THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS – Affection

I always wonder where you are
I’m right beside you, you’re so far away
Moments you’re not facing me
Moments you’re not chasing me
I don’t believe in good good-byes
Cause even when the roses die
There’s still some thorns left in your side
It’s like a funeral for the bride
And I know candy girls, yeah they just wrapped your tears
I’ve always been such a sucker for sweets

I need affection
All I want right now is affection
I don’t mean to point your direction
Girl it’s not what you do
What you don’t do makes me talk to you about affection
I need affection

Somewhere along is when I died
On the banks of some canal
Yeah the river bed of tears I tried to ride
Even fools will believe in lies
And if every word you said were true
You’d be my god and I’d just pray to you for affection

All I want right now is affection
I don’t mean to make a confession
Girl it’s not what you do
What you don’t do makes a man come unglued
Affection, I need affection

Why won’t you dance with me
(Covered in gas you couldn’t catch fire)
There’s no more romance with me
(I know there’s someone else burning in your eyes)
You don’t think I see you
But I see right through you

Affection
All I want, someone’s affection
All I need to, was affection
What ya do (what ya do)
What ya do (what ya do)
Where’d ya go
Affection
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And don’t think I see you
I see right through you
You don’t think I see you
But I do

THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS – 11:11 PM

All the windows,
Swear to miss you,
And the doors are cell block tight,
Sweet sedation,
Sweep the issues,
And the clocks about to strike
Did it call you down,
Are you back just yet,
Waiting now please come set me free,
And the only sound is a minute left.

This could be, this could be the last time

It’s a chance to fix mistakes,
One more for the last time,
Don’t you throw our dreams away,
Don’t waste this chance with your smile
10 seconds left on this dial,
This could be the last time.

Along the staircase,
I dream to hear you,
In a whisper quiet room,
Space for thinking,
Space to scream to,
But the echoes sound like you,
Not the stars at night,
In a pitch black sky,
I don’t know just wants to see you
But the time is right and it only flies

This could be, this could be the last time

It’s a chance to fix mistakes,
One more for the last time,
Don’t you throw our dreams away,
Don’t waste this chance with your smile
10 seconds left on this dial,
This could be the last time.

It’s only us,
It’s only now,
A simple wish,
It’s only tonight.

This could be the last time,
Now I’ve made our last mistake
One more for the last time,
And you throw our dreams away, (This could be, this could be)
Don’t waste this chance with your smile (This could be, this could be)
10 seconds left on this dial, (This could be, this could be)
This could be the last time. (This could be, this could be)
It’s only us,
It’s only now,
It’s only tonight.

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Wishing Well

Standing on a bus stop
Feeling your head pop
Out in the night
In the kind of night
Where you want to be out
On the street, on the street
Crawling up the walls
Like a cat in heat

And the air is thin
And it blows through your skin
And you feel like something
Is about to begin
But you don’t know what
And you don’t know when
So you tear at your hair
And you scratch at your skin

You wanna run away, run away
Just get on the fucking train and leave today
And it doesn’t matter where you spend the night
You just might end up somewhere in a fight, in a fight
Or calling your room on a concrete shelf
Fighting all alone, with yourself, with yourself
And you just wanna feel like a coin that’s been tossed
In a wishing well, a wishing well
A wishing well, a wishing well
Well you’re tossed in the air
And you fell and you fell
Through the dark blue waters
Where you cast your spell
Like you were just a wish that could turn out well

So you stand on the corner
Where the angels sit
And you think to yourself,
“This is it, this is it
This is all that I have
All I can stand
Is this air in my lungs
And this coin in my hand.”
That you tossed in the air
And I fell, and I fell
All the way to the bottom
Of the well, of the well
Like those soft little secrets
That you tell, that you tell
To yourself when you think
No one’s listening too well

And the walls spin
And you’re paper-thin
From the haze of the smoke
And the mescaline
The threat of your brow
Under unmade sheets
In your ear with the noise
From the darkest streets
We ran far and wide
You screamed, you cried
You thought suicide was an alibi
But you were always a mess
You were always aloof
Yeah, it’s awful, I guess
But it’s the awful truth
It was truth from the first
To the last words that she read

