LYRICS

300 COPIES -story.
I remember being at Ben Gibbard and Kris K's house. Kind of Like Spitting would
spend weekends on their couch when we used to go up to Seattle to fuck with
Barsuk. Gibbard left us a key for the house so we could go out for a drink. We
all got ready, went downstairs, and the first thing we did was get the key
jammed into the door. Then we decided to break the key. Then we decided we could
figure out a solution to this dilemma by taking the whole damn lock out. When we
did, a shit load of springs shot out and we knew we were fingered. So I drove
for like two hours with Mr. Brian Grant to various hardware stores until we gave
up and decided to get the part in the morning. We thought it was really funny
that these boys would come home and their lock would be missing. I guess you had
to be there. As house guests, we wore ourselves thin and fast.
300 copies is what I figured it would cost to recoup the record. I was scared
that Jensen would lose the farm by picking up the project. All he lost was good
judgement. And the songs I reference in "300 Copies" are Jugoton
songs. Croatian pop from the '70s. Mainly Novi Fosili, Dani Marsan, and Oliver
Dragovic. I grew up on these songs and recently found a new love for these
classics. I could talk your ass off about this.

300 COPIES -lyrics.
we took the lock out of the damn door. we held our ground and we drove around.
you hated sleeping on the floor. i love the feel of "out of town".
what could i write about? i still think of you. i want to sell three hundred
copies. let's get it off paper and in our homes. let's get it off our minds
while we still have them. i've got this certain image of what our lives in love
would be like. please don't fuck it up. i could kiss your lips. i could wake you
up in the middle of the night and make you sing songs we grew up with, songs we
grew old with.

I HAD YOU. -story.
This is just a dirty little song. Inspired by rude comments Mike B. was making
towards my lyrics. The drum sample is Ben Barnett at the Cash Money Bros. show
in some basement. That other sound is my friend Missy. Everybody asks me what
kind of keyboard I used. She has a great laugh and the mic picked it up. She and
I took a great roadtrip once.

I HAD YOU -lyrics.
waiting in your room. and the pillows say that you've been here today. and what
did i do, what did i say that drove you away? the last time i had you. don't run
away. tell yourself more lies to make you feel ok. and the time goes by. and the
time slips away. the last time i had you. i can't get my mind off the bed.
NOT NOW, NOT EVER. -story.
I remember taking a flight out to LA to calm myself. My girlfriend at the time
called me to tell me this story about jumping into puddles. Indirectly. That's
when I knew it was all over.

NOT NOW, NOT EVER. -story.
I remember taking a flight out to LA to calm myself. My girlfriend at the time
called me to tell me this story about jumping into puddles. Indirectly. That's
when I knew it was all over.

NOT NOW, NOT EVER -lyrics.
puddles splashed in vein in godly waters. i went down on someone's daughter. the
sound isn't quite as bad as it smells. write a verse as single file, and you
play with words, you say smile a while. it fingered me, did it finger you as
well? it seems we like to hold tight at all the wrong times. everything that's
grey we pushed away. it isn't what they do, it's what they say. it's best to do
it while they're sleeping. stay up late and work on something. stay in bed and
amount to nothing. puddles splashed in vein and pushed away. it seems we like to
hold tight at all the wrong times. and i might still be lying and putting two a
time in. there's no promises worth keeping and do it while they're sleeping.

GLORY! GLORY! -story.
I remember being in Komiza late at night, by myself, and somewhat fucked up. I
was walking in the cold and listening to the guitar track I recorded for this
song just trying to come up with better lines than, "Let's throw all your
money away." It was hard. And I think toast is humorous. But the original
intent slipped away and overall it's a fuck-off letter to a good friend.

GLORY! GLORY! -lyrics.
toasting toast and sliding down the ivy. i took a look. i broke the chair with
no one there to guide me. and i knocked him down with my looks. she was the only
real woman that laughed out loud from my books. and you wish that you can get
over it. as if the second time really didn't exist. as if you lost your mind and
then got a hold of it. people convince you to do a bunch of crazy shit. because
we'll always remain sinners and when i don't invite you out to dinner, you'll
get older and you'll be over it. because old age fucks with your memories. and
if we wanted something we'd just order it. so cut down the tree or whatevers
left of it. as if you lost your mind and suddenly got a hold of it.

