THIS IS YOUR ADVENTURE TOO
TRACK LISTING
1. Exoskeleton
2. Try This
3. Young & Restless
4. Golems in Waves
5. October
6. The Race
​
7. Selling a Product
8. You
9. Catalyst Soup
10. Alsace Lorraine
11. King Fumble
12. The Outlier
Songs 3 and 8 written by Jim Pace
Other songs written by Aaron McQuade
CREDITS
The Ampersands were:
Aaron McQuade (Bass, Drums, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion, Voice) & Jim Pace (Guitars, Voice)
​
Featuring:
Evie Nagy - Voice on tracks 2, 4, 5, 10, 11
Jamie Hill - Keyboards on track 2
Produced by:
Aaron McQuade with Jamie Hill
​
Mixed and Mastered by:
Jamie Hill, The Department of Energy Management, Tacoma, WA
​
Recorded at:
HappyFactory, Jersey City, NJ,
HappyFactory Mobile, Woodstock, NY
​
Cover Art by: Emma Trithart
(Photoshopped Nintendo stuff courtesy of the original TIYAT website)
EXOSKELETON
I’m building a face, a protective carapace
I don’t want a thing let in
so I will use a shield instead of skin
I'm learning to breathe endothermically
This light that's in my eyes
I can make it photosynthesize
My circuits all sing as I stand here practicing
The gears are turning smooth
and I can feel my mouth begin to move
I'm ready to speak, transistor sequence peak
The words become routine
though I don’t know what any of them mean
Adrenaline flows through hydraulic hose
But I’ve got this little ring
that never got hooked up to anything
My insides were built
in machines of stained glass guilt
I hope you don't expect to evolutionarily connect
It’s hard to run in an exoskeleton
But I need to walk this line
so I can live my life without a spine
TRY THIS
Look at the vultures observing the maze
Keep a close eye on what your sound conveys
See how the armored simplicity shines
Cross out the Argonauts with crooked lines
Testing the anchor a focus grouped fail
Read the reactions before setting sail
Do you really like it or is it because
You just want to look like you're somebody who does
“Why don't you try this or you'll never know if it's cool”
Obsequious fireball too tired to explain
Or torch all the remants of a guilty gain
Nobody will trust your newfound expertise
Nobody can hear your parenthetical (please)
This is a fury, a gordian knot
For trying so hard just to look like you’re not
This is Columbus adrift in the blue
Saying this is your adventure too
“Why don't you try this or you'll never know if it's cool”
YOUNG & RESTLESS
I’m going nowhere
I’m taking you with me
I’ve traveled down that road alone before
The songs that I’m hearing
describing the feeling
Symbolize the people and their pain
All my friends ride the wave
All my friends, let them be saved
All my friends will have their day
All my friends don’t know their way around
GOLEMS IN WAVES
Heavy is the hand, when it can deal into demand
Fallen like a flare, adrift in a sea of fumes or prayer
I took the elevator down to watch me fall
from the floor that I'd been on
But when I looked
I was standing where I was
and not up there
Circuit polemics by mainframe mechanics
Are simple semantics and golems in waves
Paranoia pride, swept in a hot destructive tide
Dreams of melted state, but even they coagulate
I took the elevator down to watch me fall
from the floor that I'd been on
But when I looked
I was standing where I was
and not up there
OCTOBER
I cut across a neuron cause it's quicker on the ground
Amplifying memory’s antagonizing sound
Acute atychiphobia has got me on my bed
Seven days unshowered with a blanket on my head
And as I follow, all the footsteps go
o the same old show
That's October, yeah, I know.
(All you have to do is everything)
That's October, yeah I know
(and the angels will sing)
And October is the same as falling down
All my time is circumspect and all my losses gains
Asphyxiating ought-to-bes and burying remains
Industrial and soulless only resonate with you
But imperfect and unsterile is the best that I can do
And as I follow, all the footsteps go
to another year’s plateau
That's October, yeah, I know.
(If only you were a giant, if only you were a child)
that's October, yeah I know
(there's always the spring)
And October is the same as falling down
THE RACE
In the race to win, only some will learn
that the lock won't spin, 'cause the gears don't turn
and the state you're in is of no concern
and your East Berlin can burn
SELLING A PRODUCT
Soul is dead, long live theatre
Put on your costume, trowel on the makeup
you're going to work now, selling a product
Replace love with histrionics
pay no attention to your circulation
you're choking your ankles, selling a product
YOU
And if I walk on down, what would I have to take?
And if I walk on through, what would I have to make?
And if I take a chance, what if you’re really real?
And if I never know, how will that make me feel?
And it’s you, you don’t know how I am
And it’s you, you don’t know how I feel
And something’s in the air, I guess I will never know
And something’s in the way I guess it will never show
I try to talk to you, I think I get turned away
I guess that’s alright too, I haven’t got much to say
And it’s you, you don’t know how I am
And it’s you, you don’t know how I feel
And it’s you.
ALSACE LORRAINE
She gave everything she had
to stretch between the land’s
magnetic reconcile
But he was weaker than he thought
and couldn't break the field
forcing her to smile
If you can't, I can
I am gone
She waded through the Rhine
disfiguring her spine
more than she had known
But he abandoned their campaign
and fled Alsace Lorraine
leaving her to guard it on her own

If you can't, I can
I am gone
CATALYST SOUP
Walk west below the dust and stare away at empty window; you, the water to my oil
Whitewash the cannonballs and fire away at easy target drink the moisture from my soil
You will make me change

Think fast, the genius looks and scribbles something on the ground, being careful not to rhyme
You talk about these things that I have no religion with Take me there just one more time
You will make me change

Jump in, jump in, take some time to settle yourself
Jump in, jump in, help me make a bowl of catalyst soup

Rainwater stay awake as tired hands are losing focus Work temptation to its core
Flashback between the beat to reconnect
the shattered passage, so much weaker than before
You will make me change
​
Jump in, jump in, take some time to settle yourself
Jump in, jump in, help me make a bowl of catalyst soup
KING FUMBLE
You can be miss understanding
and I will be king fumble
and together we will sweep the floor
before the cookie crumble
I will feign philanthropy
and you can watch me stumble
and tied up in a cloud of noise
you can hear me mumble
Sure as night blue washed away by fall
Sure as ground under all
Sure as light to sound
There is me, and I will be King Fumble
You can be miss calculation
and I will be king fumble
and together we will clap our hands
and watch our landscape tumble
I will be false modesty
but you will make me humble
And we can foley cellophane
to make the thunder rumble
Sure as night blue washed away by fall
Sure as ground under all
Sure as light to sound
There is me, and I will be King Fumble
THE OUTLIER
