Get all 16 The Wind-up Birds releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of "Pop.Thinking", Bar Sadness (with added RacketBall), Summer Haunts, Desire Paths, The Right, Poor Music, The Gristle, Acting Thick for Money (volume 2), and 8 more.
1. |
Round Here
03:27
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Warning signal
Warning sign
Put these thoughts out of your mind
Round here you keep your wits about you
Everybody says so
Hopelessness sits on a stool in the corner
Everybody says so
Round here you learn things parrot fashion
Everybody says so
And they give you stupid stuff to spend your cash on
Everybody says so
Warning signal
Warning sign
Put these thoughts out of your mind
Round here you keep your wits about you
Everybody says so
‘Cause hopelessness sits on a stool in the corner
Everybody says so
The fear lights up your featureless face
Everybody says so
Send the plagues round to this place
Everybody says so
Warning signal
Warning sign
Put these thoughts out of your mind
The tears light up your beautiful face
Everybody says so
Send the plagues down to this place
Everybody says so
Round here there’s nothing to fear
Everybody says so
We’ll sit right here ‘til our arses disappear
Yeah everybody says that round here
Around here
La la la la la la la la la la la
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2. |
Stay Close to the Driver
02:52
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They’ve surrounded the bus stop with diamond shards
‘Cause the jokes are not funny on the greeting cards
There’s a burning plastic mound on every corner
Just like the street signs they are here to warn you
Stay close to the driver
He’s got what you need
Stay close to the driver
Satisfaction guaranteed
Stay close to the driver
Take a book to read
Stay close to the driver
‘Cause he will not impede you
He doesn’t understand half the words he uses
It kind of explains the comrades he chooses
He’s spent too much time falling on his bruises
It kind of explains the sincerity he oozes
Stay close to the driver
He’s got what you need
Stay close to the driver
Satisfaction guaranteed
Stay close to the driver
Take a book to read
Stay close to the driver
‘Cause he will not impede you
And when you’re on your own tonight
On your own tonight
Stay close to the driver
He’s got what you need
Stay close to the driver
Satisfaction guaranteed
Stay close to the driver
Take a book to read
Stay close to the driver
‘Cause he will not impede you
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3. |
Bastard Required
02:40
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The Advert said “Bastard Required”
So I went to the interview, correctly attired
I said “This is the role to which I’ve always aspired,
I only lied on the form cos I was so tired”
Tired
T-t-t-tired
Well I had morals once
I had posters on the wall
Of revolutionaries and everything
Now their words are used to sell drinks in the clubs
Screen printed quotes on plaques around the bar
The last guy was completely inspired
He died two days after he retired
She pawned the clock that he acquired
And pursued the life that she’d always desired
Desired
D-d-desired
Well she loved him once
She had photos on the wall
Of their wedding day and everything
Now they’re left face down in a dusty old drawer
Along with her rings and his work’s ID card
Bastard required
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4. |
Two Minute Hate
02:35
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After all the smiles and the “Pleased to meet you”s
It's funny how the hate contorts your features
You were laying down some impediment speeches
I love you
You are out of reach, yeah
Love us
We are gorgeous creatures
We will fight you on the beaches
Here’s the stick with which they teach us
Its hard to say
But you love it
Don’t you?
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah Yeah
After all the smiles and the “Pleased to meet you”s
Its funny how the hate contorts your features
You were laying down some impediment speeches
I love you
you are out of reach, yeah
Love us
We are gorgeous creatures
Mix your vodka with my bleach, yeah
Here’s the sick with which they teach you
Its hard to say you love it
Here we come through heaven’s gate
We’re two thousand years too late
Something awful on your plate
Hold your breath
Two minute hate
Yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah
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5. |
Long Term Sick
03:12
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I’m not really him I just played him in the film
I’m not really him I just played him in the film
I’ve made my peace with the people that he killed
I’m not really him I just played him in the film
This is a fine time
Yeah this is a fine time
To give me the speech about
The morals of the children
And the TV
And the pop tarts
