Actress
It's an execution but it's also a party.
If you can imagine, let it loose.
Years ago in a picture of you and me together.
I knew then it would never work.
All that has happened, the things that we thought.
The taste of your mouth, the touch of your skin.
Actress.
In your eyes, a riddle.
I'll never solve it.



From "Encapsulated" performed by Ink And Dagger (Doghouse, 2000)
Metroschifter version from "Strawberries" (Doghouse, 1999)
Acoustic version from "Scott Ritcher" performed by Scott Ritcher (I Can't Believe..., 1999)

Trivia: Ink & Dagger's version includes samples of the demo tape from which they learned the song.

Advil
Something that I thought about
but probably shouldn't say aloud
Everything we live without
and maybe could even do without
flowers and trees and butterflies
and your smile
Painting lines on a field, or better yet,
laying in bed staring at the ceiling
Something that you're wearing
something that we're feeling
Two little people standing on Earth
staring at the stars
Seconds became minutes
minutes became hours
hours became days
days became months became years.



From "Metroschifter 4" (Doghouse, 1997)
and "The Truth is Always the Right Answer" (K Composite, 1997)

Trivia: First song Chris Reinstatler recorded with the group.

Alphabetical
Creatively stifled,
I'm sitting at the kitchen table
thinking about Kentucky
and the look in your eyes
I'm telling you a story
about education, unemployment,
economics, communication and transportation,
but is anybody listening?
Creatively stifled,
I'm sitting at the kitchen table
thinking about Kentucky
and the look in your eyes
I'm telling you a story
about education, unemployment,
economics, negative net worth and forced busing,
but is anybody listening?



From "Metroschifter 4" (Doghouse, 1997)
and "The Truth is Always the Right Answer" (K Composite, 1997)

Trivia: Scott's brother Mark Ritcher plays bass on this recording. He is also in the band Cooler who appears on "Encapsulated."

America Is a Prison
It has to be done
but there's no place to start.
I've written down how it's supposed to be,
according to me.
America is a prison,
the world's largest ghetto
and all in my lifetime.
I'm picking daisies
and, oh, how they die.
Slowly dying in a parked car with the music loud
as the rain keeps on pouring down.
The air is thin and the Advil is out.
Thoughts of you are in, squeezing my breath out.
A headache keeps on trying to push its way in,
like utilities in a storm want so bad to end.



From "Carbonistas" (Noise Pollution, 2009)

Trivia: One of the sample bursts at the beginning of this track is from a song by Laura Minor. The line "like utilities in a storm want so bad to end" is a reference to Louisville's above-ground electrical grid which fails regularly due to its entanglement with trees. Most residents are without electricity several times a year.

Apple
(instrumental)



From "Metroschifter 4" (Doghouse, 1997)

Trivia: Recording was improvisation in the studio.

Back "A"
(instrumental)



From "Let's Get This Party Started" (Initial Limited, 1997)

Trivia: Song was recorded in 1994 and released three years later.

Be
I don't know what I've got
and I don't know what I've lost
but I'd throw it all away
just for the freedom to be.
Commitments among strangers
like the bonds we feel with characters
projected upon a film screen.
You still cross my mind
at the most inopportune times.
I wish everything I own
could fit easily into my car.
I'm not sure who you are,
why I'm on this road
or where it will take me to be.



From "Encapsulated" performed by Music Group (Doghouse, 2000)

Trivia: Song was taught in person to Michael Weis of Music Group instead of using a demo tape.

Black Wednesday
I don't think there's something wrong with me
or the circles that I'm walking in
My heart skips a beat
every time the telephone starts ringing
If I had only been more awake
I could have seen at least another half-second
of you looking back
Black Wednesday
A pale crescent moon hangs over Louisville tonight
and searchlights reach for the sky
It's the same sky that blankets Poland this morning
where it's 7 in the morning.
I'm aware it's 7 in the morning
Black Wednesday



From "Metroschifter 4" (Doghouse, 1997)

Trivia: Michael Weis played the guest guitar solo in one take. He was in The Loved, and later appeared with Music Group on "Encapsulated."

Branson
If I had this mouth, if I touched your lips,
if I stood in these shoes how could I lose?
If I swam in this pool, if I touched your skin,
I lived where your shoulder meets your neck.
What did I expect?
If this is a description of things we felt for each other,
and ways we made each other feel beautiful, yet second best.
I can recount a thousand instances in which we expressed our love,
but I just can't accept that it's in the past and that it didn't last.
Is this all to easy to concede, or just too hard to believe?



