Ari Herstand

Clean Up EP

All words and music by Ari Herstand
Copyright 2011 ASCAP

1. Home Tonight

Home home home home is where I lay my head tonight it's where my heart will rest

I will not be home tonight but I can't let my heart grow weak with the weight of all my travels close my travel will be home tonight

2. Clean Up

Dirty mugs lining my dresser
Circle stains remaining long after 
clean up
Clean up

Toss in bed until 9:30
Dishes left, my house is dirty
Clean up
Clean up

After my coffee I'm ready to find us work
I can't seem to buy you all of the things you're worth 
It hurts
Clean Up

But if you give me more time let me figure this out
A little more love to ease my doubt
A couple more years and we'll reach the top
This guitar is gonna give us our way out
Please don't give up now

Car was towed at nine this morning
Minneapolis I need more warning
Clean up
Street clean up

To the impound with the rest of the city
This part of town is awfully filthy 
Clean up
Street clean up

Making us dinner was never this difficult
We don't have the option to go out as often
We work until 
clean up

But if you give me more time let me figure this out
A little more love to ease my doubt
A couple more years and we'll reach the top
This guitar is gonna give us our way out
Please don't give up now

All in a circle all in the round
Together we sing around and around

3. Do Ask Do Tell

What's the country asking from me
Why do i feel threatened to be 
beside the love of our time 

On the news I hear people screaming
In the streets the bigotry seethes
Embracing hate spreading lies    
Defacing love it's unkind
Emancipate your mind

Love is what it takes when the hate around you breaks through the sound of 
Love will saturate our minds

I was always taught to be kind
Help the ones struggling to get by
Do ask do tell if you love

Fighting two wars for our freedom
From a foreign hate we're undone
but a closer hate is right here
In our churches, schools, in the mirror 
Do ask do tell we're right here
To stand up

Love is what it takes when the hate around you breaks through the sound of 
Love will saturate our minds

4. Vegas Is My Weakness

If I had one do over if I had one last try
I'm sure that I would place it all on black this time

If I had one do over if I had one last try
I'm sure that I would pass on another hit this time
I'm sure that I would stand with 16

Vegas is my weakness honey
Vegas is my style 
Wake me when the band starts playing
We'll walk the strip for a while 
And then play

If I had one do over if I had one last try
I'm sure that I would stop while I'm ahead this time

If I had one do over if I had one last try
I'm sure that I would pass on another free drink this time  
I'm sure that I would stop after three

Vegas is my weakness honey
Vegas is my style
Wake me when the band starts playing 
Let's walk the strip for a while 
And then play

Well I don't recall the last time 
that I felt my heart this way
Well this burning yearning love I feel
is driving me insane 

Vegas is my weakness honey
Vegas is my style
Wake me when the band starts playing
We'll walk the strip for awhile
And then play

Live at The Pause

All words and music by Ari Herstand except "Wonderwall" by Noel Gallagher (Oasis)
Copyright 2010 ASCAP

1. Blanket-Go-Round

The pillow loses volume
below you
I move to give it life
The blanket has now fallen
all on you
The breeze gives my mind sight

I could rest here always
Wide eyed I lie and sigh because
I know the moment our feet meet the ground
i t’s over and I’m closer to being bound to the blanket-go-round

Timidly I whisper
I kiss her
begging for some life
Asleep she cannot hear me
or feel me
I wait and watch the sun rise

I could rest here always
Wide eyed I lie and sigh because
I know the moment our feet meet the ground
i t’s over and I’m closer to being bound to the blanket-go-round

Last week was the dancer
Next week I’ll have my answer
how we fit inside
Blankets serve one purpose and
I am very nervous
I’ll never find the one that keeps me warm
I have fooled my brain
into thinking blankets change
with each new owner they find
I curl up underneath
this week’s blanket and I sleep
thrilled but chilled again tonight

I could rest here always
Wide eyed I lie and sigh because
I know the moment our feet meet the ground
it’s over and I’m closer to being bound to the blanket-go-round

2. Center of a Kiss

So much is in the center of a kiss
It doesn’t matter whether it exists
An optimistic wish is the sentimental basis of the kiss

A piece of a sentimental wish
sinks the calm - this hormonal driven bliss
And incandescent eyes stare at my grieving little smile

