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about

Bi is United Shapes' fifth album. It is a concept album. The concept is bipolar disorder. Side A: Mania. Side B: Depression. Featuring songs about adultery, seizures, various travel mishaps, celebrity stalking, alcoholism, televised residue from the creation of the universe, Japanese suicide techniques, and mystery books. (You get a prize if you guess the book I'm talking about. The prize is satisfaction.)

credits

released June 21, 2013

Drew Cave - guitar, trombone, drums
Joseph Devens - keyboard, guitar, drums, synths, vocals
Written by Devens-Cave
Produced by United Shapes

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United Shapes Austin, Texas

United Shapes are an alt rock duo formed in 2004 by Joseph Devens and Drew Cave. Help yourself to our handmade demos. They sound like garbage.

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Track Name: Home Away From Home
A house with four convincing walls
And a sky of cyan
The only thing that’s missing
A little baby cryin’
We’ll move the dust into the dustbin
Move the bin to storage
No more nights out in the woods
And no more stealing porridge

Let’s turn this house away from house
Into a home away from home

The backyard filled with dog toys
We’ll get a dog someday
The handcuffs on the bedpost
Still there from the foreplay
We are domesticated souls
We eat our meat off cellophane
The alphabet on the fridge
Missing the letter A

Let’s turn this house away from house
Into a home away from home

I have a home
I have a place to lay my head
But now I’m home away from home
Asleep in bed
In my bed away from bed

My other set of keys
Are on my other key ring
Should I go there or stay here?
Depends on how I’m feeling
You say you love me and I know that you really mean it
If there’s a better place to hang my hat
I’ve never seen it

Let’s turn this house away from house
Into a home away from home
I have a home
I have a place to live my life
But now I’m home away from home
Living my life
With my wife away from wife

Some day the two of you might meet
But I really doubt it
I never mix up your names
I’m really good about it
We’ll move the furniture inside the rooms
The way we like it
My kids won’t be around to spoil our perfect
Peace and quiet

Let’s turn this house away from house
Into a home away from home
Track Name: Desert To Island
Riding on horseback we trek the desert
I got a sun burn it makes my head hurt
Is that a lake or is it the sand
We drink the dream on our knees and hands
We hunt with our fists we eat with our teeth
We sleep in our walk we talk in our sleep
Desert to island island to sea
With or without present company

Trouble the oarsman calls out his name
His seawater breakfast plays with his brain
One hundred o'clock we're off by degrees
Rowing one boat across seven seas
Shipwrecked on a rock we've lost half the crew
To amoebic dysentery, scurvy, and flu
Desert to island island to sea
With or without present company

Flying in first class making good time
Vodka and tonic squeezing the lime
This is your captain wind shears ahead
Trying to land but crashing instead
Oxygen masks drop from the ceiling
Somebody shouts something's on the wing
Desert to island island to sea
With or without present company

Riding the rails across the country
Living off cornbread and oolong tea
Staying awake in the sleeping car
When we get there we'll know where we are
We love with our lips we fight in the street
We sleep in our walk we talk in our sleep
Desert to island island to sea
With or without present company
Track Name: Half A Book
I've been thinkin bout the pages in this book
I've been thinkin bout the letters on this page
I've been thinkin bout the shelf in my library
but I do not think that this book came from there
but I'm reading this book anyway
I am at the beginning now

Someone told me that this book was very good
but that there was a part he could not read past
There must be a scary monster in this book
but I can't be sure cause I forgot to ask
why it was that he couldn't read anymore
I'm almost to the middle now

This book is so good I cannot put it down
The characters are well-rounded and the plot is deep
Every chapter is suspenseful and profound
I'm reading faster cause I cannot wait to see
what happens next is anybody's guess
I'm at the middle now

But when I turn the page to read what happens next
I can't believe what I see
The second half is blank
There's nothing left

I've been thinkin bout this stupid book I read
I've been trying to get the story out of my head
All I wish is that the second half was done
All I wish is that I never had begun
to read this book with half blank pages
now everybody

Why is this book half a book?
Track Name: Epilepsy Clinic
Girl
I’m your vibrating bed
Stick some quarters in my slot
Plug some wires in my head
Girl
I’m your vibrating man
When the lights start flashing
Hold my head in your hands
Girl
Let’s do CPR
If you don’t know it I can teach you
Put your hands on my heart
One
Hundred bpm
When the lights start flashing
We can do it again

