Secaucus
Produced by Pedal Boy & the Wrens
Released 1996, Grass Records
Secaucus, our second full length. The interior photos were all taken on our 1995 tour of Germany.
Bogged down in recording, we were served notice of eviction from our house in Secaucus and joked through that summer that as the Labor Day eviction day loomed closer, the whole house would probably be empty except for the studio, screaming at full-volume and still running in complete panic mode.
As foretold by the elders (us), ‘twas the night before eviction and all through the house, not a creature was stirring - nor a stick of furniture standing - except the mixing board, two speakers and a rack of crap outboard gear while Charles mixed and re-mixed Jane Fakes a Hug.
Then we had to sue our landlord to get back our deposit and of course, the land baron prevailed.
MP3s
Lyrics
- Yellow Number Three
- Built In Girls
- Surprise, Honeycomb
- Rest Your Head
- Won’t Get Too Far
- Joneses Rule Of Sport
- Dance The Midwest
- Still Complaining
- Hats Off To Marriage, Baby
- Jane Fakes A Hug
- Counted On Sweetness
- I’ve Made Enough Friends
- Luxury
- Indie 500
- Safe and Comfortable
- Destruction/Drawn
- I Married Sonja
- I’ll Mind You
- It’s Not Getting Any Good
Yellow Number Three
past crows / past cotton
the good and best forgotten
smaller / smallest stone
two yisker lights on / i should be home
bootless and beaten / by Scotland’s own
we’re done / dismissing
i’m cold / what are we missing
tell me / tell me please
rights sides have faded / caught in disguise
careers paraded / i gave two tries
Built in Girls
sweet pretty things set out in motion
painted to doll and sleek with grace
the city has no real need to be nervous it’s seen it all before
measured out life in lipstick and lashes
it’s easy when you’ve been given such charms
tease a little smile, pull back your hair
toss around, walk around, act like you care
it’s built in girls so naturally
built in girls and it’s all that they’ll ever need
just turn around and tell me you love me
spit out the words that you’ll make sincere
there is no time for decisions or countless revisions
i’ve heard them all before
so don’t pretend to be so true when you got him coming through
when everything you wanted has turned to nothing more
don’t say i never warned you, it’s well known
something has been happening here for years
i’m not worried i can always come back crawling to you
begging for forgiveness in the honest degrees
talking through some circles with the greatest of ease
these are the assumptions and these are the times
Surprise, HoneyComb
cut a killing path / through the true west
dozens laid rest / settled down then at last
thought i might be done / but being good made me burst
the killing got worse / it almost got fun / so i got a new gun
marie came home tattooed / it covers her back
it’s God done in black / says “it protects me from you”
as christmas can be / i started out fine
i used to kill time / now Detroit’s killing me / so i jump start my spree
surprise / it’s not enough / want to work / influence on rock’s and shells and dirt
looks like you need a man time, honey comb
hid away for wine years how you’ve grown
we can call your folks / from a highway side rotary
i drive up to your door / and wracked by disease
i do what i please / drop you to the floor
on top of magazines / and calendar art
held up with darts / shows american scenes / of cowboys in jeans
i’ll change / his scrape of land / i’ll take you east / we’ll guide the first we find to sleepy peace
pop the door i think this wander lust
ain’t the only thing between both of us
i’ll make you famous / and we’ll double the states you’ve seen
the cop who brought me in / an uncle of mine
on first mommy’s side / i’m even named after him
Rest Your Head
ladies and gentlemen welcome tonight
peforming here for the very last time
is your life so please take a seat
the physics of innocence falls to the side
leaving the citizens nowhere to hide
so down the back stairs went all we know
i’m breathing out loud to pretend i’m alive
while strangers throw flowers and kiss me good bye
i guess i’m not as well as i had hoped
what ever happened to the greater design
it mus have stepped off with the first it could find
with the way it’s all turned out who’s to blame
rest your head here tonight
it’s not supposed to turn out right
there’s no one left and there’s nowhere to go
maybe that’s why i came
a still belief that it all can change
i hate the taste but i love the effect its bringing on
open committees are talking right now
deciding my fate and laughing out loud
the execution is on for the fourth of july
the only survivor was late to arrive
calling up sympathy and blessing the sight
it’s all over now and you can’t even cry
Won’t Get Too Far
they mentioned the bridge that my dad had worked on
they had a picture too, this size
it jumps the pontiac from copsey’s to here
my brother points with pride each time
it’s not the biggest bridge but it’s still something he did
how about us
and i won’t get that far
i got a job i drive electrical orders
for a friend of dad’s part time
i haven’t used that bridge to travel much further
than to work or school for some time
i can’t believe i’m grown none of my friends live at home
not since fall
and i won’t get too far
no, i won’t get too far
Joneses Rule of Sport
the wife six kids
the boss the dog
and the mistress tuesday night
the kitchen sink
the midday drinks
it’s a pool boy afternoon
your boy he’s a girl
here’s the daddy’s football star
your girl she’s a boy
not the prom queen anymore
forget what you’ve been taught
your just plastic sold and bought
because God knows all you want
in the Jones’ rule of sport
elect the man get fooled again
and you bought the mayor’s new lawn
a t.v. smile don’t touch that dial
welcome to your life
it’s done one by one
so you join the shopper’s club
same hair same face
got to keep in the race
so you criticize / tie the noose too tight
leaves you spinning round and round
to impersonate your life.
