1. |
They Should Be Afraid
01:04
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THEY SHOULD BE AFRAID
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“One of the most violent forms of oppression which exists in the society today is the calculated indoctrination through which the American people are being subjected. And those in power are really afraid—they’re afraid because they know very well that only revolutionary change is going to help the masses of people in this country.
They’re afraid, and we have to demonstrate to them here and now that they have every right to be afraid—they should be afraid. Because we aren’t going to put up with their nonsense anymore…”
Angela Davis, speaking at UCLA, 8th October 1969
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2. |
Tickertape
05:25
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TICKERTAPE
---------------
So you sold your little show
You pitched it to the CEO
I don’t think they believe in you
But now, at least you’ve built your hospital
Somewhere to take yourself to die
When all of this just falls around you
I’m so tired of the noise
Of the squabbling little boys
Made of privilege and money
You’re entitled, you’re reviled
But those things don’t go out of style
Put your face to anything
Find the uses for your tongue
Make it work while you’re still young
It could be the key to everything
It’s an act, it’s a version, it’s a hack
It’s a thing not made of language
Don’t you know a single thing?
About the world, the way it’s run
The way that things get done?
Don’t you know a single thing?
I don’t believe in the masses
I just believe in numbers
No one can hear this dead sound in my chest
No one could mistake it for a heartbeat
No one even cares anymore
I have so little empathy
I feel like I could live forever
No one even cares anymore
It’s just clicks and button pushes
Clicks and button pushes
I’m not here
You’re reaching for the chequebook
Its pages flutter like a heart that’s been eviscerated
I’m not here
You’ve got the will to try it
If you can’t eat or buy it maybe you can televise it
I’m not here
I’m not here
Tickertape
Bury me in tickertape
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3. |
Paint The Rooms
03:42
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PAINT THE ROOMS
-----------------------
On the edge, running backwards to the ledge
We’re resigned to all this timed, redundant song
There they go, wish fulfilment makes it so
It’s enough to make the repetition wrong
Once upon another magical bygone
Were the footsteps of a race that was not won
In spite of myself and my disappearing health
I’m the starter with a misfiring gun
I’m the symptom of a thing said, not heard
When the change suits the mouth, not the words
All the things found and lost that won’t return
On a bullet-point list of what you’ve done
So then
Why paint the rooms of a house you’ve just torn down?
Everything burned
And we kept our backs turned
Two by two, with feet first to the forest
Those who knew better hung back
Just a step or two
If only to get a slightly better view
Of what was to come
Always sick and tired
Of the wired whims that matter
From the soul, out of a hole
From the sickly and the tattered
One last gasp from this past
It’s the fastest I can grasp it
But when they come out of the hum
They won’t take me
Ever
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4. |
Upmanship Down
04:25
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UPMANSHIP DOWN
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My ambition: lead a generation
Out into the dark
Walk them to the abyss
And shove them in the back
There’s a coven at the game
Pass-the-parcel played back-to-front
The winner comes up empty-handed
Under the padre sunshine
Wet with the promise
Of ideas
The only way to go
The only way that’s left
Upmanship down
I forgot about the powerlessness
I create around me
Glowing inert gases, pixelation
Zip-jacketed, a spirit skin
There’s wisdom sewn into its pockets
It costs more than you’ll make in four years
I’ve read the penal code, I’ve seen it
A guarantee of amnesty
In twelve-oh-two-two
Renounce everything
Twelve-oh-two-two
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5. |
Nationhood
04:59
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NATIONHOOD
-----------------
You watched the age collapse
Went wrong, went into reverse
You stitched and streamed your flags with tears
So proudly built the things
That you’ll soon grow to disown
Unhook these names from what you named
It’s nothing primary colours ever represent
But nationhood is never built on nuance
History’s an idea we’ve stapled to us
Just in case we find ourselves adrift
If it’s written down you’ll weave it through you
Children of a lie that can’t be disproved
This conversation is a dead loss
Your position is wrong
Your bankrupt gated community
The best lies come landlocked
Let’s trash the past apart
Don’t let the clock stop
Why kill the dream, it always felt so clean
Tick, tock, tick
But then it happened
Cold nation heart
You seemed so sincere
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6. |
Paper Tie
03:57
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PAPER TIE
-------------
This mist of sisters
Heart to heart
Arm to arm
Dream to dream
They don’t belong to you yet
This sanctimony as an art
Blossoms up to make you good
We’ll live idealised
Who am I to come between the myth and what you are?
