Snowflakes spin and fall like drunken dancers
Hey, commando, this evening has been canceled

And the assassins laughed
As you felt for your hands
They were wired like a suitcase bomb
And your breath was cold and your neck was red
And they'd shout

There's a fire in the middle of the town
So put your medications down
Let it murder you before you let it out
And I said who's your entertainment now?

Blameless impressions of the living
They bled what you'd offered to give them

So why don't you stake out your claim to fame
You can call it personality
Why can't I fold
Why can't I just leave this crowd

There's a fire in the middle of the town
So put your medications down
Let it murder you before you let it out
And I said who's your entertainment now?
How could you lead me to the edge of the plane
To let me wander when I couldn't walk straight
But it's all left me but the longing and the doubt
And I said who's your entertainment now?

Who's your Entertainment

Loveless In Lala Land

December wind 
Fractures the silver sky 
The snowflakes dot your eyes 
And through 
A picture frame 
With frosted finger tips 
I trace across your lips 

And the winter takes so long 

A dream, a song 
Collapses with the dawn 
Cold whispers through the halls 
Her ghost above my bed 
She hovers over me 
And dances through my head 

And the winter takes so long

Winterlong

From her perch upon the barstool 
She searches for a friendly face 
As every nightmare plays itself out inside her head 
And she slouches through the crowd 
With her hands down in her pockets 
And she wishes she was home instead 
An empty corner ain't a bad place to stand 
When you know there's no room for you 
In anyone else's plans 

So she waits for something better 
But better never comes 
She tries to think of something clever 
But clever never comes 
So she orders a shot 1,2,3,4,5 
It was 11 o'clock and she was feeling alive 
Now she's losing control and she's down on the floor 
And she's crying like she's never felt this before 
Let it all out 
Let it all out they say 
Then they turn and start walking away 

And the head that she came in with 
Is off floating someplace else 
Oh how she loves this sense of lost control 
With her apprehension gone 
There's nothing standing in her way 
Except the nagging thought that she still isn't whole 
An empty corner ain't a bad place to be 
When you're holding onto things that 
No one else can see 

So she waits for something better 
But better never comes 
She tries to think of something clever 
But clever never comes 
So she orders a shot 6,7,8,9 
It was ten after one and she was feeling alive 
Now she's losing control and she's down on the floor 
And she's crying like she's never felt this before 
Let it all out 
Let it all out they say 
Then they turn and start walking away 
They're walking away.

Girl from The Southside

Well I tried to change her mind but I came up twenty seconds short 
The rings of smoke she blows around her head 
I'll inhale, although, 
I know I'll choke 

I carved her face into the back of my heart 
Now it's all I think about 
'Cause everytime I feel it beating 
I get the urge to rip it out 

She makes me feel I'm at the bottom of the ocean 
With the weights chained to my feet 
And I'm looking for a lifeline in every other word she says 
She makes me feel I'm at the bottom of the ocean 
With the weights chained to my feet 
And I'm looking for a lifeline in every other word she says 

So I looked her in the eyes and I said 
Never mind 
I'd rather see just a piece of the puzzle 
Than a picture I knew couldn't be mine 
Always tangled in the moment I feel my confidence erased 
By an aching awkward silence that's like a slap across the face 

She makes me feel I'm at the bottom of the ocean 
With the weights chained to my feet 
And I'm looking for a lifeline in every other word she says 
She makes me feel I'm at the bottom of the ocean 
With the weights chained to my feet 
And I'm looking for a lifeline in every other word she says 

In the middle of the shakedown 
Communications break down 
A simple twist of fate, now 
Communications break down 

She makes me feel I'm at the bottom of the ocean 
With the weights chained to my feet 
And I'm looking for a lifeline in every other word she says 
She makes me feel I'm at the bottom of the ocean 
With the weights chained to my feet 
And I'm looking for a lifeline in every other word she says 

Word she says...

Lifelines

The light came over me 
I felt the planets shift 
I sailed through troubled clouds 
To shapeless worlds adrift 

For you...I'd shine for you. 

Oh you're so beautiful 
With the freckles that light your face 
I have mapped my way back home 
From the widest reaches of outerspace 
So let me wrap around your bones 
Like strings of seaweed tangled in your toes 

For you...I'd shine for you 
For you...I'd shine for you 

Departures wear us thin 
Embraces torn apart by savage winds 
Souls lost in distant skies 
Long to feel their weight again. 

For you...I'd shine for you 
For you...I'd shine for you.

View From A Beach

Night whirls around me 
Faceless 
I'm drowning 
In the vacuum of your soul 
Boundaries disappear 
With every pulse I'm nearer 
To the hand of your control. 

