Undercard

The Extra Lens Undercard Lyrics
1.Rockin' Rockin' Twilight Of The Gods

Switched on the radio this morning
Heard about the local Savings & Loan
How they went under
Took with them everything I own
That's all right
It doesn't make me nervous
But I can see the clouds
Gathering in the distance

And every time it rains, it rains
Pennies from heaven
Every time it rains
I'm a rich man
Every time it rains
I'm indescribably wealthy
Every time it rains
Gold coins spill from the heavens right into my hands
Many have said the devil was coming
I look down at the sidewalk through the window
3 inches of water running

I looked up at the clouds
And everything looked great
The financial news network
Talked about the prime lending rate
That's all right
I'm safe and warm
Just over there, you know, near South Ontario
I can see the signals of a tropical storm

And every time it rains, it rains
Pennies from heaven
Every time it rains
I'm a rich man
Every time it rains
I'm indescribably wealthy
Every time it rains
Blank checks fall from the heavens straight into my hands
Many have said the devil was coming
I look down at the sidewalk through the window
3 inches of water running


2.Dogs Of Clinic 17

Three fresh meals every day
And one white pill to chase the chills away
And me I know what it's all about
And we all know what it's like to have to go without

Five of us are left (that's down from twenty)
But the guy in the white coat he, tells me that five is plenty
Yeah one soft bed to rest my head upon
And me I know what side my bread's buttered on.

There's a light in the window
There's a light in all of us trying to get free
There's a light in all of you who hear my song
There's a virus eating its way through me


3.In Germany Before The War

In Germany Before The War
There was a man who owned a store
In nineteen hundred thirty-four
In Dusseldorf
And every night at five-o-nine
He'd cross the park down to the Rhine
And he'd sit there by the shore

I'm looking at the river
But I'm thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
I'm looking at the river
But I'm thinking of the sea

A little girl has lost her way
With hair of gold and eyes of gray
Reflected in his glasses
As he watches her
A little girl has lost her way
With hair of gold and eyes of gray

I'm looking at the river
But I'm thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea

We lie beneath the autumn sky
My little golden girl and I
And she lies very still


4.Tug On The Line

Sun shown down on a cloudless sea
We were out on the water, my father and me
With several friends of the family along for the ride
And out on the calm water we killed the motor
And spread our nets wide

Keep your face to the wind and you'll be fine
And wait for the tug on the line

Everyone getting restless when we pulled up the net
We dropped it down on the deck and everyone's feet got wet
And the fish that looked like monsters from way down where the
water gets cold
Slid down the deck like shuffleboard coasters and made for the
hold
Everyone's eyes like saucers nobody saying a word

Keep your face to the wind and you'll be fine
And wait for the tug on the line

Sailed home in silence across the cold sea
Several friends of the family, my father and me
Something down below deck that we would try to forget
Shapeless and probably nameless as a vet

Keep your face to the wind and you'll be fine
And wait for the tug on the line


5.Adultery

(one two three four one two)

There's a mean streak in the sky
On the morning when you come by
And you ask me would I
And I say I would
And it's an ill-wind that does nobody good

and I should've known you'd come my way
By the dogs sprawled and sleeping on the driveway
Windows open audibly around the neighborhood
It's an ill-wind that does nobody good

And you touch my hand
And the sun bleeds down
Ineffective warnings all over the ground
And I'm standing in the same spot where your husband stood
It's an ill-wind that does nobody good


6.Cruiserweights

Nobody of note is in the crowd
Guys in Bermuda shorts are chewing on cigar stubs
I get better as I get more worn-down

Houselights like an amplified inferno
P.A. system borrowed from the high school
Breathe through my mouthpiece
I hate this town

And there's a whole long list of other things I hate
I had to starve myself all week to make weight
Cleveland Ohio 1985
Almost out of the woods
Awake and alive

Bucket full of blood and dirty water
Voices screaming at me from my corner
Head for the clutches
When I need to buy time

Take a couple of shots right to the liver
Then remember what the food was like in prison
Stick to the game plan
Stall for time

And there's a whole long list of other things to do
And the best ones I won't probably get around to
Cleveland Ohio, 1985
Almost out of the woods
Awake and alive


7.Communicating Doors

Campaign down from Atlanta, five-hour drive to the coast
Brought whatever we thought we'd need to pierce the skin of a
ghost

