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I Spied a Spider
Hotter Heads Prevail

The Revenge of Two-Gun Pete (2013)

The Ballad of Herman P. Willis
There is a car
A Goddamned Cadillac
There's an angry spirit
Still riding in the back
He's watching me
Everywhere I go
He heard me thinking
He heard that lonesome whistle blow

One and two and three generations four
A curse upon your bloodline for a century and more
The sun will never shine on your garden of stone
You invite your neighbors in but you're left there all alone

Sick little boy, burned-down shack
And his daddy ran away
We called him Two-Gun Pete from our big porch
And laughed at his angry face
And he never forgot it
He sings it every goddamned night
"You'll never get out of this world alive"

I just ain't lucky
I was born at a bad time
With bones and tissue
I'm paying for the crimes
I just want to leave it
Plant something that holds up in the wind
Here comes that Cadillac, he's honking the horn, he says
"You lose again"


The Devil Can't Hurt You if You Don't Believe
It was the break of day, and I was worrying the sun
  The devil can't hurt you if you don't believe
The sparrow singing sweetly didn't matter to me none
  The devil can't...
In walked my baby with a black dress on
  The devil can't...
I tried to catch my breath but it was already gone
  The devil can't...

I couldn't sleep all night for all the voices in the breeze
  The devil can't...
Crying "Help me father, give your hand to me please"
  The devil can't...
I tried everything I know, I can't see what's left to do
  The devil can't...
My hands are too tired, I can't hold on to you
  The devil can't...

The devil comes around on a cold Sunday
When you're standing at the dais with nothing to say
He just waits for you to look him in the eye
Then it's too late for you, don't even try


Heart out in the Sun
I don't know where it all went wrong
I think that maybe you left your heart out in the sun for too long
And I don't even know what we were fighting about
But it's too late
It's too late for you and me now

Nobody's home, the check's not in the mail
I set a match to the paper trail
Pulled all the pictures out of the frames
It never happened, I won't speak your name

You came in with breath smelling dank and sweet
I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep
You left the room and stumbled down the stairs
And the chimes started ringing and nothing was there


No Way to Live
All the dreams that once sustained me, I have ground them into dust
I sleepwalk through the days, betraying everybody's trust
I've forsaken every oath and gave up all the secrets too
It's no way to live, but it's the best that I can do

I like to sleep with a shotgun nestled up to me in bed
I dream of turning tables with the barrels by my head
Nobody wants to hear about the conclusions that I drew
It's no way to live, but it's the best that I can do

Man wasn't made to live in these conditions
All of my excuses are just lies of omission
Yeah I got the stones to try and right the boat
But my heart is on crutches and the doctor wrote me a note

I'm going crazy with desire for a thing I cannot have
I turn my back on all the riches already well within my grasp
I'm a prisoner to the thing that I feel that I must prove
It's no way to live, but it's the best that I can do

I've joined a church of true believers in the darkness of the sun
There's a steeple on a faultline where our worshipping is done
It's a beautiful religion if you hate everything that's true
It's no way to live, but it's the best that I can do


Try It on Your Horses
If you knew how bad the fall would be
Then you would never climb the tree
Try it on your horses
Pour it on your burns
Drown all your worries and your nerves

You got a lead foot and you can steer
But what youre looking for, it aint here
Try it on your horses etc.

You want to know what it is
To be a little breath of God
Climb all the way up the mountain
And be called out as a fraud

The truth is sad, the truth aint free
It will not give you what you need
Try it on your horses etc.


I Still Haven't Seen the Light
I have listened for the sound of angels
Singing in a line
I have held my palms out feeling
For a touch from the divine
I have fixed my gaze upon the sky
As the morning kills the night
And I still haven't seen the light

I hear people telling stories
Of a presence in their hearts
Of a friend who walks beside them
As they stumble through the dark
As for me, sometimes I'm all alone
But I can find my way all right
And I still haven't seen the light

Oh no I still haven't seen
No I still haven't seen
No I still haven't seen the light
It may seem a crazy thing to think
But when it flashed I must have blinked
And I still haven't seen the light

I'm not wearing blinders
My head's not buried in the sand
Maybe I'm not the only one here
Who doesn't understand
I have seen enough to know
There's nothing wrong with my sight
And I still haven't seen the light