So drag me to the depths 
Of love's dark wilderness 
And make me bleed for you. 

Give all of my life for a little more time with you 
Said all of my lies gonna make a god out of you 
All of my life for a little more time with you 
All of my lies gonna make a god out of you. 

Drunk on sweeter potions 
Doubt eclipsed devotion 
This anger looks so beautiful on you 
Howls and thunder claps 
That roll the heavens back 
To reveal a darker shade of truth. 

So love me 'til I'm hollow 
Then leave me where the wind will carry me away. 

Give all of my life for a little more time with you 
Said all of my lies gonna make a god out of you 
All of my life for a little more time with you 
All of my lies gonna make a god out of you 
All of my lies gonna make a god out of you. 

And you're so pretty when it's raining 
When all my palace walls are shaking 
You're so pretty when it's raining 
It's raining 
It's raining 
It's raining 
It's raining. 

Give all of my life for a little more time with you 
Said all of my lies gonna make a god out of you 
All of my life for a little more time with you 
All of my lies gonna make a god out of you.

Wilderness

Under the spell of a western moon 
I conquered a nation all to make it to 
The jaded coast where all the lonely hearts 
Came bleeding to her shores. 

Violent wind along a mountain pass 
Her fingers melted in my sweaty hands 
Highways sing beneath the twinkled light 
Of the desert's starry hordes 

And if your mind retreats 
To dreams of mountain peaks 
And my love won't make you swoon 
Quite like the ocean view 
Then I'll put California on a toothpick 
And I will bring it home to you 
I'll put California on a toothpick 
And I will bring it home to you. 

Nocturnal lives weave their tangled roads 
They drink together but they'll cry alone 
They haunt the guestrooms of acquaintances 
Still trying to fill their holes. 

I'll drink your wine and I'll feed your mouth 
Just say the milk is cream if it's gone sour 
And we'll forget about those lonely parts 
When we stood at separate poles. 

And if your mind retreats 
To dreams of mountain peaks 
And my love won't make you swoon 
Quite like the ocean view 
Then I'll put California on a toothpick 
And I will bring it home to you 
I'll put California on a toothpick 
And I will bring it home to you. 

When I found you in your bloom 
Through hidden valleys cloudless evenings flew 
Eagle-eyed through my busted brain 
That I couldn't hold in place. 

We'll plant our roses in our yard 
Their thorns have pricked but haven't left us scarred 
And we'll waltz through the catacombs 
When eternity gives way. 

And if your mind retreats 
To dreams of mountain peaks 
And my love won't make you swoon 
Quite like the ocean view 
Then I'll put California on a toothpick 
And I will bring it home to you 
I'll put California on a toothpick 
And I will bring it home to you. 

I will bring it home to you.

Isolation Masquerade

California on a Toothpick (single)

California on a Toothpick

Loveliness, 
I've watched you sleep 
Through a rain that's spanned across the centuries 
Through the cool white noise I have heard you speak 
From the undertow 
I watch you sleep. 

We're stranded in rivers where highways should be 
The flow of the current's so bitterly sweet 
Islands of dreams all succumbing to fate 
And fall to the winds of your age. 

I guess we'll have to pray for a holiday 
For a holiday 
My god what a waste of your holiday 
Of your holiday 

Loveliness, 
I've watched you sleep 
Through a rain that's spanned across the centuries 
Through the cool white noise I have heard you speak 
From the undertow 
I watch you sleep. 

So where was the sunlight when we were still young? 
Now it's plastered on ceilings and spoken in tongues 
How I cling to your ghost 'though it were some sort of god 
In hopes that you'd break with a smile. 

I guess we'll have to pray for a holiday 
For a holiday 
My god what a waste of your holiday 
Of your holiday 

Another holiday in the rain, hey, hey, hey.

Holiday in the Rain

Problem Child

Conceived in the summer of 2012 by Janesville, Wisconsin singer-songwriter Robbie Haas, Elmer and the Ceramic Trees blend the melodiousness of bands like The Beatles and Big Star with the doom-and-gloom alt-rock of The Cure and Echo and The Bunny Men, the rhythmic precision of New Order, and the big choruses of classic Bowie and Arcade Fire to form a style of indie pop that is at once harrowing and gorgeous.

In December of 2016, Elmer & The Ceramic Trees released its third album, Maps of Outer Space. The self-produced release finds Elmer & The Ceramic Trees drawing from the lush melodies that have long formed the star-stuff of its melancholy universe while also treading into new sonic territory. Haas's baritone vocals hover tentatively over dreamlike soundscapes that are shaped by swirls of jagged guitars and clouds of icy, atmospheric synthesizers that remain grounded only by driving rhythms that range from danceable to militaristic.

ElmerandTheCeramicTrees