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First World Presence (2017)

by Rhythmic Asylum

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1.
5 am, at the crack of dawn/Gotta catch the, the morning bus/ Another mindless day at the factory/ Because I didn’t have many opportunities/The scrapes, the scars the skin that's coarse/ These are my, my working class hands/Washing dishes, overbearing soap/There’s no clock, or radio to cope /Scrubbing to provide for my family/Because I didn’t have many opportunities/The scrapes, the scars, the skin that's coarse/These are my, my working class hands/ Financial mobility sardonically so out of reach/Perpetual poverty due to elitist policies/No Child Left Behind, pointless tests were standardized/ Public schools with wasted time, the underfunded youth; pariah./ US...Policy...appeases....the symptoms of failure/ But ignores...the root of...the problem...Structural inequality/Danish Flexicurity, Employment stability/Ensured social security, no struggle for meals to eat/Labor market's regulated unemployed get education/The U.S creates alienation resulting in incarcerations.
2.
¡Comunidad Segura!/ ¿Preguntate, segura pa' quen?/Con el pretexto de defender el paiz contra criminales/Los asesinos, los narcos, y pedófilos (coro) A la mierda con Charlie Beck/Nos quiere erradicar /Con el LAPD se lleva bien/Formándose en pandilla/¡Deportando gente! /¡De la clase trabajadora! /El ICE separa familias y perfila a los innocentes /Desplazando jovenes, a paizes que ni siquiera conocen/(coro)/A la mierda con Charlie Beck/Nos quiere/ exterminar /Con el LAPD se lleva bien/Formándose en pandilla/¡Es un abuso!/¡De la enmienda decima!/Deberia haber un processo, que ayuda indocumentados/ Llegar hacer cuidadanos, libre de persecución/ Manipulando, el electorado, con practicas xenophobicas/Colonizando la raza, en tierra, que antes fue aztlán.
3.
(verse 1)Neighborhoods once low in value /Restructured for returns in profit /Cute new vintage businesses/In an effort to increase tax bases/Cost of renting maximizes/due to the decline in crime /Garbage magically disposed of/Police patrolling all the time (“Chorus”) Highland Park, Boyle Heights, and Echo Parque. (verse2) Native residents now displaced/Unjustly profiled by their race/Gentrifiers hate our culture /File another noise complaint/Pushing out the working class/While complaining about the homelessness/Neveau Riche? We were here first/Scared to be placed in a hearse. (Breakdown/ Verse 3)/Mad dogged. You’re unwelcome guests/Are you feeling the discomfort? Guess who feels worse./If I smashed, your beloved personal property, /Your new bohemian lifestyle still has viler effects on me./(outro)/Long live the memory of Alejandro Nieto/Executed by SFPD for wearing his on duty Taser/In a gentrified neighborhood
4.
The air raid’s close, imminent destruction /The stench of death, impending doom./Extrajudicial executions; Drone attacks/Wireless American tool. /First world presence, divine intervention/First world presence, divine intervention/Extermination of alleged terrorists /Bombardments without prior evidence/Children incinerated, festering resentment/Breeding new terrorists, reprisal of secret intelligence/First world presence, divine intervention/First world presence, divine intervention/(bridge)/14 years in the Middle East/Nowhere closer to definite victory/Civilian casualties outnumber combatants’/International law violated./The same media propaganda from Vietnam/”We will win the war”, but first bomb the village to save it./First world presence, divine intervention/First world presence, divine intervention.
5.
From the day you're born, until the day you die/ You're put onto this world, to live a lie/ (chorus) Restricted to see the light (x3) until you die/ From the day you notice, until the day you try/ It will be too late late, you will die/ (chorus) restricted to see the light (x3) Until you die. another day, another born another torn this darkened life (x2) restricted to see the light (x3) until you fucking die. -[Lyrics by Gabriel “Crusty” Ruiz]
6.
Bomb Drop 01:21
Entered a life, taught how to live and breathe the promise of success, forced to trust in all the rest Forfeit now, followed by changes x2 Entered a life ambitious and passionate, but one day you will see, that not all will be achieved, Ended a life, progeny left behind So vulnerable and young, but subject to the change Forfeit now, followed by changesx2 Followed by changes x2 Now Lyrics by Janet Diane Gutierrez
7.
Lynched 01:06
(verse 1)Hands up as the siren sounds, or be shot while on the ground, another breath you’re not allowed, 5-0 loads another round/ "Where’s the train fare that you purchased?", "Is there a reason why you’re nervous?", drowning on your blood and worthless, successfully completed service/ (bridge/solo) It’s a move from the plantation to systemic incarceration, where non-white citizens, routinely lose their lives/Jim Crow reinvented for persons of color, the new legal lynching, Terror defined. (verse 2) Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin/ Oscar Grant, Amadu Diallo, Rodney King, (verse 3)dismantling the violence, is a national effort, for minorities to live with dignity/deconstruct de-facto privilege/ reconstruct the way you think to affect the way you act/ Domestic US Human rights must, practice what it preaches abroad.
