1. |
paperclip
03:26
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One day our grandkids are gonna look back
at this generation as they’re reading in class
And you know what kind of questions that they’re gonna ask
Why were we such cowards who refused to act
On a capitalist system that ran on our backs
Put natives away on the worst plots of land
Imprisoned their people disenfranchised the black
Polluted the planet and invaded Iraq
For some homegrown plot to take down two towers
a bridge,a building,some firefighters
an empty fucking hallway in the pentagon
Then they asked us all which side we were on
Why we rained down missiles shot from a drone
Blowing up kids sitting innocent inside of their homes
Waging wars that can never be won
Securing resources.. defending freedom
Funny how the global war on terror happened to be in an oil rich desert
they’ll think we were less conscious or just less evolved
As they study conservative utilitarian thought
they’ll read about the contras read all about the plot
to replace elected leaders with puppets to stop
their economic development,replace them with products
to trade at ease with the purpose of profit
to take their water,their food,and their gold
they created these countries to be bought and sold They created these countries under control
They’ll wonder why we bailed out the banks for taking our houses
didn’t notice the elite taking the whole country hostage
the oil spills, the lead in the water
the state police sanctioned for slaughter
And the Trump election shit they won’t even mention it
Like how nobody knows who was the 40th President
how could we elect these fucking degenerates
with some cowboy version of justice and politics
they’ll say our collapse was a long time coming
like how we studied the history,the fall of the Romans
the Last thing they’ll wonder is why we pardoned the Nazi’s
put them in NASA didn’t tell anybody
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2. |
trust no cop
03:53
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quite frankly im exhausted from being angry all the time
but ive found that its hard not to be living with your eyes open wide
turns out that they werent lying when they said that ignorance is bliss
and just because these problems do not affect you
doesnt mean that they do not exist
theyre killing our boys for holding toy guns
kidnapping our students, murdering our loved ones
why dont you understand you cant face the cops against themselves
why dont you understand that judge wont prosecute himself
why dont you understand you cant fight the system with itself
and no rights were ever won sitting quietly waiting for justice to come
and if you are neutral and idle youre feeding into the problem
so dont turn the other cheek watching from the other side of a screen
you are as powerful as you allow yourself to be
we’re all fighting the same war on different fronts
attacking the same system of oppression
i know that it’s easy to forget
that there are less of them than us
and its about time for an uprising
if we come together we can finally get shit done
and im sick of seeing cops taking innocent lives
i can’t remember all their names and stories no matter how hard i try
all i can see is bloodstained skin behind red and blue lights
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3. |
boxes
04:20
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He said girls don’t mean what they say
he said call me anytime
but has not picked up in 3 days
And I’d like to think I can take a hint
So I’ll take your silence for what it is
She asks if I’ve done this before
I said a few times, She says
i could use a couple more
That my nervous hands read inexperience
That she’ll show me love with an iron fist
So sure
I’ve got something to prove but
I don’t know if it’s to me or you
Validate the boxes
that they create around us
I swear it’s a cage
I’ll never be man enough for you
To see me the way that I do
and I’ve been chasing
the end of some rainbow
Until I stopped and asked if it was real
And I’ll never see myself as more than a boi
And you’ll call me your girl
And I’ll bite my tongue and swallow it whole
You said I should be used to being uncomfortable
He said I have no room to complain
If I just tried a little harder
to look and act that way
And in the morning when I put on my face
I’m deciding which role I’m gonna play
I’ll cut off my arms and legs
to fit inside of boxes
that were never made for me
What is the price to assimilate
So I can sit inside a coffin
until I rot away
I will tear myself apart
with these two hands
I’m just trying
to find my place
between opposing ends
between two opposing ends
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4. |
greenwashed
03:36
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Licking pesticide residue off unsuspecting finger tips
Little did you know the soil in which this food is grown is drenched in blood
Innocent blood
Which of your values are you going to cash in for a profit
How much are you willing to give up for a lousy buck
and You swore you were different and for a minute I believed it
