truth hurts, but can you dance to it
If I brought a rose could I romance to it
If I ask to spend the night is there a chance for it
Or have we both had enough
Of staring at each other in a deadlock contest
You're keeping my heart under cardiac arrest
But there's no surrender in the hold of your head
I need you now and then...

But it's in keeping with your selfishness
That you've been sleeping generously
A simple knee bend, and it puts you in the palm of my hand
A simple eyelash, but it cuts me to the retina
He's got this key grip and it puts you on my video screen
Now shut your fat lip you've sure got a lot of strange ideas in your head
About morality and what's left of you and me

I can balance you with my pizza hand on one knee
Understand I want to keep the other free
'Cause there's this friction when we meet between the shutters
(A flash of light, and you've been caught)
It's like taking up a friendly book that's been opened
One too many times to a single page:
Your leaves spread nearly reflexively
But I need you now and then...

We said our thousand words,
I said my piece, I've got the picture
Now you're sitting pretty in your lingerie
With your face in some kind of kitten pose
The glossy paper strains your skin
To some weird kind of texture
A sweet bouquet in sweet decay
You're looking mighty like a rose

[etc.]

Lab Maze

(music: Christensen/Stair lyrics: Christensen)

It's hard to find the words to say,
Our species never bred for this day.
From the jungle to a sterile maze,
hunters noose to the internet craze,

I scream on my cell phone from an empty cave.

Wits prepared to hunt in the woods,
trapped in snares of alluring goods.
From clay pots to the crock of fashion,
locomotion sans gasoline rations.

I cream squirrels from a bucket-seated station wagon.

A modern man with neanderthal desires,
A pinstripe suit just discovering fire.
Amazed by the ohso seductive lure of it
Awash in this lab maze so very full of . . .

Sit ... your buns here in this ergo chair,
dissolving faster butt with a trendy flair,
From nomads to the social asylums,
flint stone fires to fishnet nylons.

I dream of fantasies without my backside going numb.

A modern man with neanderthal desires,
A pinstripe suit just discovering fire.
Amazed by the ohso seductive lure of it
Awash in this lab maze so very full of ...

Modern men with neanderthal desires,
Pinstripe suits just discovering fire.
Amazed by the ohso seductive lure of it
Awash in this lab maze so very full of . . .

It ...
(burns hot with a powerful flame)
So very full of It
(smother wounds with butter from the radar range)

It ...
(turns my heart against my head)
So very full of It
A savage beating I would never have remembered
had I bled.

Toast Queen

(words & music by E. Neffke)

it seems to me you're happy that we never took to drinking
you worked hard to make sure nobody knew of me
if your husband caught on, you'd say that you were above me
who am I to complain when pity is a commodity

because you are the toast queen, queen
and you don't want to fight for it

you wound him like a children's toy and kissed me while he spun there
you were changing the sheets while he wasn't looking
he could never find out about the way that you took things
that I gave you for your love and hid them under the kitchen sink

I don't want to say goodnight, that would mean I know wrong from right
I don't want to kiss and tell, because I know I kiss you well

he left and you were flailing in the dark because you missed it
I could live there with you because he wasn't at home at all
but somehow unknown, the vicious thrill was gone for you
you still got half his paycheck and the house in Victoria

Burning The Town Red

(words and music by E. Neffke)

you were painting the town red while I was burning the other half down
with all the love in the world
it's not a function of me to feel less concerned
I was betting you were rich and I was living the other life
somewhere alone in the dark
it wasn't half of what you wanted, was it anyway?

so I'm burning the town red, you're painting the town blue
I'm burning the town red and you're painting yourself
until nobody knows you

I have your name written in stars up on my ceiling
another reminder, I'm not out of this yet
confessing half of what we've done will turn us both around
but what direction will we point in when we've turned ourselves around?
that's a good question to some
I'm never sentimental but I think you knew that anyway

Adolf's Hitlist

(Shanghai Love Motel [featuring Bill Milliard])

They made a noise at midnight like the 17th World War
And smashed his door to splinters and then looked around for more
It was more than he expected; it was less than he had seen
At the station house they made him turn a whiter shade of green

He'd heard about the speech about the future that will rise
He recognized some of the bully boys before they took his eyes
He moaned through bloody Chiclets, "What's your interest in me?"
"We've got evidence from your bookshelves, your hard disk and your LPs"

"Think of us as a holy steamroller; we think of you as road
Or maybe as a building that ain't quite up to code
We didn't want to, but it seems that you insist
You're a star now: Number 1 with a bullet on Adolf's Hitlist"

They've got betting rings in the terminal ward: win, place, or show
You'll win your dream vacation if your man's the next to go
The chaplain leads the doctors in a mighty gospel hymn
And sneaks off to the cashier as the lights begin to dim

Well, some were in for heresy and some for being Red
And some for simple poverty, or what they did in bed
If Soylent Green was people, what they feed them here is worse
The sergeant cranks the radio for one more sacred verse

They're blaring out the doublethink on Cheesy's Coast-to-Coast
And making secret lists of who they'd like to hurt the most
"You're what history's passing by, the kind that won't be missed
You're a star now: Number 1 with a bullet on Adolf's Hitlist"

And out there in the street in what was once a public square
Your little secrets are the Reverend Robertson's affair
He smiles down from the big screen, says to quit your evil ways
The police all wear his logo, the Sacred Cross of Cathode Rays
And somewhere there are people who remain outside the fold
The Devil doesn't scare them, and they can't be bought with gold
Their cars are under seizure and their asses are up for capture
All the disrespecters of property, disbelievers in the Rapture
They're rounding your kind up these days, and my kind too
Tonight it's someone you don't like; tomorrow it will be you

