Ben Gibbard - Why You'd Want to Live Here lyrics

I'm in Los Angeles today It smells like an airport runway Jet fuel stenches in the cabin And lights flickering at random I'm in Los Angeles today Garbage cans comprise the medians Of freeways always creeping Even when the population's sleeping And I can't see why you'd want to live here I'm in Los Angeles today Asked a gas station employee If he ever had trouble breathing And he said "It varies from season to season, kid" It's where our best are on display Motion picture actors' houses maps are never ever current So save your film and $15 And I can't see why you'd want to live here Billboards reach past the tallest buildings We are not perfect but we sure try As UV rays degradate our youth with time The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic place In the belly of the beast that is Californ-I-A I drank from a faucet and I kept my receipts For when they weigh me on my way out, here nothing is free But the greyhounds keep coming, dumping locusts into the streets Til the gutters overflow and Los Angeles thinks: "I might explode someday soon" And it's a lovely summer's day I can almost see a skyline Through a thickening shroud of egos Is this the city of angels or demons? And here the names are what remain Stars encapsulate the golden lane And they need constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating And I can't see why you'd want to live here Billboards reach past the tallest buildings You can't swim in a town this shallow As you will most a**uredly drown tomorrow