But you’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing
Standing right in front of me
a monster hiding in plain sight
And you couldn’t stop the greed
Oh don’t you see that you’ve become exactly what you were fighting
Shake the shackles off my ankles and my wrists
Remind myself I don’t deserve this
and They’ll see how far they can stretch you thin
until you’re shaking, shaking from exhaustion
and David picks up pennies while he’s sweeping
Says that’s how he affords to keep eating on the days before we get paid
When will the minimum become a living wage
Food’s a right not a privilege and I’m tired of working to survive
Grasping for something real I can barely keep my head above
I’m drowning in it all
Cut labor
double output
You’re just another piece of their
well oiled machine
And they won’t call it slavery cause this is voluntary
But is it really
Oh is it really
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5. |
sleepwalker
04:01
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They say waking up a sleepwalker’s a dangerous thing to do
and i agree, haven’t you seen the news
There’s people bombing buildings and shooting up their schools
Not the banks or prisons or the mansions on the hills
I guess women’s health care centers are warfare zones
so are gay clubs,black churches,And our homes
Well it seems to me that there’s a level of hate
In a white man’s world for another gender or race
a refusal to see humanity when it’s staring you in the face
And their fear has built up a police state
Now don’t know who is sleeping but i sure know who’s awake
And I wouldn’t trust the media of a corporate controlled state
Cause what people see and hear is what they’ll regurgitate
It’s true for drunks and it’s true for heads of states
Representative Democracy is a myth in modern day
How could they bring justice to problems they’ve never faced
Or how do you reform a system that was built to enslave
How do you use your master’s tools to break out of your chains
well There’s a street in every city named after M.L.K.
But what’s it matter, shit’s just as racist these days
look at Mr.Trump up on center stage
or the police protecting nazis marching in parades
well it Seems to me that the police only protect the interests of the state
And if they cannot keep us down the army will take their place
Now I dont believe in violence but I believe in self defense
And I believe that Malcolm X put it best
defense against tyranny is a sign of intelligence
and that the truth has always on the side of the oppressed
and modern slavery is in debt not chains
locked up in a cell working for cents a day
So for every slave that took the name of a president
and for the stolen teeth in the rotten skulls of dead white men
for the tortured and locked up in this Disneyland
and For the kids bathing in poison up in Flint,Michigan
They’ve been trying to bury us, didn't know that we were seeds
and The bullets that they’ve sown, well that’s what they’re gonna reap
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6. |
demons
03:05
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Oh darlin’ I know you don’t believe me when
I say I’m seeing shadows in the corner of my eye
And I’m jumping at every bump and creak in the night
AND My head is spinning
And you tell me that it’s gonna be alright
But I think that I can see the light
And the voices in my head
Are repeating all the awful words once said
And the hardest thing THAT I ever did
Was keep on living when I wished I was dead
And I think that it’s getting bad again
In ways I had never imagined
And I’m scared to show you all the demons
that are hiding inside my head
And I’m scared one day I won’t be able to
tell the difference Between me and them
You asked me Not to kill you
While you’re sleeping tonight
And we both know that I’m crazy but not that kind
But now I see how I look in your eyes
And the voices in my head
Are repeating all the awful words once said
And the strongest thing THAT I ever did
Was keep on living when I wished I was dead
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7. |
fly song
03:37
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My house is filled with flies
and I can’t figure out why
when I think back it’s been like this from day one
I don’t really mind them but I kind of want them gone
And they keep me company when no one else is around
kiss the tears off my cheeks
and when I come home from a long day of work
they’re the only ones always there waiting there for me
So I let them munch on the compost bin
after all everybody’s got to eat
And they hum me the same song all night long
until I fall asleep
And I don’t know if you think when you see the light
but you dive right in without knowing just what you have done
and I see the panic sink in when you see the other ones who have died
you’re throwing yourself against the glass
you try,you try,you try
And you accept your fate
you know you’re gonna fry
all the while I sit there watching
I could’ve just turned off the light
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8. |
postcard
04:35
