Get all 13 Modern Shark releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of I Say Same Again (feat. Ryan Notes), Looking Down Again, College to a Corner, The Weightless EP (Director's Cut), Get It Together EP, ...The New Singles?, & a whole bunch of crazy motherfuckers 2, & a whole bunch of crazy motherfuckers 1, and 5 more.
1. |
First There Was
01:20
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2. |
The Control
03:36
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THE CONTROL
And many say:
You should learn self-control
You know?
Control yourself
God help your soul
Cause many think:
The population needs control
Like we a virus for
The Center For Disease Control
So they control the ground
A soldier’s vow
Canisters of tear gas
To control the crowd
And control the substance
To control the quality
And set price controls
To control economies
And you could be part
Of the control group
The grand experiment
To see what these controls do
Hypothesis: They produce a
Lust for control
As natural a reflex
As muscle control
And the result is:
You so scared to lose control
And you so scared to lose control
And you so scared to lose control
Lose control?
CHORUS
And you say:
You so scared to lose control
Of this itty-bitty life
That you control
Gotta lose your hold
On the cruise control
Or get hung by a noose
Made of do’s and don’ts
And it’s so hard to keep control
But control is illusion,
Ruse and smoke
Lose your hold
On the cruise control
Or you snooze
And the music’s gone
Calorie intake
The nicotine dream
Keep those hands and feet
And teeth clean and
Bite the nails and
Trim the beard
And be sure not to laugh too loud
Or seem weird and
Keep money in the bank
Keep cards to your chest
Just above the vest
Just above the monogrammed ‘S’
So to never show
The scars on your chest
And the rest of your flesh
Is not part of the tour and
Control your words
To control the way they see you
Give em just enough
So that they see
That you’re not see-through
Control your art
And control your family
Past, present, future
To control your sanity
Control emotions
Sew devotion
And control the seams
So to not seem controlling
Until the day you’re awoken, Broken
In no shape
To try to hold back the ocean
And it creeps in at first
Through the cracks in the molding
You pretend not to notice
Even though there’s
No one else around
And quietly and steadily
The water level keeps rising
And you’re standing
On a chair now
Flippin through
The New York Times
And you could probably
Swim to safety
But now you’re hangin
From the fixtures
And there’s not a lot of air left
A good grip is all you know
CHORUS
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3. |
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TINY DRILL
CHORUS
It’s so simple when I think about
The way that I need you
There is no question
Second-guessin
I don’t wonder if it’s true
And then I promise when I go
I will be back before you know
This is a song that you
Can listen to
When I am far from home
And on those days
When you feel crazy
Feel so sad, I will
Bore directly through your skull
With a tiny little drill
And then whatever’s going
Wrong in there
I’ll fix it with my tools
And in exchange I only ask
You stay forever, that’s the rules
That’s the last rule
Then out with the rulebook
One rule that could rule them all
On top of that hill
Like who’s gonna fall?
So high
Get struck with the vertigo
Like a bird of prey
When he looks below
And he thinks about…
What’s he think about?
He doesn’t think at all
He just falls, just, just just falls
And it might be the greatest fear
That I got
I could say the wrong thing
Do the wrong thing
That I can’t take back
Wake up one morning
Find you are gone and
That’s that – over and out
It’s a drunk thought
But it’s soberin now
Don’t need a therapist
Just to know what it’s about
Cause you and I both know
That’s just craziness
It’s the gremlin
On the wing of the plane
Tryin to take it apart
Like piece by piece
So take it to heart
When I speak my piece
Say let’s make a break
For the parachute
And on the way down
We could make out
When we hit the ground we could
Run, run, run away
Get a rail pass
Can’t wait another day
Cause look at the way
We gotta hide what we’re doin
Good days and you’re
Mine for the choosin
Bad days and you’re
Mine for the losin
Most days feel fine in the mind
But there’s times when
It’s kinda like blind to the brusin
But I wanna be all the way there
Not clandestine – so kill the lights
Tryin to get away, into the night
Then you put your arms
Around me
And we tumble to the ground
And then you say…
Put your arms around me
Then we tumble to the ground
And then you say…
Don’t look now, but I think…
CHORUS
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4. |
Then There Was
01:47
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5. |
The Punching Bag
03:49
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THE PUNCHING BAG
CHORUS
My pretty little punching bag
My pretty little punching bag
Punch him back
My pretty little punching bag
You my pretty little punching bag
Why don’t
You just punch him back?
Punch him back
And if you rollin with the punches
Then punches just keep on comin
And if you not punchin back
Don’t tell me you are not
A punching bag
Now – how many times
Did it happen like this?