From "Fort Saint Metroschifter" (Doghouse, 1995)

Trivia: Title refers to Branson, Missouri, which is sometimes called "Nash Vegas."

Burn Lexington Burn
It's in the newspaper that you read,
and I can taste it in the water.
There's something unpleasant about it
and I can taste it in the water.
Burn.
It's on both sides of the fence.
It's the topic at hand.
How do these words move around?
It's the topic at hand.
Burn, Lexington, burn.



From "Encapsulated" performed by The Enkindels (Doghouse, 2000

Trivia: Title was contributed by Matthew Wieder of The Enkindels. Ben Teague plays the piano.

Continuity Piece
(instrumental)



From "The Metroschifter Capsule" (Slamdek, 1994

Trivia: Song was recorded entirely on a Macintosh computer.

Dear Hilary
Dear Hilary,
How many years has it been
since you were going off to college
and you wrote me a letter?
After so many years now
I don't even take the time
to write these words out legibly.
Debating over games
and how nothing is the same,
but I just wanted to drop you a line
The hardest part about
opening up to someone
is that once you have,
the power is in their hands.



From "Encapsulated" perfromed by Burning Airlines (Doghouse, 2000)
Acoustic version from "Scott Ritcher" performed by Scott Ritcher (I Can't Believe..., 1999)

Trivia: Burning Airlines was one of the first bands to complete recording for "Encapsulated."

Dear Lord, My God
On top of bridges, staring into snowy skies.
Inside of churches, bewildered by another's eye.
Dear Lord, my God, I listen so well.
I try so hard, but not hard enough.
I know there's times when I need to go,
when I need to show, and I sit here wondering.
Dear Lord, my God, I feel so much,
but I cannot cleanse this dirty conscience.



From "Generation Rx" (Doghouse, 1995)

Trivia: Only a portion of this song appears on the record.

Downschifter (On the Road)
On the road,
I can't believe that I'm thinking these thoughts.
How we could have gone so far
and when we had the chance,
not gone there if only to see
what it would have been like.
I can't help but wonder how these unfinished ideas
may never leave me.
On the road, I pull off to the side.
On the road, I can't believe that I'm thinking this.



From "Encapsulated" performed by Cooler (Doghouse, 2000)

Trivia: Cooler members Jeff Goebel and Mark Ritcher attended high school together and have been playing in bands together for over 15 years.

Drive
Who gives a shit what makes the flowers grow?
Every time I come here I feel like this every time.
I can think about you two all I want to.
Do you not think I know where you've been?
This song is for everyone else
who knows what it's like to be held in your arms,
who knows there's nothing special where there's nothing new.
There's no time quite like the time to give up.
I lied when I said the sun shines.
I feel something for you, but I don't know what it is.
So many times I believed what you said,
just because you said it.
Now all I can do is drive.



Studio version from "The Metroschifter Capsule" (Slamdek, 1994)
1993 demo from"Let's Get This Party Started" (Initial Limited, 1997)
1994 demo from "New Mexico Demos" (Slamdek, 1994)

Trivia: Song has a different beginning when played live instead of the Rachel's segment.

E.
Sometimes I feel like feeling's just for the weak at heart.
Nobody knows exactly what it's like to be you except you.
This is how many years now?
I've thought about you every day.
I'm sure you've forgotten all about be.
I know I've often been led astray.
But in my heart, I never let you go.



From "Acoustic" split with Falling Forward (Initial, 1995)
and "The Metroschifter Capsule" CD reissue (Conversion, 1994)

Trivia: Version on the CD reissue from Conversion has a fake audience track added from the Nirvana "Unplugged in New York" album.

Equation
I fell into bed and, for a second,
breathed and exhaled what was left of your scent.
I built something up around me,
brick by brick with my emotions.
And I built bridges just to have something to burn.
No need to strike a match,
I lit it with the flame that burns inside of us all.
This is a work of art and not an equation.
That's why it makes no sense to the two of us.



From "Fort Saint Metroschifter" (Doghouse, 1995)

Trivia: Album review in Magnet magazine in 1995 mocked the lyrics to this song, saying they sounded like bad text from a perfume commercial.

