The Pressure Kids

ANA11060 Inspiration Blues

Janette, Janette
Ginger dreaming, I bet.
She’s sipping blackberry wine
Just to try and forget.
She’s in the backseat, trying to come down.
Behold, behold
Lovely lady of gold
She’s got lies in her pocket that Miss America sold
If you sold it, you cannot get it back.

‘Cause I got away with it…

Mr. Fox
Holds his heart while he talks
He’s spitting little lies with every step that he walks
But I paid him
Oh, I paid him to do his job.
Marie, Marie
Shivers wonderfully
She wore her purple shoes for everybody to see
And when the flash came
The silence rang as it came down.

‘Cause I got away with it…

Little lady
you were my kind of crazy
I thought everybody was on the backstage waiting
But you were not
and I regret it from the second I said it.
‘Cause you sold it
‘Cause you sold it, ‘cause you came right back and you sold it.
I thought I told you, I thought I told you
But I guess not.

And I got away with it…

ANA11061 Stupid

Stupid
I was stupid
In your apartment yesterday.
Important, it’s not important,
I’m not important anyway.
But I’m overcome by the light of the day.

Chicago
was hollow
As I followed you around.
Losing, I was losing
I’m always losing what I found.
Overcome by a beautiful sound.

The trumpets
And the trombones
They parade around my house alone.
Leaving
I’m never leaving.
No I’m never leaving
Overcome by the light of the day.

Candle wax
I was singing with a heart attack
I’m never going back
I’m never going back
Because I figured it out.

ANA11062 Asleep on the Ocean

Asleep on the ocean
A silent commotion
Oblivion stolen
I never knew what it was

In awe of the power
Of a criminal hour
Wait til it sours
I never knew what it would become

In the bronze of the evening
Laid awake while you were dreaming
The seconds redeeming
I never knew what you had done

it was pure revival

As thin as the anger
That I use to contain her
Unsteady as a stranger
Oh god I knew where this was from

You better get your story straight
Rearrange what you can’t fabricate
Camouflage what you can’t radiate
Oh god I knew what I’d become

it was sweet survival

This was no coincidence
Another sip to kill the vigilance
A perfect view of our deliverance
Oh god I was the other one

Asleep on the ocean
Inspect what's been broken
The signals are smoking
I never thought it would come

there was no denial

ANA11063 Thin Skin

Tuesday came
I was feeling just about the same
I drove all night long to keep from dreaming.
Your undertow
Took me where I never thought I’d go
The things I did not know only took a few days to fake them.

Jesus knew
Just what you and him would do
But he was singing all day long while you were still grieving
So how could I leave your body as it’s lying next to me?
I’m screaming
“How could I leave your body?”

We tried compromise
To find a little sun behind your eyes
But you were gracious with your sighs
And I was unforgiving.
Now it’s a threat to you, you only turn a darker shade of blue
Each follow through
Took a little longer to shake it.

You can’t take that back
We become the only thing we lack
If I keep singing to your back while you are drinking honey.
Our long reprise
Surely came to you as no surprise
But there was something in the signs
We should’ve been reading.

How high, thin skin
How high was I then?

ANA11067 This Door Remains Closed

It was a party of five
That you tried to keep alive
But it was harder to survive without a friend

It was the 12th of july
That we tried to say goodbye
It lasted longer than a road without a bend

This door remains closed

We split two bottles of wine
As we tried to compromise
Between cutting all the ends we tried to tie

And as october crawled away
It got harder to behave
And now there’s no one left behind you anyway

This door remains closed

One sunset sister died
I dropped you off and took a ride
Which way will you go, what will you hide?

Easy come and easy go
Easy, shimmy off your coat,
Killing daylight till you’re rolling down the road

This door remains closed

ANA11059 Magazine

Crimson and gold magazine
Perfectly captured your scream
Tore out the page and watched you bleed
I watched you bleed.

Immaculate, thin and gray
I tacked you up where I lay
And waited for you to speak to me
You speak to me.

A darkness crept into the room
Like blackening bulbs you consume
The walls and I can’t believe it’s true
Is that really you?

Frayed are the edges around
The corners of your crooked crown
And I can’t escape your silent sounds
Your silent sounds.

ANA11064 No Land Left in Hollywood

We got caught up in a reverie, didn’t we?
We thought no one was looking for us
I can’t write another elegy, Ellen, please
Just have another cigarette.

