Death Cab for Cutie

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"Two Cars"

I try to scrape it off, the thought of skin against skin
And move it from the front to back and started go again
But the depression and time breed and multiply
And I've got more mouths to feed than I could ever
Fit in this auto
You go have a good time
Bring back stories 'cause I will stay behind

So punch the clock, two months are up, and I am stuck down
Against the floor the heat rises out and leaves town
As the depression and time breed and multiply
'Til I've got more mouths to feed than I could ever
Fit in this auto
You go have a good time
Bring back stories 'cause I will stay behind

That's the story of a boy who tried to play it cool
But found it hard to keep it up when you were changing rules
With the depression and time breed and multiply
'Til I've got more mouths to feed than I could ever
Fit in this auto
You go have a good time
Bring back stories 'cause I will stay behind

"Technicolor Girls"

Technicolor girls are always on the phone
talking about their homes
and the conversations continue endlessly.

Technicolor boys, transistor radios
blasting their treble tones
and the arguments are disputed after school,
in the parking lot as the teachers bend the rules.

Patiently you waited for a courting boy's embrace,
then everyone would know.
But the letter jacket wasn't yours to own
and it proves to be on temporary loan.

And as they all grow older the truth will be understood,
cause we never turn out the way we thought we would.

"Photobooth"

I remember when the days were long,
And the nights when the living room was on the lawn.
Constant quarreling, the childish fits, and our clothes in a pile on the ottoman.
All the slander and double-speak
Were only foolish attempts to show you did not mean
Anything but the blatant proof was your lips touching mine in the photobooth.

And as the summer's ending,
The cool air will put your hard heart away.
You were so condescending..
And this is all that's left:
Scraping paper to document.
I've packed a change of clothes and it's time to move on.

Cup your mouth to compress the sound,
Skinny dipping with the kids from a nearby town.
And everything that I said was true,
As the flashes blinded us in the photobooth.
Well, I lost track, and then those words were said.
You took the wheel and you steered us into my bed.
Soon we woke and I walked you home,
And it was pretty clear that it was hardly love.

And as the summer's ending,
The cool air will rush your hard heart away.
You were so condescending.
And this is all that's left:
Scraping paper to document.
I've packed a change of clothes and it's time to move on.

And as the summer's ending,
The cool air will rush your hard heart away.
You were so condescending,
As the alcohol drained the days.

And as the summer's ending,
The cool air will rush your hard heart away.
You were so condescending.
And this is all that's left:
The empty bottles, spent cigarettes.
So pack a change of clothes, 'cause it's time to move on.

"405"

I took the 405 and drilled a stake down into your center,
And stated that it's never ever been better than this.
I hung my favorite shirt on the floorboard, wrinkled up from pulling pushing tasting.

You keep twisting the truth that keeps me thrown askew.

Misguided by the 405 'cause it lead me to an alcoholic summer.
I missed the exit to your parents' house hours ago.
Red wine and the cigarettes... hide your bad habits underneath the patio.

You keep twisting the truth that keeps me thrown askew [x2]

"Lowell, Ma"

You've been forewarned of the shakedown.
Opinions stamped on the pulp of the tabloid newsstand gossip that's stacked at your door.
You swallowed the last of free MA.
Car starts, four windows lowered away... last views of cityscapes crumbling.
Skyscrapers sink into the ground.
All static, no noise... turn the radio down.
Those bandwidth signals can't reach this far.
Don't go holding out on me now (i thought that you had come to expect more...)

"For What Reason"

This won't be the last you'll hear from me... it's just the start.
I hope that he keeps you up for weeks like you did to me.
I will hold a candle up to you to singe your skin. brace yourself... i'm bent with bitterness.
When your apologies fail to ring true,
(you're) so slick with that sarcastic slew or phrases like 'i thought you knew', while keeping me in hot pursuit.
Tracing the plot finds skin touching skin (abscence follows).
In the end, i win every time as ink remains.
Sour tastes prevail as you play back the tape machine.

"The Employment Pages"

We spread out and occupy the cracks in the urban streets.
Idle now... I rearrange the furniture as you sleep.
It's so appropriate... the way we amplify the sound,
And then the neighbors drop by and they ask (us) to turn it down again...
We spread out and everyone is frightfully more aware.
So impressed... the cocktail politics and obscure details.
And it was true that I was truly failing.
But you were gone and I was home calling around but nothing was found worthwhile.