This is a fine time
Yeah this is a fine time
To give me the speech about
Ignorance and morals
And the monsters in the bedclothes
Ooo oooh ooo oooh
I’m not really him I just played him in the film
I’m not really him I just played him in the film
I’ve made my peace with the people that he killed
I’m not really him I just played him in the film
This is a fine time
Yeah this is a fine time
To give me the speech about
The morals of the children
And the TV
And the pop tarts
Yeah this is a fine time
Oh this is a great time
To give me the speech about
Ignorance and morals
And the monsters in the bedclothes
This is a fine time
Yeah this is a fine time
To give me the speech
About the ignorance and the morals
And the monsters in the bed clothes
This is a fine time
Ha this is a great time
To give me the speech about
Ignorance and morals
And the pop tarts on the TV
Me and my friends are long term sick
Me and my friends are long term sick
I’ll see you on the corner, half past six
Me and my friends are long term sick
Me and the band are long term sick
Me and the band are long term sick
I’ll see you in my spaceship, half past six
Me and the band are long term sick
The Wind-up Birds are long term sick
The Wind-up Birds are long term sick
I’ll see you, dead, half past six
The Wind-up Birds are long term sick
The Wind-up Birds are long term sick
The Wind-up Birds are long term sick
I’ll never see you, half past six
The Wind-up Birds will never leave you alone
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6. |
The New Eighties
03:10
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The game is on so it makes sense
To coat yourself with confidence
Bronzed and bitter, here’s your shot
Its time to show us what you’ve got
Act like a camera is fixed on your frame
And hide all traces from where you came
Take flight
Run in fear
The new eighties are here
I saw the signs in ’98
I tried to tell you
It was too late
Take flight
Run in fear
The new eighties are here
No one listens to this stuff
Its just me
Kicking off
Its time to grab the things you crave
Elbow the rest
Bold is brave
Business arrangement
Now called love
Contract handy if you’ve had enough
Emotion checked except crocodile tears
For the special occasions
Like your bottled beers
Or your bottled fears
Take flight
Run in fear
The new eighties are here
No one listens to this stuff
Just me kicking off
Take flight
Run in fear
The new eighties are here
A dormant signal in the brain
Now the eighties are here again
The names have changed but not the faces
Its just the eighties without the braces
Timeless ideals
Now defeated
Its just the eighties being repeated
And I don’t know why I don’t know why
Please tell me why
Please tell me why
Take flight
Run in fear
The new eighties are here
I saw the signs in ’98
I tried to tell you
It was too late
Take flight
Run in fear
The new eighties are here
A dormant signal in my brain
And the eighties are here again
The names have changed but not the faces
Its just the eighties without the braces
Timeless ideals
Now defeated
Its just the eighties being repeated
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7. |
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Is the world on your shoulders or is the world at your feet?
How do you feel about the people that you meet?
Do you read about the royals?
Are you loyal to your friends?
Do you own a lot of records or just Radiohead’s “The Bends”?
Are you ploughing through the bible?
Are you trying to sell your soul?
Do you piss yourself at parties?
Do you freeze in front of goal?
Are you living off your parents?
Are you working for the man?
Do you pay for your prescriptions?
Do you swear because you can?
I think that we can help you
We won’t make a fuss
We’ll turn your life around
If you join us
Do you give money to the smackheads or could you give a fuck?
Would you drive right passed a car crash or stop to have a look?
Do you look like someone famous if you get your hair just right?
Do you sometimes wake up screaming in the middle of the night?
Do you write things in your diary?
Do you keep it in your mind?
Do you class yourself as generous or do you think yourself unkind?
Are you duller than dishwater?
Are you higher than the sun?
Would you wipe out all your workmates if you only had a gun?
I think that we can help you
We won’t make a fuss
We’ll turn your life around
Join us
Do you dream about dying?
Do you dream of electric sheep?
Do you dream about your father every time you fall asleep?
Do you go in for moody silence or succumb to rabid rants?
Do you want the world to end soon or be overrun by plants?
Do you feel better after crying?
Do you hate yourself for days?
Do you despise the world around you in a hundred thousand ways?
Will you stick with the traditions or will you break the mold?
Will it all come back to haunt you when you are growing old?
