Song of the Day (A-Z): Parquet Courts – Violence

Day 22 (V). I was originally going to choose Venus In Furs by The Velvet Underground for today. Event’s in the world have forced me to reevaluate though & it feels correct to choose Violence by Parquet Courts from their 2018 album Wide Awake! Violence is a rallying cry against the Violence inherent in American society. “Violence is daily life”.

In the wake of the murder by Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin of unarmed & handcuffed black man, George Floyd, it seems respectful to acknowledge & pledge resistance to the systematic racism which grips America an always has done.

This post signals solidarity with the people of Minnesota & wishes them well in their uprising. Keep up the pressure, comrades, & watch out for police agent provocateurs in your midst, like Jacob Pederson, the Minneapolis police officer who donned a gasmask & smashed the windows of a branch of AutoZone while carrying an umbrella.

Violence is the fruit of unreached understanding 
That flowers from the lips of scoundrels
It is a forest so dense and rooted in our past
It tempts us to become lost in its darkness
And stinks like the piss test you were forced to take
Just before you were told that you didn’t meet
The standards of integrity that this organization strives to maintain

Why are there no folk songs about ATM machines
That produce the likeness of the blazer of the trail of tears
Issuing overdraft fees from beyond the grave
Prison TV shows in an endless queue
Containing the robust nourishment of a commissary
This is why we cannot afford to close an open casket
You protect no one by obscuring the mirror 
That reflects our own problematic reality
Allow me to ponder the role I play
In this pornographic spectacle of black death
At once a solution and a problem

A cause, an effect, a rejoice, a regret
Violence is daily life
A promise a pact that the world never kept
Violence is daily life

A cause, an effect, a rejoice, a regret
Violence is daily life
A promise a pact that the world never kept
Violence is daily life

Violence is daily life
Violence happens every day
It’s hard to get used to getting used to violence

Savage is my name because Savage is how I feel
When the radio wakes me up with the words “suspected gunman”
My name is a warning for the acts you are about to witness
Which contain images that some viewers may find disturbing
My name belongs to us all
So if they ask for yours give them mine
My name is a threat

Riot is an unfinished grave that was dug to deposit undepleted anger
Like barrels of uranium leaking into something sacred
It is a word to use to delegitimize your unrest
And to make your resistance into an overreaction

The pink tube of paint called flesh
Used in portraits of chairmen of boards and
Men who clean up streets named after those who fought
For erasing the lives they now claim to protect
What is an up and coming neighborhood and where is it coming from?

A cause, an effect, a rejoice, a regret
Violence is daily life
A promise a pact that the world never kept
Violence is daily life

A cause, an effect, a rejoice, a regret
Violence is daily life
A promise a pact that the world never kept
Violence is daily life

What’s wrong with the air you breathe?
The water you drink?
Violence is so omnipresent
So ingrained in your daily reality
You forget to notice it happens everyday

Stuck for something to listen to? Why not wrap your ears around this playlist of my Song of the Day (A-Z) series.