But we go
And I know
the treading in the water
I’ll be drowning in the water

We say goodbye

I have yet to find that special kiss
where I will build up the sentimental wish
and grinning little eyes will meet a gazing simple smile
But we go
And I know
the treading in the water
I’ll be drowning in the water

We say goodbye

3.Itch Inside Your Ear

In the town of the street
where I keep a parking place for me to sleep
I wake up look around
Something’s changed and something’s frayed the city sound
Walk outside watch the trees
and their whispering a message to me

They say “follow the sound of peace
Return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that last for many years
sounds will fade to an itch inside your ear”

As I climb to the top
of my telling tree I see the city stop
I call out I need some help
I am stuck in a tree and nobody can hear me yell
I give up, sink back down
to my branch and I block out the city sound

Singing “follow the sound of peace
Return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that turn to many years
sounds will fade to an itch inside your ear”

And a leaf has fallen down
It’s blowing all over town
It’s looking for a home to feel comfortably sound
But the buses and the cabs blow the leaf into the crowd it loses coloring
Afraid and decayed the leaf rests in dismay
only to be joined by a million more the same
getting raked up in the crowd

Then I hear an angel sing
She is singing a faint sweet melody
I tune her in tune my thoughts out
She is far from where I stand but still I shout
“Come to me set me free
I am stuck in a tree and my city’s turned on me"

She sings “follow the sound of peace
return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that turn to many years
Your city sound was that itch inside your ear”

Inside my ear
My city sound was that itch inside my ear

4. Float on By

Float on by my street
Here I’ve come to meet
Why I lost my way to fear
Many hopes long ago

Float on pass the woods
Smelling nature’s goods
Lifting all them up
As they pass one by

Float on by my car
A million drives I now recall
My permit to drive back home
Has passed on by

This river I float on by
All the dreams I left behind
Regrets too tiresome
What makes sense this tune I hum

So many fears so many years
Waiting for tomorrow

Remember on back to school
How I’d been such a fool
Where are all my peers
Probably living my dreams

Now where are my dreams
That I had been so keen
On making them come true
They’ve washed all away

I waited for the way
They promised to show me some day
I waited one day too long
Now here I’m left alone

It’s a sad day that will come
When we’ll have forgotten to have fun
We’ll look back on our pictures
And we’ll laugh on by

So many fears so many years
Waiting for tomorrow

It’s time to float on to another place
I’ve gone so fast, so much is left behind
There’s nothing left for me to live by
Nothing’s here
Float on ‘till tomorrow

5. One Bell

In the very beginning I fell
For so long I’d been waiting for one bell
But a sleigh ride came through
on the back there was you
tugging the horses to halt
You glanced right at me
asked to play harmony
with one bell

We know just one bell won’t suffice
each note comes in pairs just like dice
For harmony I can see
no one else but you and me

I jumped on hesitantly but I fell
Holding on very gently to my bell
You turned back to me
said don’t get too comfy
right here
This ride was for me
thanks for the company
my dear
You’re stops just up there
Without me you can share
one bell

We know just one bell won’t suffice
each note comes in pairs just like dice
For harmony I can see
no one else but you and me

I ring my bell right beside
You hold your bell locked inside
So I’ll burn down this Christmas tree
Set fire to this harmony
of bells

The beginning has come to an end
I once fallen so madly now spent
I have learned to turn off
all my feelings and block
my bell

I can’t push you to ring
I have tried now it stings
to tell

It’s now your new beginning you fell
Coming back to me ringing your bell
Thanks to you I can’t fall
I’ve put back up my wall
with one bell

We know just one bell won’t suffice
Each note comes in pairs just like dice
For harmony I can see
no one else but you and me

6. Whispering Endearments

What’s the name that you speak
when you close your eyes and fall to sleep
Am I the one in your dreams
or when you wake will you leave me

Last night you breathed into my ear
whispering endearments unclear
You never spoke that way to me before
I just hope it’s me you meant them for

I’m waiting for you to break my heart
so I can move on with life and restart
I am lost inside your every move
I’m waiting for you to break my heart

We go out on the town
I take your hand spin you around

You turn to me and lock eyes
and for a moment I lose my sight

I’m waiting for you to break my heart
so I can move on with life and restart
I am lost inside your every move
I’m waiting for you to break my heart

It’s not that I can’t be alone
on the contrary I’ve lived till now on my own
But every time I make you laugh
you tickle my heart and I’m right back in love