"Title Track"

Left uninspired by the crust of railroad earth that touched the lead to the pages of your manuscript.
I took my thumb off the concrete and saved up all my strength to hammer pillars for a picket fence.
It wasn't quiet what it seemed... a lack of pleasantries (my able body isn't what it used to be).
I must admit I was charmed by your advances... your advantage left me helplessly into you.
Talking how the group had begun to splinter and I could taste your lipstick on the filter...
I tried my best to keep my distance from your dress but call-response overturns conviction every time.
My memory cannot recall... a wave of alcohol we shared a cigarette and shaved the hours off.
Lushing with the hallway congregation, my best judgement signed its resignation.
I rushed this.
We moved too fast, and tripped into the guestroom.

"Scientist Studies"

What ghosts exist behind thses attic walls?
There's got to be a simpler explanation,
'cause i scrimped and i saved just to find that they've been splicing my inventions.
Cold skin and bones and this latitude... we ain't payin' until the heat comes through.
So you slept in a stocking cap and wool scarf.
Promises of payment were upon your shoulders constantly,
But don't forget to entertain 'cause this is your first defense.
A four-year offense to the devoted type.
I may have got an invitation but i wasn't invited.
But i thought that this meant something more than broken hearts and new addictions.
We'll leave our sins within the carpet twine.
Our bodies will dissolve the chemicals in due time.

"No Joy In Mudville"

Last night I dreamt that I was you. I was dressed all in black with dark glasses and attitude.
Such a pose I could simply not hold through days in a northern town that I had once called a home.
Your studies of fringe New York streets... I was reading the pavement in every work you would speak.
To a "brownstone up three flights of stairs" and it's on...
Buying drinks for the poets upstate, this southern corrupting towed you down the interstate,
And they all said that you were the king of gloomy disruption that surfaced when you would speak.
This town simply cannot compete so I'm packing my Bullets and Silverstones
And heading east to a "brownstone up three flights of stairs" and it's on...
If I could have (had) my way this year would bridge '66 (again?)
Trust fund hipsters were casing the room chock full of amphetamines.
The overturned kick drum book set the pace with incomparable cool.
And if the tempo was lousy it was lost on all but you...

"Company Calls Epilogue"

Synapse to synapse... the possibility's thin.
I'm dressed up for free drinks and family greetings on your wedding date.
The figures in plastic on the wedding cake that i took were so real.
And i kept a distance... the complications cloud the postcards and blips through fiberoptics,
As the girls with the pigtails were running from little boys wearing bowties their parent bought...
"i'll catch you this time!"
Crashing through the parlor doors, what was your first reaction?
Screaming, drunk, disorderly... i'll tell you mine.
You were the one but i can't spit it out when the date's been set.
The white routine to be ingested inaccurately.
Synapse to synapse...
The sneaky kids had attached beer cans to the bumper so they could drive up and down the main drag.
People would turn to see who's making the racket. it's not the first time.
When they lay down the fish will swim upstream and i'll contest but they won't listen when the casualty rate's near 100%,
And there isn't a pension for second best or for hardly moving...
Crashing through the parlor doors, what was your first reaction?
Screaming, drunk, disorderly... i'll tell you mine.
You were the one but i can't spit it out when the date's been set.
The white routine to be ingested inaccurately.

"Company Calls"

I'll take the best of your bad moods and dress them up to make a better you,
'cause all the company calls amount to one paycheck.
I'd squeeze a heart through my fingertip but i type too slow to make expressions stick.
And it's like TV with a microchip.
Set your sights to sink the partyline, 'cause it's so tired.
Set your sights! destroy this mock-shrine, 'cause it's so tired.
Let's cut our losses at both ends and aim your car away from all our friends,
Leaving the dishes stacked in the sink.
I'd keep a distance 'cause the complications cloud it all,
And mail a postcard sending grettings from the eastern bloc.
Synapse to synapse... possoibilities will thin or fade.
Your wedding figurines... i'd melt so i could drink them in.

"Little Fury Bugs"

You'll discover that casual friends kept notes in their pockets to remember your name.
And all these places we went to see sights just gave them excuses to get into the game.
There's a look in the faces tonight that's untrustable as the hope that you'll never return in a while.
But you're always on time, so...
Sleeping soundly... the back of the car felt more like a home than i would ever have thought.
And through the evening the engine kept on until we hit chicago and decided to stop.
There's a look in the faces tonight that's untrustable as the hope that you'll never return in a while.
But you're always on time so...

