Dear Landlord

Don't fuck with perfection, this really is a masterpiece
The brainchild of assholes with everything to lose
Hellbent on forcing the burden from religion
That demands if you're fucked, you'll stay fucked forever

Try to kill the sound of all your hopes and dreams
It's easy street inside the gears of their machines
Yeah, we do what we can to get by

Like holding back the urge to walk into traffic
And when the worker's rights start cutting into the profits, what's left?
Eleven hour days leave you just enough to forget them

It's just a choice between a gun and a bottle
Don't know which one you'll reach for when you punch out tomorrow
So now get busy dying or get busy forgetting
There's no way to win in a world that you never made

It's reliable failure we've all come to know
At the end of the day misery is all alone
The American dream is just saltpeter and shame
And now we're desperate grabbing a fistful of rain

Try to kill the sound of all your hopes and dreams
It's easy street inside the gears of their machines
Well, we do what we can
Yeah, just do what you can to get by

And stay right where they want you
There to hold onto
Things that will haunt you
Night after night after night

Stay right where they want you
You might believe that it's all true
Can you ignore what will haunt you
Every single night?

All our fears just to keep us down
There's nothing here on our side of town
Nothing's saved, it's been replaced
Now it's buried in the rubble of a world that we never made

All our fears to keep us down
There's nothing here on our side of town
Nothing's saved, it's been replaced
Now it's buried in the rubble of a world that we never made

Have you ever served food to tall, dark, handsome men in suits?
Trading business cards and trading well-practiced handshakes too
Call you buddy, call you friend, call them sir with a big grin
Begging for tips is still begging just the same

Have you ever stripped for money, perverts staring at your body?
Double-chins dripping with drool and their hard-ons poking through
Call you baby, call you friend, call them sir with a big grin
Begging for tips is still begging just the same

Have you ever played guitar on the street in some town afar?
Grubby hands on rusted strings or what's left of your last three
Give you pity, call you friend, call them sir with a big grin
Begging for tips is still begging just the same

Have you ever served food to tall, dark, handsome men in suits?
Trading business cards and trading well-practiced handshakes too
Call you buddy, call you friend, call them sir with a big grin
I swear I'll never feel this small again
Begging for tips is still begging just the same

Yeah, she's a doormat
So be sure to wipe your feet
Scrape off all the shit
You got into this week

Yeah, she's used to it
Two long years of it
Twenty more from everyone else
It's time for her to stand up for herself

She's used to it
Two long years of it
Twenty more from everyone else
It's time for her to stand up for herself

Stand up for herself
Stand up for herself
Stand up for herself
Stand up for herself

Stand up for herself
Stand up for herself
Stand up for herself
Stand up for herself

I got two dollars and fifty-one cents
Eighteen matches, a lighter, two pens
And a beat up copy of Cannery Row
Five hundred miles left to go

I got two dollars and fifty-one cents
Eighteen matches, a lighter, two pens
And a beat up copy of Cannery Row
Five hundred miles left to go

Everywhere I go, I'm looking down
Watching my old tennis shoes as they're wearing out
Walking off these homesick blues
I may be drunk and lost but I'm not confused

And I know where this train is slowly going
North through K-Falls, then on to Portland
I know I'm fucked up, it's stupid hoping
You'll answer phone calls, goodbye to Oakland

Left me all but dead there
Headed out back east
Woke up on the porch where
The night before we drank ourselves to sleep

Stuck between a drunken daydream
And real eviction threats
I thought that you might love me
Fuck the landlord, fuck the rent

Alright, high fives for low lives
Drinking lonely heartsick drinks tonight
Some days, some nights just slip by
Sometimes I'm wishing that this world would die

Show me the sunny side of regret, tell me the one about sure thing bets
Paid in full without the consequences
I know why you have to believe in lies, I know tonight when I close my eyes
When the room spins, when the brain stops, there's a chance I can let this go for now

Try to keep four walls from doing their worst
I know damn well that this is not the first
Or the last of drinking with the lights out
Wondering where you went

Should've known it'd be more of the same shit luck
Got enough losing hands to keep myself fucked
'Till it rains down dollars in the ghetto
I'll hold my breath 'till then

