1. |
Living in America
02:58
|
|||
|
Living in America
is living in a terror state
The US of A, what a terror.
What about Guatemala in 1954?
What about Haiti or East Timor?
What about Ronald Reagan?
He just said the lines they gave him
And so the people are lambs run by conglomerations
We're oh so happy with the program
America
(America, who are your donors that buy your elections?)
America
(America who writes your laws that take away women's rights?)
America
(America, who are in your cages?)
America
(America, where are our wages?)
Right up to the present day,
now we have the CIA
and the secret police, AKA FBI
Runnin' Ops: Psy
It's on a global scale
It's so easy, too deceiving
When every word has two meanings
Socialism for the rich,
The poor get harsh free markets
The word "conservative" meant
Little to no government
In practice, it's highly authoritarian
In America
(America, who claims your disasters?
America
(America, genocide and slavery?)
America
(America, defending freedom in the name of social justice?)
America
(America, I'm disappointed)
America
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
Capitalism’s gonna kill us all
The world’s ending and it’s our fault
A fascist nation is one in which big business is run by the govt
But in america there’s 1 difference:
Corporations control the govt
But did you notice that the roles were flipped? Well maybe you should go and here it again. ‘Cause it’s kinda the same thing ain’t it?
We like to say this is democracy but it’s not really a democracy
It’s just the 1% represented
Private power, corporate lobbyists
Super PACs are so obvious
They pack the courts with all the judges they write the laws and make the budgets let’s sacrifice all the billionaires in the rockets they built
I wanna drown the CFOs in all the oil they spilt
Why’s every year the hottest summer? Why is the ocean on fire?
Why are we going to Mars?
Why’s everybody need a car?
There’s earthquakes in OKlahoma
Aubrey McClendon hits his quota and then he dies in a crash
His car was filled with gas
100 year old Charlie Munger
could feed the kids dying of hunger
but he just hoards all his billions
each year the death toll is 5 million
Socialism is a dirty word
Collectivize is a dirty word
Anarchy is a dirty word
Unionize is a dirty word
worker’s unions are criminal
Black lives are political
Portland’s got border patrol
5 dead at the Capitol
The silence is evil
Capitalism’s gonna kill us all
The world’s ending and it’s our fault
|
||||
3. |
Burnout (wee-ooh)
02:08
|
|||
|
Don't wanna bring you down
In 20 years there'll be nothing we can do about it.
If we believe these lies, in a little while there'll be
no people left to profitize.
No wonder you're burnt out
It took you so many years just to figure it out.
A system you internalized
All of its values for the ones you compromised.
In your hand is a phone
Stolen from the Congo by multi-nationals.
Everything we consume (everything we consume)
Marching us full on into an age of doom.
Don't mean to bring you down
That bright city on the hill we've been hearing about
Our whole lives (our whole lives)
It is the terror the whole world has been terrorized.
(wee-ooh)
Don't let 'em drown you out
Keep up the rattle & hum
The time to act is now
In 20 years there'll be nothing we can do about it.
|
||||
4. |
||||
|
Nixon ordered Cambodian genocide.
Clinton sent cruise missiles to Sudan, people died.
Obama gave the orders to do drone strikes.
Reagan invaded Nicaragua in ‘85.
Kennedy instigated the Cuban missile crisis.
LBJ invaded the Dominican Republic.
Gerald Ford endorsed the invasion of East Timor.
Eisenhower invaded Guatemala in ‘54.
Bush I overthrew the government of Panama.
Bush II started the war on terror.
Carter funded the Timorese genocide.
Truman dropped a nuclear bomb not once, but twice.
And when the International Court of Justice condemned all our crimes, we just shrugged our shoulders and said “We do what we want.”
We do it all of the time.
We even ramped up the genocide.
|
||||
5. |
Fuck Em
02:13
|
|||
|
800 bases ready to lay the siege
11 aircraft carriers crowding up the EEZs
4000 warheads controlled by the land of the free
700 billion to fight the Chinese
Send in the drones, blow up their homes
Bring in the F-16s
Bomb 'em to dust, bricks and blood
The last thing they'll ever see
Break up the hubs, beat 'em with clubs
Make a big line through the territory
Just 'cause fuck 'em
Just 'cause fuck 'em
We don't pursue settlements
Or sissified diplomacy
There's no need for delegates
When you got the 7th fleet
Veto the resolution, send arms to the Israelis
650 million to blockade the Yemenis
Send in the drones, blow up their homes
Bring in the F-16s
Bomb 'em to dust, bricks and blood
The last thing they'll ever see
Break up the hubs, beat 'em with clubs
Make a big line through the territory
Just 'cause fuck 'em
Just 'cause fuck 'em
|
||||
6. |
Send in the F-16s
02:58
|
|||
|
Oh! Fire in the hole
We want you to know this is how things get done around here.
The crude caliphates from the nation-states
We redrew lines, now we own the place.
'Cause we're fat, fat cats
Robbing the people blind
Oh! We want your reserves
The pipes have all burst
We found the right man he's the despot you deserve.
But if he becomes impossible to defend,
We'll throw him out and try it over again.
