Rinse And Repeat - Unfinished Demo

For god’s sake just take damn photograph
This collar’s itching at my neck
Look at you, barbed wire tattoo
Tucked away to garner some respect
Tallies on the wall let you know
(Coming up behind you)
You’re not the star of the show
(Something deep inside of you)
You knew one day I’d come for it all	
I’m the cold-blooded king of the cold call

A Savvy Sultan in a Kia sedan
Kissing peasant babies on their cheeks
Without a doubt, don’t you dare flout it
That parking spot’s mine for the next four weeks
‘Cause I’m a force on the phone
(Calling up your auntie)
With a soothing baritone
(Selling her a warranty)
You can tell by the way I strut these halls
I’m the cold-blooded king of the cold call

I’m calling with a limited offer
Deep discounts on services to proffer
You’re gonna pay, you’re gonna pay
You’re gonna pay, you’re gonna pay
It’s 10 payments of $19.97
come on, won’t you help me the beat that asshole Kevin
I’m gonna slay, I’m gonna slay
I’m gonna slay, I’m gonna slay
I’m gonna slay, I’m gonna slay
I’m gonna slay, I’m gonna slay

Pretty soon I’ll be running this place
Thick head of hair with the vanity plates
Pretty soon I’ll be running this place
Person of the year, smiling face

I got my own tempur-pedic throne
Feudal subject to my left and right
And not one among ‘em ever supposes
That the answer’s not to be polite
You gotta find a flow, keep composed
(Started as an amateur)
But always keep em on their toes
(Now regional manager)
And one day you’ll make a play for it all
But I’m the cold-blooded king of the cold call
I’m the cold-blooded king of the cold call
I’m the cold-blooded king of the cold call

Cold Blooded King of the Cold Call

when the ties that bind
find their way to your footwear
they’ll tie knots you’ve never seen 
and you’re tripping everywhere
falling dumb and free
and I bet you’d notice me
but it’s a long fall down

I gotta say I find it kinda funny
the only thing I ever really cared about’s money
or the lack of it
or who’s got the most of it
pretty soon we’ll kick the shins of the high and mighty
and it’s a long fall down

I need a new preoccupation
don’t like the way the future’s tasting
rotten hearts and bitter souls
the social contract, if you recall
sas signed with doodles of dicks and balls

been searching high and low
for a way to turn back time or just
turn us back into…
or tear us back in two
and just admit that some things run their courses
before the long fall down

seeing life as a zero sum game
if you want the wealth and fame
you gotta fight for it
take out an eye for it
and be blind to shining shrine to your unhappiness
poised for the long fall down

I need a new preoccupation
don’t like the way the future’s tasting
rotten hearts and bitter souls
face down in a cell phone
the world calling out my name
but there’s no one home

the keen eye of the prodigal son gonna
peer out at the world and wonder why the lesser chimps
won’t worship him

The Long Fall Down

It's cold in this room
but warmer next to you
but is there any room
if not, I'll be gone soon

the frog in the stew
warming up to doom
nearly boiled through
falling apart for you

Frog

You Are My Sunshine (For Grammie)

Tried to keep this faithful, but louder. Hope ES fans enjoy it!

A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free (Elliott Smith cover)

I watched the sun go down on the settlement
Faster than it’s ever done
and I, I see all the vacancy only they can see
and say straight faced to me

It’s for the best
It’s for the best
while staring down the old Brown Bess

it’s just coincidence
That’s all it ever is
No adversarial forces conspire
It’s just coincidence
That’s all it’s ever been
it only feels like we’re doomed to flounder

Over and over again

the shore where the bones bleach white
When the time is right
We’ll hit em where it hurts, and I
I’ll address what the prospector said
With a hole in the head
From a little bit of dynamite

It’s for the best
It’s for the best
Does anyone believe that yet 

Manifest destiny consumed the west
And there’s nowhere to go but up
And I’m not coming down

it’s just coincidence
That’s all it ever is
No adversarial forces conspire
It’s just coincidence
That’s all it’s ever been
it only feels like we’re doomed to flounder

