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More Stuff Other People Said

by Adam Balbo

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1.
there's countless channels & piles of old annals but i don't know which ones i've seen or read there's a bunch of sounds already, you can tell by the pictures their mouths are movin but i don't think i can keep all that in my head i'm already filled with a bunch of stuff other people said there's boundless breaths & plenty of other people's messes i don't know which ones i should call my own the dust is collecting on that union you're busy perfecting on those piles of principles you've puttin in their stacks if you threaten me with your document, i'll write one back there are old circles to breach & plenty of other destinies to meet i know it, just like you do, that some are glad i'll keep it short & brief, you paid me in joy but more so in grief it astounds me you could not know why they'd be mad but maybe you do, its just your job to smile, but all this silence is bad
2.
Mexico, Mexico, There's one place I’ve been meaning to go. You can leave on your pants, leave on your hat, and just drop that American tequila. Now I ain't never been down to Mexico, but like I just said I really wanna go. Now, the stereotype goes something like: there're dirty, poor, lazy & like to fight. But no, no, no that's just a lie, I knew this Mexican guy & he was actually kinda nice. I'm ain't racist, but I don't like their hairdos & they kinda smell, at least the ones working at taco bell, but taco bell ain't really Mexico so, I suggest we go down to... One thing I don't get about Mexico is that's it's so darn hot, why'd anybody go? And, by the way, ain't it kinda outta the way? What’re they doing way down there? I mean, Texas is one thing, Florida another, New Mexico, Arizona & all of California. Would you settle for Texas? Not me, hell no. There's always more I’m going down to... Cancun -no- Tijuana -no- those don't even count, but maybe south Chicago. All you guys who slept through Spanish class, the Mexicans are coming. Now they're gonna annex our ass. So, grab some sunscreen hombre & grab a dictionary, gringo, drop your Corona & go down to... Margarita, pina colata, tequila; Tecate, Dos Equis & Negra Modelo. If I stay sober long enough, when I get down there, I’m gonna ask myself some stuff: To leave, people are willing to die in droves, & big business is dying to go -why?- who knows? Maybe its NAFTA, maybe we're still gonna hafta do something about this huge .... border. We're gonna end up spending money down in... Tu comprende ese? What’s this funny talk here? Try to speak English when you're in my hemisphere. Spanish is great, but Ingles is useful. Jesus, you gotta be an Anglophile in this world to make some dinero. But fuck it, let's go down to...
3.
Big & Small 04:07
the same thing happens every time i go from mad to sad to silent resignation its hard to gather up my ideas i go from right to left to right to wrong to noisy contemplation i'm timid even shy, when i hold my guitar like an automatic weapon or an alibi my voice seems light next to conventional weapons but we all need funding to diversify i fell into the trap of trying to come up with a comprehensive tune my words were loose, my lips were tight & my chin was raised high, too if i use big words or sound absurd, i should fit right in in this goddamn world i'll try to take, try to give, i ain't leaving here too soon yes i'll live & i'll die & i'll come & i'll go but i still wanna know how my money's spent don't have to know where i'm going only where it is that i went my synapses keep on snappin, while my confidence keeps collapsing oh my will will keep on wiltin, but my bend better keep on bending on so if yesterday came before today, then tomorrow still comes before yesterday & if my circles still aren't round enough, it's probably cuz i'm workin against this delay a wise man said, that is, before he died, once a few people heard and he stopped listening he said, "what's the difference tween big & small, quantity not quality" but more can be better, less can be more sex is fine, unless you're forced to be a whore it's hard enough to hoard enough, while she's rummaging i'm rambling you gotta stick your dick in, get your licks in quick you'll be terrible & we'll be unfortunate off the grid, still under the lid you can't escape, but by all means try to live my synapses keep on snappin, while my confidence keeps collapsing oh my will will keep on wiltin, but my bend better keep on bending on
4.
ah shucks, golly gee you're the prettiest gal, i ever did see well, actually, i never kept track but since we had sex that first time i kept wanting you back oh, god musta fucked up makin' everyone else thousands of cities, a couple hundred countries there tons of places, where we both could find some action but i'm you're dude & you're my chick you don't have to drain the ocean to catch a fish oh, god musta fucked up makin' everyone god musta fucked up makin' everyone else given we're both kinda elitist bastards this hook up of ours couldn't have come much faster we woke up & talked, ended up liking eachother even though sometimes you act a little like my mother god musta fucked up makin' everyone musta fucked up makin' everyone but musta fucked up (even worse) makin' everyone else we're just a certain match of two sets of neuroses i'll sweep the floor & you won't let me do the laundry who wants kids, why would we bother? you're neurotic like your mother & i'm lazy like my father when we fight a lot, we wonder what we should but hey look at our friends, they're just as fucked up as me & you yeah, i can be an ass, but can be whiny sister but you're so damn cute, i still wanna kiss ya it's mean when i ignore ya, but i'd never dismiss ya even when they call you ma'am, & start callin me mister
5.
let me sing some empty music meaningless shit, voice my vibration i just want fillers-up and hungry sounds i'm never never never never never gonna finish what i end no words here just hollow pounding the sound i'm sounding when i'm sounding celebrate unloaded rhythym just hum so you can forget 'em i just want to house all those homeless sounds something something, give me description experimenting with fucked up diction those that know me know i don't know where i'm going with this i'm always always always always always gonna try to do what isn't finished syntax relax man it's only musak barked dog the the under tree oh me oh my oh you, eh, you, what are you doing here? going going going going going gotta go on find a place to sit or lose control can't stop now, i'm on a role off the cuff and in your mind i'm gonna blow up our names 'til they look the same i'm gonna cut up our egos into pieces of pain maybe maybe maybe baby, i know i'm very very very ... lucky strip it down real nice and easy take off your pants, put on some jazz tunes wear that new smile i got you, put on your listening caps cuz it's a cold world and word is like a sound boxxxxxxxx