Alright, high fives for low lives
Drinking lonely heartsick drinks tonight
Some days, some nights just slip by
Sometimes I'm wishing that this world would die

Sometimes I'm wishing that this world would die
These nights just slip by
Sometimes I'm wishing that this world would die
These nights just slip by

Sometimes I'm wishing that this world would die
These nights just slip by
Sometimes I'm wishing that this world would die

I live in hell, I live in the basement
I live in a garage with no windows, my life is wasted
I live in hell with the drunken Christians
They're away from their parents for the first time, they can't take it

What does your dream home look like?
What does your dream home look like?
It'll take you years to even tell
And I'll be sleeping well here in hell

I live in a house with three rooms
And three fighting couples
I live in the trailer park
With the labs and the scum and the trouble, the trouble

What does your dream home look like?
What does your dream home look like?
It'll take you years to even tell
And I'll be sleeping well here in hell

It's a long walk home when you feel dead on your feet
And it's hard to hold your head up on nights like these
You can feel the warehouse hours breaking you slowly
Your letter said it's only a fifteen hour drive

Is there room in Toronto for one more?
Can I lay low on the west shore of Lake Ontario?

Hard times going around, they're getting harder still
And you can hear the laughter from the mansion on the hill
And the time clock's marking the minutes and it sounds like gunshots
The only plan that I got is leaving everything behind

Is there room in Toronto for one more?
Can I lay low on the west shore of Lake Ontario?
I'm not paying what I owe
I'm headed north through Ohio to Lake Ontario

O' Lake Ontario

Leaving trains, I watch them roll away
The southern night, cold as hell, it's a ghost town at three am
A fifth away, it calms these landlocked shakes
Awake until the sun comes up again

It's always the same, I got this nervous way
It keeps my thoughts somewhere else, keeps me lost inside my head
An awful place, some things you can't escape
I'll walk these empty streets alone tonight

Looking for something to remind myself
Here with the stray dogs and the third shift help
I know that I'm slurring these small words
I'm the only one who heard

Maybe tomorrow, might be tomorrow
Everything won't seem so terrible and desperate
Wait 'till tomorrow, wake up tomorrow
You won't be miserable and looking for an exit

Wake up tomorrow

There won't be shadows hanging overhead all day
And every stranger won't be a plotting enemy
Your luck's got to change, it can't stay the same
Each passing day, I wonder how much bullshit we can take

Before we all end up screaming
Just gotta make it through tonight

Maybe tomorrow, might be tomorrow
Everything won't seem so terrible and desperate
Wait 'till tomorrow, wake up tomorrow
You won't be miserable and looking for an exit

Last call, last chance to get away before you start sinking in
Can't stay this way, I'd say today seems like a good day for calling in
I'm damn sick of this bullshit, it's got to fucking quit
I can't drag myself through another day

Last time I checked, no miracle had gotten me out of this
Still broke, still stuck, still motherfucking fucked and working just to exist
It's a sick joke, it's a dead end, I'm dreaming of a lifetime weekend
Walking out and never coming back

I'm getting out while I still have some hope for a better day
I'm getting out, I just can't go on living this way
They beat you down to nothing
And you could say that I'm

Losing my mind, selling my time for next to goddamn nothing
Watching the days passing away and turning into something
That I don't want to be, I can't live like this
It's such a nightmare, but I probably will

Last call, last chance to get away before you start sinking in
Can't stay this way, I'd say today seems like a good day for calling in
I'm damn sick of this bullshit, it's got to fucking quit
I can't drag myself through another day

I'm getting out
I'm getting out of here
I'm getting out

Been here for so long, now I'm falling down
Oh, you never called
Waited all night long, you're still not around
This isn't working at all

Drinking my money away, that didn't take up much time
Time's all I've got right now, time is not on my side
Was it ever at all?
I don't want to fall

Hung up for so long, now I'm crashing down
I've just been waiting this out for so long
We hoped for the best, now we're finding out
We really had nothing at all

