to be 23

unhappy
unsettled
I pay rent but I've got no place to stay
unfulfilled
unsung
the louder I get, the less I am heard
chords and notes, the percussion of my teeth
it seems like there isn't a happy ending
I spend money when I eat, the money is made from trees
but I can't find two dimes to rub together
to be 23 feels like a dead end street
oh to be 23
chords and notes, the percussion of my teeth
it seems like there isn't a happy ending
I spend money when I eat, the money is made from trees
but I can't find two dimes to rub together
to be 23 feels like a dead end street
oh to be 23

fencemaker by trade

you're a step ahead
parents with a good credit store
no room mates in rehab
just one job with flexible hours
the tiger in the snow still eats it's prey
roberto benigni, you've tricked me
you're years ahead
girls love the cynical air
the neo-folk movement is booming
tailor made and a complete natural
the tiger in the snow still eats its prey
roberto benigni, you've tricked me
one of god's rare beasts
a fence maker with a good ear
I'm out, you're in
I'm out, you're in
I'm out, I'm out
I'm out, I'm out
fuck it I don't want to be in

feeling your gut

stop crying
it'll only add to the water filling your lungs
filling your guns
feeling your gut
the anchors in your head can only hurt
trust me
there's nothing to trust in the lonely sea you've created
so why perpetuate
why so much hate
even when influence isn't around

soaked paper shoes

soak paper shoes just give me the news
am I at the bottom, how much further could I go?
I spoke to satan, did a few lines of coke
played out my destructive side to incite the words I wrote
even soaked paper shoes are just ash in this heat
god didn't blame me for trying to switch teams
chemicals chains bound by good intentions,
dark flags on darker nights, you can't tame me, who can blame me
the letters read pga will blanket the past
between the lines on the paper, I lived in my caste
tore a hole in my shadow, thought I borrowed from my dad
but who can champion ink on the hand that says 13 and a half
chemicals chains bound by good intentions,
dark flags on darker nights, you can't tame me, who can blame me

man and livestock

the sun ties all things breathing, neat knots for man and livestock
a present to be unwrapped daily, not pushed back to bi-weekly
I forget my hands at the end of my arms
so forgive me for forgetting to smile
when I think about thinking my stomach churns
cause I feed on negativity
my feet won't plant in the ground, they're in bed when I'm at work
so I trudge off to my job, not knowing which way I'll fall today

I hate pink floyd even when I'm not sober

Heaven doesn't think of you, God doesn't think of me
we're fighting for scraps, they're taking naps, not losing any fucking sleep
I'd pay for a trip to hell before I'd beg for a spot in heaven
respect is due on the act of civility, I don't feel a drop on me
it ain't magic, where your prayer goes
eyes and ears up, the evil in the sky knows
I wasn't born a preacher, but I was born a believer
every good action has counter action and it isn't constant bullshit
better to swallow the sin than let them lure you in
security can be bought but is it what you want
a lot of people talk, very few can even walk
so I'd rather crawl and whisper than be screaming on my back
it ain't magic, where your prayer goes
eyes and ears up, the evil on the sky knows
where is my future going?
down? down? down? down?

Youth Crew Blues

if it ever gets recorded, this album will be everything lft is and wants to be. I promise if we can ever get up the money to hit the studio for our next record it will be fast, poignant, and deliberate. The lyrics will cover the black sheep syndrome, tolerance of intolerance, sleepwalking 9-5, and everything else that has been crippling our happiness for the past two years. The music will speak and the lyrics will create images. We will be playing harder, faster, and more emotional throughout the record. you will all die when you hear it. so get your funeral arrangements ready.



Charles H.
LFT

Hello Internet

Hi internet,

no one reads this blog, maybe a few but I can't really expect this to be read. This is an official restart of the lft machine. We're going to be hitting the mid-west and east coast this summer, trying to spread of the gospel of positivity. I'm stoked to play new cities and meet new people. Here we come.


Also, if you want us to play your city, book us a show there.


Charles H.
LFT

the end is the end

the head has been rattling with lots of ideas lately. Wrote the entire album in my month of almost solitude. sucks lft's last shows are coming up, but I have to keep on moving forward. can't stop making music cause other's have friends and enjoy being home from the road.

fortitude dude

I'd rather bore a hole in my head and watch my brains soak my shoulder with fluid then have to deal with another dumb girl who doesn't even know her right from her left.

