Lyrics: Shoot the Point

 

 

1. The Ledge

Sincere / souvenir / busy reapplying lipstick in the mirror meanwhile we must pretend our friends aren’t simply bland
You first / a dead end verse / an unapologetic joke just makes it worse surrounded by used records not the life we’d planned
Sitting homesick on the roof we saw them jumping from the windows for a rock n roll group taking poison to conceal the truth and it all just feels the same
The birds are wakin’ Oh – Oh
We’re still in love at least we say so
The birds are wakin’ Oh – Oh
I’m dusting off the pledge
The birds are wakin’ Oh – Oh
We’re still in love at least we say so
The birds are wakin’ Oh – Oh
I’m walking off the ledge
Gyrate / agitate / stealing photocopies from these jobs we hate no need to reconcile your reputation’s snow
Jumpstart / Bonaparte / an overcompensating binge just killed the spark why do we still hold on? Why can’t we just let go?
Sitting homesick on the bus beside the safety revival of a dead-end punk waiting nervously to brace the bump and it all just feels the same
The birds are wakin’ Oh – Oh
We’re still in love at least we say so
The birds are wakin’ Oh – Oh
I’m dusting off the pledge
The birds are wakin’ Oh – Oh
We’re still in love at least we say so
The birds are wakin’ Oh – Oh
I’m walking off the ledge

 

 

2. Turnstiles

What if you and I we up and quit these lives / I don’t know / with an improvise / I don’t know / or a game show prize
A Keno parlor’s fix until the pawn shops close / I don’t know / but the trains don’t go / I don’t know / Trudi, please don’t go
I heard the contents of your purse spill out and sing / we’re on and then we’re off sometimes
Surviving boredom with my blood still on your teeth / we’re on and then we’re off sometimes
Unshaken / mistaken / erratic in our orbits we spin / waking up in turnstiles next to you (x2)
Could we resign ourselves to keeping just two rules / I don’t know / for the Langston fools / I don’t know / while the rest unspools
A Salford Lads club kid who spent a misspent youth / I don’t know / in a trade show booth / I don’t know / button up sweet-tooth
The rhythm of our coexistence heats this room / we’re on and then we’re off sometimes
Familiar aftertaste of disappointment looms / we’re on and then we’re off sometimes
Unshaken / mistaken / erratic in our orbits we spin / waking up in turnstiles next to you (x2)

 

 

3. Jeanie’s Up Again and Blaring Faith by the Cure

Jeanie’s up again she just can’t sleep another 37 minutes of goth-born grief
She loves a record made before she was born and I don’t know / and I don’t know
Not just a record it’s the bang on your chest a va-da-gloom heartbeat and a Rorschach test
It’s loud enough to make the neighbors incensed and I don’t know / and I don’t know
Other voices and the walls collide in black pajamas in a haunted hive
Unabated and her eyes are wide in the dark
Jeanie’s up again and blaring Faith by the Cure (x4)
A Funeral Party and a bridal bouquet she signed the guest book journal all cats are grey
Newspaper clippings run from ceiling to floor and I don’t know / and I don’t know
It’s not that often the compulsion ignites to take her down-down makin’ a bat cave night
Alone in bed she turns the pockets inside and I don’t know / and I don’t know
Discovered faith amongst the ahhs and ewws at the party where she lost her shoes
She loves her Robert when he sings the blues in the dark
Jeanie’s up again and blaring Faith by the Cure (x4)

 

 

4. Love on the Left Bank

You caught my eye at the Libertines across the room at the Wah-Wah Hut
I chipped a tooth on a butter plate under the weight of the wild wants
And you, still determined to teach me how to swim and the strict diving form
A revolution that mostly failed a rummage sale for a dilettante
Unpredictably dropping the answers like a tourist who’s too drunk to steer
Economically parsing the questions and the glaring imbalance is clear
I know that we’re making our bed we’re like a homesick pigeon and a drum majorette
Still we walk in the waves and we’re freezing to death singing I won’t miss you if you don’t miss me
I know that the light’s blinking on I was bruise-kneed and bold you were vaguely undone
It seemed we didn’t care where our stockings were hung singing I won’t miss you if you don’t miss me

Inconsistently volatile we’ve fallen off and it’s still not the same
Feeling numb in the aftermath it’s like we’re swimming in Novocain
Me, still determined to teach you how to swim and the strict diving form
A little lost in the lunacy another spin of the acetate
You and I we were Pepsi & Shirley with a long list of who mentioned who
But to your friends we were Elton & Stoney with just five easy pieces to move
I know that we’re making our bed we’re like a homesick pigeon and a drum majorette
Still we walk in the waves and we’re freezing to death singing I won’t miss you if you don’t miss me
I know that the light’s blinking on I was bruise-kneed and bold you were vaguely undone
It seemed we didn’t care where our stockings were hung singing I won’t miss you if you don’t miss me

