Bells and Whistles
I was cruel like a president
It was wrong but I ordered it
Lost some limbs in an accident
Playing god
At a table down at Edendale
Didn’t feel good wasn’t eating well
In the photo booth made me hate myself
What a slob
It’s hard now to imagine it
The currency was all counterfeit
Diana’s face was scattered to the mob
Expensive jokes and cheap thrills cost a lot
Zach’s staggering down Bleecker Street
The label asked for a meet and greet
I agreed reluctantly I couldn’t be alone
Signed a sleeve for a teenager
It felt just like a harbinger
I was shaking hands with the manicured
Worked my fingers to the bone
No you shouldn’t go home with the SoHo girl
Cause she only wants materials
And shouldn’t place bets on the New York Mets
Cause at best it’s hypothetical
Expensive seats in a field of dreams
U-turns in limousines
Got to get around the detour when it’s blocked
Bells and whistles, fancy cheap thrills cost a lot
No, you shouldn’t make noise with those Bay Ridge boys
When they’re drunk, man, it’s impossible
Secondhand amps and a bent up crash
The band sounds like an animal
Cheap seats and broken dreams
U-turns in limousines
Gotta kick in the door when it’s locked
Bells and whistles, cheap thrills cost a lot
El Capitan
Standing there watching as they’re climbing up El Capitan
Reaching for the draw and they’re sleeping in their rubber bands
You said they were insane, shook your head as you grabbed my hand
Led me deep into the woods until we finally had to double back
Yeah, everything was roses every night it was baths and wine
Every time you would undress me I could swear that you were freezing time
I thought that we were twins and lovers we shared one mind
Until it turned transparent and blatant and serpentine
So it’s time to pay the piper don’t want to be the last in line
They’ll auction you at Christies you’re gonna fetch a handsome price
And in time they’ll decide what was yours and what was mine
And you’ll end up in a ditched dream feeling like the color of the sky
So you’re playing your Nintendo spun out like a gramophone
Living in a basement sleeping down there all alone
The conditions were perfect more perfect for a perfect storm
Then they found you in the morning hanging from an extension cord
The world is on fire California is crucible
We’re running out of water they already stole all the gold
You kept kissing me like Judas your betrayal was apropos
You said I’m washed up and that’s what I get for growing old
It’s time to pay the piper you gotta be the first in line
So they’re burning you an effigy
Well that happens to me all the time
Something kind in disguise, a canary in the mine
You can’t say I didn’t warn you or prepare you for the after life
Bas Jan Ader
Tell me that the body tells a story
Can you read between the lines?
When you look into my eyes do you see a scarry night?
Remember I was dense made me paint the fence to work my way into your life
And the public schools tried to ban Mark Twain when they knew that it wasn’t right
It takes a lot of nerve to live on planet Earth
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
It was the worst
Saw you walking up with a basket of fruit in a funeral suit through the door
Paying your respects to the dead insects who have eaten through the apple core
Another habit kicked, one-way road trip
Another bible in a motel drawer
Ah man I think I’ve seen this one before
Some nostalgia you just can’t ignore
You’ve got a lot to learn
Living on planet Earth
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
It was the worst
It was the worst
Shamrock on a jacket, dropped into a casket
Baby that’s no way to die
I never thought I’d see 45
How is it that I’m still alive?
In search of that miraculous mystery
Crying on a movie screen
Leaving the harbor with Bas Jan Ader
Sailing out to sea
It takes a lot of nerve to sail around the world
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
It was the best
It was the best
In Los Angeles
It was the best
In Los Angeles
I want to see out to sea
Out to sea
It was the best
In LA
I love her soul
Tiny Suicides
Maybe this streak’s alive
Color in the things you like about me
Was it the violence that split the stars in threes?
Looking in the back where the planets end
The dedication page, it begins
Nah I don’t drink much, just the cold stuff
Nah I wouldn’t lie down drown in the wet ground
I can’t deny
The Futurist’s abyss is on the rise
Tried to tip my way into heaven’s gate
Must of lost a fortune along the way
I never saved up for a rainy day
I put it all upon the brass collection plate
Am I gonna die?