Everytime I bend and take the hell, only to find it fruitless, brown and dry just as I expected it would be. Kudos to all aimless girls sucking the lifeforce out of an individual, why don't you go to cosmotology school.

the real youth crew blues

spade the kids too heavy to dream

never sleep, barely speak, "something good" rarely happens

bore your friends, bore yourself

ostracize entire lives to deaden all their wonders

this reservoir is violence

it was never what I joined

the brutes downed their hearts

to punish their own patrons

youth crew blues, I'm singing to you

we all have a chance to chose

youth crew blues

crickets sing our names all day, "we're clean till the week breaks"
rendezvous before the house show at seven, you have a friend for me to meet
humility's his god given name, he answers to common sense
life isn't as bad as you want it to be, actuality is far from what you think

sullen and pissed at the burns from home
you'll buckle under your happiness
nothing feel betters than blaming everyone
that's why I nod to the beat and look straight ahead

a sojourn to this county brews the blues, once in, you're dense with pestilence
favor a night that lasts forever, waking up here is cruel to the spirit
they bury youth like plants to be harvested
an article to be read in leisure
so we poisen ourselves and stumble through, no one will notice till a bill's due

you'll buckle under your happiness
like I'll die from a lie I told when I was six

the barristas working for my blackened soul

abase my lapse of insight

I'm gagging on what's t0 come

to be afraid of what hasn't came

is as distant as I'd enjoy to go

you read about this persuation 

obscurity, an opinion they allow

a door to distress, a space to suffocate

happy children grow into bitter adults

don't listen, don't listen

we're here to destroy your ambition

don't listen, don't fucking listen

adults talk you up to run you down

morose men and hateful women

are here for digression, spoil like the crowd

ripened wit is like toasted urin

spray for animal stings in open waters

nature yells maim cheer and comfort

it's what the collective never had

you accept what we feel

a mob of them over a single kid

all the bitter souls in the house

won't rival one of us

mess with the tiger and you'll get the horns

be proud of your shitty friends
shady lifestyles lead to an understanding
that no matter how low you go
the trailer lot will break your fall
Hate art like I hate art
ink speakers with "when I write you, I feel small."
loved ones, left ones, I don't know how you feel
answers leave me notes at my door
threw up in your front yard last night
sorry but it felt right at the time
gorgeous bottle be mine till I move on
like everyone I've ever used
Hate art like I hate art
ink speakers with "when I write you, I feel small."
loved ones, left ones, I don't know how you feel
answers leave me notes at my door
Stay misread and dismissed, bleed grey in a nation of flakes and flips.
Borderline, every line, I feel like this, lie myself to a false content.

my kind of summer

recreational summer get eaten by the breeze

sleep collects dust in the closet with boxes of winter

watch the sun blaze through the blinds

at six am, I'll consider to crawl beneath the day

one week in front of adaptors and screens

two console eyes and two blistered thumbs

midday wake up call

I start again, another summer

a slave to nothing memorable

bottle rocket scars litter my enemies with fear

the neighborhood belongs to my brothers and me

the moon stops the best game I've ever had

at one am, I'll consider to crash on the couch

one week in front of adaptors and screens

two console eyes and two blistered thumbs

midday wake up call

I start again, another summer

a slave to nothing memorable

a waste this summer

next summer I'll get things done

lazy and bored for summer

next summer I'll do better

natural tailor of natural joy

warm up the trunk space of my own scene,

the kids at home all rub me wrong,

drink till you drown, smoke, ash off consumption,

yeah I did both but I grew up

once fireworks went off in my chest

didn't ingest a bomb to enjoy the show

I've had a few before, drinks and problems to match
I'm older, done and over that wreck

I'm a natural tailor of natural joy
woah oh oh

crooks move on, kids move faster

you got what you wanted, be cool, just be you

party hard as you swerve through traffic

shows are littered with minors who'd love to have it

as my contacts list shrinks, I exhale

I sleep well when your passed out at home

once fireworks went off in my chest

I didn't ingest a bomb to see the show

I've had a few before, drinks and problems to match
I'm older, done and over that wreck

I'm a natural tailor of natural joy
woah oh oh oh

crooks move on, kids move faster

you got want you wanted, be cool, just be you

your choice, your life,

I'm just a speed bump to a good time

giant's dispair

Giant's dispair is what the ambulance driver called the mile or so decline where we wrecked. Pretty flippin' ominous if you ask me. I never saw any sign that said, "devil's elbow/giant's dispair quarter mile ahead, make sure to make all ambulance and wrecker arrangements before descent."

