released December 7, 2020

Recorded and mixed by Andrew Cloutier at Bedhead Studios in Seattle, WA

Ben Mish – piano, lead vocals
Will Mish – lead and rhythm guitar
Ronan O’Mahony – guitars and vocals
Andrew Cloutier – drums
Scotty Harris – bass

All songs written by Ben Mish, except the following:
Songs 5 and 10 written by Ben Mish and Ronan O’Mahony
Song 9 written by Left Hand Smoke

Recorded, engineered, and mixed by Andrew Cloutier.

Arranged by Ben Mish.

Produced by Andrew Cloutier.

Cover art by Ben Mish.

LYRICS

ENDURE

CHORUS

I will endure
I will endure
You may be long on the uncertain
And strong on the sure
But all of this moves me no more
Because I will endure

VERSE 1

You hunt through clubs
And the all-night hotels
And you long for that feeling that you knew so well
As you stand like a stranger
In the bedroom
Haunted by the stars and your grandpa the moon

CHORUS

I will endure
I will endure
When you’re haunted by what you want
And know it for sure
But it all in the disease not the cure
Because I will endure

VERSE 2

In halls filled with strangers
Schmoozing and dining away
Like ocean waves crashing
upon this green bay
And you my dear
Were like a breast of light, so clear
And I’m sorry I’ve hurt you
But you’ve hurt me as well, I fear

BRIDGE

He looks down on you
And says this is what’s true
We’ve got a couple choices
And we’ve got to push through

CHORUS 3

I will endure
I will endure
It's more of a marathon than a sprint, for sure
Less is truly more
I will endure

We built up sandcastles
That get washed from the shore
Nothing's for certain anymore
But I will endure

DON’T LET ME FALL ASLEEP TONIGHT

Give me a taste
Of your apricot dreams
Where the nights are long
And the colors come in streams
We can soar forever in the tiniest flight
So don’t let me fall asleep tonight

We can make anything
Reach its greatest height
Where the highway divides
And we break the barrier of black and white
We stay up and get crazy and shoot out the lights
But don’t let me fall asleep tonight

Just pull up a barstool
And we’ll be all right
A feather boa ‘round midnight
And we’ll cook it up and bang it bright
And examine the rage in each different lonely man’s plight
And we’ll hold on till the morning light

Just don’t let me fall asleep tonight
Just don’t let me fall asleep tonight
Just don’t let me fall asleep tonight

SCENES FROM THE MEZZANINE

It smells like death in the streets
There’s little, if anything, to eat
The soldier stands steadfast
His temple is pulsing to the dropping rain’s beat

His muscles are clenched with rage
It shows signs that he’s coming of age
He thinks of the adage, so sore with his baggage,
That he heard from the poet and the sage

And Country Joe is whistling and skippin’
And thinkin’ about Betty Lou’s bag
How she’d love and put all above him
If his career hang-ups weren’t such a drag

And Paul, he’s a damn regal chap
Amongst the proletariat he’s gotten a bad rap
But his appetite is whetted as he’s adorned and feted
By the manors across the expansive gap

And the beggars and thieves are a-dancin’
Round a fire, their shadows cast on the stone
They’re too drunk to see how frightening a shadow can be
But a little robber girl she quietly moans

And Robert, the scholarly one
Sits with a pensive stare and a stifled tongue
He’s plottin’ and pleadin’ with the boys out in Sweden
Tellin’ them that no wars are ever really won

And the kitty-cat scampers across the rail
The pitter-patter of the rain swishing past her tail
She drifts past the eyes of blue, of a girl so ingénue
That the girl thinks she sees a fairy dust trail

Because daddy’s out late tonight sweepin’
Pretty late, even for a chimney sweep
But the little ingénue daughter with eyes like the water
Cannot put her imagination to sleep

And a baleful dusk is a-loomin’
Where the down and out pickers are croonin’
With jingling vocals and jangling chords
And the precariously dangling moon

DRAG YOUR HAMMER

Just before you went to bed
You remembered when you’d hustle instead
Rather than be good, back when
You were shinin’ your chrome and your hood

In your head there’s a revolution
You feel like there’s destituation
You want to see the blood
And you say your face is in the mud

And all the while I knew
That I was destined for review
Lingering on the edges
With a resolution
Looking for a place
To present the solution

