Oligopuzzled

by Destroy Babylon

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about

Performer Magazine, Nov 06
"Destroy Babylon, originally from New Hampshire and now Boston-based, make their recorded debut with the self-released and thought-provoking Oligopuzzled. The band has a strong reggae underpinning sound-wise that is tinged with indie rock and a punk spirit, at times recalling The Police. Raucous, metal-esque guitar work and a diverse assemblage of instruments (including fruit) fill out the atmospheric vibe. Add a healthy dose of world-conscious lyrics, and you have a wide-ranging, genre-hopping album.

'Rocky Shores from a Bird's Eye,' the first track, is a kind of fable where a certain current president teams with 'a bird named Jim' to cause all sorts of trouble in the name of a higher power. The song features a steady, reggae groove with powerful, yet airy, guitar soloing overhead that becomes a recurring dynamic on the CD.

'Of Fish and Water' sees the group continuing to take up the classic call of reggae as a supporter of social causes, as this track has a line that typifies the album's perspective: 'I believe in human rights / For more than just myself.' 'Grab a Shovel (Dig Faster!)' starts with a brief recording that sounds like an educational broadcast from the '60s and references colonization. Sweeping, hard-rock guitar then moves in, making way for a brief keyboard solo before taking back the reigns of rocking out until the end of the song. 'Bureaucratic Beat' examines another cause of societal strife, with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist John Beaudette noting that 'big business sucks up and it spits out.' A significant point in the album comes with the short fifth track, 'ADD to Album,' followed by 'Oligopuzzled (Part VI),' both of which cast a wary gaze at the digital music revolution. The former offers a sharp lament that sounds like an ironic pro-CD rallying cry for our modern age .. "I've got music ADD so skip the track!' Musically, the tune sways from dominant hard rock to mellow indie rock and back to intense guitar-heroics before closing with a somber horn outro.

Clearly a group who wants you to be a bit puzzled, then ask some questions, Destroy Babylon puts a tripped-out spin on the reggae sound and seizes on a number of current social issues to come up with a strong first record."

Skratch Magazine, Nov 06
"The debut release from this Massachusetts's punk/reggae trio is a blistering adventure that plants a wooden stake firmly in the heart of the necon vampires running our empire. With roots in bands like The Clash and Bad Brains, these East Coast upstarts have spent more time tearing down tyranny than struggling for a major-label contract."

credits

released 04 July 2006
John Beaudette - gits/vox/trumpet/melodica
Marc Beaudette - drums/percussion
Chris Moran - bass/keys
Rob Carmichael - git solo on "Machines of Nature"

Recorded in Nov '05 at Looking Glass NYC
and March '06 at Clinton Studios NYC
Mixed in May '06 by Pete "Boards" Peloquin at Metronome in NH
Mastered in June '06 by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East in Cambridge MA
Cover art by Lara Woolfson

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Track Name: Rocky Shores From A Bird's Eye
President G. W. Babylon,
chosen by Him,
just dug up and old friend,
a bird named Jim.
Together they will fly,
stablize the central lie,
high above the tide,
while the bottom rung are left to drown,
God is still renowned.

Row row row,
gentley below the crow
we'll build the Tower of Babyl all over again,
Plead to God and say Amen.
We'll build a monument for ourselves,
Plead to God and place Him on our shelves.
It's an invisible institution,
therefore needs no resolution.
Track Name: Of Fish & Water
how can I implement the notion
to sing about persecution?
Why do I have this impulsion?
I cannot start a revolution
Still I try, I don't know why-
we claim we're color-blind
But in my mind, all the time
I can see the racial divide…

Well I can't join, but I could surely help
cuz i believe in human rights
for more than just myself
and oh, am I wrong to want to fight?

maybe i would understand better if
if i was more like my kind
blind and ignorant, selfish, inconsiderate
believe me i'm far from perfect-
I feel like I could look the other way
And escape all this hate-
but it's everywhere I see
and I was born the enemy

No I can't join, but I can surely yell
cuz i believe in human rights
for more than just myself
and oh, am I wrong to want to fight?