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Remind myself to keep breathing
Wash away the nausea induced by reading
While we’re flying down the interstate
I will try to correlate the names to the faces
To the cities in which they came
I’m drowning in desert skies at dusk
Watercolors painted onto the mesa
I forget my worries tangled in the sage brush
Down in the washes all dried up
I watched the land turn from mountain into stone
and into sand and back again
And the salt flats in Death Valley shine like glass
My head out the window as we pass
Just to smell the air
just to feel the breeze in my hair
And this ,this must be it
how it feels to be human again
I will go wherever this road takes me
I guess I just need a little change of scenery
When a postcard does not suffice
I wanna show you all the things I have seen in my life
but..every city is the fucking same
machinery of the day to day
The hobo camps under the bridge
The racist cops
the anarchists
The drunks passed out in the street
flying signs for something to eat
Yeah some see freedom but I see poverty
Upturned noses
white luxury
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9. |
peanut
03:19
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Ain’t nothing much exciting about jugging at a gas station
sure beats busking to a bunch of wealthy men
that think we’re all addicts in need of a fix
that people like us couldn’t possibly know shit
But bourge is still bourge fighting over state apparatus
Red and blue don’t matter they’ve pit themselves against us
and they sure ain’t giving up that economic status
cause even liberals are a bunch of
fascist sympathizing state capitalists
well I’d like to live in a much safer community
Where we’re not coerced into mainstream ideas of normality
Cause deep down inside we’re all the same
cept we were given different sets of rules and different boxes to play in
But I swear to you it ain’t the truth
look at the behaviors we’ve been bred to do
The things that we call natural have economic roots
So turn of that TV set, don’t follow media trends
it’s just another way that the state gets inside our heads
they’ll use the political body,military,and police
working class traitors fighting for the bourgeoisie
yeah i’ve lost my faith in the powers that be
cause they’ve got us in cages living off of
genetically modified grainsand seeds
So say farewell to welfare cause that shit won’t exist no more
The economy’s collapsing and they’re aiming guns at the poor
using propaganda like they’ve done in every war
wont sit back and let them do what they’ve done so many times before
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10. |
river
03:07
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Take me down to the river and make me clean again
where The words I could never scream are spray painted in red
So take me down to the riverbed
and I’ll never let another make my knees bleed the way that you did
And I’m trying to forgive you but i sure as hell won’t forget what you did
And I’m still trying to unlearn your brain washing
And the idea that I owe you something
I never did and I still don’t and that’s a fact
Thought if i aimed for what I hated most I’d be a better shot
So I pointed that gun at the scar over your heart
And i missed
again and again
As hard as I try sometimes I still wish you were dead
And you told me this was how you showed me you loved me
But coercion isn’t love and you know that
Maybe we fell into our set roles in society
Our behavior is learned
And we were born into a world ruled by patriarchy
And I was born into the body of a war zone
So take me down to the river and make me clean again
where The words I could never scream are spray painted in red
So take me down to the riverbed
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11. |
times new roman
06:04
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They’ve domesticated us they’ve turned us into sheep
We’re all hypnotized,walking in our sleep
Distracted by media and a market of commodities
We’re just resources, units for their economy
And they want technology that’ll make us obsolete
I mean why pay for workers when you can automate machines
yeah we’re being ruled by other human beings
who seem to have forgotten what that means
we’re hamsters on a wheel we’re a human fucking farm
And they’ve worked us to the bone we’re all weathered and worn
In this new age religion with caste systems and feudal lords
Convincing us life’s a dream while we operate their stores
Cause it’s social control,recirculation of wealth
It’s a power dynamic we’re all stuck in a cell
Whether it’s iron bars or a cubicle
We’ve all gotten used to it, it’s business as usual
And the workers are just as guilty as the bourgeoisie
Cause we’re doing the killing,we’re building death machines
We’re on the front lines for the army and marines
And we’re the cops patrolling every city street
we are the market we are the industry
And it’s our trash collecting into plastic islands in the sea
We’re destroying ourselves and this planet collectively
and I don’t know who to blame but neoliberal policy
