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Ante​-​Anticlimax

by The Great Joe Bivins

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1.
Survive 03:00
lyrics
survive, survive, survive just to spite the bastards go on and thrive in the spoiled earth that you didn't deserve but the world rarely gives you what you deserve unless you're born into a class that grades on a curve if you manage not to die in your crib survive just to make em all choke on their glib self-satisfaction confidence is for psychopaths and dumbass shiny rich kids know what you are and who's standing on your neck ]dig your teeth into their ankle, let em know you're not bled dry just yet when all your hope seems to disappear \it was never really there and you can get near as much mileage out of fighting off the crushing despair survive, survive, survive completely out of spite and if life tastes bitter, and from now on it might learn to love it, that coppery taste of your own blood in your mouth you've taken too many slugs to get out without spitting out some teeth try to aim for the other asshole's cheering gallery it doesn't get better it just gets less sharp the points start to wear down after they've hit their mark again and again and again over the years and you go numb to the attacks but the pain still sears and when every single moment that stands out in your mind is a crushing defeat or just one of the times you tried your hardest and still didn't even come close it seems dumb to keep trying, but who said you were smart anyway? fight on until the last smug fuckers concede and all the people who told you you were rotten or diseased stop laughing then save the last one for yourself and if it tastes hollow it's just that your soul already left
2.
The Process 01:56
lyrics
I'm in the process of losing my mind I've got a great setlist worked out for the rubber room Yes I'm in the process of losing my mind Bet you didn't know it was a process Bet you thought it could never happen to you It starts out slow Things start to pile up Till you're surrounded And you're drowning Then you're mixing metaphors See phantom spiders Crawling on the wall Jump out of bed Catch your senses It's clear they were never there at all But it's not that clear And you can't shake it off And you quake And you stare At the ceiling Wide awake, as the shadows conspire To keep you from ever sleeping again I'm in the process of losing my mind I'm putting all of my sharp objects in storage Yes I'm in the process of losing my mind Bet you didn't know it was a process Bet you thought it could never happen to you Did I lock the door? Should I go check? Fine I'll go check Didn't I do this already twenty-six times this hour? What was that noise? Maybe my imagination Or maybe I should turn all the lights on and pace around the house until dawn But the light keeps me awake But the shadow keeps me unsure What may be lurking Just beyond my perception Maybe the real trouble Is the fixation I just know I never feel safe I never feel comfortable at all I can't control my life, I can't control my environment I can't control my mind I can't sleep with all this racket going on
3.
Everything Sucks 02:30
lyrics
Yeah I don't have friends And you know that I don't have a job My immediate family are all dropping dead And somebody ran over my dog Most nights I sleep like a baby with colic And wake up with a spike through my head I sit around waiting for something to happen And dreading what might happen instead I don't want to complain But the cream of my life has gone sour I toil and I toil But it's never enough My cup's not half-empty It's full of up-chuck Whoa oh oh Everything sucks You might think this sounds crazy But it rains every time I leave the house And that might be alright, but my raincoat dissolved And my umbrella got turned inside out I'm so damn unlucky If I bet against myself I'd still lose And I feel like a robot who's been programmed to feel like a human who feels like his life is fucked up Whoa oh oh Everything sucks And I don't have a wing or a prayer but that's no surprise since I don't believe in God Seems to me the only sure way to true happiness is to fill up your head full of bullshit All my friends are long gone and no new ones are due because nobody wants me around and that's probbaly due to the tendency I have to continuously moan about how everything sucks I might lie and say that I'd rather be happy than right but you don't get a choice you get tricked into thinking you've figured it all out and you can sit back and relax or you never buy into all that crap to begin with and you spend your whole life just drowning in confusion though you search and you search for an answer to it all you'll either die before you find it or eventually give up Whoa oh oh Everything sucks
4.
Silent Letters 03:17
lyrics
take all the extra letters from everybody's misspelled names and hand them off to nameless things so they can finally be claimed take all the silent letters from all the borrowed foreign words arrange them into unspoken thoughts so they can finally be heard edit your life on video tape star wipe, zoom out, fisheye, fade give up and burn the edit bay down call it the director's cut anyway lie in bed wide-eyed awake in the dark see monstrous shapes are they projections of your restless mind or literal monsters come to gnaw your face? get up, never sleep again be very productive for about a day completely lose it, have a public meltdown go home, sleep the crazy away stare down the clock till it makes a palindrome hold your breath for that whole minute then wait for another palindrome edit your life on celluloid cut out the frames you'd rather avoid splice it together until it makes sense it's not the truth but it'll play in the midwest you're very sick, yes, very ill always have been, and always will the doctors say it's all your fault then call you fat and hand you a bill they say you need to get outside but the sun beats down and burns your eyes and the fresh air makes you choke and cough everything's poison if you take enough pass out on the toilet throw up down the shower drain push yourself through all regrets walk home in the pouring rain edit your life on reel-to-reel listen to all the warm analog sounds of your constant fuck-ups and awkward moments then lock the master tapes away for good
5.
Anticlimax 03:15
lyrics
Staring down the tunnel and there is no light It wasn't night when I came in and I can feel my future's headed down There is no horizon when you're underground No one lit this pathway, I don't know the void from Heaven now I'm not flying, I am trudging through the dirt There's too many sets of footprints am I marching around in circles? Who made all these promises of promised lands? I'd like to see someone in management so I can know just where I stand There's nothing to be afraid of Except for everything There's nothing to look forward to Except for nothing Oblivion is waiting, come on in, the water's fine There is no water obviously just the dissolution of your mind There's no fire waiting and there's no reward I can only say it so much without sounding like a broken record Nothing lasts forever especially not you You're an accident of nature you'll be easily diffused There's no little pea or beam of light into the sky All you are is sponges talking and they'll soon bid you goodbye When you take that final breath how much will be left of yourself? How much of yourself can you lose before you're someone else? An anticlimax is your life If it peters out or burns so bright the third act still needs rewrites I can't offer comfort, I wouldn't know how if I tried But laugh sometimes when it's not funny It's not really all that funny most of the time
6.
Jesus Stays Dead 02:30
lyrics
Well the resurrection has been cancelled The rapture has been postponed There's no one kicking inside that tomb So don't bother to roll that stone Well you know Lazarus had a good run But now he's bleeding out from the ears Yeah and Jesus stays dead this year (repeat title as needed) Don't you try to walk on water You'll only end up wet Gorge on the blood leave the body for lunch And you'll be in a fevered sweat Shut yourself up tight inside your hole With a ten year supply of canned beans and booze Clutch your rifle and wait for a knock on the door Shoot to kill if they come to tell you the Good News Who will hear my confession? Whisper it into an old tin can Fill a bag up with gravel Go out wading in my socks till I lose sight of land Well the world's not ending it's just on hiatus Go on and wash away those tears Cause just this once and never again You know Jesus stays dead this year Nobody coming to take the wheel Because Jesus stays dead this year

