LYRICS
CITY OF SAN JOSE
I flew in from Colorado
I’ve been incommunicado for a while
If the last 12 months have taught you anything
It’s that talkin’s not my style
But I want to send a quick top of the mornin’
From the bottom of the Bay
Where pelicans and planes fly lazy circles
‘Round the city of San Jose
I spent so many years pickin’ fights
And drinkin’ wisdom from the fountain
Imagine my surprise- the ocean didn’t care
And neither did the mountains
So I shut my mouth and shut my eyes
Stepped back and let the wasteland have its say
While pelicans and planes flew lazy circles
‘Round the city of San Jose
You can beat your head against the wall
Waiting for epiphanies and brainstorms
You can stand outside and drown yourself
In the rage and retribution of a rainstorm
Me, I’m gonna go and see my friends
We’ll sit and wish the day away
Watchin’ pelicans and planes fly lazy circles
‘Round the city of San Jose
Watch those pelicans and planes fly lazy circles
‘Round the city of San Jose
©202 Tod Weidner (Afterbirth of the Cool / ASCAP)
SAD, MAD, NOTHIN’
I’ve been lookin’ through my fingers
I’ve been seein’ how the bad blood lingers
I go out and take a walk ‘til the anger goes away
But it doesn’t go away
It doesn’t go away
It just turns into something sick and churning
Filling up my stomach and it sits there burning
With the other lumps of coal and the things I’m frightened of
Until there’s no more room for trust
And there’s no more room for love
Sad, mad, or nothin’
Sad, mad, or nothin’
Got a dozen bloody fist prints paintin’ the wall
Sad, mad, or nothin’ at all
Sad, mad, nothin’ at all
Outside there’s a half a billion people
Caught between the bottle and the needle and the steeple
Lookin’ for a light lookin’ for an easy way
But there ain’t no easy way
No, there ain’t no easy way
There’s just a hole in the shape of the future
Floatin’ in the ether bleeding from the suture
I can see it from my window suckin’ up the light
I can see it in the corner in the middle of the night
Sad, mad, or nothin’
Sad, mad, or nothin’
Got a dozen bloody fist prints paintin’ the wall
Sad, mad, or nothin’ at all
Sad, mad, nothin’ at all
Another year
Hot summer
A little older
A lot dumber
So tear it down
We need the lumber
Ain’t nothin’ changed but a goddamn number
Sad, mad, or nothin’
Sad, mad, or nothin’
Got a dozen bloody fist prints paintin’ the wall
Sad, mad, or nothin’ at all
Got a dozen bloody fist prints paintin’ the wall
Sad, mad, or nothin’ at all
©2021 Tod Weidner (Afterbirth of the Cool / ASCAP)
NOTHIN’ BUT TIME
Friday
Limps into the weekend
With a broken heel
and a hand stamp from the deep end
Saturday
Yields its time to Sunday
Who blows it all on nothing much
Till it crashes into Monday
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Comes around again
And the wind blows and the fear grows
And the nervous tics begin
It goes on and on and round and round
‘Cause you went away and I’m
Just sittin’ here with nothing clear but
Tick tock tick time
Nothin’ but time
April
May slide into June
July bleeds into August
Skipping stones across the moon
September
Always takes too long
October November
Two more verses in that same sad song
December disappears
In the shadow of January
Then the groundhog splits and gets away
With all the March that it can carry
It goes on and on and round and round
‘Cause you went away and I’m
Just sittin’ here with nothing clear but
Tick tock tick time
I just can't seem to find my groove
Or sleep or breathe or even move
On and on and round and round
‘Cause you went away and I’m
Just sittin’ here with nothing clear but
Tick tock tick time
Nothin’ but time
©2022 Tod Weidner (Afterbirth of the Cool / ASCAP)
LIGHT GOES GREEN
Fuel goes in and it turns to fire
Smoke comes out and it tugs the wire
I’m an engine
Just a dumb machine
And I only run right when the light goes green
Singin’ hey ho
Hear the angels blow
Their trumpets and shake them tambourines
Singin’ hey ho
I’ll be good to go
Won’t you let me know when the light goes green
A couple years back someone said to me,
“Son, you can’t go changin’ what you’re meant to be”
I ain’t livin’ ain’t dead
Somethin’ in between
But it’s all gonna change when the light goes green
Singin’ hey ho
Hear the angels blow
Their trumpets and shake them tambourines
Singin’ hey ho
I’ll be good to go
Won’t you let me know when the light goes green
When the light goes green
When the light goes green
I’ll have to get by on humble pie and gasoline
And I wouldn’t know luck if it up and bit me
Gave a good swift kick where the good lord split me
Brushed me off and sent me on my way
Sun comes up and it falls back down
Rain don’t give a damn where it hits the ground
It’s a hard world
It’ll cut you clean
And you gotta be ready when the light goes green
Singin’ hey ho
Hear the angels blow
Their trumpets and shake them tambourines
Singin’ hey ho
I’ll be good to go
Won’t you let me know when the light goes green
Singin’ hey ho
Hear the angels blow
Their trumpets and shake their tambourines
Singin’ hey ho
I’ll be good to go
Won’t you let me know when the light goes green
Won’t you let me know when the light goes green
©2022 Tod Weidner (Afterbirth of the Cool / ASCAP)
ALL THAT TROUBLE
Well, you got your family’s name
And you got your mama’s eyes
And you got your daddy’s credit card
And all the trouble all that buys
All the trouble all that buys
Gulp it down like candy
Wash it down with wine
Pretty people paying nothin’
Send that trouble down the line
Send that trouble down the line
Whatcha gonna do with all that trouble?