They're trading Sgt. Pepper and the Gig for Bangladesh
For the Greatest Hits of Emerson, Lake, Manson and Koresh
And they're training God's guerrillas in the Rocky Mountain mist
"It can't happen here" said Number 1 on Adolf's Hitlist

She's number 5 with a bullet
He's number 4 with a bullet
I'm number 3 with a bullet
You're number 2 with a bullet
We're number 1 --

Snowjobs of Yesteryear

(Bill Milliard)

Was that you trying to tell me something's rotten in this place?
Cheese Danishes in oil look slightly bitter to the taste?
I guess the ninety-seventh one was possibly too much
The Catatonic Realists have lost that common touch
But we all took them seriously; I'm sure I heard you say
That all of history just led up to them, and that was only yesterday
Only yesterday

The reviewer's in the star's chamber after the show
Two thumbs up, about as far as they will go
Tomorrow morning's paper has her striding across the bay
Producing loaves and fishes like the last big thing did only yesterday
Only yesterday
(Hey hey; hey hey
Hey hey, I'm shocked, OK?)

Looking through old magazines in search of several semihuman beings
I ran across a center spread about the guy they've almost left for dead
His footprints on the water lasted 'bout as long as any other bastard's
The goon squad looks the other way; word is he's had his day
But jaws still drop at what he'll say

You leave them off your pages and ignore their subtle numbers
But giants break your silence, wide awake right through your slumbers
There's genius on the earth today, but all you care to mention
Is middlebrow pretentions and Neanderthal conventions
I hear this nasty hissing noise, the promo lady's nag
The sound of something seeping from your brand new gasbag
Your own collected works add up to one jackass's bray
So think twice about the ones you said were only history only yesterday

This Suburban Heaven

(Bruce White)

She lies in bed sighing with determination
So he does the deed then complains that there's nothing to read
She says she's sorry if she broke his concentration
It's just that she's always heard a man has certain needs

Now she's lying still trying to will him to kiss her
He calls her a tease as she rests her legs behind his knees
She complains its so cold as she reaches to hold his fingers
But his limp hand tells her he's not willing to please

Chorus: Well, it's just another night in this suburban heaven
Where lost angels hide their most secret desires
Just another night in paradise
Where close strangers hide behind nervous eyes
And no love can spark
Long dead funeral pyres

She changes the sheets and dreams of rearranging this reality
He wonders when it thunders if the rain will come today
She fluffs the pillows and stuffs all her expectations
Through the hole in her soul with a practiced resignation

(Chorus)

Bridge: How can two be so alone
When the cross stitch on the mantle swears "Home Sweet Home"

He stands in the kitchen bitching that there's nothing to eat
But all she hears is the rain against the kitchen window
He says that's O.K., there's really no way you could know
So she brushes off crumbs and numbs herself to his deceit

(Chorus)

The Numbers

(Lars Jensen)

Was a child like any other, you know
a curious mind, and I let it grow
the teachers told me, you've got a gift
take you closer to God or the edge of a cliff
they showed me all of the hieroglyphs
the numbers come easy to me

My family wasn't wealthy, now
life came hard by the sweat on our brows
but this talent of mine could not be denied
the department found me to be qualified
so a scholorship was justified
the money came easy to me
the numbers come easy to me

So the ivory towers welcomed me
and the numbers became my poetry
but then facts appeared and dreams withdrew
my numbers, they said, need a job to do
in order to produce revenue
they will have to be in service to
the lords of industry

I said I'll not contribute there
to poison for spirit and land and air
My passion is a sacred trust
I'll give what I can and I'll teach if I must
I could only do what I knew to be just
so their industry, let it turn to dust
but the numbers will always be
the numbers come easy to me

The students then had fire in their eyes
but we only had to teach them lies
and they'd trade their dreams for Cadillacs
and mortgage monkeys on their backs
so I well escaped between the cracks
in a backwood hideaway

I pity these technology pawns
but I'd blow them all back to the age of bronze
a soldier at first might feel guilt for his deeds
but it's right if his enemy represents greed
so then you know that I was just pulling weeds
their numbers came up easily

And I knew my days were numbered when
the bureau assigned a thousand men
But a hero I'll be for what I'll have unbuilt
books will burn that insinuated my guilt
and I'll have the last laugh and enjoy to the hilt
that there'll be many more just like me
those numbers come easy to me

Appealing to all the squaws & braves
we'll raise Don Quixote up from the grave
so one day you'll see no more
of these masters & slaves
and will you decide to be free?
the numbers add up
you'll see

Stabbed In The Back

(Lars Jensen)

I listen every morning for the phone to ring
my voice says leave a message at the beep
and then a sweet voice pleads for me to call
but I just turn and fall back into sleep

if you wanted me to leave all you had to do was ask
you didn't have to draw blood

stabbed in the back
how do I deserve to be stabbed in the back?
there are slower ways to torture me
like hung on the rack with your demands for honesty
ringing in my ears
or don't you wanna taste my tears?

stabbed in the back
how do I deserve to be
stabbed in the back?
I heard about the time you spend
flat on your back
but my patience wasn't quite enough
to cut through your chains
I guess you gotta share your pain

you never said those were knives in your back
treatment or cause of your spineless condition?
guess I should've known you would turn them on me
and that you'd favor my competition - so go back
go back to that selfish bastard - I just hope
that you're the only other victim of that disaster
so go back

I thank the heavens for the gifts I'm given
and all the hard lessons that are sent to me
I think about answering your messages
but my self respect prevents me

if you wanted me to leave...

or don't you care to taste my tears?