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Good Things Only Happen to Bad People

by Arab Spring

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1.
Sofia Black-D’Elia is this decade’s Sherilyn Fenn She’s Mila Kunis 2.0 as Natalie Portman took Winona Ryder Sofia Black-D’Elia is this decade’s Sherilny Fenn She’s Mila Kunis 2.0 as Natalie Portman took Winona Ryder Caught up in cathode ray beauty as it’s real to me, more beautiful than real life could ever be On tube sets, plasma or LCD, people always seem prettier when they’re on screen Made up real nice, though they’re divined for conflict, their pain needs to happen so our eyeballs lock So easy to sympathize when there’s nothing at stake here, when the outcome’s established, a well-worn trope Sofia Black-D’Elia is this decade’s Sherilyn Fenn She’s Mila Kunis 2.0 as Natalie Portman took Winona Ryder Sofia Black-D’Elia is this decade’s Sherilny Fenn She’s Mila Kunis 2.0 as Natalie Portman took Winona Ryder Piss stain nights playing alcohol Galaga, clean sheet mornings in Coleco Frenzy Today I awoke to flames out my window, a field filled with televisions afire So I’ll scan the sky and stand by the teletype, shoot the reports out as fast as I can When I break from my duties, I’ll soak in the screen glow, my monitor friends, my static company Sofia Black-D’Elia is this decade’s Sherilyn Fenn She’s Mila Kunis 2.0 as Natalie Portman took Winona Ryder Sofia Black-D’Elia is this decade’s Sherilny Fenn She’s Mila Kunis 2.0 as Natalie Portman took Winona Ryder
2.
Girl Factory 01:24
The girls are whatever you want them to be Pleasant, even with the company stock parts That are of course replaceable, of course customizable Widely applicable and adaptive to circumstance Praise the revival of American industry! With biorobotics, again the world’s envy! People for export, girls for the trade In flesh torn from soul, there’s a high profit margin Turn ‘em out, turn ‘em out, turn out the custom models The factory mades and the discount irregulars These are the objects, so real, almost human Turn out the girls, keep this economy strong So easy to question what’s real and what isn’t So many people turned out by machine With tastes hopes and dreams all coming preloaded So close to perfection in implanted memory It’s simple to find one to your specifications It’s very easy with the options provided Blurring the line between machine and human With our products, there are no limits! Turn ‘em out, turn ‘em out, turn out the custom models The factory mades and the discount irregulars These are the objects, so real, almost human Turn out the girls, keep this economy strong
3.
Someone let me out of here, someone let me loose I was born into a war, on a side I didn’t choose I am shot at from both sides, I don’t know why I stay alive I only want a neutral peace, I am not your enemy Crossfire life Your battle keeps me locked inside Crossfire life I’m a target inside your sights I am just collateral, one civilian loss An acceptable casualty, an expendable cost You don’t care ‘cause you don’t try, shed no tears when I die I am just a thing to you, there are things you just won’t do Crossfire life Your battle keeps me locked inside Crossfire life I’m a target inside your sights
4.
Visage 01:52
Called out from scrutiny, things with which you cannot cope Affirmed by allies only, enough to give you hope Never think to realize you’re living in a dream Progress not your concern, just who’s the winning team Gaze upon the true visage of the demon that lies within you Gaze upon the true visage of the demon that lies within you So proud and so pissed off, blinders on your face Knowing not what your hands do, you always look away Talking up the issues, words come like a flood Your hands when you look down, fully soaked in blood Gaze upon the true visage of the demon that lies within you Gaze upon the true visage of the demon that lies within you Gaze upon the true visage of the demon that lies within you Gaze upon the true visage of the demon that lies within you
5.
Dread starts to grip her when she hears his footsteps Heavy with rage, they make the floorboards creak Huddled in fear from her once beloved Death floods in when her head hits the wall, he says . . . “I want to talk about our relationship I want to talk about our future I’ve been out, I’ve got a buzz going I’ve had a few, and I’m coming over.” These are the best minds in America These are the hardest bodies in sport These are the most privileged kids in Maryland This is sensational, this means ratings This is glamor, these kids had promise This is scandal, their families prominent This is fiction, a soap opera narrative This is real life, her blood’s on the sheets “I want to talk about our relationship I want to talk about our future I’ve been out, I’ve got a buzz going I’ve had a few, and I’m coming over.” Lockjaw mouths, still and silent Guard kept up like an all-star goalie No reflection from the culture that birthed them Away from mirrors, they deflect their gaze So unabated they continue their torment So unfazed, they live their lives So entitled, they have no perspective All of their victims flee from their sights “I want to talk about our relationship I want to talk about our future I’ve been out, I’ve got a buzz going I’ve had a few, and I’m coming over.”
6.
Pessimystic 04:08
Just say the word, and I’ll leave you to be I’ll slowly back away it’s nothing new to me Love always sickens, withers and disappates Hope always dies, decays and dessicates Familiar story, the same old narrative Shout it ‘til I’m sick, and drive away my friends Like a full moon, big and shining bright Love always fades, gets darker every night Warm when I see you, your look, your touch, your smell, Cold when I think of you, this is my freezing hell Think of a future, and all I see is black You’re just another glimpse at something I can’t have Give me a moment, indulge my fantasy Stuck in my own head I’m as happy as can be We’re both together there, we’re in the same place Snap back to real life where you can’t reciprocate