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8. |
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Hold your breath and slip through the railings
Run like mad from your recent failings
Don’t look back the path’s disappearing
Don’t explain the pleasure you’re feeling
You know overhead that vultures are circling
You did all you could
It just wasn’t working
It just wasn’t working
(They killed themselves laughing at our stupid disco dancing)
If you need a distraction
A break from the action
There’s a route through the dreary streets of this terrible city
(There’s no way to stop us shifting out of focus)
Your family won’t miss you
Thrown away like a tissue
You’ll see things more clearly
Its the only answer really
Its the only answer really
Don’t tell anyone where you going
Or when you’ll be back
There’s no way of knowing
You can change your name or your face when you get there
Invent a past for the people you meet there
Its a better place but it won’t be plain sailing
You will wish you were back through the railings
Well get back through the railings
(They killed themselves laughing at our stupid disco dancing)
If you need a distraction
A break from the action
There’s a route through the dreary streets of this terrible city
(There’s no way to stop us shifting out of focus)
Down the hidden ginnels
Subterranean tunnels
You’ll learn how to function
There’s always repercussions
There’s always repercussions
You once thought you would be relevant
Words you uttered would be held as significant
Now your dreams are all so distant
You act surprised but it was so blatant
Act surprised but it was so blatant
Act surprised but you are so blatant
You act suprised
(They killed themselves laughing at our stupid disco dancing)
If you need a distraction
A break from the action
There’s a route through the dreary streets of this terrible city
(There’s no way to stop us shifting out of focus)
Your family won’t miss you
Thrown away like a tissue
You’ll see things more clearly
Its the only answer really
(They killed themselves laughing at our stupid disco dancing)
If you need a distraction
A break from the action
There’s a route through the dreary streets of this terrible city
(There’s no way to stop us shifting out of focus)
Down the hidden ginnels
Subterranean tunnels
You’ll learn how to function
There’s always repercussions
There’s always repercussions
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9. |
Cop on the Edge
03:05
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And he’s banging the table like a cop on the edge
Shaking the plants off the window ledge
Making his point two or three times
Shaking with rage and fluffing his lines
He’s driving too fast
He’s a cop on the edge
Skidding through the boxes of fruit and veg
His head it is pounding and the veins in his neck
Throb like bass speakers in a discotheque
Throb like bass speakers in a discotheque
(They said it was a young man’s game) x 4
Business plans and sales graphs
Greasy food in greasy caffs
He strains to fit inside his suits
Or tie the laces on his boots
His face screams with shaving cuts
Acid fizzles in his guts
His car shakes from his rock CDs
Knocking back the anti-freeze
He shouts down the phone
Cop on the edge
Finding it hard to gain advantage
Clients don’t listen like they used to do
When he sticks to the facts
It still sounds untrue
He’s using his fists like a cop on the edge
Ready to hand in his gun and his badge
He knows that the writing is on the wall
He should cash in his shares and get away from it all
Cash in his shares and get away from it all
(They said it was a young man’s game) x 4
Business plans and sales graphs
Greasy food in greasy caffs
He strains to fit inside his suits
Or tie the laces on his boots
His face screams with shaving cuts
Acid fizzles in his guts
His car shakes from his rock CDs
Knocking back the anti-freeze
FREEZE
(They said it was a young man’s game) x 4
Business plans
Sales graphs
Greasy food
Greasy caffs
Can’t fit in suit
Tie lace on boot
Face scream
Shave cut
Acid fizz in gut
Car shake
Queen CD
Knock back anti-freeze
FREEZE
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10. |
And Another Thing
01:12
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T-Shirt slogans haunting me
Lame one-liners taunting me
Instant personality
Made for just the needy
Ironic shots of TV hosts
Goblins, devils, ghouls and ghosts
Who can you offend the most
Smutty puns are the worst
Stop reading now
No meaning now
He’s leaving now
Bands that you don’t even know
Cool by association though
With kegs way down low
You’re everybody that you know
Torn on chest by a machine
Harder for your mam to clean
Do you know what the words mean?
Life becoming routine
He’s reading now
No meaning now
Stop reading now
Stop reading now
Life becoming routine
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11. |
Slow Reader
03:14
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I’m wise enough to know that I’m not very clever
Disaster haunts my every endeavor
In the distant past I had a future
But the details got lost on somebodies computer
I left school grey, drained of all colour
The mornings were dull but the evenings were duller
The booze I got for my decreasing pound
Was the stuff the tramps drink on the toxic ground
I don’t know why I feel guilty with everyone
I don’t know how I was duped by the smirking man
Everyone laughed when I went on that programme
Born to play the professional victim
Affected an accent that betrayed my predicament
Every tic and curse was just an investment
The ratings were good, there was a witty trailer
I floundered around, an incompetent failure
Reeled on experts who adjusted their glasses
Said I could partake in some evening classes
I don’t know why I believe in everyone
I don’t know how I was duped by the smirking man
I don’t know why I feel guilty with everyone
I don’t know how I was duped by the smirking man
Follow a slow reader on his way through the day
With close ups on his mouth when he’s got something to say
Edit in a narrative that just isn’t there
You can’t just observe you just have to care
Well we sell desolation back to media types
Sat in their coffee shops, smoking their pipes
Self conscious in the inserts, or just taking the piss
Appear through the years in sets of comedy clips
I released a single, an old sixties classic
My pitch was quite wayward and the backing was basic
Picked up by the radio on heavy rotation
How did this happen? I’m a singing sensation
In the street I get double-takes when they see me
“I know your face, did you win the lottery?”
I think I’ll get cards made “World Famous Non-Star”
leave them in phone booths and stations and bars
I don’t know why I believe in everyone
I don’t know how I was duped by the smirking man
I don’t know why I feel dirty with everyone
I don’t know how I was duped by the smirking
Duped by the smirking
Duped by the smirking man
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The Wind-up Birds Leeds
New EP - "Pop. Thinking" is out now.
More gigs on the way as well.
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