Reader’s Wives # 62 – Nibbins Part 2

February 5th, 2010

More from our Illustrious Leader’s Loose Leafs…

Often I think about both Brave New World and 1984. It’s quite amazing how most of what those two books predicted has come to pass, not explicitly, but implicitly. For example, 1984 shows us a government reinventing history every few hours, but that isn’t necessary: the media is bombarding us with so much information at such a high rate that things fade quickly. Doublethink is unnecessary when thinking is a rare commodity, and History is obsolete. Brave New World presented a future in which most of the people are controlled through drugs, without being forced. This is true today even without considering illegal drugs, such as Heroin or Cocaine. I’m not even talking about alcohol. I’m talking about Television. In 1992, the group Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy released Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury, (possibly the pinnacle of hip-hop as a form of protest). One of the songs in that album was Television, the Drug of the Nation, which I think brilliantly makes my point. These are the lyrics:

Television, the Drug of the nation
One nation
under God
has turned into
one nation under the influence
of one drug

(chorus)
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V. it satellite links
our United States of Unconsciousness
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive
The methadone metronome pumping out
150 channels 24 hours a day
you can flip through all of them
and still there’s nothing worth watching
T.V. is the reason why less than 10 per cent of our
Nation reads books daily
Why most people think Central Amerika
means Kansas
Socialism means unamerican
and Apartheid is a new headache remedy
absorbed in it’s world it’s so hard to find us
It shapes our mind the most
maybe the mother of our Nation
should remind us
that we’re sitting too close to…

(Chorus)
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V. is the stomping ground for political candidates
Where bears in the woods
are chased by Grecian Formula’d
bald eagles
T.V. is mechanized politic’s
remote control over the masses
co-sponsored by environmentally safe gases
watch for the PBS special
It’s the perpetuation of the two party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom
Where sound bite politics are served to
the fastfood culture
Where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the words
that come out of it
Race baiting is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on…

(Chorus)
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V., is it the reflector or the director ?
Does it imitate us
or do we imitate it
because a child watches 1500 murders before he’s
twelve years old and we wonder why we’ve created
a Jason generation that learns to laugh
rather than to abhor the horror
T.V. is the place where
armchair generals and quarterbacks can
experience first hand
the excitement of warfare
as the theme song is sung in the background
Sugar sweet sitcoms
that leave us with a bad actor taste while
pop stars metamorphosize into soda pop stars
You saw the video
You heard the soundtrack
Well now go buy the soft drink
Well, the onla cola that I support
would be a union C.O.L.A.(Cost Of Living Allowance)
On television

(Chorus)
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

Back again, “New and improved”
We return to our irregularly programmed schedule
hidden cleverly between heavy breasted
beer and car commercials
CNNESPNABCTNT but mostly B.S.
Where oxymoronic language like
“virtually spotless”, “fresh frozen”
“light yet filling” and “military intelligence”
have become standard
T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined
like “recession” to “necessary downturn”
“Crude oil” on a beach to “mousse”
“Civilian death” to “collateral damages”
and being killed by your own Army
is now called “friendly fire”
T.V. is the place where the pursuit
of happiness has become the pursuit of
trivia
Where toothpaste and cars have become
sex objects
Where imagination is sucked out of children
by a cathode ray nipple
T.V. is the only wet nurse
that would create a cripple

(Chorus)
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

Television, as it exists today, fits both the information overload necessary to replace the history rewriting of 1984, and the trivialization of everything into a form of numbing entertainment, to ‘pass the time’, similar to Soma in Brave New World. As always, reality is stranger than fiction, and some times even hard to believe. Would Brave New World be as good if the drug was Big Brother instead of a chemical?

Niall James Holohan

Reader’s Wives # 61 – Nibbins Part 1

January 21st, 2010

As we begin to clear out of The Commune this week, I found myself in possesion of a couple of loose pages from Niall’s lyric book.

