Bombshelter Living Room this album was recorded as an idea that started with Marc Thususka and I, where we'd set-up and record a live show, essentially jamming all day untill show-time, and then mix the best results for an album. i'd been wanting to do a mixed disc with les cooper so this was a good opportunity. paul mathew and joel stouffer played, and brian alexanian, marc thususka and moses bogart engineered. les produced and mastered the whole album and i did my silly little cover scrawls for the album art - it was based on a photograph from a living room show in victoria. 2005|buy in Canada|buy in UK

Bread
don't ask don't tell all the questions fell
somewhere between the ends and the means
shouting arms raised jesus saves
states the bumper sticker sleeve

all the children will sleep safe tonight
while the mother's weep
there will be bread in every mouth
as long as you don't disagree

O and how did you let him back in now
the excuses fail to explain
where were the neighbours when the fighting and hollering came
we all shoulder the blame

all the children will sleep safe tonight
while the mother's weep
there will be bread in every mouth
as long as you don't disagree

Emm+May
what's the deal between emm... what's the deal between emm and may?

photos on the wall off centre taken i've got
this headful of ideas there's people drinking in the kitchen
everybody's talking nobody's listening

what's the deal between emm... what's the deal between emm and may?

shoplifted cola they held hands on the beach
they practiced kissing softly they practiced all week
he said 'she never brings you flowers...?'
she said 'but she gives me such a sweet weakness in the knees

what's the deal between emm... what's the deal between emm and may?

owen sound got folded down into sunrises and sunsets
wrote it for you cardinal truths so we won't forget

tanned tourists leave with their tanned tourist luggage
everybody hates; everybody loves how
the summer runs out into the clouds

but what's the deal between emm... what's the deal between emm and may?

County Road Christmas Time
county road christmas time
everybody is flying in
county road christmas time
everybody is driving in

county road christmas time everybody's flying in
past the rows of trees where for ten dollars even
the lady'll tie them up with string and mistletoe
driving long way down to lake ontario

i'm so tired of flying all of this invention
passing of the truth framed in good intention
everybody smiled, looked down and looked away
everybody held out for better days

why don't you call back?
why don't you say what hurts the most
is finding out what you let slip away was
what you needed the most.
yeah yeah yeah.

everybody missed you at the christmas party
where we talked about our years like we were burying bodies
everybody smiled, looked down and looked away
everybody held out for better days

401 coffee, 401 cigarettes everybody tries so hard to forget
about where they came up from where they learned how to love

why don't you call back?
why don't you say what hurts the most
is finding out what you let slip away
was what you needed the most.
yeah yeah yeah.

Bird Down for matt osborne.
i woke up from the dream where you were snoring asleep.
you just stood there in the crowd staring into your drink.
where were you when all the lights cut out?
we stood there at the edge of it wondering how this would work out.

down down down the rains came. how did we get this way?
down down down the rains came. how did we get this way?

all the birds sang along in a row, strong and clear.
we believed in you, you didn't believe in you dear.
where were you when all the nights cut out?
we stood there at the edge of it wondering how this would work out.

Africville
light broke in africville
all the mothers took their children down so far away,
down by the boats stirring of nets and hopes

and then back home young lovers walk hand in hand
the beaches boardwalk oceans and sand and she says
'do you love' and he says 'yes i love' indeed

blood carries love rages like a storm
picked up in wave and thrown without warning
it meant nothing to you then,
why does it mean so much now?
if you're leaving, don't you dare leave me now,
in africville.

Sudbury
one night in sudbury ontario when a drunk approached the stage
so full of rage so very drunk on his rage
he said me and my girl we want to dance slow
so why don't you sing some songs we know l
ike maybe something by stompin' tom
we played the songs as best we could three chords, strings, dirty wood
and pushed them past the smoke the whole night long

hey, hey what's the deal? this was supposed to be the real thing
but we're angry now and yelling now
we're not hearing anything that the other person is saying at all

one night in sudbury ontario one night in riviere du loup
i looked out through the smoke and swore i saw you
too many nights too many drinks too many times
where i didn't think of you i didn't think of you

hey, hey what's the deal? this was supposed to be the real thing
but we're angry now and yelling now
we're not hearing anything that the other person is saying at all

Saskatchewan
saskatchewan winter night and the bar's jammed clear
they're thinking of the summer slump sun drought fear
saskatchewan

tractors frozen to the ground on account of all the snow
the men sit at the bar and drink hockey in toronto

the mother holds her baby closer against her chest
she's waiting for you to come home with this week's cheque
last week you drank it all the week before that too
the week before that one you lost it on the balls and cues...
saskatchewan...

and everybody drinks because there's no work because there's no rain
summer time is holding; flies called back to work again
we all know you're leaving we all know you've left
greyhound scars that build themselves tighten in the chest
saskatchewan

the mother holds her baby closer against her chest
she's waiting for you to come home with this week's cheque
last week you drank it all the week before that too
the week before that one you lost it on the balls and cues...
saskatchewan...