6.
you can tell this song is sad & most of this is old but i got some new combinations & no this ain't a solicitation we're gonna hafta talk more now, we're just ordinary kings the gods are getting older now & in theory even electrons freeze & myths are small they can fit inside, 30 second tv advertisements but ridiculousness is fine, anything's ok if it's mine religion still sells pretty well, as far as i can tell, even hell is diversifying its ad campaign there are plans research is done on this, but i'm done i'm tired of worrying about this shit materialism is still the best diplomacy, it's our leading export commodity when sympathy becomes a liability, that's when i'll go out to the periphery show me where you are at, cuz i don't know where it's at my name's got some sounds, that is if you happen to be standing around it lately i've been holding my tongue, trying to figure out how to use it but i found it was just a hole, a whole lot better not to know that my body is just a trap, i didn't mean to be born but i'll keep on trying to give a damn, while taking all i can but if you see me walking, just leave me as i am please don't try to reason with me i'm probably just on my way out to the periphery
7.
sometimes i think, sometimes i don't sometimes i would, most times i won't sometimes i think, to survive you gotta kill & when the killin ain't done by us, someone else will maybe you can pick which part you want to die but for fuck sake since we're hated, let's ask ourselves why we don't have to be you or me association makes us guilty guilt don't imply aggression nor am i absolved by this confession killers kill ultimately maybe discriminately their opposition & diers die can figuratively maybe accidentally or by their own volition solutions make for good paintings or songs maps are pretty pictures for walls here's a contradiction: innocent nation i had to redraw my boundaries to see where i was standing at i gotta do stuff to talk stuff when i do other stuff, i talk other stuff i feel conditioned, i feel weak i feel defeated, even before i speak yes, i embrace destruction. before i build i plan to fall over. once i find the will the world is fragmented, splintered & cracked the forces are reforcing ideological maps i gotta stack of ideas my fears are in a heap i'm gonna kick 'em over, to see where they meet i can't go out on the street like this my mind's undressed & my nose is stickin out i'm gonna light my cigarette it'll burn by itself i'll sit next to the smoke & blow blow blow
8.
look at me i'm a fuckin mess, been in it so long i'm about to confess i used to have ideals, might've stayed that way, now i'm a cynical man, what can i say i forgot why i's supposed to give a fuck, but fuck it now, i'm gonna take a fuckin vacation at my own behest, i'm all bitched out, ain't got no bitchin left CHORUS: right, well, in retrospect what did i expect, i'm a tool of the state, i work for uncle han when i stop i'll make my peace, but as of right now, i'm workin for a commie mouthpiece you guessed it right, i'm that foreign man, from that space west of china that stretches to japan mongolia and north & all that's in between, personally, i's never into that scene but anyway, the money's good, i make over twice than my chinese colleagues do i'm a visitor, a friend, an expert, if i drop my (biased) politics & candor from fuedalism's fall through the republican nation, from beijing '49 through tibet's liberation the CCP's been a peaceful organization, if you don't know that go get some re-education socialism's marchin on with chinese characteristics, but beware of right-wing japs & western statistics from the far-flung west of the people's republic to that so-called democracy -its just a renagade province no independence forces gonna split this motherland, don't care if it's their will, don't care if they can CHORUS magnanimous, glorious, objective, prudent, timely & righteous selected facts distorted truths, a partisan perspective, that's what we bring to you "making china better know to the outside world," this country's leaders have the confidence of an adolescent girl if you're gonna be dogmatic, why not at least have fun, (jesus) even FOX news bring on liberals to laugh at 'em but honestly it's gettin better each day, just look at the farmers smile & minorities parade now new moneyed men, with their man purses, are sittin' with their skinny women in urban cafes slurping there are new found luxuries, expectations are changing; but the right to assembly is still considered dangerous seems like every fuckin cadre's shakin some business prick's hand keepin the nutjobs out of power that'd probably wanna bomb japan stability, wealth & national defense, are pretty costly human expenses i can't begin to imagine, i ain't here to prove it, but believe me when i tell you that i've live partly through it there're whole protions of these past generations, that are shut up or punished for direct confrontation with a handful of those who control & believe, that their's is the only way to be chinese at any cost, they say, at their designated speed, how much is it worth to you to challenge what that means? there's simply no place, except for underground, where the discontent & noisy, have room to make a goddamn sound
9.
the toilet's a place of big ideas take a seat a while, watch the wheels in your head turn, while your asshole burns don't leave your clothes behind the door you could sweep up the hair up off the floor but tomorrow, i bet you, there'll be more i got a brand new shower shower curtain i'll quite confident, in fact i'm certain it'll do the job, while givin' us something to look at while we take a crap gonna stay in the show til i get real clean gonna stay til i prune where no one will bother me don't have to leave to take a piss, the tub's pretty big, it's not like i'm gonna miss when's the last time we washed the towels wait, something's movin' down in my bowels it's something rank, it's something fowl i'll hollar when i'm done, i shouldn't be more than an hour be glad the door has a lock cuz if you'd open it up you'd be in for a shock your nostrils would flare, you'd sway & rock you'd pretend to pass out & next time you'd knock
10.
today my voice didn't have a prayer don't know my gods all went somewhere today everyone was sayin i's someone else but i found a mirror & i saw myself today my voice is like a jukebox put in some money & i'll talk -awk! hallo, how are you? fine. me too goodbye, nice to know ya, by the way fuck you

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released December 18, 2005

Recorded on ibook in Palo Alto, CA, in summer 2005.

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