Epilepsy clinic
Lots of people shaking, vomiting in it
And when the clinic hours are finished
The disco people come and dance in it
And when the disco dancers are finished
The doctors come back and open the clinic
Epilepsy clinic
Lots of people dancing in it

Babe
See me spinning about
Strap me down to the stretcher
Watch me foam at the mouth

Babe
Plug the wires in me
When the lights start flashing
I’m your shaky machine

Babe
Let’s go dancing tonight
I can shimmy in the blinky
seizure salad lite-brites

Hey
Wind me up and I’ll spin
And when you think that it’s over
Watch me do it again

Epilepsy clinic
Lots of people shaking, vomiting in it
And when the clinic hours are finished
The disco people come and dance in it
And when the disco dancers are finished
The doctors come back and open the clinic
Epilepsy clinic
Everybody dancing in it

Girl
Let’s go back to my place
And when the walls start a' crawlin'
We can self medicate

If
I die before I wake
I pray to god my clinic bills to pay
Track Name: The Girl From Hollywood
The girl from Hollywood
Puts her vintage pants inside a drawer
She hangs her vintage dresses up on wooden hangers
And there are some other girls from Hollywood
Who look like her but she’s by far the loveliest
Of all her doppelgängers

The girl from Hollywood’s
Visage hangs in portrait in my home
Above the fireplace where everyone can see her
And the girl from Hollywood
Plays manic pixie dream girls good and all
The other girls I know in town all try to be her

I know that she doesn’t know me
Or care about me the way I care for her
If I had my way I would leave here today
I’d be having a drink with the girl from Hollywood

The girl from Hollywood
Swings her trademark bangs from side to side
When she walks down the street
She looks even better than on TV
I'm the paparazzi snapping
picture after picture clapping
wave and crave and call her name
from the bushes by the step-and-repeat

The girl from Hollywood's
Evil twin does TV too
But her show's crude inelegance
belies its syndication
Still I can't wait for the day
I'll at my wedding hear her say,
I won't make bones new brother
I'm just in tears over this occasion

I know that she doesn’t know me
Or care about me the way I care for her
If I had my way I would leave here today
I’d be having a drink with the girl from Hollywood

She has such style she has such grace
And if I could I would replace
Some girls I know with her
And be spending my time with the girl from Hollywood

The girl from Hollywood
I anxiously await the day
she finally accepts that our love runs
deeper than mere obsession
And when I cut all the good
Pictures of her face from every magazine
She's ever been in and and glue them to mine
It's just cute affection

And it's sad, the hinky jealously
Of all the girls
who think they'll be with me
I keep reminding them
that I'm saving myself for her
And that my fair Zeddy Bear
Will come around real soon
And giggle with me on our honeymoon
At those silly restraining orders

I know that she doesn't know that
She cares about me the way I care for her
But I'll have my way
And on that beautiful day
We will be Mrs. and Mr.
The Girl From Hollywood
Track Name: Gumshoe
N/A
Track Name: Heavy Mental
Now I’m buttered up
Now I’m gas lit
You’re a sociopath
And I’m a idiot
I’m an oarsman
On a devil’s ship
I can see the black rocks
We’re steering into them
I used to sit in the street
Crisscross applesauce
I used to run so fast
One thousand times around our block
It never gets old
It only gets late
And when the morning comes
I run and hide away

I’m feelin’ real heavy mental
Got the devil on my mind
And he’s gettin’ sentimental
For the olden times
When it was just him and me
And we sold this town
Yeah we were cuckoo for cat food
We were burnin’ it down
They’ve got a plan to keep me healthy
And I’m doing my best
But it’s hard stay asleep
When you don’t need any rest
I’m feelin’ real heavy mental
Got the devil on my mind

I got a shoebox
And I filled it up
With some memories
And some important stuff
The night, it called me
I got inside my car
And when I got there
I’d gone so very far
I found a piece of ground
And I began to dig
I put that box in a hole
Where no one would find it
The night is mine
And I know it’s true
That if I wanted
They’d never find me, too

