Midwestern Film

by Why Make Clocks

Midwestern Film cover art
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1.
2.
3.
4.
04:21
5.
04:34
6.
05:18
7.
8.
02:36
9.
10.
04:27

credits

released 05 September 2006
"midwestern film"
interpreted and performed by why make clocks:
dan hutchison / brian wiksell / boonie / eric kennedy / philip sterk
with pat curtis / c gibbs / chad o'neall

engineered by craig schumacher and chris schultz at wavelab recording studio, tucson, az
except:
track 1 rec. by dan on 4 track cassette, additional rec. by eric kennedy and craig; track 4 & 6 rec. by brian and eric; track 9 piano rec. by eric kennedy, vocals rec. by craig

mixed by craig schumacher
mastered by doug sloun at atudio b, omaha, ne
cd design and layout by erich ernst and dan hutchison
back cover photograph by erich ernst
"midwestern film" video shot/directed by erich ernst

all songs (c) 2006 why make clocks
lyrics - dan hutchison / music - as listed

thanks: craig schumacher, doug van sloun, erich ernst, chad o'neall and left is west, jim duede, adam goldman, ladd askland, pat curtis, c. gibbs, kim and jasper, pall jenkins, joe page, beth, kung fu tap & taco, will tarbox, mary hickey, gabrien, squidboy, the autumn project, a is jump, jeff hutchison, everyone who's helped us along the way, our friends, families, and fans who keep us inspired, thanks for your patience

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Track Name: The Tape Hiss Told Me This
shallowly swallowing
the up and coming
i can hear the wheels
of the reel motors running
a chord progression
with sparse production
accentuates the right percussion
the tape hiss told me this
in a moldy basement
a good mike placement
meters will measure
the frequencies better
the tape hiss told me this
overlap, overdub
slow fade and segue
overwrought, overthought,
revised and replayed
the tape hiss told me this
Track Name: Midwestern Film
laid out to the last detail
but even scenery can fall apart
through decomposition
the midwest gets a fresh start
all out in the open,
left there for the making
the lines we threw out to you
let us know you were faking
wipe the dust from your crown
we watched you drag it down
broken ideas let you down
now you can't get your hands around
the knives you threw
if you creep and crawl along too long
you don't notice it disappear
you must determine your style
with every frame you film
filming the way you feel
polish the dust from your crown
we watched you drag it down
broken ideas let you down
now you can't get your hands around
the knives you threw
reactivate your will
and gather all your stills
here, take this bitter pill
and once you've had your fill
you can let it go
Track Name: Who's Laughing Now?
the birds hear my words
and tell my lies to the skies
once they hit the ground
they will never be found
i tell you secrets
when you're asleep
it just makes them easier
for you to keep
if i told them to you awake
there would be too much at stake
who's laughing now? not me
little lifting lifters lift you up to see
all the little things you don't like in me
elevators elevating next to me
seem to take you away
so far from me
as they lift you faster
i can hear the distant laughter
who's laughing now? not me
can you hear the chitter-chatter
echoing intermittent laughter
it makes you feel you're chasing after
something you can never get back
in the eyes there's something missing
i move my lips but no one's listening
i slowly feel that i've been wishing
what shouldn't matter away
who's laughing now? not me
Track Name: That's Sad
under the clear blue sky
everything seems so clean
wipe away those desperate eyes
they won't see it anyway
when did everything get so dark on you?
did it gradually creep in like the tide?
swallowed up beneath a clear blue sky
it used to be so easy
like it came naturally
but things change so quickly don't they?
when did everything get so dark on you?
did it gradually creep in like the tide?
swallowed up beneath a clear blue sky
minutes of silence can seem so long
waiting for something to be said
the open-ended can be so agonizing
but maybe there's nothing to add
and that's sad
Track Name: Superheroes
digging through ditches that never evolve
into more than a dream
don't let the red tape, hoops and hurdles
push you quietly out of the scene
your mouth is a gun to my head
pouring out of me now down into the sink
our problems belong to me
or at least that's what you think
did you think it was over?
that it would end like that?
you and the others who are bringing it back
i'm glad you made it back
it makes me want to stay
you still have a way of saying the things
you have to say
i meant it when i said
i'd take you with me when i go
hoping to give back
what it is you gave to me
to those who might need to know
did you think it was over?
that it would end like that?
you and the others who are bringing it back
living must be hard, no one can touch or see
the real you unless
they don't know who you are
Track Name: Feel The Sun
how can you get so bound up
in hating how you wound up?
it's funny to be lifted
by what's been bringing me down
writing seems obsessive
in a city this oppressive
you pulled open an eye
to find me alive
but feeling cast aside
i feel i'm missing it all
while everything moves so fast
there's no time to look around
i want it over before i've begun
i've been looking straight ahead
but everything still becomes the past
but if you try real hard you can almost feel the sun
it's all making sense in a way
why i make it so hard to accept me
i never thought you worth it
even if that's how you hoped i'd be
you wouldn't be mistaken
to say we've all been taken
finding out we're trapped in a role
of our own making
you can't see it in yourself
not that you're looking
everything stays rosy
when you're constantly pruning the facts
and nothing gets out of hand
i don't even know where we've been
i never asked to move this fast
there wasn't time to look around
it was ending right as i had begun
and who's this standing before me now
finding they have been typecast?
if you try real hard you can almost feel the sun
Track Name: All Your Smiles
i talked to joe about the video
he shot of us in the park
we thought we were alone
not in sepia tone
i called your bluff
you said you'd had enough
i recall a picture on the wall
of your mother's house and your smile
it seems that all your smiles
that were meant for me
are just a distant memory
and your only laughs
are trapped in fading photographs
there were little things that you used to do
that i never had to ask of you
even that has passed
it seems it went so fast
it seems that all your smiles
that were meant for me
are warped like a childhood memory
and your only laughs
remain in yellowed photographs
Track Name: False Starts
calling your own shots, you're here to stay
you needed them behind you
it's like you never went away
they're bringing out your best
by always being up to task
you can put that behind you
the lonely solo artist mask
no more false starts, no longer apart
perfect orchestra performs the score
for aching broken hearts
was everyone sleeping while you kept writing?
everyone had schedules
that kept you from deciding
no more false starts, no longer apart
perfect orchestra performs the score
for aching broken hearts
was everyone sleeping while you kept writing
Track Name: Staking Their Claim
you've been set up
who needs another letdown?
where you been? where you going?
is it really what you want?
even up, everyone's watching
they can't wait to let you in
so they can show you
all that they know
like no one's ever known it before
staking their claim on you
they'll be staking their claim on you
give up, what is there to give up
when you've already thrown it away?
they're absorbing you, absorbing you
a little more every day
can't you see what they're up to?
they need you to seem like them
and to feel like them
until you're every bit just like them
they're staking a claim on you
putting a name on you
shame on you, you let them
there's no one to blame but you
Track Name: The Finalist
with a manner of affliction
and an innocence so bland
a voice used as a gimmick
undermines what it says
you confess to an existence
compromised by its own fatigue
and a fiercely flickering self-ridicule
that brokers its own disease
you act scrupulous and critical of rejection en masse
unnerved yet undeterred
protected under the glass
an implausible self-pity
projected with every sly and squinting glance
untidy and sleepy-eyed
somehow you got them into your trance
sincerity circumvents you
in your conduit of pain
and the wool that you pull over
seems to stifle your disdain
you act scrupulous and critical of rejection en masse
unnerved yet undeterred
protected under the glass of a jewel tray
you remain one of the finalists
where principle is not the prize
you accepted it so willingly
from the pit of your disguise