Now I'm wondering why I was chasing this feeling that I wasn't feeling at all
And I don't know how I got so tired and stupid, I don't know how I let this go
So I am done waiting and waiting and waiting, awaiting your call
Please don't call, please don't call

Fucked up for so long, I got myself to blame

You were swaying on your feet
Trying to light a smoke
Waiting on a bus
You've got nowhere to go

You were sleeping in the park
In a dirty sweatpants suit
The cops woke you up
Now you gotta move

Walking around wearing a motorcycle helmet
Up and down the same streets you walked yesterday
Wild Irish rose can make a mean world almost decent
It's an illusion handcuffs quickly take away

There ain't enough room in this city for a guy who
Wants to drink himself to sleep under the stars
There will always be some shit bag to remind you
Right where you are, right where you are

She talks loud as hell, drinks like she might as well
Smokes my cigarette just like it's her last
All kinds of out of key, she sings a lot like me
And it echoes back under the overpass downtown

She likes to watch the sun come up but looks like she don't care if it ever does
Says it almost always looks the same
Screwing up her face, she laughs like her left eye ain't still black or anything
I think that's why I like her anyway

One more night to kill, days that leave us still
Waiting on little more, pocket change and liquor stores
She shakes like anyone, strung out, she's almost done
Hoping for something else less like this living

All I got is what you see, a beat up face and a world full of enemies
Tying off her arm, she jokes, I'd trade this all for one more hit of dope
It's easy when you're high as this and drunk as shit to make it another day
I think that's why I'm still here anyway

One more night to kill, days that leave us still
Waiting on little more, pocket change and liquor stores
She shakes like anyone, strung out, she's almost done
Hoping for something else less like this living hell

It sure gets fucking lonely living
Like the only way to go is out
It sure gets fucking lonely living
Like the only way to go is out

Not tonight, don't make that awful sound
It's dragging me farther down
Taking out all the fight, holding me to the ground
Making my enemies proud, and what gives you the right?

We're not that hopeless, we're not as fucked as you think
In short lived moments we can do anything
The fucking joke is we're winning when you blink
In short lived moments lousy with victory

We're both sort of right, I don't have much to show
I'll die penniless, alone
I'll do what I like and you'll do what you know
Never hungry, broke or cold, it's the weight of things I suppose

It's really just the passing of these days that's gonna leave us all set in our ways
We don't have to take that lying down
And I'd be lying if I didn't say that it's been getting harder to relate
And keep myself from drowning in the crowd

And I still believe that we're not that hopeless, we're not as fucked as you think
In short lived moments we can do anything
The fucking joke is we're winning when you blink
In short lived moments lousy with victory

We're not that hopeless, we're not as fucked as you think
In short lived moments we can do anything
The fucking joke is we're winning when you blink
In short lived moments lousy with victory

Lousy with victory
Lousy with victory

The world is dying but I'm not crying
I won't think about it, won't think about it again
I'm all alone now, nobody here now
This solitude is ringing through my head

Can't even come close to getting the guts tonight
To face this one alone when I think about last night
Blacked out drunk, still feeling lonely, it's all kind of blurry
Fucked up and tense like this town

The world is dying but I'm not crying
I won't think about it, won't think about it again
Time slows to stalling, feels like I'm falling
This solitude's ringing through my head

Can't even come close to getting the guts tonight
To face this one alone when I think about last night
Blacked out drunk, still feeling lonely, it's all kind of blurry
Fucked up and tense like this town

Well, I can't hear it, I can't hear it, I can't hear it, I can't hear it
The silence drowned out by Wilson Pickett
I can't hear it, I can't hear it, I can't hear it, I can't hear it
The silence drowned out by, "HE'S A SHITHEAD!"

Can't even come close to getting the guts tonight
To face this one alone when I think about last night
Blacked out drunk, still feeling lonely, it's all kind of blurry
Fucked up and tense like this town

Contemplate my sanity to "Soul Dance Number Three"
By "Build for Speed" I start to feel okay
Think I'll pull myself away, have another drink today
It's whiskey and records again

Yeah, whiskey and records again
Yeah, whiskey and records again
Yeah, whiskey and records again, again