I’m waiting for you to break my heart

I am stuck and don’t know what to do
I’m waiting for you to break my heart

7. Wrinkled Skin

Inside my dresser I keep five drawers filled with linens and sweatshirts
I keep them labeled
Top to bottom my style enabled But inside number six I keep old letters and photos and snippets
From times I'd like to forget but my future nostalgia persists

If I fall asleep in the middle of my favorite film
If the walls should cave in will you find me with a satisfied grin
No
I'll climb out
I'll reach out
and grab your foot and pull you in
Because I won't fall asleep then until I'm gray with wrinkled skin

Inside my grey car the cases in back reveal my true cause
It's just me and Amy
The cornfields mock our city replacement
But as I shift to fifth my coffee days I reminisce
But this job I won't quit knock me out with this

I spent the last hour untying this knot lodged deep in my stomach
I nearly spun off the road off a cliff in a ditch in a bitch of a blizzard that's blowing cold
I guess I didn't mind that much yeah I was startled but I caught up with my breath
If I'm gonna go I want to go when I'm on my way to a show

8. Last Day

If you knew this was your last day what would you do
If you knew this was our last kiss how would your lips move

If I should end up at the end of this day
sealing that letter we send when there’s no more to say
I’d lick the stamp, leave no return address
so when it finds its way there there’s no room for regret

I don’t know why I can’t provide the post script inside
I can’t decide the sound of my sigh the moment I die

If you knew this was your last day what would you do
If you knew this was our last kiss how would your lips move

In church they must say just let go and pray
When we ascend to the gates there’s nothing more we can say
I can’t disagree
What we’ve done we accept
Every choice is a leap
Every decision a step

I don’t know why I can’t provide the post script inside
I can’t decide the sound of my sigh releasing all sin and letting fate win

If you knew this was your last day what would you do
If you knew this was our last kiss how would your lips move

9. Rose Stained Red

Hey, I've been thinking about yesterday
Now I just remembered how long it’s been
since the day we played

Here I’m here and it’s very clear that what is right is what I fear
But I believe someday we’ll be lazing peacefully underneath a tree
and I will smile and you will speak it’ll be like our hearts never missed a beat
Just when I leave promise to me you’ll leave your front door cracked just enough for me

Because I
left without ever saying goodbye
I didn’t even have time to thank your smile
for beauty and love and giving me life
Please let’s return before we
waste away

Look at me beneath this tree I won’t ever let free this last memory
I reenact the last supper of our bliss I leaned over the food and gave you one final kiss
Now there’s nothing left and my last breath secures the love that has sealed my death
Here revived we sit and this flower I pick to present to you
It’s a promising gift

Because I
left without ever saying goodbye
I didn’t even have time to thank your smile
for the beauty and love and giving me life
Please let’s return before we
waste away

A beautiful flower will wither and die if the neighboring weeds choke the struggling cry
for food and life and peace and soul
A rose stained red deserves little more
This haunted flower takes a tiny little breath
and then is crushed away and receives a painful death
But I believe you and me should return and live happily

Because I
left without ever saying goodbye
I didn’t even have time to thank your smile
for the beauty and love and giving me life
Please let’s return before we
waste away everything that makes us sane
That's the way

10. Wonderwall

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you shoulda, somehow, realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now

Back beat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before but you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
But I don't know how

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall

Today was gonna be the day but they'll never throw it back to you now
By now you shoulda somehow realized what you're not to do now
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
But I don't know how

Because maybe 
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall

Whispering Endearments

All words and music by Ari Herstand
Copyright 2008 ASCAP

1. One Bell

We know just one bell won’t suffice
each note comes in pairs just like dice
For harmony I can see
no one else but you and me

I ring my bell right beside
You hold your bell locked inside
So I’ll burn down this Christmas tree
Set fire to this harmony
of bells

The beginning has come to an end
I once fallen so madly now spent
I have learned to turn off
all my feelings and block
my bell

I can’t push you to ring
I have tried now it stings
to tell

It’s now your new beginning you fell
Coming back to me ringing your bell
Thanks to you I can’t fall
I’ve put back up my wall
with one bell

We know just one bell won’t suffice
Each note comes in pairs just like dice
For harmony I can see
no one else but you and me

2. Whispering Endearments

What’s the name that you speak
when you close your eyes and fall to sleep
Am I the one in your dreams
or when you wake will you leave me

3. Last Day

4. Rose Stained Red

5. Itch Inside Your Ear

They say “follow the sound of peace
Return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that last for many years
sounds will fade to an itch inside your ear”

