Grandfather

by Tigers On Trains

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1.
04:44
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2.
03:02
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3.
03:27
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4.
03:36
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5.
03:09
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6.
02:54
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7.
01:54
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05:05
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9.
03:22
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03:50
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about

SS008

credits

released 08 July 2010
All Songs Written by Tigers On Trains.
Mixed and Mastered by Gregg Andrew
Produced by Greg Andrew and Tigers On Trains.
Artwork by Billy Duprey

Tigers on Trains are: Mason Maggio and Christian Van Deurs

TigersOnTrains.com
SimpleStereo.com

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tags: rock acoustic alternative folk indie rock punk republic of wovles tigers on trains

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Track Name: The Grammarian
Open all your doors and windows,
Let the lightning in your house
I have been seeing your cold face
Ever since my blood went south

Take a long ride to Chicago,
Steal some wind to stir my bones
Throw my soul into the great lake,
Make a lighter trip back home.

You had sharpened all your teeth,
Painted your fingers black and blue
When Ishtar's yellow smile broke my knees,
I blamed it on you.

I've been tearing down the paintings
That portrayed you in a field
All of my wounds have reopened,
If any of them had healed.

But I was wrong,
I was wrong, I know.
Thank God, I can rest again.

I think I have been receding
Into ever-thinning air
You insist that love is here
If it was ever anywhere
Felt the devil in my pillow,
Somehow thought that it was you
He convinced me of your sorrow,
I really thought that that was true.

Of course I was wrong.
Yeah I was wrong, I guess.
Thank God, I can see again.

Crossed the great Peconic canyon
With a fire by my side,
Just to find some shadow of you,
You had vanished with the tide.
I hid my face and kept on walking
Til my lantern wouldn't light,
Hearing all you'd said more loudly
Well it turned out you were right.

And I was wrong.
I was wrong, I know.
Thank God, I can rest again.
Track Name: Sea Weed
I died on Good Friday from swimming in smoke
It was worth it
And I felt all the world start to sing in my name,
And they drank my blood

Well I spent some time in the blackest abyss
It was peaceful
And getting reborn, well it hurts like a bitch
I do not recommend it

I lied on Palm Sunday and said I was pure
And faithful
And I realized the spirits, they lived in my feet
How they itched and made me sane

Then I disappeared like I hoped that I would
In my past life
And I realized the Lord's watch, it runs a bit slow
He answers each prayer a century too late.
Track Name: Ship Shape
So I spent half the day scaring crows with my neighbor,
And got pretty scared of myself
And that night I drank and told jokes with my lawyer,
Who'll still probably take all my cash
Yeah, he knows that it won't be long
Before I am as good as gone
So it's best to just go ahead and move on

So I waited around in the pews until sunset,
And watched all the good men go home
And I wondered if maybe they'll head to the brothel,
Or drink and then go for a drive
What does a saint do with his time,
when outside of God's lazy eye?
Well I wish those thoughts would stay clear of my mind

I don't believe that there is any system
Set up to apportion bad luck
It chooses a man from a lineup at random,
And feeds on his soul day and night
Well it takes some nerve to assume
That unlucky soul could be you
So I'll just keep those thoughts to myself
Track Name: Muhammad
I see Muhammad at the end of his life,
The devil bird escaping his mouth
He had sung the sweetest songs to me
I see Vietnam collecting our blood,
and John's reflection in the black wall
He was sad, but he was finally free

And I see four horsemen, four prophets
Four arms of a cross leaning upon you
You were spending all your Sundays counting
And I see twenty demons for every man
Who falls asleep next to his fortune
He is stone and you are stone and I am stone

And I'm wrestling the blue-skinned bull
His pulling veins are full
Rivers of disbelief
And I'm talking to the ten foot man
with the axe in his hand
For some reason he knows me

I see Babylon passed out on the floor
Don't know whether I should wake him
His alarm is ringing out my ear drums
I see six directions all at one time
And seven sleepers now surround me
A hundred years of never knowing what it's like

My memory's a no good cheat
His fertile crescent greed is starting to sting my tongue
Now I'm looking for a sunburnt God
With a straight-eye shot
Yeah he owes me some favors

Well I see corporations buying our souls,
Putting heaven out of business
Anything to kill the competition
And I see eleven year olds waving their guns,
Fighting wars their fathers started
Just trying to make an honest living
And I've seen twenty years inside of this trench,
Passing time and dodging bullets
Well it's fine if you can take the violence
But I'll see death before I see any rest,
Maybe that's the way it should be
So I think it's best to just cover my eyes
Track Name: False Teeth
We are filled with wild woods
And spitting tangled branches every word we shout
I think it's best we cut that out,
Let the trees and bushes settle down