Dance the Midwest
i can’t believe / we’ve undone / comes around
to whatever polish / how i’ve held my tongue back
call me to teams / just a one / making out /
make an over daddy / now i’m done / i’m homespun
come to that truck given up
to the growth to the hay to the farm’s east edge
for me it’s blessed in status
that’s just because it just marks
tired end of the mapway spinning me
right your sweet house
jane let’s dance the midwest
lift your blonde summer dress
swing me wide through what’s left
Still Complaining
this year has killed so many without a moment’s thought
seduced by a promise that things were soon to get better
the meaning of life has been lost forever
and they’re waiting for me to discover them one
haven’t you heard this old line before
out of boredom they married one sun spoiled day
accelerated to murder while blaming each other along the way
i finally started thinking straight
when i found there was nothing left to investigate
do we ever know when to end or to be satisfied
its time to look at something you’ve seen before but never noticed
something you’ve dragged on its belly through all of your years
entitled “the greatest companion” as it always stayed by your side
i’ll pray that things get better
Hats Off To Marriage, Baby
chip crack a perfect plaster
of what a man how big
white as bath soap, yellow fetch rope
like a me three times as big
compare your worth to riches
dick rank your kiss and tells
at others cursing, show no mercy
go home team, yeah! go to hell
hat’s off to marriage, baby
hat’s off to maiden names
marked as mrs. sex not kisses
how long you think you’ll fan his flames
when truth comes a shake your trophies
that failed run woods and hide
live a type cast / take the cleared path
hold forth at cozy fireside
paint me / crack me / crawl me
i’m your woman / shave me / ball me
for your pleasure / pleasure / fear cure
homestead and pleasure / lonesome
your equal and hurting your namesake and all
Jane Fakes a Hug
jane fakes a hug / she throws herself down on the rug
what’s wrong / my dragging days are whipping long
i can’t go on / time chained friendless / oh jane i thought / let’s end this
i’d tell her more my thinking
but she’d just stare back blinking
can’t find attraction hate our new house
she don’t get / she don’t get my work
jane’s made me flirt / in fact i’ve met this girl, annette
i made a pass my life’s a crumbled mess
i took the girl’s address
she just broke up with paul and i think jane knows her
boredom crept up and found me
temptation follows mounts me
our oaths our realty a good job a husband
a husband or what / christ, jane, i’m not, i never was
she turns spits out / we’re done get out / i wanna say good luck
but i don’t wanna hold you up
you bastard son of dirt
can’t picture our house without you
two aprils go / i’d / offer all to god on high
tell why / i got this far with none for wife
this charming life / i can’t un-jane me
she married paul / that fall / aprils ago
Counted on Sweetness
“i was born too soon” is how my grave will read
lived to 35 but died at 17
it took an hour or so to reach the border as planned
a few miles from here i would never know
i’ll confess what i’ve done in time
lived through worse and never cared for anyone
they never seemed to mind for me
i left before they ever knew that i was gone
it’s the facts blood knows laid out in front of you
tied up in foolish news waiting for a view
all the time i’ve been waiting by them
look at them they can’t find me
in walked the left to lose / chained down to please a few
i wonder who they’ll choose / i wonder who
in whispered to my ear, “what will you do until then”
dream all you want me dear it’s a fitting an end.