Singing “follow the sound of peace
Return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that turn to many years
sounds will fade to an itch inside your ear”

Inside my ear
My city sound was that itch inside my ear

6. Center of a Kiss

7. Your Eyes

First glance I had on you I couldn’t move
I forgot everything I’d planned to do
First glance I was caught staring, but I lost caring
You silenced me and locked me with your eyes

I tried to protest
but reason gave me the test and I did what I thought best and released

But we lapse again
We crash again
I can’t beg the birds to sing
I can’t wear your comfort ring
Oh my sight is lost in your eyes

Last night you and me felt like we
were meant to be when I was inside
But then we spoke
I knew what I was about to do
would end with you pushing me aside

You tried to protest
but reason put you to rest and you did what you do best and released
You turned to me, face to cheek, I couldn’t see but felt on me I made you cry

But we lapse again
We crash again
I can’t beg the birds to sing
I can’t wear your comfort ring
Oh my sight is lost in your eyes

This time I thought the seas would change for me
but the current tugged I gave up and shrugged
Again I’ll lose
Don’t make me choose
I’ll be fine

8. Blanket-Go-Round

The pillow loses volume
below you
I move to give it life
The blanket has now fallen
all on you
The breeze gives my mind sight

I could rest here always
Wide eyed I lie and sigh because
I know the moment our feet meet the ground
i t’s over and I’m closer to being bound to the blanket-go-round

9. Beneath the Moon

My sheets are tangled
around my legs inside my room
I twist my angle
to free my thoughts and lose this tune
that’s been tugging from that night I left
my necktie in your room
that’s been humming in the air each night
I lay awake
beneath the moon

A different battle
Every night a tangle war
My thoughts are shadows
darkened by your light with more
sleepless nights staring at the moon
The same light that once lit the hammock
where we first kissed that June
beneath the moon

If you could feel the loss that has been blinding me
You wouldn’t be so quick to make me lose my sleep
But you don’t help me hold onto that night
I lost my sight
beneath the moon

I bought a new necktie
the first since I lost the last for good
I made it a black tie
This won’t stain like the last one could

The moon is falling sun’s coming up
Another night I lost looking up
I can’t let go of your melting smile
I can’t let go of my inner child
I lie
Awake I try
Too late to cry
Away you fly

10. Christian Dear

I’m sifting through pictures revealing your past life
and the further back in time I see I am reminded of my insignificancy
I’m a new friend a new man and your photos reinforce so simply
I’m a no one in a lone frame of what makes you and me

I can’t believe how quickly I fell just the other day I rang the bachelor bell
Swinging on the rope with my mallet held tight
but a spark lit the strings and burned a brighter light
I’m a new man with a new plan
I’m taking my time like a kid in the sand
I have new tears with new fears
I’m falling in love with a Christian dear

Just hold the light
a little bit higher I can’t read your eyes
I’m growing blind
I’m hanging on thread that last a thousand miles
I’m helpless here a dripping tear
I’m falling in love with a Christian dear
My dear

She left me for a day at the beach her ex boyfriend went to accompany
I sat in my room cutting photographs piecing her in where my heart fell out
I am home sick alone with the unfamiliar feeling of jealousy’s gift
It’s a wrapped fear a trapped tear I’m keeping inside from my Christian dear

Just hold the light
A little bit higher I can’t see your eyes
I’m growing blind
I’m hanging on a thread that lasts a thousand miles
I’m helpless here a dripping tear
I’m falling

Just hold me tight
A little bit longer I can’t help my eyes
I’m falling blind
I’m hanging on a thread but you’re giving me the ties
I’ve let down my guard it’s time to start a reason why
and lift our fear and volunteer
our secrets in the vault where the walls have become clear
I’m helpless here a drying tear
I’m falling clear of reason’s steer
I am shifting gears lifting fear
I’m falling in love with a Christian dear
My dear

I’m sifting through pictures revealing our new life

11. Sleep

Slipped out of bed
Six in the morning
I’m all out of dreams
4 hours ago I went to sleep feeling
the morning will bring peace

Here I melt another day
another way holding just warming your heart as you sleep

Frost has begun
on time as scheduled
I thought this year might be a change
The presence of winter
burns through my finger
touching the window sill’s glass