But doubt is watching us again,
No longer laughing at our faces stained with sun
I'd like to put him in his place
So we can put this off another day

You are the good side of a coin,
I am the disembodied ghost of a better man
But you only saw me upside down
If I knew how to I'd turn around

So we just stare each other straight,
And try and try and try to see the same
But all that talk just seems to fade
Into an orange sea of lions' manes

'Cause I'm tired of you,
Yeah I'm tired of you
So please stop coming around
'Cause every time you do it brings me down
Track Name: Silk Road
So we were married on the silk road,
A thousand giants throwing rocks
And just as I pulled back your white veil you were struck
We had your funeral in the ocean
Off the coast of Mozambique
That's where you said you always wanted to live

So I said, "Lay her here so she can always hear the trees calling her name,
And they'll wrap their roots so gently all around her frozen frame"

So I carved you into marble,
Placed you high up in the frieze
So old Herodotus would write entire books about your glory
I gave your necklace to a poor boy
He didn't thank me, he just left
And I heard your ghost playing the organ again

And I said, "Play that song that echoed through the church when you were born"
But then the music stopped and I never heard another sound from you

So I was walking on the silk road,
Heading home for the last time
And you were sitting waiting for me on the side
Beneath a tree
I just kept walking
I didn't see
Track Name: Reverend William Buckland
I spent a holiday alone in the dark,
Trying to read the tea leaves
And I caught my shadow speaking old African languages again

Went to a party at the funeral home,
Out on the city limits
Me and the skeletons were hanging 'round the back too tired to dance

And I thought the railroad was an old time-machine,
And I got on and wished real hard
And me and John Wayne spent the day trapped at the bottom of a glass

I was reduced to a repeating line of code,
Numbers in a computer
And I followed circuits through the mainframe and eventually got lost

Guess I am not cut out to be a program
Guess I am not cut out to be a gunman
Guess I am not cut out to be six feet under ground
Guess I am not cut out to be anything at all
Anything at all
Track Name: Painted Face
I flew out to see the valley get filled in
A plain of pavement where a gaping mouth had been
Who am I to label anything a sin?
I just watched and I am watching it again

Light up when you turn into a pine tree
Settle, there is nothing but to be free
Too late to be worried for your safety
So long to the soldier you could not be

There is no ghostly honor
To keep me facing straight
There is no balance for my dead weight

I saw a merchant lying flattened in a ditch
Crying curses in an ever-falling pitch
Now I'm the conscience of the man pulling the switch
Though I see both sides, I cannot tell which is which

Go down to where Helios is weeping
Your knife took his love while she was sleeping
Too late to be asking for forgiveness
Your shame is a never-ending sickness

I pulled the poison flowers from my grandfather's grave
And ground them into paint for my face
I felt Atlantic justice pulling my muscles down
To carve me into something unsound

Alexander...
Track Name: Just Be Glad That No One Saw You
All the bones in my back
Start to rally up against me
And my veins tighten up
And constrict like snakes

In the choir you stand,
Start to read from the Qur'an
I can't do my part,
I am not a man

So I kneel down in the fireplace
So the ashes can clean my face
But I don't know what suffering is
But I'd find that out if it would clear your sins

If you froze to death,
I would lay you on the table
And I would fix you up
With metal parts

And I would sew you shut
With the strings from your mother's harp
And I would run you down
Just to test your heart

So I lie down for a month at a time,
Let the moss grow on my northern side
And I shake it off every time you're near
But there's just no point, you can't see me clear no more

So I'll change my shape into that of Dionysus
And I will tie you up with screeching vines
And I will take you down to the coastline where I'll feed you
To the great white whale that haunts your mind
And he will spit you out and you'll be a different person
With your serpent soul all rearranged

So what's done is done
Just be glad that no one saw you
When you disappeared into desert air
Track Name: A Year In The Garden Shed
When your father's lungs started to fill up,
And the sickness spread to his thinning blood
Well you pulled the sheets tight over your head,
It was you and God and a safe warm bed

And you thought love was a bullshit lie
'Til you saw the tears in your mother's eyes
And you spent a year in the garden shed,
Just to get things straight in your fuming head

When those white-tipped waves broke against the house
And the door came loose, and the dog got out
It was you and me, we were losing teeth
Saw our own ashes laid across our feet

And you drank yourself right down into Hell
It was you and God in a cheap motel
And you dug your grave on the bathroom floor,
And finally found what you were looking for

And you said,
"Death is not a curse, it's the only thing that's keeping us alive."