Drag your hammer
Drag your chains across the floor
Drag them through that open door
If you want your liberty
You’ve got an empty wallet, that’s all right with me

You call me “Mister” and you cry
Because the daylight deserts the street
But you’ve got to search your mind
For all those things you wanted to be
So, drag your hammer and your chains
That’s your only shot at being free

Life is about pushin’ through
It’s easy to slip, it’s a human thing to do
And to think that this world won’t wait for you
But you’ve got to keep pushin’ through

You’ll show them all someday
You’ll make it up somehow
It’s not so much for them
But for what they represent to you, now

And all the while I knew
That I was destined for review
Lingering on the edges
With a resolution
Looking for a place
To present the solution

Drag your hammer
Drag your chains across the floor
Drag them through that open door
If you want your liberty
You’ve got an empty wallet, that’s all right with me

You call me “Mister” and you cry
Because the daylight deserts the street
But you’ve got to search your mind
For all those things you wanted to be
So, drag your hammer and your chains
That’s your only shot at being free

TO TRAVEL IS TO LIVE (THE PROPHET BUM: PART TWO)

He said, “I’ve traveled for years,
I’ve traveled across this land,
I’ve got stories to tell, if you’d just let me in
And get to the matter at hand”

I sized up the man who was soaked and shiverin’
And my expression was one of unabashed shock
And out of insanity and curiosity and stupidity
I let the man, into my house, walk

To travel is to live
To travel is to live
You don’t know what you’ve got till you give
Yourself to the world

He shook off the rainwater and took off his shoes
And plopped himself down in a chair
And not long had he sat in my house that
I felt the weight of his stare

“Why did you come here?” I wondered aloud
He chuckled at the question a bit
He said, “I’ve come to save you from yourself
And teach you some wisdom I’ve lit”

To travel is to live
To travel is to live
You don’t know what you got till you give
Yourself to the world

He said, “I’ve wandered the earth for a good many years
And I’ve seen all there is to see
I’ve seen snowcapped mountains and dusty old deserts
And I’ve sailed across Pacific Seas

I’ve played piano and danced on the hills
And flown in planes above the few trees in Arizona
I’ve had lager in beer halls in Deutschland
And I’ve run with the bulls in Pamplona”

To travel is to live
To travel is to live
You don’t know what you’ve go till you give
Yourself to the world

“I’ve been to the South where the trees are green
And oaks are in yards and in homes
And I’ve fallen in love more than a few times
And I’ve known there’s more than one person to whom you belong”

Intrigued I certainly was but how could I be different?
But why do you tell this to me?
What business is this for a fellow of class
And wealth, like myself, and a man of luxury

To travel is to live
To travel is to live
You don’t know what you’ve got till you give
Yourself to the world

He said, “I know about the remnants
Of forgotten ancient lands
About broken down highways and roads
About prostitutes and man”

“I know all about trembling
And sickness and fear and death
Been to the Gulf of Mexico
And tasted spice in the Southwest”

I said, “Well you’ve got all the answers
I most surely am impressed”
To travel is to live
To travel is to live

“Must I travel for this wisdom
To the far ends of the earth?
What travels these are that
Teach me more than I read around my hearth?

But I’m a learned man
And I was learning here tonight
About the woes of 4 young brothers
And their father’s shameful plight”

Don’t patronize me father
Please be kind next time you come
But tell me who you are
He said, “I am the prophet bum”

I said, “You’re a suspicious old wanderer
I wouldn’t be surprised if you cast a spell
You’ve come to warn me about excess
And the fiery flames of hell

There’s a mist out ‘neath the streetlamp
And the morning sun’s comin’ over the hill
I’ve not been changed by sermons
I’m gonna keep on reading still

What about you old man?
Have you had formal schooling
It’s hard to listen to someone
When you’re talking, not doing

I’d really love to travel
I’ve oft pursued archeology
But there’s much to be digested
Between the two Great seas

Look over at my bookshelf
You’ll be lookin’ into me
I know all about Kierkegaard
And the mighty Nietzsche”

He said, “Well you must be quite pious, son
There’s not much left to learn
You know all there is to know
You know what makes the world turn

My story is a long one
But I’ve been educated well
With the textbooks of the road map
And the teachers out in the dell”

To travel is to live
To travel is to live
You don’t know what you’ve got till you give
Yourself to the world

