Both of them bring our emotions to the surface. They’re what help us relate to one another and deal with the highs and lows of life.
Although each can be just as powerful on its own, when it comes to music, both rely on each other for support. When music is without melody, it becomes poetry.
From some of the biggest and brightest names in the indie music scene – Fall Out Boy, Rise Against, Atreyu, Deftones, Rx Bandits, Meg & Dia, Motion City Soundtrack and more – comes the second installment of Revolution on Canvas.
This collection of lyrics that never made it into songs, journal entries, poems, fiction, essays and general rants range from downright funny and humorous to the sad and though provoking. And it gives yet another chance for these artists to communicate with their fans and speak to them on another level. --Kym Parsons
PETER WENTZ — Fall Out Boy
“Tonight We Lie in a City”
Tonight we lie in a city that doesn’t belong to either of us. From the penthouse it looks like a movie set. The grays are too perfect. It feels lit for a camera. The moon is too yellow and perfect.
Babygirl, with pupils the size of baby worlds.
She said, “I just want you to know that I never do things like this.”
But only people who always ‘do things like this’ say lines like that.
I reply, “There are cobwebs on the zippers of all my jeans.”
And I’m thinking God must be a hack for writing shitty dialogue like that.
And I’m thinking it’s lines like that which set you free.
TIM MCILRATH — Rise Against
“babygirl”
i don’t know your laugh
i don’t know your cry
and sometimes your face is just a memory
through my fingers you slip
again, but like the first time
it stings like a needle sewing right though me
but we were in love!
i remember it well
and they can’t ever take that from me
day after day and night after night
i wake up; my arms still empty
oh babygirl, has it really been this long?
oh babygirl, I’m coming home.
GABE SAPPORTA — Cobra Starship
“It’s Warmer in the Basement”
You can’t escape now
I’ve got you locked inside this room
You know I tip good
And soon, you will love me too
Don’t be upset now
You know I get angry too
Don’t make me hurt you
It’s true:
No one hears you in this room
ANTHONY GREEN — Circa Survive
“Look—Look”
That’s a shitty thing to say man, you’re a shitty dude, you know that? Nobody’s special –
and nobody changes. It’s rare when we can even tell the difference. I
can’t say I’m always happy with who I am. But daily I’m at battle with a
personal sense of defeat I feel everyone’s born with. Original sin. We are a
result of shame in motion, wet friction, fear, an impulse control board
located low, and underneath the belly.
SCHUYLAR CROOM — He Is Legend
“Letter to a Gypsy”
It’s a painful mistake on her part,
to try and become someone just because that someone may
be happier,
prettier, truly more free.
But she will learn that.
And out of everything you can give her, you cannot teach her
to love herself.
GRETA SALPETER — The Hush Sound
“You are the moon”
Shadows all around you as you surface from the dark,
Emerging from the gentle grip of night’s unfolding arms
Darkness, darkness everywhere, do you feel all alone?
The subtle grace of gravity, the heavy weight of stone
You cannot see what you possess, a beauty calm and clear
That floods the sky and blurs the darkness like a chandelier
All the light that you possess is skewed by lakes and seas,
The shattered surface, so imperfect, is all that you believe.
From Revolutions on Canvas: Poetry from the Indie Music Scene edited by Rich Balling. Collection © 2007 Ad Astra Books Inc. Reprinted by permission of Warner Books. From Revolutions on Canvas is currently available at www.amazon.com.
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