YOU SLEEP, I DRIVE. -story.
I can't sleep at night. Call me sometime late, I'll be up. I stay up 'til 5am
reading liner notes to records. I was living with a girl who thought it was a
good idea to go to sleep at like 11pm. We lived at the Stark-Brown house. They
had jobs. I didn't want to wake anybody up so I used to drive all night. My
routine was to get a Happy Meal and cross every single bridge in Portland. The
drives usually ended up in the industrial part of town which always reminded me
of San Pedro. Some nights I would drive into and up through Washington. Drives
always get you thinking. The longer you drive, the more you think. The longer
the drive, the more places your mind can wander. I used to take drives like this
with my friend Peter. Whenever he smoked he would roll down the windows and turn
up the heater. He said that it made the winter seem like summer. I agreed and so
I use the same technique. He passed away in a plane crash along with his sister
and two other friends. I went to see the parents of one of the boys who passed.
His father showed me a roll of film with pictures of the crew right before the
plane went down. They were having a real good time. You couldn't really get
upset. They were having such a good time. So I sat there with Darin's dad and we
looked at the pictures for a couple of hours. He said he appriciated the fact
that I took the time to come over. He told me I was invited into his home
anytime. That was about six years ago. I haven't been back. So this all came
flooding back to me in the middle of a drive and I drove back to the Oak Street
apartment which I still had keys for - no one really lived there anymore. I
threw this song together in about an hour. You can hear the cement walls clearly
in the recording. Anyways, I came home, and everyone was still asleep. I always
thought that my time alone at night was an alternate life. I used to almost look
forward to it. I'm still trying to find someone to pull into this alternate
life. I hear that girl stays up all night having interesting converstions these
days. And I think Isaac is a good name for the baby.

YOU SLEEP, I DRIVE -lyrics.
there's nobody too much. no things you can see through. call came at 4:52 and
i'm driving to meet you. windows down and the cigarette's smoking. it's obvious
now. she fell asleep like always. i'm further from my hometown. she raised her
smile out of pure fit. now we're spilt on the carpet. he liked the feel of wind
when the heater's on. it's high again. he never thought it could last. he knew
he was just on the wrong path. nobody's raising us higher no one's getting us
further. no one's getting any further or taking us higher. no one's sleeping
when you do. we threw our thoughts down and they wavered. the plane it shook
hard and bled on the paper. and photographs are all that's left in your father's
heart, crawled away and wept. no one's sleeping when you do.

ME AND ANDY. -story.
This was written ages ago. The Andy I'm talking about is my friend Andy Harris,
a local hero here in San Pedro. The Real Diego had just returned from tour and I
saw Andy somewhere and we took a drive. I was upset about the tour and I had
like fifty inkstamps on my wrists from all the shows and all I wanted was to
play in a band and I was like, "Fuck all this."

ME AND ANDY -lyrics.
me and andy went down to the landing in his pickup truck. sitting alone needed a
ride back home, something 'bout breaking it up. we dove past the 76. i washed
the inkstamps from my wrists and goddamned every last pay phone. and now i'm
having relations down at the station. writing letters to you back home. fell and
slipped and broke my knee cause everyone takes everything away from me. grass
grows in the distance. i've wasted six months of my precious life. taking over
the country. all out of time tonight. ducking friends and keeping out of sight.
a house, a car, and a honeymoon. you've got nothing to lose, just time. send
back your welfare contributions and other help. i'm on a self-sufficient
borderline that cannot be broken this time. grass grows in the distance. i
wasted six months of my precious life. taking over the country.

THE 'RISKS' INVOLVED WITH WAKING. -story.
The Real Diego played a show at the Pickle Patch. The band we played with had a
bumper sticker that read, "When was the first time you realized you were an
asshole?" This song is about that moment. I was throwing up in a hotel room
in Houston after the food poisoning in Albuquerque. Getting tangled in web of
bad women and good lies.

THE 'RISKS' INVOLVED IN WAKING -lyrics.
she does whatever she can to please me. and i let her and i sit in the tub
complaining. her cold ass on the tiles while i talk about what it's like to be
who i am. i'm full of lies, she's all ears. i keep everything in close reach. i
place things in such a way so it is to comfort me. i like to sleep on the bench
in the backseat. and at night the room is spinning. i'm talking dirty on the
phone. i sit in the tub and let the warm water wash the filth off my mind. i'm
unemployed but too busy for this. i'm trustful but too smart for this.

INK. -story. there are no lyrics.
In this track I was really getting in touch with myself. I was exploring myself.
I still do that.

TONIGHT! TONIGHT! -story.
This is the first Novi Split song I wrote. I just got some hot computer program
and wanted to see if it would work. I had no lyric sheet or real focus. I wrote
it after school. I remember going out with a girl at the time who was
uninspiring. I thought that was a good quality in a person back then. I was
working at Wolf Camera and seeing the most amazing images of child birth. They
come out red and blue. It's a miracle that they come out at all.

TONIGHT! TONIGHT! -lyrics.
all over town, these things will come around and they'll trample you. 'cause
it's all come down. i can't tell you what you need to do. your starting pay.
energy. yes, energy won't come your way. ive got some things to do tomorrow so i
won't leave them for today. talking over, "wars i've seen". ****** and
me we've been so obscene. you're so terrible. so absolutley. but tonight, if
everything goes well. if everything goes good. tonight! tonight!