Left your car at the hotel, rode up seventeen floors
And checked ourselves into separate rooms with communicating
doors

Lay on top of the covers turn the fan up to full
Chase a memory around my head; silver, satin, and wool

Close the bar at the harbor say goodnight in the hall
Smash the lock with a midnight knock and the rest i don't recall

Stones rise out of the water, water eats at the stones
I know people who dig up graves just to label the bones

All that poison we swallowed seeping out through the pores
And floating over the transoms of communicating doors


8.Programmed Cell Death

Up and down the shining aisles
The all-night grocery store on Melrose
Dozens of us exiles from the mother-ship
The whole wide Western world is at our fingertips

The while moon hangs high above the city
And while the night begins to flex its jaws
We meet up like a loos-knit congregation
Or like spies who need to pass on information

How much longer are we supposed to stay alive?
Gathering by the Portuguese sardines in aisle five

Mounds of California avocados
Like offerings to an unresponsive god
I wore my suit from Hong Kong to the store tonight
'Cause it fits me just right

And suddenly the lights out in the parking lot
Begin to burst like sodas under pressure
One by one they throw themselves against the night sky
And almost unremarked upon the moment passes by

The one or two of us
Point our fingers outside
Eyes glazed, mouths wide

Listening to that still small voice within us
Doesn't seem to do us any good
Try to take that in stride
And try to let the moment slide

And we fiddle with our cellphones
Until our thumbs are sore
And the music on the speakers overhead
Is fainter than the voices of the dead

How much longer
Are we supposed to stay alive?
Gathering by the Portuguese sardines in aisle five


9.How I Left The Ministry

There was one thing
I found that I couldn't help thinking
As they pried me
Free with the jaws of life
None of this dis-
Aster would ever have happened
If I had not
Been driving my neighbor's wife

To the Alta Loma Day's Inn
Where I'd registered us as
A couple with a name I'm sure
Some other couple somewhere has

And the last thing
I saw before falling unconscious
Was your right hand
Tracing a heart on my thigh
And I thought 'My
God, what an infantile gesture,'
And I thought 'My God, what
An indescribable high.'

The autumn air was sweeter
than a slice of wedding cake
As I overshot the exit
And I tried and failed to find the brake...


10.Some Other Way

Test a rope against the ceiling beams
I just want to live on in your dreams
Crush a vial into a pot of tea
I just want you to remember me

But I pour out the pot and I work out the knot
'Cause I know that it won't make you stay
And I'll be damned if I can't come up with some other way
Some other way, Some other way
Some other way to make you love me

Seal the doors and turn the pilot on
I just know you'll miss me when I'm gone
Drive a fist into a window pane
There are things a letter won't explain

But I pick out the glass and I shut off the gas
And I look to the oncoming day
And I'll be damned if I can't come up with some other way
Some other way
Some other way to make you love me

To make you love me


11.Ambivalent Landscape Z

Out where the water tower climbs higher than God
Crop dust in billowing clouds and the outlaw corn glinting
goldenrod
Cold gaze of the universal harvester glittering on the horizon
line
Every creature on earth needs a fallout shelter, this one's mine

I'll never see you again
So until then

Down by the Morten building where I first met you
Nothing but energy fields and their bright pink edges doing what
they do all day
Threw your car keys away you left a bunch of dummy footprints on
the clay
I try to follow directions as they're printed on the tin
but I need a shelter to fallout in

I'll never see you again
So until then


12.Only Existing Footage

Fix the overheads the glare's become too much at last
Have somebody try to boost morale amongst the cast
Thermoses of coffee in the frozen dawn
Blow a fuse and spend an hour just trying to get the power back
on

Space heater starves it out again
Something's gotta give
Oblivion's been calling since it found out where I live

Try to grab another take before the night descends
Blocking's pretty good but there's a gate-hair on the lens
And the script girl's wandered off so we improvised the plot
Lousy continuity, the coats won't match from shot to shot

Light meter's broken down again
Soundtrack doesn't sync
Annihilation pouring since it found out where I drink

Red-eye back to Belgrade with the footage we can save
End up with one can because the baggage claim's an unmarked
grave
Hold off the backers, put a notice in the press
Oblivion's been knocking since I gave it my address