What you're looking at is brightly lit
But come on, man, that can't be it


Dancing With a Broken Heart
There's a drummer
On the riser
And he's sinking in a hole
He thinks if he looks straight down and keeps good time
Then no one else will know
But every time he hits the backbeat
I can feel the pain he's in
He sounds real fine but his soul is looking thin

I can't sit still to that aching sound
Made by those who understand
So I'm dancing with a broken heart
To that broke down lonesome band

In the corner
Of the spotlight
There's 4 strings sounding low
There's hurt inside that big deep sound
Driving every note
You might not hear it if you have no scars
Just a daisy in the field
It's the story of my trainwreck
Made so real

There's something still shattered inside my chest
There's a hole at the bottom of my nest
I'll mix some sugar into the medicine
Put on a splint and try the steps again
The right sound can lift anyone, I'm a testament

There's misty eyes on that smiling face
So I'm offering you my hand
Let's go dancing with our broken hearts
To that broke down lonesome band


These Are Not the Words
These are not the words to a song
You shouldn't even try to sing along
If you like the way it sounds
You should turn the volume down
And these are not the words to a song

I never did sit down to write a verse
It only would've made the problem worse
Once you head down that path
You have started a big bloodbath
I never did sit down to write a verse

Now is not the time for guitar
To take this whole charade a step too far
You might take comfort from the toan
But I got problems of my own
And now is not the time for guitar

We're not gonna break it down right here
The drums are gonna blow out your ears
I would hate to have you know
There's a crack across my soul
We're not gonna break it down right here


Something Happened to the Milk
Something happened to my backbone
Something happened to the milk
Shake it out and then start all over again
Oh yes I think you will

My shoes are under the bed
I'm staying in the house all day
The shades are drawn, nothing's going on
I can't be treated this way


The Revenge of Two-Gun Pete
There is a car
A goddamned Cadillac
There's an angry spirit
Still riding in the back
He's watching me
Everywhere I go
He heard me thinking
He heard that lonesome whistle blow

One and two and three generations four
A curse upon your bloodline for a century and more
The sun will never shine on your garden of stone
You invite your neighbors in but you're left there all alone

Sick little boy, one-room shack
And his daddy ran away
We called him Two Gun Pete from our big porch
And laughed at his angry face
And he never forgot it
He tells me every goddamned night
"You'll never get out of this world alive"

I been too lucky
Always crying over nothing at all
Always someone there to catch me when I fall
Now I'm building a fire
While the rain keeps driving in
Here comes that Cadillac, he's honking the horn, he says
"You lose again"






I Spied a Spider (2009)

You've Angered the Gods
There's a big snake in my backyard
Crawling down the trunk of a tree
He looks like he swallowed a rabbit
He took it away from me
He took it away from me
There's a sick little bird on the wire
Chewing underneath his wing
Looking with one eye open
I swear I didn't see a thing
I swear I didn't see a thing

In the earliest hour of the morning
When the sun and moon are sharing the sky
Your arm is still laying across me
Everything seems ready to die
Everything seems ready to die
We've been through the valley together
Walked into the devil's mouth
You pulled me out of the river
How could I think of leaving you now?
How could I think of leaving you now?


Sleeping in a Tree
I've been sleeping in a tree all day
High above the ground among the leaves I lay
Dreaming while the breezes make the branches sway

I've been sleeping in a tree all day
Keeping still until the sunlight dies away
I climb until I find a hiding place to stay

I live in the future
The present is gone
You prophesied the times to come
You got it wrong

I've been running from the bombs all night
You hear the sound but not before you see the light
Don't believe your eyes they won't believe the sight

I've been running from the bombs all night
Everything that's standing still is burning bright
The city's falling down the sky is flashing white


Promised Land Blues
I finally made it to the promised land
There was nothing there before me but empty oustretched hands

Hunger and confusion everywhere
I was longing for the shackles that I used to wear

To be so righteous and pure you must be just a little bit sick
That fruit's just hanging on the vine waiting to be picked

Nothing in my suitcase, nothing in my pail
I'm not looking for a paradise, just a cleaner jail


Please Spare the Life of Your Cocaine Dealer
Please spare the life of your cocaine dealer
He did you a favor when you needed a friend
So please spare the life of your cocaine dealer
Let the spirit of mercy in your heart and your head

Remember that party when you first met him
And he let you have your fill
He gave you the good shit
He showed you the trick
With the twenty dollar bill

And now with all eyes gazing upon you
And his fate firmly in your sway
You give no protection, just a lethal injection
Would you treat your dog that way?