Marianne was playing dead on the other side of the bed
She lost a tussle with the sunshine.
I was feeling kinda hollowed out watching her chase it down
And you were singing like you’d already won.

Ellen, please
Sing it back to me?
This will not set you free,
You cannot hold it…

We lost another summertime waiting for the wind to die
You were painting pictures of the harbor town
You dressed me up in pink and blue, didn’t you?
You said you only stole it but you broke it too.

Ellen, please
Sing it back to me?
This will not set you free,
You cannot hold it…
We’ll sink like stone,
Like everyone we know
You cannot be alone
If you let me hold it

We got caught up in a reverie, didn’t we?

ANA10971 Mint

MINT

there’s a map in my mind
I pull my pencil straight through it
you were not easy to find
but I was easing into it

there’s a crack in my spine
I keep on moving despite it
through this map in my mind

it’s been a long a time coming

there’s a wolf at my door
I zipper down to greet him
there are no waves on the shore

it’s been a long time coming…

you can hollow out
or stick around

ANA10968 Fever

FEVER

fever where I’ve already been
flicker with coincidence,
“don’t spill it on the carpet.”
you’ve been keeping your door locked
I get this fever every time I knock
we’ve been keeping it together without it
I’m coming over…

fever your confession instead
spend another minute in bed
march it like the days ahead.
we could bend it till it’s ready to break
we could make another honest mistake
we could spend another summer without it
or we could start it over.
let’s start it over…

there’s fever in your rhythm and rhyme
I’ve been thinking about you all the time
you’ve been dancing down the blue line.
there’s fever when you knock me down
there’s fever when you’re breathing me out
keep it from spinning around
because it’s already over.
it’s already over…

fever where I’ve already been
flicker with coincidence
“don’t spill it on the carpet.”

ANA10966 Team

TEAM

oh you gotta give it up
this lovely little lesson was not enough
the costume in the corner is coming off

we were living up on top of the hill
drinking every evening so it stands still
filling up the cup until it spills

I wish you were on my team
we spin in circles endlessly
you’re coming inside my head
to stay instead of reciting endlessly

oh you gotta let me know
if you plan to take it further or if you’ll go
the costume in the corner collecting snow.

oh you gotta let it be
‘cause I’m keeping every question so you could see
that nothing was as easy as you and me.

I thought you were on my team
we spin in circles endlessly
you’re coming inside my head
to stay instead of reciting endlessly

ANA10970 White Room

WHITE ROOM

lightly stepping out
of your hospital gown
you took the record off the table
and flipped it around

to say to me
how you wanted to be

and if pleasing the crowd
only’s been bringing you down
take a long hard look
at how this reveille sounds

and pray to be
how you wanted to be seen

it’s a centerpiece
that’s kept us running around all over town
as we try to slow it all down…

he can take half your home
and your poor mama’s loan
but he can never take away
how you’re holding your own

it’s a fire escape
down to the car you could take

and it’s never one and two
it was never me and you
now there’s so much less to be
and there’s so much more to do

you would die to be
how you wanted to be seen

stomped out since sundown
i prayed to California she was story bound

it’s a centerpiece
that’s kept you running around all over town
as you try to slow it all down…

ANA10967 And Another One

*EXPLICIT*
AND ANOTHER ONE

it was just a Sunday morning
making my way from a holiday
and I don’t quite have the cards to play.
was feeling kind of washed out
holding both your palms and your bracelet there
because everybody’s gonna talk about it

but it’s alright now…

tangled in a myth he was caught red-handed
all fucked up on Saturday
and there’s not much more for him to say.
he apologized on his own volition
for the past few months he’s felt out of commission
and you’re not gonna talk about it

because it’s alright now…

I saw you having lunch out on 12th
you were tapping your thumb on the tabletop
and I can’t be the one to make it stop
everybody loved that you were so demure
but if anybody asks it was “all a blur”
and I don’t want to talk about it

because it’s alright now…

ANA10969 Untitled (Pick Me Up)

UNTITLED (PICK ME UP)

when I see your shining face
I know it’s gonna be different for us from now on.
when you’re sleeping next to me
I don’t have the time to worry
I don’t have the time to fear

any darkness that comes our way
will surely be a gift to commemorate our stay
because you know that we’re in this together
and I know I’ve found the one and our time has just begun.

pick me up baby I know you can