Cause the wealth divide is getting greater in this nation
And it’s not gonna stop until we reach starvation
But don’t you worry no don’t lose your patience
It’ll all trickle down once they get off their vacations
It’s in the air you breathe and it’s also in the water
It’s something you can’t see,you’ve been warned of by your mothers and it’s not the soylent green
Or the chemtrails that they’re streaking
It’s a poison that comes from you its a poison that comes from me
Can you hear the children scream
It’s the sound of freedom ringing
we’re birthed from generations of violence and disease
we pardoned the scientists from the nazi regime
Who’ve been studying us for over a century
Learning new ways to change how we think
And the observer effect is not a fucking joke
Why do you think they’ve built satellites to circle the globe
mice behave in different ways when they’re watched I’ve been told
And the NSA has eyes around the world
They say after the revolution kill the revolutionary
Cause we’re just as afflicted by our poisonous society
And we’ll tear down the state build a new one in its place
That’ll feed off the labor of the human race
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12. |
bumpersticker
06:48
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They dammed the fish now we’re damned ourselves
They’ve built a market that’s got freedom for sale
And it’s powered by slave labor and prison cells
Oh the earth is getting hotter but it’s already felt like hell
we need our rivers back to the sea
and We need to fight this corporate machine
that in the name of profit has been killing everything
We need a resistance of you’s and me’s
cause we’ve been at war that’s for goddamn sure
and We’re not gonna save ourselves
with a government issued voucher
Cause business is good,yeah it’s great
And long ago wealthy fascists bought out the state
I’m tired of turning their wrenches and being fucking lied to
I’m tired of making products that I can’t even use
All for a dollar or a handful of bucks
Trading away my time and health for some rich fuck
i’ve spent my whole life working for money I’ve already spent
And if property is robbery then so is fucking rent
They’re treating people like some cheap resource
If you don’t submit to it they’ll use the police force
we’re worked we’re buried in collars and cuffs
and i’m starting to feel like there’s a joke being played on us
so raise us out of poverty
what a fucking joke
That’s gonna take a whole
hell of a lot of rope
Cause This economic system
thrives on poor folks
they’re making up excuses
to keep our wages low
For every gigatonne
of greenhouse gas
that they release
And every bomb
dropped in the Middle East
For every racist cop
who ends another life
And every hungry family
without food tonight
we’re all fighting
on different fronts
So grab a pen or grab a gun
When did welfare become such a slur
And why are we blaming women of color
While corporate trash is being subsidized
With our tax dollars to lower a market price
they fucked the air and they fucked the water
They’ve turned our food into plastic and slaughter
making us choose between two big brothers
but patriarchy is just another abusive fucking father
And the privilege they give to us is self defense
It’s simple chess,it’s common sense
The middle class is just a buffer zone
And the United States is the next empire of Rome
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13. |
these things sting
04:28
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Death is sitting underneath the cottonwood tree
There she sits waiting so patiently for me
We met eyes when we crossed paths
Well i only had one choice
keep on walking
There is so turning back now
Every winter I freeze to death
Buried alive beneath the snowy depths
Only to be thawed out come the spring
Resurrected with the life that warm sun brings
Now I’m shoulder deep into the briar
Looking for ripe berries
You know i don’t much mind the thorns
It’s just the price you pay
for the sweet taste you know
So take me where the grass grows high
And sitting at the top there are ticks
trying to hitch a ride
They just want you to let them in
Isn’t that what love is
Oh how could I forget that love could hurt like this
I’m a child with a magnifying glass who wants revenge
All about the thistles there are bees
Look but do not touch cause these things sting
Something’s must be loved from far away
Don’t you get too close now
Or you’re gonna pay,you’re gonna pay,you’re gonna pay
Death is sitting underneath the cottonwood tree
So I sat down next her and offered my company
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Ludlow Portland, Oregon
Combining elements of grunge, emo, and folk, Ludlow has developed a reputation for delivering heavy hitting breakdowns,
dynamic vocals, and emotive lyrics that explore the struggles of the human experience in the modern age.
After multiple self-produced releases, their first studio album, "The Dissent" continues to deliver a cathartic combination of self reflections and pointed social commentary.
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