Keep the Sweatshops Blazin'
Keep the sweatshops blazin'
Keep the sweatshops blazin'
You get home from work feelin', singin', dancin'
Just like a California Raisin

The director of operations
The director of operations
He's sweatin' to the oldies in his cotton slacks
He's on a tropical vacation

You still got nine good fingers
You still got nine good fingers
There's a guy outside who'd kill for your job
His family's eatin' shit for dinner


Rock n' Roll Tornado
The house, the truck, the old tool shed
The mailbox and the waterbed
The Shop-N-Save, the swimming pool
The car wash and the junior high school
A bovine and a picket fence
A telephone pole and the flea market tents
Swirling in the air so high
Spinning round and round up in the sky

Look out for that flying Winnebago
It's a rock and roll tornado

Canada, the Middle East
Eurasia, Ecuador and Greece
Every nation, every sea
Every ocean sucked into the cyclone stream

The planet Earth, the planet Mars
Saturn's rings and the Aquarius stars
The galaxy and even worse
The hapless, helpless universe


Down the Drain (By Way of the Basin)
There's somewhere else I'd rather be going
If I had the choice I'd go there
's somewhere else I'd rather be going
If I had the choice I'd go there
But one more time I'm making that journey
Down the drain by way of the basin

Sometimes I feel like I died in your mind
Or like you lived your life again and I was never born
Well I don't know much but I know that I was there
When you felt around in the dark for your balance

Now I dare not speak of the way that I feel
I miss you and it hurts me every day
But if I say so now then the bridge will fall apart
And that ain't no way to make things any better


College Town
It's hard enough just to stay with the beat
When the weight of your world is standing on your feet
And the transportation department is outside
Tearing up the street
The rent's been raised and it's overdue
It's time to kill your soul and raise some revenue
Yeah I know that things could surely be worse
But they could be much better too

Better learn to recognize a cosmic joke
Or else you'll find yourself casting about
In some college town
Where nothing you do takes hold

This ain't Mecca, it's not the Taj Mahal
It's just an empty room with some glass on the wall
And a sticker from the band last night
Up in the bathroom stall
The ghosts have left and the echoes have died
Give me one good reason to come inside
My arms are crossed, I'm not impressed
I think I'll go out for a ride

First you fit yourself with that homemade yoke
And then you find yourself casting about

Your heart's been taken and dragged across the floor
You've been defeated and your tailbone is sore
And the friends who used to lift you up
Man they don't know you anymore
There's a vision of the future forming in your eyes
You're lying in the grass searching through the skies
It's cold, it's late, it's not funny anymore
And you're the only one who's surprised

Guard the riches of your spirit; don't go broke
And I hope you never find yourself casting about


Another Cold Shoulder
A good friend should greet you with a smile
A smile is how a good friend should greet you
If he ain't seen you for a while
You can tell when something isn't right
When something isn't right you can tell
By the way he won't look you in the eye

Here comes another cold shoulder
What did I do now
Nobody wants to be the one to tell me
They're all hoping I'll just figure it out

It's deep into the winter for us now
Now it's deep into the winter for us
But we've got to beat the freeze somehow
You used to think I was so funny back in the spring
Back in the spring you used to think that I was so funny
But now you don't laugh at anything

The room goes silent when I come through the door
Somebody clears their throat
And everybody's eyes go down to the floor
Searching for sunlight, I look all around
But there's a cold front moving in
From the east, the west, the north, and the south


Only Way Free
I'm so wired wired wired
And I just got fired fired fired
And I never get tired tired
Of giving up

Here comes the corner of Hollywood & Vine
I usually take it at about 45
I got a current running through me I'm more than alive
I'm gonna accelerate and crank the wheel to the right

The reason is
There's no good reason
Nobody cares about reasons anymore

Here's all the pages I never let you read
I thought it was a secret that I had to keep
But it was really just dry leaves falling from a tree
And now it's all laid out for anyone to see
I don't fuck around when I got something to say
I don't let some bullshit get in the way
It just comes tripping off my tongue as plain as day
When the moment's just right with no delay

The reason is
There's no good reason
No one believes in reasons anymore







Hotter Heads Prevail (2005)

Old Ladies Reading the Bible
I don't want to see
Anything on my TV except
Old ladies reading the bible

The people who belong at the head of every classroom
Would never tell your child that his grandpa was a baboon
Old ladies reading the bible