Or beat back all these tiny suicides?
Maybe if the sky aligns
Maybe I could have you one last time
Was it the silence that amplified the reverb in my mind?
Someday we all die
Why give into these tiny suicides?
All Threes
Midnight
Sunlight
Deer in the headlights
Cleanliness is godlike
Midnight
Starlight
Cop with the flashlight
Kid with the Lite Brite
I was dressed in a costume
A cosplay escape room
This puzzle makes no sense
Flying off to a cold moon
With the Russian cosmonaut
A shadowboxer
They already fought
They already fought
They already fought
They already fought
They already fought
You were beautiful before
God you were beautiful before
You were beautiful before
Until you weren’t
Until you weren’t
Soundbite
On a hot mic
Talkin’ shit in a cat fight
On my porch
Drinking Bud Lite
Our speakers blown
Cranked up
It's alright
Jesus died
Jesus died in a cage fight
Elon Musk
In virgin whites
I kill him in an alley over five dice
You were beautiful before
God you were beautiful before
You were so beautiful before
Until you weren’t
Until you weren’t
You were beautiful before
God you were beautiful before
You were so beautiful before
And then you weren’t
And then you weren’t
All threes
All threes
All threes
All threes
All threes
Rainbow Overpass
I’m so bored of these intrusive thoughts coming after me
Sick of my own voice screaming right beneath my teeth
That old familiar sound when my cellphone hits the ground
When that thing just doesn’t sing it’s just something I drag around
And I can’t be what you need me to be
Lately I can’t sleep just lay awake feeding on my feed
Well I’m not shutting down
Well I’m not shutting down
Well I’m not shutting down
I’m shutting up
So you won’t hear me when I say, everything’s ok…
I’ll see you around
I’ll see you around
I just tune out the alarms when they’re loud and warning me
All the holes in the mufflers
All the vials in the street
When the rubber hits the road I got nowhere to go
No GPS anybody’s guess if I’ll ever get back home
And I can’t be where you need me to be
Cause I’m asleep at the wheel probably
So I’m not slowing down
No I’m not slowing down
Yea I’m not slowing down
I’m speeding up
So you won’t see my brake lights flash on that rainbow overpass
I’ll see you around
I’ll see you around
Hate
I hate the Puritans
I hate Mary Magdalene
I hate the way she washed his feet they still called her a whore
Jesus Christ, I hate you now and I hated you before
I hate Prophets
I hate LA Shamans
Abraham, Adam and Isaiah and Mohammed
I hate the way it escalates, a drag race to the bottom
I hate Vishnu
I hate the Hari Krishna
David Koresh, Jim Jones, and Buddha
I hate this twisted logic, this sadistic hallelujah
Every single book I read always had the same ending
Right hand on the bible and the truth is still irrelevant
Don’t you know the bad guys always win
Don’t you know the bad guys always win
Hate is a language
Hate is a fascination
I hate the way I get through the day, my preoccupations
There’s no receipt, no deceit, no paper trail at all
Every single fleeting thought becomes another outlaw song
One hand on a smoking gun and a bullet in the innocent
Don’t you know the bad guys always win
Don’t you know the bad guys always win
I hate love songs
I hate stadiums
I hate the way you turn and walk away
I hate the way my heart anticipates
I hate dreaming
I hate sleeping
I hate waking up always the same
I hate making small talk, begging for some change
I hate the protest singer staring at me in the mirror
There’s nothing left worth fighting for hasn’t that come clear
The artificial poets from the future are here
Real Feel 105°
The body keeps the score passing out on the floor
As the party raged on, the fireplace roared
While the snow fell outside on the salt and the ice
Felt my will to live slipping away
And then you came along wanted help with a song
Want a peep through the curtains to see how it’s done
We’re all make believe gods like the Wizard of Oz
“Name the animals, let there be light”
Growing old and confused beauty’s wasted on youth
There’s too much to redact, there’s too much to include
I hate the moon, but I’d take it from you
I want anything you have to give
Used to wait around for a handout
Pleading in the street
But you’re all that I beg for now
Hot in LA tonight, real feel 105º
If the grid don’t give out maybe we will survive
I can tell where you’ve been from the look in your eyes
Watch your mind as it wanders away
I was selfish and cruel to have put that on you
Oh, where you saw a rope swing, I saw a noose
There’s too much to untangle to get to the truth
What I was thinking I just couldn’t say
My longing used to know no bounds
Always incomplete
But you’re all that I’m wanting now
You don’t have to explain, no nothing has changed
Come back to me I still feel the same
Dry lighting strikes, there’s no one to blame
Cause all that we were will always remain
I’m so tired of all this light and sound
Asleep on my feet
You’re all that I dream of now
Come over here, lay back down
You’re all that I dream of
Spun Out
Out on the ledge
The worst temptation
The great summation
Ensues
The razor's edge
Test my patience
Retaliation
Was it worth it at all?
