1. |
Escape Plan
03:53
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The airbrake fractures my newborn daydream
Can I already be there? Can I already be there?
Already drifting off on a rainy January morning
At the bus stop, and blissfully unaware
My eyes closed and hidden behind a curtain of skin
That chains me to the moments I’m stuck in
So I’ll keep one eye looking upwards and the other behind me
Not sure what in the hell I’m expecting will find me
But I bet it’s gaining fast, oh it’s gaining fast
Oh my God, it’s not even 9am and I need a vacation
Need some unfiltered inspiration
Need a new penny to shine until it glows
And I need a new stage to occupy and a new song to get me high
And an audience like me escaping their woes
Our eyes closed and hidden behind a curtain of skin
That chains us to the moments we’re stuck in
One eye looking upwards and the other behind me
Not sure what in the hell I’m expecting will find me
But I bet it’s gaining fast, oh it’s gaining fast
These stubborn ducks won’t stay in their rows
They’re evasive and they’re dancing in the aisles
And I question every day this future that I chose
And it’s all I can do to crack a smile
So I’ll head up the road just a couple miles
Maybe hang out at Blakes for a little while
I’m gonna sing with my friends and smile
Oh even when it ain’t Monday, I’m used to salvaging some days
With what my eyes see when they’re…
Closed and hidden behind a curtain of skin
That chains us to the moments we’re living
One eye looking upwards and the other behind me
Not sure what in the hell I’m expecting will find me
But I bet it’s gaining fast; please, let it be gaining fast
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2. |
All Your Ills
03:34
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Sure would be nice to be rich someday
I would snap my fingers and I’d have my way
Wouldn’t have to worry about every price I pay
Except what I shelled out to get this way
Amass your wealth, you might sacrifice yourself
Protecting all that money can’t do wonders for your health
I’ve lost my way to center, can’t put my worries on the shelf
A pedestal sure sounds like a nice place
The clouds beneath me and above me only space
The air is clearer and the sun always shines upon my face
What a waste, and what a long long way down to fall from grace
Gave up being holy, forgot being wise
The top of the heap was just the bottom in disguise
I thought it so idyllic, but the same fear applies
Do it for the love, do it for the joy and the thrill
‘Cause being the best ain’t ever gonna cure all your ills
Bring yourself to life, baby, because nothing and no one else will
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3. |
Sister Vigilante
03:40
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You need your enemies like you need your friends
And you need world peace like a hole in your head
Salvation, what could be further from heaven sent?
‘Cause God loves a villain, an evil to rail against
Where would all our energy go without somewhere to aim?
Tell me, would we explode without a world to save?
I need a drop of darkness to help discern the light
Everytime I’m wronged I get that much better at recognizing right
And I want to freeze, because melting felt so nice
I’ve got balance and contrast locked within my sights
We’re all rocks bouncing up and down this hill
And the sharp edges fade
With every collision with the ground
We’re closer to perfect and closer to saved
The thief, the terrorist, the murderer, the liar
Slap a target on his back, and crown your new Messiah
No good without evil, no fire without ice
So here’s your sacrificial lamb to save you from your own device
You need cracks to fall through and you need mountains to climb
Does time heal all wounds or do wounds just mark the time?
Where would all our energy go without somewhere to aim?
Tell me, would we explode without a world to save?
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4. |
Waxing/Waning
05:04
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Saturnine moon detesting all your survey
Spitting venom at approaching day
After a fitful night’s sleep
I’ll be home soon on each updraft awoken and jarred
On a redeye flight under your guard
Entrusted to your fickle keep
Waxing, waning, too engrossed in celestial affair
Are you watching, do you even care? Do you?