And she emerged from the dark
Like a ghost in my head
She said, “I haven’t forgot
Any words that you said
I just stare at the clocks
And I cry in my sleep
And I tear up your letters
And I burn them in heaps
And I gather the ashes
In that hole in the ground
Where we fell”

THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS – Dance Inside

You don’t have to move, you don’t have to speak
lips for biting.
You’re staring me down, a glance makes me weak
eyes for striking
Now I’m twisting up when I’m twisted with you
brush so lightly
and time trickles down, and I’m breathing for two
squeeze so tightly.

I’ll be fine, you’ll be fine.
this moment seems so long
Don’t waste now, precious time
we’ll dance inside the song

[Chorus]
What makes the one to shake you down?
Each touch belongs to each new sound
Say now you want to shake me too
Move down to me, slip into you

She sinks in my mind as she sheds through her skin
touch sight tastes like fire
hands do now what eyes no longer defend
hands to fuel desire

I’ll be fine, you’ll be fine
this moment seems so long
Don’t waste now, precious time
we’ll dance inside the song

[Chorus]

Ooo, ah [x8]

And I’ll be fine, you’ll be fine
Is this fine? I’m not fine
Give me pieces, give me things to stay awake (stay awake)

[Chorus x2]

Move down to me, slip into you

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Tokyo Radio

Well the radio waves, that crowd, the sky,
The buildings, trees, and the power lines.
I’m ten thousand miles away,
From home.

And the DJ shakes me in my seat,
I’m sorry I haven’t slept in weeks,
It’s a waking dream at best,
I could use a little less.

So I finish the song, and the DJ sings,
And I stare at the ground, and I tune my strings,
We got three days to the show,
I got nowhere else to go.

All the bowing and waving, so goddamn polite,
I was thinking of jumping from my window last night,
I got one more year to live,
I got nothing left to give.

Hello from Tokyo [x5]

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – This Losing

Standing at your doorway
With my stomach all tangled n tight
Have it your way
Oh God, where are you tonight??
Cuz I don’t know what I’m doing here
Or where to begin
So take a deep breath
But darling, don’t let me in

A thousand times we’ve said,
“I’m sorry it’s over again”
I can’t live like this
Or feel like this in my own skin
It all seems so degrading
And the mourning such sin
Face just like a child’s
Oh darling, don’t let me in

And we laughed just like children
In waiting, in sheets on your bed
Why we secretly pray
Like we’re mourning the dead
And you tell me you’re so weary
I know
Cuz I’m weary too
But hold back a tear
But darling, what a way to do

[Instrumental to outro]

And the wine, and the rain
And the feel of your skin
Against mine
I’m swimming, I’m flying, I’m dying
This face n this fear
Stay with me, Oh stay with me my dear

This hand
This glow
It’s only thing that I love

There’s losing
There’s losing
There’s losing
There’s losing
There’s losing
There’s losing love

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – This Is Nowhere

We all sit on the curb
And we stare at the rain in our boots
The car, the clouds, the sky
While Ishmael wraps himself in the sheet again
He’ll clench the fists and close his eyes
I don’t know how many times I can loan him my cigarettes
When I don’t even know if he’s alive
Do prophets lie?
It makes me feel less horrified

And my closet’s filled with
All these endless accouterments
These shoes, these scars, these shirts, these ties
And these things I say to make myself feel good again
I’ll speak, I’ll write, I’ll laugh, I’ll lie
I can’t bear to sit here and drink myself sick again
Another night
When everything I know was just a lie
And I don’t even know where I’ll sleep tonight

I got nothing to do but stare at these walls
And take some time to screw my head on right
We all ended up alone, wasted here at Silver Lake
We’ll work, we’ll feed, we’ll change, we’ll try
I can’t make any sense of this or you or anything
I’m wide awake, and all our parents lied
It’s not alright, and all our words collide
Awake all night

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – The Winning Side

Well I made some mistakes
At least privately it takes
And here’s another one
And I said “it would be okay”
“But that’s a lie, man”
I mean..
“Hey, we’re all dying.. young!!”
Now it’s all reality.. but it’s more like a terrifying dream
And I’m serious!!
It’s either whiskey, or a bong, or a car crash, or a bomb
I’m serious!!
It’s the only thing I think
When I wake up in my bed
With my stomach churns, as these pages turn
Is the world burnin’
Or is it only.. in my head??