COOL CROWD

I feel good
Because I got all of the next three weeks
Planned out with a lot of my friends
I feel good
Because I know that know that when I hit them up
They gonna hit me back up for the weekend

I know that it's the way that you gotta be
Don't tell me I'm not when it's just me

I'm hangin with the cool crowd
Runnin' with the cool crowd
Runnin' with the cool crowd
Runnin' with the cool crowd

I feel good (Why?)
Because every time I make a plan
Someone hits me up and says they want to do it again
I feel good (Why?)
Because when I know that when I'm gonna do something
Someone made me do it my friend

I know it 'cause I want it
And I didn't where I done it
But it wasn't where I wanted to be

I'm runnin' with the cool crowd
Runnin' with the cool crowd
Runnin' with the cool crowd
Runnin' with the cool crowd

ROCK ME WITH A SUBTLE GROOVE (BREAKING UP)

Have we been moving forward?
Or are we still in the same place?
Of all the things we wanted
Tonight, they’re gone without a trace

This isn’t what you wanted
To see me falling on my face
Love was a temple we tried to build
Not a shelter to disgrace

Rock me with a subtle groove, baby
Rock me with a subtle groove, baby
Well it’s not fair to just not care
The way the room feels when there’s no one there
Rock me with a subtle groove, baby

Tell me there’s a reason
That you’re not knocking on my door
In this burnt out old apartment
On the 22nd floor

There’s more to what you’re after
Than what you said this afternoon
And it kills me to realize
That this is ending all too soon

Rock me with a subtle groove, baby
Rock me with a subtle groove, baby
It’s not me, it’s not you
It’s all of the things that we wanted to do
Rock me with a subtle groove, baby

You say you enjoy this right now
But you see further up the road
You can’t stand being vulnerable
And you’re ready to explode

Well give me some evidence
That this is not just some coincidence
That this is a scar, babe
That left its mark on your confidence

Rock me with a subtle groove, baby
Rock me with a subtle groove, baby
It’s not me, it’s not you
It’s all of the things that we wanted to do
Rock me with a subtle groove, baby

Well, it’s just your
Confidence
That left us lying to each other and skating the fence
And it’s not right
Tonight
To give up on me because things aren’t black and white

Love is the problem
You said it once before
Love is the problem
It brings you to the floor
Love don’t belong to anyone
He slipped out the back door

Let’s blame Love
Before we blame ourselves anymore

OH, CHILD, YOU OUGHT TO KNOW

Oh, Child, you ought to know
There are so many places to go
Oh, Child, you will see
There are so many things to be

You can choose to be wed
You can wander instead

Oh, Child, I was young
I was just like you, my son
I was anxious to go
And travel along ancient roads

Now I’m happy to be
What I was meant to be

Oh, Dad, how can I say?
All the things I want to say?
Oh, Dad, you wouldn’t believe
All the losses that I have grieved

Well, I know that I’m young
And I am my father’s son

Oh, Child, you ought to try
To discover what’s inside
Oh, child, it’s a lie
To think you have forever

Oh, Dad
I have stayed up late at night
I have cried and lost my sight
I have watched loved ones die
I have tried to ignore the hole inside

Oh, Child, the hours will fly by
And you’ll still have to live
And you’ll still have to try
To make those dreams come alive

The advice I give you is my best
But I can only make a guess

SALVATORE (INSTRUMENTAL)

STARS SHINE BRIGHT TONIGHT

You won every game, touched every heart, indelibly
Go team, go team, go
You aced every class, were requited at every pass
Go Tom, go Tom, go
Talent shows and party girls, somehow you always won
Even though you felt bad in the wings
In bed, in the head, you met a girl whose song you’d sing
Stars shine bright tonight

School book looks and purple hair, Tom you had your share
Go Tom, go Tom, go
All-star shine and gold medals, dining in the halls, look at the walls
Go Tom, go Tom, go

Now you go into the world, and your heart is gonna break
You’ve been blessed so much till now
On a date, with the girl, she don’t love you like you think
The stars shine bright tonight
And your golden arch is gonna break
The stars shine bright tonight
Above your string of dead-end coffee dates
The stars shine bright tonight
And I can no longer assure you
That everything is gonna be all right

Stars Shine Bright

Out in the field
Across the
Street from the school
Into the field you'd run

Friday night, by the school, in the park after dark
Into the field you'd run