about

So on some level since about 2015 when Productivity/Synergy/Skeletons came out but more actively since Fall of 2019 I began writing songs and planning to record a new album, flush with arguably unnecessary recording flourishes and many instruments that are not at all an acoustic guitar crowding out the sound. This album is still in the works, still in the late writing stages, and after a track that appears in a sketch form here, shall be called "Anticlimax", mainly because I think that's a great title for (arguably) my second album. This EP is recorded in an update of the old Acoustafuckit style, no overdubs, no tricks, just guitar and vocals and to hell with you, but with better gear and more refined techniques. There's no specific timeline for when the new album, with almost entirely brand new songs and all brand new recordings, will be out, but I invite you to stay tuned to my various social media outlets to follow along in the process and hear much more from me in the near future and beyond, assuming civilization manages to survive that long.

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released June 5, 2020

All songs written and performed by The Great Joe Bivins

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The Great Joe Bivins Orlando, Florida

Eight feet tall if he were an inch! Arms like two great tree trunks with hair like a fiery-brown mane of a lion that'd been kinda sick! Scraggly multicolored beard that granted wishes! Wishes with IRONIC CONSEQUENCES! With a voice like a great grizzly bear if bears were really good singers! Oh I seen him, doncha tell me I didn't see him with Paul Revere ringin' them bells! ... more

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