Number 9 on a cloud
Seven rings looking down
At the flames and the crowds
Made my ears ring so loud
Sorrow compounds
Watch the news helicopters spin out
Open the fridge
My emancipation
Proclamation
French rose
I’ll make a wish
I’m a kid with cancer I’m out to pasture
It was spring for a day
Twenty-one in a bar just sixteen with a card
Putting cracks in my heart
Makes it all fall apart
It was doomed from the start
All the house and the strobe lights went dark
I couldn’t save you
I can relate to
Nabokov’s virtue
Or loves interchangeable parts
Trains Still Run On Time
I got a friend who’s blank
And he spends his days
In a constant haze
Never leaves a trace
It’s a crime that pays
He’s a textbook case
Pray for a miracle
A wrinkle in time
The wind is ephemeral always blows my mind
Hear the music box unwind
Begging to be born
Another unicorn in a uniform
It’s a thing you hate
Another switch and bait that you abhor
Made in America on a factory floor
There’s a Disney character breaking down the door
And the orchestra plays
A cartoon score for war
No separation
No Berlin Wall
No celebration
No confusion when it falls
Made in America on an assembly line
Where they make mass hysteria
Yeah, it’s all streamlined
Nobody bats an eye
Cause the trains still run on time
Time I Have Left
I don’t wanna go there
You don’t wanna come
Stepped on a landmine
Light exploding
Out on the sidewalk
Catching my breath
Haven’t caught anything since
I would like to ask you the time
Yeah, I would like to ask you the time
I have left
Water keeps running
Asleep in the bathtub
All of these bad dreams
They’re coming to get me
It’s just semantics
No I couldn’t answer it but the question is
The question is the same
I’d like to
Ask you
The time
I’d like to
Ask you
The time
That I have left
Tin Soldier Boy
Sammy was indicted on a slow Friday
Called his family from the county court
Screaming at his children down a long hallway
While the cops were beating on the door
Ayesha’s had a million names by now
There’s a few that I’ve heard before
She’s the brawn I’m the brains
Never took us long to know where we had to go
Billie took the money and she disappeared
Last seen in a Cadillac
A message was sent from beyond the grave
She said she’s trying to pay it back
Our days are numbered
Hear the countdown
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 more round
Shots ring out and we all fall down
Soldier on
Soldier on
Lead the convoy through the noise
Soldier on
Soldier on, Tin Soldier Boy
Hollywood’s dying like the palm trees
It’s not romantic, it’s a comedy
So when I’m gone don’t use my headstone on your imagery
Like another shitty Scorsese movie
Frank Sinatra was the best
Could put a bullet right through your chest
Well, every baby has Ol’ Blue Eyes
Guess they’re gonna live until they die
Our days are numbered
Hear the countdown
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 More round
Everybody gather round
Our days are numbered
We’re counting up now
2,4,6,8,9 more lives
These cats couldn’t kill me if they tried
Just Soldier on
Soldier on
Until LA breaks at dawn
Soldier on through the noise
Tin Soldier Boy
Soldier on
Soldier on
Leave the convoy kill the toys
Soldier on
Soldier on, my Soldier Boy
Soldier on
Soldier on
Through the heartbreak and the joy
Soldier on
Soldier on, my Soldier boy