Send in the F-16s
Herd 'em in cattle cars
Dump the bodies in the ravine
Way outta town real far.
And then, we'll tell everyone to let freedom ring
Look at that! We saved the day again, democracy wins.
Headlines in the press, euphoric op-eds.
Extolling the crimes, exonerating the debts.
Send in the F-16s
Drown 'em in carpet bombs
Don't make a difference to you or me
We'll both be dead and gone.
It's not in the business press (or the business class)
It's not in the New York Times (or in Washington)
It's not in these dry op-eds (or the Pentagon)
It's not in concise 3 lines (or the intelligence)
It's not what the policeman did (or the classified)
It's not what your teacher said (or the alliances)
It's not the moneyed muslims (or the precariat)
Or evangelical christians (or the internet)
It's not what ya mama said (or the Federal Reserve)
It's what ya daddy read (or the free markets)
It's not what the policeman did (or the utilities)
It's not what ya brother said (or the industry)
|
||||
7. |
||||
|
Taxpayer money gets fed to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon sends it to private industry.
Everything's invested with public money.
So who are the winners of this war economy?
Bill Gates, yep he's a winner.
Steve Jobs, yep he was a winner.
Jeff Bezos, yep he's a winner too.
Mark Zuckerberg, he's fucking evil.
Mark Zuckerberg, he's pretty evil.
And he probably doesn't know it too.
So how do we create this sense of urgency.
To justify all of the military spending.
Even though we're the greatest superpow'r in history.
America's a country, every country needs enemies.
Russia, yep you're a scapegoat.
China, another scapegoat!
Middle East, yeah you're a scapegoat too.
Elon Musk is complaining
About taxes constraining
His grand plans to go to Mars.
This is the system we have
These are the kinds of people who win
Inside the system we have
These are the kinds of trouble we're in.
Healthcare, you can get it on the market!
Schooling, you can get it on the market!
Starve then, if you can't afford the food
Water, get it on the market!
Medicine, only if you can afford it!
Get sick, see you in the emergency room.
|
||||
8. |
Scare Words
03:24
|
|||
|
All I see are reactionaries loving the authoritaries, Renting their bodies to pay for the hobbies of billionaires.
All I see are statists eating up the 7 dollar wages. They say that it’s a simulation but they’re blue-pilled and shameless.
You are so narrow-minded with your scare words.
They think America is the greatest.
They’re heavily indoctrinated,
Loving on the armed state agents
While they choke a black man on the pavement.
Russians at the Ukraine border, tensions in the South China sea, not a real threat to world order.
Not a real threat, not a real threat, not a real threat.
You are so narrow-minded with your scare words.
Strangle ‘em with cold, hard sanctions.
Turn their country into a plantation.
Fuck ‘em, it’s another human rights violation.
We don’t really care, we don’t really care.
Melting of the Doomsday glacier,
Melting in the Beaufort sea.
You know we’re really headed for somewhere,
We don’t know where it might be.
Haitians at the Texas border
And they runnin’ and they try to flee,
Not a real threat to world order.
Not a real threat, not a real threat, not a real threat.
You are so narrow-minded with your scare words.
Don’t try to scare me with your scare words.
|
||||
9. |
||||
|
Jamie Dimon defrauded the public
Part of the reason for the housing crash
Had his hands full with risky transactions
Bankrolled by the government
Larry Fink robbed us of our pensions
Gave to his crony friends bonus packages
Under the auspices of the French government
Lies formed a covenant
The working class covered it.
Marc Benioff hid all of his billions
In foreign shell corps from Singapore to Switzerland
While he espouses a moral high ground
For fighting homelessness
Of which he is contributing
Elon Musk committed securities fraud
To impress his young girlfriend
Isn't that hilarious?
Hey Elon, where is your cyber truck?
Roadster? Microchip?
Tunnels filled with self-driving cars.
Name one thing that you have solved for us
Your track record is so porous.
Trump's tax cuts were a kiss to the donor class
He said he'd bring the jobs back
But it was a backstab
And who among us expected any different
When Biden took the reins again?
It's more class war
When you hear a politician speak about values
Check your back pockets
They're taking all your money.
|
||||
10. |
The 12 Ways of Statists
01:16
|
|||
|
12 ways to see if you're a statist:
1. You are so highly educated.
2. You think America's the greatest.
3. You're blue-pilled like the Matrix (oh so shameless).
4. You take the legal side of rapists.
5. You are enjoying these late stages.
6. I sense an undertone of racist.
7. You just repeat the power phrases of the national language.
8. You support middle east invasions.
9. You think that Rittenhouse is blameless.
10. You think Haitians should be in cages.
11. You're OK with the starving wages.
12. Clutching those Ayn Rand pages.
|
||||
11. |
||||
|
Daddy sold his airplane and daddy bought a gold mine.
Mama let her tear dry in the time of apartheid.
You're not an exception
You're not an eccentric
You're just an asshole
You're just an asshole
Youth is so romantic, sleeping on a futon.
Late nights at the office, it was hard but you did it.
You're not an inventor
You're just an investor
You didn't start PayPal
You didn't start Tesla
Without a moral light, you balk at the UN.
