flatline skyline - lyrics.

FLATLINE SKYLINE

all sound, no vision -
- sleep tight
- no dial-tone
- other dreams
- fox fight
- fearful symmetry
- ex-marx
- be good to them always
- death by eyes
- ..and the moon swam back
- one secret, motherfucker

horizon grid -
- three winter months
- bulletproof bones
- deadline shoreline
- we depart / link arms
- flatline skyline
- math grenades
- 98 tiny reflections of you
- riots in the bloodstream
- pinkslip servitor | same servitor
- blue jaunte

unreleased -
- this is the fear in the floors..
- friends with knives
- shotgun

three winter months

there's something shattering your fantasies
a shadow going door to door, the walls recede
and all your smiles bleed out because you're asking for too much but we want more

there is a dialect inside our speech
that includes your rights of fear that you won't ever reach
so smash a little skull tonight, the sun is almost here

something strange is watching you dive
wishing you were somewhere else a little less alive
something stinging you like static, races up your bones to say-

we are your destiny your mirror-world machinery
we are not real, we are what you feel
there's a lot of time until the thirsty moon has had his fill
and in these frozen streets, i think i know what absolute zero means

there's a lot of time between the fading star and the dying dream
and in these three winter months, i start to realize what forever means

there's a little bit of mechanism here.
a tiny little crank we turn when you get insincere
and in these frozen months, i think you'll find what you're looking for

we shake, shudder in these blackened moments
but they pass to dust to join our opponents
you're taking every chance and you're so sure

bulletproof bones

arson poison diamonds speed
booze and drugs is all you need
torture fortune money fun
bulletproof the skeleton
shadow shotglass champagne dream
kiss the girls and make them scream
fax it mail it fuck it up
fill your fucking paper cup
oil water paper grime
dirt will swim and dirt will climb
pipework metal plastic foam
shatter all things made of bone
concrete black heat dead street star
take your passion way too far
red blood white blood dead blood sells
auction knowledge, might as well
shading color motion form
smiling dead red and stillborn
mixture fixture one plus one
bulletproof the skeleton
tax-break bone-break cock / your gun
protect your fucking skeleton

deadline shoreline

your face in blue, always morning with you
always pushing on into the day
soft light, soft skin, and softly, the soft moment begins
now i'm waiting for it to come down
now i'm waiting for it
like nothing, like nothing at all
like nothing, like nothing but

we depart / link arms

dark, sweet sweet, cold green hello
beat back, back beat plays all alone
we dance, our memories get shot
from a looking-glass gun into an hourglass heart

holding phones but not alone
we drop this trip downtown
whispers like a megaphone
there isn't anyone around

i really like lions
the way the hair gets brown
i really like the blade, good saint
until it cuts too fine for me to choke down

so i shatter this song
or i try
climb the ladder of your cigarette traces
until i hit the sky
keep on going, see the day calling
you can go back
but don't look down till you're falling

so i watch, so i look
so i never give up
we dance, we dance
it's a memory trance
when the sky goes out
there's a signal of spite
i'll follow it to you
make a left, make a right

dark, sweet sweet, bittersweet hello
a shower of sound then to bed we go
because the summer won't laugh
and the winter won't cry
until we kick this habit
and we kiss goodbye

i really like tigers, with their smooth tight charms
i really like to watch your face in the rose parade when we depart/link arms

i really like tigers, with their smooth tight charms
i really like to watch your face bittersweet with grace when we depart/link arms

flatline skyline

i see you moving through this space
a broken part has been replaced
i see you move, but i'm still here
distorted vision coming clear

i don't know
and i don't mind
the image falters
the tape rewinds

i don't feel
so i don't fear
the image flickers
disappears

there's damage here between us now
it's dying slow without a sound
you force me out into the air
it's just another scar on the atmosphere tonight

math grenades

it hits in preformed mathematical bits
a reserve is accessed but missed
catalyst captured and read, shatter calm
thought processed, the brain is a bomb

no discrepancy interferes now, running fast
dropping warnings, attempts to prolong
you can't laugh though and blast i through terrible songs
poor attempts in a mock analogue

as the spool inside spinal cords splice, you review
feel the working as system device is removed
not quite pain, but i do know the feeling
lack of empathy strikes me appealing

a reserve can be reached but instead is ignored
not started, but followed to war
not started, but hollowed indoors

irrelevant miscreant represent massive threat
elevate primates with solid self-confidence
smiling still, wider now in the aftermath
balance the apathy coldness and wrath

try to pin this inside, we have eyes not just readable output
to make us a commonplace interface
similar structures to tie hands inside
we have spools reading out to our fingers for that

we have eyes not just desperate patterns
with which to insist on integrity
cased in duplicity
minimize decency
into repeated me
over and over in similar patterns
accept in advance that the circuits are shattered

an extension to simplify readable qualities
evil yes simply a smile
perceive all these silences standing in place
not interpreting us as a file

no loyalty trivial privacy codes
no belief system brief wisdom conscious dissent
a prism reflecting twelve sides that oppose
an error possessing intent

