I made my album The World is a Beautiful Place a couple of months ago (It's at carlcreighton.bandcamp.com ) and used the 10 of Cups card on the cover. I like tarot cards in general, but that one I thought really captured the joy and optimism of that album.

This album, Xmas Songs, is less optimistic.

I came across the card used on this album cover while doing tarot and thought it was interesting how the 10 of Cups could be so full of love and joy and the 10 of Swords is so dreadful. How dreadful! To be laying there with all those swords in your back holding a peace sign. So... unjust? It depends on how you read the card, I guess.

Anywho, I had nothing to do on Christmas and I thought making a darker album for this card as a counterpoint to The World is a Beautiful Place would be fun. So I did it! And here it is!

Other thoughts while I'm waiting for the songs to upload:

It's a lot more wintery than The World is a Beautiful Place.

I'm not REALLY sad. I'm really not. I just like asking questions and the answers are kind of depressing sometimes.

Howth the band experience is nothing like this. Or maybe we'll play one of these songs sometime. Who knows! But I just pulled these out of my ass. And maybe they sound like shit. Sorry if they sound like shit. They sound good in my Sennheisers.

I really appreciate anybody giving a shit about my music! I love making it!

Here's lyrics!

I LIKE TO SEE THE FLAME CATCH ON MY CIGARETTE

I like to see the flame catch on my cigarette
When it's not windy, it's truly the safest bet
When I feel lonely as lonely as I can get
I can still count on the flame of my cigarette

I thought I had but I guess that I hadn't yet
Found enough reason not to smoke my cigarette
Death's not enough and a clean lung is less than that
I'm fat and lazy please leave me my cigarette!

TINA WITH THE SHORT BROWN HAIR

Tina with the short brown hair
You can see her back when her back is bare
Secondhand abandonee, she has no other place she's needed to be
Than by your side abidingly

Pretty as a fresh cadaver
Having anyone who'll have her
Takes it out on those who won't
By singing such a sour note
It ruins all the lines you rote

Tina with the hanger frame
She only feels mighty when assigning blame
If it wasn't meant to be
It wasn't because of anything done by me
The fault is hers or nobody's

Turn your earlobes inside out
And you won't have to hear about
The ways she says you've done her wrong
It's really such a shitty song
Especially when you sing along

I wouldn't spend a second thought on friends
That say you're the only friend that they've got
They'll just as easy close the door on you
Like they did all of their friends before

Their word is noise and nothing more

BURIED ALIVE

I'll be buried alive

When I'm down don't use my back to put your swords in
When I'm down be a friend
Don't make everything the end

I'll be happy I died

All I'd hoped for isn't what I want anymore
Life's a bore
I'm a bum
You don't know
Carl, you're scum

I'll be buried alive

SNOW'S FALLING DOWN ALL AROUND YOU

Snow's falling down all around you
Wherever you are
Cars driving by and some trucks too
Wherever you are

Days grow long
Nights grow tired
I wake up
I retire

I have a story to tell you
Wherever you are
Tons of funny shit I've been through
Wherever you are

Flaming Lips
Low and Wire
I wake up
I retire

Higher than I've been
Now I'm coming down
Gentle as the snow melts on the ground

Thought I knew you
It was a joke
Thought I found you
I take a toke
And go for broke

I have a song or two to show you
Wherever you are
Plucked from the heartstrings you strummed through
Wherever you are

DEREK, WHY'D YOU GO WITH THAT OTHER GUY?

Derek, why'd you go with that other guy?
I'm as good as him
At doing that thing
That makes your heart sing
I have a wedding ring
It I could surely bring

Derek, tell me why'd you have
To go and ask me that
Question that I'd been avoiding
Why do you give a shit
If one night is it
I find it more than annoying that
All the boys I dig make me feel so big
Only to just leave me hanging
When I've been through all this before
Love's a total bore
When you get just what you asked for


DO YOU WANT TO BE IMMORTALIZED?

Do you want to be immortalized?
As wet as cement that's yet to be made pavement
Do you want to see that look in my eye that says
Please love me
I feel you like a heart attack
No regrets
You won't request your money back

Do you want to see me mortified?
Laughing like a goat that doesn't get the whole joke
Do you want to see me cannibalize myself?
Yes I would, if you would do it with me.
You're Matthew and I am Carl Josephine

Oh Matt, you're really something.
Everything means nothing.

Do you want to be immortalized?

MIRO

Miro
I love you
Hanging in
Your white room

Putting that nail polish all over them nails
Pulling out every hair, putting them in pigtails
First you draw in lead, then you end in ink
Lines that leave the page rage right off the brink
Captured by my eye
Shot right out my tongue
I tie them in knots
And they come undone

Miro
You know me
Willing and
Eager to be
Eating you with my mind
Licking you with my teeth
Holding your face of stone
Simmering in your heat
Leap until I'm bare
Clothes down by my feet
So completely there
and half incomplete

Every manic beat
Every psycho dot
Body is set to go
Mind is hot to trot
Lurking your avenue
Strutting your boulevard
Cuckoo as a loon
Tuning its guitar
Gotta hit every note
Make them all sound the same
Feeling them from inside
Making them glad I came
Turning them inside out
Turning them rightside in
Seeing what they're about
Wearing them like my skin
Words like dominos
Scattering fro and to
Shattering on the floor
Dogshit on my shoe
I ain't gonna lie
I gotta confess
I'm in love with your
playful craziness

SANTA (DONTCHA THINK ABOUT JESUS?)

Santa, whatcha think about Jesus?
Don't you think it's his season?
Now it's all presents and shit
He died for you.
Didn't he?
Just like him and me, Santa

Jesus Christ, Santa.
Can't you pick another day to give your toys away?

Jesus died for you.

Jesus, whatcha think about Santa?
Do you think it's coincidence
That his name has the same letters satan does?
Money: the bottom line everywhere
Nobody cares about Jesus
Reason shmeason. I'm getting chinese food.

Chickens died for me.

CHECKERS AT MIDNIGHT

Checkers at midnight
The zombies all hang out
Preparing for daylight
To come in and turn them all
Back into nothing
The cracks in the sidewalk
Will surely absorb them
Like vapors
Like cyphers
Like dust

Hallelu! Hallelu! Hallelu!

Wit will not save you
Maybe it will
You'll feel better until
Someone points out
That your joke got you nowhere
A joke in response
Someone else feeling witty
So shitty how nothing gets done

Hallelu! Hallelu! Hallelu!

GOD IS SANTA CLAUS

I know
But I know too late
There's no rewind button on my fate
Gonna lie here until the day gets great

Maybe I'll sing
I hope he brings something
Because God is Santa Claus

I see
But I see too much
Everything I love is just a crutch
I'm a crutch to them too, it doesn't take much

As sure as bee's sting
And money is king
God is Santa Caus

Better be good
Do as you should
Knock on wood though
You never know