An undeniable audible snap stood to wrestle the look on your face
While unconventional pockets of wisdom were holding your pockets in place
Who’s that flirt in the Gotham skirt? I’m thinkin’ / I don’t think you’re gonna tell me
Who’s that face with the guitar case? I’m thinkin’ / I don’t think you’re gonna tell me
Love on the Left Bank (x4)
Tonight

 

 

5. Street Hassle Plays on Repeat

You and I we were bed-sick for days among our friends it was preordained
I was wrong for you / you were bad for me sha la la la la let’s slip away
Tactful tenses and sideways for now a wash of buttons and mis-spent doubt
Holding tight to your chest / a bit Rubenesque sha la la la la let’s slip away    
A sure fingered slip of a thief you’re dying your hair in the sink
A bee sting / a nosebleed / a late night with Lou Reed as Street Hassle plays on repeat
Not so much for calling us friends still I love you (x2)
A falling out with the rumsicle fray it shook your confidence some might say
You would float nonetheless / Peter Pan collar dress sha la la la la let’s slip away 
A single knock on the door made it so you’d heard enough of the don’t-don’t-don’t
Leaning back for the thrill / grist for the mill sha la la la la let’s slip away 
The absence of nuance at work the motionless hem of a skirt
The drinking / the please-please / an ace bushy striptease proficient but not quite rehearsed
Not so much for calling us friends still I love you (x2)
You and I we were desperate for praise among our friends it was preordained
I was wrong for you / you were bad for me sha la la la la let’s slip away
I posed with my hands on my hips / the snapshots were taken
I gave you the slip on a weekday / we were drunk in the hallway
My birthday was tense and sewn into the seam / I asked you to stay and we both fell asleep
We were lonesome and untangled on Christmas Eve

 

 

6. Rhinestone Tease

There’s enough ways to be broken hearted
There’s enough gloom in the uptick room
He’s a rhinestone tease and I’m begging you please to say no / oh-oh
There’s enough songs on the oldies station
There’s enough stares for the Bearstein Bears
He’s a rhinestone tease and I’m begging you please to say no / oh-oh
It’s a slip / it’s an old tooth pick / it’s a tedious reminder that the fabric had ripped
He’s a rhinestone tease and I’m begging you please to say no / oh-oh
Dark days and we’re thinking up ways (x6)
There’s enough tears in the scrapbook pages
There’s enough sway with a botched p.a.
He’s a rhinestone tease and I’m begging you please to say no / oh-oh
There’s enough veiled with a pink carnation
There’s enough gloat with a white sport coat
He’s a rhinestone tease and I’m begging you please to say no / oh-oh
It’s a drawer / it’s a bedside drawer / it’s the tipsy revelation that you always ignored
He’s a rhinestone tease and I’m begging you please to say no / oh-oh
Dark days and we’re thinking up ways (x6)
It’s an ache / it’s an old tooth ache / it’s a Sullivan who tumbled with Veronica Lake
He’s a bus stop sneeze and I’m begging you please to say no / oh-oh
Dark days and we’re thinking up ways (x12)

 

 

7. Tarrytown

Lost in the rhyme with the rain keeping time I heard you, you were tapping your heals
Writing words on your hips in your Birkshire Kicks with a sharpie you told me to steal
You were penning your thoughts in the back of the room at a party we never conceived
One where no one wants us to be there at all and still no one wants us to leave
Knocking on doors with our four borrowed chords our guitar it was cheap secondhand
And before we could argue the bits and the beats well it seemed, we’d started a band
Us in Tarrytown dress it up and tear it down
Not forgotten the days we wouldn’t talk about
A distant hurricane would you and I continue to float?
I guess I never wanted to know 
We thought we’d prepared and the life ring we shared was enough to pursue and preform
But retracing the steps of our fugitive year was a vessel that’d wrestle a storm
A singular prong and posthumous song double piercing the p.u.n.ks
A malaise from the start and we’d both grown apart in impossibly obvious ways
Us in Tarrytown dress it up and tear it down
Not forgotten the days we wouldn’t talk about
A distant hurricane would you and I continue to float?
I guess I never wanted to know (x2)

 

 