Who am I to contradict the proof if there’s no scar?
From the cradle they’re awaiting
The moment they can’t teach you any more
Choke
In her home she’s been postponing
The things they don’t believe a girl should be
But they can’t see what she can see
They’ll never be what she can be
Power the cowards, it makes them doubt you
The need to have freed you, that’s where they keep you
Once you reach through they’ll snatch it from you
Condemned to contend, they don’t need the consent
Just because we relinquished an idea
Doesn’t mean we don’t resent it
Shared future
The paper tie pretending to empower
Doesn’t take you off the payroll
Doesn’t take you off the backseat
Culture over choices
They stoop to entitle you
They stoop to entitle
Your culture over choices
They stoop to entitle you
Choke
Positive / selective
Normalising behaviour
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7. |
Guillotine
05:16
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GUILLOTINE
---------------
One time to be seen
One style by decree
That was the mistake
One time on the guillotine
One year in the military
That was the mistake
Brush up on your curtsy
You can live on in conspiracy
For sale is the fairytale
Of a state long dead
Your shame coronates the lame
To the royal bed
One crown impossible
Gold-drilled to the follicles
Ordains the mistake
Every blood-clogged clarion failure
Won’t shield the mistake
Brush up on your curtsy
You can live on in complicity
Empty aisles stretching miles
Either side as you glide
To the sparkling coup
Every right to decide
Bloody tatters, dragged behind
While the gutters fill with glue
The new kleptocracy is here
Kneel down and rest your neck
It’s all the same to me
‘Cos either way I cash the cheque
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8. |
The Corporate Body
05:20
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THE CORPORATE BODY
-----------------------------
Time, no time for it
Life, not responsible
Crime of the century
Mine was the same as yours
Come, comeback
Go, version of what was then
Don’t let us down
Don’t you let us down
Time, again
To riding through, to riding through
You shouldn’t write
Watching the crime
That removes all the signs
Of a civilisation at work
Once there was time
To achieve a design
But instead it’s just sweat on your shirt
The reins, the maze
The purchase, the conscience
The things in your dustbin
The things in your history
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Drug Life Austin, Texas
Noise/Rock from Austin, Texas.
Formed in Austin in 2013, Drug Life pairs British ex-pat
Gordy (Bloc Party, Young Legionnaire) on bass and vocals with native Texans Joey Cortez (Employer, Employer, Pushman) on guitar and Terry Irwin (Markov, Pretty the Quick Black Eyes) on drums.
Expect chaos, heart, crunch and heat.
... more
Drug Life recommends:
Zero Worship
by Young Legionnaire
Gordy's other band Young Legionnaire delivers their sophomore effort on Superstar Destroyer: mathy, chunky and full of feels.
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EMPLOYER, EMPLOYEE - Discography
by EMPLOYER, EMPLOYEE
Joey's salad days are documented on this uncompromising, sprawling seminal beast of Texas hardcore.
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Terry thumps the tubs on Markov's final effort, recorded in 2012.
go to albumIf you like Drug Life, you may also like:
This Oakland group pulls no punches, serving up a hard-hitting punk album that recalls the blistering brilliance of Refused.
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The latest Djunah LP channels the duo's heavy, intensely cathartic sound to reflect on living with and healing from trauma.
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From L.A. comes the latest from post-rock outfit bondo, with tendrils of spindly guitar snaking through arid percussion.
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