Andrew Bird: Eyeoneye

Go ahead and congratulate yourself
Give yourself a hand,
A hand is yours
In the harden hours, and so
And here it heals itself, it's too much
And you're getting too close
You're getting too close
You're getting to close to your soul

You've done the impossible now
Took yourself apart
Made yourself invulnerable
No one can break your heart
So you break it yourself

Bringing your own, break it yourself
Bringing your own, break it yourself
Bringing your own, but break it yourself
Bringing your own, but break it yourself
Bringing your own,

Go ahead and re-eyeoneye yourself
Give yourself a hand,
A hand is yours
And you go ahead and bring it all
Go ahead and stretch it all
Go ahead and read inside

Dare to protest it makes this
Boy and girl, two eyes
Too rigid, all the sadness
A hundred stories high

And you re-eyeoneyeze
And it's eyeoneyeze-eyeoneyeze-eyeoneyeze
All this time it took to realize
That you could use some help

Bringing your heart, breaking the shell
Bringing your heart, breaking the shell
Bringing your heart, but break it yourself
Bringing your heart, but break it yourself

Give yourself a hand, a hand is yours
Go ahead and wear it out
And you go ahead and stretch it out
And you go ahead and wear it inside out
And it's eyeoneye-oneye-oneye
And it's eyeoneye-oneye-oneye

Andrew Bird: Near Death Experiment

You used to be like toffee,
Between the kitten's teeth -
You used to build arid shelters out of sticks and leaves and
spend the whole day underneath.

You used to be like copper -
Pliable but strong,
You used to smile and nod, say "you're right," be polite,
When you know that everybody's wrong.

So you dare the plane to crash,
redeem the miles for cash when it starts to dive
And we'll dance like cancer survivors -
like we're grateful simply to be alive.

Dare the plane to crash,
redeem the miles for cash
And we'll dance like cancer survivors -
like your prognosis was that you should've died.

No, there's nothing wrong; there's nothing wrong when it starts to down
And we'll dance like cancer survivors -
like we're grateful simply to be alive

No, there's nothing wrong; there's nothing wrong when it starts to down
And we'll dance like cancer survivors

Andrew Bird: The Water Jet Cilice

photo by bahar

i knew this one girl
drowned in her own curls
candy colored swirls
that never seemed to end

i could not comprehend
half what she said to me
so casually
all our tender ears would bend

tales of ritual self-torture
she's making you abort your
carefully laid plans
to make a final stand
rest the world to hand
scoreless victory for serendipity

Andrew Bird: Imitosis

He's keeping busy
Yeah, he's bleeding stones
With his machinations and his palindromes
It was anything but hear the voice
Anything but hear the voice
It was anything but hear the voice
That says that we're all basically alone

Poor Professor Pynchon had only good intentions
When he put his Bunsen burners all away
And turning to a playground in a Petri dish
Where single cells would swing their fists
At anything that looks like easy prey
In this nature show that rages every day
It was then he heard his intuition say

We were all basically alone
And despite what all his studies had shown
That what's mistaken for closeness
Is just a case of mitosis
And why do some show no mercy
While others are painfully shy?
Tell me doctor, can you quantify?
He just wants to know the reason why
The reason why

Why do they congregate in groups of four
Scatter like a billion spores
And let the wind just carry them away?
How can kids be so mean?
Our famous doctor tried to glean
As he went home at the end of the day
In this nature show that rages every day
It was then he heard his intuition say

We were all basically alone
Despite what all his studies had shown
That what's mistaken for closeness
Is just a case of mitosis
Sure fatal doses of malcontent through osmosis
And why do some show no mercy
While others are painfully shy?
Tell me doctor, can you quantify
The reason why?

Andrew Bird: The Trees Were Mistaken

this is a story about a boy and girl,
a girl and a boy, a boy.