Finder
Even when I can see,
I just see that I am blind.
Understanding, yet still hurting
Can anything I feel still feel the same?
Even when I can see, I just see that I am blind.



From "Fort Saint Metroschifter" (Doghouse, 1995)

Trivia: Song has lyrics but was recorded as an instrumental.

Flat
(instrumental)



Studio version from "The Metroschifter Capsule" (Slamdek, 1994)
Demo version from"New Mexico Demos" (Slamdek, 1994)
and "Slamdek A to Z" (Initial, 1995)

Trivia: One of over a dozen Metroschifter songs named after field hockey moves or positions. Others include Drive, Overlap, Link, Back, Inner, Third Party, Sweeper, Square, Forward, Reverse Stick, Scoop, and Marker.

Forensic Economics
Lips I will never kiss.
Eyes I will never look into.
Cheeks I will never touch.
Two hands I will never hold.
For years I have dreamed
in thousands of colors,
in pictures I have cataloged.
In words I have read.



From "Encapsulated" performed by Joan of Arc" (Doghouse, 2000)
Metroschifter version from "Strawberries" (Doghouse, 1999)

Trivia: Girl in the tub on the cover of "Strawberries" is Julie Riggs who also appears on the cover of "Metroschifter 4."

Forward
This time.
I do it every time.
This is one I pulled out from the rest.
Forward.
Uncountable, the times I said enough
and then the next day, did it again.
The pain, the willpower
of commitments and expectations.
What someone else wants from me.
What I deliver on bended knee.
This face, these eyes,
take another step away from being young.
This time, it is the last of mine,
if I can get the nerve to say good-bye.



Studio version from "The Metroschifter Capsule" (Slamdek, 1994)
Demo version from "New Mexico Demos" (Slamdek, 1994)

Trivia: The phrase "what I deliver on bended knee" was inspired by a dramatic monologue from the film "Great Balls of Fire" about the life of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Funny How Time Slips Away
(W. Nelson)
Well, hello there.
My, it's been a long, long time.
How am I doing?
Well, I guess I'm doing fine.
It's been so long now
that it seems that it was only yesterday.
Ain't it funny how time slips away?
How's your new love?
I hope that he's doing fine.
I heard you told him
that you'd love him 'til the end of time.
Why you know that's the same thing
that you told me,
well it seems like just the other day.
Ain't it funny how time slips away?
Gotta go now.
I guess I'll see you hanging 'round.
I don't know when, though.
Never know when I'll be back in town.
But I remember what I told you
that in time you're going to pay.
Ain't it surprising how time slips away?



From "Generation Rx" (Doghouse, 1996)

Trivia: Song was written by Willie Nelson and was a favorite of 1970's Elvis Presley concerts.

Goodbye Narragansett
We're leaving here the way we came in.
We're sinking fast in an ocean of irresponsibility.
I liked you better before you dragged me down.
This has gone on forever. It's just too late to say it now.
Goodbye Narragansett.
Goodbye Hollywood.
Hello to the bottom.
There's nothing left here for me to lose.
I've lost it all and you.
Now you're leaving town
and it's too late to say it now.

From "Carbonistas" (Noise Pollution, 2009)

Trivia: Narragansett is a coastal town in Rhode Island where Scott enjoyed visiting the ocean several times a week when he lived in Providence during 2001 and 2002.

The Greatest Ballad of All Time
Dropping medals, memories,
and something I lived or anything that I can give.
I gave those people everything
and my heart of gold die in that boxing ring.
Redemption came today on the Second Street Bridge.



From "Generation Rx" (Doghouse, 1995)

Trivia: Song is about Louisville native Muhammad Ali and the untrue legend that he threw his 1960 Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River.

Here In Your Mind
Since we have the time to kill,
I've always wanted to sit here by you
and I'm asking you some questions,
but I'm sure I probably know all the answers.
Something I've always wanted to know
but now I'm not so sure
that the answers will benefit me more than not knowing.
And so we sit here side by side
as we once were cheek to cheek
and our eyes and hands meet face to face
and I wonder why I always
find myself here in your mind.



From "Encapsulated" performed by Kyle Crabtree & Jason Noble (Doghouse, 2000)

Trivia: Song was intended to be performed by Shipping News, but guitarist Jeff Mueller was unable to contribute to the track, so the other two band members finished the song.