Saturday Rock Show

Yesterday, I treated myself and bought Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet CD. I first "discovered" this wonderful little British band two years ago when I purchased Deadwing and Metanoia. Now, I say "wonderful" with certain qualifications. They can be an acquired taste, an odd mixture of Radiohead and heavy metal prog. They aren't wonderful in the same way R.E.M. is "wonderful", i.e., a straight-ahead rock and roll band. Also, their songs tend to be, how can I put this, a bit on the dark side. Indeed, I might be correct in saying that they are the equivalent, in their joylessness, of the early-1990's American Seattle-scene bands, especially Pearl Jam. This is the title track (although edited; the video is just over four minutes; the song on the CD is seven and a half), with lyrics below, so you can judge for yourself:

Lyrics:

Sunlight coming through the haze
No gaps in the blinds
To let it inside
The bed is unmade,
Some music still plays

TV, yeah it's always on
The flicker on the screen
A movie actress screams
I'm basking the shit flowing out of it

I'm stoned in the mall again
Terminally bored
Shuffling round the stores
And shoplifting is getting so last year's thing

X-Box is a god to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me

Don't try engaging me
The vaguest of shrugs
The prescription drugs
You'll never find a person inside

My face is mogadon
Curiosity has given up on me
I'm tuning out desires
The pills are on the rise

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left, I simply am not here
[ Find more Lyrics at www.mp3lyrics.org/EVzi ]

I'm through with pornography
The acting is lame
The action is tame
Explicitly dull
Arousal annulled

Your mouth should be boarded up
Talking all day with nothing to say
Your shallow proclamations
All misinformation

My friend says he wants to die
He's in a band, they sound like Pearl Jam
Their clothes are all black
The music is crap

In school I don't concentrate
And sex is kinda fun, but just another one
Of all the empty ways of using up the day

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left, I simply am not here

Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with this boredom
Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with this boredom

You don't try to be liked
You don't mind
You feel no sun
You steal a gun
To kill time

You're somewhere
You're nowhere
You don't care
You catch the breeze
You still the leaves
So now where?