Here I melt another day
another way holding just warming your heart as you sleep

First night in ages
I dreamed of the places
you and I will travel in time
Who you are I’m not sure
but that doesn’t matter
When we’re old we’ll both feel the same

Here I melt another day
another way holding just warming your heart as you sleep

Sun has now seeped
right through my window
The frost has left a light glow
Inches from simple
Miles from smiles
I sit staring hopelessly and wait

Here I melt another day
another way holding just warming your heart as you sleep

I won’t let go

Sleep

We’re all alone

Sleep

One Take

All words and music by Ari Herstand
Copyright 2007 ASCAP

1. Float on By

Float on by my street
Here I’ve come to meet
Why I lost my way to fear
Many hopes long ago

Float on pass the woods
Smelling nature’s goods
Lifting all them up
As they pass one by

Float on by my car
A million drives I now recall
My permit to drive back home
Has passed on by

This river I float on by
All the dreams I left behind
Regrets too tiresome
What makes sense this tune I hum

So many fears so many years
Waiting for tomorrow

Remember on back to school
How I’d been such a fool
Where are all my peers
Probably living my dreams

Now where are my dreams
That I had been so keen
On making them come true
They’ve washed all away

I waited for the way
They promised to show me some day
I waited one day too long
Now here I’m left alone

It’s a sad day that will come
When we’ll have forgotten to have fun
We’ll look back on our pictures
And we’ll laugh on by

So many fears so many years
Waiting for tomorrow

It’s time to float on to another place
I’ve gone so fast, so much is left behind
There’s nothing left for me to live by
Nothing’s here
Float on ‘till tomorrow

2. Proud Honeybee

So here we stand we are infants so small
Dreaming that one day we’ll be on top of it all
Above the mountains above the trees
But here I sit wishing down on my knees

I’ve seen the creatures in this so-called promise land
I don’t believe that what we brag is all that grand
Yes wave them flags like a proud honeybee
Blindly working for the queen of an invisible feat

So how do we recuperate?
Just now we emancipate
Our right to be free
With one tiny fee
We trash away
The innocent face
Of all the colors who stand in our way

America, home of the free and brave
Imperceptible to what her French statue raves
A prison cell holds on to our foreign hate
A beehive hell is fine for our conscience’s sake

Because a honeybee gives treats to the free but stings them dead if you frighten its destiny

America, home of the free and brave
Imperceptible to what her French statue raves
It’s good enough when we lock up the fear
It’s our master plan for patriot love right here

I am so fed up with the whole
Patriot scheme that’s killing the dream
Of integration with everyone
How can we preach love
When we interfere with the buzz
“With liberty and justice for all”

America, home of the free and brave
Imperceptible to what her French statue raves
It’s good enough when we lock up the fear
It’s our master plan for patriot love right here

And this honeybee giving treats to the free, stinging them dead I feel so free
Mamma can’t you see it's time for me to teach this honeybee to see

This hive is erasing
The words of our fathers dream

3. Intro to...

4. 35

Will I wake up in an office cube
Offer the pizza boy another I OWE YOU
My boss piles up TPS reports
He says “Son that memo was just a reminder note”

One day when I am thirty five
Will I think
How did I get here and why
Will you say
“Don’t you question why I found you
It was meant to be babe
No matter how we got here”

Will I wake up in a sewage plant
Burning my clothes to free that rancid stench
Open my lunch box to see a note you drew
Multi colors saying “I love you”

One day when I am thirty five
Will I think
How did I get here and why
Will you say
“Don’t you question why I found you
It was meant to be babe
No matter how we got here”

Will I wake up on the softball field
My kids in the crowd leading my team’s cheer
We’re down by 6 but they don’t really care
Because their favorite player’s up to bat, Hey there!

One day when I am thirty five
Will I think
How did I get here and why
Will you say
“Don’t you question why I found you
It was meant to be babe
No matter how we got here”
If you ask me babe
I think we’ll be alright

5. Blanket-Go-Round

The pillow loses volume
below you
I move to give it life
The blanket has now fallen
all on you
The breeze gives my mind sight

I could rest here always
Wide eyed I lie and sigh because
I know the moment our feet meet the ground
i t’s over and I’m closer to being bound to the blanket-go-round

6. Poster Boy Celebrity

A poster boy celebrity ahead of me is something I believe in somewhere I can dream in someone I’m a feelin

Generalize my size inside despise the lies that make me wise gimme ties that make me high and never give up and die
We try to side with the minds and kinds unite to find rewind intertwine with my line my crime what is this crime