"I Was A Kaleidoscope"

I put on my overcoat and walked into winter - my teeth chattered rhythms
And they were grouped in twos or threes, like a morse code message was sent from me to me. cars on slippery slopes, they're stuck...
People pushing through their mittens as i was beginning to feel it soaking through my shoes, getting colder with every step i took to your apartment, dear.

And i was a kaleidoscope... the snow on my lenses distorting the image of what was only one of you and i didn't know which one to address as all your lips moved.

This is when i forget breathe all the things i scripted, they sound unfounded.
And the look that you're giving me, it tells me exactly what you are thinking...
"this ain't working anymore."

They got their mothers worked into a panic
Sledding down hills into oncoming traffic
The parents layered clothes until the children couldn't move then kept them outside til their noises were blue and I got left there, too.

I put on my overcoat and walked into winter, my teeth chattered rhythms.
And they were grouped in twos or threes like a morse code message was sent from me to me.

"Why You'd Want To Live Here"

I'm in Los Angeles today...
It smells like an airport runway.
Jet fuel stenches in the cabin
And lights flickering at random.

I'm in Los Angeles today...
Garbage cans comprise the medians of freeways always creaping
Even when the population's sleeping.

And I can't see why you'd want to live here.

I'm in Los Angeles today...
Asked a gas station employee if he ever had trouble breathing
And he said "It varies from season to season, kid."

It's where our best are on display...
Motion picture actors' houses
Maps are never ever current
So save your film and $15.

And I can't see why you'd want to live here.
Billboards reach past the tallest buildings,
"We are not perfect - but we sure try."
As UV rays "degraded" our youth with time.

The vessel keeps pumping us through this zentropic place
In the belly of the beast that is Californ-i-a,
I drank from a faucet and I kept my receipts
For when the weigh me on my way out
(Here nothing is free).
The greyhounds keep coming
Dumping locusts into the street
Until the gutters overflow
And Los Angeles thinks,
"I might explode someday soon."

It's a lovely summer's day
And I can almost see a skyline through a thickening shroud of egos.
(Is this the city of Angeles or demons?)
Here the names are what remain...
Stars encapsulate the gold lame
And they need constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating.

You can't swim in a town this shallow - you will most assuredly drown tomorrow.

"Information Travels Faster"

I intentionally wrote it out to be an illegible mess
You wanted me to write you letters, but i'd rather lose your address
And forget that we'd ever met and what did or did not occur.
Sitting in the station, it's all a blur
Of dancehall hips, pretentious quips.
A boxers, bob and weave.

And here's the kicker of this whole shebang
You're in debt and completely fooled, that you can look into the mirror and objectively rank your wounds.
Sewing circles are not solely based in trades of cloth...
There's spinsters all around here taking notes, reporting on us.

As information travels faster in the modern age, in the modern age
As our days are crawling by so slowly
Information travels faster in the modern age, in the modern age
As our days are crawling by so slowly

Information travels faster in the modern age, in the modern age
As our days are crawling by so slowly
Information travels faster in the modern age, in the modern age
As our days are crawling by so slowly

"Blacking Out The Friction"

I don't mind the weather
I've got scarves and caps and sweaters
I've got long johns under slacks for blustery days.

I think that it's brainless to assume that making changes to your window's view will give a new perspective.

And the hardest part is yet to come

I don't mind restrictions or if you're blacking out the friction
It's just an escape (it's overrated anyways)

The hardest part is yet to come
When you will cross the country alone.

"A Movie Script Ending"

Whenever i come back, the air on railroad is making the same sounds.
And the shop fronts on holly are dirty words (asterisks in for the vowels).
We peered through the windows... new bottoms on barstools but the people remain the same, with prices inflating.

As if saved from the gallows.
There's a bellow of buzzers and the people stop working and they're all so excited.

Passing through unconscious states.
When i awoke i was on the highway.

With your hand on my shoulders, a meaningless movement... a moviescript ending,
And the patrons are leaving, leaving.

Now we all know the words were true in the sappiest songs (yes, yes).
I'll put them to bed, but they won't sleep, they're just shuffling the sheets, they toss and turn,
(you can't begin to get it back).

Passing through unconscious states.
When i awoke i was on
The onset of a later stage... the headlights are beacons on the highway.

"We Laugh Indoors"

When we laugh indoors, the blissful tones bounce off the walls and fall to the ground.
Peel the hardwood back to let them loose from decades trapped and listen so still.
This city is my home, construction noise all day long and gutter punks are bumming change.
So i breed thicker skin and let me lustrous coat fill in and i'll never admit that
I loved you guenivere.