I’ve Made Enough Friends
brush your shoulder w/ an off-hand gesture / I’m holding your stare /
invite me upstairs
we look for reasons to stand closer touching / we look at a book / of
pictures you took
see who’s taller and then arm wrestle a bet / I match your breathing
our chins touch closer we get
it’s hours later and we’re not much further / we’ve made it to bed /
your shirt’s ‘round my head
hands full of your hair and I can’t stop kissing / I’m licking your
lips / my hand on your hips
a rush of wonder this charm we’re under might last / are we done with
others all other lovers are past
what’s beginning? a brand-new winning, I can’t stop kissing, I can’t
undo your buckle while you bite at my neck / I’ve waited no end / I’ve
made enough friends
we’re down to nothing and I can’t stop shaking / you’re nothing but
skin / I think we’re done in
rush of wonder this spell we’re under might last / we’re too
hoping, our years are showing and fast /
we’re too desperate, too soon investing, another lesson I’ll pass
Luxury
i’m not rich enough
to not know reality
and god is a luxury
that i can’t afford
what am i supposed to do
when everyone has given up on you
from here on in you are
considered a memory
do i have anything
left that you don’t know
Indie 500
spare me those failed cars
that sound like the pavement they rode in on
don’t pretend to innovate by copying what’s new to a “T”
just get out of my way
Alright, I’ll just sqwawk away
don’t / label as breaker grounds some sheep
just different by barely inches
oh yeah and / don’t judge me by standards
now in place to make the current seem cool
the emperor looks good today
alright alright alright i’ll dress the same
i’m sick and done with it
please: i wanna come home today
i wanna do things my way
i don’t wanna be the same
looking out my window
on another summer day i missed out on
all towards a future building won’t ever come ever will
let me out to play
Safe and Comfortable
pull me close enough so i can feel your breath and exactly what you mean
leave off the lights / it’s my time / let them disappear / we don’t need to be seen
for tonight i’ll believe in touch / comes light with us between
so let your hair down right for me and follow what i say
tell me how i’m the only one that you live and breathe to see
because i can’t bear to think of those
who might of been here before feeling the same for you
love doesn’t care for us at all, how could it when it hardly knows us
it creeps on prayers for cleaner hands and hates to even see us
asleep once again / unnoticed how time has past
but in a little while i can make the room go dark
and all this loneliness would mean nothing at all it had nowhere to go
no one to see / no one to meet / nowhere to go
Drawn
she was free
a map was drawn
to children from long ago
left by twenty-nine
through years she couldn’t find
and they cried / they saw her go
not from her own strength
they feared that they were gone
she dreamt that they were near
all i knew seemed to end
seeing her once again
water coming up
throwing them down / sinking now
and he said i couldn’t forget
as jenny stepped across
sweet things come in time
i guess i’ll wait for mine
Distraction
excuse my face it’s out of place to your kind
can’t expect to change your mind
waste your time and loved you to distraction
you’ve done too much to criticize
take your aim and place the blame
it’s your turn it’s not enough to say goodbye
the same old lies again to play the part so well
the storyline you sell
it’s all complete you roll your eyes and walk away
waste my time and loved you to distraction
you’re the one i left behind
I Married Sonja
a rain of fast years and times whipped done me whipped good
this very treatment’s beaten / this very world way’s bush whacked
most bachelor uncles into marrying men
labor day 1930 / they darken dane pavilion
pushing reluctant millions / from innocents to tangle men
i shrine the good past / to polished perfect locket
i carry and stare into / wallow around in
while soon to be ghosts / and pretty tributes look in
their wasted time turned
back flast with thoughts of woman a trip sleep prayer for winning
don’t look at me son / with my doings undone and my bushes bending
I’ll Mind You
come with me away from here
i leave this evening
for a better life my dear
so come
i will wait and meet you at the gate
if you don’t arrive
i will have to say goodbye
and never return to you
It’s Not Getting Any Good
while i’m / working to afford to have fun with you i’m distracted
to / stillness by the thinking of you from beach to top mountains
paula this / indistinguished suburb grinds my sleep teeth to ruin & powder
you know it to be / true you heard it held me woke me close whispered how it’ll
be soon you said / worry baby sleepy head
cut back to / me young and unpressured in contrast to aunts and to uncles
8 & 10 / older at the cusp of adulthood away walk from play time
i knew then of / those days gold status how they’d look back to fix their hearts worn
and yet here i am write of when i had so many they were of no value when
laid unnumbered end to end / but it’s not getting any good
that’s a bandage / that we’ve been using
best of a decade / not while we’re here in secaucus bound
let’s stop pretending / in never endings
another decade / or until we’re out of the hope you found
let’s abandon / this house to camden
messed up a decade / let’s get away from these home and towns
cause something’s missing / we hide by kissing
rest up a decade / we’ll need our strength to escape this town
can’t tell myself from hopes i’ve drowned / can’t tear myself from this safety town
can’t tell each other from stupid clowns