The world dreams while you execute your nightly run
Envying the fortunate sun
That gives consciousness its sight
Prodigal though I seem I am only hear to implore
Get me safe back to Baltimore
By daylight
Waxing, waiting, too exhausted to raise my head
Weary but waking, can’t close my eyes instead
Your call goes unheeded
No assurance you’re even needed
Let alone adored
But attention never the objective
Your affection’s ineffective
And ignored
Quietly you strain, pulling waters over the land
They’re refreshed by an unseen hand
But unaware of its name
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5. |
Esme & Jeremy
03:28
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None
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6. |
Test Drive
04:37
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Decision made under streetlight
Just eight hours, maybe seven if the traffic breaks just right
And I could hold her tight
Setting out from by the Bay
Headed southbound on the 5 for nearly half the day
I feel like a cliché
‘Cause I never saw this coming and I’m feeling so alive
So I’m packing up some things and I’m going for a drive
My car’s doing 80, my heart 165
Hayward, Dublin, Livermore
6 days 14 hours since it started, but who’s keeping score?
And what would you even use that kind of data for?
Through Coalinga and Bakersfield
I’m overcaffeinated, overstimulated and far from even-keeled
Ever since my heart came unsealed
‘Cause I never saw her coming and I feel over-revived
So I’m packing up some things and I’m going for a drive
My car’s doing 80, my heart’s doing 165
Calibration is a challenge when you find yourself
Suddenly resonating
And I’m a sine wave through the Grapevine
Cutting down the distance stubbornly separating us
When I get in, the evening’s near
The day is idling but something new is revving up here
Do you know how to steer?
‘Cause I never saw you coming and I feel over-revived
So I gathered up some things and I’m ready to take a dive
My car’s doing 80, my heart’s doing 165
My car doing 84, my heart 165
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7. |
Deserving
04:16
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There’s a disconnect between what you expect to see
In the mirror’s version of reality
And what stares back, you see only what you lack
All the sub-microscopic cracks
You’ve gotta go easier on you
You think it’s moving you forward but it’s dragging you down
Easier on you… easier…
And would it kill you to feel deserving?
Nothing’s perfect but it’s worth it anyway
Would it kill you to feel deserving?
The impostor at the door, that’s who you’re waiting for
‘Cause the whole world’s gonna know your secret before
Too much longer, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Until it pulls you under
You think it’s moving you forward but it’s dragging you down
Easier… easier…
And would it kill you to feel deserving?
Nothing’s perfect but it’s worth it anyway
Would it kill you to feel deserving?
This tree can’t have grown
From these tiny seeds you’ve sown, you swear
You steal the thunder from
Every lightning bolt that comes from thin air
And so it won’t be long before
A smoking splintered mess is all that’s left there
You think it’s moving you forward…
(Quincy’s verse)
I got that geeky flow still smooth as Vaseline
We used to listen to “Issues”, read comic book magazines
I’m all grown up now, so the world’s gotta listen
Gamers, musicians, skaters with no supervision
No suit and tie but with the rhymes I get busy
Quincy, the sensitive rapper, on guitars with Joe Hickey
Put me in front of a MC I eat his face like a cannibal
They told me that those video game sounds were unsampleable
There should be a sign on my front door saying “Don’t Feed the
Animals”, when me and my friends hang out, I ramble
Long dreadlocks as I stood over the piano
I wore a backpack, a camo jacket with the flannel
Shoot back and never talk to the cops, that’s what I learned
I grew up in the ghetto, now I live in the ‘burbs
And through the words, I related to those who stood on the curb
I told the world I was a nerd, fly as a flock of birds
Though I came from the dirt, we fresh as a tic-tac
There’s no such thing as a mistake or a mishap
If they bring the money, tell them that we need a big bag
After this I’ma roll Kermit the Frog in a zigzag, yeah
(Joe and Tawnee, again)
And would it kill you to feel deserving?
Nothing’s perfect but it’s worth it anyway
Would it kill you to feel deserving?
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Joe Hickey Martinez, California
Joe Hickey is a teacher-by-day/rockstar-by-night, moving audiences in the SF Bay Area since
2003.
To his solo music, he brings a love for unusual imagery and stark honesty, and marries it to folk, rock and pop influences ranging from Ani DiFranco to Jethro Tull to Fiona Apple to Gentle Giant to Jeff Buckley, drizzling his pleading but powerful tenor voice all over that potent mixture.
... more
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