You stand there pissed
With a balled-up first
With a knot in your throat
Got rocked with a blow
Got knocked to the floor
But you didn’t do sh sh sh sh sh…
Way too scared, it’s not fair
Look around the room
And you’re team’s not there
You all alone
Gotta find your phone
Gotta find your way home and
Yeah right he was bigger than you
And yeah right
It was him and his crew
But, least you coulda done…
Thrown a punch
Or not apologize
For the shoulder bump
That set the whole thing off
In the first place
Now you lookin in the street
For some first aid
The other guy’s out runnin around
And you on 1st Ave
With blood in your mouth
What a jerk, what a toy
Pathetic boy
So uffin sad, guess guess guess
That’s why they call you that:
The human punching bag
CHORUS
The punching bag was specifically
Designed to absorb pain
To receive punishment
To take the impact of the fist
Again and again and again
In that moment – of the impact
The punching bag is,
For the person
Attached to the fist,
Every wrong that needs correction
Every thing
That should be punched
The bag,
A self-proclaimed pacifist,
Is born taught and tough
But eventually begins
To sag and wheeze
And even spill its innards
When the punchers knuckles
Begin to bruise
He blames the bag
He punches again, this time
With all his might
And the bag swings wildly
Barely conscious now
Swinging back, the heavy bag
Catches the proud puncher unaware
But this is no victory
Just an accidental retribution
Soon to be forgotten
Because after all, nobody
Nobody gives a god damn
About the punching bag
And the truth is
If he had hands
The punching bag
Would probably punch himself too
It is all he knows…
CHORUS
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6. |
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TAKING YOUR FATHER TO THE DOCTOR
Just another rainy day
Swear I never seen so many
Shades of grey
Make you wanna just fade away
It’s a numbness
Cuts like razor blades and
I’m half-awake in this
Sleepy little waiting room
Half-awake in this
Sleepy part of town
Left pops with the doctors
Troop to the boardwalk
Ignore the rain
Same way we ignore thoughts
Just take em back
Like they were store-bought
But in the back
It’s the steady hush
Like the way the shore talks
But up close
You can grasp the meaning
Crashing, screaming
I bought a sleep mask
Lately I’ve been dreaming
And in the parking lot
I contemplated leaving
Sorry pops
I’m just used to
Making stuff rhyme…
There may not be enough time
Probably never know
What you been through
And I am scared to death
That you are who I’m turning into
CHORUS
I’ll tell you what though
I’ll tell you what though
I’ll tell you what
I will pick you up so
You don’t have to take the subway
And be another ghost in the crowd
On a Monday
I’ll tell you what though
I’ll tell you what
I’m not sure
That I can stitch you up
Now – you could make the case
That heartbreak is permanent
The sheer hurt of it
Leave a man invertebrate
He builds a levee wall
To keep the blood from surgin
And the beat once proud
Quiets down to a murmurin
Here’s a different version -
Tell me if you heard of it
There is a purpose
Even if there’s no reversin it
Love could turn an ordinary
Person to a surgeon
And the heart now healed
Beats louder than at first it did
But I probably
Wasn’t thinking this
In the waiting room chair
That I am slinking in
Sleepy-eyed receptionist, Erica
Ask could she turn on the TV
Good morning, America
And in the cold, blue glow
From the screen
I disappear,
From my nose to my feet
Just a cloudy mind floating
Inundated, outside it is soaking
Seems strange
So close to the ocean
They call my name
Once again we are closed in
We barely speak,
Sittin side by side
Till the doctor walks by
Says you’re gonna be fine
And I’m shocked
At what I don’t feel
A fish in a bowl full of oatmeal
CHORUS
(with variation on last line)
I really don’t think
That I can stitch you up
Now…
I guess that we should head home
I’ll drop you off at your place
Then I should get going
And taped to your front door
Is a photograph of the sunset
On the Verrazano Bridge
It lights the whole island
With color so soft,
You kinda float off
With a slow loft
But it’s unbalanced
Like you don’t see it fair
That bridge is beautiful
But you don’t even see it there
Just the land in the distance…
A second chance
Where the sand
Doesn’t sink so quick
CHORUS
(with variation on last line)
We are ordinary people
Who can stitch you up
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7. |
Now There Is
01:55
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8. |
Some More Air
03:58
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SOME MORE AIR
CHORUS
(a lot of oohs)
Light a stogue
Even though I shouldn’t smoke it
And watch the cars pass by
And the boats
And the couples
And the birds
And the dogs
And the trains
And I’m still havin trouble
With the words
But it’s ok
Fill the rest of the page
With a sketch of a brown-eyed swan, Then crumple that page and throw it
In the Pond, cause
That’s where the swan belongs
Used to move words
Just to perfume the ambiance,
Then steadily
The need to speak
Got replaced by the need
To breathe deep
Beneath the beat
Started seein certain peaks
I didn’t need to reach
Cause New York made me spit
Just for fear of being spat on
Nowadays I do it for the pep
That it puts in my step
Like I got my new hat on
And I hum it to myself
When I wear my favorite jacket Like…
CHORUS
And it doesn’t get easier
Every day ups the risk of the
Freezer burn
As surely as the leaves’ll turn
And the seas’ll churn
Even if you cease to learn
That’s how it be some terms
You and your best friend
On decent terms
And he walks away
When he ought to stay
And simple words put together
Seem so hard to say
Like… I’m sorry… I’m sorry
And the air’s getting crisper
The Mistral comes and shakes the trees
And you stand underneath
And you rake the leaves
And you put em in a pretty little pile
And when you turn your back
To the wind, it kicks up,
And swirls through the grass
And the leaves get picked up
And now you right back
At the point where you started
Leaves all over the yard
Now you could put your head down
Do it all again
Or decide that it wasn’t meant to be
Or you could get mad at yourself
And the wind, stay mad
For the next couple weeks
Swear to God it won’t happen again
Make a promise
That you could never keep
Or you could understand
That it’s out of your control
And with that, you could laugh heartily
What’s it gonna be?
CHORUS
And when you open your mouth
To laugh
The wind comes rushing in
To fill your lungs
And it’s like breathing…
It’s like breathing
For the very first time
And it feels so good
I’m comin up for air
I’m comin up, comin up for air
I don’t care
(repeat)
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Modern Shark Brooklyn, New York
MODERN SHARK in 10 words:
Progressively dope, humanist hip-hop. Brooklyn. No School. All DIY everything.
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