The below is pretty damn cool, but I must admit it did slightly remind me of that scene in Se7en when they find John Doe’s diaries…

Wake Up, It’s 2010

if you think the human brain is firm & grey
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that today is the day is the day
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you say your prayers & paint your saints
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if a salt mine lift still gives you the shakes
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think Bill Hick’s is talking to you
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think he didn’t get paid to do what you love to watch him do
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you don’t want to get to know your brother before his faced is obscured by the blue baloon
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think confidence is sexy ..and shyness is crude
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think sex is dirty ..and the body too
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think televesion’s a reflection of you
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still associate tattoos with criminal behavior
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still are down on blacks, queers, Irish & Jews
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think that drugs laws are not hypocritical ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think the homeless aren’t at some fault themselves
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think the end justifies the means
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think ethnic cleaning will wipe your sins clean
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still listen to every word Morrissey says
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think the world exists outside your head
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still have to put someone down in order to praise others
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still blame your sexual malaise on your mother
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you’re still bonding with lonely people by judging the weak
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think anyone’s interested in hearing you speak
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think there are many kinds of love
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you can take the tumble but can’t take the rough
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you demonize people you once loved ..in order to make things easier for yourself
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that there isn’t a heaven or hell
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you can stay in my house if you don’t cut that hair
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that “I wish what will happen won’t” is not the only prayer
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that you can’t start taking the pill at any time ..and you’re cool
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that someone who changes their mind is a fool
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that patritotism will reward you in the end
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think big business is your only friend
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that the truth is something that can be revealed
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that you’re not under several heels
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that your government aren’t wathching you
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think brainy cunts don’t know how to party too
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think evolution has not been observed
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you don’t get what you really deserve
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think freedom ot thought’s not linked to freedom of speech
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think only overt racism is what needs to be beat
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
false concepts may be deeply ingrained in the mental map of an individual
me included ..and so ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
as long as you can admit that with me ..and face what we do and don’t know ..
misconceptions can purposely be embraced and propagated by government (at any level) as propaganda to achieve political goals ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
but as long as you can admit that with me ..and face what we do and don’t know ..
Wake Up, It’s 2010
then this century’s ours ..to undo the last

Wake Up, It’s 2010

and take us out of the future and into the past ..

if you think marijuana is a gateway drug
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think 2-Pac was actually a thug
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think McDonald’s does no one any harm
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you can cure cancer with a shot in the arm
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still get a weird kick out of racist slurs
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you fighting with your best mate over a bird
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you’re really pissed off that U2 stopped doing that ZOO TV shit
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you know all the words to ‘Slide Away’ but none to ‘Promiscuous’
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you’ve got a say in what comes next ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think by reading Salinger or Miller ..you’ll earn people’s respect
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think travelling is something one does in their spare time
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you swear you walk the tightrope when you really walk the line
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you’re still hung up over the way you were bullied in school
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you can find love in the carpet warehouse ..crawling through the spools
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think there’s a formula for happines that consists of college, marriage, babies, house ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you’ve noticed that it’s as easy as a turnstile to to pass the border into Mexico ..but a bitch to get out
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think it’s cowardly to choose your moments to confront your friends ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you’ll be alone ..when you die ..in the end
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think religion’s not compatible with science at all
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think what we believe and live on every day’s not flawed
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think vaginal deoderant or vaseline spermicide’s going to keep you from kids
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think education’s something you once did
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think toilets spin in a given direction due to being in a particular hemisphere of the Earth
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that people who find you’re drunkenness amusing will tell you’re true worth
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think a narcotic is all you can do
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that the thing you’re using is not using you too
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think alcohol’s not a danger to you
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that none of things can make poverty tolerable if only for an hour or two
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think that birth isn’t special at all ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think every child needs to be born
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think schizophrenics are all out to harm you
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think honesty’s not enough to disarm you
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you’re at fault ..when you’ve been abused
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
but if you think an accusation of rape will avoid you’re part being scrutinized too
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think depression’s a nice word for ‘lazy’ or ‘weak’
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you should think before you think you should speak
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that you’re finger can plug a real leak
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you’re not really honest when between the sheets
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think that the Earth revolves around the Sun
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
still think that you’ve got the goods on everyone
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
still think building a family’s a piece of cake
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you’re more of a man if you’re eating a steak
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you can induce an abortion by drinking a bottle of vodka & taking a hot bath
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think there’s no longer such thing as averice or rath
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think ’cause I can get it up ..I can get it on
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that I might be as wide as I’m long
then Wake Up, It’s 2010