7.
Surface X 04:05
Speaking in Amtrak whispers of the warm winds of Portuguese winters I fell in love with your telephone eyes, gazing into my soul through microwave towers Yours was the flesh come closest to being, yours was the body I almost felt You weren’t there when I trekked through the city, through skyscraper wind tunnels, the clouds pregnant with snow And you weren’t there because you were smarter, you knew how this played out so you split the scene And I’m still here among the unenlightened, and when I speak they can’t catch the dialect and . . . This is too real, this is too tactile This song is the wrong place and time This is too much, this is too naked This is the wrong place and time I’ll always be on your periphery, I’ll always have a supporting role You’re the protagonist, the one with dimension, a hit with the focus group, the key demographic Far from the male lead, I’m a bit player, all comic relief and desexualized quirk I saw you smile once, a convincing performance, you followed the method and lived in the role It was beyond performance, bullshit you don’t know that, for a few seconds you felt like I did It transcended fiction, it went beyond metaphor, we were real people, we had skin and . . This is too real, this is too tactile This song is the wrong place and time This is too much, this is too naked This is the wrong place and time Bitch, your voice sounds like the tape’s slowed down, this is the song you thought I kept writing We go way back, before speech and memory, we go way deep, we sink in dreams Last we met, you coalesced in ether, amorphous in shadow, shaped into being in light Let’s meet up, we’ll cut through the forest, we’ll endure the midpoint where the dead talk backwards We’ll arrive at the place where the sun’s always shining and we’ll never have want anymore This is too real, this is too tactile This song is the wrong place and time This is too much, this is too naked This is the wrong place and time This aspect of life is an ordeal sysiphan, an uphill struggle marked by regression I am mute, I watch from the outside with deep understanding I cannot apply I’ve seen them cry with joy, seen them sick with sorry, seen them spasm in pleasure and writhe in pain I comprehend their words and relate to their feelings but I cannot initiate, I fail to engage I want to live in their world, want to feel as they do, feel their highs and have a life worth living And I beat at the walls and scream my lungs out until my fingers are broken and my hands are bleeding This is too real, this is too tactile This song is the wrong place and time This is too much, this is too naked This is the wrong place and time
8.
9.
Orzolek 01:50
Ages to ages, race to race A passing complexion, an ambiguous face Metal on metal, sound on sound A diluted noise, a watering down Decade to decade, year to year Changing conditions and outmoded fears Angus to Andrew, Y to Control A marker of time, we’re all getting old They don’t love you like I love you, like I love you I don’t love you like they love you, like they love you They don’t love you like I love you, like I love you I don’t love you like they love you, like they love you Fan to detractor, teen to adult Tastes change and it’s nobody’s fault Garfield to Rollins, MacKaye to MacKaye An underground star sees the light of day Human to culture, state into nation Ever subject to assimilation Recent to classic, sleeper to hit Reshape and restructure to make a good fit They don’t love you like I love you, like I love you I don’t love you like they love you, like they love you They don’t love you like I love you, like I love you I don’t love you like they love you, like they love you
10.
Held in a vice grip framing device This is tale drawn out for eight seasons See the wrinkles on skin, aging in HD This is a timeline under the gun Reroll the stock at the start of each episode Those skeptical kids now full-on adults This is a battle between art and commerce A natural end versus network demands Suit up! Suit up if you’re down with the Bro Code Suit up! Suit up if you know what suits you Aloha! Suit up just like Drive Like Jehu Suit up if you sparkle in Canadian malls This is a program aware of itself A historicisation of the living present His is an unreliable voice A wealth of half-truths and liberal distortion She is a cipher, a Rorschach projection She cannot live up to expectations They are a plot point, a gateway to entry Sucking you in to their televised world Suit up! Suit up if you’re down with the Bro Code Suit up! Suit up if you know what suits you Aloha! Suit up just like Drive Like Jehu Suit up if you sparkle in Canadian malls Nothing suits me like a suit!
11.
Rooftop View 02:19
The city looks so pretty but not half as good as you It’s a place that only I know, it’s a million dollar view The cars all look like toys and the people look like ants Take it all in while I leap, ‘cause I never took a chance Please don’t care to miss me, just forget that I was here This is not your fault at all, you’ve got nothing to fear You don’t have to hear this, you’re well within your rights As if you even care at all, ‘cause I never even tried

about

Recorded 2011-2012 in the McCormick home in suburban Baltimore, Maryland

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released October 23, 2012

Mac McCormick-guitars, vocals, programming, synths

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Arab Spring Baltimore, Maryland

Mac McCormick's drum machine/sequencer based solo project.

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