Get all 386 Middle-Man Records releases available on Bandcamp and save 90%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Episode 201: Drew Coughlin (Heavenly Blue), Episode 200: Edie Quinn w guest host Elias Amini, Demo MMXXIV, Episode 199: Ben Kraco (Depiction of Man), Episode 198: Tracy Wilson (Outer World, Dahlia Seed), Episode 197: Josh McIntyre (Malevich), Episode 196: Ben Rudolph (Stress Positions, C.H.E.W.), Komarov, and 378 more.
1. |
What Of Us - Landslide
00:46
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A quaint surprise to see a countdown. A path blazed by human action, profit and greed.
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2. |
What Of Us - Recognize
02:11
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force fed to live the words of my fathers lies
but i gotta decide, will i recognize
privileged lives that take hold from birth til death
but i'm trying my best, to fully recognize
and apply awareness of how my skin gives sigh
brutality wears a badge and says "i had to shoot"
rewarded by a foul system that says "we were justified".
still, skin gives sigh
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3. |
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bled dry
by lies of a
system that
will pass on the profit
and they say that it's fair
and they say it works
tell me what do we say?
tell me what can we say?
their fairy tale
of
trickle down
is there compensation
for mere survival?
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4. |
What Of Us - Narcissus
03:29
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Please excuse my irrational behavior
And a life full of regrets and selfishness
like a bullet and a target,
Caught between the past and the present
I can try my best but I know my best
Will never be good enough
The future holds a weight I cannot bare, I will not bare
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5. |
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Blessed with a debt.
Weaken our knees,
Soften our spines
Punched in for another forty.
Wages below any standard
The bare minimum won't let us scrape by
with what we already can't afford.
Jumping without a net.
No guilt for keeping everyone below the poverty line
The price of living
The cost of dying
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6. |
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Manipulated history
Penned by authors
willing to forget
a trail of broken lives
Text book with a biased history
Barely a trace of the indigenous
They came with disease
and rewarded a curse.
Forced relocation
at the cost of countless lives.
Wiping out an entire people.
Nothing can cover the shame.
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7. |
What Of Us - Take Notice
01:03
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how do we define
what's smart for us to fear?
a toolkit to divide
the monsters and the men
and i bet that they'll be
somebody other than me
and i bet that they'll be
so very different from me
and the buzzwords
define an image
defined by color
defined by race
to foster hate.
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8. |
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insecure gods
make time stand still
such fragile grounds
we'll tear from the roots
the end of this time
of darkness and fear
let's close the book on
what's time has passed by
let's tear this facade apart.
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9. |
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10. |
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Wrap my arms around the wind
tore my breast loose to let it go
strip it away
a body bereft of purpose
pull off the mask and open my wrists
watch me bleed for you
crushed my hopes
and left them in the wind
my whole existence slips away like sand
strip it away
chalk it up to experience
a crumbling mound
and all that remains bled out in the sand
we all pretend it matters
but it doesn't
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11. |
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pay for breaking bread
buying more time
all it costs to live
all you do is work and spend
don't do what you love
do what is marketable
never, ever do what you love
there's no money in that
but that's me full of hope and no answers
that's me full of wishes and time is running out
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12. |
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lending?
no. taking
strangling. left to starve
wandering aimlessly
can't afford to be who we are
there's a margin to the side
where there's just enough space to live
a modicum of comfort
and cold consumption that you need
where do we go when there's nothing left to own
when there's nothing left to sell us
can we finally say we're free?
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13. |
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you have the right
but that doesn't make it right
you do it because you enjoy it
there's no other reason
your appetite never evolved the way your mind did
but it's been made up
and you're so dismissive
of anyone who doesn't see it your way
is that what you wanted?
did you get what you wanted?
is it worth the cost?
the blood in your mouth
do your tastes alone balance the cost of it?
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14. |
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a storm on a cloudless day
the rain colder than it should be
it knows my name
taking certain liberties with the world around me
i float off into the air
and go to sleep
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15. |
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it comes
sometimes too soon
others, not nearly soon enough
it's the killer at our door
and i want to let it in
the world. the dreams
all these versions of me
swallow up all this
make it go away
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16. |
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lost little minds
hurting, as a way of life
and all those idiosyncrasies
"be yourself"
but all you know is pain
all we want is to be free of these thoughts
to break loose of this grasp we can't escape
to see through new eyes for just a day
without storms of my own
or clouds your fixes would make
i know you're trying to help
i swear one day we'll bask in the sun
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17. |
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your rhetoric is tired and uninteresting
the only thing you're smashing are those keys
all of this talk about burning it down
you sit so still the fires never start
and while each one waits for their pat on the back
your lofty ideals go up in smoke
every thought so calculated and concise
nothing really happened at all
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18. |
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i'll open up these veins
until nothing else remains
and a heart that yearns
beats on empty
one more breath
couldn't breathe you in
the darkness encircles me
the way it always ends
i can see you
you waited
the ground opens up
it tastes my blood
calls me home
like you used to
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