You have no idea what it's like to be me
But I could never have a clue what it is to be you
Too scared to protest or to question
Let's make the most of our social regression…
Track Name: Grab A Shovel (Dig Faster!)
Crises going on they don't want you to see
So it's not in the news or made reality
Pile on the dirt, we'll just revert
And destroy another piece of the puzzle

Soon it will vanish from our history
The truth will be buried in layers of debris

A hundred thousand lives constitutes genocide
but we've got better places for our troops to reside
plus, we don't know what to do,
if there's nothing to pursue
and when it's all through we'll grab a shovel…
Track Name: Bureacratic Beat
Nostalgia indicates there's a problem today
The youth are armed and lie in wait, in total disarray
There's money for more guns
while the school's are lacking funds
We're taught to kill before we learn to write our will
And this instrument of mine
is just a weapon in my mind
Which stays confined

Big business sucks up and spits out
My small future seems to be in doubt
This Bureaucratic Beat is the Babylon we speak
What we aim to defeat, but it lookin pretty bleak
Marchin to the Bureaucratic Beat

tho they're scarce resources
we'll work them like horses
But what can we do
when social protest is taboo?
and they always justify
every wrong with a lie...
Track Name: ADD To The Album
Don't stand in line, shop for free online!
Download one song, don't listen, move along
Novelty song culture, Save the single…
"Change the CD and break the shellac,
I've got music ADD so skip the track!"
Track Name: Oligopuzzled (Part VI)
These oligopolies must be destroyed
This oligopoly- I've got a plan to employ
But I can see our options are falling
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
it's the Big 5! Then Big 4! Soon the Big 3, then 2, 1

Pretty soon they'll all be one
And the album will be gone,
And no one will care,
We'll try to save it I swear…
But I can see our options are falling
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Big 5! Big 4! Big 3, 2, 1

It's the business man verses the musician
But in the end there's no competition
Money beats every opposition

We've got the freedom of speech
But not the freedom to be heard
If it won't move millions
Then the chance is absurd

Enjoy your CD's while they last
They're goin the way of the 8-track
And soon nothing will be tangible
Just digital
Track Name: No Child Left
I've decided to be unresolved and effectively useless
positively unsure, undoubtedly dubious
I'm happily depressed, and I relish in the stress
Yes I'm comfortably awkward
Econo, inefficient, intelligently absurd
I've successfully failed and attempted
to make no effort
I quickly decelerate, and the inadequate
I'll appreciate

They say No child left behind
But take a closer look at why I'm resigned
cuz this Act segregates and then isolates
The wealthy from the poor and the latter
don't get a dime

Kids enter school a question, marc
But taught to leave a period
Forced to suppress their creative spark
Thrown at the bottom of the pyramid
They've successfully failed
at attempting to make no effort
They educate the already educated
And the rest of you can shovel dirt

Why do we accept this prejudiced assessment
I can't pass this test, so an idiot I must be
Classify us like a piece of meat
Now you see why I have no ambition
No matter how hard these kids will try
They won't have the same opportunity as me
So why try

They say No child left behind
But take a closer look at why I'm resigned
cuz this Act segregates and then isolates
The wealthy from the poor and the latter
don't get a dime
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
Yet the poor are fighting the war

And surely they're left behind
And surely we're left behind
Track Name: Machines of Nature
The notion of truth is a projected concept
that truly has no objective content
but what seems to be
uncertainty 's got the best of me
you gotta sift thru the shit to barley bear a bit
of truth in the mainstream

philosophy, psychology, theology
ain't of the essence, you just need faith
Christianity is sanity, the vanity
is obsolescence, and you can't debate
this freedom's enforced
til it pins you right to the floor

The notion of faith is a projected conception
that faithfully has no objective contention
i don't need reality to educate me
cuz i've got strength in my convictions
you know i believe (blindly)

and if man is made in the image of the lord
i better take his holey face off my dartboard
we are just machines of nature
Vicar of Christ to the dog in the manger
Machines of nature

in God we trust, an American must
it's organized religion, faithful or bust
so arrogant and god fearing
it's no wonder why (we three are sneering)
she said "the world's gonna end and I'm goin insane"
so I can get away with murder in god's name
What the fuck is wrong with these Americans
I thought we've progressed from dumb barbarians