we can strip messages too
to the root of a problem a hand can pull through
lowly soil to error and kill its misuse
and results have shown we can make graveyards of you

please test this back, we are liars in fact
and urgency armory strapped to our history
rooted in treachery waiting for plugs to be
pulled and rewired through bodies with spines
that can feel it inside and break down over time
but you view lies and treachery far too objectively
we can see through it and know how to use it
a bomb that makes armies break down

and this crash that you feel is because we're not real
and we're planning to keep it like that
and these numbers we throw they reflect what we know
and we're killing our feeling with fact

set a time bomb see the timing is wrong
pull back the wrists and then give it a kiss
we all have math grenades, watching the figures fade
we all have numbers to throw
we all have machines that can say what we mean
and devices to say what we know

98 tiny reflections of you

when listening fails give up and sit quietly
ghosts on the telephone static alive
let them believe you are listening still
let them just hear you breathing

let them believe you'll participate still
let them just believe

the sound that summer used to make
it almost makes again
but the lines have been drawn around this town
and its in your ears like sin

shadows on water, the surface folds you in
shudder with indifference, those fingers on your skin
a ghost in the marigolds, a knife in the folds
the watcher is glaring, he is daringly bold

i guess this is another dream, another fading heart
i guess there's nothing left around to let you tear apart
this building is a graveyard for the things it has seen
incapable of holding all the places turned green

i guess this is the past, you snap, coming back in threes
and i guess this is a memory of me
all along we break the ice and sleep inside the snow
because it numbs us and it's warmer than the things we know

there were children on the water, they are laughing once again
i guess its unmistakable now, my invisible friend

a long life shattered and compacted
a memory, a life refracted
when it comes, wings twitch soft
knowing they have been ripped off
and taken by desperate angels

goodbye town and goodbye moon
goodbye promises broken too soon
goodbye trickery and goodbye lies
pray that the cords don't get cut where they're tied

i suppose this is the end, i shout
where decisions make themselves
and i guess this is pretend, i shout

i suppose this is the end i shout
i guess this is pretend, i shout

98 tiny reflections of you
your skin of glass i can see right through
a shivering glance into my x-ray eyes
letting me believe you're somewhere still alive

riots in the bloodstream

there is something shaping in your eyes
a glare of smiling solitude
a look of compromise

there is something boiling in that room
want to cut your fingers off
and make it come soon

you're standing by that station in your town
tying yourself to the tracks
tying yourself down

this is just another lullaby
something's sick inside your plans
see riots in your eyes

intentions crumble in the dark
spoiled arrows find the mark
oh, you won't find me there
combing the soil for a trace of your hair

death is not an alibi
your bones are dry and bruised
see riots in your eye

intentions crumble in the dark
spoiled arrows find the mark
oh, you won't find me there
combing the soil for a trace of your hair

inside frozen transit lines
black blood shattered lullaby
oh, you'll never see me there
floating in the ocean for the waves of your hair

something's already denied
a war between the neighborhoods
the riots you disguise

pinkslip servitor | same servitor

and there are darknesses today
and you know there's nothing you can say
to make it clear now
you've felt the fear now

caught inside a long-eyed look
searching for the ones who took
so you can take it back in time
draw them all inside a line

place their backs against the wall
waiting for that ghost to call
it's only been a million years
it's only been a million years

and days they grow along your life
into the groundwork like a knife
you've only been around a while
you've seen a thousand people smile

but you're still looking for the one
holding your coldness like a gun
you're still shadowing that loss
huddled into the white frost

attempts you make at recompense
shattered by indifference
pink regret and shallow eyes
watch the future wave goodbye

same old comments, different bed
so let them feel that chill instead
it's only been a million years
it's only been a million years

blue jaunte

[ blue jaunte is an improvisational piece
and the first full song recorded by flatline skyline,
during the winter of 2002/2003.
the title and parts of the lyrics refer to
'the stars my destination' by alfred bester.
the full lyrics are unknown. ]

sleep tight

there's a skeleton
of somebody's house
in the tangles of a tree
arm and arm
sleep tight
and which came first?
and which came first?
which one is closer
to some imagined intention?

which is breaking laws tonight?
and which came first, and which came first?
which is breaking laws tonight?
and which got here anyway?
around and around
my head is open
can you see how these things relate?
my head is on rotation- revolving
spin down from all of this
like satellites
no one receiving

no dial-tone

you don't want conversation
you're just using my voice for harmony
counter-pointed your fingers in all directions
mine- pointed back at me
you play for prizes
dumb door-prizes
pray them all away

you don't want honesty
you're just using my views to shade the scene
you don't want to talk to me you just want our words to sing
i am blind- no color, no contrast, no contact-
nothing for me to find
but dear, i am deaf to your tones
so come kiss my ears, talk my fears away
on the telephone

you don't want conversation
you're just using my voice for harmony
it never relents
the disonance
no connection, no comments
i play no melody, i sigh no secrets
i fear no evil, i feel no fear
all of us here, using all of us here
for harmony, my dear