CREDITS
Bright Eyes is:
Conor Oberst (vocal, acoustic and electric guitars, baritone acoustic guitar)
Mike Mogis (pedal steel, electric guitar, manjo, dobro, mandolin, banjo)
Nathaniel Walcott (piano, trumpet, synthesizers, organs, mellotron, electric piano, celeste, glockenspiel, string and horn arrangements)
With:
Eric (E. Babbs) Barber
cuts: tracks 5, 10, 12
Jake Bellows
vocal and guitar: track 10
Matt Berninger
vocal: track 12
Jason Boesel
drums: tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13
vocal: tracks 4, 7, 11, 13
percussion: tracks 2, 6, 10
Amy Carey
whistling: track 2
Michaela Favara
vocal: track 13
Corina Figueroa Escamilla
vocal: track 7
Griffin Goldsmith
drums: tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13
percussion: tracks 2, 6, 10
vocal: tracks 4, 7, 9, 11, 13
Sarah Greenwell
vocal: track 13
Chan Marshall
vocal: track 6
Jamie Montes
vocal: track 13
Alex Orange Drink
vocal: tracks 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 13
whistling: track 2
Adam Reich
acoustic guitar: tracks 5, 7
electric guitar: track 8
Macey Taylor
bass: tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13
vocal: tracks 4, 11, 13
Horns
Josh Johnson
alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones: tracks 2, 4, 7, and 13
James King
tenor and baritone saxophones: track 7
Vikram Devasthali
trombone: tracks 2, 4, 13
Strings (track 11)
Paul Cartwright, Luanne Homzy, Zach Dellinger, Jennifer Takamatsu: violin and viola
Vanessa Freebairn-Smith: cello
Produced by Bright Eyes
Recorded by Mike Mogis at ARC Studios, Omaha, Nebraska, September 2023–February 2024
Mixed by Mike Mogis
Engineered and Additional Production by Adam Roberts
Additional Engineer: Pierre de Reeder at 64 Sound (horns, track 2, 4, 7, and 13; strings, track 11)
Chan Marshall vocals composed, sang, produced, & arranged by Chan Marshall. Engineer and co-mix of Chan vocals: Adam Blastevic. Chan appears courtesy of Domino.
Matt Berninger vocals recorded at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, CT. Recording engineer: Nick Lloyd. Matt appears courtesy of Concord Records.
Additional Production (track 12): Eric (E. Babbs) Barber
Research Assistant: Stella Mogis
Mastered by Brian Lee and Bob Jackson at Waygate Mastering, Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Songs written by:
Conor Oberst (tracks 3, 9)
Conor Oberst and Nate Walcott (tracks 6, 10, 12)
Conor Oberst and Alex Orange Drink (tracks 2, 4, 7, 11, 13)
Conor Oberst, Nate Walcott and Alex Orange Drink (tracks 5, 8)
Conor Oberst published by: Bedrooms; Bedrooms and Spiders (BMI)
Nathaniel Walcott published by: Attics and Centipedes (ASCAP)
Alex Orange Drink published by Son of An American Music (BMI)
Diorama, artwork, and layout by Zack Nipper
Photography by Rob Walters (diorama and dice array)
Doctored dice idea by Marin Leong
Dice info based on trick-dice.com by Steve Cormack
Frank Diaz appears courtesy of his wife Madeline. He is survived by his loving family. His energy, spirit and love will live on forever. A king of kings county.
Frank “Lingo” Diaz
February 23, 1954 – January 13, 2024
Many many many thanks to all of our friends, families, colleagues, all the musicians that contribute to the music live and on record, pets, strangers on the street, lovers and fighters, and especially YOU!