Life... But How To Live It? - Self-titled LP

It is my holiday break from school and it feels weird to suddenly have time on my hands. It's hard to escape this awareness that I am just going through the motions again this holiday season. Sometimes I feel like screaming and breaking things. How amusing that I still haven't "grown up". I thought with time I would feel less alienated from the people in my life. Calling long distance relatives I haven't spoken to in a year to speak to them for five minutes sure is ridiculous. How can I condense an entire year of life experience into a five minute conversation? There are things I want to say everyday, but when I pick up the phone my mind goes blank.

If it were not for music I would have left this place long ago. In the immortal words of Jimi Hendrix, "Music is my religion." Sometimes, a forgotten and rare record by an obscure punk band like Norway's Life... But How To Live It? gives me salvation right when I need it most. Look at that cover art! How great is that?! I hope this imperfect noise helps you as it helps me this winter.

I typed up the lyrics for the first song because I found it quite appropriate:

CHRISTMASTIME

Once again it's that wonderful
Christmastime
And all the bells in the whole
Wide world will chime
Chiming for peace
Chiming for love
Chiming for human kindness

And it's dragging us down
Down through the slime
And the dirt on the ground
Till we suffocate

And everyone's happy
And smiling and laughing
And giving each other piles of trash
At Christmastime

A mother is dying, a child is crying
The streets are cold and they
Never get warmer
At Christmastime
Poor old man's got nothing to eat
Nothing but empty streets
At Christmastime
So many people are dying in pain
In prison cells with no number
No names
At Christmastime
Young and naïve
He's making a living
Selling and buying nothing at all
The price goes down
And he's stuck with it all
He puts his gun to his head
It's Christmastime

We shut our eyes
And we shut our ears
Life goes on and we punish
The ones who care
Criminalize the few who dare
To break the unbreakable silence
And deeper we sink as we build
Our walls of hypocrisy