On a screen on a tv
On a scene in front of me
With all the white woods n the static
And the static n the screams
This is war, this is death, this is really very bad
On the winning side, the winning side,
The winning side, the winning side

And I’m sick of the train
Over Brooklyn in the rain
All by myself
When it finally occurs to me..
That all these people wanna be
Just some where.. else
Like every day is just the last bit
To argue with your boss over a coffee break
Well it seems to me, I mean, want more dignity
Or I’m going to.. break
Because the only thing I think
When he walks out on the street
He says, the sky falls
And you’re duty calls man,
It takes some balls to be
So I’ll see..

On a screen on a tv
On a scene in front of me
With all the white woods n the static
And the static n the screams
This is war, this in death. this is really very bad
On the winning side, the winning side
The winning side, the winning side
The right side, the right side
Oh the shit you watch
When your parents cry
And it all falls away so quietly
When you wake up to reality..

A Reality??
What’s reality?? What’s reality?? What’s reality??
YOU DON’T FUCKING BREAK!!

Well I got a brother in Iraq
I got no way to get him back
Like all those people in the sands,
Buried in Afghanastan
I got a child in a crib
I got a father in a bed
I got no pills
I got no skittles
I know I do what I did
I just wonder every second
As they wheel the bastards by
Are we living??
Are we dreaming??
Are we winning??
Were we dying..
In a cloud of dust
In a mushroom burst
In a series of deaths
As the agents burst??
Or all alone in a hospital bed??
Wondering what we might of done instead??

With a lifetime..
A lifetime, a lifetime, a lifetime
A lifetime, a lifetime, a lifetime
A lifetime, a lifetime, a lifetime
With a good attitude..
Yeah, we did our job
But can you tell me,
Exactly what was our job??
Well I’m still stuck
With this body of mine
Well were you inside,
when a militant died??
I hope you choke..
I.. Own.. Your Life!!

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – The Kids Are Ready To Die

All these inanimate places feel like they’re changing.
The kids all lined up on the wall like they’re ready to die.
These arms are sending, it’s like they just rearrange them.
We were caged up like animals and questioned and ready to cry!

‘Cause I was just 13 when I got my first taste of danger.
I was standing by the church, I had a bottle and a pen in my hand.
Oh I said “father, I’m sorry, I just don’t know what to do with this anger.
This behavior is collectible, I know this wasn’t part of your plan.”

But little fucks like us, we were always receiving instruction.
You could burn off clothes, you could wash out the ink and the dye
But you can’t look me in the eye and say you don’t feel like a little destruction.
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they’re ready to die.
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they’re ready to die.

All these days just seem like they’re getting longer.
The view from our room is a gloomy and overcast grey.
The weakness we left behind seems to be getting stronger.
I swear there’s something in the air, and I don’t know what anyone could say.

‘Cause I saw the news this morning, there was another
Boy by the side of the road, he had a gun in his hand.
I thought “What could you say to make it ever make sense to his mother?
‘Oh ma’am, he was excitable, we were just trying to make him a man.’”

But the day will come when it falls like a cheap house of plastic.
And the cards we were dealt, tossed like a storm in the sky.
‘Cause you can only lie for so long before you get something drastic
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they’re ready to die.
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they’re ready to die.

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – The Graveyard Near The House

The other day when we were walking by the graveyard near the house you asked me if I thought
Would ever die. And if life and love both fade so predictably, we’ve made ourselves a kind of predictable lie.
So I pictured us like corpses lying side by side in pieces in some dark and lonely plot under a bough. We looked so silly
There all decomposed, half turned to dust in tattered clothes, though we probably look just as silly now.

