Serj Tankian

[susangail]

Serj Tankian (the lead singer of System of a Down) is one of my favorites. He writes music that has to do a lot with what's currently going on in the world. His lyrics (IMO) are bold but poetic, and really make you think.

Anyone else heard of/like Serj? If you haven't heard him, he has all his songs on his myspace page if you want to check him out.

Any other bands/artists that inspire you (or that you think are just freakin' sweet?)

[jrosebud]

Will have to give him a listen.  

My favorite band of all time is The Shins.  I think you'll find a lot of their songs to echo what you've been going through lately.

[Will]

SOAD isn't that bad, but it sometimes feels like their political message suffers from the fault of most political songs: they're broad, general, and as such are open to interpretation. I'd love to hear a song that's "Bush lied or misrepresented facts to Congress, and we invaded a country that posed no threat to us economically or militarily."

Only that rhymes.

[jrosebud]

SOAD isn't that bad, but it sometimes feels like their political message suffers from the fault of most political songs: they're broad, general, and as such are open to interpretation. I'd love to hear a song that's "Bush lied or misrepresented facts to Congress, and we invaded a country that posed no threat to us economically or militarily."

Only that rhymes.

Kimya Dawson's "Loose Lips" isn't quite *that* specific, but W is definitely the target of her wrath.  Here's a bit of it:

"shysters live from scheme to scheme and my 4th quarter pipe dreams
are seeming more and more worth fighting for
so i'll curate some situations, make my job a big vacation
and i'll say F*CK BUSH AND F*CK THIS WAR
my war paint is sharpie ink and i'll show you how much my shit stinks
and ask you what you think because your thoughts and words are powerful
they think we're disposable, well both my thumbs opposable
are spelled out on a double word and triple letter score"

[myleviathan]

SOAD isn't that bad, but it sometimes feels like their political message suffers from the fault of most political songs: they're broad, general, and as such are open to interpretation. I'd love to hear a song that's "Bush lied or misrepresented facts to Congress, and we invaded a country that posed no threat to us economically or militarily."

Only that rhymes.

Kimya Dawson's "Loose Lips" isn't quite *that* specific, but W is definitely the target of her wrath.  Here's a bit of it:

"shysters live from scheme to scheme and my 4th quarter pipe dreams
are seeming more and more worth fighting for
so i'll curate some situations, make my job a big vacation
and i'll say F*CK BUSH AND F*CK THIS WAR
my war paint is sharpie ink and i'll show you how much my shit stinks
and ask you what you think because your thoughts and words are powerful
they think we're disposable, well both my thumbs opposable
are spelled out on a double word and triple letter score"

I was thinking of the exact same song when I read Willravel's post. Too weird. And by the way, I love the Shins, too. Their writing really amazes me. Just a great band all 'round.

[MariaEvri]

ah yes I like that band
well ehm for me.. my two favourites are manowar and gamma ray but ehm.. they dont usually sing about political stuff and the like. especially not manowar hehe

[susangail]

SOAD isn't that bad, but it sometimes feels like their political message suffers from the fault of most political songs: they're broad, general, and as such are open to interpretation. I'd love to hear a song that's "Bush lied or misrepresented facts to Congress, and we invaded a country that posed no threat to us economically or militarily."

Only that rhymes.

I see what you mean. Only, I like how they are more broad because it does leave it open to interpretation. It's art to me, and very inspiring.

Oh and the Serj song that comes to mind is "Unthinking Majority." Here are the lyrics:

We don't need your democracy.
Execute them kindly for me.
Take them by their filthy nostrils
Put them up in doggy hostels.

We don't need your hypocrisy
Execute real democracy.
Post-industrial society
The unthinking majority

Anti-depressants
Controlling tools of your system
Making life more tolerable
Making life more tolerable

I believe that you're wrong
Insinuating they hold the bomb
Clearing the way for the oil brigade
Clearing the way for the oil brigade

Not exactly what you said, but pretty straight forward.

[crocofish]

I'd love to hear a song that's "Bush lied or misrepresented facts to Congress, and we invaded a country that posed no threat to us economically or militarily."

Nine Inch Nails did the song "The Hand That Feeds" about the invasion of Iraq.  It was supposed to be performed on one of the MTV awards shows, but when NIN was going to perform the song with a picture of Bush projected behind the band, MTV canceled that performance, and substituted another band.

Here's a piece of the lyrics:

What if this whole crusade's
A charade
And behind it all there's a price to be paid
For the blood
On which we dine
Justified in the name of the holy and the divine

Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

So naive
I keep holding on to what I want to believe
I can see
But I keep holding on and on and on and on

On a later NIN album, "Year Zero", there was also the song "Capital G" about Bush.  Actually, a lot of the album critiques the recent administration.

[tacoma_kyle]

Bleh. I liked System a lot back with their self-titled album and Toxicity.

There isnt many more annoying things [to me] than a good band going down the political road. Especially to the extreme that they were. I wont buy anything from them anymore, unless I bust my SOAD album. Not sayin they should please everyone, not possible.

I think the only clear political album that I can listen to and take seriously is A Perfect Circles EMotive. A collection of remakes (by APC...) of past political tracks from various bands/artists (I hate saying political because that is not the right word at all...cant think of it).


But you (being me, anyhow) cannot deny the great music style System has/had and Serj's voice. Very damn good voice. They shoulda made the tracks longer though, they have generally been too repetitive.

[myleviathan]

I just bought System of a Down's debut album earlier today. It's so great. Here's some useless info: did you know that the guys from the band worked at Costco before they got famous? I know a guy who says he worked with them in LA.  Could be BS, I don't know. Interesting all the same.

[tornado]

SOAD isn't that bad, but it sometimes feels like their political message suffers from the fault of most political songs: they're broad, general, and as such are open to interpretation. I'd love to hear a song that's "Bush lied or misrepresented facts to Congress, and we invaded a country that posed no threat to us economically or militarily."

The New World Order by Defiance, Ohio is a good one. It goes like this:
   
"They say the new world order is just god’s master plan but if the blueprint calls for some to starve, don’t blame god’s right-hand man, ’cause the president is holy, and the president is pious, and hallelujah! He’s a good ol’ boy! Hosannah in the highest!

The plan is written in god’s hand so only Bush can read it, and it calls for battle in god’s name and it calls for Bush to lead it, and the blueprint calls to drill for oil, and exterminate the land, and if you can’t hear god’s calling, then you’re probably from France! 'Cause the USA is holy, and the USA is pious, and hallelujah! God is on our side! Hosannah in the highest!

And god is great, and god is good, and let us thank god for our food, we may well have more than we need and god well yet have mouths to feed, but god is great, and god is good, and someday soon he’ll feed you too, ’cause once we’ve got our yachts and crowns, god planned some food to trickle down, so just keep those thoughts holy, be patient and be pious, and hallelujah! God’ll grant your prayers, hosannah in the highest!

And I thank god for a god so mild, who spared the rod and spoiled the child, and signed a blank check so his boys and girls could buy up the entire world, so don’t think us rude if we intrude, god in heaven ordained us to, so you'd best improve that attitude and step aside, we’ve work to do, and thanks for keeping things in shape ’til we could come and take our place. Oh hallelujah! Ain’t life great? Hosanna in the highest!"

Sorry for the format, it's not supposed to read like an essay. Defiance, Ohio distributes all their music online for free, look them up if you like folky punk music.

[Salladin]

Yea, Serj has some amazing vocals.  Check on youtube for a video of him singing in Armenian, it's pretty awesome.  SOAD's older stuff was better than their newer stuff.  I do like his new solo stuff pretty well now though.