Etudes

Object Music OBJ013
Written, arranged and produced by
Mikel Rouse
EXITMUSIC RECORDINGS

“It’s got heart, and that’s ultimately what it’s all about. This is a good record.”
-David Bither, NEW YORK ROCKER

Etudes was Tirez Tirez’s first “official” LP release on the Object Music label out of Manchester. The band had formed in Kansas City, MO in 1977 and its first show was opening for Talking Heads on their More Songs About Buildings and Food tour. When the Heads were in town the following year on the Fear Of Music tour, they invited the fledgling Tirez Tirez to their show. This may have inspired the band’s move to New York City in 1978. They set about rehearsing for the record that would become Etudes and recorded it with James Mason at Downtown Sound. Etudes was well received and marked the beginning of a 10 year run for the band.

01. Radiation Dance
02. Razorblade
03. A Summary
04. World War
05. Hair
06. I’ll Be That
07. West Led The Diamond King
08. Strike
09. Vowels
10. Observation

Lyrics

RAZORBLADE

So you’re tired of the rat race
The mundane, common place
The same old crowd
(Is much too loud)
And the same hangouts

Taking orders
That’s miles away
Forest lawn
Forest stay

(chorus)
There’s a chill in the air
(Razorblade)
Emotion, a fair exchange
(Razorblade)

Scenes like a landscape
Take my time
Turn it around
Leave me behind

Straggler in Iran
Waste my time
Change of heart
Change my mind

A SUMMARY

I. Yesterday I saw a movie
Today we’re going to the city
To the city
A. Today I went to school
All the rooms were empty

II. Take a look at this
You just take a look
I believe in symptoms
Before I jump in

III. A good summary would be:
A. Try it out for a week
B. Take it to the house (for approval)
C. Reject both A and B
D. Give it some time to breath

IV. If I could learn tolerance
I could probably hold a job
A. If I could set the standard
It would probably last a month

V. Take a look at this
You just take a look
You don’t have to settle for too much
Just enough

WORLD WAR

There are no more men
There’s no more money
It just started
Do you own time

Mating season
Thin red line
Read it in the New York Times

No matter what has happened
I’m on a holiday
Keep this in mind
Try to find a New York Times

For our times
Transparent comedy
Taking a train at half fare
Getting ready

Abandoned children
In a tavern, in a tavern
Dancers of the east
Dancers of the west

It’s the mating season
Focalize
Cosmorama, cosmoline

In this world
Some change occurred

Throw out the lifeline
Throw out the lifeline

HAIR

I’ve got my eyes open wife
Given up a lot of things
And when I get out of line
Who’ll be waiting there?

And even if we survive
Can we really survive?
Let one’s hair down
To a hair

There’s that quality
That that makes something
What it is
The basic nature
The quality of mercy

Attribute
Trait
Fall in love-passionate
Affection

For love-A favor or for pleasure
For the love of-for the sake of
In love feeling love, enamoured

Make love-as lovers’ do
No love lost between-no liking or affection

I’LL BE THAT

If you control yourself
Maybe it’s up to me
I see there’s a time for you
It’s up to me

Like wasting my gas
I took a drive
I didn’t talk much
I’m learning fas
t
That you can be anything that
You want to be
You go home, you don’t work out
Just decide man, you think about it later
I’ll be that

You’ve seen patrolmen
Their long arm
I’ve been a doctor
Not in my thoughts

You can relate well
You can be happy
You can cut diamonds
They last forever

You can be anything that you want to be
A pigeon flys without effort
I know some girls who are witches
I’ll be that

WEST LED THE DIAMOND KING

34 Try for a strike
38 One…a time
39 An Arabian capital
42 Destroy a car
44 Yearned
46 Begin’s lane
49 Swap
50 Surrender word
51 Suffix for sooth or gain
52 Kind of school
53 “Let…”
Beatles Hit
54 Survey
55 Hairdo
57 …De deux
58 Anger
59 Leo the…(durocher) pass

STRIKE

Got out early today
At the crack of dawn
Didn’t have a rough day
And I didn’t win the Pulitzer Prize

Thought about the big bill
Thought about his life
Thought about my life
And I cracked a joke about life

I couldn’t find the word
Seems like a thousand words
Couldn’t explain to Lynn

The bigger they are
They fall hard as a rock
A strike is, like…too violent

Savvy? Savvy?
Savvy? Strike!

Took a walk out the back way
Couldn’t believe the time change
The day was much darker
And I wasn’t prepared

Took a ride on the reading
It was much longer than I remembered
It seemed like a year
It’s hard to care

I couldn’t find the words
Seemed like a thousand words
Couldn’t explain violence

Taking a point of view
Something that comes to you
You’ll never be the same

Savvy? Savvy?
Savvy? Strike!

Can’t get out the word way
Can’t get by on my wits
Can’t imagine playing that song
I can’t play that song any better

VOWELS

AEIOU
AEIKNOWYOU

Consonant
Opposed to dissonant
Congruity
What is right

Harmony
Between us
Friction
We’re alright

AEIOU
AEILOVEYOU

Vowel sounds…
All the same to me

Love sounds…
All the same to me
Love sounds all the same to me

OBSERVATION

Well you make a phone call
No one observes
Your just making plans
There and another

If I talk about truth
Want a face the truth
Make me choose up sides
Influenza

Build a patio
Just making plans
Just making ends meet
Be a paver

If I talk about you
Want a face the truth
Make me choose up sides
Influenza

You can test a man’s strength
In a Catholic school
No one observes
You’d be on your way