Bye, bye, bye, all this dog-eared innocence. I can’t pretend that I can tell you what is going to happen next or how to be.
But you have no idea about me. Do you?

It left me to wonder if people ever know each other or just stumble around like strangers in the dark. Because sometimes
You seem so strange to me, I must seem strange to you. We’re like two actors playing two parts. Did you memorize your lines? ‘Cause
I did. Here’s the part where I get so mad. I tell you that I can’t forget the past. You get so quiet now
And you seem somehow like a lost and lonely child and you just hope that the moment won’t last.

Bye, bye, bye all this dogged innocence. I can’t pretend that I can tell you what is going to happen next or how to be.
But you have no idea about me. Do you?

Still, there’s always a way around. There’s something tying our feet to the ground.
A moment passed, we hear how it sounds. And it seems a little less profound, like we’re all
Going the same way down.

I’m just trying to write it all down.

I write songs, and you write letters. We are tied like two in tethers, and we talk and read and laugh and sleep at night in
Bed together. And you wake in tears sometimes, I can see the thoughts flash across your eyes.
They say, “Darling will you be kind? Will you be a good man and stay behind if I get old?”

Then the letters all flash through my head, with the words that I was told about the fading flesh of life and love,
The failures of the bold. I can list each crippling fear like I’m reading from a will.

And I’ll defy every one and love you still. I will carry you with me up every hill. And if you die before I die,
I’ll carve your name out of the sky. I’ll fall asleep with your memory and dream of where you lie.

It may be better to move on and to let life just carry on and I may be wrong. Still I’ll try.

Because it’s better to love whether you win or lose or die. It’s better to love and I will love you until I die.

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – The Girls In Their Summer Dresses

It’s so quiet on this wind swept day
The city’s lights
And the golden rays
Of sunlight on a subway’a tracks
Are you mad again??
If you like
I’ll take it back
They’re just your feelings
I wasn’t looking at her hands
Oh, do you mean it??

It’s so lonesome
In “this happens” stance
If you asked me?
Yes, I’d like to dance
Just show me a glove-covered hand
A perfumed dress is more than I can stand..
And you approach me with your hollow hearted hand
And you tell me:
“It’s uncivilized
It’s unfair to me
The blues, the grays, the olive greens”
I’ll take you far away from me

The girls in their summer dresses see
Though you don’t notice
They all look back at me
Is this on purpose??

Oh no, no, no..
Oh no, no, no..
Oh no, no, no..

May offer to you..
This, my olive branch??
It’s not as though they’re always so keen
And we’re both just the victims of circumstance
Do you understand,
Do you know what I mean??

Oh no, no, no..
Oh no, no, no..
Oh no, no, no..
Oh no, no, no..

I’m a husband first
I’m a childless curse
I’m a faithful man
With a face that’s blessed
I’ll stay with you
Oh please don’t sigh
I try to explain
But you would cry, and cry, and cry
And you hate me
When I asked the reason why
You’ll trade me a dollar for some sense?
But don’t blame me
I was only making sense
Oh I’m so sorry
I was only making sense

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Strange Girl

It was an old song from,
“Kiss me, Kiss me, Kiss me” that she sang
It was an old line
I kept it with me, with me, with me when she rang

You’re such a strange girl
You’re such a strange, strange girl
You’re such a strange girl

It’s all been erased
Everyone is telling me
It’s slightly deranged
Everyone is telling me

We traded blindness for wisdom
And some lines around our eyes
But you just act like it was a fact of life
It didn’t come as a surprise

You’re such a strange girl
You’re such a strange, strange girl
You’re such a strange girl

And no you can’t ever go home
Everything has changed and people are gone
Some close your eyes
You try to summon a song
And you feel your life falling under you like a slide,
Like a slide

It was an old song
I once knew every note and every line
It was a long night
When I carried you and you carried me for a time

You’re such a strange girl
You’re such a strange, strange girl
You’re such a strange girl

It’s all been erased,
Everyone is telling me
It’s slightly deranged,
Everyone is telling me

I dreamt of your face
And what the song was telling me
Time has made it all obscene
And trapped us in our dreams