Instead I dread my bed each night my head is fed with meds to make me numb and misled
unsettling
treading water in my sleep every chance I get to weep I fall deep into another painted dream

It seems I run a street team regime but my massive scheme that others seldom see is it’s all me

Yes the posters and website the might it takes to hold it up and win this fight is to pretend I am a hundred men in the end no one knows the work and dirt I perk up to greet each jerk that gives me shit for my perks
It works it hurts but I’ll never lose my quirks and smirks

I love my work

So I’m a poster boy celebrity ahead of me is something I believe in somewhere I can dream in someone I’m a feelin

This is how I choose to peruse the news I lose a minute to misuse the clues from beneath the cover page
The haunted age of rage of sage that clobbers me with scents and I repent to turn the page
I meant to bring you flowers but he cowers at the powers that showers the hours as monotony sets in
Too weak to ask if I’ll ever meet the task that is deep inside the flask of liquid hope
I joke my cries will open up my eyes and my size will be the ultimate prize

I'm just a Poster boy celebrity ahead of me is something I believe in somewhere I can dream in someone I’m a feelin

Another day we will wait around and ask a friend
To play a game that will bring us back to the day we were sane

We aim for the same justifiable gains
We love to be loved and we thrive on shame from those we see succeeding without blame

Is it our duty to destroy the strongest of the pact
When they show weakness only then we turn our back
I like to say I thrive to stay inside the lives of the masses
fastest as molasses is the only way to last as the passes to the classes
Generalize my size inside despise the lies that make me wise gimme ties that make me high and never give up and die
We try to side with the minds and kinds unite to find rewind intertwine the line it’s time to find a rhyme undo this crime a dime
a lime a rhyme a find a sign a sonic whine a tonic kind a trickling pickling tickling panoramic sign

7. A Smile

A girl walks mother by her side
An ice cream cone and four years on her own
Reminisce the nightly gifts and the musical riffs
From holiday rhymes to the New York Times
Simple toys have their simple joys
There's happiness in the simple little gifts
Piece together one remaining smile
It's free for just this while

A picket fence ‘round a luminescent dream
Look at me and my fancy little scene
Porsche away a rainy day with an extra little pay
Mend the time with a line from a formulated script
Feel the breeze without please, there's no treasure in the whether
Where's my smile?! Yes it's been a while
Please come out and skip away to the blithe encompassed day

I can't remember my plans from yesterday
I can't remember why I walked outside today
The darkening clouds and the piercing sounds
There's a smile within the gray
The smiling town and the sunset's found
I'll find somewhere to play here

It's a complicated smile when there's so much to hide
A toothless perk is so much work
Hide away frustrate undefined underlined
The grin of sin never wins
Look around I have found the perfect smile to make my trial
It's a gift to be simple it's a gift to be free
When I grin at the smile I can truly see
There's so much behind the teeth let them glow they will show
There's no pain when we're the same
Yeah it's ok fake the day

I came out of this bubble blesséd shell
To find glory and pride were an inadvertent hell
Preach the words of the profit from the holy book
Well, books ain't my thing but I still like to look
It's a game when I aim for that infinite bliss
But you play in my way and I don't think I'll miss
When you stand in my light and eclipse my favorite site
Of the smiles and trials mango lusse delight

8. Beneath the Moon

If you could feel the loss that has been blinding me
You wouldn’t be so quick to make me lose my sleep
But you don’t help me hold onto that night
I lost my sight
beneath the moon

I bought a new necktie
the first since I lost the last for good
I made it a black tie
This won’t stain like the last one could

The moon is falling sun’s coming up
Another night I lost looking up
I can’t let go of your melting smile
I can’t let go of my inner child
I lie
Awake I try
Too late to cry
Away you fly

9. So Fantastical

Hello Mr. Ordinary, I don’t believe we’ve met
But I can see this is going to be a little strange
You see I am very compatible but also simply fallible
And corky little necessities make up what I affectionately call me

A giant wallet helps me organize with a
Monster change pouch that’s just my size
It’s all I need to keep down my flaws
Plus maybe a hundred or two chewing straws

Snow is so fantastical
Dancing’s irresistible
Children are adorable
And I am clearly irrational

I am running around in circles, it’s just my thing
I am humbly thanking the architect of my fantasies
I am down stage center and a summertime camper jungle gym
But spinning around on my head and chasing the stars till I am dead makes me me

