Damn. Yes.
Trivia: The members of Neutral Milk Hotel appear in the video for "Dirty Dream #3" by Belle and Sebastian. (I think it's #3...math is not my strong suit.)

I recently found out the members of Nuetral Milk Hotel went to high school in the same town I did.

Craig Finn of the Hold Steady responds to the question of his favourite lyricists:

'John Samson from the Weakerthans—he is the lyricist that I can say, without hesitation, is better than I am. But almost everyone else I think I'm in contention with. [Other favorites are] Blake Schwarzenbach from Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil, obviously Dylan, Springsteen—that kind of thing. But John Samson is the best right now.'

and I totally agree:


Where a small knife tears out those sloppy seams,
and the silence knows what you silence means,
and your metaphors (as mixed as you can make them)
are linked, like days, together.


Weakerthans - This Is A Fire Door Never Leave Open

You're from Ruston?

From a town about twenty miles away, but I went to school K-12 and one year of college there. I live in Mississippi now, I'm at Ole Miss.

"Laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank" - Modest Mouse

"Rat in a drain ditch
caught on a limb
You know better
but I know him" - Grateful Dead

Taken from the new Elbow-album (The Seldom Seen Kid)

- Starlings-
How dare the Premier ignore my invitations?
He'll have to go
So, too, the bunch he luncheons with
It's second on my list of things to do.

At the top I'm stopping by
Your place of work and acting like
I haven't dreamed of you and I
And marriage in an orange grove
You are the only thing in any room you're ever in
I'm stubborn, selfish and too old.

I sat you down and told you how
the truest love that's ever found
Is for oneself
You pulled apart my theory
With a weary and disinterested sigh

Personally, I can't stop listening to it..so b-e-a-u-tiful

Elbow, check it out!

"Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself
when you're old enough to repay but young enough to sell?"

"And Ive seen love make a fool of a man
He tried to make a loser win.
But Ive got nothing to lose I cant get back again"

"You know I lose, you know I win
You know I call for the shape I'm in.
Its just a game you see me play,
Only real in the way
That I feel from day to day"

-snippets of Neil Young lyrics

The man, the myth, the legend

The Rat - The Walkmen

You've got a nerve to be asking a favor
You've got a nerve to be calling my number
I know we've been through this before
Can't you hear me, I'm calling out your name?
Can't you see me, I'm pounding on your door?

You've got a nerve to be asking a favor
You've got a nerve to be calling my number
Can't you hear me, I'm bleeding on the wall?
Can't you see me, I'm pounding on your door?

Can't you hear me when I'm calling out your name?

When I used to go out, I would know everyone that I saw
Now I go out alone if I go out at all

When I used to go out I'd know everyone I saw
Now I go out alone if I go out at all

When I used to go out I'd know everyone I saw
Now I go out alone if I go out at all

You've got a nerve to be asking a favor
You've got a nerve to be calling my number
I'm sure we've been through this before
Can't you hear me, I'm beating on your wall?
Cant you see me, I'm pounding on your door?


Pretty good lyrics made even better by the raw emotion they are delivered with.

Didn't know this had leaked, I'm really looking forward to hearing it. Guy Garvey's lyrics are always amazing - especially on Newborn, which is one of my favourite songs of all time.

I'll be the corpse in your bathtub
Useless
I'll be as deaf as a post
If you hold me like a newborn
Whisper what you feel
My badly strung declaration
To You
You'll spend the end of your days
Gently smiling like a newborn
Love not by degrees

Press your lips
To my eyes
Taste my tears
On your tongue,
Pull the blinds
Play our song
Nothings changed
Nothing could be wrong.

Scream in the night
Kick and strike
Like a newborn
Holding me shaking
Awake in the dark
All of these promises
Kept and unbroken
Tracing the scars
Tracing the scars
Even and cold
As we both become older.
Your arms bound about me
The hush in your voice.
The warmth of your fingers
Entwined around mine
In the eve of our lives
Never a choice.

"Great god,
this is an awful place.
I do not think that we can hope
for any better things now
Oh, the end it cannot be far
I cannot wait"
-Terra Nova, iLiKETRAiNS


Whenever I'm feeling down and depressed these words just stab me in the chest. Even though they're pretty much stolen from Sir Robert Scotts diary, from his last days alive, I think it's just ingenious to incorporate them into a song.

I love the whole of THE BEECHiNG REPORT too, you really get the feel of workers protesting in unison.

You could have been in the city too long
You don't get lost anymore
What ever happened to a sense of wonder?
There are miracles down on the floor
Like the message on the ground outside the dentist's
Where someone's written simply: TEETH
They could have written WAKE UP on the pavement
But they wanted us to look underneath
We put all our faith in constructs
We put all our faith in sand...-The Jazz Butcher