The Landlords are Greedy

And the bums won't take no dimes

Faux Jean is a singer-songwriter from Duluth, Minn. Each week he adds a new song to an evolving record series over on Bandcamp and writes about it here. “From the Mixed Up Files of Mr. Matthew T. Schindler” is somewhere between a fake newsletter and a faux press release for the eponymous wabi-sabi private label album series that continues to evolve over there. Thanks for checking it out.

Faux Friends,

I shit you not, I’m moving again.

I am currently procrastinating on dismantling IKEA furniture.

Today’s song addition to the “Mixed Up Files” album is called “Pissed Off City Revisited (demo)” and you can listen to it here:

Here are the Lyrics:

I see your bird has flown
How does it feel to be alone
In a jail of your own fashioning
With reason for the walls
And despair for the ceiling?

I lived in pissed off city
For a long, long time
The landlords they are greedy
And the bums don't take no dimes
In pissed off city

Most the girls are pretty
Most the boys are nice
We can walk on water here
When it turns to ice

At least we got a family
To justify the line
"The scene is so incestuous"
I hear that all the time
In pissed off city

Get yourself some money
Find yourself a wife
Escape from pissed off city to, uh
The countryside

We've all got our dreams
And most of them are pipe
Pass that over to the left
And yes, I'll have some more wine
In pissed off city
I'll freeze there with the sinners
For everything I've done
'Cause in pissed off city
You gotta do what you can to have some fun
Fun?

This is a mellow little folk song that was cannibalized from another more upbeat tune called “The Weathermen Are Famous (In Pissed Off City).”¹

I was writing about Minneapolis when I created this, but the lines about greedy landlords and the scene being incestuous can apply to lots of cities, it would seem.

I recorded this in a single take² and forgot some words that exist on the “official release,” and it sounds like needle pops on vinyl here and there, but this demo sounds echt urpop to me. (Scroll way down to see the video I made for the official release some time ago.)

raw materials and a scene of chaos.

SSS,³ there’s a bunkbed needs my attention presently.

I remain your humble servant,

OX&C,

Faux Jean

1. I’ve got that earlier version on a cassette in one of these cardboard boxes and hope to share it once the dust has settled on this move.

2. may have punched in those closing echo lines actually.

3. Sorry So Short.