8. Purple Leopard Print Suitcase

You kept the dice you rolled a pledge of prudence notwithstanding
A Polystrene tryst and tiny bags of coffee candy
You saved the Undertones the boyfriend you’d replace
In a purple leopard print suitcase
Returned the hotel key but you stole the towels a thieves dilemma
A Tony Wilson badge and a matchbook from the Hacienda 
A Helen Love affair or a beach boy you could chase
In a purple leopard print suitcase
You kept a timetable where you slowly marked the years between us
A purple monster and a most convincing plastic Jesus
A single microphone and a life ring just in case
In a purple leopard print suitcase
A faded long forgotten postcard sent from space
In a purple leopard print suitcase

 

 

9. Modern Lovers

Before I met you I was pink in the cheeks you had a ten cent secret and a wink that you wouldn’t keep
A tumble forward and the privy revealed was a black heart
You’d fallen off and landed Kitten the Queen were you a shipwreck Holly or a humdrum Halloween?
Curiosity befuddles the cat with a postmark
It’s emblematic when you dye your hair red / an alteration that involves a bobsled
I wish I’d known you in your Plimsoul days in your Tuft’s blue tossed beret
Listen up I think your friends they’re gonna kill me
I played the Modern Lovers all the way home from the Lounge Tree
I drownded out all the complaints heard from the backset with a Rocking’ Shopping Center reprise.
I’m headed home from all the errands that you sent me
I wish I hadn’t brought your friends they’re just a bit too nosey 
Picked up the ball of yarn and lipstick you requested but the catnip wasn’t easy to find
You’re singing Bingo Master’s Breakout again was it a Brix Smith weekend or a catsuit jenny wren?
Defending Jonathan and driving your friends it was unplanned
Brown paper packages were tied up discreet it took a left turn we’d taken at the art school to finally meet
A certain novelty to quoting Chagall from the nightstand
It’s an anomaly that sacked the doldrums / Flamingo 50 and the costume tantrums
A single laundromat a double misdemeanor and a much too much parade
Listen up I think your friends they’re gonna kill me
I played the Modern Lovers all the way home from the Lounge Tree
Before I knew you you were taking up with Normans while the Normans made believe they were mods
I stumbled home to find the neighbors in an uproar
Pushing back the curtains turned a drizzle to a downpour
Proudly showing off your filthy sense of humor mostly hoping that you’d spark a response
You be the cat I’ll be the mouse / you be the cat and I’ll be the mouse
You be the cat I’ll be the mouse invite me over to your mousetrap house – a mousetrap
I’ll be the cat you be the mouse / I’ll be the cat and you be the mouse
I’ll be the cat you be the mouse invite you over to my mousetrap house – a mousetrap
Listen up I think your friends they’re gonna kill me
I played the Modern Lovers all the way home from the Lounge Tree
A thoughtful mess while folding stems that you’d perfected with a casualness that covets a stare
Hide and Go Chic was your go to for the umpteen
You played me Sonny Lester and you paired it with a routine
A polished shade of misconception neatly painted almost shamelessly you poisoned the air 

 

10. Clear Nail Polish

You’d do better if you chased those whims in the morning
You’d do better if you if you made some effort to heal
It stings until the truth tongue slips batons and painted fingertips
You’d do better if you chased those whims in the morning
 
And if you’re not gonna turn and if you’re not gonna change your mind
And if you’re not gonna mend your mess or reassess
These failings you’ve designed
And if you’re not gonna lean just a slight bit to reach it
And if you’re not gonna dust you lens or make amends
At least you could be kind
 
You’d do better if you weren’t so easy to temper
You’d do better if you found some reason to care
You notch until the bedpost breaks the lone alluring garter snake
You’d do better if you weren’t so easy to temper

And if you’re not gonna turn and if you’re not gonna change your mind
And if you’re not gonna mend your mess or reassess
These failings you’ve designed
And if you’re not gonna lean just a slight bit to reach it
And if you’re not gonna dust you lens or make amends
At least you could be kind

 

 

11. Well Rehearsed Reveal

Some kind of loose invitation / it’s not up to me 
With needle sharp observation / it’s not up to me 
Still ended up on occasion dancing all alone
You turned me up on the weekend / it’s not up to me 
Left unprepared for the whirlwind / it’s not up to me 
We found ourselves in the deep end dancing all alone
You’re a house on fire I’m a take-home test
You’re a carnival and I’m impressed
You’re a twin-set trolley I’m the heartbreak chord you feel
You’re a tick-tock boom I’m your first cassette
A plastic novelty you’d soon forget
You’re a raincoat rebel with a well rehearsed reveal