I’m feelin’ real heavy mental
Got the devil on my mind
And he’s gettin’ sentimental
For the olden times
When it was just him and me
And we sold this town
Yeah we were cuckoo for cat food
We were burnin’ it down
They’ve got a plan to keep me healthy
And I’m doing my best
But it’s hard stay asleep
When you don’t need any rest
I’m feelin’ real heavy mental
Got the devil on my mind
Track Name: Seppuku
Hang my heatshots off the wall
Hang them up myself on my window
like blackout curtain calls
This might be a day I die
Or it might just be the day that I
decide to stay alive

My head spins around and my eyes they roll back
And maybe Satan wants me for a smokestack
I know this isn’t happening outside of my head
But it’s real as hell inside and it’s killing me dead

Make a list of pros and cons
Con I will be dead, but pro I’ll be
Respected when I’m gone
Give away all of my things
But bury me with all my records, please
LIke some Egyptian king

There is tugging and warring and I am the rope
And my GPS is shouting “Abandon all hope”
There’s a coin in the air I could go either way
Be a ghost in a sheet or a wolf in a cage

Make a decision
Everybody’s waiting on you
Make an incision
Only you can do it
It’s seppuku

Doctor says it’s vertigo, those were her words
Or maybe I’m just Psycho, got a case of The Birds
All I got is groundhog nausea all I need is some rest
But all I get is sicker all I'm getting depressed

Make a decision
Everybody’s waiting on you
Make an incision
Only you can do it
It’s seppuku

There is something wrong I see
That everybody who can't see like me
finds wrong in what I see
Raise that blade and cut those pills
Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum see how sweet
my ho-hum head a basket fills

I know they'd say, "It's selfish to act on these thoughts
And it wouldn’t solve a thing to put yourself in a box
If there’s hope in a rope or a Samurai blade
Then you haven’t learned a thing at the end of the day"

Ooooh, Make a decision
Everybody’s waiting on you
Ooooh, Make an incision
Only you can do it
It’s seppuku
Track Name: Disposable Universe
Memo redacted by a higher power
Flew in from corporate on the helicopter
The AV guy says that we’ve got a problem
Take it up with HR in California

It’s a small world
And it’s only getting smaller
We talk a lot about how we don't talk to one another

It’s a warm world
And it’s only getting warmer
Order now! We are almost out of life preservers

Sit on the floor turn on the television
Bask in the glow of the cosmic leftovers
You think you’re more important than the static
What are you then when you’re a jar of ashes?

It’s a sick world
And it’s only getting sicker
And you think you’ll solve the problem with a bumper sticker?

It’s a sad world
And it’s only getting sadder
And the pills we make 'em make us don't make us no gladder

bye-bi
everybody say hi to the disposable universe
and what's worse
hi-hi
see us waving goodbye
from that disposable universe
oh, same as the first!

I'm disposable and so are you and nothing you can do will prove to be of consequence to anyone involved but you and I'm replaceable and so were you and everything I do disproves my consequence to anyone when I'm replaced by you and I'm disposable and so are you and nothing you can do will prove to be of consequence to anyone involved but you and I'm replaceable and so were you and everything I do disproves my consequence to anyone when I'm replaced by you
Track Name: Rubber Pencil
I don’t know about you
You are not what you seem
You are something of a mystery to me
If there’s truth in what you say
I can find it anywhere
I see everything you do and I’m still so confused

Just an object in my hand
Queasy feeling that I have
Will it pass or is it here to stay
Trompe-l'œil et trompe le monde
You’re not fooling anyone
Give me back what you have taken from me here today

Why did you have to pick me?
I’m not special anyway
Tell me how it is you do the things you do
Maybe there’s a trick to it
More than just what meets the eye
Please just show me one more time or I’ll just die
Track Name: The Social Drinker
The social drinker
He always wears his hat to bed
Don’t ask him why he won’t remember that it’s on his head
He’s not a thinker
By ear is how he plays the game
He wanders by familiar face but no one knows his name
He’s not bad he’s just sad in his way
When he talks to himself at the end of the day

The social drinker
He never knows what day it is
He’s not concerned that half the thoughts he has aren’t even his
The day’s for sleeping
The morning’s for a nip or two
And then he’s earned an evening out at someone’s well to do
Dinner party or cozy soirée
He isn’t disconcerted he can’t hear the things that people say

The social drinker
Don’t ask him about days gone by
A memory deserves to drown before it makes him cry
You’ll never know him
He keeps it all beneath his hat
The social drinker gets a rosy vibe when he’s out to imbibe
The social drinker says I’ll drink to that