Whatcha gonna do with all that trouble?
Got heaven in the bedroom
Purgatory at the gates
And somewhere on the edge of town
All that trouble sits and waits
Got trouble in the valley
Trouble in the hills
Trouble in the lifeless laughter
Trouble in them little pills
Whatcha gonna do with all that trouble?
Whatcha gonna do with all that trouble?
©2022 Tod Weidner (Afterbirth of the Cool/ ASCAP)
RAISING PAIN
(Jack Piatt / Tod Weidner)
I never meant to meet you
I was somewhere else in my mind
I never meant to see you
The way I did that night
And now I can’t breathe right
To coin a cliche
But baby I don’t know
What else to say
You took my wind
And you ran away
Ran away
Left my heart at war with my brain
Knowin’ there’s there’s no way to win without you
I’m raisin’ pain
Raisin’ pain
Left alone and raisin’ pain
Left alone and raisin’ pain
There’s no way to win without you
It’s not enough to think about you
Raisin’ pain
So please explain to me
How to raise this ache you bring
It just won’t leave me be
But maybe
Maybe I can teach it to sing
Singin’ La da da da
La da da da
La da da da da
La da da da da
Da da da da
Da Da
You left my heart at war with my brain
Knowin’ there’s no way to win without you
I’m raisin’ pain
Raisin’ pain
Left alone and raisin’ pain
Left alone and raisin’ pain
There’s no way to win without you
It’s not enough to think about you
In the rain
Left alone and raisin’ pain
Left alone and raisin’ pain
And there’s no way to win without you
It’s not enough to think about you
Raisin’ pain
No, there’s no way to win without you
It’s not enough to think about you
Raisin’ pain
Don’t you know I’m Raisin’ Pain
©2023 Tod Weidner & Jack Piatt
(Afterbirth of the Cool / ASCAP)
(My Blue Mind / ASCAP)
BLUES FOR LANEGAN
You tried to go for the dopamine hit
Had to settle for a cigarette
These days the kicks are gettin’ fewer and farther between
Used to come in such a decadent rush
All the noises pretty flashes and such
But now you’re crouchin’ in the ashes with the rest of the libertines
Someone turn the light off
Someone I can trust
I been floatin’ in the window
Dancin’ with the dust
And through it all
Different kinds of poison all go down the same way
There’s a party at the gallows
But you’re swingin’ alone
And through it all
Different kinds of poison all go down the same way
There’s a party at the gallows
But you’re swingin’ alone
Casanova with a Cheshire Cat grin
He knows the trouble you’ve been gettin’ in
He’s been preachin’ on the corner throwin’ candy to the kids in the street
It’s an easy way to gather recruits
Dress ‘em up in silver skeleton suits
And send ‘em out into the jungle spreading venom to the orphans they meet
Someone turn the light off
Someone I can trust
I been floatin’ in the window
Dancin’ with the dust
I been floatin’ in the window
Dancin’ with the dust
©2023 Tod Weidner (Afterbirth of the Col / ASCAP)
FAVORITES
Thursday evening
Half past nine
I was feeling better
But not quite fine
Questions rising
Like fiddlehead ferns
No real answers
But the world still turns
I opened up my phone to “favorites”
Thought about the ways I could’ve saved it
The name still there
Like smoke in the air
I thought about them
All the time
Days like water
Nights like wine
Wasted outtakes
Deleted scenes
All stitched together
And thrown up on the screen
I opened up my phone to “favorites”
Thought about the ways I could’ve saved it
Never knew what it means
Never knew how much it stings
To miss you
I miss you
Never never knew how it feels
I would die beneath your wheels
To kiss you
I miss you
Thursday evening
Half past ten
I put the phone down
And drifted off again
Questions rising
I’ll never learn
No real answers
But the world still turns
So I opened up my phone to “favorites”
Thought about the ways I could’ve saved it
The name still there
Like smoke in the air
The name still there
Like smoke in the air
©2023 Tod Weidner (Afterbirth of the Cool / ASCAP)
COLD WEATHER KIDS
I’m gonna set fire to my shadow
It’s been holdin’ on a little too tight
I’ve been livin’ with it 24/7
But you only ever see it in the light
Gonna turn my blood back into water
Turn the water back into wine
Gonna hide it in the shed
Such a pretty shade of red
I haven’t seen in such a long long time
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
Cold weather kids
Well, the winter turns you hard as a bastard
With the memory of sweat stung eyes
Autumn lasted just about a weekend
Spring is nothin’ but a rumor and a sigh
Far away as the crows on the silos
Across the drifts and the ditches and the fields
But there’s a brutal kind of beauty
In the the snow-covered stubble
A truth that only comes with the chill
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
The cold weather kids
We’ll shelter in the light of the saints of Milwaukee
In temples made of foam
Stomp off the slush in the doorway
And let the neon warm our bones
It’s better than drinkin’ alone
Better than drinkin’ alone
I was talkin’ ‘bout the snow with my buddy
While the sleet beat down like a drum
He said it used to be a friend and a playground
Now it’s just an enemy to overcome
Like this Rust Belt brand of fatalism
In these withered old factory towns
The good times never last
They come and go fast
Drink hard and keep the bad news down
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
Keep a safe distance and try to steer into the skids
That’s the way it is for the cold weather kids
©2024 Tod Weidner (Afterbirth of the Cool / ASCAP)
