new anti-war press release/song lyrics to discuss

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SEE SYSTEM OF A DOWN'S "BOOM!" VIDEO
TODAY on MTV2 (see below)
TOMORROW (Wednesday), MTV adds the video to its regular rotation
You will also be able to view the "BOOM!" video beginning Wednesday afternoon at
www.systemofadown.com

System of a Down has joined forces with activist/Oscar-nominated director Michael Moore and the
crew from "Bowling for Columbine" to make the video for "BOOM!" Much of "BOOM!" was shot by
independent media activists and local guerilla filmmakers at the various marches that took place
across the globe over the weekend of February 15 - Presidents' Day weekend - Berlin, Cape Town,
Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., London, Chicago, Oslo, Rio de Janeiro, St. Louis, Los
Angeles - and Iraq - to mention just a few of the 40+ locales where footage was incorporated
from.

"BOOM!" LYRICS:
I've been walking through your streets,
Where all your money's earning,
Where all your building's crying,
And clueless neckties working,
Revolving fake lawn houses,
Housing all your fears,
Desensitized by Tv,
Overbearing advertising,
God of consumerism,
And all your crooked pictures,
Looking good, mirrorism,
Filtering information,
For the public eye,
Designed for profiteering,
Your neighbor, what a guy.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM,
Every time you drop the bomb,
You kill the god your child has born.
BOOM, BOOM,BOOM, BOOM

Modern globalization,
Coupled with condemnations,
Unnecessary death,
Matador corporations,
Puppeting your frustrations,
With the blinded flag,
Manufacturing consent
Is the name of the game,
The bottom line is money,
Nobody gives a fuck.
4000 hungry children die per hour,
from starvation,
while billions spent on bombs,
create death showers.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM,
Every time you drop the bomb,
You kill the god your child has born.
BOOM, BOOM,BOOM, BOOM
BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM

Why,why,why,why must we kill,kill,kill,kill, our own,own,own,own kind......

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM,
Every time you drop the bomb,
You kill the god your child has born.
BOOM, BOOM,BOOM, BOOM
BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM
Every time you drop the bomb.

echase (samjeff), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 17:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah FCUK consumerism and its System of a Down CDs!!!

What does "you kill the god your child has born" mean exactly?

Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

This has already been one of my favorite of their songs since Steal This Album was released. I'm actually kinda quite surprised they're making a video of this at all, much less a Michael Moore video. This should be very interesting to say the least.

I'll probably have more to say once I've seen the video.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Should Gerald Cosloy worry about the "Matador corporations" reference?

echase (samjeff), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

heh, they're a "Limited Liability Partnership"*

*actually, no I think Matador is incorporated.

hstencil, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 17:15 (twenty-three years ago)

It's 1981 all over! Do they have Jello Biafra as ghostwriter? No wonder nu-metal gets no respect...I'm very much waiting for Bolt Thrower to release a proper pro-war single in the vein of

http://www.metalblade.de/Covers/bolt_victory.jpg

Siegbran (eofor), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 17:32 (twenty-three years ago)

thats just awful "clueless beards wanking"

girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 17:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Wow, what a scathingly on-point criticism.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 18:20 (twenty-three years ago)

You can see the video here:
http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/SystemOfADown/Videos/BOOMVidFull.ram

dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 18:32 (twenty-three years ago)

it was meant to rhyme with "clueless neckties working" bit of a dud

girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 18:57 (twenty-three years ago)

maybe we should "bomb" mtv if this video hits heavy rotation.

JP Albin (John Paul Albin), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 19:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe we should bomb you.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 19:18 (twenty-three years ago)

the angry american

Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 19:20 (twenty-three years ago)

"Death showers" bring may flowers!

girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

At least they're not afraid to be angry about it. That Beastie Boys release was just so timid.

David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 22:40 (twenty-three years ago)

But can we wear neckties and still be against the war??

Adam A. (Keiko), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never been a fan of System of a Down, and maybe these lyrics aren't so hot, but I say good for them.

slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 23:53 (twenty-three years ago)

If you are a rudeboy, yes

Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 00:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom, once again I feel compelled to ask you, not naggingly, but in serious pursuit of earnest exchange: is it your position that all anti-consumerist stances are bullshit?

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 00:21 (twenty-three years ago)

dwight ware watson is probably a fan

keith (keithmcl), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 02:41 (twenty-three years ago)

The chorus to this song sounds great, but the verses are dismal (not necessarily for the lyrics...everything just sounds so clumsy). There seems to be at least one mind-bendingly great part of every System of a Down song, but it's vitiated by so much surrounding silliness that they become hard to defend. I'd really like to defend them though. That has to count for something. Their singer has a book of poetry out now, just like Jewel!

Kris (aqueduct), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 03:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I repeat my question

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:03 (twenty-three years ago)

No it isn't. My position is that i) political songs not about specific issues tend to devolve into vague self-congratulation and ii) anti-consumerism is even vaguer than most ideologies (as distinct from protests against specific corporations or policies) and iii) the forms of anti-consumerist agit-prop should ideally reflect their content (eg highly visible graffito = great; huge-selling CD = less great) and iv) if anti-consumerists are going to play smug us-and-them games ("clueless neckties" etc.) then they shouldn't be surprised when the unconverted don't take them seriously. (Particularly if they're then going to illustrate their cant with footage from the broadest-based oppositional demonstrations for decades.) You don't win an argument if you start off assuming your opponent's an idiot.

In this particular case though I was making a cheap one-liner and I retract it. The promo video is available for free download after all so my position iii above isn't relevant.

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't take back the bit about the chorus being nonsense though.

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom I always love engaging you in this line of discussion because your thinking on it is so clear & you express your position so well, thanks for taking the time

I do take issue with iii) the forms of anti-consumerist agit-prop should ideally reflect their content insofar as it seems to say "if you're opposed to the way things get done in the most publicly visible forum, then you must renounce its tools" -- this is the sort of unsubtlety for which the anti-consumers themselves are often loudly & often rightly denounced! I don't think System of a Down are unaware of the small irony in needing the commercial marketplace to make an anti-commercial point. (The song does sound like it's quite hamfisted indeed so I'm not defending the song, though I can get behind a li'l SOAD now and again despite their truly wretched bandname.)

What I mean is "ideally reflect their content" = ! well yes, and ideally lots of other stuff should happen, too, but we gotta play the cards we're dealt

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah that's why I used "ideally" and why the but-its-on-CD argument isn't actually an argument, just a dig-in-the-ribs. I'm uncomfortably aware the endpoint of my line is that huge .pdf file which shows every company in the world connected to the arms manufacturers.

I suppose the crux of my irritation with things like this is: a public anti-consumerist position is going to neccessarily require compromise (i.e. selling books, CDs etc.) and everyone accepts this, but it becomes annoying when anti-consumerists then turn their fire on the compromises other people are willing to make rather than staking out common ground or attacking more specific iniquities. The whole tone of these lyrics - that desensitising TV, money-making corporations, information filters, consent manufacturers etc. affect a "you" rather than an "us" - is pretty unhelpful.

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:54 (twenty-three years ago)

System of a Down vs. the Charlie Daniels Band: FITE!

EC, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 16:06 (twenty-three years ago)


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