You tell us who you are in these sad moments.
You're not an exception
You're not an eccentric
You're a corporate lackey
You're not an inventor
You're just an asshole
|
||||
12. |
Bootlicker
03:19
|
|||
|
If you have to say "stay poor" to those who stand
If you gotta ask what's wrong
If you gotta ask
If you think the system's fine with how it stands
Don't say another word
Don't say another word
To me you're just a bootlicker
A bootlicker
A bootlicker, that's you
Yeah to me, you're just a bootlicker
A bootlicker, that's you
Yeah that's you
If you think that billionaires earned all they can
through hard wok and perseverance
If you have to say "stay poor" to those who stand
against their own oppression
Don't say another word
Don't say another word
Don't say another word
Don't say it
'cause to me you're just a bootlicker
A bootlicker
A bootlicker, that's you
Yeah to me you're just a bootlicker
A bootlicker
A bootlicker, that's you
Yeah that's you
Keep licking those boots...
|
||||
13. |
Nanny State
03:13
|
|||
|
I never want to be subjected to the market discipline
I will the government to keep me well fed
My heart is blood red
It's beating for you, it's beating for you
Less is never more and more is never enough
Market share go up and so does the profit
They hang around my door
I thought I paid them off
Scrub it from the press
Shut their mouths
Turn the cameras off
Repeat the mantra of a spirited new age
It's what we all do, it's what we all say
We like the tariffs and the protections
Run to the nanny state
She's our reflection
Less is never more and more is never enough
Commanded by the board, it's written in the laws
They hang around my door
I thought I paid them off, oh
Leak it to the press
Shut the lights
Turn the cameras off
Without the rules and the regulations
This is virtue, this is freedom
This care for others kind of society
It's an infringement on our liberty
Give our love to the poorer ones who we leave behind
Good thing all the power only goes to the capable
Less is never more and more is never enough
|
||||
14. |
Class War
02:37
|
|||
|
I wanna class war
Gimme a class war
I wanna class war
(I can't be the only one, I can't be the only one)
Gimme a class war
(I can't be the only one, I can't be the only one)
Fuck the corporate sector
Fuck the corporate elite
Fuck wall street
Fuck all 1%
Fuck the armed state agents
Crushing poverty
Fuck the whitewashed speeches
Fuck heavy industry
I wanna class war
(I can't be the only one, I can't be the only one)
Gimme a class war
(I can't be the only one, I can't be the only one)
Fuck the flowery language
Fuch the blanket statements
Fuck this economy
Fuck Hollywood
Fuck capitalism
Fuck complex prison systems
Fuck the Pentagon
Fuck free markets
Fuck consumer choise
Fuck the electorate
Fuck the lobbyists
Fuck the senators
Fuck their backpockets
Fuck the Democrats
Fuck the backchannels
Gimme a class war
I wanna class war
I wanna class war
Gimme a class war
No war but class war
(I can't be the only one)
No war but class war
(I can't be the only one)
Fuck their backpockets
Fuck the democrats
Fuck the backchannels
Fuck the lack of empathy
Fuck the lack of empathy
Fuck the lack of empathy
|
||||
15. |
Living in America B-side
03:49
|
|||
|
America, uh huh
Living in America, uh huh
America, uh huh
Living in America
Corporate power, corporate interest
Unaccountable, indifferent
To the public in a crisis
It's a class war, but one-sided
Look at Pfizer's profiting a virus
Vaccine patents, millions dying
Poorer countries get the slightest
Here in America it's one-sided
America, uh huh
Living in America, uh huh
America, uh huh
Living in America
Offshore havens, tax evasions
Private profits, public payments
Inculcated with mass precision
Watch your sports, don't pay attention
While the top-tier captains of industry
Continue to be engorged with impunity
Two hands restricting the spigot
Vassal states, no choice, bootlick it
America, uh huh
Living in America, uh huh
America, uh huh
Living in America
Look at Biden shaking hands with OPEC
Paying out lip service with climate rhetoric
Abrogated with mass indifference
All these states are vassals to the super-rich
Where, oh where, oh where goes the money?
Military science and hi-tech industry
Never to the public, the public is the enemy
Never to the public, we are the threat of democracy
America, uh huh
Living in America, uh huh
America, uh huh
Living in America
America, uh huh
Living in America, uh huh
America, uh huh
Living in America
|
||||
Rathbone New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans-based Songwriter & Producer
If you like Rathbone, you may also like:
Semaphore / Second Signal
by Auclair
featured on Bandcamp Radio Sep 30, 2014
go to album
Like the Grass
by Stacey Juritz Ravens Keller
featured on Bandcamp Radio May 26, 2020
go to album
In Another Life
by Sandro Perri
featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 14, 2018
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Oct 20, 2015
go to album
Things That Grow
by Cara Stacey
Stacey teams up with members of Polar Bear to create enchanting and hypnotic music from southern African bows.
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 9, 2015
go to album
Romeo Moon - Feelin' / Twin Haus - Emperor Oppressor
by Romeo Moon
featured on Bandcamp Radio Oct 3, 2017
go to album