if you think you’re the only one lonely ..everyone else is having sex ..so you should too
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you can’t get STDs from the first time you do
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think there’s such thing as an adult ..or we’re on the same page
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think there’s some sense in the phrase ‘act your age’
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that the ego is something to hide
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that to think is all it takes to strive
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you’ve a shite relationship with your ma of you da and yet you expect me to believe your tarot card readings or subscriptions to whatever part of astronomy’s not bollox to you as if they’re not simply a transparent attempt to ingraciate yourself with people who have better personalities, lives, dream and imaginations than you ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think I’m talking specifically to you ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you’re scared of candor and cling to your job or your school
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that society doesn’t include you
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you are what you are ..and not what you do
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you’re a man ..so you can’t wear a skirt
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you’re a woman ..so you’re the only one who hurts
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that you’re DVD player has to go under the TV
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that Sean McGowan’s not the poor man’s me
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think I’m taking you seriously
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that the majority still go out and vote
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you’ll not be drowned by rocking the boat
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still can’t find a meaning in life
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you love your kids ..but can’t stand your wife
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think something’s that €99.99 is better value than something that a hundred lids
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think you won’t pay for the things you regret that you did
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you’re in the world ..only out for yourself
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still ignore beauty on the express train to hell
then Wake Up, It’s 2010

if you think that you can’t look at your hands in a dream or you’ll die
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think someone in a coma’s interested in hearing you cry
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think putting a value on what you, based on a practical view of the business you’re in is selling out ..

then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think a real artist needs to be so poor he can’t pout
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think all Viking helmets have horns on them
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think a forlorn flower’s got a forlorn stem
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think being a princess got you what you wanted ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think what you’ve got is there only to be flaunted
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think all Africans have AIDS these days
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think that I’m a berk, or a product, or a slave ..
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you still think all Eastern Europeans and Chinese love work
then Wake Up, It’s 2010
if you think ’cause you shout loudest ..you’ll be the one who’s heard
then Wake Up, It’s 2010

if you think Spiders in Baths are trying to scare you
then throw up
and grow up ..
alright?

and if you think when you corner a rat, it goes for your throat
then you’re right ..
good luck & good night

Niall James Exemplified

Reader’s Wives # 60 – Sheena

January 16th, 2010

Hey peeps!

Last week we tested the validity of the old idiom “Hurry Up and Wait”.

Yes, we shot a video. Over the years, I’ve heard bands moaning (and they do a lot) about having to sit on their arse whilst each shot is set up and dissected and, to be honest, I was worried that even my own sunny disposition (ahem!) wouldn’t be enough to get me through the day.

I made a shocking discovery.

Moany bands are really moany.

The day was great craic; and I put this down to the fact that we were all in the well manicured and capable hands of director Jonny Shaw and his dynamic DOP Stevie.

These guys are awesome.

Speed and professionalism.

Like Martin Shaw riding a cheetah.

“…..?”

I have just single handedly shown both my age and created  a horrible (and illegal, in most countries) image.

Anyway, the day was a breeze and laughs were had in abundance. The good vibes were also helped in no small part by the prescence of the very lovely Ciara – whose behind the scenes’ footage will be online for your mockery very soon…

“What was the video for?”, I hear you yawn.

It was the b(r)and spanking new vid for Victor’s Mother Juliet, sillies!

To coincide with the release of the eponymous EP in March, we’ve recorded a new version of the crowd favourite and, armed with the product of Jonny and Stevie’s genius, we’ll be premiering the new video on Ireland’s answer to YouTube – MUZU TV!

The vid will premiere on MUZU on February 20th and there will be LOADS of activity around this period also.

In addition to sessions with both Robotnik’s Random Rampage and More Cowbell on RTE’s 2XFM, we’ll also be popping up on Waterford’s Beat FM!

The pace continues on February 9th with an intimate acoustic set at Dublin’s famous Ruby Sessions in Doyle’s bar on College Street, and then on February 16th we’re at ALT (Andrew’s Lane Theatre) for a DJ set at their Trashed On Tuesdays club night!

Two days later on February 18th (and hopefully after some sleep!), we’ll being DJ-ing again (good taste travels, you see) at Spy Bar on South William Street for their Soundcheck night!

We’ll have literally minutes to wipe the sweat from our brows and suit up for the next day as we cap an awesomely wild Wives week with a knockout combination of TWO nights at Dublin’s sexiest bar, Shebeen Chic, on Friday the 19th and Saturday the 20th of February!!

Phew! We’ll end up meeting ourselves coming the other way at this rate…!

And the fucking EP won’t even be out yet!

Just imagine what March will be like…!?

Maybe soon our friends in the UK might know…? 

Keep your looking balls fixed here, friends!

Disko.

X

Soundtrack :

Rocks – Primal Scream

BUY Reader’s Wives new EP ‘Secrecy & Sex’ at iTunes today!

If you go over to http://www.readerswives.360degreemusic.com/signup.php you can download a FREE 6 track Acoustic Mini Album!

We recorded it in our mad house this summer as a thanks to all our friends &  fans for their support.

Hope you like it!