I don’t pretend to be machine washed
I like to find those who deny they’re lost
I leave a smile when I see a child
I disregard the word bizarre
I chase after buses and make restaurant fuses
It’s who I am

Snow is so fantastical
Dancing’s irresistible
Children are adorable
I am simply irrational

I am running around in circles, it’s just my thing
I am humbly thanking the architect of my fantasies
I am down stage center and a summertime camper jungle gym
But spinning around on my head and chasing the stars till I am dead makes me me

Snow is so fantastical
Dancing’s irresistible
Children are adorable
And I am clearly irrational

10. The Photograph

Hi, hello again
I can’t believe it’s been four years since
Your smile, I know it sounds dumb but back at home I have
This photo of the two of us standing with a boy I don’t remember
But this picture, I’ve kept for simply one reason
Your smile

Hi, hello again. I see you but I’m afraid to leave
What do you say that you and me go someplace far away
Like Paris or Rome or Barcelona
I mean
Just kidding how about we go for coffee instead and

I’ll find that picture that I’ve waited to share
We’ll lay down I’ll stroke the curls in your hair
I’m racing too quickly but I’ll return revived
Here I sit wishing hope in your smile

Hi, hello again. Please pinch me I need to wake up
What do you say - I was just thinking let’s get married
I mean
Just kidding that’s a little quick and what I meant to say was
How are you
I’m happy now let’s start with that.

You are that picture that I’ve waited to share
We’ll lay down I’ll stroke the curls in your hair
I’m racing too quickly but I’ll return revived
Here I sit wishing hope in your smile

Hey I almost forgot to say
Your beautiful, so beautiful, your beautiful
Just like in that photograph

11. Itch Inside Your Ear

They say “follow the sound of peace
Return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that last for many years
sounds will fade to an itch inside your ear”

Singing “follow the sound of peace
Return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that turn to many years
sounds will fade to an itch inside your ear”

Inside my ear
My city sound was that itch inside my ear

12. Center of a Kiss

13. Air Cries Wind

A gorgeous stream where the turtles wade
My eyes found a lovely flower one day
With petals of red and ripples of blue floating past my toes
I washed my heart with the turtles and froze

Some time when the air cries wind
I'll rise up high and breathe all of you in
A cool breeze of empathy for love

In paradise there are lovers who swim
in the stream with the absence of everything
Splashing free with an intent of nonentity
With everything between two hearts they sing
Love will run down your cheek
Love will put your mind to sleep
I will catch your love and run away for...
...please say forever

Next week when the sun warms the wind
I'll lie outside and feel that breeze rush in
It carries life from another sunset around
And as I feel the stories of the other lovers I'm found

Some time when the air cries wind
I'll rise up high and breathe all of you in
A cool breeze of empathy for love

Ari Herstand

Clean Up

(2011)

Live at The Pause

(2010)

Whispering Endearments

(2008)

One Take

(2007)

Baby Eyes

(2005)

Clean Up EP

1. Home Tonight

2. Clean Up

3. Do Ask Do Tell

4. Vegas Is My Weakness

Live at The Pause

1. Blanket-Go-Round

2. Center of a Kiss

3.Itch Inside Your Ear

4. Float on By

5. One Bell

6. Whispering Endearments

7. Wrinkled Skin

8. Last Day

9. Rose Stained Red

10. Wonderwall

Whispering Endearments

1. One Bell

2. Whispering Endearments

3. Last Day

4. Rose Stained Red

5. Itch Inside Your Ear

6. Center of a Kiss

7. Your Eyes

8. Blanket-Go-Round

9. Beneath the Moon

10. Christian Dear

11. Sleep

One Take

1. Float on By

2. Proud Honeybee

3. Intro to...

4. 35

5. Blanket-Go-Round

6. Poster Boy Celebrity

7. A Smile

8. Beneath the Moon

9. So Fantastical

10. The Photograph

11. Itch Inside Your Ear

12. Center of a Kiss

13. Air Cries Wind

Baby Eyes

1. Air Cries Wind

2. A Smile (I Can't Remember)

3. Baby Eyes

4. Proud Honeybee

5. Rose Stained Red

6. Mr. Saltzman

7. Most Beautiful Girl of All

8. The Photograph

9. Liberty Bell

10. Bond Between Lovers

11. Who's Deciding

12. Most of All (My Brother)