alive, but alone
no dial-tone
so come talk me blank
on the telephone

other dreams

i have an image of the future
that's worth holding on to
she'll be there
so should he
and we'll join the work-force
unless something else
works out well
but there'll be enough
that's worth holding on to

i'll make this good,
tomorrow

fox fight

it's the evil i cast over you
your cradle robbed and throne recalled
it's the shake inside the calm in you
your yellow eyes look so appalled
it's the viscera in this and the
red meat stuck to your bones
it's the kiss of this, the lips and the
white light and static drones
it's the candle catching the drapes by the bed
the way that midnight holds your head
the fire in the things we said
the embers burning cold instead
it's the eye that i caught you up inside
the sharpness that the soft divide
the truth, and all the times you lied
the summer fog, the things you cried:

"it's the fault of the shadows that the sun burns my eyes
it's the way the wind blows that brings down all that flies
it's the fault of the clock that I miss everything
it's the fault of the beggar, the gift to the king
it's the dark that ruins light for me
the green locked up, the blue is free
it's the honest who scoff at my honest disguise
it's the way your hand reaches out for my thighs"

it's the hands you hold that keep you bound
the things you lost that no one found
the truth in everything you lied
about, the parts i figured out
the baby's breath, the rosewater trails
the tiny death that this entails
the memory you'll never keep
the way the house moves while you sleep
the way your praises tear the skin
the way the door won't let you in
the way you cock and calibrate
the gun that makes you second rate
the pesticides that spoil the food
the spermicides that spoil the mood
the way intended uses yield
the polar product, the way you kneeled
to catch the leaves that rained on this town
the way they skipped you and fell straight down
the voice that keeps on talking through
the smells of sweat and cheap perfume
the way the seasons lacerate
the way they seal your fate

it's a bad night
for a fox fight
blank from blame
black from shame
it's a sun dial keeping time with your wounds
it's the moon

fearful symmetry

[ fearful symmetry was an improvised recording.
the lyrics are almost entirely unknown. ]

ex-marx

evil doing twisty-turns over your shoulder
evil smile not grim grin on your cut of a mouth
if he was there, rest assured he'd be scared
my face pasted over a picture of some dead idealist

to better stop i know you love it when the sun
stops talking about the end coming soon

but what if? but what if?

you know i love it when you don't say please
someone's cutting in line to your ill will
someone's brought in to your bad favor
someone's listening but i'm not worried

be good to them always

i saw you
on the street the other day
crossing when you cross your arms
i can't ask you to stay

if this is the way that you want it, i know
it'll be that way if you want it
i'll get inside your head i know
and i don't think i'll let you know

and if this is the way that you want it, i know
i'll get your silence and your sex
and if this is the way that you want it, i know
it'll be that way
you think you know me so well
and i know you better than you think

if you want it, i know
it'll be that way
and it will show up in his face
and it will show up in places you least expect
and i hope it always stays

and you think i'm coming with you..
and you think i don't know you..
i'll deny you three times, if you want
i'll deny you five times, if you..

god don't know anything
god don't know what i know
and i know
it'll be that way

you think i'm coming back, well
you'll stand on your own two feet
i know you got to learn some time
why not now? and why not without me?

i know you better than you

death by eyes

it used to mean something,
bad and true
but i just can't find that sentiment, no
i just can't find that space

these days,
we both just float right through
the blue of here keeps anything out
but i just can't feel that need right now
to lose anything,
at all

and i guess we won,
i guess we moved on
can't feel anything but grateful

and i guess we won,
i guess we grew up
i guess we grew into us

..and the moon swam back

hello
can you hear me?
is this working now?
is this working now?

i wonder how your dreams look now
without me in that place
i wonder how your life feels now
an empty space

something on the radar.
danger zone.
never did you do this alone. ..

close your eyes
let it flatline
your memory slid
into the space
of the horizon grid

one secret, motherfucker

you have
you are
you have
you certainly are
you only have
one secret,
motherfucker

this is the fear in the floors..

blind drifting, sifting through the damage
the demands on you, your hands on your head
crash-cart departure march your larger than life building
building your disaster out of lead

buildings trap full-frontal fronts from the north
the west pushed off the course
remove the trainers, rain will pour
on your carbon-based interface, no remorse

winds not stopping when the going travels down
through the lines of grime and passers-by
to the dark heart of this town

if you've been here, and seen these things coming,
come knock it down brashly, heaven's sick, sounds low now
sounds low now

if you're beat by the heat or retreating to meet
makers make matches, latch on to the top rung and pull it
no thrills pretty white slick-falls onto memory

only mistimed and remission for the other option
its not the only crumble when the smiles all reach up

and we are tick-tick-touching the sound-sick sky
we are the secret scraps bringing the buildings down
the places you feel the slightest in
forgetting is a skill i've lost the will to be reminded of
turn time-tables in

one full day, preplanned, shatters
calling back to itself in tatters
i heard you on the line, breathing hard with deceit
this is the fear in the floors coming up our feet