We were following the gps and it was taking us on a short cut to save time. The police officer doing the accident report asked us why we had gotten off the highway because cafe metro was next to the highway we exited. The gps didn't know we were hauling a trailer full of equipment. There was talk of our brakes not being installed properly but I'm sure it was just the steep ingrade that wore the breaks down to nothing. I started pumping my brakes when the roads steepened. Each time I pumped, I had to press further to get a response out of the breaks. Obviously this went on till there was no response and the brakes was touching the floorboad.

I don't think I've ever been so scared in my fucking life. The moment the brakes went out, I just stared down the road and the sharp turn up ahead and tried to think what the fuck can I do here. I could have tried to steer into the tree's or the rockface but I'm pretty sure that would have produced a funeral bill someone would have to pay. So I tried to make the turn. The trailer swung out to our side and that's about all I remember. After the 4runner and trailer flipped once or twice we ended up in a ditch with the trailer on it's side and the 4runner right side up. When we stopped we all looked at each other yelling to see if each other were okay.

Pretty fucking happy no one died in the accident. I can't think of many things more intense than that thirty seconds of my life. I'll write up something for what happened after that, I just wanted to get the accident down while it was fresh on my mind.



Charles H.
LFT

88 says there's a cure for the uncommon

we finally made it, the obtuse believe
openly I admit, you're not what we use to be
keep our portion of the sun, the broken reef among the surf,
the rich soil and good weather never existed

ask me do I care? would I ever care?

wave my milestone, burn last year
we knew better, now we'll do better
slave hand over fist, over a loosened grip
you'll find nothing exactly where nothing is

four years ago I wouldn't have seen this
a smile on my face as we die in Pennsylvania
traitors to our previous work, our voice is not lost
we're just ahead of the storm that's brewing

ask me do I care? would I ever care?

a cure for the common band is itself
you know you're own hands well

half the ship stays underwater
we'll be that part that doesn't need to breathe
you can flaunt the flag while we carry the ship
that's alright by me

day 7, ballin'

I'll try to be as short as possible. After sleeping in the four-runner at the local Walmart in Charleston, SC, we woke up the next morning and tried several tire joints before finding one that had our trailer tires. 255 dollars, yay! We then drove to Fayetteville, NC, and played a show to small unenthusiastic crowd. We never do well in bars. It's either a situation where the crowd is too mature and forward thinking to get our straight forward approach to punk or people are top 40 types. The next night was the same noise in a different town and finally the Luna bean, another empty venue playing to the bands we tour with. Fun times. There was some cool parts about these shows like breaking into a skate park and filming the guys do some street skate shiz. That night we drove to Virginia beach to stay with Corey's aunt and see Christian"s older brother. We arrived in Virginia beach early that morning and crashed hard. Right now, I'm sitting in a hotel in East Orange, N.J. We went to NYC today and it was amazing. I saw an assortment of homeless people, bright neon signs, and comic books. A comedian who was supposedly opening for Dave Chappell and Charlie Murphy was hounding us into buying tickets outside of the toys r us in Times Square. He was an extremely rude and poor salesman.

Tomorrow is bamboozle. I can't wait to see the get up kids.


eff the world,
Charles H.
LFT

day three of passion brand/wisteria tour

It's 2:21 am in North Charleston, SC. The boys and I are currently parked in a walmart super center trying to get a night's rest in our spacious four-runner. We've spent the past three days tip toe'ing from augusta, ga to spartanburg, sc to charleston, sc. I use the term "tip toe'ing" because our trailer tires are bald and worn badly, the underwiring( not sure if that's the term) is exposed. Every city we go to doesn't have that specific trailer tire, FML. So here we are, sleeping in a walmart parking lot. Just waiting for it to open so we can be told they don't have the tire, then we'll spend the morning driving around trying to find it at various tire dealers, successfully wasting another morning.

Fun stories of the tour so far: first day christian bought a 200 dollar bass with his eating money(29 dates left!); zack broke his nose at our show with set your goals, he had to have surgery the day before we left, so he's not going to be here the first four or five days; and all the bands on the tour had a croosh dance sesh tonight when soundguy played metro station over the pa. Three days in and we're breaking shit, hungry, and dancing hard as fook. Word to your mother.

Side notes: literally notes:

Clean toilets are amazing.
Hungry never felt so good.
Being in a touring band is a crazy adventure.

Charles H.
LFT