I've always fallen fast with too much trust in the promise that
"no one's ever been here, so you can quell those wet fears."
I want purity, i must have it here right now.
But don't you get me started now.

December's chill comes late, the days get darker and we wait for this direness to pass.
There are piles on the floor of artifacts from dresser drawers, and i'll help you pack.

"Steadier Footing"

It's gotten late and now i want to be alone
All of our friends were here, they all have gone home
And here i sit on the front porch watching the drunks stumble forth into the night
"you gave me a heart attack; i did not see you there. i thought you had disappeared so early away from here."
And this is the chance I never got to make a move.
But we just talk about the people we've met in the last 5 years.
And will remember them in ten more?
I let you bum a smoke, you quit this winter past.
I've tried twice before but like this, it just will not last.

"Stability"

Time for the final bout.
Rows of deserted houses..
All our stable mates are highway bound.
Give us our measly sum:
Getting the air inside my lungs is heavenly.
We're starting out with nothing but crippling doubt.

We'll rest easy (justified).
I've suffered a swift defeat.
I'll endure countless repeats.
The gift of memory is an awful curse,
with age it just gets much worse,
But I won't mind.

I won't mind..
I won't mind..
I won't mind..

"All Is Full Of Love"

You'll be given love
You'll be taken care of
You'll be given love
You have to trust it,

Maybe not from the sources
you have poured yours
maybe not from the directions
you are staring at,

Twist your head around
it's all around you
all is full of love
all around you,

All is full of love
you just aint receiving
all is full of love
your phone is off the hook
all is full of love
your doors are all shut
all is full of love!

All is full of love
All is full of love
All is full of love
All is full of love
All is full of love

"20th Century Towers"

We'll correct collegiate mistakes,
A shower of formal ideals,
Completely soused, The hearts on our sleeves,
As they drowned we could hear them screaming,
"Oh what a tragic way to see our final days."

I attempt to talk up the town:
"The answers are in the arches of the 20th Century Towers and in
comfortable cars in motion."

And yet it still remains, this incessant refrain:
"You're just like the rest. Your restlessness
makes you lazy."

Keeping busy is just wasting time and I've wasted what little he gave me.
(All Around) I know the conscious choice was crystal clear,
too clear the slate of former years:
When I sang softly in your ear and tied these arms around you.

"Debate Exposes Doubt"

The workadays were propping the bar quietly erasing the week and i was in a cornerbooth thinking
(pretending to read) about the impossiblity of one to love unconditionally and the words that we drive into the ground...
Their repetition starts to thin their meaning.

Then everything got frighteningly still as they entered and intersected the floor and i tried to choke my stare at the perfection that others would kill for.
But all of the parts are the same on every face (few variables change).
The differences pale when compared to the similarity they share

Finally there is clarity and there is purpose after all, but every night ends the same as i'm collapsing once more by your side.
Finally there is clarity... this tiny life is making sense. and every drop numbs the both of us, but i alone am staggering.

"Coney Island"

Sitting on a carousel ride without any music or light.
Everything was closed at coney island, and i could not help from smiling.

I can hear the atlantic echo back roller coaster screams from summers past.
And everything was closed at coney island, and i could not help from smiling.
Brooklyn will fill in the beach eventually and everyone will go except me.

"Styrofoam Plates"

There's a saltwater film
on the jar of your ashes
I threw them to sea
but a gust blew them backwards
and the sting in my eyes
which you then inflicted
was par for the course
just as when you were living

It's no stretch to say
you were not quite a father
but a donor of seeds
to a poor single mother
that would raise us alone
we never saw the money
that went down your throat
through the hole in your belly

Thirteen years old
in the suburbs of Denver
standing in line
for Thanksgiving dinner
at the Catholic church
the servers wore crosses
to shield from the sufferance
plaguing the others

Styrofoam plates, cafeteria tables
charity reeks of cheap wine and pity
and I'm thinking of you
I do every year

When we count all our blessings
And wonder what we're doing here.

You're a disgrace
to the concept of family
the priest won't divulge
that fact in his homily
and I'll stand up and scream
if the mourning remain quiet
you can deck out a lie
in a suit but I won't buy it
I won't join in the procession
that's speaking their peace
using five-dollar words
while praising his integrity
and just 'cause he's gone
it doesn't change the fact
he was a bastard in life
thus a bastard in death