the empire never ended

by ieatpants

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  • Digital Album

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1.
03:09
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2.
02:51
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3.
03:47
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4.
04:06
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5.
(free) 01:44
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6.
05:08
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7.
03:23
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8.
03:33
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9.
(free) 01:53
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10.
03:36
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11.
03:30
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12.
04:46
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13.
01:25
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about

this a collection of songs inspired by the life and stories of philip k. dick. the songs are built on concepts of paranoia, transcendentalism, & theology; all of which pkd explored mercilessly in his many novels, short stories, & even his private life. full story available here: blog.ieatpants.com?p=394

credits

released 27 March 2012
brandon eugene miller: vocals, instruments
cover art painted by marc alan anderson

tags

tags: folk brooklyn lo-fi philip k dick pkd psych-folk singer-songwriter

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about

all proceeds go to replacing my poor acoustic guitar, whose bridge longs to ascend to the heavens and is hellbent on taking the strings with it. may you fly on wings of brass, good buddy.

ieatpants is sci-fi folk. with guitars. music. and it's honest. as honest as music about fake worlds can be.

sounds like: damien jurado, galaxie 500, xiuxiu, chad vangaalen, etc ... more

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Track Name: the empire never ended
living in the present
living in the past
living in a present
that we didn't know was there
look what we've invented
look what we've become

look into the blackness
a clever prison cell
somehow we've managed
to hide ourselves away
we hid so well
we forgot who we're hiding from
who are we hiding from?

someone has snuck inside
and clipped and crossed wires
in just the right way
so that our mind doesn't know
what our eyes see
our eyes can no longer see
these prison walls
Track Name: killing in the name of all that is good and holy
how do i know
what you really are?
how do i know
what i am?

it's been a couple of years now
and i guess that you could say
it just gets harder
and harder

the fight is against man
the goal is "not machine"

but the point is not machine
it's good versus evil


we are godlike
with our probes
telling each other
who is good, what is evil

but we've already decided
so i kill machines
i justify everything
and i don't feel pain

the fight is against man
the goal is "not machine"

but the point is not machine
it's good versus evil

the ones that got away
i'm the one that got away
too many rules and too much struggle
Track Name: horselover
the deeper we dig
the truth is tortured
drawn and quartered
fed to our pets
i am horse lover
horse eater after all
i am trying
to write myself
out of
this
life

i stepped into a different world
i did
i wandered outside myself
i did
i stepped into a million lives
i did
i wandered outside myself
i did

the deeper we dig
the truth gets quarantined
cramped in close quarters
hungry and stripped

hopped up
spaced out
it's all the things
we're afraid of

the truth lies naked
the truth lies writing

i stepped into a different world
i did
i wandered outside myself
i did
i stepped into a million lives
i did
i wandered outside myself
i did
Track Name: a life like god's records
i've heard time is like a record
well, i've got lots of records
time cuts a path in every record
a groove for every life

our songs are given to the ether
but the needle can go astray
where it ends up is not a place
it lands on some other life

and God hears it slipping
the record of our lives
it's happening all the time
keeps skipping until we die

the metal that we were made of
the plastic eyeball sockets
they rot in the bottom
and they are forgotten
(forever)

and there's nothing after
no more needle asking why
no more thoughts of dying
no spying hidden eyes

and God hears it slipping
the record of our lives
it's happening all the time
keeps skipping until we die
Track Name: abendsen's dream
we simulate our fondest memories
replicate each replicate
commissioned by nostalgia
but still, we aren't happy

the truth tells us the truth
but it reads to us in a whisper
its voice timid and weak
we always ignore its warnings

there's a fight to the finish line -- to find the author
to find out who is writing how our lives actually are

it's selfish to live in a false reality -- how did we build these lives?
what allowed us to see the author's dreamed world?

to look up to the sky
is to look out from the page
to be inspired is to listen
to voices
from beyond
our world

as the truth tells us the truth
and it reads to us in a whisper
its voice is timid and weak
it's time we prick up our ears

there's a fight to the finish line -- to find the author
to find out who is writing how our lives actually are

an artist creates and a world comes alive -- inside lives creation
another god writing another line and a new world springs into being

there's a fight to the finish line -- to find the author
to find out who is writing how our lives actually are

it's selfish to live in a false reality -- how did we build these lives?
what allowed us to see the author's dreamed world?
Track Name: a precog never lies
in the future we'll know our future
we have three shots, three chances
each moment lives in our minds
we give everything three times

it's what i get for giving you my eyes
that part of me that lives in you
is dead and dreaming of some distant place
some future we've made we didn't even know

we didn't see it coming
these choices we've made
we couldn't pay attention
the future is not already made
Track Name: twinless twin
when i was a boy
there was also a girl
a nameless face

that speaks to me sometimes
she has grown up
in my mind
and in my ears
i hear her sometimes


twinless twin
she is mine
twinless twin
i am hers

i was a struggling ... child
it's natural to fight
to survive
but there was only
enough love
and time
for one of us

twinless twin
she is mine
twinless twin
i am hers

when i was young
i survived
but i'm not
sure why
and i give everything
that i have
and one night i find that i've
given it all to her

now i'm with my
twinless twin
she is mine
i am hers

twinless twin
she is mine
twinless twin
i am hers

twinless twin
she is mine
twinless twin
i am hers
Track Name: mercerism (fake world, revisited)
in this life
that we make up
are you let down
do you give up

are you
let down by me
and this life
that we've made

this fake life
that someone made up
in their heads
and gave to us

we all try
to climb up
but they throw rocks
at our flesh

we all think
the same shit
we all dream
the nightmares

this fake world
on a movie screen
we watch as
our lives break up

but one day
if we stand up
with a fake smile
we could wake up

the real world
is just too much
to take in
for most of us

in this life
that we make up
are you let down
do you give up
------

but one day
if we stand up
with a fake smile
we could wake up
Track Name: child of mars
in some cave
i confuse reality
with some vision
with some prophecy
a child's mind
wrapped into itself
doubled over in pain
in thought intense

and time, slows
my thoughts stand still
for that child
time slows

life was good
you've heard me say
there was good
plenty of everything
but there is this boy
welded to my eyes
pushed himself to some
misery for all our lives

and time slows
thoughts stand still
that child knows
that time slows
Track Name: i'm alive and you're dead
there is a lot to give
we're never sure why
you say you want to live
well none of us want to die

are you convinced that
what is real is what you see?
you say a prison can be a home,
if you only have the key.

falling through time
it's the chance of our lives
but everything
falls and fades

falling through time
it's the chance of our lives
and everything
is slipping away

under darkened glass
are you dead or dreaming?
bewitched by darker thoughts
they're darker still than nothing

no one seems to know
what is real or in our heads
we're going mad deciding
who's alive and who is dead

falling through time
it's the chance of our lives
but everything
falls and fades

falling through time
it's the chance of our lives
and everything
is slipping away
Track Name: the universe is cold
the universe is cold
and i can't make it
i can't live
in this universe
we prove that the end is near
we've torn our hearts from the ground
we'll watch as our bodies decay
we'll stand above our own graves
singing our own funeral songs
rustling our feet through dead leaves
that were once
our rotting flesh
soft acrid smell
it is our body's last wish
to bury itself
to watch
as it ends