8.
Humillados 01:41
(versiculo 1)En un paiz digirigdo por metas capitalistas, Las promociones depictan la norma de la vida/ La población es rubio, y todos enflaquesidos, compra el producto mejorate asi miso/ las panzas aplastadas y las piernes desinfladas, Ya no es orgánica, imagen fabricada/ han nacido para obedezer y a cumplir hambrientes por aprobación, y el gusto de sufrir/ (Coro) Humillados, ten verguenza, de tu cuerpo/ En esta vida, hasta la muerte, no hay libertad/ (versiculo 2) Una jaula cultural de debilidad erotizada, adolecentes obsessionando con las aparencias estrangeras/Condicionados a descuidarse; undiendo en enfermedad siguiendo illusiones de la tridemensionalidad/ Normativa descontenta por exposición de medios, aprenden que jamaz seran lo suficiente Bueno/ Las comparaciones disturben las imagines mentales, desordenes desarollan por la nutricion negada/ (Coro) Humillados, ten verguenza, de tu cuerpo, En esta vida, hasta la muerte, no hay libertad/ (bridge) Como el Baroque, Italiano: ideal fabricada; inhabitantes impecables/ Contrastado al Realismo: rechazando la expectativa de comer y de vestir/ Resiste, reconoze la corriente principal, basta las comparaciones, la estima aumentará / Películas, televisión y el acosto visual, Ignorándolos salvará la salud mental/ (Coro final) Miran todos, la perfección, de la humanidad, En esta vida, en tu propia mente, hay libertad.
9.
Especimen 02:02
No sos de aqui, ni sos de alla Cosa estrangera, sin identidad Especimen (x3) Dime, Que eres tu? No hablan la idioma, o no hablan bien Con nombres Americanos, no se puede creer Especimen (x3) Dime, Que eres tu? Buscando proposito sin cesar Vida respetable, con dignidad Especimen (x3) Soy humano, humano como tu.
10.
Programmed 01:56
Exaggerated Personalities /Minorities marginalized Whites with preferential treatment Latinos oversexualized (x2) Programmed (x3) Subtly biased US psyche/Influenced by TV screens Shapes the blueprint of a home Satisfied consumer need (x2) Programmed (x3) Unplug digital hegemony/ Smash a plasma screen Submerged within a sea of people Redefine the programming (x2) Programmed (x3)
11.
Fallout 01:55
As militarized nations set aside diplomacy, nuclear warheads rest atop a launcher (launch them off X2) Allied obligation, reinforcements intervene International exchange of radiation (wipe them out X2) Fallout (x3) Watch the world incinerate Fallout x3 Blackened skies hide the sun’s rays Heat from the explosion melted off most of the flesh Lurking blindly in a barren wasteland (must survive x2) After all the medical supplies have been exhausted Preparation for the nuclear winter (starvation X2) Fallout (x3) Watch the world incinerate Fallout x3 Blackened skies, hide the sun’s rays Spoiled vegetation, mass death The fallout covers, the wreckage that is left What’s left?
12.
Failed to graduate in the top 10% of her class, didn’t make the cut for UT 42 accepted were gringos just like she, yet 5 spots usurped by POC. Access Denied (x2) Denouncing affirmative action as an unconstitutional breach Of inalienable white security Self righteous attempt to strike down Brown v Board of Education, disenfranchising minorities Access Denied (x2) God forbid, you know what it feels like, to be denied Something that you’ve always wished for. But this time, your mediocrity, outweighs, your privilege Abigail Fisher, the face of entitlement, and inherited prestige, 5 years of pointless litigation Taste depravation, swallow defeat, conformate…mija.
13.
Brock Turner 19, the Stanford rapist. She drank too much, entitled to take it Behind the dumpster forced penetration, Defiled and battered, hospital patient, What would have been, a 14year sentence, Unjustly reduced to only 6 months Released after 3, with 3 year probation, Despite the evidence, final adjudication. When Brian Banks was 16, convicted of similar crime. A football athlete, and he was black, served 5 years, falsely accused The judge felt imprisoning Brock Turner Would be an overreach of justice Would pose no threat, if not incarcerated too much collateral damage on his life white, male, wealthy, athlete (x2) His father made a weak attempt to defend the sex offender By reducing the assault to "20 minutes of action" Perpetuating rape culture by portraying the assailant as a victim with no swim scholarship Shielded by his record by his wealth and by his race the prosecution attacked the victim as if she's the one to blame robbing her confidence safety and intimacy while Brock Turner walks away For her it's not over Not over(x3) Not done

credits

released October 24, 2017

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Rhythmic Asylum Los Angeles, California

Current line-up is:

Gary Alvarez - vocals
Chris Coria - drums
Janet Gutierrez - guitar
Paulie Perez - bass

** 13-track full-length out soon **

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