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Sometime Around Midnight

And it starts
Sometime around midnight
Or at least that’s when you lose yourself
For a minute or two

As you stand
Under the bar lights
And the band plays some song about forgetting yourself for a while
And the piano’s this melancholy soundtrack to her smile
And that white dress she’s wearing, you haven’t seen her
For a while

But you know
That she’s watching
She’s laughing, she’s turning
She’s holding her tonic like a cross
The room suddenly spinning, she walks up and asks how you are
So you can smell her perfume
You can see her lying naked in your arms

And so there’s a change
In your emotions
And all of these memories come rushing like feral waves to your mind
Of the curl of your bodies, like two perfect circles entwined
And you feel hopeless, and homeless, and lost in the haze of the wine

And she leaves
With someone you don’t know
But she makes sure you saw her, she looks right at you and bolts
As she walks out the door
Your blood boiling, your stomach in ropes
And then your friends say “What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

And you walk
Under the streetlights
And you’re too drunk to notice that everyone’s staring at you
You don’t care what you look like
The world is falling around you

You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her

You know that she’ll break you in two

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Something New

What’s passed these hands?
All these drugs and one night stands
So I tremble when I think of what she’d do
She’d say something like, “You’re no good,
You’re like the junkies in this neighborhood”
We all need a fix, I guess I need one too
But I’m trying madly to calm these nerves with something new

I got this heavy debt, I’ve got nothing left
But this daunting weight slung ’round my neck
You got the callous mouth, all your endless doubts
We spent this fifteen weeks, trying to work it out
Do you think we’re getting to something new?

Oh God, not another fight
I’m always trying to get the details right
I remember when you told me you felt saved
When you promised you’d lay flowers on my grave
Just like they used to do
Is it something new?

And now here I stand with these blood soaked hands
On this sleepless night, that never ends
And these songs I sing
With these hopes that I cling to
Desperately wondering
Are we finally getting to something new?

Is it something new?
Are we finally to something new?

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Parson Redheads

Sometimes the people that you meet in your life can seem
Just like characters that populate some quiet childhood dream.
It’s so easy to get caught up in just one poetic line,
While the Parsons have their cross to bare,
I know I’ve got mine.

And it’s a quiet night in Silver Lake, all the people crowd this scene.
Well they look so much like cardboard cut-outs placed upon a screen,
And I feel this sinking feeling as Missy grabs my hand,
And we lose ourselves in the harmonies, the white-robed beauty of this band.

(Aaaahh Ooooohhh…)

And the singers all cry as she whispers in my ear,
and I stare down at the ground, holding tightly to my beer,
Do you feel the strain between us, yeah I know I feel it too,
And I wish I believed in anything as much as the Parson Redheads do.
I wish I believed in anything as much as the Parson Redheads do.

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Papillon

All dressed up, no place to run
No car, no girl, no pills, no fun
Nothing to do in this empty room
I gotta get my head together soon

Alone again, no plans, no friends
You call me up at half past ten
You say “How are you holding up my friend?
Are you sitting around getting drunk again?”

And I hear the desperation of those lines
Wasted hours, all this wasted time
Oh yeah, I been just fine!

Then you’re at my door in an hour more
I stumble down from the second floor
And we’re swaying and braying
We don’t know what we’re saying

And you grab my shirt, you’re way so curt
I swear to God that this doesn’t hurt
When you stare like that, you put on that act
You say something and then you take it back

And I feel as though I’ve done something wrong
Oh, how I miss you and your gun

And I wish I had the guts to scream,
“You know, things aren’t always what they seem”
When you walk away, I want you to stay
Don’t leave me here to pace and pray

All these nights I burnt, the hours I turned
You think that by now I learned
That you’re only what you pretend to be
I guess that was just lost on me

I can’t stand the way you look at me in that dress
Oh, happy, I will be alright I guess
If I wasn’t such a mess

I’m such a mess

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Numb

I’ve been in a daze
It seems like days that I’ve been waiting
For this dream to pass
It goes so fast
It seems nothing lasts
I think I’ve lost something

Stuck here with these people
While you wake I crush our bodies in one space
I feel your heart blood from my tongue
I wonder where you’ve gone

