1. |
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Do you blame the ass that jigs on command?
Or the "Ha-ha-ha"s and clapping hands?
Who takes the stage without an audience first?
LePen took third and it keeps getting worse
The idiot countenance of the present smiles again and again!
And again!
Mirthless at parties
No manners at dinner
Do you bark at commuters like rambling street prophets?
Or shill papers on Sundays like some balding communist?
Mirthless at parties
No manners at dinner
Do you blame the brownshirts that march door to door?
Or the beckoning hands demanding more more more more?!
The present's idiot countenance is salivating!
The present's idiot countenance smiles again and again!
And again!
Explanation:
With countless decades worth of warm embraces and sloppy, open-mouth kidding spent courting the far right, the liberal lament of "How did we ever get here?" is predicated on a supreme lack of self awareness. The election of Donald Trump is simply the logical endpoint of the long rightward drift of supposed progressives desperately appealing to the lowest common denominator, cut-rate comedians hamming it up with reactionary politicians, and a mainstream media (fearful of appearing too partisan), refusing to use the word fascist.
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2. |
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Grumblin' tummy? Mind ill at ease?
You need an empathetic ear
You need a late lunch sogged with grease
White hands hold white hands
While black hands wring with grief
Over breakfast, eyes meet in agreement
What goes for troubled in some parts of town
In others ain't worth grieving
White hands hold white hands
While black hands wring with grief
In a park, children doing children's things
In a car, lovers doing lovers' things
The quaint banalities of life
Twisted to the moment's needs
Explanation:
There is a clear disparity between the treatment of white citizens and citizens of color in the US, and the delineation is no more apparent than law enforcement's handling of white terrorists/criminals versus black civilians. There is always time for de-escalation, rationalization, and coddling when black church-goers are murdered, but the weaponization and criminalization of Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Eric Harris, Mike Brown, etc. happened before a call was ever made. Anti-blackness is the foundation of our country and without addressing it, any talk of equality is patently farcical.
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3. |
Oh, Brother!
00:48
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Oh buh-buh-bother, brother
Ignore your sister, hate your mother
Lost a father, seek another
Seek another and another
Ears plugged to mid knuck, "No, no, no!"
Ears plugged to mid knuck, "No, no, no!"
Begrudging participant rolls their eyes and starts to mutter,
"Oh, brother!"
Oh buh-brothers hot and bothered
Never one to let a word go squandered
Repelled away from center
As the trail starts to wander
Ears plugged to mid knuck, "No, no, no!"
Ears plugged to mid knuck, "No, no, no!"
Lips overcome by quiver and then they start to blubber,
"Oh, brother!:
Are you listening:
You're boring,
I'm boring,
We're boring!
Explanation:
A unity that perpetuates the same social hierarchies, one maintained by the same silence and inaction which maintains mainstream society, and further otherizes women and marginalized people, is a worthless and hollow one.
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4. |
Residual Mope
01:16
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I, sometimes, I sleep
"Oh, I'm alright, I'm alright, everything's alright with me"
Embellished whispers about you, while I deny what's in front of me
Base fantasy bears base reality
Meanwhile, bored and suburbed
Six hours stuck waist up, riflin' through the cupboards
What comes next? You have to ask?
Snort assorted shavings culled from one another's ass
Huff your own bad breath, man, eat some rocks
(Tomorrow, hair preened, pants pleated, white teeth flossed)
Sometimes, sometimes I sleep
Eyelids provide the backdrop to so many awful things
Unspeakable, unwelcome, imagined
A slow and steady mantra of "I haven't, oh, I haven't"
Oh, I haven't seemed to manage, I confess
To open my mouth without making a fucking mess
Explanation:
In the punk community, support and understanding of mental illness is often subordinated to the fetishization or romanticization of mental illness. To wit: if you can dig a scrawny, mid-twenties art kid taking a microphone to the forehead, you can dig standing by those struggling around you.
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5. |
Opinionated
01:41
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Everyone, eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-everyone's engaging
in mutually rewarding exchanges
And everyone, absolutely everyone's
Got a big idea on the tip of their tongue
Someone, somewhere's
Talking to (or about) themselves
Opinionated
And not much else
Opinionated, adapting words and phrases
Speaking mouth to ear until
Voices reach a uniform pitch and cadence
Somewhere, there's an opinion
Suh-suh-suh-suh-suh-suh-seeking validation
Somewhere, there's an action
Suh-suh-suh-suh-suh-suh-seeking justification
Can we level?
Not every surface is level
Validation/justificiation
Explanation:
Some people talk too much.
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6. |
Humbug
02:37
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True, they left ya blue
Hauled off with nana, and papa, too!
Ain't suncast spectres out near Nevada
Just mass graves for geriatrics
And the purged Benghazi data
"Connie's new curriculum
Lists jihad next to mathematics"
"Well, little Bobby turned queer and commie,
No Janet and Bob Sr. clutch their King James in the attic"
An excess of time? Burdened.
Keenly observant? Burdened.
Ignored prescience? Fucking burdened!
But little men mind very little
What's big around with hollow middle?
A burden in excess of hope
True, they left ya blue
Hauled off with nana, and papa, too!
Ain't suncast spectres out near the border
Just mass graves para trabajadores seeking five and a quarter
Will tomorrow look back fondly
When today's spent spitting forward?
What's big around with hollow middle?
The past despairs, "Beware!:
Humbuh-buh-bug! The humbuh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-bug!"
What's big around with hollow middle?
The past despairs, "The hoax of hope!"
Explanation:
Conspiracy theories surrounded ol' Barry O since his election in '08, but his grand designs for septuagenarian death camps, turning white children into gay, Bolshevik atheists, and implementing Sharia Law largely took a back seat to reality. His administration deported more people than his reviled Republican predecessor; expanded drone operations in the middle east; oversaw and extended inherited military occupations while initiating new ones; gave material and political support to right-wing leaders in South America with ties to Reagan's death squad days; and remained limp as police continued their war on the black community and violence against, women, POCs, and the LGBTQ community continued unabated (ed. note: violence that will worsen under Trump!) This is the legacy of Hope.
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Not Normal Tapes Chicago, Illinois
DIY Hardcore Punk Label based in Chicago.
No bullshit.
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