Over and over again

Manifest Destiny

Feeling like a different man just wearing the skin
Shy a couple pounds and pounding the aspirin
I’ll drift off and fade into limbo
Sink into bed as deep as it goes

I dreamt you left him and you sought me out
Wandering down with the cormorants due south
Follow my crumbs to ruins scrawled with runes
And my crumbling face on an ancient tomb

Well boohoo
Waking up is such a hard thing to do
When REM is conjuring you
Conjuring you

Time passing at a glacial pace
Life flashing as pin pricks in deep space
It’s rough so far, but you felt near
And smooth as a quick shift into 5th gear

Get it all wrong? Arrive too late?
Spit out songs. Stupidly wait.
Behind my eyes, the consolation prize
A faux facsimile of you

Well boohoo
Waking up is such a hard thing to do
When REM is conjuring you
Conjuring you

I lost it bad
A swift defeat
I lost it bad
A full retreat

See my name in the ranks
of all the best somnambulists
A lofty pedigree
Go-getters never get a restful sleep

Still chasing the dream that all the rest
Just make seem like a default state
A good thing that comes to those who wait

Seems like it might have gotten lost or delayed
I keep an eye out in the night in case I might
Need to walk away

Walking slow in the snow
The echoless open field make it feel
Like an inside space
A private setting for a frenzied mind to race

the good, the bad, and all the fair shakes I’ve had
got me missing documents
On the borderline like a foreign occupant

Seems like I might have gotten lost along the way
You be the cat, i'll be the mouse with toxoplasmic brain

They’re all on the outs with reality
why pick fights with a paranoid fallacy
I’m falling out of step, with a malady
Who’s got time, got time to fall asleep

you just gotta speak up from what you’ve learned
But a decade alone will make you taciturn
While you sit back and watch the world burn
you’ve got a choice, to sleepwalk or toss and turn

Seems like it might have gotten lost or delayed
I keep an eye out in the night in case I might
Need to walk away

Sleepwalker

the walls of Constantinople
couldn't protect them in the end
one good breach of Theodosian
and they poured right in
all the best laid plans of man
will crumble into nothing
but I'm...

I'm still here

told we need a purpose
does that include terrible bosses
a peaceful departure on a death bed
due to minimized corporate losses
and you'll go to India
the wider world can help you
but I'm...

I'm still here
I'm still here
I'm still here

I've got no advice to offer
but I'm...

I'm still here
I'm still here
I'm still here
I'm still here
I'm still here

I'm Still Here

Harness Your Hopes (Pavement cover)

Sidereal Slough

Casting Call - Whip-Smart Kids

Front And Center

I hear relief in my sigh
Every time I try to tell you
And you just get bored
I feel the need to share
Though I couldn’t care
Any less if it stirred you
Or where you’d prefer to go
I already know

It’s not where I see myself
Oh no, not right now 
I need solace and something to drink
I won’t need a partner
You must have missed the part where
I vacate my life
At least for a while
I’ve been pining
for an island

Where it smells of peat smoke
And the scotch whisky flows
To my troubles and drags them away
With the white-clad homes
And those old graveyard bones
And a light that shines through the grey
Oh, Islay, Islay
I’ll be there one day

I’ll come back renewed
And the things that once proved
too much to take, I’ll obliterate
A confetti of cares
Blown into the air
I’ll be standing outside
When a friend drives on by
saying “Hey. Man where you been?”

And I’ll say
Where it smells of peat smoke
And the scotch whisky flowed
To my troubles and dragged them away
With the white-clad homes
And those old graveyard bones
And a light that shined through the grey
Oh, Islay, Islay
I’ll be there one day

I’ve gotta get gone

To where it smells of peat smoke
And the scotch whisky flows
To my troubles and drags them away
With the white-clad homes
And those old graveyard bones
And a light that shines through the grey
Oh, Islay, Islay
I’ll be there one day

Gutter Gospel (working title)

Islay

I was there you just couldn’t see me
Waiving from the balcony
You were captivated by
the merits of a smile that wasn’t mine
And I knew I would just waste our time
There was never a hello, but goodbye

sometimes loneliness is fine
It wraps you in its arms so tight
it tucks you in to a restless night
A balmy bramble, a lullaby
That talks you into staying inside
So there’s never a hello, but goodbye