And the ever turning spinning wheel of people, places
Lies I feel
The restless beat of the sleepless night to come
I just want to be numb
I just want to be numb

Hopeless these three years like smoking years
I go from place to place
Just endlessly and half asleep
Like I’m falling alone at some endless breach

I don’t know where I am
I don’t know what I’ve done
I just go over it again and again and again
I can’t sleep at night
I cant breathe
But If I drink tonight I’ll get you off my mind

And the ever present pit I feel
I’m turning on some spinning wheel
Of faces and the scenes I see
And none of it seems real to me
Just the bleary haze of the morning still to come

I just want to be numb [x5]

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Neda

I held my head in my hands, and I trembled.
The cries from the crowd and the girl in the camera.
I said, in a prayer, a kind of surrender I wished her peace, wondered what she rendered.

Neda, you made a place for the innocents, a prayer for the dissidents.
Afraid I gave up; I never thought the world could be so small.

And the loss of your innocence wasn’t enough, I guess.
The cost of what you’re holding in wasn’t everything.
All the leaders say, “they’ll forget someday,”
but what you’d live to see would take their breath away.

These ragged smoldering lines and these embers,
the cries in the night to say they remember the face of a girl,
who faithful and tender, wanted only peace and not to surrender.

Neda, your mother can’t cry for your memory or mourn for the tragedy.
They tore your grave up.
I never thought the world could be so small.

And the loss of your innocence wasn’t enough, I guess.
The cost of what you’re holding in wasn’t everything.
All the leaders say, “they’ll forget someday,”
but what you’d live to see would take their breath away.

And the flowers on your grave. ??
And the things you gave away were another kind that day.
And the flowers on your grave.

And the loss of your innocence wasn’t enough, I guess.
The cost of what you’re holding in wasn’t everything.
But all the people say, “we won’t forget the day, and what you lived to see takes our breath away.”

Neda, you made a place for the innocents, a place for the dissidents.
We nearly gave up.
I never thought the world could be so small.

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Welcome To Your Wedding Day

Well It’s another fine day of the nation built
Well let’s have a parade
You can dance on the graves and the bones of the children
If you know what to say
And you know its begun from the beat of the drum
And the screams from the mouths of babes
And we pray as we’re watching the charade
Welcome to your wedding day

And it’s a damn good day
For the heart and the mind
And the party’s happening in here
If you’ll advert your gaze form the word on the sign
Let me whisper it in your ear
Cause the sign says run [x5]

And you know its begun from the crack of the guns
And the screams from the mouths of babes
And we pray as we’re watching the charade
Welcome to your wedding day
Welcome to your wedding…

And we want peace
Yea we want peace
And we don’t negotiate with terror
We don’t negotiate with terror [x6]
We only make or break
And we know its begun from the crack of the guns
And the screams from the mouths of babes
And we pray as we’re watching the charade
Welcome to your wedding day
Welcome to your wedding–

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT – Innocence

Well, I lost my innocence today
I could feel her in my bones
My bones, my bones, my bones
My blood, my blood, my blood, my blood

And I woke up, tired, scared, and sad
Soaked, drained, I felt so bad
Today, today, today
What you still, you still, you still, you still
Won’t you say, you say, you say, you say
What you feel, you feel, you feel, you feel
Which is nothing but hollow feelings, yeah
I am done, I just don’t care

And forget happiness, I’m fine
I’ll forget everything in time
I swear I didn’t know,
You know me, how I can’t let go
And we’re not gods, we’re just hacks
All that life amongst the cracks
The scars, the siege that breaks
The ugliest scene, the worst mistakes
And everywhere I see her face
Such a beautiful child, such an awful waste
And there’s no innocence like hers
Just emptiness and nerves

And this light from the window of my car
She’ll never see it
Oh my God
I was so surprised, it blew up in my face
Lord, I lost my nerve, oh my God
Oh my God
Oh my
God

And I tear, I tear, so hard
And I tear, I tear, so hard
And I beg and scream, “I was wrong”
It’s over, she’s gone