I don't want my kid to be some dope-smoking feller
I'm going to lock him up in a cellar with a couple of
Old ladies reading the bible

There's a cross on the flag, Jesus wrote the Constitution
He made it very clear, left no room for confusion about
Old ladies reading the bible

God damn you liberal intellectual
Atheist, communist, homosexual, we need more
Old ladies reading the bible

Potato salad at the church picnic
And dirty bombs at the abortion clinic, my utmost for
Old ladies reading the bible

Culture war and victory is near
And then the only music the children can hear will be
Old ladies reading the bible


Have You Ever Sold Out?
Have you ever sold out?
Do you still remember how it feels
To become the enemy
Of your own ideals?
If your soul is perfect
If your conscience is without a stain
Then you can tune me out now
You won't understand a word that I'm saying

Set up to take a fall
I walked into a trap
I couldn't stop myself at all
Where do you go at night
When you can't stand the dark
And you're scared of the lights?

I started thinking of my best friends
Suddenly so far from where I could be
Because I was lost
And praying that they wouldn't find me
I kept walking
Until the morning caught my back
Until the waves rolled in
And covered up my tracks

Set up etc.

Sold out

I'm calling you from the highway
I'm so glad that I got your machine
Now I'm not afraid
To say exactly what I mean
I'm going so far away
Maybe I'll come back after a long long time
I hope that everything has changed
I hope I'm astounded by the sight

Set up etc.


Help Yourself
Q: How many lawyers does it take to butter a piece of toast?
A: It doesn't take any lawyers to butter a piece of toast.

Shoot your breath into the air
It's so cold outside you can see it hanging there
You are heavier in the water
You are safer at the shallow end

I don't wanna ride in the middle front seat
I want to stretch out in the back with the big kids
I don't wanna be the princess I wanna be the dragon
I wanna get the fuck out of this goddamn station wagon

Q: Why did the divinely inspired man cross the road?
A: Because the sign said "walk."

So there is a script written for your life
Written by a thousand monkeys who can type
It's pretty good right up until the end
The last twenty pages are really weird, they don't make any sense


I Can't Feel a Thing
Show me the way
I'm all drained
And I can't feel a thing

Don't you ever cry?
No, you never cry
Your eyes are two
Twinkling stones
I'm gonna be all right
I'm gonna be all right
Just turn off the light
And leave me alone

The snow, the blizzard that came in the spring
It changed how you feel about everything
Summertime came and you just didn't care
You slept all the time and didn't go anywhere
You slept all the time and didn't go anywhere


Faith No Less
Death to the old white-haired ghost gods and the klan
Death to pennyloafers and hard-backed chairs

I was born here with no choice
I'm probably going out just the same way
All the believers seem in a hurry
To blow the gas cloud this way

Fuck flowers and full moons and sunrise and sky
Fuck flowers and full moons and sunrise and sky
All the useless things we don't need when we die

I was born here with no choice
I'll probably die just the same way
Faith is like that riddle
That I don't have time to say


Wake the Prisoner
Smile at the picture of sacrifice
Going down three times, only coming up twice
My bones, my hand, my good green flower
You miss her but she never was your child

Wake the prisoner
Release the secrets
That live in our bellies

Pick a rhythm out of the breeze
And make like an animal, devour it deep and easy
I am what is like a star almost an ocean ablaze surrounded by magic and salt


Bounce Your Head
You'll never be caught in a contradiction
If you learn well the lessons of science fiction
One part inspiration and ten parts friction
There is too such a thing as a healthy addiction

Bounce your head

My dream for tomorrow is of a beautiful day
I'd come and visit more often but it seems so far away
Much remains untold but there's no more to say
If I forgive myself there's no one left to blame

Bounce your head

I can see in your eyes how you'd most like to have it
You and me living together like rabbits
Well you're kind of cute but you've got such bad habits
Chewing tobacco and Lenny Kravitz


The Revolution's Over
Don't you see the road?
Are you too fogged in?
Do you feel the cold?
Do you feel the wind?
Is there a perfect world in your imagination?
Does every circumstance have an explanation?

I still have the flyer it's tacked up on my refrigerator

The revolution's over, oh no

Revolution hat
Revolution shoes
The recession's getting worse
That's good revolution news
When the masses rise up it's gonna be so great
All those tanks will belong to the revolution state


All lyrics © 2005, 2009, & 2013 Collisionville