Missed connections
Phantom affections
it’s a game of what ifs
No fear of rejection
no ugly projection
it’s a grift
That I don’t intend or mean to defend
I just wanted to send my regards
And walk ‘round the bend

There was never a hello, but goodbye

Never A Hello, But Goodbye

You’re so weird
You’re giving night terrors to nightmarish fiends
You gotta know that you’ve got powers
peering through the unseen
It’s all so far beyond my understanding

And though I might shake
No, please don’t take
It as a strike against you
No one’s against you
no one but you

You’re so many steps above
To us it’s not worth the climb
You’ve gotta know that all your powers
just flip the paradigm
You’re growing ever stronger with time

And though I might shake
No, please don’t take
It as a strike against you
No one’s against you
no one but you

Big big tremors shaking the streets
and all the cars sound alarms
While culprits cop to defeat

Big big feelings overwhelm me
And all my thoughts are for naught
When my head’s in apogee

All your powers impress upon me
All that’s good without the hyperbole

Big big tremors shaking the streets
and all the cars sound alarms
While culprits cop to defeat

Big big feelings overwhelm me
And all my thoughts are for naught
When my head’s in apogee

Your Powers

I’ve been staring at the waitress too long
Brown hair and bright pink lipstick on
And she forces a laugh
As she lifts the carafe
I’m wearing mismatched socks and a black eye
Feeling wrong but the customer is always right
I’ll live that lie for a while
And believe in her smile

I would say my plans have gone astray
I would say my plans have gone astray

Stacking houses of cards to watch em fall down
Frantic treading while pretending that we won’t drown
We’re a-ok, just fine
While withering on the vine
In my dreams there’s no success unless I stand tall
Spanning chasms of sarcasm while the rest fall
Oh man, I put up a fight
Then comes the morning light

I would say my plans have gone astray
I would say my plans have gone astray

Your plans
Are nothing
Just some junk
That you’re lugging
Up and down the stairs
Who cares?

Your plans
Are nothing
To the cold
Unloving 
Existential dance
Sheer chance

I would say my plans have gone astray
I would say my plans have gone astray

Plans

This is a cover of an obscure Elliott Smith song from early in his career. The original only exists in a very low-fi demo. I have embellished and expanded on a really fun cowboy song.

Lyrics:

My daddy was shy, he lived in Cheyenne
He turned as red as I've ever seen a man
And his skin was thick, and he was hard as a brick
And just couldn't talk to no one
And that must be where I get it from

My uncle worked in a plutonium mine
His job was to set up the dynamite
And he got too close to a charge underground
And all of his feelings went numb
And that must be where I get it from

Kiyay, yippee eiyo

My mama was ten feet tall
She wasn't afraid of nothing at all
And she said her prayers properly and all
She swore on a grave and a gun
And that must be where I get it from

Great-grandad went mad, he was totally tweaked
He wore the same suit every day of the week
And I asked how it feels to be such a freak
And he said, "You tell me, son"
And that must be where I get it from

Kiyay, yippee eiyo

Dad's little hands sat in his lap
Like a couple of crabs who got caught in a trap
And he shook my hand from so far away that
He looked like a spot on the sun
And I guess that's where I get it from
And I guess that's where I get it from
And I guess that's where I get it from

covers

Where I Get It From (Elliott Smith cover)

a crooked spine
a new fault line
To shake your world
Make meaning into mess now

A silk so fine
To make divine
A creature you
Wouldn’t like when dressed down

I won’t be straight when I’m a suture sewing up
Wounds you never had
Who said anything about the future, darlin’
I guess you got it bad

immune to signs
And flying blind
Into a place of
No return now

I’m the kind
You leave behind
And don’t recall
’Til you’ve already left town

I won’t be straight when I’m a suture sewing up
Wounds you never had
you got me thinking about the future, darlin’
I guess I got it bad

I’m trying this new deal	
It’s all the rage
gonna just shut up and give a good thing
a chance for a change