THIS NEW ROOM. -story.
This is a really simple little song. It's about being excited by your immediate
future. Hoping for the best, but being way in over your head. Not everything is
miserable, you fucks. But it all ended terribly so, you win.

THIS NEW ROOM -lyrics.
and we held ourselves up high. and we straghtened up our spines. and i came home
to pull you inside. and the wheel has been blown out. motioned front to back.
the fuse is lit. we're counterfit, but we're not stalling.

THE NEW SPLIT. -story.
God, you were miserable when I wrote this song. Something about your boyfriend
and you never watching the sunrise together. Never staying up all night to
"talk". And me, I was looking for a little good advice. Remember that?
I stole your sweatpants when you went to school. School was a waste of our time.
You asked if we could be friends again. I always answer questions with,
"Fuck it." Grant Capes says thats a bullshit answer. He says it's
affirming with a negative tone. Whatever, Capes. Oh, the song. Idealistic people
should always find themselves realistic people until that grows old and you
don't get me. Then two idealistic people should find eachother. But no one has
any sense and I fucked all your friends. But then it's like... well see, there
are a lot of people on this Earth. There are a lot of people with brown eyes.
There are a lot of people who get scared when I get drunk and call them on the
phone talking about, "How do you want to die?" and "Who's your
favorite Wu-Tang member? and "How would you want your favorite Wu-Tang
member to kill you?" And then again, there's the twenty-hour roadtrip to
think about these things. Or the eight hour working day.

THE NEW SPLIT -lryics.
well, it takes our lives such a long, long time to be right where you are. and
loneliness is the awful trip in the backseat of the car. and you told me this
and you taught me that when you kept me up all night. and we change our lives a
million times until we got it right. and you lead me away from home and into the
country. and we both did close our eyes and we ran into nothing. and loneliness
is the awful trip in the backseat. and you're talking soft and low and i'm
talking about nothing. but i've found hope and i've seen changes. if your view
looks good then my view's fading.

WHO'S GOING TO SHOE YOUR PRETTY LITTLE FEET? -story.
This is a Woody Guthrie cover as far as I can tell. When I moved to Portland,
the first thing I did was force Ben Barnett to record this cover with me. I can
still remember the "apartment" on Oak Street. You can hear the sorrow
in its echo. This woman told me that my "apartment" was used to
slaughter and package chicken and that I should burn jasmine to counteract the
effects of negative spirits. I should have listened to her, but I didn't. After
I threw up, I woke up naked in the bathroom. I remember the room getting really
hot. I ain't snorting shit anymore.

BIG ACTION. -story.
I hate this song. It wasn't intended to be released. I mean, I straight stole a
fucking Jets to Brazil sample. I apologize to those guys now. David Jensen said
it wouldn't be a record if this song wasn't on it. You dont argue with that. But
it's too damn optimistic. I dont want people to find out I'm optimistic.

BIG ACTION -lyrics.
number. i stole your number from a boy outside of a club in love, but from a
different sort of time. now you got your doggies and you roll your sweet eyes.
and you carry the weight of my world on your shoulders but you don't seem to
mind. and if my weight comes crashing down and leaves you all alone i'll always
keep a place where you can call a home. you make your move and things will
improve. and your chance might end. if you don't take it, it might never come
again. so you take big action, you take big action. and you leave the dogs alone
at home but you won't seem to care 'cause you got your sweet eyes and you got
your new life. and hours and hours on the phone with me begging for a home.

NEWBORN LIFE TEETHING. -story.
This is the worst I've ever handled a situation. I never killed anyone, but I
remember parking my car on Woodstock. The car was so hot because I was so upset.
Heat coming off my forehead, that one Lifter Puller song blasting with the
windows rolled up and a fucking brick in my hand. I was going to run right
though his screen door for dramatic effect and shove that brick up his pretty
boy ass. I got a phone call from this kid, Daniel the other day. He said he got my CD and
this song really got him. Fuck yeah, it got you. It got my stupid ass too.

NEWBORN LIFE TEETHING -lyrics.
sing me to sleep. a little innocence. the wants i have when i wake you. every
sleepless night has been the time of my life. i just wanted to thank you. we
live in low rent. find god in basements. what will sustain you. my family hates
you. if you're not close to me now, i'm going to kill you. i am going to kill
you. god help, us we're failing.

NIAGRA FALLS -story.
This song was written by Carlos Gutierez. He was the first person that I played
with that ever scared the shit out of me. He's a really great person and he
writes really great songs. I still want to be him.

NIAGRA FALLS -lyrics.
thought up a reason to give you an answer. it's a little less serious than i had
thought before. i know it's too late for it.