[ ], only flighting.
that some boy in the dark [ ] joan of arc
inverted crystal mountain kind of a story.

this is a story.
man, about the [sheriffs in cyprus? something else.] translations of sanskrit.
just as my handwritten story.

this is a story where the singers begin to appear
in the spaces between all the dashes and braces
in the mothbitten story - of getting left behind.

this is a story, some kind of a story.

and with the pages distressed that you held to your chest,
they were mangled and dog-eared while the rest were just mangy and gory.

this is a story about the memory of water
translating the sound of the traffic.
remember the traffic?
it's making you carsick all along southfield freeway.

and translating mistakes and the trees and the stake
and the trees for the woods and the sound of the trash
for the sound of the blowing leaves along the southfield freeway.

my name is a blackbird, [the rest is a two-tone]
feathers are warm in molasses,
twisting the words from the silence to gases.
now i don't have worry [of nuclear]
it's so unclear.

and i'll get her out my dying home,
not simply tired of crying.

my name isn't blackbird, [the rest is a two-tone]
feathers are warm in molasses,
twisting the words from the silence to gases.
now i don't have worry [of nuclear]
it's so unclear.

am i dead or am i dying or am i simply tired of crying?

my name is a blackbird

Andrew Bird: Fiery Crash

Turnstiles on mezzanine
Jetways and Dramamine fiends
And x-ray machines
You were hurling through space
G-forces twisting your face
Breeding superstition
A fatal premonition
You know you got to envision
The fiery crash

Oh, close your eyes and you wake up
Face stuck to a vinyl settee
Oh, the line was starting to break up
Just as you were starting to say
Something apropos, I don't know

Beige tiles and magazines
Lou Dobbs and the CNN team
On every monitor screen
You were caught in the crossfire
Where every human face
Has you reaching for your mace
So it's kind of an imposition
A fatal premonition

To save our lives you've got to envision
To save all our lives you've got to envision
And to save all our lives you've got to envision
The fiery crash
It's just a formality
Why must I explain?
Just a nod to mortality
Before you get on

Before you get on a plane

Oh, close your eyes and you wake up
Face stuck to a vinyl settee
Oh, the line was starting to break up
What was that you were going to say?

Andrew Bird: Oh No

[Photo: MadeInBedRoom.Com]
----------------

(Whistling)

In the salsify mains of what was thought but unsaid
All the calcified arhythmitists were doing the math
It would take a calculated blow to the head
To light the eyes of all the harmless sociopaths
Oh arm and arm we are the harmless sociopaths (2x)
Calcium mines were buried deep in your chest (2x)

Ooh no we're deep in a mine
Ooh a calcium mine oooh
so let's get out of here
past the atmosphere
squint your eyes and no one dies or goes to jail
past the silver bridge, oh the silver bridge
wearing nothing but a one ? and a veil

Ooh oh deep in a mine,
Ooh oh a calcium mine "oh no"
Arm and arm we are the harmless sociopaths (2x)
In the calcium mines buried deep in your chest (2x)

Oooh oh deep in a mine
Oooh no calcium mines oh no

------------------------

So let's get out of here
past the atmosphere
squint your eyes and no one dies or goes to jail
past the silver bridge, oh the silver bridge
wearing nothing but a one ? and a veil
Oh no .. oh no ... oh no ... oh no

(Whistling)

Andrew Bird: Fake Palindromes

my dewy-eyed disney bride what has tried
swapping your blood with formaldehyde?

monsters?

whiskey-plied voices cried fratricide!
Jesus don't you know that you coulda died
with the monsters what talk
monsters what walk the earth

she's got red lipstick
and a bright pair of shoes
knee high socks
what to cover a bruise
she's got an old death kit
she's been meaning to use
blood in her eyes in her eyes for you
she's got blood in her eyes for you

certain fads, stripes and plaids singles ads
run you hot and cold like a rheostat I mean a thermostat
so you bite on a towel
hope it won't hurt too bad

she says I like long walks and sci-fi movies
you're six foot tall and east coast bred
some lonely night we can get together
and I'm gonna tie your wrists with leather
and drill a tiny hole into your head