I’m pulling petals
Pulling petals
Pulling petals
one by one

I’m pulling petals
Pulling petals
Pulling petals
One by one

Free Dirt

Pulling Petals

When it’s time to bury the hatchet
It doesn’t count if you do in their back, kid
When you’ve lost, you’ve lost
Still you cling to defiance at what cost?
There’s plenty more to go around
But go ahead and set yourself off

Not saying it was right, what they've done to you
But what you got there is a short fuse

And you bark all night
Your head burns bright
Like hellfire let loose
You just pass on the abuse

We’re all trespassers in hallowed ground
It's just a matter of how often we come around

Try to live a life less jaded, you’re three sheets to the wind
You might find the things you hated were lost on you to begin

you stake your sign
you bide your time
your fireworks draw a crowd
But your anger’s not profound

We’re all trespassers in hallowed ground
Just a matter of how often we come around

it’s come time to bury the hatchet
Bury it in the back in the woods by the stream
It’s past due to see that you ain’t hot shit
another short straw in a field cut clean
it’s come time to bury the hatchet
You’ll come to know what compromise means
It’s past due and soon you’re gonna catch it
the new contagion is complacency 

But you keep swinging

When it’s time to bury the hatchet
It doesn’t count if you do in their back, kid
When you’ve lost, you’ve lost
Still you cling to defiance at what cost?
There’s plenty more to go around
But go ahead and set yourself off

Bury The Hatchet

Don’t meet your heroes
They can only disappoint you
It’s pretty clear, though
that all signs point to
a shit-brained ploy to
Cast off your good sense
‘I challenge you
To find another person 
so worthy so true’

You can’t fault them anything at all

Don’t meet your heroes
Don’t you know that gods were meant to be killed
Knocked back to zero
Doomed to live a life among the unfulfilled
Golden age actor beat his wife
The wall of sound that took a life

Build them up to watch them fall

You can hang on every word they say
Spin like a top
Don’t come to me when eventually
you start to rock
In a back and forth sway
‘cause no matter which way
I will left you drop

Don’t meet your heroes
The surface lies, the beast it hides below
It lives in fear, though
And with prying eyes it only grows
Funny man with a fistful of surprise
The athlete that peddles in dope and lies

Flip the switch and watch the visage fall

Don't Meet Your Heroes

This song was prompted by the events at the United States capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Seeing that occur and then the continued lies and delusions from republican congresspeople required me to vent my ire at something worthwhile. Written and recorded in the span of 3 days, it walks through my feelings on the matter, and I can only assume the feelings of many others on the matter. Thematically, there is a bridge invoking fife and drums and a loudspeaker stump speech. I hope you enjoy it.

The song is available for purchase on Bandcamp:
https://myneighborkellan.bandcamp.com/track/tiny-little-men
All proceeds will be donated to the local Austin, TX branch of the NAACP.

_____________________________________________

Bad actors with their thumb on all factors
Send a stink right into your olfactors
We’re in their world, in their eyes we’re all suckers
But we’re rolling the credits on you fuckers

My, my I can’t help but ask why
you would spend such a waste of a life
Wheeling and dealing
Conning and stealing
Your momma’s ghost is crying

Get out now
Get out while you can
This world will roll over
Tiny little men

Tough luck, now you’re out in the open
and the tigers are tired of coping
Out from their dens with your blood’s smelling sweetly
karma’s for real, you’ll be ravaged completely

Bye, bye you can’t say we didn’t try
Mercy is useless if you have it all the time
no hope for healing
With the likes of the unfeeling
We know that crocs don’t cry

Get out now
Get out while you can
This world will roll over
Tiny little men	

Rapture revolutionary poison state of mind
plants charges on the bridge that spans this great divide
Smash and grab, you take it all whatever you can find
but they’ll march up to your door and eat their own in due time 

Get out now
Get out while you can
This world will roll over
Tiny little men
This world will roll over
Tiny little men
This world will roll over you
Tiny little men
We’re out to get you you
Tiny little man

Tiny Little Men

Hobbyist musician by night, illustrator/animator by day, living in Austin, TX. Major influences include Elliott Smith, Built to Spill, Pavement, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. Follow me on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0ZnvQUQUSE6wZgS1zVi5dh?si=WITWA6IURra15pb4Z0cgCA

My Neighbor Kellan

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks